Radio Detective Story Hour

Part II of our continuing look at Rex Stout’s Archie Goodwin portrayals on the Nero Wolfe radio series. This week, Elliott Lewis (right) steps into the role of Goodwin with Francis X. Bushman as Wolfe. Lewis was one of radio’s most versatile persons. He was an actor, both comedic as well as serious, producer, director and writer. This week’s episode is from The Amazing Nero Wolfe!

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This week begins a multi-podcast look at Rex Stout’s Archie Goodwin character as portrayed on radio. While the podcast will feature episodes from Nero Wolfe, the focus will be on the differences between the actors who portrayed Archie Goodwin on the series.

This week’s begins with veteran radio actor John Gibson who portrayed Archie while Santos Ortega portrayed Wolfe in the first run from the series in 1944.

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An episode from a well-written, but rarely found series about detective Lieutenant Dana of the Homicide Bureau. Starred Dan Duryea (right) as Dana, this series was very short-lived – four months. Only three episodes are known to exist of this rare series.

Music under is Roy Eldridge.

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Our final look at Gunsmoke as detective serial. This is from the regular run of Gunsmoke in 1952 starring William Conrad (right). I’ll look at how it shares some elements of the detective genre.

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Gunsmoke? A detective show?

This week, a look at how Gunsmoke was first conceived as a hard boiled western detective series. A little history on the beginnings of the concept and an audition recording by two writers of hardboiled radio detective stories – Mort Fine and David Friedkin.

This audition starred Rye Billsbury (later Michael Rye) as “Mark Dillon.”

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A slight wrinkle to the theme of detectives this week. A look at the newspaperman as detective as Jimmy Stewart (right) turns detective as he tries to solve a mis-carriage of justice. The radio play was based upon the film Call Northside 777, a great noir film. Besides Stewart, I’ll go into some of the veteran radio actors you’ll hear in this week’s play.

Music under is Lac Fantome by Nick Kepics from garageband.com

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E.W. Hornung (right) was the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. Hornung’s own fictional detective rivaled Conan Doyle’s and the two would often create stories that referenced the other. Where Conan Doyle’s Holmes and Watson were the upright detectives who fantasized about becoming criminals, Hornung’s A.J. Raffles and his helper Harry “Bunny” Manders were criminals – specifically amateur cracksmen.

This week you’ll hear CBS Radio’s version of the Hornung Raffles.

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There were only two radio detective serials in which one of the detectives was played by a woman and a major film star. This week I’ll look at one of those serials – Results, Inc. and you be able to hear only one of three that are known to exist of the series. The star was the glamorous Claire Trevor (right), who plays Terry Travers opposite her fellow detective, Johnny Strange portrayed by Lloyd Nolan.

Music under is “Get Out of the Blue” by Nick Kepics on Garageband.com

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Just as radio detectives often seemed to be loners, there were also several radio detective husband and wife teams. Most think immediately of Nick and Nora Charles, but another popular one on radio that even made it to film and television was Mr. & Mrs. North. Based on the novels of Frances and Richard Lockridge, for most of the radio run Jerry North was played by Joseph Curtain while Pam North was portrayed by Alice Frost (right).

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Happy New Year!

This week a rarely heard short-lived series that featured fiction’s famous detectives telling about their most famous cases. The series was called Murder Clinic and each week featured a different detective from fiction.

Music under is “Saturday Morning” by Anne Farnsworth from the Podsafe Music Network.

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