Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Welcome to Melancholy Mentor where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays.
Melancholy Mentor Podcast
Salem's Lot Unveiled: Literary Horror Meets Radio Drama
Vampires, small towns, and the literary genius of Stephen King take center stage as we dive into the chilling world of Salem's Lot.
King's second published novel marked a pivotal moment in horror literature, setting the stage for decades of nightmare-inducing stories to come.
We unpack fascinating trivia about this vampire classic that almost had a completely different title.
King initially wanted to call it "The Second Coming" until his wife Tabitha intervened, suggesting it sounded like "bad porn." The final title connects to Jerusalem's Lot (Salem's Lot for short), revealing biblical undertones that run through much of King's work.
As the author himself confirmed, Salem's Lot was conceived as a modern American homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula, recreating the vampire mythology for a contemporary audience.
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Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Hello Fran here.
Speaker 3:I'm Evan.
Speaker 2:And Evan, the other channel, which is Mystery Mythos. Yeah, and that one's Evan's channel. So today it's Salem's Lot, so let's get into it.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It's a radio drama in several parts. I think it's one to seven we've got on the channel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was broken down quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Okay, so immerse yourself in the chilling world of the small town of Jerusalem's Lot. An ancient evil takes hold and terrorises its inhabitants. Salem's Lot is a Stephen King novel and it was his second published novel after I believe it was Carrie was the first one.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah, this is the second, the second Very early, very early stuff that he wrote, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:Very early stuff, so this was published in 1975. The story involves a writer called Ben Mears who returns to the town of jerusalem's lot, which is salem's lot for short. Now, I never realized that until recently yeah, I, I kind of knew I sort of knew from the, from the book and from the TV adaptations, but it just hadn't overly occurred to me that Jerusalem can also be called Salem.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Obviously, jerusalem also features heavily in Bible stories and stuff like that, and Salem is mentioned and I just never made the connection for some reason. So, as already mentioned, it was published in 1975, so Stephen King was once quoted as saying that Salem's lot is his favorite. So I wonder whether that still is, because this could have been a while ago that he was quoted as saying that yeah, yeah right Stephen King's, heavily influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft, amongst other writers.
Speaker 2:His longest book is actually the Stand. It's really long. Have you ever read it?
Speaker 3:no, but I've seen how big the book is.
Speaker 2:I've seen how big the book is um, because I watched a tv adaptation and I got you to watch it, didn't I, because it was just. It just stayed in my mind. The story was just it's amazing story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think Stephen King said that he had to. When he took the book to, you know, to the people to show them it. They made him take some of it away because it was even bigger. Wow, apparently, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I've actually seen a copy of the book, and it's a proper doorstop, isn't it? Really really big. Yeah, so with Salem's Lot, I think originally. Now I've read this on the interweb so it could be true. Originally Tabitha King. His wife actually suggested a different name because the first idea for the name was the Second Coming and she actually said that it sounded like a bad porn.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had trouble with it in there.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I suppose it depends where your mind's at, possibly at the time. No judgment on sabbath. Um, yeah, I think I would have. Just, I don't know, it's a little, um, it's almost a little christ-like though, isn't it, you know, anything to do with the second coming or the coming of, you know, always kind of reminds me of Bible stuff really, and of Christ. So I wonder how heavily woven religion is into some of Stephen King's sort of brain and into his works brain and into his works. Um, so, in 1979 Salem's Lot was adapted into a miniseries and it's the miniseries stars, the late great actor, david Soule as David Mears.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, david Soule. Um, I remember from watching the miniseries of salem's lot because it was absolutely terrifying um, and the miniseries was filmed on location in california. So I want to mention a little bit about david soul. He was a? Um american, british as well, he, I believe he got, uh, british I don't know whether it's citizenship or residency in about 2004, for reasons that I don't know. So David Soul was actually born David Richard Solberg in 1943. He passed away. Well, actually I've got that. He passed away in 2004. So maybe I've confused that Age date. No, actually he didn't, did he? I think he got the residency in 2004, but he passed away more recently.
Speaker 3:Very recently, quite recently, more recently.
Speaker 2:So that had been maybe I'm going to guess 2019. Yeah, what are you going to guess I?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think it might be a bit later than that, but later is it next year? 2024 I was gonna say, was it last year?
Speaker 2:oh gosh, it feels like ages ago, but it actually wasn't. Yeah, he died in 2024. We're currently in 2025. Died in 2024, so actually the 2004 was when I believe that's when he um took up residency in the UK. Yeah, he actually passed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's gonna sound like it was really recent.
Speaker 2:I'm just mind blown at how the time goes. Yeah, I don't think I've got much time concept, to be fair, so, which is why I'm I always like to look up kind of when when people were born and and when they passed away. I just think it's important to um note people's lifetimes yeah, I definitely think that too yeah, yeah, it's actually 2024.
Speaker 2:He passed away in in 2024, age 80, and apparently he was a three packet a day cigarette smoker for 50 years, smoking 10 years prior to his death, which is an amazing accomplishment. Um, and he had copd, which is a chronic lung condition yeah he had a lung removed due to having cancer, so I just think it's amazing he still made it to 80, live the life, hopefully, of his choosing um pretty good life by the looks yeah, three packets a day for 50 years living his best life.
Speaker 3:So there you go good old david soul, I know I know I really liked him.
Speaker 2:I liked him too, so he starred in um starsky and hutch, didn't he in the tv series? Yeah um, and I really like that, and also he had some songs out that featured in the uk charts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that that's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Okay. Takes me back to six-year-old me. Don't give up on us, baby, we're still worth one. We'll try. That's my teddy bear. I know he was a real crooner.
Speaker 3:Well, I was going to say he would have been a bit of a heart throb because he was kind of blonde and very handsome, wasn't he? So he had that kind of look um, that look.
Speaker 2:That um appealed to a certain audience, for sure. Yeah, that sort of heart throb look yeah yeah, along with the probably the david cassidy's of the era I think so, like that kind of yeah um, right, so there are the tv adaptations of salem's lot, one of which was in 2024, just come out. Yeah, that's right. So it's just come out now, or have you seen it?
Speaker 3:It just came out like at the end.
Speaker 2:So yeah, just very recently it's come out Because I haven't seen it and I wasn't sure, because I like the. I like the David Soul version.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me too. I've watched it again recently as well, because I found it on telly. You know the old version. Yeah, probably they might be replaying it, because the new ones come out maybe. But, um, I mean, I'm interested in in the new one, um, but I like the old one too how heavily influenced by the story of Dracula do you think Salem's Lot actually is?
Speaker 3:I think it is, because I've got a little fact here actually. Oh okay, Stephen King originally envisioned the book as a homage to Bram Stoker's Dracula, but he wanted to add a modern twist, so he's. Yeah, that's what he said about it.
Speaker 2:So it's definitely it's a modern twist on the original Dracula story yeah, yeah, the recording that we've got. I've got it as 56.31 minutes and it's a very clear recording. Yeah, and have you got any more information about the actual recording that we've got on the YouTube channel?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was dramatised for the radio in 1994, so it's 1994 when this was done by BBC Radio 4. It was written by Gregory Evans and the music was done by Elizabeth Parker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to go with that Amazing. So that's pretty much all I could see. And, and it kind of um spoke about the fact that it was paying homage to bram stoker's dracula.
Speaker 2:So do you remember where this one was, um where I filmed this episode? No, no, I'd have to. Shall, I have a quick look. Yeah, you can have a quick look. What happens is, with the YouTube episodes that we've got, it's usually me. I go around and film just the seaside or the woodland. I'm based in Paul in Dorset, which is on the south coast of the UK, so I'm by the, the sea, so it's sort of the beach and you know, is the main things that I've um film. Um, there are some other things of random people's ponds and things like that that I get to film with permission yeah so I'm just gonna have a look and see when this one was filmed.
Speaker 2:Have you got any other facts about the actual recording itself? That's it. That's all I've got. Do you know that? I also read that Stephen King has had over 30 years of sobriety. Yeah, yeah, he has yeah, which is an accomplishment as well, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's right. So yeah, I mean, I think Stephen King's really cool, I think he's really cool.
Speaker 2:Right, so this is in different parts. So the first bit shows a stream that I I filmed in a in woods, woodland in hampshire. I remember that the second one's also woodland in hampshire, so it's obviously where I was at the time. Um, let's have a look at this one. Yeah, so I think I think it just shows a random stream. Yeah, be fair, and that would have been probably filmed in um hampshire, because that tends to be where I go to, the, the woods. Yeah, yeah, so this episode of salem's lot in in different parts. I think maybe there's three videos, so it's parts one and two, three, four yeah, trying to put together, yeah, to make yeah, so these are all together featuring the Salem's Lot radio drama.
Speaker 2:It's available on our channel, melancholy Mentor, so if you're enjoying the podcast, then please do check out the YouTube channel as well of Melancholy Mentor, and you'll find all of the videos on there, and also the podcast uploads are on there as well. Yeah, they are, yeah, and thank you for listening. Bye, bye.
