Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

In a special bonus episode, we'll hear a trio of radio detectives who were nominated for Academy Awards. Though they didn't bring home an Oscar, they still won a place in our hearts for their on-air crime solving prowess. Sydney Greenstreet stars as Nero Wolfe in "Stamped for Murder" (originally aired on October 20, 1950). Then, Jeff Chandler is Michael Shayne in "The Case of the Mail-Order Murders." Finally, William Gargan is Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator in "The Schemers" (originally aired on NBC on April 6, 1954).

To celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of master mystery writer Mickey Spillane, we'll hear three radio adventures of his signature shamus - the hard-boiled Mike Hammer. Ted De Corsia stars as Hammer in three episodes from That Hammer Guy: "The Jim Gordon Case," "The More You Kill, the Simpler It Gets" (originally aired on Mutual on April 20, 1954), and "A Dead Dame in Central Park" (originally aired on Mutual on April 27, 1954).

Emmy-nominated writer E. Jack Neuman was one of radio's most prolific mystery scribes. Before he created classic TV shows like Mr. Novak, Neuman penned adventures of Jeff Regan, Richard Diamond, Sam Spade, and many more. In honor of his birthday, we'll hear three of his old time radio mysteries: "Fall Guy" from Rocky Jordan (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1949); "The LaTourette Matter" from Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (originally aired on CBS on February 20, 1953); and "The Lugar-Lugging Laddie Case" from The Line-Up (originally aired on CBS on July 8, 1952).

Staats Cotsworth gets the shot - and his man - as Casey, Crime Photographer. Each week, Casey covers the news and makes it as he cracks the case and meets his deadline. We'll hear the crusader with a camera in "Loaded Dice" (originally aired on CBS on September 4, 1947) and "The Tobacco Pouch" (originally aired on CBS on September 18, 1947).

Heaven help crooks and thieves - The Saint is on the case! Vincent Price stars as Simon Templar, "the Robin Hood of modern crime," in three old time radio mysteries: "The Sinister Sneeze" (originally aired on NBC on June 11, 1950); "The Dame on the Doorstep" (originally aired on NBC on November 12, 1950); and "Formula for Death" (originally aired on NBC on March 25, 1951).

Our old time radio detectives this week drummed up business with newspaper ads - catchy sales pitches that invited potential clients to write in with requests for help. We'll hear Bob Bailey inviting those in need to Let George Do It in "The Father Who Had Nothing to Say" (originally aired on Mutual on September 13, 1948). Then, Alan Ladd opens another letter addressed to Box 13 in the syndicated mystery "The Haunted Artist."

If you're in trouble and you can come up with ten dollars a day and expenses, you can get help from Jeff Regan, Investigator. The hard-boiled gumshoe worked for the penny-pinching Anthony J. Lyon and never failed to find dangerous dames and double-crosses as he hustled for that ten a day. We'll hear Jack Webb as Regan in "The Too Many Mrs. Rogers" (originally aired on CBS on October 9, 1948). Then, Frank Graham is the detective in "The Two Little Sisters" (originally aired on CBS on November 16, 1949).

Though it was one of radio's most popular shows, The Fat Man left the airwaves in 1951 - a victim of the same anti-Communist hysteria that jailed its creator Dashiell Hammett. But in 1954, an Australian radio series, using scripts from the American show, was launched and its surviving shows give us a chance to hear more from this XXL private eye. We'll hear Lloyd Berrell starring in "Murder and the Peacock" and "Murder Shows a Phantom Face."

To old time radio fans, Steve Dunne is best known for his single season as Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade. Dunne stepped into the private eye's shoes when the program was resurrected following a cancellation, and he remained in the role until Sam closed up shop for good in 1951. We'll hear Dunne in his very first Spade adventure (originally aired on NBC on November 17, 1950) as well as "The Crab Louie Caper" (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1951). Plus, we'll hear Dunne as a crimesolving psychologist in Danger, Dr. Danfield in an episode originally aired on ABC on November 17, 1946.

On October 3, 1955, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar returned to CBS after a year-long hiatus. The adventures of "the man with the action-packed expense account" were revamped into a serial, with a complete adventure playing out each weeknight. Bob Bailey stepped into the shoes of "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator," and it was a perfect marriage of actor and character. We'll hear that very first five-part mystery - "The McCormack Matter" (originally aired on CBS between October 3 and October 7, 1955).

Haul out the holly - it's time for the "Down These Mean Streets" holiday special. We're wrapping up 2017 with Christmas capers from four old time radio sleuths. First, Natalie Masters is Candy Matson, the gorgeous girl detective of San Francisco, in "Jack Frost" (originally aired on NBC on December 10, 1949). Next, Dick Powell and his Richard Diamond cast of characters present their version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (originally aired on NBC on December 24, 1949). Then, Bob Bailey files a holiday expense account as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar: "The Missing Mouse Matter" (originally aired on CBS on December 23, 1956). Finally, we head to the Big Apple for Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover in "Santa Takes a Powder" from Broadway is My Beat (originally aired on CBS on December 24, 1949).

Head down to 417 Cherry Street for a drink and a set from Pete Kelly and his jazz band. Jack Webb combines his love of jazz and his unique style of radio crime drama in Pete Kelly's Blues, a short-lived series from the summer of 1951. The show featured great tunes and downbeat stories of the Prohibition era, and it inspired a 1955 feature film. We'll hear a pair of episodes - "The Veda Brand Story" (originally aired on NBC on July 11, 1951) and "Dr. Jonathan Budd and the Dutchman" (originally aired on NBC on September 12, 1951).

Two of old time radio's crime solving couples are on hand to mix marriage and mayhem in a pair of mysteries. First, Richard Denning and Barbara Britton are amateur sleuths Mr. and Mrs. North in "Too Late to Die" (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of a show originally aired on CBS on December 15, 1953). Then, Mandel Kramer is private eye Pat Abbott and Claudia Morgan is his wife Jean in "The Gentleman in the Nile Green Suit" from The Adventures of the Abbotts (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of a show originally aired on NBC on May 29, 1955).

We're running a special edition to salute the radio crime fighters of the Fourth Estate – three newsmen who used the power of the press to solve crimes and keep their cities free of corruption. First, Staats Cotsworth is Casey, Crime Photographer in "The Blonde's Lipstick" (originally aired on CBS on November 6, 1947). Then, editor Steve Wilson and reporter Lorelei Kilbourne fight the rackets of Big Town. Edward Pawley and Fran Carlon star in "The Final Payment" (originally aired on NBC on September 21, 1948). Finally, Frank Lovejoy is Chicago reporter Randy Stone in "Byline for Frank" from Night Beat (originally aired on NBC on June 29, 1951).

We tip our fedora to Howard Duff in honor of the star's November 24th birthday. To celebrate, we'll hear him in his signature role as Dashiell Hammett's famous private detective Sam Spade. With his wry humor and unique take on the material, Duff as Spade gave us one of the best gumshoes of the era. We'll hear him in two episodes of The Adventures of Sam Spade: "The Bow Window Caper" (originally aired on CBS on November 9, 1947) and "The Stopped Watch Caper" (originally aired on CBS on April 10, 1949). Finally, Sam gets his craziest caper ever when he meets Gracie Allen in a comedy episode from February 10, 1949.

In the latter days of the Golden Age of Radio, several programs made the move to television - chasing advertisers and the public's focus. Dragnet aired on radio and TV simultaneously for years, along with comedies like Our Miss Brooks and The Jack Benny Program. Generally, it was a one-way street, but in 1958 CBS reversed the trend when it brought its hit TV western Have Gun - Will Travel to radio.

The series premiered on television in 1957. Created by Herb Meadow and Sam Rolfe (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), the series starred Richard Boone as Paladin, a suave but deadly gun for hire. Educated at West Point, Paladin operated out of the luxurious Carlton Hotel in San Francisco. He was aided by hotel bellhop Hey Boy (Kam Tong), and he advertised his services with his trademark card, bearing the words "Have Gun - Will Travel."

Off duty, he enjoyed fine cigars, good drinks, and the company of lovely women. But when he was on the job, Paladin dressed in black and had nerves of steel. The series successfully blended two of television's most popular genres: the western and the private eye series. It wasn't as if Paladin was Sam Spade on horseback, but he was tough, resourceful, and worked by his own moral code. He'd take on dangerous jobs for the right place, but he would turn the tables on his employer if Paladin discovered he was being used. Boone was simultaneously debonair and dangerous as Paladin. The role earned him two Emmy nods and he directed several of the episodes. One of the show's most prolific writers was Gene Roddenberry; less than ten years later, he'd bring Star Trek to television. Have Gun - Will Travel had a comfortable home in the top five on the Nielsen charts for its first four seasons on the air.

The radio version of Have Gun - Will Travel had connections to the radio and TV versions of another classic western. Producers brought Gunsmoke to television in 1955, but producer Norman MacDonnell - who, along with writer John Meston had made the radio series one of the finest programs on the air - was largely shut out of the TV series. When CBS planned to bring the adventures of Paladin to radio, MacDonnell campaigned for - and won - the job. Actor Ben Wright, who co-starred as Hey Boy on radio, said "There were definite ill feelings between Norm and the television crew responsible for Gunsmoke. I think Norm came up with the idea for doing a radio version of Have Gun, possibly to show them that 'Hey, look what I can do with your program, and I did it even better.'"

When it came to casting the radio voice of Paladin, producers did not import the series' television star. Instead, they tapped an actor who had only recently wrapped a run on another western program. John Dehner was one of the busiest radio actors in the 1950s, frequently guesting on Escape, Suspense, and - for Norman MacDonnell - Philip Marlowe and Gunsmoke. In fact, Dehner had been offered the role of Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, but he turned it down. From February until November 1958, Dehner starred in Antony Ellis' acclaimed drama Frontier Gentleman as British newspaper correspondent J.B. Kendall. It was a drama in the "adult western" vein of Gunsmoke, but it left the air in November. The week after J.B. Kendall filed his last report of the west, John Dehner was on the air as Paladin.

Dehner sought to create his own version of Paladin, commenting "I didn't pay any attention to [Richard Boone] at all. I knew it would be deadly if I were to imitate him or do anything that was even vaguely similar to him." He made the role his own, creating a Paladin who sounded just as home in an opera box as he did on the trail. Each episode opened with Bernard Hermann's driving theme (imported from television) and Dehner as Paladin delivering a line from the story to follow.

Have Gun - Will Travel offered a showcase for some of radio's greatest players as the era of radio drama was winding down. Harry Bartell, Larry Dobkin, Virginia Gregg, Jeanne Bates, Howard Culver, and many more (most of them members of MacDonnell's repertory company) turned in supporting performances in a mix of adapted television scripts and original stories.

On television, Paladin continued to hire himself out until 1963, but his radio series ran for 106 episodes. Have Gun - Will Travel left the air just over two years after it premiered and just about two years away from the end of the Golden Age of Radio. In the final episode, Paladin left San Francisco behind and rode to Boston to claim an inheritance. Just as he reversed the trend and rode to radio, Paladin defied his genre and rode east at the end of his story.

To keep you smiling on Thanksgiving, here's a comedy side dish courtesy of Eve Arden as Our Miss Brooks. Jeff Chandler – radio's Michael Shayne – co-stars alongside the amazing Ms. Arden in this Turkey Day story about a live turkey slated to be guest of honor at the Madison High feast. Co-starring Gale Gordon (The Casebook of Gregory Hood), this episode originally aired on CBS on November 19, 1950.

Don't touch that dial – the thrilling conclusion of our Superman-Batman radio team-up is coming your way. The Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader are fighting to save Robin and Jimmy Olsen in the exciting final chapters of "The Monkey Burglar," originally aired on The Adventures of Superman on the Mutual Network between February 19 and 25, 1947.

The Man of Steel and the Dynamic Duo are teaming up to keep the airwaves safe! We'll hear a serialized story from The Adventures of Superman that brings Batman and Robin to Metropolis to join forces with Superman. Bud Collyer is Superman, Matt Crowley is Batman, and Ronald Liss is Robin in "The Monkey Burglar," a story that finds Robin as a prime suspect for a series of daring robberies. We'll hear the first five installments, originally aired on the Mutual Network between February 12 and February 18, 1947.

We're putting our little grey cells to work as Hercule Poirot solves two old time radio mysteries. Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective is back on the big screen, and we'll hear two of his adventures from the airwaves. First, Maurice Tarplin is Poirot in an adaptation of Christie's "The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor," originally aired on Murder Clinic on October 6, 1942. Then, Harold Huber steps in for "Murder is a Private Affair," an episode of Hercule Poirot (originally aired on Mutual on November 23, 1945).

Actor Joel McCrea was born November 5, 1905. His show business career began when he was still in high school; he'd double for cowboy star Tom Mix in stunt scenes. During his career, McCrea worked with Alfred Hitchcock in Foreign Correspondent and Preston Sturges in Sullivan's Travels and The Palm Beach Story. Westerns were his favorite films - he admitted as much, saying "I liked doing comedies, but as I got older I was better suited to do Westerns. Because I think it becomes unattractive for an older fellow trying to look young, falling in love with attractive girls in those kinds of situations…Anyway, I always felt so much more comfortable in the Western. The minute I got a horse and a hat and a pair of boots on, I felt easier. I didn't feel like I was an actor anymore. I felt like I was the guy out there doing it."

It was fitting that he'd find success on radio in the cowboy crime drama Tales of the Texas Rangers. McCrea starred as Ranger Jayce Pearson in the NBC radio series from 1950 to 1952. McCrea lent a tough, no-nonsense air to the lead role of Ranger Jayce Pearson. He's Joe Friday with a touch of Gary Cooper; Wyatt Earp with a radio and forensic knowledge. On screen, McCrea earned his spurs in The Virginian, Four Faces West, Ride the High Country, and more.

Happiest when he was outdoors, McCrea described himself as a rancher with the hobby of acting. He passed away in 1990 at the age of 84.

Need a case closed and a tune carried? Dick Powell is your man. The crooner reinvented his career when he played Philip Marlowe on screen, and he starred in a pair of radio detective shows as glib but tough private investigators. In honor of Powell's birthday, we'll hear two of his mysteries: as Richard Rogue, he solves "The Impossible Murder" from Rogue's Galley (originally aired on Mutual on May 16, 1946). Then, as Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Powell tackles "The Big Foot Grafton Case" (originally aired on NBC on August 30, 1950).

"Not far from the Mosque Sultan Hassan in Cairo stands the Cafe Tambourine, run by Rocky Jordan. The Cafe Tambourine, crowded with forgotten men, alive with the babble of many languages. For this is Cairo, where modern adventure and intrigue unfold against a backdrop of antiquity."

Blend two of Humphrey Bogart's signature roles - hard-boiled private eye Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and ex-pat club owner Rick Blaine in Casablanca - and you'd end up with Rocky Jordan, an adventure/detective series that aired on the West Coast over CBS' Pacific Network from 1945 to 1951. Rocky ran the Cafe Tambourine, a watering hole and nightspot (not unlike Rick's Cafe Americain) frequented by characters on both sides of the law. Despite his best self-interested intentions, Rocky was usually drawn into the postwar intrigue that was being plotted in and around his club. The combination of mystery and the exotic setting help Rocky Jordan stand out as a unique member of the old time radio detective fraternity. The series began as a five-night-a-week serial called A Man Called Jordan. During this 1945 to 1947 run on CBS' West Coast network, Rocky's club was located in Istanbul. When the series returned in a 30 minute format in 1948, Rocky had relocated the club to Cairo, but the premise of the series remained largely the same. Rocky was an American, but he couldn't return to his native land due to a murky event in his past in St. Louis. Like Rick Blaine, he looked out for himself and wasn't motivated to stick his neck out unless it carried the promise of a reward. But Rocky discovered there was no shortage of old friends and foes from the states or Cairo criminals whose plans intersected with the Cafe Tambourine.

For most of the run, Rocky was played by Jack Moyles (also heard as Sgt. Pete Carger on The Line-Up). Moyles delivered Rocky's tough guy style, but he allowed a hint of a heart to peek through when needed. He brought a world-weary delivery to the role, and Moyles sold the part of a very American man in a uniquely un-American setting.

A radio detective series wouldn't be complete without a friendly rival on the police force; throughout the series, Jay Novello co-starred as Captain Sam Sabayya of the Cairo Police. While his associates (including the toadyish Sgt. Greco) disliked Rocky, Sam knew he had a cautious ally in the American club owner, and the two frequently collaborated on investigations. Along with the casting, the production values of Rocky Jordan helped to make the show unique. There was the musical score, composed by Richard Aurandt, that was heavily inspired by Middle Eastern music. The Cairo setting was meticulously researched by writers Larry Roman and Gomer Cool to ensure they were authentically portraying the city. They relied heavily on the Pocket Guide to Egypt issued by the U.S. Army to soldiers during World War II, and they used actual street names as Rocky made his way through Cairo. Roman and Cool also pulled stories from current events coming out of the region. The resulting scripts felt as at home in Egypt as Jack Webb's Dragnet felt in Los Angeles. The series returned for a brief run in 1951 with 1930s movie star George Raft playing Rocky. Ironically, Raft turned down the role of Rick in Casablanca, but he eventually played a similar role on this series.

Herbert Marshall travels the globe as the dashing and debonair Man Called X. Dispatched on international adventures, the Man Called X is really secret agent Ken Thurston, enemy to spies, saboteurs, and insurgents wherever they may lurk. Marshall gave radio a suave super spy in one of the best espionage programs of the era. We'll hear Ken Thurston in "Japanese Underground" (originally aired on NBC on January 20, 1951) and "A Ton of Dynamite" (originally aired on NBC on February 26, 1952).

"Pursuit! A criminal strikes and fades quickly back into the shadows of his own dark world. And then, the man from Scotland Yard, the famous Inspector Peter Black, and the dangerous, relentless Pursuit!"

Sherlock Holmes was not the only British detective to solve crimes stateside during the Golden Age of Radio. A wave of mystery shows featuring Scotland Yard detectives cropped up on American radio in the post-World War II era. The great Orson Welles hosted The Black Museum, a syndicated series that drew inspiration from Scotland Yard's warehouse of evidence seized from murder scenes. Basil Rathbone, Sherlock Holmes himself, got into the act as Inspector Burke on Mutual after he hung up his deerstalker cap. And CBS offered Pursuit, a series without star power but one with sharp writing and top flight vocal performances from a crew of radio veterans.

Pursuit grew out of an audition program for a series called The Hunters. Developed by Anton M. Leader (who was coming off a run at the helm of Suspense), The Hunters starred Victor Jory as Scotland Yard's Inspector Harvey in an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's short story "You Take Ballistics." The Hunters didn't take off, but the premise was reworked by producer William N. Robson. Robson enlisted character actor Ted de Corsia to star as the renamed Inspector Peter Black.

The actor was one of the most versatile in the world of west coast radio; de Corsia had a gift for dialects and accents and could be heard as an upper crust member of high society one week and as a fast-talking gunsel the next. He delivered Inspector Black's dialogue in an arch, clipped manner that recalled the voice of actor Ronald Colman. Shortly after he left Pursuit, de Corsia played Lt. Levinson opposite Dick Powell on Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

Pursuit featured scripts by radio veterans Morton Fine and David Friedkin (including the episode on the podcast this week), and supporting performances from Hollywood radio's deep talent pool. Actor Bill Johnstone (Lt. Ben Guthrie on The Line-Up) did double duty as Black's superior Chief Inspector Harkness and as the show's announcer.

In 1950, Robson left the series. The production was turned over to Elliot Lewis (the creative force behind Broadway is My Beat), who was also directing and producing Suspense on CBS. Lewis reworked the show; he brought in Ben Wright as the star (Wright, a British born radio actor, was coming off of a run as Sherlock Holmes when he assumed the lead role on Pursuit). Wright came by his British accent naturally, but like de Corsia he was a versatile actor and a master of different voices. Though it was his natural voice that was often in demand, Wright also doubled as Asian characters on shows like Frontier Gentleman, The Green Llama, and as Hey Boy on Have Gun - Will Travel.

Lewis made changes behind the scenes as well. The orchestral scores that accompanied the earlier run of Pursuit were replaced by the organ music of Eddie Dunstedter, and he enlisted Antony Ellis to write scripts. Lewis secured sponsorship from Wrigley's Gum and from Sterling Products, makers of multiple drug store items such as Ironized Yeast and Molle shaving cream. When the sponsorship ran out, so too did Pursuit, another victim of the increased attention (and advertising dollars) being paid to television.

Pursuit had a relatively short run (less than 70 episodes aired on CBS), but the surviving episodes show some of the best writers, directors, and actors of the Golden Age of Radio doing some of their best work. Even if it flew under audiences' radar when it aired, Pursuit can thrill listeners today as Inspector Peter Black searches the streets of London for dangerous criminals.

It's alive...it's alive! It's the "Down These Mean Streets" Halloween special, presenting an old time radio chiller guaranteed to get you in the mood for trick or treating. We'll hear Herbert Marshall star in an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (originally aired on Suspense on CBS on November 3, 1952).

The game's afoot as we join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in three of their old time radio adventures. John Stanley is the world's most famous detective and Alfred Shirley plays his loyal companion and biographer in these original adventures that feature a locked room mystery, a ghostly menace to an old family, and a woman in fear for her life. We'll hear "The Case of the Dog that Changed Its Mind" (originally aired on Mutual on September 28, 1947); "The Case of the Cradle that Rocked Itself" (originally aired on Mutual on November 30, 1947); and "The Case of the Very Best Butter" (originally aired on Mutual on April 18, 1948).

On October 20, 1930, Sherlock Holmes arrived on radio, and he would remain on the airwaves for nearly two decades. Holmes of course was already popular from the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a stage play that toured the country starring William Gillette as the sleuth. But it wasn't until actress, writer, and producer Edith Meiser persuaded NBC to take a chance on the character's radio prospects that Holmes made his way into homes throughout the United States. For nearly ten years before Basil Rathbone first donned the deerstalker cap in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes was a mainstay on American radio.

In honor of the anniversary of that first broadcast, I've compiled a list of my favorite radio adventures of the master detective of Baker Street. These episodes, a mix of Conan Doyle adaptations and original radio mysteries, will make a fine playlist as you celebrate the on-air career of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson.

"The Immortal Sherlock Holmes" – Technically not an episode of the Holmes radio series, but I think you'll forgive my making an exception for Orson Welles. In this episode of The Mercury Theatre On the Air (a show that aired a month before the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast), Welles adapts and stars in a radio version of the Gillette play, a story that blends elements of several Holmes stories into one adventure pitting the sleuth against his nemesis Professor Moriarty. Ray Collins, years before he was Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason, narrates as Dr. Watson, and Eustace Wyatt plays Moriarty in this top-notch production from one of radio's best dramatic anthologies. (Originally aired on CBS on September 25, 1938)

"The Notorious Canary Trainer" – To generations of fans, Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes. Rathbone made an indelible impression as the detective in fourteen films between 1939 and 1946, but he also starred in hundreds of radio episodes alongside Nigel Bruce in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. These shows, written by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green, are fantastic, and one of the best is this original mystery about a murderer who confesses before he commits suicide, but there is no evidence of a killing beyond two dead canaries found at the scene. (Originally aired on Mutual on April 23, 1945)

"The Second Generation" – One of the most famous stories in the Holmes canon is "A Scandal in Bohemia," the tale that introduced Irene Adler. Known forever to Holmes as "the woman," the beautiful and brilliant Adler has appeared in nearly all of the recent Holmes adaptations (the Robert Downey, Jr. films, Elementary, and Sherlock), and subsequent works have explored the exact nature of the relationship between Holmes and his lovely adversary. This Green and Boucher script acts as a sequel to "Bohemia" (a story they adapted on the series one week prior), and it tells of Holmes and Watson's encounter with Irene's daughter two decades later. One of the great things about the Green/Boucher run was they explored the entire timeline, with stories set in the early days of the Holmes/Watson partnership, some during the "great hiatus" after Holmes supposed death, and some in Holmes' later years of semi-retirement as a beekeeper. "The Second Generation" is one of those "Holmes in twilight" stories, and it adds an additional level of emotion to the proceedings. (Originally aired on Mutual on December 17, 1945)

"The Adventure of the Tolling Bell" – After Basil Rathbone left the role of Holmes in 1946, Tom Conway took over as the detective for one radio season. He stars as Holmes in this mystery set in the idyllic English countryside. A vacationing Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce) learn of a strange series of deaths in the village when they come to the aid of a young woman. Their investigation leads them to a demented villain's reign of terror and a showdown in a church bell tower. It's a classic example of the "small town with a secret" genre, and it proves once again (as Holmes said in "The Copper Beeches") the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." (Originally aired on ABC on April 7, 1947)

"The Case of the Sudden Senility" – Listeners of the podcast will know that my favorite radio Holmes is John Stanley, and my favorite run of episodes is Stanley's 1947-48 season – a year where he was supported by Alfred Shirley as Watson and performed scripts penned by Edith Meiser. In this Meiser original that serves as an unofficial sequel to Doyle's "Silver Blaze," Holmes and Watson investigate when a five year-old horse dies in his stable of old age. The case involves a black cat, a mysterious house, and an appearance from Holmes' greatest enemy. (Originally aired on Mutual on January 11, 1948)

"The Empty House" – Edith Meiser adapts the story that brought Holmes back from the dead. Watson has been soldiering on after Holmes' apparent battle to the death with Moriarty, and he's called in to consult on a baffling locked room murder case. It isn't long before Holmes reveals his presence (in a wonderful scene that shows off John Stanley's versatility, he plays an irascible bookworm who harangues Watson about his treatment of books) and explains the connection Watson's case has to one of Moriarty's most dangerous associates. (Originally aired on Mutual on April 11, 1948)

"The Final Problem" – This one may have the greatest cast of any Holmes radio adaptation. John Gielgud is the great detective, Ralph Richardson is Dr. Watson, and special guest star Orson Welles is the Napoleon of crime – Professor Moriarty. Edith Meiser never adapted the story where Conan Doyle killed off his hero, but it was used for the 1955 British series from producer Harry Alan Towers. The entire Gielgud/Richardson series is superb, presenting wonderfully faithful adaptations of the original stories, but if you only listen to one episode make sure it's this one. The showdown between Holmes and Moriarty in the detective's rooms in Baker Street is a glorious scene played to the hilt by Gielgud and Welles (who may be the only actor who played both Sherlock Holmes and his greatest enemy on radio).

Enjoy! And for more radio Holmes, check out Down These Mean Streets this Sunday for three original adventures starring John Stanley and Alfred Shirley.

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know." ("The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle")

You'd be hard pressed to find a more famous detective (any literary character, for that matter) more famous and known throughout the world than Sherlock Holmes. Since the character's introduction in A Study in Scarlet in 1887, his adventures have been reprinted around the globe; he has starred in films and television shows (indeed, at the time of this writing, there are two different shows that cast Holmes in the modern world and a third installment of a blockbuster film franchise starring the detective is in the works). But the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his legendary consulting detective enjoyed a long life on radio and was a fixture during the World War II era as he simultaneously entertained audiences on the big screen.

And his patron saint on the airwaves was an actress, singer, and writer named Edith Meiser. Meiser had grown up reading the Conan Doyle stories, and she believed Sherlock Holmes' adventures were a natural for radio. She worked tirelessly to bring the stories to radio, and she succeeded in 1930 when her adaptation of "The Speckled Band" premiered on NBC on October 20. William Gillette, who wrote and starred in a stage adaptation of Holmes, played Holmes in that first broadcast. The series, which starred Richard Gordon, Louis Hector, and eventually Richard Gordon again, ran on NBC until 1936. Through these different actors and series, Meiser remained a consistent hand at the wheel

Holmes returned to the air following the success of the 1939 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. NBC commissioned a new series to be written by Mesier and to star the actors from the film - Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. This series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premiered on NBC on October 2, 1939. It ran until March 1, 1942, when it moved to the Mutual Network. Most of the episodes were original adventures "suggested by" incidents in the original Conan Doyle stories. When Meiser left the series in 1944, scripts were provided initially by Leslie Charteris (creator of "The Saint") and Dennis Green. When Charteris left to focus on bringing his own creation to radio, Anthony Boucher stepped in and co-wrote the series with Green.

Rathbone, concerned about typecasting, left the role in 1946 after the final film in their series was released. Nigel Bruce had no such concerns, and he stayed on in the part as producers brought in a new Holmes - actor Tom Conway. As the veteran of the cast, Bruce received top billing for the 1946 - 1947 series, sponsored by Kremel Hair Tonic. The Conway/Bruce series lasted 39 episodes before both actors left at the end of the season. Rathbone's departure coincided with Meiser's return; many of her earlier scripts were re-used for Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce.

The show came back for the 1947 - 1948 season with new actors at the microphones. Alfred Shirley assumed the narration/sidekick duties as Dr. Watson, and John Stanley took over as Sherlock Holmes. When some listeners heard Stanley in the role, they suspected one of Holmes' famous disguises might be in use. As Edith Meiser recalled, "Everyone thought that Basil Rathbone, who had said he would have nothing more to do with Sherlock Holmes, was now moonlighting as 'John Stanley.'" Stanley, she said, "was a darling who sounded exactly like Basil Rathbone." To this writer's ears, Stanley outdoes his predecessors and emerges as the definitive radio Holmes. His performances are far more polished than Rathbone's, and Stanley is unencumbered by any of the baggage (such as frustration with the role) that Rathbone brought with him to the program. Stanley was also admired by Holmes fans; he wrote a monograph on the pistols used by Holmes and Watson that appeared in the July 1948 issue of Black Maskmagazine. And both he and Alfred Shirley were given wonderful lines by Edith Meiser.

Unfortunately, this season of Sherlock Holmes proved to be Meiser's last. She was fired for, as she put it, refusing to put more violence into her scripts. "The producers were always telling me to make Mr. Holmes more hardboiled," she'd recall years later. The show continued on without her, with a decidedly more modern feel to Holmes than what had come earlier, before leaving the airwaves in 1950. John Stanley left the role in 1949 and he was followed by Ben Wright (later to star as an intrepid Scotland Yard inspector on Pursuit) before the airwaves in 1950.

Holmes and Watson continued their radio adventures across the pond after they wrapped up on American radio. John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson starred in an excellent series of Conan Doyle adaptations in 1955. Co-produced by ABC, the series featured Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty in an adaptation of "The Final Problem." And of course, the character is still going strong on television (Sherlock and Elementary, which recast the sleuth in the modern world, draw millions of viewers) and in films (Robert Downey Jr.'s re-imagined take on the character has become a box office smash franchise). But few of the writers who have adapted the character since his creation have been able to match Conan Doyle's style in the way Edith Meiser pulled it off. Thanks in no small part to her work, the Sherlock Holmes radio adventures are a must-listen for Sherlockians and fans of radio drama alike.

Not all of the radio detectives were two-fisted tough guys, delivering purple dialogue through gritted teeth. There were a number of sleuths who took a lighter approach to solving crimes, often aided by a girl Friday to allow for some flirtation along the way. One of the best examples of the lighter school of radio detectives is the long running Let George Do It, a series that evolved from a comedy with a hint of mystery to a whodunit with a lighthearted touch.

In his first outing as a radio detective, Bob Bailey (later the star of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) played George Valentine, an ex-GI who seized upon an unusual method of finding post-war employment. He placed an ad in the newspaper where he offered to take a job - any job - that would prove too risky for anyone else. When the show premiered in 1946, George was backed up by a cast better suited for comedy than crime solving. Joseph Kearns (later Mr. Wilson on TV's Dennis the Menace) played Caleb, the elevator operator in George's building; Eddie Firestone played George's office boy, Sonny Brooks; and Frances Robinson as Sonny's sister Claire, aka "Brooksie," who became George's girl Friday. The earliest episodes found George in more comedic assignments than dangerous jobs, but as the show evolved the mystery element played a more prominent role. Sonny left the team and the shows became driven more by the George/Brooksie duo. The shows played like episodes of Richard Diamond, Private Detective if Diamond's Park Avenue girlfriend Helen Asher accompanied him on his cases (this would really be the case when Virginia Gregg and Frances Robinson swapped roles later in the run; Gregg played Brooksie and Robinson played Helen!). Often assisting the pair in their investigations was Lt. Riley of the police department. Like other long-suffering foils of radio private eyes, Riley would initially roll his eyes when George arrived on the scene but would quickly embrace his help in closing a case. Riley was played by the talented Wally Maher - a radio veteran who played Michael Shayne and supported Bill Johnstone on The Line-Up. Sadly, he passed away at age 43 in 1951, leaving a hole in the Let George Do It team. Actor Ken Christy joined the cast as Lt. Johnson, who while not outright hostile certainly saw Valentine as a hindrance rather than a help to an investigation. And the usual stable of great Hollywood radio actors rounded out the guest casts every week, including Alan Reed, Jeff Chandler, Lurene Tuttle, Betty Lou Gerson, and Parley Baer.

The 1950s saw not only a new police cohort but also a new tone for Let George Do It. The tide had turned and audiences were demanding a grittier sound to their mysteries as police procedurals and hard-boiled private eyes littered the airwaves. Even as scripts grew tougher, the cast continued to deliver strong performances, backed up by sharp scripts written by Herb Little, Jr., David Victor, and veteran mystery scripter Jackson Gillis, who would later pen thirty-two episodes of Perry Mason and eleven Columbo TV movies.

Bailey would remain in the role until 1954 when production moved from Hollywood to New York. Actor Olan Soule (later the voice of Batman in Filmation cartoons from the 1960s) played George for the final year of the series. But Bob Bailey wouldn't stay off the beat for long; in 1955, he kicked off a long run and cemented his place in radio history with his definitive portrayal of Johnny Dollar. Before he starred in that series, however, he proved his chops as a radio leading man in a series that called for comedy, action, romance, and drama. Just like George Valentine, Bob Bailey was the man for the job - no matter what it entailed.

"Okay, Shayne…get the picture. A guy in front of you with a .38, a guy in back with a rifle. And you with nothing. If wishing will make it so, you better start wishing to be somewhere else fast because- (BLAM)"

Under the pen name of "Brett Halliday," writer Davis Dresser introduced the world to Florida-based private eye Michael Shayne in Dividend on Death in 1939. Dresser continued the adventures of his shamus for fifty novels and hundreds of short stories before farming out his pen name to a staff of writers who kept his character in print. Unlike his contemporaries, Shayne started out as an atypical private detective; he was married, and his adventures were equal parts domestic comedy and deduction of clues. But in 1943, Mrs. Shayne met an untimely end, the laughs fell by the wayside, and Michael Shayne was reinvented as a two-fisted, hard-nosed private eye. The various radio, film, and television incarnations of the character oscillated between the two Shaynes, with some playing up the his-and-hers patter, and others doubling down on the hard-boiled intensity.

Before Shayne came to radio, he hit the big screen. Lloyd Nolan starred in a series of films for 20th Century Fox before Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver himself) headlined a run for PRC. Shayne first came to radio in 1944 in a West Coast series that eventually went national in 1946. Radio character Wally Maher (heard as Sgt. Grebb on The Line-Up and as Lt. Riley on Let George Do It) starred as Shayne with Cathy Lewis as his secretary Phyllis Knight. This series focused on the lighter aspects of the character, with well-developed characterizations for Shayne and Cathy. The two would exchange flirtations as they solved their cases; imagine if Helen Asher accompanied Richard Diamond on his cases, and you'll get the idea. The Maher series ran until November 14, 1947. When it ran its course, Shayne would be off the air for almost a year before he returned in a very different style and format, and it's this series that is best remembered among radio fans.

The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, directed by radio veteran Bill Rousseau, came to the air in 1948 for twenty-six syndicated episodes. Rousseau had previously directed Jack Webb in the ultra-hard-boiled Pat Novak For Hire and he brought a similar tone to the revamped Shayneseries. Each episode opened with a musical barrage, ratcheting up the tension before audiences heard a tease of the story to come. Usually, it was Michael Shayne describing his latest tight spot, on the receiving end of a beating or facing down the business end of a gun. This new series uprooted Shayne from Miami and plopped him down in New Orleans. Phyllis Knight didn't make the trip, but a rotating assortment of femme fatales and damsels in distress turned up to keep Shayne in and out of trouble. Shayne took a licking and kept on ticking; Joe Mannix may be the only fictional private eye to rival Shayne in the injury department. Rousseau's old collaborator Jack Webb even joined the cast as Shayne's police foil, Inspector LeFevre. And stepping into the title role was Jeff Chandler, an actor selected by Rousseau out of a field of contenders.

Chandler is well known to radio fans as bashful biology teacher (and 180 degrees away from Michael Shayne!) Philip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks, and his most famous film role as Cochise opposite Jimmy Stewart in Broken Arrow. His first film role came opposite Dick Powell in Johnny O'Clock(1947), and he was a top leading man throughout the 1950s. Sadly, his career was cut tragically short in 1961 when a botched operation for a spinal disc herniation resulted in his death at the age of 42.

It's a shame; his performance as Michael Shayne helps to ground a series that is otherwise pretty over the top. Even throughout the beatings, the bullet wounds, the smoky dames and the snappy patter, Chandler's Shayne is a down to earth guy with the right touch of humor behind his gritted teeth. And his years on Our Miss Brooks demonstrate his comfort with comedy and versatility as an actor. There's no doubt he had decades of good work ahead of him, but we have 26 episodes of Michael Shayne to enjoy and celebrate the too-short life of this talented actor. Along with Jack Webb, Chandler is supported in these shows by great radio talents like Larry Dobkin, Frank Lovejoy, Hans Conried, Vivi Jannis, and more.

A 1952 - 1953 ABC series starred Donald Curtis, and later Robert Sterling and Vinton Hayworth as Shayne, but the Chandler syndicated series continued to air all across the country during this period. The Chandler episodes continued to run in several markets throughout the 1950s. Not bad for a private eye who was usually in debt, on the verge of losing his license, and nursing a head injury.

"Are you packing?" "Yes dear, I'm putting away this liquor." William Powell and Myrna Loy are back as Dashiell Hammett's husband and wife crime solvers Nick and Nora Charles as The Lux Radio Theatre presents After the Thin Man. The sequel to the smash hit comedy mystery hit the big screen in 1936, and four years later the stars reunited to recreate the film for the airwaves. Join Mr. and Mrs. Charles as they solve a New Year's Eve murder in this episode originally aired on CBS on June 17, 1940.

Gatewood sat down and looked at his host. Then he said: "I'm searching for somebody, Mr. Keen, whom you are not likely to find."

"I doubt it," said Keen pleasantly.

(Robert Chambers, The Tracer of Lost Persons)

Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe may be the more famous names in the crime-solving pantheon, but one wry little old man outpaced them all when it came to radio casework. Mr. Keen was a radio institution, popping up in 1,690 installments between 1937 and 1955. Even Johnny Dollar, with his own 13 year run only turned in 811 expense accounts. The Energizer Bunny of radio detectives, Mr. Keen tirelessly toiled to reunite people with their missing loved ones and to make sure guilty parties met with justice. Churned out like the soap operas that made his producers famous, Mr. Keen's adventures have been almost entirely lost, save for a small fraction of his hundreds of radio cases still available today.

Years before he hit radio, Mr. Keen came out of the pages of The Tracer of Lost Persons, a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers. The vignettes penned by Chambers focus more on the clients of Westrel Keen than on the "tracer" himself. Many of his clients were in search of lost loves, adding a romantic melodramatic flavor to the stories. Chambers would gain more fame from The King in Yellow, a collection of supernatural stories that have inspired dozens from H.P. Lovecraft to the first season of HBO's True Detective. This was not an introduction on par with Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, and Mr. Keen may have seemed an unlikely candidate for adaptation as a radio detective. Perhaps it was the romantic angle of the stories that drew the attention of the couple that - more than Chambers - would become the true architects of the character.

Anne and Frank Hummert, a husband and wife duo who were some of the most influential players in early radio, were responsible for bringing Mr. Keen to the airwaves. The two started in radio with soap operas, and their genre-shaping hits included Just Plain Bill, Ma Perkins, and Young Widder Brown. The two met while working at the same advertising firm, and they married in 1935. The Hummerts formed their own production company after their marriage, and launched several shows including Mr. Keen. At one point, the Hummerts had 90 episodes of various serialized shows airing on radio each week. Radio historian Jim Cox estimated the Hummerts controlled 4.5 hours of national radio each week, and more than half of the advertising revenue generated by daytime radio.

Mr. Keen was one of several mystery programs produced by the Hummerts. From the couple's home, Anne Hummert outlined the plots for all of her shows; she was celebrated for her ability to remember every twist and turn of the labyrinthine plots of her soaps. These outlines were dispatched to the writers – or "dialoguers" – in the Hummert's employ, who would turn the stories into actual scripts.

The program's earliest run resembled a soap opera in a three night a week, fifteen minute format. It aired in this serialized version from 1937 until 1943. In December 1943, CBS relaunched Mr. Keen as a 30 minute weekly program. It remained on the air until April 19, 1955, generating 1,690 episodes - far and away the leader of the pack of old time radio detectives. For most of the run, Keen was played by actor Bennett Kilpack, a stage and radio veteran who voiced Keen with a kindly charm. Providing the stereotypical lunkheaded sidekick support was Jim Kelly as Mike Clancy. The erstwhile Irishman's favorite expression was "Saints preserve us!" whenever his boss shed light on a hidden clue. Though Kilpack was in the lead for most of the run, Keen was played later in the series by actors Philip Clarke and Arthur Hughes.

Less than sixty of the Mr. Keen episodes survive, but the available episodes generally follow the same trajectory. The effect of churning out so many scripts can be heard in some of the repetitive aspects of the plots. A drinking game could be made for each time a character's name is uttered in dialogue ("Would you believe it, Mr. Keen?" "Frankly, no, Miss Smith," etc.), but there's a good chance the listener would be passed out in a stupor before the first commercial break. The clichéd plots and dialogue inspired parodies, including Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons from radio satirists Bob and Ray.

So – in a world where we have Howard Duff as Sam Spade, Gerald Mohr as Philip Marlowe, and Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar – is Mr. Keen worth a listen to a modern audience? I think so. The world of radio detectives included an array of characters and behind-the-scenes talents, each catering to a different segment of the audience. There is a healthy appetite for cozier puzzle mysteries that's as strong as the desire for two-fisted private eyes and femmes fatale. And Bennett Kilpack – the Mr. Keen of most of the surviving shows – is very good in the role. His voice has a homespun, old-timer quality, similar in some respects to Titus Moody on The Fred Allen Show, but a steely determination sneak in when he's facing down a culprit. Another (albeit more cynical) view is that you need the mediocre offerings to underscore what is so good about the top of the heap.

It's another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective - two of them, in fact - as Lon Clark stars as "that most famous of all manhunters." Carter sprang from the pages of pulp magazines and solved crimes on radio for twelve years. Clark voiced the super sleuth for the entire run of the program, and we'll hear him in two of his adventures. Charlotte Manson co-stars as Patsy Bowen, Nick's loyal secretary, in "The Case of the Make Believe Murder" (originally aired on Mutual on July 22, 1945) and "The Case of the Dictaphone Murder" (originally aired on Mutual on June 4, 1946).

For a single season (1953 - 1954), the greatest singer of the twentieth century headlined a radio detective show. Hard as it may be to believe that the Chairman of the Board would slum it on a weekly series, Frank Sinatra starred as Rocky Fortune for a one year run. The series came to the air during a rare slump in Sinatra's storied career, finding the singer and actor in a transition period from his days as a crooner and bobbysoxer idol to his establishment as one of the most popular entertainers of all time.

In 1953, Sinatra was divorced and hurting publicly after leaving his wife Nancy for actress Ava Gardner. He'd been dropped from his contract at Columbia Records, and his big screen career was floundering. After commanding six figure salaries for films just a few years before, he had to beg for an audition for a supporting role in From Here to Eternity. That film opened in August 1953, and just a few months later Sinatra hit NBC in the premiere episode of Rocky Fortune.

The series was created by George Lefferts (who would later create and develop NBC's sci-fi revival X Minus One) at Sinatra's request. Lefferts recalled his first meeting with Sinatra at the singer's home, where the crooner was clad in only a towel. Lefferts was an in-house writer at NBC, and he was tapped by Sinatra to develop a mystery series in which Sinatra could star. It wasn't completely unheard of for major stars to head to radio. Alan Ladd produced and starred in Box 13, and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall lent their voices each week to Bold Venture, but both of those series were syndicated and had a schedule that was more star-friendly. Sinatra would be appearing on network radio, perhaps a sign that his star had faded and not quite ascended again in late 1953.

Rocky was not a cop or a private eye. Rather he was a "footloose and frequently unemployed young gentleman" who bounced from job to job lined up for him by the Grindley Employment Agency. Later episodes revised the description to "footloose and fancy free," which conjures up less images of Rocky as a hobo. Each week, no matter where he ended up, Rocky would usually find trouble on his quest for a paycheck. He could be shucking oysters, barking at a carnival, or leading a bus tour of New York, odds were he would stumble over a dead body, interrupt a robbery in progress, or get strong-armed into playing unwilling accomplice for a criminal enterprise. Often, he'd run up against the aptly named Sgt. Hamilton J. Finger (played by several actors but most frequently by Barney Phillips), who was always ready to point one assigning blame at Rocky for whatever he'd happened into that week. Lefferts and his fellow writer Ernest Kinoy wrote up adventures that took Rocky Fortune across town, across the country, and even on the high seas. (In the episode we'll hear on this week's podcast, Rocky is hired as a babysitter for a vindictive drunk of a theater critic who has trouble staying awake during the shows he's assigned to review. Unfortunately, under Rocky's watchful eye the man ends up dead in an aisle seat during an intermission!)

The show suffered from poor reviews when it premiered (though Sinatra's performance was praised by Variety, among others), and today it is dismissed by some as a lesser effort from both Sinatra and the Golden Age of Radio. This writer respectfully disagrees with these harsh assessments. Rocky Fortune is a lot of fun, and it's an opportunity to hear Sinatra in his only regular dramatic role on radio. He was a frequent guest of Jack Benny and other radio comedians, and he made a memorable turn on Suspense, but Rocky Fortune stands as the best showcase of Sinatra's dramatic vocal range in the radio era. He finds the right amount of humor and dramatic tension in each show, and he could have continued in the series had his own fortunes grown less rocky in 1954. Just days before the final episode of Rocky Fortune aired, Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity, and he was off and running with a new recording contract at Capitol Records. Bouncing from job to job as Rocky Fortune wasn't in the cards anymore and the series left NBC on March 30, 1954. Today, it's an interesting footnote in Sinatra's career, and another fine detective show that brought a big screen star to weekly radio.

Of all the actors to play private eyes and gumshoes during the Golden Age of Radio, William Gargan may have been the most uniquely qualified. Ironically, while success as a detective seemed to elude him, he enjoyed a great deal of success by playing detectives on film, television, and radio.

His father was a bookie, and as a boy Gargan would accompany him when he made his collection and payment rounds. During Prohibition, he dropped out of school and became a salesman of bootleg liquor to speakeasies in New York; his sales partner during this time was Dave Chasen, who would later go on to open Hollywood's Brown Derby restaurant. The two would remain lifelong friends. For a time, Gargan worked as a collection agent for a department store. On one of his jobs, he was shot at by an irate customer. He lost another job as an operative for a detective agency when the subject he was assigned to follow eluded the tail.

Gargan found more success as an actor than he did as a detective. He turned to acting in the 1920s and appeared in dozens of films, including two turns as Ellery Queen in 1942. In 1946, Gargan had his first run at radio crimesolving, starring as private eye Ross Dolan in ABC's I Deal in Crime (launched alongside another ABC detective series, The Fat Man with J. Scott Smart). That series only ran for eleven months, but Gargan found more success a few years later on NBC radio and TV as Martin Kane, Private Eye. Gargan starred in the radio and TV series for two years before frustration over the quality of the scripts drove him out. As Gargan later recalled in his 1969 autobiography, "Very soon in the game, I realized our stories were nothing to rave about. How much well plotted story line and genuine character development can you accomplish in a half-hour? So I made the program a showcase for me. After all, that was what we were selling - Martin Kane. I developed a tongue-in-cheek style, a spoof of the hard-boiled detective, a way of silently saying, 'Don't blame me for the lousy stories, I didn't write them. And anyway, what's the difference? Relax.'"

Given his attitude towards the caliber of radio detective scripts, it may come as a surprise that Gargan came back for another run as a radio shamus. Maybe it was because he was past his leading man prime in 1951 when the offer was made to star in a new series on NBC. It might have been the money that was on the table; NBC brought him to their network with a $1 million contract for five years. The deal covered the new series and other radio and TV appearances.

The series was launched as part of NBC's silver anniversary celebration under the title The Adventures of Barrie Crane. Gargan used the spelling of his own son's name for the title character, and while the character's surname switched to "Craig," the characterization was intact from the beginning. Craig was a wry, sly operator in the mold of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. He narrated his adventures with a tongue in cheek style that kept the hard boiled business in check. He was loyal to his clients and friendly with the police (in the person of Ralph Bell's Lt. Rogers). From 1951 until July 1954, Barrie Craig was broadcast from NBC in New York. For the last run of the series, production shifted to Hollywood. It left the air in September 1954 but returned for a 39 week run beginning in October before Barry Craig closed his last case.

Sadly, William Gargan's acting career came to an end only a few years after Barry Craig left the air. He returned as Martin Kane for 39 syndicated episodes in 1957, but throat cancer diagnosed in 1958 ended his work on the screen. Doctors removed his larynx in 1960 and he was outfitted with a voice box. He spent the remaining years of his life as a crusader and activist for the American Cancer Society, cautioning against the dangers of smoking. The Screen Actors Guild honored his career and his philanthropic work when it awarded Gargan with their lifetime achievement award in 1967. He passed away at age 73 in 1979. Cancer may have taken William Gargan's voice, but his talent and his performances will live forever in these wonderful mystery shows from the Golden Age of Radio.

It's Broadway – "the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world." Join Detective Danny Clover as he fights crime in the Big Apple in one of the all-time great radio detective shows Broadway is My Beat. Larry Thor stars as Clover, the cop with the soul of a poet who wears his heart on his sleeve, in a show unlike any other radio crime drama. We'll hear "The Secretarial School Triangle Murder" (originally aired on CBS on April 12, 1952) and "The Manipulative Magnate Murder" (originally aired on CBS on June 13, 1953).

Even if you don't know his name, chances are you know William Conrad's voice. You may know it from the jovial narrations of the adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle or the somber voice-over that followed Richard Kimble, The Fugitive. Maybe you'll recall his heavyset but still hard-nosed private eye Frank Cannon or the rascally courtroom antics of J.L. "Fatman" McCabe. Or you may remember him as Matt Dillon, "the first man they look for and the last they want to meet," on the old time radio classic Gunsmoke. Audiences had ample opportunities to meet the actor in his five decades in show business, and it all began when he was born September 27, 1920.

Conrad was born John William Cann, Jr. in Lexington, Kentucky, and he began a career in radio as an announcer and writer for a Los Angeles station before he entered the Air Force in World War II. Like other radio professionals who were enlisted men, he worked with the Armed Forces Radio Service. After the war, Conrad was in demand as a supporting radio player. He could be heard in a variety of roles, with a seemingly endless variety of accents and characterizations, on shows like Escape, Suspense, The Man Called X, and The Adventures of Sam Spade. Some believed he was heard a little too often, and perceived overexposure almost cost Conrad a shot at what would prove to be his biggest radio role.

Producer-director Norman Macdonnell had been tasked by CBS President William Paley to develop a series that would be a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West." Paley was a big fan of Macdonnell's The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Gerald Mohr, and wanted a show with a similar feel. (Coincidentally, Bill Conrad filled in for Gerald Mohr and played Marlowe in "The Anniversary Gift," the April 11, 1950 episode of the series. You can hear it in Episode 43 of the podcast.) Up until that point, radio westerns were primarily kids' stuff. The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, and others rode the range in what amounted to little more than B-movie entertainment (no knock against those shows; it is thrilling to hear the Ranger and Tonto chase down bandits, but compelling drama it is not). Just as Jack Webb brought grit and realism to the police drama with Dragnet, Macdonnell and scriptwriter John Meston saw an opportunity to revitalize the western. When it came time to cast their lead of Matt Dillon, the US Marshal who tried to keep the peace in the "suburb of hell" known as Dodge City, Kansas - Meston pushed hard for William Conrad. CBS had other ideas.

Conrad recalled years later, "I think when they started casting for it, somebody said, 'Good Christ, let's not get Bill Conrad, we're up to you-know-where with Bill Conrad.' So they auditioned everybody, and as a last resort they called me. And I went in and read about two lines…and the next day they called me and said, 'Okay, you have the job.'"

Gunsmoke premiered on April 26, 1952, with a powerful script involving Matt Dillon facing down a lynch mob. The episode (listen to it here) erases any doubts as to whether William Conrad was the right choice for the role. Backing him up every week was one of radio's strongest regular casts. Parley Baer was Dillon's easygoing deputy Chester Proudfoot; Howard McNear was the wry Doc Addams; and Georgia Ellis was Kitty, the saloon owner (and, although it was never explicitly said on the show, prostitute) and Matt's love interest. Rounding out the supporting company every week was a repertory company of actors assembled by Macdonnell, including John Dehner, Larry Dobkin, and Harry Bartell.

There were attempts to bring Gunsmoke to TV as early as 1953, and by 1955 CBS was ready to move ahead. Conrad, Baer, Ellis, and McNear were given token auditions, but none were seriously considered to reprise their roles on the small screen. Conrad never had a shot due to his growing obesity; the network believed viewers wouldn't believe the short, heavy actor as the rugged hero, even though he effortlessly sold the role on radio. Losing the role to James Arness left Conrad embittered. He'd continue to work in radio until the end of network radio drama in 1962, and he went on to a career off-camera in television. Conrad directed episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel, 77 Sunset Strip, and even the TV version of Gunsmoke. He narrated the adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and the exploits of Richard Kimble on The Fugitive (it's from his prologue to that series that we get our podcast title this week - "Fate moves its huge hand.")

A starring role on the small screen came at last in 1971 when Conrad starred as the titular character in Quinn Martin's Cannon. It was the glorious era of "gimmick" TV detectives - Longsteet was blind, Barnaby Jones was old, Kojak was bald, and Frank Cannon was...portly. But Conrad's performance elevated the series above the "fat detective" concept. The private eye drama ran for five seasons and earned Conrad two Emmy Award nominations. Conrad gave TV one of its most memorable detectives, and Cannon's adventures continue to air today in syndication.

There was an attempt to revive Cannon with a 1980 TV movie, and the following year Conrad played Nero Wolfe in a short-lived series on NBC. Conrad was a tremendous fan of the character, and you can tell he's having a ball opposite Lee Horsley's Archie Goodwin. Unfortunately, the series only aired for 13 episodes before it was cancelled. Following a well-received turn as a D.A. opposite Andy Griffith on Matlock, Conrad returned to the small screen in a starring role in 1987 with Jake and the Fatman. Conrad played J.L. "Fatman" McCabe, a Los Angeles prosecutor who relied on investigator Jake Stiles (Joe Penny) to do his legwork (shades of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin again). The show ran until 1992.

Conrad passed away February 11, 1994 at the age of 73. In 1997, he was posthumously inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. With thousands of performances across dozens of shows, Conrad's voice will live forever, wherever Rocky and Bullwinkle get into misadventures or whenever Matt Dillon is forced to draw his gun to keep the peace.

On September 30, 1962, the Golden Age of Radio came to a close with the final broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. The man with the action-packed expense account solved crimes right up until the end of the era as he wrapped up a thirteen-year career of radio crimefighting. For those final years, Mandel Kramer starred as America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, and we'll hear his final radio adventures: "The Deadly Crystal Matter" (originally aired on CBS on September 23, 1962) and "The Tip-Off Matter" (originally aired on September 30, 1962).

"The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both 'the Six Shooter.'"

Today in 1953, James Stewart rode on to the radio range as Britt Ponset, the wandering plainsman and infamous gunfighter known far and wide as The Six Shooter. In his only regular starring role in a radio dramatic series, Stewart lent his trademark screen persona to the character of Ponset, a hero who had to reluctantly live up to his reputation as he traveled the plains. With Stewart's amazing performance in the title role, engrossing scripts, and a talented troupe of supporting players, The Six Shooter stands up today as one of the finest frontier offerings from the Golden Age of Radio.

Each week, Ponset drifted into a new town and a new adventure. He encountered everything from gunslingers looking for revenge to a dangerous sibling rivalry on a cattle drive to being strong-armed into marriage. Whether the story of the week was intense and dramatic or played for laughs, Stewart was an amiable hero. His drawl was put to excellent use as the show's narrator, and he would drop his voice to a whisper as Ponset crept up on a gun-toting villain.

The series was created by Frank Burt, the writer who two years later penned Stewart's film western The Man from Laramie, and it was directed by Jack Johnstone (who later helmed the Bob Bailey era of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar). Despite the caliber of talent on and behind the microphone, the show ended after only 39 episodes. For most of its run The Six Shooter aired without sponsorship, but it wasn't because potential sponsors weren't interested. Jack Johnstone later recalled "Chesterfield begged and begged and begged for months trying to get sponsorship, but Jim didn't feel that, because of his screen image, it would be fair for him to be sponsored by a cigarette." Without sponsorship, even the best shows fell to the rise of television in the early 1950s, and Britt Ponset rode off into the sunset on June 24, 1954.

Jeff Chandler trades the biology lab for the back alleys and swamps of New Orleans as Brett Halliday's "reckless, red-headed Irishman" Michael Shayne. Chandler, known to radio fans as bashful science teacher Philip Boynton in Our Miss Brooks, gave radio one of its toughest, most two-fisted private eyes in a sensational syndicated series. We'll hear Chandler as Shayne in all of his ultra-hard-boiled glory in three radio mysteries: "The Hate That Killed," "The Case of the Deadly Dough," and "The Case of the Bayou Monster."

Academy Award-winning actor Edmond O'Brien was born September 10, 1915. In a career that spanned five decades, O'Brien was one of the all-time great character actors of the big and small screens. But to old time radio fans, O'Brien is best known as "the man with the action-packed expense account" – Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. O'Brien starred as Dollar from 1950 to 1952, and to many fans (this writer included), he's second only to Bob Bailey in the ranking of actors who played "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator."

O'Brien worked onstage before he made his film debut in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). It led to a long film career where he turned in memorable performances in White Heat and – in a kind of test run for Johnny Dollar, O'Brien starred in The Killers (1946) as an insurance investigator probing the murder of Burt Lancaster's Swede. In 1950, O'Brien starred in one of his most famous movies – the film noir classic D.O.A. where he played a poisoned man investigating his own murder.

That same year, O'Brien assumed the title role on Johnny Dollar and he would star as the sleuth for 103 episodes. O'Brien succeeded Charles Russell, who voiced Dollar for the program's first year. Russell was sardonic and sly, a lighthearted character more in the vein of a Dick Powell radio detective (Richard Diamond or Richard Rogue of Rogue's Gallery). As played by Russell, Johnny Dollar was described "at insurance investigation, he's only an expert. At making out his expense account, he's an absolute genius." The tongue-in-cheek grifter aspects of the character were exiled when Edmond O'Brien stepped in. His Johnny Dollar was no-nonsense, two-fisted, and tough. It wasn't hard to imagine him taking hits from an office bottle while he waited for the phone to ring and bring him a new assignment.

Interestingly, O'Brien had a shot at a radio series one year earlier. In May 1949, he recorded an audition program for Night Beat in the role that would eventually be played by Frank Lovejoy. While I think O'Brien would have been good in that show, I think his tougher approach was better suited for Johnny Dollar. Frank Lovejoy's more compassionate take was a better fit for the character and the series.

Elsewhere on radio, O'Brien made four visits to Suspense ("radio's outstanding theater of thrills") and he could be heard on Family Theatre and The Lux Radio Theatre. One of his memorable appearances on Lux came in the program's November 28, 1949 recreation of Key Largo with O'Brien playing the Humphrey Bogart role in John Huston's film.

Throughout the 1950s and his tenure on Johnny Dollar, O'Brien continued to appear in films but his fluctuating weight made it difficult for him to get leading roles. He continued to do strong character work – as a mobster in Pete Kelly's Blues and in an Oscar-winning turn opposite Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart in The Barefoot Contessa. He'd pick up a second nomination for what I consider one of his all-time best performances – as an alcoholic Senator enlisted to defeat a military coup against the President in John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May (1964).

O'Brien transitioned into television in the 50s even as he continued to star on the big screen. He played another private eye in the syndicated series Johnny Midnight (1959-60) and he starred as a flamboyant San Francisco attorney in Sam Benedict. The single-season show was created by E. Jack Neumann, a veteran radio writer who'd penned episodes for Johnny Dollar during O'Brien's run on the show. Elsewhere on television, O'Brien made guest appearances on many classic shows of the 60s and 70s, including Mission: Impossible, The Streets of San Francisco, and McMillan and Wife. His final credits came in 1974 before memory problems (later diagnosed as Alzheimer's Disease) led him to retirement. Alzheimer's would ultimately claim him at age 69 on May 9, 1985. Though he died far too young and was forced to retire before his time, Edmond O'Brien left behind a legacy of amazing performances both on screen and on radio in over 100 episodes of "action-packed expense accounts" as Johnny Dollar.

If you head down to Pier 19 at the San Francisco waterfront, you'll find Pat Novak For Hire renting boats and doing anything else to keep a few steps ahead in one of radio's best noir detective dramas. Featuring duplicitous dames, gun-toting toughs, and dialogue right out of a pulp novel, the series packed a punch then and now. Jack Webb stars as Novak in a pair of episodes: "Father Leahy" and "Geranium Plant." Then, Ben Morris is Novak in "The Mysterious Set of Books" (originally aired on ABC on August 10, 1947).

"It's smooth - so smooth! It's slick - so slick! It's the smooth, smooth, slick, slick shave you get with M-O-L-L-É!"

Presenting "the best in mystery and detective fiction," The Mollé Mystery Theatre premiered on radio on September 7, 1943. Like Suspense, the Mystery Theatre presented dramas designed to deliver thrills and chills pulled from the best authors of the genre and stocked with some of the best actors working in radio. But where Suspense raided the movie studios of Hollywood for its special guest stars, the Mystery Theatre rounded out its casts with the talented men and women working in New York radio.

In a departure, the master of ceremonies wasn't a sinister storyteller in the vein of The Whistler, The Mysterious Traveler, or the Man in Black from Suspense. The weekly tales were introduced by "Geoffrey Barnes," billed as a criminologist and master of crime. For most of the run, Barnes was played by the talented New York actor Bernard Lenrow. Lenrow was no stranger to the world of radio mysteries. Listeners could hear him elsewhere on the dial as Captain Logan in Casey, Crime Photographer, as Inspector Lestrade in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and as Commissioner Weston in The Shadow.

Each week, Barnes introduced stories from writers like Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Richard Connell, and even an up-and-coming writer named Ray Bradbury. The casts included stalwart radio players like Berry Kroeger, Martin Gabel, June Havoc, Frank Lovejoy, Elspeth Eric, Bud "Superman" Collyer, and Richard Widmark, only a few years away from his breakout Oscar-nominated film debut in Kiss of Death.

The series picked up Mollé ("Mo-lay") Brushless Shaving Cream as a sponsor (and acquired one of radio's best jingles delivered by announcer Dan Seymour), but many of the episodes of the show that survive today come from the Armed Forces Radio Service. The AFRS stripped the show of its commercials and aired it as part of its Mystery Playhouse wheel series. Servicemen and women could tune into the Mystery Playhouse and hear installments of the Mystery Theatre alongside adventures of Mr. and Mrs. North and The Thin Man. Peter Lorre served as the host for those broadcasts, opening the series with a tongue in cheek greeting of "Hello, creeps!"

Back on Episode 131, we heard an episode of the The Mollé Mystery Theatre - a radio adaptation of L.G. Blochman's "Red Wine." Here are a few more episodes to enjoy on the anniversary of the series premiere:

"Murder in the City Hall" - In this story from Raymond Chandler, political pressure and scandal plague a cop as he tries to nab the killer of a judicial candidate. (Originally aired on April 5, 1946)

"Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" - Peter Lorre hosts this one from the AFRS Mystery Playhouse - the story of the hunt for Jack the Ripper in 1945 Chicago.

"A Crime to Fit the Punishment" - In between flights as the Man of Steel, Bud Collyer plays an antique dealer and amateur detective in this mystery.

Somebody, I say, somebody get a cake and candles. Kenny Delmar was born September 5, 1910. He was born in Boston, an unlikely birthplace for a man who made a name for himself as Beauregard Claghorn, the blustery senator from south of the Mason-Dixon line and longtime resident of Allen's Alley.

Born into a vaudeville family, Delmar made his stage debut before he was ten years old. He pursued a career in radio, and by the late 1930s he was already being heard all over the dial. He voiced Commissioner Weston opposite Bill Johnstone on The Shadow, and he voiced several characters in the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast from Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. Fans of that program will recognize Delmar as the "Secretary of the Interior" who sounds suspiciously like then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Delmar was a skilled impressionist who played world leaders on The March of Time and Cavalcade of America.

But his most famous radio role came when he made his first appearance as Senator Claghorn on The Fred Allen Show. Delmar was also the show's announcer even as he portrayed the proud son of the South who only drank out of Dixie Cups and refused to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel. The character proved to be so popular that Delmar reprised the role in commercials and even in a film - It's a Joke Son! from 1947.

It's a birthday bash for Shane star Alan Ladd as we spotlight three of the legendary actor's old time radio performances. First, he recreates one of his movie roles in Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key for The Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on July 22, 1946). Then, Ladd stars as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Dan Holiday in two syndicated episodes of Box 13 - "Hot Box" and "The Better Man."

Heaven help evildoers when The Saint is on the case. Simon Templar – "the Robin Hood of modern crime" – came to the airwaves after thrilling audiences in stories by Leslie Charteris and in big screen outings starring George Sanders. The most celebrated radio Saint was Vincent Price, the future horror legend of the movies, who voiced Templar from 1947 until 1951. We'll hear Price in a pair of Saint episodes: "A Real Gone Guy" (originally aired on NBC on July 2, 1950) and "Simon Minds the Baby" (originally aired on NBC on December 17, 1950).

It takes a thief to catch a thief (or con man or killer), and Boston Blackie is on the case! The reformed safecracker turned detective uses his intimate knowledge of the underworld to track down dangerous criminals and to clear his name with the irascible Inspector Farraday. We'll hear Chester Morris as Blackie in "The Jonathan Diamond" (originally aired on NBC on June 23, 1944). Then, Richard Kollmar steps in for the syndicated episodes "Uncle Bill Blaine's Legacy" and "Charlie Kingston and the Disappearing Office Building."

Frank Sinatra trades crooning for crime solving as Rocky Fortune. For a single season, Old Blue Eyes starred as Rocky, a footloose, fancy-free, and frequently unemployed young man whose weekly search for a job results in full-time employment with dangerous adventure. It was Sinatra's only regular dramatic role on radio, and the Chairman of the Board is in fine form in three radio mysteries: "Messenger for Death" (originally aired on NBC on November 10, 1953); "The Rodeo Murder" (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1954); and "The Museum Murder" (originally aired on NBC on January 19, 1954).

"Down These Mean Streets" presents our annual birthday salute to the master of big screen mystery and suspense – Alfred Hitchcock. The legendary director saw several of his classic films recreated for the airwaves during the Golden Age of Radio. In this bonus episode, we'll hear one of those star-studded adaptations as The Lux Radio Theatre presents "Notorious" (originally aired on CBS on January 26, 1948). Ingrid Bergman reprises her screen role of a woman pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, with Joseph Cotten as her handler and lover.