Down These Mean Streets (old Time Radio Detectives)

Radio's crusading prosecutor Mr. District Attorney fought crime on the air for over a decade. The upstanding public servant went after killers, con men, thieves, and enemy agents with equal passion and zeal for the law. We'll hear a pair of his radio adventures: Jay Jostyn stars in "The Case of the Sinister Cinema," originally aired on NBC on May 5, 1948. Then, David Brian stars in the syndicated episode "The Case of the Missing Corpse."

One of radio's most in-demand performers, Larry Dobkin could play smart alecky private eyes, stuffy snobs, and grizzled cowboys with equal aplomb. A talented actor, writer, and director, Dobkin's show business career lasted into the twenty-first century. We'll salute him this week with two of his performances as radio detectives. First he's Ellery Queen in "The Adventure of the Armchair Detective" (originally aired on CBS on March 27, 1946). Then he's Archie Goodwin - opposite Sydney Greenstreet as Nero Wolfe - in "The Case of the Bashful Body" (originally aired on NBC on December 29, 1950).

The Mollé Mystery Theatre presented adaptations of classic mystery stories as well as original thrillers in one of radio's best mystery anthologies. Sponsored by the "smooth smooth slick slick shave you get" with Mollé brushless shaving cream, Bernard Lenrow is on hand as cultured criminologist Geoffrey Barnes, your host and narrator through the world of murder and mayhem. We'll hear "Red Wine," adapted for the Theatre and originally aired on NBC on March 8, 1946.

When mystery writer Dan Holiday faced writer's block, he turned to an unusual solution - a classified ad reading "Adventure wanted. Will go anyplace, do anything. Write Box 13." Alan Ladd starred as Holiday in this syndicated mystery drama that found Holiday up to his neck in trouble with each letter he opened. We'll hear him in "Look Pleasant, Please" and "Hunt and Peck."

When Londoners needed the help of Scotland Yard, they rang Whitehall 1212 and the hardworking coppers of the Yard were on the case. From 1951 to 1952, NBC presented a series of dramatizations of actual Scotland Yard cases starring British casts. We'll hear one of those mysteries - "The Case of the Late Mrs. Harvey," first aired on February 17, 1952.

In the fall of 1950, with Vincent Price waylaid in Paris, Barry Sullivan stepped into the shoes of Simon Templar for two episodes of The Saint. The big screen star ably wore the halo as the Robin Hood of modern crime. We'll hear him in "The Ghost that Giggled" (originally aired on NBC on September 10, 1950) and "Dossier on a Doggone Dog" (originally aired on September 17, 1950).

Foreign correspondent Bob O'Hara searches the streets of Hong Kong for stories, but he plays detective as often as he plays newshound. Stacy Harris is front and center for international intrigue and danger in O'Hara, a short-lived mystery and adventure drama about a hard-boiled sleuth who happened to carry a press card. We'll hear him in "The Lost Boy," originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1956.

In honor of Alfred Hitchcock's birthday, "Down These Mean Streets" presents a bonus episode saluting the big screen's auteur of thrills and chills. We'll hear an on-air recreation of Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, featuring Joseph Cotten in his big screen role. It originally aired on Academy Award on CBS on September 11, 1946.

Larry Thor stars as Detective Danny Clover as he walks “the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world” in Broadway is My Beat. We'll hear Clover keep the streets of New York safe in two old time radio mysteries. First, it's "The Suicide Pact Murders" (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1950). Then, we'll hear "The Harry Foster Murder Case" (originally aired on CBS on May 5, 1951).

Before his death in 1951 at age 43, Wally Maher made a name for himself as a versatile, in-demand radio actor. Equally adept at comedy and drama, Maher could be heard in regular roles on shows all over the dial. We’ll hear him as Sgt. Matt Grebb in “Eddie Gaynor Framed for Murder” from The Line-Up (originally aired on CBS on July 20, 1950) and as Michael Shayne, Private Detective in “Judge Thorman Shot” (originally aired on Mutual on January 14, 1947).

Philip Marlowe made his way from the pen of Raymond Chandler to the big screen and then to radio in some of the best private eye crime drama of the era. In honor of Chandler’s birthday, we’ll hear his legendary shamus in two radio mysteries voiced by Gerald Mohr. First, Marlowe tackles the case of “The Eager Witness” (originally aired on CBS on August 27, 1949), and then “The Deep Shadow” (originally aired on CBS on March 21, 1950).

Long before Dragnet, Gang Busters brought true crime to radio. Over its two decade run, the series presented stories of dangerous criminals and the determined police officers who brought them to justice. Producer Phillips H. Lord pulled cases from state and local law enforcement agencies and presented them in one of radio’s most down to earth crime dramas. Its memorable introduction - with the wail of sirens and a hail of bullets - gave rise to the expression “coming on like Gang Busters.” We’ll hear “The Case of the Incorrigible Killer,” first aired on ABC on October 9,  1948.

William Gargan wasn't a great private eye in real life, but he played a mean one on radio. Years after he supported himself checking credit and shadowing suspects, Gargan starred as several radio detectives including Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator. We'll hear the actor as Craig in "The Lost Lady" (originally aired on NBC on June 14, 1953) and "Ghosts Don't Die in Bed" (originally aired on NBC on September 7, 1954).

Nick and Nora Charles - Dashiell Hammett’s husband and wife detective duo from The Thin Man - charmed readers and later moviegoers with their flirtatious and funny approach to cracking a case of murder. In 1941, Nick and Nora moved radio in The Adventures of The Thin Man. This blend of comedic banter and crime-solving was a long-running hit with listeners, and it ran on radio for nearly a decade. We’ll hear Les Damon as Nick and Claudia Morgan as Nora in “The Case of the Wandering Corpse,” originally aired on CBS on October 10, 1943.

One of radio’s men of a thousand voices, Paul Frees was heard all over the dial during the Golden Age of Radio, as Boris Badenov on television, and as the ghostly host at Disney’s Haunted Mansion. In honor of this versatile, talented actor’s birthday, we’ll hear him in two episodes as The Green Lama, the pulp hero who came to the airwaves in his own detective series. Frees stars as the Lama, aka Jethro Dumont, in “The Million Dollar Chopsticks” (originally aired on CBS on June 26, 1949) and “The Adventure of the Perfect Prisoner” (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1949).

Reformed jewel thief Boston Blackie was a debonair detective in his years on radio. Along with his girlfriend Mary Wesley and sidekick Shorty, Blackie used his underworld know-how to catch more unscrupulous thieves and scoundrels. Racing against Blackie to crack the case first was Inspector Farraday of the police, always unsure of Blackie’s conversion to the side of law and order. To celebrate the anniversary of his radio debut, we’ll hear him in a pair of radio mysteries: “The Star of the Nile” starring Chester Morris (originally aired on NBC on July 14, 1944), and “Blackie Steals a Necklace for Charity,” a syndicated episode starring Richard Kollmar.

When Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar came back to the airwaves in 1955 after a brief hiatus, it was reenergized by a new nightly serialized format and a new star in Bob Bailey. Bailey made the role of “the man with the action-packed expense account” his own in rich, complex scripts that could play out five nights a week in a combined hour of airtime. We’ll hear Bailey as Dollar  in all five parts of “The Laughing Matter” (first aired on CBS from June 11 to June 15, 1956).

Jack Webb is back as Sgt. Joe Friday in a two-part episode of Dragnet. Join Friday and his partner Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) as they pursue criminals and try and keep the streets of Los Angeles safe in this king-sized story from official police files. We’ll hear “The Big Mask” (Part 1 originally aired on NBC on December 28, 1952; Part 2 originally aired on January 4, 1953).

Dashiell Hammett is widely regarded as the father of the hard-boiled school of crime fiction. After his days as a Pinkerton detective, he turned to writing mysteries, and he gave the genre some of its best loved stories, including The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, and The Dain Curse. In honor of his birthday, we’ll hear radio adventures of two of his private eyes - Brad Runyon, aka The Fat Man, in “Murder Plays Hide and Seek” (originally aired on ABC on January 2, 1948); and Sam Spade in “The Lawless Caper” (originally aired on CBS on August 29, 1948).

Join Orson Welles as he leads you on a guided tour of The Black Museum, Scotland Yard’s mausoleum of murder. In each episode of this syndicated series, Welles tells the story of a seemingly innocuous object that was inexorably tied to a violent crime. Follow the story from the perpetrator’s flight from the scene of the crime to the dogged police work of Scotland Yard as they close in on the guilty party. We’ll hear Welles narrate the syndicated story “The Telegram."