White Heron Radio Theatre's Ghost Light Series · Mark Shanahan and Blue Baillett

Full Radio Broadcast #1

July 18, 2020·54 min·5 clips

During a séance, Mr. Paddock taps out a message that chills the room and challenges a skeptic's beliefs.

Mark Shanahan, a theater artist with White Heron Theater, hosts this radio drama episode adapted from Blue Balliett's book *Nantucket Ghosts*. The episode features an original audio play followed by an interview with Balliett herself about island history and ghost stories. The story "The Tipping Table" follows John Hibbert, a skeptical journalist and World War I veteran who debunks fraudulent psychics. Hibbert travels to 1920s Nantucket to investigate two sisters, Catherine and Julia Morris, who claim to communicate with the ghost of a sailor named Mr. Paddock through a three-legged tea table. During a séance at the sisters' Orange Street home, the table taps out answers to guests' questions, including a stock tip and a pregnancy prediction. Hibbert experiences a sudden, paralyzing chill when Paddock is asked about him, and the spirit expresses dislike for the reporter. Later, a local named Peter Benjamin reveals that Alec Paddock was a real sailor who died by suicide in that same parlor in 1823. Hibbert confesses his wartime trauma, specifically witnessing a friend die in his arms, which solidified his belief that nothing exists after death. The sisters later invite Hibbert for a private session where Paddock correctly spells "Père Lachaise," the Paris cemetery where Hibbert's friend is buried. This answer, which Hibbert had written down secretly, shakes his skepticism. Decades later, an older Hibbert returns to Nantucket, buys the original tea table at a yard sale, and no longer fears death. The second story, "Old and Young," recounts a group of friends in 1972 renting a cheap, problematic house where they repeatedly see an old man in a gray fedora. One roommate, Cyrus, experiences a violent entity attempting to possess him, while another feels physical pressure pinning them in bed. A Ouija board session suggests the spirit of a girl who died in an explosion, and later research confirms a young woman from that house died in such an incident. Blue Balliett explains in the interview that she began collecting these oral histories after her own paranormal experience on the island in college. Nathaniel Benchley encouraged her to record these stories, as many locals were initially reluctant to share them. Balliett conducted interviews without a tape recorder to make people comfortable, sometimes changing names to protect privacy. She notes that ghost stories are now part of Nantucket's cultural fabric, but were not openly discussed when she started her project in the late 1970s. The tone is atmospheric and narrative, blending classic radio drama sound design with a conversational interview. Listeners who enjoy period ghost stories, Nantucket history, and character-driven audio fiction will appreciate this episode. Those seeking fast-paced action or skeptical analysis of the paranormal might find it less engaging.

As heard by us

A ghost story with island texture and radio-drama patience.

White Heron Radio Theater's Ghost Light Series turns a Nantucket ghost story into an old-fashioned radio drama, then folds in the artists behind it and the book that inspired it.

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Why you'd press play

If you want Nantucket ghosts told like a proper stage broadcast.

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