Broke and without work, former art critic and journalist S.S. Van Dine burst onto the fictional detective scene with the publication “The Benson Murder Case” which featured wealthy connoisseur and man about town Philo Vance who was called in to solve the crime. The book, part one of a trilogy, was an instant hit. Not to be left out radio… (more…)
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In 1941, authoress Frances Crane wrote a mystery called “The Turquoise Shop.” In the course of the novel, private investigator, Patrick Abbott, enters the shop of Jean Holly. By the end of the novel the two had fallen in love. In future books involving the couple, they married and continued to solve crimes encountered as part of the plot. In… (more…)
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This week – a look at probably the most well-known “media” detective – film, radio, fiction – Sherlock Holmes. You’ll hear some of the history of the radio programs over the years it was broadcast and a rarer episode from the earliest known copy – 1933 with Richard Gordon as Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson.
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A look at radio detective Dan Holiday – Alan Ladd – from Box 13. “Adventure Wanted. Will go anywhere. Do anything. Box 13.” The series was produced by Ladd’s Mayfair Productions.
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Finishing up our look at the radio detective career of Dick Powell I turn to his role as Richard Diamond, “the singing gumshoe.” By this time Powell had reinvented himself from “boy crooner” to tough detective both in film and radio.
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The first of a two podcast look at how Dick Powell began to reinvent his image from boy crooner into movie and radio tough guy. Tonight I look at the first of his radio series in his new image – Richard Rogue in Rogue’s Gallery.
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Continuing our look at the radio career of Jack Webb, I look at an earlier series in which Webb starred – Pat Novak For Hire.
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A return to detective author, Dashiell Hammett, and his last fictional creations – Nick and Nora Charles in The Adventures of the Thin Man. The series starred Les Damon (see photo) and Claudia Morgan. The duo starred together once more in a detective series call The Adventures of the Abbotts.
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I return once more to Dashiell Hammett’s only fictional detective created exclusively for radio! Brad Runyon, the Fat Man. “The hard boiled, hard hitting adventures of a criminologist who tips the scale at 247 pounds…” J. Scott Smart stars in the episode called “The Nineteenth Pearl.”
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This week we look at one of the more unusual radio detectives who not only uses deductive reasoning in solving crimes, but who also uses elements of the mystical. The pulp fictional detective Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow. This episode is from the Orson Welles year.
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