It was performed as the premiere episode of the series on Monday, July 11, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network.

Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

"Dracula" was the first episode of the CBS Radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Monday, July 11, 1938.

Recalling Welles's sound-effects preparations for the series debut in a 1940 article for The New Yorker, Lucille Fletcher wrote that "his programs called for all sorts of unheard-of effects, and he could be satisfied with nothing short of perfection."

That night, on a coast-to-coast network, he gave millions of listeners nightmares with what, even though it be produced with a melon and hammer, is indubitably the sound a stake would make piercing the heart of an undead body.

The drama starts with the introduction of Dr. Arthur Seward, who presents the story based on documents, telegrams, clippings from the press of the day, memoranda, and letters in various hands and begins with excerpts from the private journal of Jonathan Harker.

Harker recalls his journey to Dracula's castle with the purpose of sealing a real estate deal for the Count in England.

Next day Jonathan is left completely alone in the castle, as he hears the rolling of heavy wheels and cracking of whips, knowing that it's Dracula's coffins, filled with earth, leaving for England.

A searchlight was turned on her, and there lashed to the helm was a corpse of the captain, with drooping head which swayed horribly to-and-fro at each motion of the ship.

The Coast Guard going abroad at dawn finds the dead captain fastened to a spoke of the wheel; tightly clutched in one hand was a crucifix.

Soon they read in newspapers about strange cases involving young children straying from home or failing to return from playing near Hampstead.

Seward reveals that a man was found on the border of Transylvania, who talked wildly of wolves and boxes of earth and blood.

It is during this time that his wife, Mina Harker, brought to the attention of Dr. Van Helsing and Seward the journal that her husband had kept while the prisoner in the castle of a certain Count Dracula in Transylvania.

Van Helsing says they need to ascertain whether all the rest remain in the deserted house next door or whether anymore have been removed, then they need to sterilise the earth in the boxes with holy water so the vampire can no longer seek safety in it.

Meanwhile, Mina has a strange dream - white mist creeping into the room and gaslight looking only like a tiny red spark in the fog.

Van Helsing hypnotises Mina and they find out that Dracula has left England on the ship and is heading back to Transylvania.