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STATIC WAX: "The Together Place"
Published 3 weeks, 5 days ago
Description
"The Together Place" is an original Static Wax composition written in the style of a 1940s torch ballad — mournful, intimate, and quietly devastating. The song follows Rose Craven from her first whispered mentions of a sister named Lily, through the shared dreams and shared suffering that bind them across worlds, to the moment Rose closes her eyes and follows her twin into the unknown. The torch ballad style was chosen to mirror the era suggested by the story's atmosphere — a haunted, candlelit world of old houses, herb gardens, and women who carry their grief in silence — and to honor the aching tenderness at the heart of a story that is ultimately about a soul searching for the companion it lost before it ever drew breath.
ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE
CBS Radio Mystery Theater — "The Together Place" — broadcast August 15, 1977. Written by Elspeth Eric. Starring Norman Rose. Dr. Ed Leahy, the sole physician of the small town of Corbett, enlists his retired nurse Mary Mahaffey to help care for two unusual patients: Mrs. Craven, confined to bed with a thrombosis, and her daughter Rose, a withdrawn young woman of mysterious ailment. When Rose casually mentions a twin sister named Lily — a sister no one knew existed — the doctor and nurse are drawn into something far stranger than a routine house call. Rose is utterly convinced that Lily is real, living in a realm she calls Kamaloka — the Together Place — a world adjoining our own where souls dwell between lives. She shares Lily's headaches, Lily's dreams, and eventually Lily's pregnancy. When Rose announces that Lily is gravely ill and near death, she herself takes to her bed and dies shortly after — her body wasting away as though in sympathy with her unseen twin. The truth, known only to Dr. Leahy, is that Rose did have a twin. A second child was born the same night — deformed and sickly, surviving only an hour — and laid next to Rose in the womb for nine months before the world ever saw her. Rose had carried the memory of that companion throughout her entire life, and in death, it seems, went searching for her. With Rose gone, grief pulls Mrs. Craven toward the same fading. It falls to the remarkable Mary Mahaffey to bring her back — not through medicine, but through the philosophy of Paracelsus: faith, cheerful courage, and hope. In the end, Dr. Leahy is left to set the story down on paper, as Mary Mahaffey requested with her dying breath, so that the lives of Rose Craven and her unknown sister would not pass unremembered.
ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "The Together Place" was broadcast on August 15, 1977, written by Elspeth Eric, and starred Norman Rose, with a cast that included Mary Jane Higbee, Marion Seldes, and Rosemary Rice.
ABOUT STATIC WAX
Static Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird Darkness RetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.
Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax
ABOUT THE SOURCE EPISODE
CBS Radio Mystery Theater — "The Together Place" — broadcast August 15, 1977. Written by Elspeth Eric. Starring Norman Rose. Dr. Ed Leahy, the sole physician of the small town of Corbett, enlists his retired nurse Mary Mahaffey to help care for two unusual patients: Mrs. Craven, confined to bed with a thrombosis, and her daughter Rose, a withdrawn young woman of mysterious ailment. When Rose casually mentions a twin sister named Lily — a sister no one knew existed — the doctor and nurse are drawn into something far stranger than a routine house call. Rose is utterly convinced that Lily is real, living in a realm she calls Kamaloka — the Together Place — a world adjoining our own where souls dwell between lives. She shares Lily's headaches, Lily's dreams, and eventually Lily's pregnancy. When Rose announces that Lily is gravely ill and near death, she herself takes to her bed and dies shortly after — her body wasting away as though in sympathy with her unseen twin. The truth, known only to Dr. Leahy, is that Rose did have a twin. A second child was born the same night — deformed and sickly, surviving only an hour — and laid next to Rose in the womb for nine months before the world ever saw her. Rose had carried the memory of that companion throughout her entire life, and in death, it seems, went searching for her. With Rose gone, grief pulls Mrs. Craven toward the same fading. It falls to the remarkable Mary Mahaffey to bring her back — not through medicine, but through the philosophy of Paracelsus: faith, cheerful courage, and hope. In the end, Dr. Leahy is left to set the story down on paper, as Mary Mahaffey requested with her dying breath, so that the lives of Rose Craven and her unknown sister would not pass unremembered.
ABOUT CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was an anthology drama series that aired from 1974 to 1982, produced by Hyman Brown and hosted by the distinctive voice of E.G. Marshall. Created as a deliberate revival of the golden age of radio drama, the series presented original mystery, suspense, and macabre stories five nights a week, earning a devoted audience and a reputation as one of the finest dramatic radio programs of its era. "The Together Place" was broadcast on August 15, 1977, written by Elspeth Eric, and starred Norman Rose, with a cast that included Mary Jane Higbee, Marion Seldes, and Rosemary Rice.
ABOUT STATIC WAX
Static Wax is an original music project from Darren Marlar, the creator and host of Weird Darkness. Each Static Wax song takes a story told on a vintage radio broadcast and reimagines it as an era-appropriate original composition — the way it might have sounded if it had been written for the jukebox instead of the airwaves. The songs are written and produced to authentically reflect the musical styles of the golden age of radio, from crooner ballads and big band swing to early rock and roll and beyond. Static Wax is part of the Weird Darkness RetroRadio universe (https://weirddarkness.com/retroradio), where classic old time radio episodes are presented alongside original music inspired by their stories.
Find more at https://weirddarkness.com/staticwax