MBS
A slightly different crime story this week. Encore Theater was a program the Mutual Broadcasting System sustained in the late forties to provide an opportunity for listeners to hear again dramatic episodes they heard on other programs and according to Mutual were the “best liked radio plays selected” by listeners. This episode is called “Balzac Murder” and was heard originally on the Carrington Playhouse in 1946. Elaine Carrington, called “Queen” Carrington for her “reign” as one of soap operas better known scripters created the series. However, these were not “soap” type programs. “Balzac Murder” is actually a very well written court room drama with flashbacks by Joseph Cochran. I think you’ll find the play fascinating (if you can get past the rather melodramatic organ bridge pieces). This play stars Raymond Edward Johnson as the Prosecutor.
Music under is the Nocturne in E Minor from the Grand Polonaise for Piano and Orchestra by Frederic Chopin.
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The series Inspector Mark Saber is in a sense the grand-child of the original Molle’ Mystery Theater. In this podcast, you’ll meet Inspector Mark Saber, portrayed on radio by actor Robert Carroll (at right as he appeared as Patrick Henry). Saber is a somewhat aloof, seemingly all-known detective of a large city homicide division. The series appeared on radio in its waning dramatic days and came to the medium in a rather circuitous way from the original Mystery Theater.
Finally, I am back for a new podcast! Expanding the genre a bit to include crime in general, this week, a look at one of the better, but not so well known crime series in the fifties: Crime Classics. The series ran for 52 episodes only, but had the talents of Elliott Lewis (right) as producer/director, David Friedkin and Mort Fine, writers, and Bernard Herrmann as composer-conductor with live in studio musicians!
On June 23rd, 1948, CBS released a press statement entitled “Mysteries Circle the Globe: Cabin B-13 New Series by John Dickson Carr.” The location for the mysteries was built around the sailings of the passenger ship S.S. Maurevania. Each episode would be introduced by a Dr. Fabian, a world traveler and collector of strange and terrible tales of mystery and terror, as the opening described him. Events would occur at the port cities to which the ship sailed and at each one, Dr. Fabian would tell a mysterious story related to that city.
Detective fiction is full of examples of the woman-as-detective theme throughout its history. While the majority of the fictional detectives were men, there are flattering examples in which female sleuths regularly sought out clues and ultimately solved crimes.