She primly chided the host for his trademark dark humor and creepy manner. Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with cheery commercial spokeswoman Mary Bennett (aka the 'Tea Lady'), whose blithesome pitches for Lipton Tea contrasted sharply with the macabre themes of the stories.

(Berry Kroeger had substituted earlier for a total of four episodes.) McGrath was a Broadway actor who turned to radio for a regular income. When Johnson left the series in May 1945 to serve in the Army, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the 'Raymond' name and was known only as 'Your Host' or 'Mr. Raymond's closing was an elongated 'Pleasant dreeeeaams, hmmmmm?' His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, such as Maurice Tarplin (on The Mysterious Traveler). A spooky melodramatic organ score (played by Lew White) punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as 'Your host, Raymond' in a mockingly sardonic voice.

The anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense, and its tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. On January 7, 1941, the Inner Sanctum radio program premiered, the name licensed by Simon & Schuster on condition that at the end of each broadcast the announcer would promote the latest book title published in the series. Lee Wright was the editor of the series, and over the years she introduced such authors as Craig Rice, Gypsy Rose Lee, Patrick Quentin, Thomas Sterling and Anthony Boucher. Although the imprint 'Inner Sanctum' also included serious drama (published with blue covers) and romance (published with red covers), for the most part it was associated with mysteries (published in green covers). In 1930, the first title was published in Simon & Schuster's 'Inner Sanctum' mystery series: I Am Jonathan Scrivener by Claude Houghton. It was created by producer Himan Brown and was based on the imprint given to the mystery novels of Simon & Schuster. Inner Sanctum Mystery, also known as Inner Sanctum, is a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941, to October 5, 1952.

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