Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Get ready for fast-paced mystery and excitement with Casey, Crime Photographer – the ace cameraman who covers the news at the same time he makes headlines. Along with reporter Ann Williams and Captain Logan of the police, Casey gets the facts of the stories behind his pictures and always manages to catch the guilty party in time to make the next edition of the paper. We'll hear Staats Cotsworth as Casey in "The Surprising Corpse" (originally aired on CBS on January 16, 1947) and "Miscarriage of Justice" (originally aired on CBS on October 2, 1947).

There are several old time radio actors who can best be described, in my opinion, as "the glue." Rarely featured in the lead, they're versatile, talented performers who can make a character come to life in only a few lines, and their dynamic presence holds many a show together all these years later. The actor who springs to mind first whenever I think of this class of performer is Wally Maher. Born August 4, 1908, Maher was one of those actors who, when compiling a list of their credits, it may be easier to list the shows on which he didn't appear. Maher's many credits include turns on Suspense, Sam Spade, Richard Diamond, The Lux Radio Theatre, Johnny Dollar, Nero Wolfe...the list goes on and on. He'd no doubt have had an equally impressive run in television through the 1950s and 1960s were it not for a tragic and premature end to his career.

After coming to Hollywood in the 1930s, Maher found his talents as a mimic made him a natural for radio. He practically became a piece of the furniture on The Lux Radio Theatre and he could be heard in supporting performances on many of the dramatic anthology shows. His workload increased during the war years; Maher was kept out of the service by chronic lung problems, but he didn't let his ailment slow him down on radio. In 1946, he was cast as Brett Halliday's private eye Michael Shayne in a popular radio detective series. Though the character would later be played with ultra-hard boiled intensity by Jeff Chandler, Maher's Michael Shayne was less two-fisted and more quick-witted. Beginning in 1948, he co-starred with Bob Bailey in Let George Do It. Maher played Lt. Riley, the token police department buddy of Bailey's titular private eye, but as voiced by Maher Lt. Riley wasn't the cliched thick-headed cop. He had a colorful presence and a wonderful rapport with Bailey and fellow co-star Frances Robinson. And during all of this time, Maher was still appearing regularly on The Whistler, Suspense, and more.

In 1950, he found another gig as a radio cop when he played Sgt. Matt Grebb in The Line-Up. Maher oversaw the titular line-up of criminals that opened each episode, and he was the easy-going family man partner of Bill Johnstone's stoic Lt. Ben Guthrie. Their camaraderie and chemistry helps to make the program one of the best the era had to offer. And that fall, Maher was the first of six actors to co-star as Archie Goodwin with Oscar nominee Sydney Greenstreet in his single season run as Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe.

Unfortunately, the lung ailment that dogged him his entire life caught up with him in December 1951. He'd had one lung removed the year before and he worked almost until the day he died - December 27, 1951 at age 43. It's a terrible tragedy that we were robbed of what should have been a much longer career for Wally Maher, but we're lucky to have so many of his wonderful performances preserved from his busy years in front of the microphone.

"That was the shot that killed Harry Lime. He died in a sewer beneath Vienna, as those of you know who saw the movie 'The Third Man.' Yes, that was the end of Harry Lime…but it was not the beginning. Harry Lime had many lives, and I can recount all of them. How do I know? Very simple. Because my name is Harry Lime."

He's on screen for a scant ten minutes, but one of Orson Welles' most celebrated performances comes in The Third Man. As Harry Lime, Welles plays a rogue of the worst order: a man who dilutes much-needed penicillin and sells it to the sick and wounded of post-war Vienna; a man who fakes his own death and keeps his ever-loyal girlfriend in the dark; and a man who preys on the kindness of his friends to advance his own self-interest. He's a villain, and his lack of remorse only makes his actions more dastardly. Given all of that (and his death at the end of the film), Harry Lime seems an unlikely character to anchor a series. But it's a testament to the genius of Orson Welles that Harry Lime became one of radio's unlikeliest heroes with adventures that premiered in America today in 1951.

Harry's story begins with writer Graham Greene (Our Man in Havana, The Confidential Agent) and director Carol Reed collaborating on the screenplay for the film The Third Man. Their story centers on Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a pulp western writer who travels to a divided postwar Vienna in response to a job offer from his old friend Harry Lime. Upon arriving in the city, Martins learns Lime died just days earlier, and he is surprised to learn Lime was a man wanted by the British military police. Martins launches his own investigation into Lime's mysterious death and soon learns that Lime isn't dead at all. It all culminates in a chase beneath the city streets, where Harry Lime - the once untouchable criminal kingpin - must descend to the sewers to escape authorities from four nations.

Most of Lime's screen time comes in a legendary sequence set on Vienna's Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel. In the carriage with Martins, Lime indifferently admits his crimes and coldly reveals the depths of his greed. His view of the world and his place in it is best summed up in the film in lines added to the script by Orson Welles himself:

"You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

The film was a smash success in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Welles won some of his best notices in years, though he missed the opportunity for a sizable payday from the project. He was offered a percentage of the film's gross profits but he declined in favor of a salary paid on the spot. Even if he didn't get rich, the reception of the film must have reassured Welles after several box office disappointments prompted him to flee Hollywood to Europe. The movie also made an unlikely star of Viennese musician Anton Karas. Discovered in a tavern by director Carol Reed, Karas was enlisted to provide the film's score of zither music. Karas' "Third Man Theme" became one of the most popular records in the UK and the States and turned the mild-mannered Karas into an international star.

Jump ahead to 1951, where Welles (still in Europe) was approached by producer Harry Alan Towers about starring in several radio projects. Not to be outdone by his star, Towers was a larger than life character in his own right. He formed his own production company and distributed radio and television programs in England and all around the world. In the 1960s, he was accused of operating a prostitution ring in New York and of being a Soviet spy. He fled to Europe where he continued to work producing films. In Welles, he saw a source of talent who was more than a little desperate. Welles was digging himself out of debt and taking on work where he could find it to raise funds for passion projects of his own.

Towers signed Welles for three series: the first was a Scotland Yard crime drama called The Black Museum, which Welles would narrate and host. The second was a Sherlock Holmes series starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson; Welles would play Professor Moriarty in the program's adaptation of "The Final Problem." The third was a series which would continue the adventures of Harry Lime. Towers discovered the rights to the character of Harry Lime were still available, and he and Welles set to work developing a prequel series that would follow Lime around the world before the events of the film.

It was a challenge to retain the spirit of Harry Lime as he was conceived by Graham Greene while also making him a palatable lead for a series. The solution came by dialing back the character's less savory tendencies. Harry is still a rogue, but he's the least odious rogue in the room. He'll cheat someone out of their savings or pocket a diamond necklace, but this Lime is a far cry from the unrepentant fiend whose greed causes the deaths of Viennese children. It's telling that several episodes hinge on Lime being retained to put his criminal mind to work in stopping other criminals, whether it's to thwart a bank robbery or to recover incriminating photographs from a blackmailer. Lime's adventures take him all over the world, from Havana to Budapest, from New York to Naples. In this respect, Harry Lime acts in several episodes as a private detective…albeit one on the wrong side of the law. Accompanying him every step of the way is the memorable zither music of Anton Karas; the score was carried over from the film, and it's almost impossible to think of Harry Lime without thinking of Karas' music.

Welles is credited as the writer for several shows (including the episode featured on this week's podcast). One of his scripts, "Man of Mystery," found Lime hired by a reclusive business tycoon to investigate the man's past. He claimed to have no memory of his younger life, and Harry embarks on a worldwide hunt for answers. Welles reworked the story into his 1955 film Mr. Arkadin. Welles starred in 52 episodes of the series and threw himself into the work with the passion that marked his earliest radio performances. He's droll, dangerous, and always fascinating to hear.

Today, anti-heroes are far more common. Audiences root for characters to succeed in their nefarious enterprises and evade the consequences of their actions, but in 1951 this was a riskier gamble. Harry Alan Towers deserves the credit for snatching up the rights and pitching the series, but it is the magnetic, captivating performance of Orson Welles that made the dastardly Lime into someone listeners would be happy to conspire with week after week.

In this special bonus episode, we salute the late June Foray - the titan of voice acting who passed away July 26th just shy of her 100th birthday. From Rocky Squirrel to Witch Hazel to Cindy Lou Who, chances are you've heard and enjoyed her work from a career that stretched over eighty years. Among her many radio credits is The Stan Freberg Show, one of the absolute best comedies radio ever produced and as a tribute to June Foray we'll hear two episodes (originally aired on CBS on July 21 and 28, 1957) that show off her amazing voice.

Sam Spade - Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco shamus of The Maltese Falcon - was a hit with audiences when he came to radio in July 1946. The mix of tongue in cheek comedy with hard-boiled mystery, combined with the memorable performance of Howard Duff in the title role, made for a series that still holds up today and stands as one of the very best the era had to offer. We'll hear Duff as Spade in "The Missing Newshawk Caper" (originally aired on CBS on July 18, 1948) and "The Vaphio Cup Caper" (originally aired on CBS on August 22, 1948). Then Steve Dunne steps into Sam's shoes for "The Chateau McLeod Caper" (originally aired on NBC on January 26, 1951).

Planning to break the law in Texas? You'd better make other plans, because Joel McCrea is fighting crime on foot and on horseback in Tales of the Texas Rangers. As Ranger Jayce Pearson, McCrea stars in dramatizations of actual Ranger cases, presenting a combination of old west manhunting and twentieth century forensic science to bring in the guilty. We'll hear Pearson patrol the Lone Star State in "Play for Keeps" (originally aired on NBC on September 2, 1950) and "Fugitive Trail" (originally aired on NBC on October 21, 1951).

William Gargan, who brought a wry cynicism to his characters on radio, was born today in 1905. Of all the actors to play private eyes and gumshoes during the Golden Age of Radio, 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.

Perhaps the only radio detective star to have actually worked as a real-life private eye, William Gargan played several gumshoes on the air, as well as the big and small screens. He was most famous on radio as Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator but he gave voice to other hard-boiled private eyes with wry senses of humor. Today, William Gargan stars as two of those old time radio crime-solvers. First, he's Ross Dolan, ex-sailor and shamus in I Deal in Crime. We'll hear him in the premiere episode of that series (originally aired on ABC on January 21, 1946). Then he's Barrie Craig in "The Sneak Assassin" (originally aired on NBC on November 21, 1954).

"I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble." (Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett wasn't just a writer of detective fiction; he was a real-life detective who also happened to pen some of the greatest mystery novels of the 20th century. His mind and pen brought readers the rough and tumble Continental Op; the urbane and refined Nick and Nora Charles; and arguably the most famous private eye of them all, Sam Spade. Hammett's tenure with the Pinkertons (including work on the infamous Fatty Arbuckle case) provided the DNA for Spade, a cynical shamus with his own moral code. He made his debut in 1929's The Maltese Falcon and while he would appear in another three short stories penned by Hammett, the Falcon and its hunt for a legendary statuette are why Spade is best remembered. Of course, the classic film adaptation by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart as Spade didn't hurt his reputation.

The success of Bogart's Maltese Falcon generated new interest in Hammett's work in the 1940s. As stories were reprinted in hardcover and paperback, Hammett's agent believed Spade's exploits would be perfect for radio. By 1946, the wheels were in motion to bring the detective to the airwaves.

The Adventures of Sam Spade was produced and directed by radio veteran William Spier, who also ran the show on CBS' "outstanding theater of thrills," Suspense. In fact, the audition program for Spade was a reworked Suspense script from two years earlier that originally starred Keenan Wynn. The scripts for that first season (including the audition) were written by an uncredited Jo Eisinger and Robert Tallman. The scriptwriters received no credit, as producers wanted to maintain the illusion that Hammett himself scripted the series. Hammett's name was all over the program, but he had no direct involvement in the series. As he said, "My sole duty in regard to these programs is to look in the mail for a check once a week. I don't even listen to them. If I did, I'd complain about how they were handled, and then I'd fall into the trap of being asked to come down and help."

ABC picked up The Adventures of Sam Spade for a thirteen-week summer run beginning on July 12, 1946. Actor Lloyd Nolan was set to star as Sam Spade, but a schedule conflict forced him to withdraw from the role at the last minute. (Nolan had just ended a run of B-movies for Fox as hard-boiled private eye Michael Shayne, and he would have made a fine Spade.) Former Armed Forces Radio Service announcer Howard Duff won the role of Spade with his audition, beating out radio veterans like Elliott Lewis. Spier was initially unimpressed with the actor, who was about as far from Bogart's iconic portrayal as one could get, but Duff had a champion in Spier's wife, Kay Thompson and she persuaded her husband to give Duff the role.

The series received rave notices in its first year, including an Edgar Award for best radio detective series. By September 1946, the show had moved to CBS, where it would remain until 1950. Robert Tallman continued as a writer, and Gil Doud stepped in to replace Jo Eisinger in 1947. With their scripts and Duff's performance, Sam Spade was one of radio's most popular shows. The sleuth even held his own against the powerhouse of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy across the airwaves on NBC.

Duff was ably supported each week by Lurene Tuttle in the role of Spade's scatterbrained (but always loyal) secretary Effie Perrine, along with some of the best actors working on radio on the West Coast, including William Conrad, Joseph Kearns, Wally Maher, Jeanette Nolan, and John McIntire. Each week, Spade would dictate his case report to Effie for his client's review. The fourth wall was often broken, with frequent references to the program itself. "Sam" and "Effie" often weighed in on the performances Duff and Tuttle gave in the dramatizations of "their" adventures.

The show kept a loyal following, but CBS grew wary of Hammett's Communist affiliations (he had joined the Communist Party in the 1930s at the height of the New Deal). After the names of Hammett and Duff turned up in a pamphlet identifying Communists and their sympathizers, the show lost its sponsor (Wildroot Cream Oil) and September 1950 saw Howard Duff's last performance as Spade.

The show was revived for a twenty four-week run on NBC on November 17, 1950 with Steven Dunne stepping in as Spade. Lurene Tuttle and William Spier returned from the original run, but there was conspicuously no mention of Dashiell Hammett to be found. Dunne was a fine Spade, but Howard Duff had made the role his own. As radio historian John Dunning noted, not even Humphrey Bogart could have succeeded Duff as Spade by 1950.

But before the Red Scare and timid sponsors did the show in, The Adventures of Sam Spade consistently delivered some of the best that radio had to offer. With Duff's wry performance and the colorful characters invented by Tallman, Eisinger, and Doud, the show still holds up today as exciting mystery drama.

"Herbert Marshall as The Man Called X. Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance, in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, there you will find…The Man Called X!"

Philip Marlowe walked the neon-tinged streets of Los Angeles. Danny Clover's beat was Broadway. But some radio detectives patrolled more than a city, more than a state, sometimes even more than a country. One of those globe-trotting gumshoes, and radio's answer to James Bond, was Ken Thurston - the dashing, debonair secret agent known and feared through the international underworld as The Man Called X. Debuting just as World War II drew to a close and leaving the air as the Cold War was heating up, The Man Called X stands as one of radio's finest espionage mystery programs.

The series was created by Jay Richard Kennedy, a businessman and writer who would later become singer Harry Belafonte's business manager. It centered on Ken Thurston, agent for "the Bureau," and his dangerous missions that took him all around the world. The early introductions for the show introduced Thurston as "the man who crosses the ocean as readily as you and I cross down." Whether it was hunting down surviving Nazi plotters, assisting with defections, or thwarting sabotage, Thurston, aka Mr. X, could be counted on to get the job done "so that tomorrow's peace will make the world a neighborhood for all of us."

The series found its Mr. X in an actor who had already demonstrated his heroics on the battlefield. Herbert Marshall took a sniper's bullet in the knee during World War I where he served in the London Scottish Regiment. It may have been the war's most star-studded brigade, as it also included future stars Ronald Colman, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone. Doctors were forced to amputate his right leg at the hip, but Marshall hid his prosthetic leg from audiences as he embarked on his stage and film career. Marshall was a romantic leading man in his early years, but he matured into a character actor. One of his most famous performances came in Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent as Stephen Fisher, the traitorous leader of the Universal Peace Party on the eve of World War II. Marshall was polished and urbane, but he could tap into a ruthlessness appropriate for a spy with the fate of the world resting on his shoulders.

Marshall starred as Thurston for the series' entire run except for three episodes he had to sit out due to a pulmonary embolism. For those shows (aired in May and June 1951), Van Heflin, John Lund, and Joseph Cotten filled in as other Bureau agents. Heflin had starred as Philip Marlowe on radio in 1947, and Lund was about a year away from starring as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Joseph Cotten was a regular radio presence with his turns on Suspense and the Lux Radio Theatre, and he too was a year away from his own radio detective series, The Private Files of Matthew Bell.

Thurston was a lone wolf…or at least he wanted to be. Unfortunately for him, his track was dogged by international con man and small time crook Pegon Zellschmidt. Played by Leon Belasco, Pegon was always out for a quick buck and would offer his services to Thurston for a nominal fee. Pegon was a loyal sidekick, until the bullets started flying or the opposition came in with a more lucrative offer. The series traveled between networks as often as Ken Thurston circled the globe. The Man Called X premiered as a CBS summer series on July 10, 1944. In September, it moved to NBC, where it ran until March 1945 and then returned for summer runs in 1945 and 1946. From 1947 to 1948, it came back to CBS. Finally, it returned to NBC for a last run of 86 shows from 1950 to 1952. For nearly the entire run, the series was directed by Jack Johnstone. Johnstone was a radio veteran who helmed the Bob Bailey era of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and he pulled talent from the very deep West Coast radio pool. Will Wright recurred as Thurston's boss at the Bureau, "the Chief," and supporting roles were filled by Harry Bartell, Gloria Blondell, Gerald Mohr, Peggy Webber, and more.

The Man Called X came to television in 1956 as a syndicated series starring Barry Sullivan, but his Thurston didn't log nearly as many frequent flier miles as Herbert Marshall. Unhindered by filming logistics and backed up by sharp scripts, Mr. X went everywhere from the Arctic to the Amazon and he kept audiences entertained every step of the way.

"Yeah, danger is my assignment. I get sent to a lot of places I can't even pronounce. They all spell the same thing, though - trouble."

In the years during and after World War II, radio's gumshoes and beat cops were joined by international secret agents; these globe-trotting detectives worked at home and abroad to keep America and her interests safe from the enemy agents, saboteurs, and black marketers who threatened the stability of the post-war world. Previously, we heard the exploits of Ken Thurston, better known as The Man Called X, a debonair and urbane agent. Another member of the fraternity was Steve Mitchell, more two-fisted than Thurston but just as capable. As played by big screen star Brian Donlevy, Mitchell was dispatched all around the world from 1949 to 1953 in Dangerous Assignment. It was a terrific espionage adventure program anchored by Donlevy's lead performance.

Though it was never clearly explained which agency employed Steve Mitchell, it was clear he was operating on behalf of the U.S. Government. At the beginning of each episode, Mitchell received his assignment from "The Commissioner" (played by Herb Butterfield, who also doled out cases as Anthony J. Lyon on Jeff Regan, Investigator). Usually undercover as a foreign correspondent, Mitchell would catch a plane to a far-off locale to investigate a threat to America. But where the Man Called X was sophisticated and suave, Mitchell was a hard-boiled spy. Steve Mitchell was more likely to end up in the jungle or hiding in the sand dunes than he was to move in and out of high society parties. It's almost impossible to listen to Herbert Marshall as Ken Thurston and not imagine him in an immaculately tailored suit. It's equally difficult to hear Steve Mitchell and imagine him outside of dungarees and fatigues. The actor who gave voice to the man of action was one who had his own share of derring-do in real life, Brian Donlevy.

At age 14, Donlevy lied about his age to join the Army. In 1916, he served under General John J. Pershing in the Army's pursuit of Pancho Villa, and he served as a pilot with the French Air Force during World War I. Ultimately, he abandoned his military career for acting and broke into Hollywood in silent pictures in the 1920s. Donlevy earned an Oscar nomination for his role in Beau Geste in 1939, and the following year found some of his greatest success in the title role of Preston Sturges' The Great McGinty - a bum who ends up in the governor's mansion. Donlevy could play tough guys with the best of them, but he also managed to find the likable aspects of a character. His brutes were never wholly brutish, a quality that served him well in a number of 1940s film noir performances, including Kiss of Death in 1947.

Dangerous Assignment went on the air in the summer of 1949. NBC had recently lost The Man Called X, and the network was eager for another adventure series to fill the void. Brian Donlevy was heavily involved in the production of the series, and he approached NBC about getting the program on the air. After the summer run ended, NBC brough Dangerous Assignment back in February 1950. In late 1950, The Man Called X returned to NBC, and the programs aired back to back from 1950 to 1951. In 1952, Steve Mitchell's adventures came to television for 39 episodes. Donlevy not only reprised his role, but he produced the TV version as well. Also along for the TV series was Herb Butterfield as "The Commissioner."

The series was well produced, offering a variety of locations and adventures rounded out by the great Hollywood radio acting pool. In his tenure on the air, Steve Mitchell investigated deaths of fellow agents, pursued saboteurs, and tried to maintain America's sphere of influence. In one episode, the enemy spreads rumors that the United States is backing a coup in a South American country; Mitchell is dispatched to set the record straight and to stop the rumors. In the show we'll hear on the podcast this week, the theft of several barrels of oil jeopardizes the export of oil to the States. Scripts by Robert Ryf (a frequent contributor to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) and the driving score by Bruce Ashley helped to create a sense of atmosphere and foreign intrigue.

Pack your bags - this week, we're joining Steve Mitchell on another Dangerous Assignment. Brian Donlevy stars as Mitchell, the two-fisted spy dispatched all around the world on thrilling adventures and top secret missions. In this pair of international mysteries, Steve Mitchell is on the trail of a pair of missing scientists (in an episode originally aired on NBC on April 24, 1950); and he heads down south to find a stolen Civil War map (in an episode originally aired on NBC on December 16, 1950).

The Golden Age of Radio hosted a big club of newspaper reporters whose zeal for truth and justice led them to fight crime as they fought deadlines. Randy Stone of Night Beat; Dan Holiday of Box 13; and of course Clark Kent are just a few of the reporters who went above and beyond merely reporting the news and who took an active role in their stories. But it wasn't just the writers who played detective on the side in the world of radio journalists. One plucky photographer played gumshoe as he worked the police beat for his paper. He was Casey, Crime Photographer, and he enjoyed a long career on radio in the 1940s and early 1950s beginning with his first broadcast on July 7, 1943.

Casey was created by George Harmon Coxe and first appeared in Black Mask magazine in 1934. Coxe was inspired by the stories of heroic newspapermen, but he observed that "it was frequently the photographer accompanying such newsmen who frequently had to stick their neck out to get an acceptable picture." Coxe felt it was time to give the cameraman his due and introduced readers to Jack "Flashgun" Casey, a hard-drinking, two-fisted photographer who wielded a gun as effectively as he used a camera. Coxe featured the character in 24 short stories and six novels.

Following two B-movies in 1936 and 1937, Casey came to radio in June 1943 on CBS in Flashgun Casey, Press Photographer. Actor Matt Crowley, who played Batman, Dick Tracy, and Mark Trail on radio during his career, was the first actor heard as Casey. He was quickly succeeded by Jim Backus, later the voice of Mr. Magoo. By October, the role had been recast again, and this new Casey would stick with the character for the rest of his radio career. Actor Staats Cotsworth found his greatest radio success as Casey, but even with over 400 performances as the crime photographer he enjoyed a long career of diverse roles in radio and on television. Like J. Scott Smart of The Fat Man, he was a bit of a renaissance man. Cotsworth acted on the stage and only moved into acting early in his career to support his work as a painter. He continued to work in radio even while he was headlining Crime Photographer; Cotsworth could be heard on The Shadow, Dimension X, The Mysterious Traveler, and Rocky Fortune throughout his tenure on Casey.

The supporting cast for Cotsworth's run was rounded out by actress Jan Miner as reporter Ann Williams, whose stories ran alongside Casey's photos; Bernard Lenrow as Captain Logan of the police; and John Gibson as Ethelbert, the wry bartender at the Blue Note Cafe, where most Casey episodes wrapped up. Typical episodes (mostly written by Alonzo Dean Cole) involved Casey and Ann launching their own investigations into the crimes they covered, with Captain Logan often accepting their assistance, albeit reluctantly.

Though the series is best known today as Casey, Crime Photographer, it ran under several titles including Casey, Press Photographer and Crime Photographer. It aired on CBS in multiple incarnations from 1943 until 1954. For the final years, the radio version ran alongside a TV version. Actor Darren McGavin (perhaps best known as "The Old Man" in A Christmas Story) played Casey, with Jan Miner reprising her role as Ann for the single season TV run.

Radio historian John Dunning is less than kind to Casey, calling it "better than Mr. Keen [Tracer of Lost Persons], but lacking the polish and style of Sam Spade." That's a high bar to clear; few shows could measure up to Sam Spade when Howard Duff was at the microphone (today it would be akin to dismissing a series because it isn't as good as Homeland). Casey, Crime Photographer, thanks largely to Cotsworth's performance, is light and engaging mystery fare, well produced and written, and it presents a different type of character in a sea of hard-boiled private eyes.

"We take you now behind the scenes of a police headquarters in a great American city…"

Cops rarely got their due in the Golden Age of Radio. On shows headlined by private detectives and amateur sleuths, the uniformed police officer was at best a harried man in over his head forced to turn to an outsider for help; at worst, he was a dullard who would trip over his own shoelaces without assistance from the main character. But some shows painted police officers with the right kind of brush. They weren't portrayed as geniuses or as dunces; rather, the hard work and determination that cracked cases was played up with elements of unique personalities and characters allowed to shine through. Dragnet is the best-known example of this type of police drama. Less known but just as strong is The Line-Up, a series that aired on CBS from 1949 to 1953, keeping pace with Jack Webb's program in its early years on radio.

The series was set in "a great American city" (unnamed at first, but later revealed to be San Francisco in the television version) and it followed the police as they tracked down killers, thieves, con men, and mob bosses. Each episode opened with a line-up of suspects, sometimes connected to the crime of the week, who were questioned by officers while anxious eyewitnesses watched and tried to recognize them. These scenes were wonderful displays of characterization, humor, and sound design as the hushed observations from the gallery mixed in and out of the loud defiant answers of the suspects being questioned.

The Line-Up was originally developed by Elliot Lewis, Morton Fine, and David Friedkin - the trio behind Broadway is My Beat. After the initial eight week run on CBS, the series was turned over to Blake Edwards and Jaime del Vallee, the creative team behind Richard Diamond, Private Detective. The new creative team shepherded a series that had the realism of Dragnet (especially in how it portrayed the frequent monotony of police work), but The Line-Up was more nuanced and allowed for richer characters to populate its precinct. Joe Friday and his partners were cops; the men on The Line-Up felt more like real people.

And to get that level of characterization, you need great actors in the roles. The Line-Up started strong at the top. In what may be his greatest radio role (and that's saying something given his two decades of work in the Golden Age of Radio), Bill Johnstone starred as Lt. Ben Guthrie. Johnstone first rose to prominence when he succeeded Orson Welles as The Shadow, a role he played from 1939 until 1943. That year, he moved to Hollywood and joined the incredible talent pool of west coast radio players. Johnstone was a fixture on Suspense, Escape, Sam Spade, and many more. He appeared in several episodes of The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe as Inspector Cramer and he played Lt. Ybarra opposite Van Heflin on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. The prematurely gray-haired Johnstone had a rich voice that gave his characters an "older than their years" sound, and that technique was put to great use as Ben Guthrie. He was overworked (long hours and trips to the coffee pot were standards on the show) but Johnstone captured Guthrie's determination to close a case through the late nights.

Johnstone was supported for the first years of the program by actor Wally Maher (radio's Michael Shayne and Lt. Riley on Let George Do It) as Sgt. Matt Grebb. Grebb called the titular line-up that opened each episode and his wry dressing-down of suspects added some levity to the dramatic scripts. Grebb could also be counted on to rib Guthrie about the latter's bachelor lifestyle. Grebb played a role similar to that of Frank Smith on Dragnet, but Maher was given more opportunity to make Grebb a true character. Sadly, Maher passed away at age 43 in 1951, leaving a hole in not only The Line-Up, but the reperatory cast of Hollywood radio actors.

Actor Jack Moyles (who enjoyed a run as a radio detective in Rocky Jordan) played Sgt. Pete Carger, Guthrie's new partner, for the duration of the radio run following Maher's death. As a tribute to Maher (or perhaps because the late actor's style was so closely associated and identified with the program), Moyles used a similar delivery and cadence when calling the line-up at the start of each episode.

The Line-Up aired on CBS from July 6, 1950 to February 20, 1953. Like other shows of the era, it transitioned to television (albeit without its radio cast). The TV version starred Warner Anderson as Lt. Guthrie and Tom Tully as Inspector Grebb. Grebb received a promotion for TV because the San Francisco Police Department Bureau of Inspectors had no "Sergeant" rank. The series ran on CBS television from 1954 to 1960, and a feature film spin-off hit theaters in 1958. Ditected by Don Siegel (later he would direct Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry), the film co-starred Eli Wallach. Anderson returned as Guthrie for the film.

As more episodes of The Line-Up continue to enter circulation, it's a great time to discover this series. Fans of police drama and sharp writing would do well to sit in the gallery and watch as the suspects are paraded out and questioned. Just don't pay too much attention to their answers, as they often lie.

"Bring on the line."

The gentleman amateur is as much an archetype of detective fiction as the dogged policeman and the hard-boiled private eye. Perhaps the most famous of this more refined school of crime-solver is Philo Vance. The debonair detective appeared in 12 novels written by Willard Huntington Wright (under the pen name S.S. Van Dine) and enjoyed a run as a film and radio star from the 1920s into the 1940s. Vance's tenure as a radio detective began with a broadcast on July 5, 1945.

Vance was an intellectual, a gourmand, a polyglot, and an expert on everything from psychology to Chinese pottery. He fenced, played polo and poker, and even bred show dogs. Described by Wright/Van Dine as "unusually good-looking," he was always dressed to the nines and usually wore a monocle. His creator inserted himself into the drama, with "S.S. Van Dine" acting as narrator and a Dr. Watson for Vance as he embarked on his mysteries. Also appearing alongside Vance in the books were District Attorney Markham, a no-nonsense prosecutor, and Sgt. Heath, who was as gruff and guttural as Vance was refined. Vance solved baffling cases in and around New York for twelve novels, including one where he partnered with comedienne Gracie Allen! The Vance novels were constructed as puzzle mysteries, with their intricate plots taking priority over the characters, and were well-received, especially the earliest novels in the series.

Not everyone was a fan, however; poet Ogden Nash famously observed "Philo Vance/Needs a kick in the pance." Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe, derided Vance as "the most asinine character in detective fiction." Despite the chilly reception Vance received from these writers, Hollywood came calling to bring the character to the big screen.

In 1929, William Powell (five years away from The Thin Man) became the screen's first Philo Vance and starred in three films. Basil Rathbone, nine years from his run as Sherlock Holmes, stepped in as Vance for The Bishop Murder Case (1930) before Powell returned in 1933's The Kennel Murder Case. Directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood), The Kennel Murder Case is hailed as not only the best Philo Vance film, but one of the best film adaptations of a Golden Age mystery novel. Other actors who played Vance include Warren William (who also starred as Perry Mason in a series of Warner Brothers films), Paul Lukas, and William Wright. The final Vance films hit the screen in 1947, when the character was also solving crimes on the radio.

John Emery, the one-time husband of Tallulah Bankhead, was radio's first Philo Vance in 1943. Future Academy Award winner Jose Ferrer starred as Vance in a 1945 summer series. But the actor with the longest run as Philo Vance on radio was not a classic leading man, but rather a versatile radio actor.

Jackson Beck was the narrator of The Adventures of Superman on radio; it was his thunderous delivery of the introduction "Faster than a speeding bullet…" that became a hallmark of the program. Beck was one of radio's most versatile actors. Not only could he fill in as background characters on the Superman shows he narrated, but he could mimic world leaders on The March of Time and ride the radio range as The Cisco Kid. Beck was tapped to star as Philo Vance in a syndicated series from producer Frederick W. Ziv. Ziv also brought Richard Kollmar to radio as Boston Blackie.

The Ziv series toned down some of the character's less endearing characteristics; Vance was still a brilliant detective, but he was a more down-to-earth character. The preening fop of the novels (and even the early films) was gone. Jackson Beck's performance created a Vance who had a taste for the finer things but was no dandy. He wasn't a tough guy, but had no problem landing a punch when he needed to. The syndicated episodes also built a team around Vance. His secretary, Ellen Deering, was on hand for assistance and some playful office banter. Ellen was played by Beck's Superman co-star Joan (Lois Lane) Alexander. District Attorney Markham carried over from the Van Dine novels, and was played on the series by George Petrie. Usually, Vance would get entangled in a case because Markham sought out his assistance.

The Ziv series ran for 104 episodes, each following Van Dine's template of titling: "The [something] Murder Case." Like Ziv's Boston Blackie series, Philo Vance didn't have an introduction or opening credits. Instead, the first thing the listener hears is the organ followed by a teaser. Usually the crime is heard in this scene, or the criminals are overheard planning their next steps. Vance enters the story either at the behest of a client or by working alongside D.A. Markham. After dismissing the too-obvious solution to the crime at the scene, Vance makes his way through the suspects, interrogating but always with a gentleman's charm, before he solves the crime and reveals the murderer.

His adventures aren't hard-boiled, but Philo Vance provides entertainment for listeners (particularly when Jackson Beck is at the microphone). These puzzlers are cleverly plotted mysteries cast with an assortment of New York radio players. It's the type of quality programming the real Vance might enjoy in an easy chair with a cocktail at the ready.

S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance – perhaps the quintessential gentleman detective – was a hit in print and on the big screen where he was played by Basil Rathbone and William Powell, among others. He eventually came to radio in several incarnations, each making the snobbish sleuth more down to earth and likable. We'll hear Jose Ferrer as Vance in "The Case of the Girl Who Came Back" (a rebroadcast from the Armed Forces Radio Service Mystery Playhouse). Then, Jackson Beck steps into Vance's shoes in "The Motor Murder Case" and "The Mathematical Murder Case."

Long before he was an award-winning journalist, Mike Wallace was a radio announcer and actor. The longtime correspondent for 60 Minutes had a stint as a radio crime solver when he starred as Lt. Lou Kagel, a New York cop who investigated Crime on the Waterfront. Though the show didn't materialize into a series, both audition recordings survive and give us the chance to hear the celebrated newsman in a dramatic detective role. We'll hear the two audition recordings from February 24 and March 1, 1949.

Following his star turn as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, Dick Powell found himself at a new stage of his career. With the acclaim he'd earned for his hard-boiled performance, Powell could finally shed the baby-faced crooner image that had defined his work up until that point. He used his clout and the momentum Marlowe brought him to approach the F.W. Fitch shampoo company with a proposal - a summer detective series to fill the weeks until their Fitch Bandwagon variety show returned to the air in the fall. Powell, a veteran of the Bandwagon, would headline the new series as a private detective cut from the Marlowe cloth. The result was Bandwagon Mysteries, Powell's first weekly dramatic series and the introduction of Richard Rogue, a radio shamus who would crack cases on radio over the next seven years.

Bandwagon Mysteries premiered on NBC on June 17, 1945 and ran for fourteen weeks. By the end of the run, there was a demand for the show to continue but the regular Fitch Bandwagon program was slated to return to NBC after its summer vacation. Fitch shopped the series, retitled Rogue's Gallery to other networks. It landed at Mutual and began a thirty-nine week run on September 27, 1945. When its Mutual season ended in June 1946, it returned to NBC as a summer replacement for Fitch Bandwagon. By this time, the show was so identified by its new title that it didn't revert to Bandwagon Mysteries; instead it aired for an additional fourteen episodes in the summer of 1946.

Powell's performance as Richard Rogue was similar to his take on Philip Marlowe (and it would be refined and perfected a few years later on Richard Diamond, Private Detective): tough, but glib, and more likely to come up with a quip than to squeeze off a round from his .38.

Aside from Powell's unique delivery, the signature element of the show was the inclusion of Rogue's impish "alter ego," Eugor (that's Rogue spelled backwards). Each week, usually following a shot to the head, Rogue would lose consciousness and take an otherworldly trip to "Cloud Eight." While there, he'd trade barbs with the cackling Eugor, and their conversations would usually shed light on a clue the gumshoe had overlooked during his investigation. Though never credited on the show, Eugor was played by veteran radio character actor Peter Leeds. Leeds could be heard in supporting roles on Suspense, Nero Wolfe, Escape and others. He was a member of the cast of Stan Freberg's legendary 1957 CBS radio series, and he provided several voices for Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Dick Powell left the role after the 1946 series. Rogue's Gallery returned the following year for a summer run starring Barry Sullivan, who would later pinch hit as The Saint when Vincent Price was unavailable to record. Following that brief run, Richard Rogue left the air for three years. The Fitch company fell upon hard times following a complaint from the Federal Trade Commission over the company's claims that its shampoo could eradicate dandruff, and their sponsorship ended in 1947. In 1950, ABC resurrected the concept for a two year run. Actor Paul Stewart, a veteran of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, played Rogue on ABC. Elsewhere on the network, Dick Powell was crooning through crimes as Richard Diamond. He was working right alongside one of his earlier characters - one who helped pave the way for his future radio success. Diamond may be the more famous Richard, but it was Rogue who put Powell on the path to a career as a crime-solver extraordinaire.

"Boston Blackie" was the nickname of Horatio Black, a reformed thief and modern day Robin Hood in the vein of The Saint. Emerging from the pen and mind of a real-life convict, Blackie went on to become one of the most popular radio detectives of the 1940s and 1950s.

He was created by Jack Boyle, whose writing career began behind bars with a series of true crime confession novels written under his prison number, 6006. The stories originated in San Quentin and were published by The American Magazine. Editor Ray Long recalled Boyle as "an opium addict, and a hard drinking man if ever there was one. But withal, one of the most entertaining men in the world, and so far as his dealings with me went, a square shooter." Long encouraged Boyle to continue writing upon his release.

Those initial 12 short stories were collected and published as a novel in 1919. From 1918 to 1927, Blackie appeared in nine silent films, but actor Chester Morris made the role his own during a run of 14 B-movies for Columbia Pictures from 1941 to 1949. This film series established Blackie as a reformed jewel thief who used his knowledge of the underworld to come to the aid of innocent victims. Throughout the series, Blackie was pursued by Inspector Farraday of the police (played by Richard Lane). Farraday was never convinced that Blackie had gone over to the side of law and order and he was always quick to blame Blackie for any robberies in his proximity.

Blackie first came to radio in 1944 for an NBC summer series replacing Amos n' Andy. Sponsored by Rinso, the Boston Blackie radio show starred Chester Morris and Richard Lane (reprising their screen roles) and promoted One Mysterious Night, the upcoming Columbia Boston Blackie film. As the introduction to the series explained every week, Blackie was an "enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend. Along with Blackie and Inspector Farraday, the NBC series featured recurring characters like Blackie's wealthy benefactor Arthur Manletter and "Shorty," Blackie's driver and sidekick. Veteran announcer Harlow Wilcox, who pitched Johnson's Wax on Fibber McGee & Molly and Auto-Lite Spark Plugs on Suspense, announced the show. The Morris-NBC series ran for 13 weeks.

A year after the Morris series signed off of NBC, Boston Blackie returned to radio in a syndicated series from producer Frederick Ziv. Ziv was a pioneer of radio and television syndication, and he later brought a Blackie TV series to the air in 1951. Richard "Dick" Kollmar played Blackie for the entire Ziv run, appearing in over 200 episodes. Kollmar was perhaps most famous for co-hosting the morning radio show Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick for 18 years with his wife Dorothy Kilgallen. In the syndicated series, Inspector Farrady was played by Maurice Tarplin, a versatile New York radio actor who could also be heard narrating tales of terror as The Mysterious Traveler. Actresses Lesley Woods and Jan Miner appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley (coincidentally, both actresses also played Ann Williams, reporter and gal pal of Casey, Crime Photographer on CBS during the same period!).

In both runs of the series, plots often involved Blackie being set up or suspected of a robbery. Another frequently employed plot device would involve old cellmates of Blackie's, or criminals he'd sent up the river, breaking out of jail to exact their revenge. The series was a more lighthearted affair than some of the more hardboiled offerings from the Golden Age of Radio, but it was solidly entertaining with lively characterizations and plots.

Most of the fun in reading (or listening to) a detective story is the chance to play detective ourselves. We meet the suspects, process the clues, and weigh the evidence alongside the sleuth, and we have the chance to see if we can reach the same solution to the crime. But rarely do our fictional gumshoes pause mid-narrative to see where we are, to check in on the progress of our own investigation. One notable exception (for young readers, at least) is Encyclopedia Brown. Another is one of the biggest names in crime fiction - Ellery Queen. And like Encyclopedia Brown, Ellery is an amateur sleuth who helps his police detective father crack tough cases.

Queen was the creation of mystery writer cousins Daniel Nathan (alias Frederic Dannay) and Manford Leopofsky (alias Manford Lee). They submitted a story for a contest in 1928, and they won but the magazine folded before the story could be published. The cousins shopped the story around and the first Ellery Queen adventure was published in 1929. That first story, "The Roman Hat Mystery," set out the elements of the character and the formula for his adventures. Ellery was a bit of a dilettante, an intellectual who solved crimes because their puzzles intrigued him. He was often called upon to assist his father, Inspector Richard Queen of the New York Police Department. Along with the inspector's irascible Sgt. Velie, Ellery and his father tackled bizarre cases littered with red herrings and multiple suspects. One of the signature elements of the Ellery Queen stories was a "Challenge to the Reader," a break in the action just before the solution was revealed. It explained that the reader had seen all of the clues, and there was only one possible solution to the crime. The character starred in over 30 novels written by Dannay and Lee, and the two would create the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 1941; Ellery Queen is still being published today.

Ellery Queen first came to radio on CBS in 1939 with Hugh Marlowe in the title role. Though he was featured prominently in promotional photos and press, Marlowe was not credited as Queen during the run. This may have been done to maintain the illusion that "Ellery Queen" was a real figure, detective, writer, and publisher of the magazine. None of the actors who played Ellery on radio got the billing and on-air credit, even as their co-stars were identified by name with the characters they played. The radio series introduced a character who would become fixtures in the Ellery Queen mythology - Nikki Porter, Ellery's secretary and Girl Friday (played in the first series by Marion Shockley). Nikki would remain in the cast for the rest of the radio runs, and she was incorporated into the Ellery Queen novels in 1943. The radio series retained Ellery's amateur status, but he was less arrogant and insufferable. It was easy to see why his father would reach out to bring him in on cases. Though he still wasn't two-fisted, nor did he carry a gun, Ellery Queen was pretty human. He had Sherlock Holmes' eye for detail but he was less anti-social and aloof.

Like the stories, the radio series offered a challenge to audiences, but the radio series went a step farther and featured a stand-in for the audience during the broadcasts. A guest "armchair detective" would sit in and would discuss the case with "Ellery" and "Nikki" before the solution was revealed. Initially, the "guest detective" was a panel of mystery writers. Later, members of the studio audience were used (that idea was dropped because the audience members were far from adept at the microphone); eventually, one celebrity guest appeared in each show. Gloria Swanson, Mel Blanc, Victor Jory, Orson Welles, and Ed Sullivan are just a few of the guests who appeared and tried their deductive skills against those of Ellery Queen (and his creator - Manfred Lee co-wrote the series with Anthony Boucher for much of the run). Ellery Queen ran in multiple series over NBC, CBS, and ABC from 1942 until 1948. Carleton Young, Sidney Smith, Larry Dobkin (who later played Archie Goodwin on Nero Wolfe), and Howard Culver all starred (uncredited, of course) as Ellery Queen.

There were several TV versions in the 1950s, but the definitive Ellery Queen adaptation came nearly thirty years after the radio series took its final bow. In 1975, producers William Link and Richard Levinson (creators of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, among others) brought Ellery Queen back to television in a great series that unfortunately lasted only one season. Jim Hutton starred as Ellery for 22 episodes with David Wayne as Inspector Queen. This Queen series was a period piece set in post-World War II New York. The setting allowed the producers to include several references to radio; a recurring character was a radio detective who tried to out-think Queen and position himself as a master detective, and one episode featured threats to the life of a radio soap opera star. Each episode boasted an all-star guest cast and a "challenge to the viewer" where Ellery broke the fourth wall right before the denouement to see if the audience had figured out the solution to that week's mystery.

In some respects, even though he perhaps wasn't as famous as some of his more hard-boiled brethren, Ellery Queen may have been the ideal detective for the radio era. Audiences tuned in to detective and mystery shows for the thrill of trying to solve the crime, but none of the other sleuths they followed took the time to ask them "have you figured it out yet?" Ellery Queen, on print, screen, and radio encouraged a spirit of cooperation and involvement in his adventures unlike any of the other detectives who cracked cases during the Golden Age of Radio.

To moviegoers and radio listeners of the World War II years, Basil Rathbone and Sherlock Holmes were practically one in the same. Rathbone starred as the master detective of Baker Street in 14 films and in hundreds of episodes of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on radio. In honor of the star's June 13th birthday, we'll hear a trio of Holmes radio adventures starring Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (as our storyteller, Dr. Watson): "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton" (originally aired on Mutual on September 24, 1945); "Murder by Moonlight" (originally aired on Mutual on October 29, 1945); and "The Case of the Accidental Murderess" (originally aired on Mutual on November 26, 1945).

"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room." (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely)

Raymond Chandler was thirty-nine when The Big Sleep, the first Philip Marlowe novel, was published and the world of detective fiction was never the same. It's Chandler who gives us the archetypal private eye as knight errant, working his way through a world of corruption and vice while he is guided by his own moral compass. Along with Dashiell Hammett, Chandler helped to invent the "hard-boiled" style of detective fiction, and his signature character proved to be one of the most popular detectives to solve cases during the Golden Age of Radio.

In the years between the publication of The Big Sleep and Marlowe's premiere on radio, Chandler's novels were adapted to the screen six times. Farewell, My Lovely and The High Window were retooled for other cinematic detectives (The Falcon and Michael Shayne, respectively); and Marlowe himself was played by four different actors in four films (Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet; Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep; Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake; and George Montgomery - no relation - in The Brasher Doubloon).

Marlowe first came to radio in a regular series on June 17, 1947 as NBC's summer replacement for Bob Hope. MGM contract player and Academy Award winner Van Heflin starred as Marlowe, with scripts based on Chandler's own stories. Heflin prepared for the role by riding along with Los Angeles police officers before and during the run of the show. Heflin was a fine Marlowe, but he failed to win over Chandler. In a letter to fellow mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason), Chandler described the series and Heflin as "thoroughly flat." The NBC series lasted thirteen weeks, and when the time came for more episodes, Heflin's film career prevented his participation.

It took nearly a year before Philip Marlowe returned to the airwaves in a regular series. Producer/director Norman Macdonnell, a veteran of Escape and other programs, oversaw the production of the new series, which premiered on CBS on September 26, 1948. Stepping into Marlowe's shoes was actor Gerald Mohr, a regular on Suspense, Escape, Our Miss Brooks, and The Whistler. Mohr brought a hard edge and a grim determination to Marlowe's voice; it was as different as night and day from Howard Duff's wry, sardonic take on Sam Spade. Gerald Mohr's Marlowe used his fists (and his .38 tucked away in shoulder holster) when necessary, and he marched through his world with a weary cynicism that came right out of Chandler's pages. And Mohr bellowed the show's legendary opening week after week:

"Get this and get it straight…crime is a sucker's road, and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave!"

The Adventures of Philip Marlowe was a hit, with scripts by Mel Dinelli, Robert Mitchell, and Gene Levitt. By 1949, the series was attracting 10.3 million listeners a week, and Gerald Mohr had been named Most Popular Male Actor by Radio and Television magazine.

Like Dashiell Hammett and The Adventures of Sam Spade, Chandler's name was all over the show (the broadcasts were billed as coming "from the pen of Raymond Chandler"), but the author had no involvement in the actual scripts or broadcast. He did, however, have praise for the show's star, declaring "Gerald Mohr's voice is absolutely tops. A voice like Gerald Mohr's gave you a personality which you fill out according to your fancy." Mohr's wasn't the only strong voice; he was backed up each week by members of Macdonnell's repertory company of actors, including John Dehner, Virginia Gregg, Jeff Corey, Larry Dobkin, Howard McNear, Parley Baer, Vivi Janiss, Georgia Ellis, and William Conrad. Many of those actors would join Macdonnell in Dodge City when he developed Gunsmoke, a program that grew out of CBS chairman William Paley's request to Macdonnell for a "Philip Marlowe in the Old West."

The Adventures of Philip Marlowe ran until September 29, 1950. It was revived for a brief run in July 1951, with Mohr slipping back into the role of Marlowe as if he'd never left it. Philip Marlowe left the airwaves the same way he arrived on them: as a summer replacement series. This time, Marlowe kept the time slot warm for Hopalong Cassidy.

Nearly all of the 114-episode Mohr series has survived in good condition, giving today's fans a chance to thrill to the rough and tumble exploits of Philip Marlowe as radio audiences did from 1948 to 1951.

Actor Bob Bailey was born June 13, 1913. To old time radio fans, Bailey is best remembered for a pair of detective roles: as ex-GI turned gumshoe George Valentine in Let George Do It, and as "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Bailey began his career in Chicago radio with appearances on That Brewster Boy, Meet Corliss Archer, and other programs originating from the Windy City. Between 1943 and 1944, he was under contract at 20th Century Fox. Bailey made several pictures at Fox, including the Laurel & Hardy films Jitterbugs and The Dancing Masters.

In 1946, Bailey starred as George Valentine, a private detective who solicited clients through a newspaper ad offering to shoulder the danger they couldn't handle. Bailey's performance in Let George Do It made Valentine tough but funny, a scrappy and hard-working gumshoe. Bailey starred in the show until 1954.

The following year, he stepped into the shoes of Johnny Dollar. Under the direction of Jack Johnstone, Bailey starred as Dollar in a series of nightly serialized stories that remain some of the finest drama produced during the Golden Age of Radio. The program went back to a weekly format in September 1956, and Bailey would remain in the title role until 1960 when production moved to New York. He left a run of nearly five hundred episodes and cemented himself as the definitive version of the character.

Unlike some of his peers from the era, Bailey didn't go on to a long television career outside of a handful of appearances in the 1960s. Struggles with alcoholism and later a stroke kept him off of the screen. Fortunately for us, there are dozens of hours of his memorable performances as two of radio's best detectives.

Basil Rathbone, the debonair British actor and one of Hollywood's most famous performers, was born June 13, 1892. With hundreds of stage and screen roles to his credit, Rathbone is most famous for his fourteen films and hundreds of radio episodes as the world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Rathbone made a splash in Hollywood in a number of dashing roles through the 1930s, including the dastardly Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood, suave detective Philo Vance in The Bishop Murder Case, and Captain Pasquale in The Mark of Zorro.

In 1939, he first played Sherlock Holmes and kicked off a seven year run as Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective that included fourteen films and hundreds of radio performances. Rathbone was always paired with his old friend Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson both in radio recreations of the Doyle stories and in Universal B-movies that brought Holmes and Watson into the twentieth century. For many, Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes, and his films have continued to entertain mystery fans since their release seventy-five years ago. Ultimately, frustration with typecasting led Rathbone to bid farewell to Sherlock Holmes in 1946.

Rathbone returned to the detective well in his post-Holmes years; first, he starred as Inspector Burke on Scotland Yard, and later he played himself as an amateur sleuth on Tales of Fatima. Both shows were short-lived, and they did not come close to eclipsing the image of Holmes in the public's eye.

In later years, he appeared opposite Danny Kaye in The Court Jester and Humphrey Bogart in We're No Angels. Rathbone co-starred with Vincent Price in Roger Corman's Tales of Terror, and he made memorable recordings of poems by Edgar Allan Poe and "The Night Before Christmas." Rathbone passed away in 1967, nearly twenty years after he hung up Holmes' deerstalker cap.

Gerald Mohr, who possessed one of radio's greatest voices, was born June 11, 1914. His powerful baritone delivery made him a natural for radio detective work, and he may be best remembered today for his three year stint on the air as Philip Marlowe.

Mohr made the leap from medical school to broadcasting when an announcer told him he had a perfect radio voice. After a stint in the service during World War II, Mohr began working both on radio and in B-movies. He starred in three films as Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf" and narrated the early television episodes of The Lone Ranger. On radio, Mohr could be heard in supporting roles on Rogue's Gallery, Our Miss Brooks, and Suspense. He was a frequent guest star on The Whistler, usually playing flashy criminals or con men. But his signature radio role would come when he played a character on the right side of the law.

From 1948 to 1950, Mohr starred as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe on radio. He starred in over 100 episodes as the tough but heroic private eye and gave the Golden Age of Radio one of its greatest detectives. Even Chandler himself was a fan, describing Mohr as "absolutely tops." Mohr's delivery and booming voice were perfect for the show's signature introduction: "Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road, and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison, or the grave!"

In January 1951, Mohr had a short stint as Archie Goodwin, the glib, skirt-chasing leg man to Nero Wolfe (Sydney Greenstreet) in The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe. A few months later, he was back on CBS for a final run of 11 episodes as Philip Marlowe. Later, in 1955, he recorded an audition program as Johnny Dollar before that series' revival as a nightly serial.

Mohr worked in television on shows like Maverick and Perry Mason, and he continued to flex his voice acting muscles in cartoons as Green Lantern and Mr. Fantastic. He passed away at the too-young age of 54, but he leaves a body of work and radio performances that can still be enjoyed today.

From 1948 to 1951, Gerald Mohr turned in a star performance as Raymond Chandler's L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe and gave us one of the best detectives of the radio era. But there was more to Mohr than his celebrated turn as "crime's most deadly enemy." In honor of his birthday, we'll hear Gerald Mohr in two radio mysteries as Marlowe - "The Long Rope" (originally aired on CBS on February 5, 1949) and "The Strangle Hold" (originally aired on CBS on October 15, 1949). We'll also hear him as Archie Goodwin (opposite Sydney Greenstreet) in "The Case of the Killer Cards" from The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1951). And - as a bonus - we'll hear Mohr playing for laughs as French teacher Jacques Monet in an episode of Our Miss Brooks from October 9, 1949.

Join San Francisco importer and amateur detective Gregory Hood as he shares two adventures from his casebook. Gale Gordon and Elliott Lewis star as Hood, a brilliant gentleman detective whose cases intersect with his search for rare treasures from all around the world. Created by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green (radio writers for Sherlock Holmes), Hood is a worthy addition to the world of radio sleuths. We'll hear "Death from the Red Capsule" (originally aired on Mutual on July 22, 1946) and "The Eloquent Corpse" (originally aired on Mutual on October 14, 1946).

On June 3, 1949, Dragnet premiered on NBC and ushered in a new era of crime drama. Created by Jack Webb, the series dramatized actual cases of the Los Angeles Police Department and did so with radio's most realistic depiction of police procedure. Webb, in partnership with LAPD technical advisers, brought radio listeners deep into the world of the police with a matter-of-fact, underplayed style.

Jack Webb himself was the chief innovator of that style as the no-nonsense Sgt. Joe Friday. Friday was a cop's cop, a determined public servant committed to keeping the streets of the city safe. Webb brought Dragnet to the big and small screens in the 1950s, and he resurrected the show for a late 1960s run.With its focus on the mechanics of crime-solving (including forensics, interrogation, and stake-outs) the influence of Dragnet can still be felt in police dramas today.

During the shoot of He Walked By Night (1948), Webb struck up a friendship with the film's Los Angeles Police Department technical adviser, Sgt. Marty Wynn. The two discussed how police officers were depicted in films and on the radio and how far that portrayal strayed from the real day-in, day-out work of a policeman. Webb thought that a realistic representation of policework could be a hit. Convincing a network would prove to be tricky.

NBC wasn't enthusiastic when Webb pitched them the series. Police shows were a dime a dozen on radio, and the network did not see the merits of adding one more to its schedule. Two things helped sell the series. The first was Webb himself, who in 1949 had returned to Pat Novak for Hire for a run over ABC's national network and was making a name for himself. The second was the network's recent loss of big stars like Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and George Burns and Gracie Allen to CBS in a raid of comedic talent. In need of programming, NBC commissioned an audition program. Webb and writer James Moser already had a script prepared, but they needed the cooperation of the Los Angeles Police Department. Without it, Webb couldn't hope to leverage the department's case files and official procedures. Then-Chief of Police Clemence B. Horrall granted permission with two conditions. First, the LAPD would get to okay the program's sponsors. Second, the department would not be portrayed in an unflattering light (as a result, certain practices - including allegations of department racism and corruption - were not addressed on the series).

In the program's first years, Barton Yarborough co-starred as Sgt. Ben Romero, Friday's partner on the force. When Yarborough passed away unexpectedly in 1951, Friday was partnered with a handful of officers before being paired with Frank Smith (voiced by former child actor Ben Alexander). Friday and Smith would remain on the job through the end of the radio series and on into the television run.

Webb said goodbye to Dragnet to focus on his production company and his work as a producer of new shows. In the 1960s, however, he worked with NBC to revive the series for a four season run. At the time, Ben Alexander was unavailable and actor Harry Morgan (Col. Potter on M*A*S*H*) played Friday's new partner Bill Gannon. Another revival was planned for the early 1980s but was scrapped when Webb passed away. The man who had done so much to change the perception of police officers was honored by them; Joe Friday's badge number was retired and the LAPD flew its flags at half staff after Webb's passing. Since then, Dragnet has endured in reruns, remakes, and the style that Jack Webb took a gamble on nearly 70 years ago.

"Petri Wine brings you…The Casebook of Gregory Hood!"

Sam Spade and Pat Novak weren't the only detectives to call San Francisco home during the Golden Age of Radio. But while they had the seedier sides of the city covered, Gregory Hood's beat brought him to the finest restaurants, swankiest nightclubs, and poshest museums of the city of the Golden Gate. Though not a hard-boiled, two-fisted detective, Gregory Hood had a keen eye and a knack for getting into trouble…even if his day job was imports and not investigations.

Gregory Hood was an unlicensed, untrained detective, though he had an extensive knowledge of several fields including art, antiques, wines, and fine foods. While those may not be the qualities associated with a master sleuth, most of Hood's cases came to him in the course of his work, and they often involved an artistic angle. He had no fans on the police force; as an unlicensed amateur, he was even worse than a private eye butting in on their territory. However, he had a confidant and frequent partner in Sanderson "Sandy" Taylor, the attorney for Gregory Hood Importers and a close friend. Sandy was along for the ride to provide back-up (and to stand in as an audience surrogate when Hood explained how he'd cracked the case).

If the relationship between Greg and Sandy sounds similar to the partnership between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, it's no coincidence. The Casebook of Gregory Hood was the brainchild of Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green, the scriptwriters for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as a summer replacement for Holmes and Watson. Hood and Holmes shared not only writers, but also a sponsor (Petri Wine - "the family that took time to bring you good wine"); an announcer (actor and occasional pitchman Harry Bartell); and a format where the announcer would visit the characters and hear about their latest adventure.

As an unofficial detective, Gregory Hood usually came by his cases by accident. Dinner parties ended in murder; rare antiques were stolen; and one mystery began when Greg and Sandy were on a camping trip in the mountains. In the episode we'll hear this week, pulling over to aid a man in distress on the side of the road lands Hood in a murder case.

Radio's first Gregory Hood was Gale Gordon, an actor better known today for his comedic chops than dramatic roles. He played Mayor LaTrivia on Fibber McGee & Molly; Mr. Scott, the sponsor's representative on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show; and most famously the stuffy Principal Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks. Gordon co-starred on My Favorite Husband, the radio show that spawned I Love Lucy on television. He was Lucille Ball's first choice to play Fred Mertz, but his commitment to the Our Miss Brooks TV series cost him the job. He'd go on to work with Ball in her later TV shows The Lucy Show (as her harried boss, Mr. Mooney), Here's Lucy, and Life with Lucy. Gordon was a master of the comedic slow burn, and he may not be the first name that springs to mind when you think of a radio detective. But in addition to those laugh roles, he starred as The Whistler on radio, and he was the first actor to portray Flash Gordon on the air. Gordon could convey the sophistication and charm of Gregory Hood, but he could also get across the resolve and determination to close a case. Like Jackson Beck's Philo Vance, Gregory Hood was a man who appeared deceptively harmless to his enemies only to later reveal a sharp mind and a nose for information.

Gordon played Gregory Hood for the first 17 episodes of the program. During that run, Sandy Taylor was played by several actors, including Bill Johnstone (Lt. Guthrie of The Line-Up) and Howard McNear. When Gordon stepped out, Elliott Lewis assumed the title role. Lewis was still a few years away from directing Broadway is My Beat and Suspense. He was about to begin his role of ne'er-do-well sidekick Frankie Remley on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show; ironically, his Remley and Gordon's Scott would frequently feud on that program in what amounted to fights Gregory Hood had with himself. Lewis kept the role for the duration of the program's run on the Mutual network. The program came back for a 1950-1951 run on ABC with Jackson Beck and other actors taking on the role.

Gregory Hood is a classic example of the gentleman detective, a character just as important to crime fiction as his hard-boiled brother. Pat Novak and Sam Spade covered the waterfront, but Gregory Hood could be counted on to detect the clues and crack the cases among society's upper crust.

In honor of Dashiell Hammett's birthday, we're saluting the master of hard boiled mystery with radio adaptations of two of his stories. First, Suspense – "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" – presents John Payne and Frank McHugh in the small-town murder mystery "Two Sharp Knives" (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1945). Then, the big screen cast reunites for a radio recreation of The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet star in this version from The Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on September 20, 1943).

Before he achieved TV immortality as Perry Mason, Emmy Award-winner Raymond Burr could be heard on radio in a number of detective and crime dramas. In honor of what would have been the legendary actor's 100th birthday, we'll hear Burr in three of his old time radio performances. First, he's Inspector Hellman, the bull-headed thorn in the side of Pat Novak For Hire. Burr co-stars with Jack Webb in "Marcia Halpern" (originally aired on ABC on February 27, 1949). Then, Burr goes bad in "The Henry J. Unger Matter" (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1950), an adventure of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar starring Edmond O'Brien. Finally, we'll head west to hear Burr as Lee Quince, captain of cavalry, in "Playing Indian" (originally aired on CBS on January 22, 1956).

You can always find mystery and adventure at the Café Tambourine, the Cairo nightclub run by American ex-pat and amateur detective Rocky Jordan. Jack Moyles stars as Jordan, a combination Sam Spade and Rick Blaine who's trying to make an honest dollar in a den of thieves. Rocky investigates crimes and capers through the bazaars and back alleys of Cairo. We'll hear "The Big Ditch" (originally aired on CBS on June 19, 1949) and "Cairo Vendetta" (originally aired on CBS on August 14, 1949).

Glenn Ford travels the world as freelance private eye Christopher London, a radio detective with the international beat of a secret agent. The character was created by Erle Stanley Gardner, the author who gave the world Perry Mason, and had it not been for Ford's success on the silver screen, we might have had a long run of globetrotting adventures to enjoy. We'll hear Ford as London in "The Terrible Price of Sugar" (originally aired on NBC on February 26, 1950) and "The System – A Code for Murder" (originally aired on NBC on May 29, 1950).

A master of dialects and accents, the British-born Ben Wright appeared all over the dial during the Golden Age of Radio and he could convincingly play characters from all around the world. He usually worked in supporting roles, but he had time in the spotlight as two old time radio detectives. We'll hear him as Sherlock Holmes in "The Singular Affair of the Ancient Egyptian Curse" (originally aired on ABC on March 10, 1947). Then on Pursuit, he's Inspector Peter Black in an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of "Pursuit at the Vicarage."

One of radio's finest dramas rode into town on April 26, 1952 with the premiere broadcast of Gunsmoke. The series was created at the request of CBS president William Paley who wanted a "Philip Marlowe in the old West." After the idea kicked around without gaining any traction, producer/director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston developed their idea for a Western made for adults, without the simple "good guys vs. bad guys" feel of The Lone Ranger and other programs. Macdonnell and Meston created Gunsmoke, the story of US Marshal Matt Dillon - "the first man they look for and the last they want to meet." Dillon wasn't a white hat hero - he was a man trying to put his violent past behind him as he fought to keep the peace in Dodge City, Kansas.

John Meston's writing was hailed by producer/director Macdonnell, and Meston would go on to write 183 radio episodes and 196 television episodes of Gunsmoke. Meston was keen to avoid the traits of the stereotypical western hero in his depiction of Dillon, saying "Life and his enemies have left him looking a little beat-up. There'd have to be something wrong with him or he wouldn't have been hired on as a United States marshal in the heyday of Dodge City, Kansas."

William Conrad won the role of Dillon, and he gave the character a weary humor but an absolute fury when needed. Supporting Conrad was one of radio's greatest supporting casts. Parley Baer was Chester Proudfoot, Dillon's amiable deputy. Howard McNear was "Doc" Adams, the town physician with a ghoulish demeanor (and, as one episode revealed, a past in Richmond, Virginia involving a duel with a romantic rival). Georgia Ellis was Kitty Russell, proprietor of Dodge's Long Branch Saloon, as well as a friend, confidant, and lover of Matt Dillon. The relationship between Kitty and William Conrad's Matt Dillon was a key component of the show. Though her true profession was never explicitly stated on the show, in a 1953 interview, producer/director Norman Madconnell said "Kitty is just someone Matt has to visit every once in a while. We never say it, but Kitty is a prostitute, plain and simple." But their relationship was more than what it appeared to be. As Ellis herself said "There was no forgiveness to be given because I don't think Kitty was available to anybody but Matt."

Supporting roles were filled out by some of the best actors in Hollywood radio, many of whom had worked with Macdonnell in other shows like Escape and Philip Marlowe - John Dehner, Larry Dobkin, Harry Bartell, Vivi Janiss, Jeanette Nolan, and more. The landscape of Dodge City and its saloons and jail cells was created by Ray Kemper. Kemper's sounds were as essential a part of that program's success as the acting and the writing. Dodge City came to life with the sounds generated by Kemper and his effects team. To create the sound of a beer being poured at the Long Branch Saloon, a warm can of soda was used. Old microphone cable was twisted together to make the sound of a man mounting his saddle. The sound men are often the unsung heroes of old time radio, and Ray Kemper was one of the finest.

The series presented the grim realities of the west - sickness, death, loneliness - more than any program that came before. Matt Dillon wasn't an infallible hero; he struggled with doubt and disillusionment, and he didn't always get his man. the series paved the way for the new genre of mature Westerns on radio, and it spawned a television adaptation that ran for twenty seasons on CBS. The radio cast lobbied to reprise their roles, but the core characters were recast; even Norman Macdonnell was initially passed over for the TV show; he eventually came on board in 1956, and he guided the program to the number one rating from 1957 until 1961. Today, the radio Gunsmoke (which ran from 1952 to 1961) stands as one of the finest dramatic programs from the Golden Age of Radio.

"I was sitting in my office shooting paper clips at a King size horse fly. It was a little sadistic but he was bigger than I was. Well, about the time I had him down on his knees begging for mercy, the door opened…" (Richard Diamond, Private Detective)

There's nothing in Dick Powell's early career to suggest he was destined to play hard-boiled private eyes. Had his bosses at Warner Brothers had their way, he'd have stayed in the song-and-dance roles on which he built his career. But thanks to a gamble by a director, Powell kicked off a new chapter to his career and the result were some great radio shows, including one of the medium's best - Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

Powell got his start in Hollywood in the 30s as a singer in Warner Brothers musicals, including 42nd Street, and On the Avenue. He was frequently cast in the role of a boyish crooner, even as he approached his 40s. Despite his success, Powell was eager to expand into other roles. His efforts were resisted by Warner Brothers, who wanted to keep Powell right where he was, even if he thought it was the wrong place to be. He pursued the lead role in Double Indemnity, but it ultimately went to another actor pegged in "nice guy" roles - Fred MacMurray.

But later in 1944, RKO and director Edward Dmytryk gave Powell the role he'd been waiting for - Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, the film adaptation of the Marlowe novel Farewell, My Lovely. The film was a success, and Powell received rave reviews for his performance. In a flash, he had shed the crooner image he'd been desperate to shake and he embarked on the next stage of his career.

Powell recreated his role as Marlowe on the June 11, 1945 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of Murder, My Sweet, and he starred as private detective Richard Rogue in Rogue's Gallery from 1945 to 1946. While it was a fine series, it failed to stand out from the crowd of hard-boiled private eyes littering the airwaves in the postwar years. For his next radio effort, Powell wanted to "make something a little bit different of a standard vehicle." He recorded an audition show as "the man with the action packed expense account," Johnny Dollar, but he passed on the series for a show that sprang from the mind of Blake Edwards. Edwards would later create the outstanding police procedural The Line-Up for radio, develop Peter Gunn for television, and would become a celebrated writer and director of film arguably most famous for the Pink Panther film series with Peter Sellers.

Powell and his producer, Don Sharp, asked Edwards if he had any ideas for a vehicle for Powell. Edwards said he did (a lie), and went home to write what would become the pilot for Richard Diamond, Private Detective. In Edwards' original script, Diamond was a former OSS agent; he would evolve into an ex-cop. One trait he would retain as the script evolved was that Diamond was as quick with a quip as he was with his fists. This played to Powell's natural comedic strengths, and it helped to give the show a unique voice in the sea of detective programs from the era. Unlike other radio shamuses, Diamond would keep up a friendly relationship with his old colleagues on the force - Lt. Walt Levinson, his former partner; and the oafish Sgt. Otis Ludlum, the long-suffering butt of Diamond's jokes. Diamond flirted with every skirt that came through his office door, but he only had eyes for his Park Avenue girlfriend, Helen Asher. Shows would often close at her apartment, where Diamond would sum up his case and (in a nod to Powell's old career) Helen might coax him to do a little singing.

Richard Diamond, Private Detective premiered on NBC on April 24, 1949. Powell was supported by Virginia Gregg as Helen; Ed Begley as Levinson; and Wilms Herbert doing double duty as Sgt. Otis and as Helen's butler, Francis. Joseph Kearns, Peggy Webber, Bill Johnstone, Jack Kruschen, and other West Coast actors filled out the cast. Later in the show's run, Frances Robinson would take over the role of Helen, and Ted de Corsia, Arthur Q. Bryan (Elmer Fudd), and Alan Reed (Fred Flinstone) would rotate in and out as Levinson.

The show ran without a sponsor for the first year before being picked up by the Rexall Drug Company ("Good health to all from Rexall!") in June 1950. In January 1951, the show switched networks and picked up Camel cigarettes as its new sponsor. The show took its final bow on June 27, 1952 (although repeats popped up in the summer of 1953). Powell pulled the plug on the show as he entered a third phase of his career as a successful director and producer.

It was in this capacity that Powell brought Richard Diamond to television in 1957 for a four-season run starring David Janssen in the title role, minus the crooning of the radio series. Janssen would later star as Dr. Richard Kimble on The Fugitive. The Diamond TV show is perhaps best known today for its character of Diamond's secretary, Sam, who was only shown from the waist down to show off her legs. The first actress to furnish Sam's legs was a young Mary Tyler Moore.

For one hundred dollars a day plus expenses, Richard Diamond will tackle any case. By the time it's over, he'll have used his fists, his gun, his wits, and his pipes as he croons a tune to his girlfriend. Dick Powell stars as the singing detective in one of radio's best mystery shows. We'll hear him in a pair of episodes – "The Betty Moran Case" (originally aired on NBC on May 29, 1949) and "The Cathy Victor Case" (originally aired on January 15, 1950).

Actor Al Hodge was born April 18, 1912. He made a name for himself as two famous heroes - as Captain Video on television and The Green Hornet on radio. When he wasn't starring as Britt Reid on WXYZ in Detroit, Hodge worked as a disc jockey, a football announcer, and a producer of other shows on the station, including The Lone Ranger. Hodge was radio's longest-running Hornet, and its his voice that may be most associated with the character.

In 1950, he took over the role of space ranger Captain Video and played the part on the DuPoint Network until 1955. Outside of that series, he could be seen on Naked City, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and more.

For multiple generations of kids - those who listened on radio and saw the theatrical cartoons and later those who tuned in for the Filmation TV series - Joan Alexander was the voice of Lois Lane. Born April 16, 1915, she was a model and an actress touring with the Yiddish theater before she got into radio. Her birth name was Louise Abrass; she took the first name Joan after big screen star Joan Crawford.

Joan Alexander worked extensively on the air with major roles on several daytime soaps like Lone Journey, Light of the World and This Is Nora Drake. She was in the "girl Friday" business for a pair of radio detectives as Della Street on Perry Mason and Ellen Deering, secretary to Jackson Beck's Philo Vance. Elsewhere, she could be heard on Dimension X, Crime Club, Barrie Craig, and more.

But it's the role of Lois Lane, tough, resourceful reporter, for which Joan Alexander is best remembered. She was the third actress to play the role, but she was cast early in the run and made the part her own. Alexander would co-star with Clayton "Bud" Collyer (voice of Clark Kent and Superman) in over 1,600 radio episodes. The two also voiced their characters in the popular (and still riveting, even today) Superman cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and released theatrically. From 1940 until 1951, Joan Alexander gave voice to one of the most well-known comic book characters of all time, and she helped to cement the character of Lois as a heroine in her own right. Almost every subsequent portrayal of the star reporter owes something to Alexander's performance.

Bud Collyer loved working with her, telling a reporter that "Joan is one of those rare actresses -- especially in radio where you can't be seen and have to depend entirely on voice -- who can go in on something cold and her instincts are so right as an actress that without even a rehearsal or a read-through, she is right." The two reunited in 1966 as Lois and Clark in The New Adventures of Superman, an animated Saturday morning series produced by Filmation.

Back in 1956, audiences had to wait a day in between installments of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and an entire week to hear how the insurance investigator would close the case. Today, we'll hear a complete five-part mystery starring Bob Bailey as "the man with the action-packed expense account." As Dollar, Bailey travels the world in "The Star of Capetown Matter," originally aired on CBS between July 16 and July 20, 1956.

"Out of the fog, out of the night, and into his American adventures comes…Bulldog Drummond!"

The idea of the gentleman detective conjures up images of smoking jackets and walking sticks: characters like Philo Vance who were as handsome as they were insightful. Captain Hugh Drummond broke that mold. Created by H.C. McNeile, the detective and adventurer is a powerfully built hulk of a man with a face that led to his nickname - "Bulldog." A veteran of World War I, Drummond was a crack shot, good with his fists, talented at poker, and hungry for thrills and excitement. He became one of the most popular sleuths of early Hollywood and the success he enjoyed led to a stint fighting evildoers on the radio.

McNeile introduced Drummond first in a story in The Strand. He later reworked the character for a 1920 novel. Like George Valentine, Drummond found post-war life to be dull and took out an advertisement in search of adventure wherever it could be found. His ad memorably read: "Demobilised [sic] officer, finding peace incredibly tedious, would welcome diversion. Legitimate, if possible; but crime, if of a comparatively humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential." The ad is answered by a young woman concerned for her father's safety, and she leads Drummond to a Communist plot to take over England. His client, Phyllis Benton, became Mrs. Drummond, and the mastermind of the plot, Carl Peterson, became Bulldog's arch nemesis. McNeile went on to write ten Drummond novels, five short stories, and three plays before his death in 1937. McNeile's friend Gerald Fairlie picked up the mantle and wrote an additional seven Drummond novels between 1937 and 1957. The character proved very popular in England and influential to boot: Ian Fleming stated that James Bond was Bulldog Drummond from the waist up and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer below.

After two silent films in the early 1920s, Bulldog Drummond was released as a talkie in 1929. Ronald Colman earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Drummond, and the film was hailed by critics. Colman's portrayal of Drummond as debonair and dashing eventually supplanted the rougher around the edges character of McNeile's books; the subsequent films (including a second turn by Colman in 1934) continued the characterization of Drummond as a more sophisticated gentleman adventurer. Ray Milland starred in 1937's Bulldog Drummond Escapes before John Howard made the role his own in seven B-movies for Paramount.

It was the success of the film series that spurred interest in a radio series. Producer Hiram Brown (Inner Sanctum Mysteries, as well as another series about a dapper British sleuth - The Private Files of Rex Saunders) packaged the series. Captain Drummond came to radio in 1941 and was originally played by George Coulouris. Coulouris was a veteran of Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre and he'd appeared with Welles in Citizen Kane. He starred as Drummond until March 1942 when he was succeeded by Santos Ortega. Ortega was a busy radio character actor; he played Inspector Queen on Ellery Queen, Commissioner Weston on The Shadow, and was also heard as Charlie Chan and in supporting roles on The Adventures of Superman, usually in villainous roles. Ortega stayed with the series for a year, and his replacement was another actor with a track record at radio crime-solving.

Ned Wever stepped into Bulldog Drummond's shoes with the March 15, 1943 broadcast and he stayed with the show until 1949. Wever was a regular player on The Adventures of Superman; he played Jor-El in the series' premiere episode and he appeared as "The Wolf," the first villain the Man of Steel encountered on radio. Coincidentally, in another early serial, he and fellow radio Bulldog Santos Ortega played crooked mine owners who swindled their investors. Later, he played a Nazi agent (more than slightly inspired by Sydney Greenstreet's Kasper Gutman) during the program's memorable "Atom Man" story arc. On the right side of the law, he played Dick Tracy on radio, and his clipped, authoritative delivery was perfect for the dapper British gentleman detective as he'd been reinvented on screen and on the radio.

The McNeile novels had introduced the character of James Denny, Drummond's wartime batman and landlord of Drummond's apartment building. Denny made the jump to radio, where he was reworked as Drummond's valet and sidekick. Everett Sloane (another Mercury Theatre veteran) played Denny for much of the series, alongside Coulouris, Ortega, and Wever. The supporting casts included several great radio actors, including Jackson Beck (Philo Vance) and Mercedes McCambridge (Defense Attorney). In his radio adventures, Bulldog Drummond tackled all manner of crimes - hijackers, atomic spies, gangsters, and killers all went up against the poised captain…and lost.

Despite the character's popularity at the time (the radio series ran until 1954, with Cedric Hardwicke in the role for the final year), Bulldog Drummond has been left behind by popular culture. Aside from a brief James Bond-inspired revival in the late 1960s, the character remains a war-years relic. It's too bad; the B-movies (many of them available on public domain collections of mystery films) are enjoyable romps, and the radio series is a good listen. Hopefully you'll enjoy rediscovering Bulldog Drummond or meeting him for the first time as he steps out of the fog.

"Calling Nick Carter! Another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective. Yes, it's another case for that most famous of all manhunters, the detective whose ability at solving crimes is unequaled in the history of detective fiction - Nick Carter, Master Detective!"

In 1886, readers were introduced to a brilliant detective, a master of both disguise and deduction, who tackled the cases that baffled the police. Think you know who it is? If you guessed Sherlock Holmes, you're a year too early. Arthur Conan Doyle's first Holmes adventure was published in 1887, one year after the debut of Nick Carter, a character who went from dime novels to pulp magazines, and then to film and later radio. Though not as well known today, Nick Carter enjoyed a long career as one of America's most celebrated detectives.

Carter's first adventure was "The Old Detective's Pupil," which appeared in the September 18, 1886 issue of Street & Smith's New York Weekly. Street & Smith were one of the largest publishers of dime novels in the country; in fact, the plot of the first Nick Carter story was dreamed up by Ormond G. Smith, son of one of the magazine's founders. Writer John Russell Coryell wrote the story and two more before he decided there was more money in writing romances. The character was turned over to writer Frederick Rensselaer Dey, who penned a Carter novel (25,000 words) each week for seventeen years. Carter became so popular that Street & Smith launched a separate magazine devoted to his exploits. Nick Carter was a clean-cut, teetotaling, private detective. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the world and possessed almost superhuman strength; he could "lift a horse with ease…while a heavy man is seated in the saddle." Nick had been groomed for the gumshoe game from birth by his father, a famous detective named "Old Sim" Carter. Based in a ritzy New York apartment, Nick's cases would take him all around the world. And he was famous all over the world, too. In 1908, the first of three Nick Carter film serials hit French movie screens, with sequels following in 1909 and 1912.

By 1915, the solo Nick Carter magazine had folded, but the character continued to make appearances in Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine. Later, after the company found pulp novel success with the exploits of The Shadow and others, Nick Carter was back in his own pulp magazine. In 1939, Hollywood came calling (albeit several years after French film producers), and Walter Pidgeon starred as Nick in three movies from MGM.

When the character came to radio in 1943, it was in The Return of Nick Carter. Those early shows tipped their hat to the character's pulp origins with subtitled adventures (for example, "Murder in the Crypt…or Nick Carter and the Jackal God"). Actor Lon Clark, a former opera singer, took the role of Nick and kept it until the series left the air in 1955. His 12 years as Nick Carter are bested only by Bennett Kilpatrick's 13 years as Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons. On radio, Carter was presented in the clean-cut mold from the pulps. He had a fancy brownstone house with a crime lab and shooting range in the basement where he'd work out cases with his friends and colleagues Patsy Bowen and reporter "Scubby" Wilson. They'd be called in, sometimes relcutantly, by Sgt. Mathison (affectionately known as "Matty" to Nick) on tough crimes that left the NYPD stumped.

Clark was supported by Helen Choate (a former radio Lois Lane) and later Charlotte Manson as Patsy. Ed Latimer provided the thick Irish brogue for Matty for much of the series. Scripts came from Walter B. Gibson, who wrote the pulp novels and fleshed out the history of Carter's Street & Smith stablemate, The Shadow. Other writers on the show were Edith Meiser, who contributed scripts for Sherlock Holmes, and sci-fi author Alfred Bester. Walter Gibson also worked on the series' short-lived spin-off Chick Carter, Boy Detective (Chick was Nick's adopted son who followed in the family business).

The show, later retitled Nick Carter, Master Detective, aired on the Mutual Network until September 25, 1955 - outlasting several of the better known gumshoes of the Golden Age of Radio. When the radio series ended, Carter didn't hang up his badge and gun. He was resurrected in the 1960s as a James Bondian secret agent in over 200 Nick Carter - Killmaster novels. In 1972, Robert Conrad, late of The Wild Wild West, starred as Carter in a turn of the century mystery set in the Victorian Era that would have served as a pilot for a new series. Unfortunately, this didn't get picked up, but Nick Carter is still kicking over a century after he first appeared in print. His mix of brains and derring-do, with a healthy dose of pulp heroics, are well worth rediscovering or enjoying for the first time.

"You met The Falcon first in his best-selling novels, then you saw him in his thrilling motion picture series. Now, join him on the air when The Falcon solves…The Case of the Flaming Club!"

Some radio detectives originated in the pages of novels and short stories, while others transitioned from the big screen to the airwaves. In the case of The Falcon, it was a little of each as two different characters were blended into one of radio's longest-running sleuths.

The first Falcon was introduced by Drexel Drake in a 1936 novel The Falcon's Prey. Drake's Falcon, featured in multiple novels and stories, was Malcolm Wingate, a shadowy crime-fighter and Robin Hood figure born in America but raised in England. Aided by an ex-cop nicknamed "Sarge," the Falcon preyed on evildoers and came to the aid of the oppressed. Drake's Falcon predated Gay Stanhorpe Falcon, a freelance adventurer created by Michael Arlen in his 1940 short story "The Gay Falcon." It was this Falcon who came to the big screen in 1941 with George Sanders (fresh off a movie run as The Saint) starring as the character. As if that wasn't complicated enough, the movie (and its sequels) changed the character's name to Gay Lawrence, with no explanation of how he earned the name "The Falcon." The Falcon of the films began as a replacement for The Saint at RKO, but he evolved into more of a classic private detective. In fact, his third movie, The Falcon Takes Over (1942), was an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely with The Falcon subbing in for Philip Marlowe. After four movies, Sanders had enough and his real-life brother Tom Conway took over the franchise as "Tom Lawrence" in The Falcon's Brother, and played the role for eight more movies.

The success of the films led to a radio version in 1943. The Falcon of the radio was a private eye named Michael Waring, neither the Drake character nor the Arlen character. The radio series referred to the Falcon's past in novels and in films, and Drexel Drake was credited as the character's creator on the air. Just to add another wrinkle to the genealogy of the character, the Waring Falcon hit the big screen in three films starring John Calvert.

Berry Kroger was the first actor to play Waring on the air, and he was succeeded by James Meighan. For the bulk of the run, The Falcon was played by Les Tremayne and Les Damon. The actors shared several roles along with their first name; in addition to The Falcon, they each took a turn starring as Nick Charles in The Adventures of The Thin Man. George Petrie, who played radio private eye Charlie Wild and District Attorney Markham on Philo Vance, was the last actor to play The Falcon on the air.

Most of the shows began with The Falcon answering a phone call from one of his many lovely female companions. He'd politely decline their company for the evening before offering a tease of the adventure he was about to undertake. Like his radio private eye brethren, Waring's cases were about equally divided between clients seeking his help and the police calling him in on tough-to-crack cases. In the early 1950s, owing to the popularity of espionage programs, The Falcon became an intelligence agent for the US Government. His work took him overseas where he battled enemy spies with the same skills he used on gangsters back in the Big Apple.

Despite the long run of the program (The Falcon aired from 1943 until 1954 in multiple runs over NBC and Mutual), only about 100 episodes survive. Most of them come from the Tremayne/Damon years, so listeners today can hear a mix of Falcon adventures both foreign and domestic. With his mix of hard-boiled private eye and suave gentleman adventurer, The Falcon is a great character with whom to spend an evening.

You need a big man to solve big crimes, and few detectives come bigger than Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. The gargantuan gourmet and orchid aficionado will crack the case as long as he doesn't have to leave his house. For the legwork and rough and tumble elements of the job, he turns to his able assistant Archie Goodwin. Sydney Greenstreet stars as Wolfe in a pair of radio mysteries: "The Case of the Careless Cleaner" (originally aired on NBC on November 17, 1950) and "The Case of the Malevolent Medic" (originally aired on NBC on February 23, 1951).

"I rarely leave my house. I do like it here. I would be an idiot to leave this chair, made to fit me." (Rex Stout, Before I Die)

Nero Wolfe made his first appearance in 1934, and his adventures are still being enjoyed nearly eighty years later in books, TV shows, and - beginning on April 7, 1943 - radio dramas. Not bad for a man who hated leaving his house more than nearly anything in the world.

Wolfe, the eccentric genius who weighs a seventh of a ton, was created by writer Rex Stout. Stout made a tidy sum inventing a system to track the money school children saved in their accounts, and he used his earnings and royalties to travel the world and embark on a career as a writer. His first Wolfe novel, Fer-de-Lance, was published in 1934, and Stout would go on to write 33 novels and 39 stories featuring Wolfe until his death in 1975. Over the course of the novels and stories, Stout fleshed out the character, who enjoyed fine food and good beer, tended to his orchids, and solved mysteries when he had to earn a fee, always with the aid of his assistant (and the narrator of the stories), Archie Goodwin.

Stout's brilliant stroke was to combine two archetypes of detective fiction into one duo. Nero Wolfe was a classic refined detective in the mold of Sherlock Holmes, right down to his eccentricities, anti-social personality, and acute agoraphobia. He could listen to clues as they were presented to him in his drawing room and deduce the solution to a crime without ever leaving the chair especially designed for his massive weight. At his side was Archie, a more streetwise sleuth in the mold of (though not nearly as hard-boiled) Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Archie carried a gun and had an eye for a blonde like his brethren, but he drank milk instead of bourbon and he had a playful demeanor - particularly with his boss and their frequent foil on the police force, Inspector Cramer.

Wolfe came to the screen in 1934 and 1937, but it would take almost ten years for the character to make his radio debut. From 1943 to 1944, ABC aired The Adventures of Nero Wolfe which starred J.B. Williams, Santos Ortega, and Luis Van Rooten as Wolfe during various points in the run. A falling out between ABC and Stout's representatives prevented the series from continuing, but a new version would premier on the Mutual Network in 1946. Francis X. Bushman starred as Wolfe, with Elliott Lewis, a veteran radio actor who would soon take the director's chair on Suspense, as Archie.

But it is the 1950 NBC series The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe that is most fondly remembered and which came the closest to capturing the essence of Stout's stories. First and foremost, they found an actor who could fully embody Wolfe's larger than life persona - Sydney Greenstreet.

A longtime theater actor, Greenstreet's big break came as Kasper Gutman ("The Fat Man") opposite Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon in 1941 at age 62. After receiving an Academy Award nomination for the role, Greenstreet appeared in films like Casablanca, The Mask of Demetrios, and Across the Pacific. At age 71, he was cast as Wolfe, and his trademark characteristics - arched speech, droll laugh, deliberate intonation - perfectly fit Nero Wolfe's larger than life personality.

Over the course of the series, no fewer than six actors were heard as Archie Goodwin. Each of the first three episodes featured a different Archie: Wally Maher (October 20); Lamont Johnson (October 27); and Herb Ellis (November 10). Beginning on November 24, actor Larry Dobkin assumed the role. Dobkin had previously been heard as Louie the cab driver on The Saint and as Detective Lt. Matthews on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. After eight episodes, Dobkin left and his old co-star Gerald Mohr voiced Goodwin for the next four episodes. Mohr was on a radio detective roll; he had just wrapped his two-year run as Marlowe and would return for a Marlowe summer series a few months after his gig as Archie came to a close. Harry Bartell, a veteran of Escape and Dragnet as well as the Petri Wine announcer for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, stepped into Archie's shoes for the final ten episodes of the series.

Why so many Archies to one Nero? There's no definite answer. Some have said it was because Greenstreet was difficult to work with; others speculate the revolving door of co-stars was a sign of retooling to see if the ratings would improve.

And while the series was well done, with even Rex Stout praising Greenstreet's performance (he was less complimentary of the program itself), it did not fare well enough in the ratings to earn a second year. The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe wrapped up its run on April 27, 1951. Fortunately for fans, the entire series run are available in great condition. One can listen to the full run and hear Greenstreet lend his one-of-a-kind voice to Wolfe, and even with so many actors playing Archie Goodwin, none is sub-par. Each brings his own style to the character while staying true to Stout's creation. And backing up Greenstreet and his Goodwins every week are a great cast, including Bill Johnstone as Inspector Cramer, Howard MacNear, Betty Lou Gerson, Peter Leeds, and Barney Phillips. Click here to check out some of the adventures of Nero Wolfe I've featured on the podcast, including an episode starring Francis X. Bushman as the big man.

G-Man crime drama This is Your FBI premiered on April 6, 1945. Hailed as "the finest dramatic program on the air" by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the show featured dramatizations of actual Bureau case files. Of the many FBI-themed programs on the air, This is Your FBI was the only one endorsed by the agency. Hoover himself made an appearance on the program's first episode to lend his seal of approval. (The long-running The FBI in Peace and War was based on Frederick W. Collins' book of the same name, but it was not sanctioned by the Bureau.)

The series was created and produced by Jerry Devine, a former comedy writer who switched to drama. Before he entered the world of the FBI, Devine wrote scripts for Mr. District Attorney. He was welcomed with open arms by Hoover, and he was granted a two-week crash course at the FBI academy before he launched the program. Devine stayed abreast of new developments in FBI techniques with regular visits to headquarters in Washington.

Stacy Harris (above), a frequent player on Dragnet and Gunsmoke, starred as FBI Special Agent Jim Taylor, dispatched all around the country in pursuit of fraudsters, spies, counterfeiters, and robbers. The radio's G-men were on the air until January 30, 1953.

On April 3, 1939, Mr. District Attorney launched his radio crusade for law and order - a campaign that would last on the air until 1952.

The series was created by Ed Byron, a former law student who collaborated with Gang Busters creator Phillips H. Lord. Loosely inspired by New York Governor (and future legendary losing presidential candidate) Thomas E. Dewey fight against racketeers, the series chronicled the efforts of the unnamed prosecutor as he battled criminals.

For most of the run, the DA was played by Jay Jostyn, but Dwight Weist and Raymond Edward Johnson played him early in the run. Jostyn's portrayal of the upstanding district attorney was so convincing, that, according to a 1952 Radio-TV Mirror article, "He is so generally believed to be a real life lawyer that he frequently receives mail from listeners inviting him to move to certain cities where they feel crimes are going unsolved." Vicki Vola portrayed the DA's loyal secretary Miss Miller, and Len Doyle played the DA's chief investigator Len Harrington. The trio formed one of radio's best crime-solving units, tracking down crooks played by some of the best actors in East Coast radio.

The show spawned a pair of TV shows, one featuring the radio cast and the second starring David Brian as the DA. By that time, the prosecutor had been given the name Paul Garrett, and Brian would reprise the role for a final run of syndicated radio episodes.

Is there anybody who doesn't know Dragnet? Even if you don't know the series or couldn't pick Jack Webb out of a line-up, chances are you know the distinct "dum-da-dum-dum" opening. Like the eerie sounds of the theme to The Twilight Zone, the opening notes of the Dragnet march have become shorthand for someone in trouble about to get busted, or the arrival of an authority figure on the scene. This writer discovered the taut police series in between Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show on Nick at Nite in the early nineties, and it wasn't until years later that he discovered the radio series. It's hard for modern audiences to appreciate just how revolutionary Dragnet was when it hit radio. The style it perfected and the approach to docudrama realism it produced can still be seen in TV procedural programs and films today, more than sixty years after it premiered.

The series was the brainchild of actor, writer, and producer Jack Webb. Born April 2, 1920, there was more to the man than Joe Friday's no-nonsense demeanor. Webb was a talented writer, director, and producer, a music aficionado, and - perhaps least well known - a man with a wicked sense of humor. Along with Rod Serling and Quinn Martin, Webb was arguably one of the biggest creative forces in the Golden Age of Television, and he is undeniably a legend of the Golden Age of Radio.

Webb grew up in Los Angeles. His father left before Webb was born, and Webb was raised by his mother and grandmother. As a boy, Webb grew up with a love of movies and jazz music, the latter cultivated by a jazzman tenant in his mother's rooming house.

He enlisted in the Air Force in World War II, but he did not make it through flight training (in his words, he "washed out"). After his discharge, Webb moved to San Francisco where he got into radio. The lack of announcers due to the war left vacancies on the schedule of ABC's San Francisco affiliate KGO, and Webb served as an announcer, DJ, and as host of his own comedy show, The Jack Webb Show, a sketch comedy series that poked fun at current events and featured a house band playing Dixieland jazz numbers. His comedy career on the air would be short-lived, as he turned his attention to the crime genre that would come to define his output for the rest of his career.

During his time at KGO, Webb struck up a friendship with writer Richard Breen and the two collaborated on The Jack Webb Show. The two were approached to fill some holes in KGO's programming schedule, and they created a character who was perfectly suited for Webb's downbeat, naturalistic style. He would be a detective of the hard-boiled school, operating out of an office on the San Francisco waterfront, and he would deliver some of the purplest dialogue this side of a pulp novel. Pat Novak For Hire premiered on KGO in 1946 and was a hit almost immediately. The combination of Webb's voice and Breen's words were unlike anything radio listeners had heard up until that point. Novak was cynical and world-weary, and he had great reason to be both. He was often double-crossed by his clients; he rarely got the girl; and he was always on the outs with the law, particularly with the block-headed Inspector Hellman. His only friend (if you could call him that) was Jocko Madigan, an ex-doctor and full-time boozer who could come to Novak's aid, but not without dropping a ton of unwanted tipsy advice on Novak.

Despite the success, Webb and Breen jumped ship for reasons that have never fully been explained. ABC soldiered on with Ben Morris stepping in as the new Pat Novak, while Breen and Webb set up shop on Mutual with the very similar program Johnny Madero, Pier 23. Listeners didn't take to Morris in the role, and the series signed off in early 1948. Webb continued in the detective business, and he starred for a season as Jeff Regan, Investigator for CBS before returning to Pat Novak for a national run on ABC in 1949. It was during this period where Webb was beginning to get the ideas for what would become his signature series and role.

In 1948, Webb played the role of a crime scene technician in He Walked By Night. During breaks in the filming, he struck up a friendship with the movie's technical advisor, Sgt. Marty Wynn. Webb believed there was an opportunity to dramatically depict police work in an authentic manner; most radio shows (including Webb's own Pat Novak and Jeff Regan usually played cops as incompetent at best and corrupt at worst). Working with Wynn and other police officers, along with writer James Moser, Webb pitched the concept to NBC. That series would become Dragnet, and its combination of authentic cases and a "ripped from the headlines" style with Webb's signature realistic approach made for a series that - once again - was unlike anything radio audiences had heard.

Webb starred as Sgt. Joe Friday, the epitome of a professional policeman, who rotated in and out of different divisions of the LAPD (Homicide, Narcotics, Traffic, etc.). This allowed Webb and his team to tell a full range of stories, all taken from LAPD files. Sometimes there was a corpse and the thrill of the hunt of a killer; in other episodes, there were stake-outs and spent shoe leather running down leads. Through it all, Webb pushed for authenticity: "We try to make cops human beings. We try to combine the best qualities of the men I've seen downtown, incorporate their way of speaking, make a composite."

Dragnet exploded in popularity not long after it premiered in 1949. A TV version followed in 1951 and a film version hit the big screen in 1954. Even during this time, when he was on Dragnet twice a week on radio and TV, Webb continued to work elsewhere. He starred in the short-lived 1951 radio crime drama Pete Kelly's Blues, which incorporated his love of jazz into the mystery stories.

Big screen success eluded Webb, and after a few misfires at the box office in the late 1950s, he was back in television. In 1963, he was given the reins of the private eye drama 77 Sunset Strip, which he rebranded in his own style. The series, which had been one of the more "hip" mystery shows on TV, suffered a ratings hit as a result of the shift and was cancelled. Fortunately for Webb, there was still a demand for his style - and his signature series. He was approached by Universal in 1966 to develop a new Dragnet TV movie. The product was so well received that NBC put a new Dragnet series on the air, with Webb back as Sgt. Joe Friday. It's this color run of Dragnet (which aired often on Nick at Nite in the early 1990s) with which Webb is most closely associated. It also kicked off the next phase of his career, as a producer of TV content through his Mark VII production company. In addition to Dragnet, Webb produced the squad car-based police drama Adam-12 and the EMT/paramedic series Emergency!, both of which enjoyed long runs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (His Adam-12 star Martin Milner got one of his first jobs on the radio version of Dragnet, playing one of Joe Friday's young partners.) In the early 1980s, Webb was prepping for yet another Dragnet revival, and he tapped Kent McCord of Adam-12 to play Joe Friday's new partner. Before the series could go into production, Webb passed away at the age of 62 from a heart attack on December 23, 1982. In recognition of his long partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department, the LAPD retired 714, Joe Friday's badge number. All flags in Los Angeles flew at half-staff in his honor.

One doesn't need to look far to see Jack Webb's legacy alive and well today. Reality-based police procedurals cover the prime-time landscape, and the realistic style of acting he helped introduce to the mainstream has influenced generations of writers and actors. He was a tireless professional who worked right up until the end of an unfortunately short life, but his body of work will continue to outlive him and entertain new generations of fans.

Jack Webb has made a number of appearances on Down These Mean Streets, including in this week's new episode, which spotlights the actor in his signature role of Joe Friday. Click here to check out some of his other visits to the podcast as Sgt. Friday, Pat Novak, Jeff Regan, and Pete Kelly.

The stories you're about to hear are true as Jack Webb stars as Sgt. Joe Friday in Dragnet. Not only did he star in the series, Webb created, produced, and set the tone for the grandfather of all police procedural dramas. Friday teams up with Sgt. Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough) and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) in three cases dramatized from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department: "The Big Crazy" (originally aired on NBC on August 30, 1951); "The Big Little Mother" (originally aired on NBC on October 6, 1953); and "The Big Office" (originally aired on NBC on August 31, 1954).

Mike Waring – the private eye with "a hand for oppressed men and an eye for repressed women," and Nick Charles – the retired detective and full-time boozehound. Les Damon, born March 31, 1908, gave voice to both of them during the Golden Age of Radio. Before he stepped up to the microphone, he walked the boards on stages in his native Providence, Rhode Island and – in 1934 – as an apprentice at the Old Vic in England. When he returned to the United States in 1938, Damon got into radio. Some of his earliest roles came in soap operas churned out by the factory of Frank and Anne Hummert (the prolific radio writers behind Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons).

On July 2, 1941, Damon had the unenviable task of filling William Powell's shoes as Nick Charles when The Adventures of The Thin Man went on the air. Claudia Morgan played his wife, Nora in the series that followed Dashiell Hammett's married detectives on new adventures. Damon and Morgan had terrific chemistry as Nick and Nora, a couple you could believe in during those very chaste days of early radio.

Damon's stint on The Thin Man was interrupted when he was drafted in 1943. David Gothard and Les Tremayne stepped in to co-star with Claudia Morgan during the war years. After serving in the Pacific (and earning a Bronze Star), Damon returned to the role and stayed in until December 1947. Three years later in 1950, he had his second shot at radio sleuthing when he took over the title role of The Falcon. Damon starred as gumshoe Mike Waring until 1953, including a run of episodes where the Falcon traded his private eye license for the cloak and dagger world of American intelligence. The Falcon went from facing down gangsters to enemy agents abroad.

His radio detective career came full circle in 1954 when he reunited with Claudia Morgan as another pair of married sleuths – insurance investigator Pat Abbott and his wife Jean in Adventures of the Abbotts. Damon was ultimately succeeded by Mandel Kramer in the show's short run, but he worked elsewhere on radio on many of the programs originating from the East Coast: Dimension X, X Minus One, and the later years of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense. In fact, his final radio appearance came in the June 17, 1962 episode of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." He passed away just over a month later at age 54.