Adventure Detective Rarities

Crime Dramas and Adventure Stories were some of the most popular programs during the post-War period. As many as there were on the air, there were actually more that never made it. Some of these shows survived as audition programs, some others are surviving relics, the only surviving episodes from longer serials.

Each of these shows focuses on despicable bad guys, but the episodes are as much about the noble officers and dedicated agents who serve the public.

• The early years of the Cold War give us a tale of "Scientific Fiction" in Action 80, a code name for the fictional secret government agency which oversees secret military and some civilian defense projects. One of those projects is Operation Sailfin, the world's first atomic submarine. The construction schedule is accelerated to be a year ahead of schedule, but there are still indications of sabotage.
• One of the biggest mysteries of Old Time Radio and Comic Books is the question of why Batman and Robin never had a radio series of their own. The Caped Crusader was featured several times on Mutual's The Adventures of Superman, sometimes as a foil to the Man of Steel, others having adventures of his own so that the regular actors could take a vacation. "The Monster of Dumphrey's Hall" may have been an attempt to create an audition program for a Batman series, unfortunately, the writers and producers apparently never read a Batman comic!
• Barton Yarborough is well known to OTR fans for his work with Carlton E. Morse and playing Sgt. Friday's sidekick Ben Romero on Dragnet, but there is no mistaking his talents when he rides into town to chase The Black Ghost. The Ghost is a mysterious outlaw terrorizing a mining town in the Old West. The show manages to use every cliché possible from both Westerns and ghost stories.
• The crooks known as confidence men set up their marks by showing them what appears to be a sure thing and usually appealing to the mark's sense of greed. The officers of the Bunco Squad do their best to protect the public from these conmen, but it is hard to get the victims to admit that they were foolish or greedy enough to be swindled.
• Before comic books became an industry of its own, Dan Dunn, Secret Operative No. 48 was published in 1933 as "A Story in Cartoons". The characters made it to newspaper comic pages and the Kasper-Gordon company made a syndicated radio series featuring Dan Dunn, but only the first two episodes survive.
• Gus Gray – Special Correspondent worked for the Evening Star Newspaper and specialized in tracking down mysteries. In "The Nine Ivory Buddhas", Gus and his lovely wife not only track down the mysterious statuettes, the deal with the nefarious Count, a seductive Polish countess, and a Chinese Secret Society. Unfortunately, many of the episodes from the series are missing. Star Arundel Nixon also voiced Charlie Chuckles who read the funny page from the Sunday Telegraph over the air.
• Starting as a serial on the Comic Pages, Mandrake the Magician was also a popular series on Mutual from 1940 to 1942. This episode is a rarity because it is an audition for syndication. Rather than the music break for local advertisers, the episode tells sponsors how Mandrake can help their business. Mandrake is played by Raymond Edward Johnson, the ghoulish host of Inner Sanctum Mysteries.
• The detective game is almost exclusively a masculine club, but amateur sleuth Jane Sherlock was a beautiful exception. Meet Miss Sherlock tells of the trials of an attorney in love with a girl who casually solves murders.
• Laura Fenton offers Mike Hammer $1000 to guard a French beauty named Jolie. When he shows up at Laura's room for the job he is greeted by the cops who found a knife in the back of Hammer's client, and Jolie turns out to be French Poodle. Listen to see what happens to That Hammer Guy.
• Most OTR fans will be familiar with Bogie and Bacall's project with ZIV Syndications, Bold Venture, but it was far from Humphrey Bogart's first attempt using his name to sell a radio show. James M. Cain's story "Dead Man" was used for the audition program for Bogart Presents. During the intro, "Actor/Producer" Humphrey Bogart explains that part of an actor/producer's job is to gather new material, so he finds himself reading a good deal of short fiction. The idea of the program was to present short stories from several genres with Bogie starring.
• Some of the greatest adventure stories came from the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Prince Valiant first came to the comic pages in 1937, and in this rare radio episode, we hear how Val is taken in as Sir Gawain's squire. Of course, we know there are evil doings afoot when we here from a witch speaking in rhyme!
• Post-War Los Angeles is a city defined by the automobile, and one of the most important tools of law enforcement is the Prowl Car. This audition program emphasizes that the police officers who man the cars changed uniforms from defending Freedom to defending the public from criminals. Producer Hunt Stromberg Jr. tells of plans to bring Prowl Car to TV and the big screen. Not surprisingly, many of the names mentioned in the program are the same as heard on another police procedural, Dragnet.

See also the Detectives Collection, Hard-boiled Detectives, and Soft Boiled Detectives. Fore more rare female detectives, see also Dame Detectives Collections: Female Crimefighters. See also: Rare Detective and Crime Shows.

(Please note that many of the rare recordings in this collection may be of inferior sound quality.)