One of the best known fictional detectives in the world – Hercule Poirot was heard in books, movies and radio. This week, a look at this little man with the “little gray cells.” I’ll look at a number of his radio appearances with the full show being the premier episode of the first serialized version from 1945 starring Harold Huber… (more…)
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This week a visit to Pier 23 to meet Johnny Modero, the last of the Jack Webb pre-Dragnet private detectives on radio. Probably the least of the three Webb detectives and a clone of his previous Pat Novak.
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This week a look at the gravely voiced, square-jawed actor Charles McGraw as he appeared in an audition episode of the Man From Homicide. I’ll also do some sound snapshots from his radio/screen career.
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E. Jack Neumann and John Michael Hayes (right) were two of radio’s finest writers of detective and suspense. This week a brief return to an episode from The Adventures of Sam Spade written by these two writers. Listen for the well defined characters the create as well as the tension and comedy. An example of some of radio’s finest writing.… (more…)
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Out of fog and into American homes comes Bulldog Drummond. This originally hardboiled detective becomes something else when radio gets a hold of him. This run starred Ned Wever (right).
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Morton Fine and David Friedkin were scriptwriters who were all over the radio spectrum in the forties and fifties before they moved to television. A look at how writers worked and seemed to carry common themes and style no matter the genre ending in an episode of the Fine/Friedkin scriptwork: Broadway Is My Beat starring Larry Thor (right).
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From out of the pulps comes Nick Carter, Master Detective! This week “another case for that most famous of all man hunters – the detective whose ability at solving crime is unequal in the history of detective fiction – Nick Carter, Master Detective.” The character of Nick Carter goes back to 19th century detective stories as one of the staples… (more…)
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This week a look at one of the longest running detective series on radio. Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons was in some ways not much more than a light drama produced by the soap drama factory of Frank and Anne Hummert. Yet, it had its share of crime and death. It was also extremely popular in its day and… (more…)
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Jeff Regan, Investigator saw its birth in July 1948 on CBS. The aural gimmick in the opening was that Regan worked for an international investigation firm run by Anthony J. Lyon. The series proclaimed him “The Lion’s Eye.” The owner, Anthony J. Lyon, played by Wilms Herbert with a voice sounding like a rather large man, would send his prime… (more…)
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The original characters were created by Jack Boyle, who first published a short story in “The American Magazine” in 1914 called “The Price of Principle.” Boyle went on to write several more Blackie stories that were collected into a book of short stories in 1919. The character as created by Boyle was a bit more hardened than the radio version.… (more…)
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