Mountain Village of 600 Vanishes in a Night; Elm Trees Stand Where Store Was

GENTRYVILLE (FICTIONAL) — A mountain village of six hundred souls has disappeared in the course of a single night, according to a program description published by the podcast Weird Darkness. Full-grown elm trees, it states, now occupy the ground where the general store stood only the day before.

The account is not a news report but a radio play. It is "The Fall of Gentryville," an episode of CBS Radio Mystery Theater that the listing dates to March 5, 1979. Readers hoping for an official inquiry will be disappointed; the investigator is a fictional reporter.

The description sketches that reporter as a washed-up newspaperman on his last chance, who sets out to learn why the town vanished. The name that keeps drawing him back, it says, is that of the only "Miss" listed in the town's telephone book. The source does not reveal what he finds.

The play leads a #RetroRadio compilation running more than five hours. Its listing begins with the Gentryville drama at 1 minute 30 seconds, and continues with episodes of Mystery is My Hobby, Sherlock Holmes, Inner Sanctum, Lights Out, Philip Marlowe and others, dated between 1943 and 1962 where dates are known.

Weird Darkness notes that several episodes were remastered, edited or cleaned up to make them more listenable, though the audio may not be pristine. The program is offered on Spreaker. No elm trees have been independently reported.