Terry and the Pirates

Comic-strip adventure serial (1937 -

The famed comics creator Milt Caniff created Terry & the Pirates, an action-packed adventure newspaper comics story that was adapted for radio. The first run of the show in the late 30s is considered lost, but many of the 1940s episodes are just as exciting as when kids who are now grandparents thrilled to hearing them on the radio.

Terry Lee is a young teenager who lives in the Orient, and he's lucky enough to know some of the greatest fighting guys a boy could imagine! Pat Ryan is Terry's best pal. Flip Corkin and Hotshot Charlie, plus Connie the coolie, and then there's Burma and Elita, who can fight too. Owen Jordan played Terry through most of the war years, and Bud Collyer, who was Superman on radio, was one of several playing Pat Ryan. Great actress Agnes Moorehead (of many old time radio shows including Suspense) was one of the incarnations of the Dragon Lady. The casts were solid, the acting great fun, and the music and sound effects are action-packed. Commercials are for Libby Porducts or Quaker Puffed Wheat or Puffed Rice!

Marion Sweet - "The Dragon Lady"
from Terry and the Pirates The "pirates" are run by a beautiful baddie called the Dragon Lady, and for years they have been the scourge of the orient. But in the 1940s, Terry and his pals are plunged into the War effort, and take up fighting not only "Japs" but also Nazi spies and saboteurs are thick in the orient, too!

The plots were written by Albert Barker and veered wildly off the pages of Caniff's well-developed comic strip, but it didn't matter. It's great juvenile thriller radio, even if the treasure is sometimes scratched and quite a bit of it is now lost.

For other aviation adventure series, see also: Air Adventures of Jimmy Allen, Airplanes and Pilots in Old Time Radio, Anne of the Airlines, Air Stories of the World War, Captain Midnight,Hop Harrigan, Howie Wing, A Saga of Aviation, Rare Aviation Old Time Radio Shows, Airmail Mystery, Sky King, Speed Gibson, Tailspin Tommy, Terry & the Pirates, Sky King, Sky Blazers and Smilin' Jack.

For other great serials, see also: Jerry at Fair Oaks, Adventures of Dick Cole, Bobby Benson, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Hop Harrigan, Jungle Jim, Magic Island, Sgt Preston, Sky King, Speed Gibson, Superman, Charles Lindbergh Recordings, Amelia Earhart, and Tom Mix. See also: Pirates Collection.