Old Time Radio Mystery/Crime/Adventure Shows - An Overview

Proving that the 21st century's obsession with crime drama (CSI, Law & Order, etc.) isn't anything new, in excess of 50 radio shows of the '40s/'50s centered on solving crimes. 

The majority of these shows featured police or detectives solving the usual sorts of crime: murder, robbery, fraud.  However, reflecting the events of those tumultuous decades, many shows also revolve around saving the world from such period baddies as gangsters, commies, juvenile delinquents, boxing match fixers, cattle rustlers, counterfeiters, horse racing scams, foreign spies, sabautage, and black marketeers. A few shows - foreshadowing events to come - even involve saving various beloved family members from the devastation of drugs.

While the shows shared many basic similarities - hard-boiled heroes, perky female secretaries, dangerous dames, thugs with ubiquitous Jersey accents, and musical scores heavy on the organ - I've decided they fall into several fairly distinct categories.  Here's hoping the list below helps direct folks to series that will suit their particular penchant in larceny!

1. Police Procedurals.  These shows featured realistic radio patrol car broadcasts, suspect interviews, officer small talk, and other authentic (or at least faux authentic) elements.  Examples include Dragnet, Gangbusters, Johnny Madero/Pier 23, Call the Police, Calling All Detectives, Bulldog Drummond, The Man from Homocide, and 21st Precinct. 
2. Crime Procedurals. Still other shows, such as Perry Mason and Mr. District Attorney, examined crime from the perspective of the courtroom.
3. True Crime Narratives. These shows retold authentic crime stories in the past tense, with emphasis on the clues that led to the eventual arrest of the wrongdoers.  (Recall this was back in the 1950s, the "good old days," when justice always prevailed, so the bad guys always get their come-uppance in the end.)  Examples include:  Black Museum, Adventures of Scotland Yard, and Tales of the FBI. 
4. Spy/espionage shows. Though many shows included episodes related to spying and espionage, a few shows made this their modus operandi, to include Cloak & Dagger, FBI in Peace and War, and I Was a Communist for the FBI.
5. Adventure dramas.  Many series involved a cast of regular characters getting into adventures, sometimes related to crime or spying but not always.  The main element was adventure - sunken treasure, voodoo curses, foreign spies - and if the writers could figure out a way to involve an exotic setting, so much the better.  Examples include: Bold Venture, Adventures of Rocky Jordan, The Man Called X/Ken Thurston, Adventures of Leonidas Witherall, Escape, Danger Dr. Danfield, Dangerous Assignment, I Love Adventure, Adventures of Frank Race, etc.
6. Suspense dramas.  Other series involved crime and spying but their primary element was danger/suspense, often with a soupcon of the supernatural to thicken the sauce.  Examples include Adventures by Morse, The Shadow, Boris Karloff Presents, Lights Out, Suspense, The Whistler, The Whisperer, Quiet Please, etc.
7. Crime series/anthologies. Many series specialized in crime but featured no particular detective.  The element connecting them would be that they were all by a particular author (ex: Carter Brown Mysteries), or that they all featured great detectives from fiction (ex: Crime Club), or that they all came from tomes in a fictional murder bookstore (ex: Crime Classics).  Other examples of his genre include: I Love a Mystery, Murder Clinic, and Murder by Experts.
8. Detective dramas.  Still others series were what I'd call true "detective shows," featuring a repeating character (usually with one or more sidekicks) whose main occupation is solving crimes: examples include Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Candy Madsen, Box 13/Dan Holiday, Mathew Slade PI, Michael Shayne, Philo Vance, Richard Diamond, Rogue's Gallery/Richard Rogue, Casebook of Gregory Hood, Boston Blackie, Adventures of the Falcon, Broadway is My Beat, Let George Do It/George Valentine, and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.  Having said that, not all of these crimesolvers were PIs, police officers or investigators.  Some detective shows featured photographers (Casey, Crime Photographer), writers (Box 13/Dan Holiday),  and even magicians (Blackstone the Magic Detective)! 

Hope you'll join me as I focus on my personal favorite, detective dramas, in my next few blog entries.

Why I Love Old Radio Shows

I'm a big fan of old radio detective shows and dramatizations from the '40s and '50s.  Here's a list of some of the things that I love about these programs:

1. Convenience.  Unlike TV, you can listen to radio without having to be tied to a TV screen - means you can do manual labor and listen at the same time.  Especially great for walking/jogging, housework, and working out at the gym.
2. Access.  Radio is portable - you can listen to it anywhere with laptop or ipod access.  No laser/flatscreen/HDTV television or cable/fiber/DVR required.
3. Commercials!  Rather than an annoyance, the commercials are actually part of the fun.  I especially love the commercials that are trying to persuade you to buy items that we take for granted now (canned soup vs. homemade soup; disposable glass jars vs. returnable).  And those catchy jingles ...!  ("Rinso white! Rinso white! Your happy little wash-day song!")
4. History Lessons.  Many of the shows include interludes in which the announcers, sponsors or stars interrupt the show in order to discuss the ongoing war effort, bond drives, blood drives, paper drives, rationing, the need for female workers, the dangers of espionage/black markets/spying, etc.  Really makes you appreciate the effort that WWII was not just for the soldiers, but for all Americans.  (Also just how widespread was our fear of communists!)
5. Civics Lessons.  What amazed me when I began listening is the number of commercial announcements given over to overt government propoganda: the advantages of democracy over other forms of government, the importance of state's rights, the history of each state, the roles of various government officials and offices ....  Strange to imagine a time when our government felt it necessary to convince us of the advantages of democracy.
6. Public Service Announcements.  You have to love the announcements aimed at informing us citizens of the perils of fast driving, the necessity of supporting our farmers, and the importance of attending church every Sunday. 
7. Stargazing.  Many of the dramatizations feature Hollywood stars that later went on to become great - it's fun to listen to them "earning their chops" on radio!
8. Catch a Matinee. Many shows - particularly the Lux Radio Hour, Campbell Playhouse, and Academy Award Theater - specialized in adapting the most popular (and still famous) movies into radio dramatizations, often voiced by the same stars that played the roles in the movies.  Some of my favorites include Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Rebecca, It Happened One Night, and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir.  (By the way, if you liked the Bogey/Bacall duo, catch them in Bold Venture, a radio show in which they sailed from port to port in search of adventure.)
9. Too Busy to Read?  Other series like the Hallmark Playhouse and NBC University Theater specialized in adapting the most popular (and still famous) books into radio dramatizations.  If you somehow never got around to plowing your way through such classics as Arrowsmith, The Last of the Mohicans, Of Mice and Men, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Sons and Lovers, Don Quixote, or Treasure Island, trying listening to them in dramatized form - SO much more interesting, and done in 1hr or less!
10. Catch a Play.  Series such as Great Plays specialized in dramatizing the works of Shakespeare, Moliere, Marlowe, O'Neill, Miller, Shaw, Wilde, Williams, and the Greek dramatists.  Let your brain invent the costumes and the sets and you'll never have to worry about budget constraints ... or tiny glasses of wine that cost $14 and have to be consumed in 4 minutes!
11. That Organ Music!  Outside of baseball games and church, organ music has pretty much vanished.  Such a shame, because there's nothing like the swell of organ music to make sure you don't sleep through the exciting parts.  Soooo dramatic!
12. Affordable Fun.  Thanks to sites like The Internet Archive and Old Radio World, you can listen to literally thousands of old radio shows for free, or download them to your ipod/MP3 player for the same low price (that's free, in case you weren't paying attention the first time).
13. I'll Take My Crime Hardboiled, Please.  Enjoy crime the way writers like Hammett and Cain intended it be enjoyed - hardboiled. Many of the shows have a noiry edge (rainy streets, cheating dames), and some episodes are as beautifully written as the classics.  Of course, sometimes they are classics: all the Sherlock Holmes stories were eventually adapted for radio, as were the exploits of other favorite literary detectives to include Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, The Falcon, and Nero Wolfe.
14. Christmas!  Those old radio guys knew how to celebrate the season! Lux Radio Theater dramatized such holiday classics as It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street; Campbell's Playhouse snagged the great Lionel Barrymore for their annual production of A Christmas Carol; and every serial had regular Christmas episodes, of course. But I especially enjoy the Christmas broadcasts (often called "Command Performances") intended for the troops serving overseas: it's great to listen to the masters of big band perform, interspersed with comedy by Hope & Crosby, and of course those moral-boosting patriotic messages from a parade of starlets.  Guaranteed to add some white and blue to your Christmas red!