Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

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Episode 249 - Old Time Radio Halloween 2017 (Suspense) Oct 25, 2017

Show notes

It's alive...it's alive! It's the "Down These Mean Streets" Halloween special, presenting an old time radio chiller guaranteed to get you in the mood for trick or treating. We'll hear Herbert Marshall star in an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (originally aired on Suspense on CBS on November 3, 1952).

Episode 248 – Back to Baker Street (New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) Oct 22, 2017

Show notes

The game's afoot as we join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in three of their old time radio adventures. John Stanley is the world's most famous detective and Alfred Shirley plays his loyal companion and biographer in these original adventures that feature a locked room mystery, a ghostly menace to an old family, and a woman in fear for her life. We'll hear "The Case of the Dog that Changed Its Mind" (originally aired on Mutual on September 28, 1947); "The Case of the Cradle that Rocked Itself" (originally aired on Mutual on November 30, 1947); and "The Case of the Very Best Butter" (originally aired on Mutual on April 18, 1948).

Seven Percent Solutions Oct 20, 2017

Show notes

On October 20, 1930, Sherlock Holmes arrived on radio, and he would remain on the airwaves for nearly two decades. Holmes of course was already popular from the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a stage play that toured the country starring William Gillette as the sleuth. But it wasn't until actress, writer, and producer Edith Meiser persuaded NBC to take a chance on the character's radio prospects that Holmes made his way into homes throughout the United States. For nearly ten years before Basil Rathbone first donned the deerstalker cap in The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes was a mainstay on American radio.

In honor of the anniversary of that first broadcast, I've compiled a list of my favorite radio adventures of the master detective of Baker Street. These episodes, a mix of Conan Doyle adaptations and original radio mysteries, will make a fine playlist as you celebrate the on-air career of Sherlock Holmes and his loyal friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson.

"The Immortal Sherlock Holmes" – Technically not an episode of the Holmes radio series, but I think you'll forgive my making an exception for Orson Welles. In this episode of The Mercury Theatre On the Air (a show that aired a month before the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast), Welles adapts and stars in a radio version of the Gillette play, a story that blends elements of several Holmes stories into one adventure pitting the sleuth against his nemesis Professor Moriarty. Ray Collins, years before he was Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason, narrates as Dr. Watson, and Eustace Wyatt plays Moriarty in this top-notch production from one of radio's best dramatic anthologies. (Originally aired on CBS on September 25, 1938)

"The Notorious Canary Trainer" – To generations of fans, Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes. Rathbone made an indelible impression as the detective in fourteen films between 1939 and 1946, but he also starred in hundreds of radio episodes alongside Nigel Bruce in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. These shows, written by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green, are fantastic, and one of the best is this original mystery about a murderer who confesses before he commits suicide, but there is no evidence of a killing beyond two dead canaries found at the scene. (Originally aired on Mutual on April 23, 1945)

"The Second Generation" – One of the most famous stories in the Holmes canon is "A Scandal in Bohemia," the tale that introduced Irene Adler. Known forever to Holmes as "the woman," the beautiful and brilliant Adler has appeared in nearly all of the recent Holmes adaptations (the Robert Downey, Jr. films, Elementary, and Sherlock), and subsequent works have explored the exact nature of the relationship between Holmes and his lovely adversary. This Green and Boucher script acts as a sequel to "Bohemia" (a story they adapted on the series one week prior), and it tells of Holmes and Watson's encounter with Irene's daughter two decades later. One of the great things about the Green/Boucher run was they explored the entire timeline, with stories set in the early days of the Holmes/Watson partnership, some during the "great hiatus" after Holmes supposed death, and some in Holmes' later years of semi-retirement as a beekeeper. "The Second Generation" is one of those "Holmes in twilight" stories, and it adds an additional level of emotion to the proceedings. (Originally aired on Mutual on December 17, 1945)

"The Adventure of the Tolling Bell" – After Basil Rathbone left the role of Holmes in 1946, Tom Conway took over as the detective for one radio season. He stars as Holmes in this mystery set in the idyllic English countryside. A vacationing Holmes and Watson (Nigel Bruce) learn of a strange series of deaths in the village when they come to the aid of a young woman. Their investigation leads them to a demented villain's reign of terror and a showdown in a church bell tower. It's a classic example of the "small town with a secret" genre, and it proves once again (as Holmes said in "The Copper Beeches") the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." (Originally aired on ABC on April 7, 1947)

"The Case of the Sudden Senility" – Listeners of the podcast will know that my favorite radio Holmes is John Stanley, and my favorite run of episodes is Stanley's 1947-48 season – a year where he was supported by Alfred Shirley as Watson and performed scripts penned by Edith Meiser. In this Meiser original that serves as an unofficial sequel to Doyle's "Silver Blaze," Holmes and Watson investigate when a five year-old horse dies in his stable of old age. The case involves a black cat, a mysterious house, and an appearance from Holmes' greatest enemy. (Originally aired on Mutual on January 11, 1948)

"The Empty House" – Edith Meiser adapts the story that brought Holmes back from the dead. Watson has been soldiering on after Holmes' apparent battle to the death with Moriarty, and he's called in to consult on a baffling locked room murder case. It isn't long before Holmes reveals his presence (in a wonderful scene that shows off John Stanley's versatility, he plays an irascible bookworm who harangues Watson about his treatment of books) and explains the connection Watson's case has to one of Moriarty's most dangerous associates. (Originally aired on Mutual on April 11, 1948)

"The Final Problem" – This one may have the greatest cast of any Holmes radio adaptation. John Gielgud is the great detective, Ralph Richardson is Dr. Watson, and special guest star Orson Welles is the Napoleon of crime – Professor Moriarty. Edith Meiser never adapted the story where Conan Doyle killed off his hero, but it was used for the 1955 British series from producer Harry Alan Towers. The entire Gielgud/Richardson series is superb, presenting wonderfully faithful adaptations of the original stories, but if you only listen to one episode make sure it's this one. The showdown between Holmes and Moriarty in the detective's rooms in Baker Street is a glorious scene played to the hilt by Gielgud and Welles (who may be the only actor who played both Sherlock Holmes and his greatest enemy on radio).

Enjoy! And for more radio Holmes, check out Down These Mean Streets this Sunday for three original adventures starring John Stanley and Alfred Shirley.

Elementary Oct 20, 2017

Show notes

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know." ("The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle")

You'd be hard pressed to find a more famous detective (any literary character, for that matter) more famous and known throughout the world than Sherlock Holmes. Since the character's introduction in A Study in Scarlet in 1887, his adventures have been reprinted around the globe; he has starred in films and television shows (indeed, at the time of this writing, there are two different shows that cast Holmes in the modern world and a third installment of a blockbuster film franchise starring the detective is in the works). But the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his legendary consulting detective enjoyed a long life on radio and was a fixture during the World War II era as he simultaneously entertained audiences on the big screen.

And his patron saint on the airwaves was an actress, singer, and writer named Edith Meiser. Meiser had grown up reading the Conan Doyle stories, and she believed Sherlock Holmes' adventures were a natural for radio. She worked tirelessly to bring the stories to radio, and she succeeded in 1930 when her adaptation of "The Speckled Band" premiered on NBC on October 20. William Gillette, who wrote and starred in a stage adaptation of Holmes, played Holmes in that first broadcast. The series, which starred Richard Gordon, Louis Hector, and eventually Richard Gordon again, ran on NBC until 1936. Through these different actors and series, Meiser remained a consistent hand at the wheel

Holmes returned to the air following the success of the 1939 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. NBC commissioned a new series to be written by Mesier and to star the actors from the film - Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. This series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, premiered on NBC on October 2, 1939. It ran until March 1, 1942, when it moved to the Mutual Network. Most of the episodes were original adventures "suggested by" incidents in the original Conan Doyle stories. When Meiser left the series in 1944, scripts were provided initially by Leslie Charteris (creator of "The Saint") and Dennis Green. When Charteris left to focus on bringing his own creation to radio, Anthony Boucher stepped in and co-wrote the series with Green.

Rathbone, concerned about typecasting, left the role in 1946 after the final film in their series was released. Nigel Bruce had no such concerns, and he stayed on in the part as producers brought in a new Holmes - actor Tom Conway. As the veteran of the cast, Bruce received top billing for the 1946 - 1947 series, sponsored by Kremel Hair Tonic. The Conway/Bruce series lasted 39 episodes before both actors left at the end of the season. Rathbone's departure coincided with Meiser's return; many of her earlier scripts were re-used for Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce.

The show came back for the 1947 - 1948 season with new actors at the microphones. Alfred Shirley assumed the narration/sidekick duties as Dr. Watson, and John Stanley took over as Sherlock Holmes. When some listeners heard Stanley in the role, they suspected one of Holmes' famous disguises might be in use. As Edith Meiser recalled, "Everyone thought that Basil Rathbone, who had said he would have nothing more to do with Sherlock Holmes, was now moonlighting as 'John Stanley.'" Stanley, she said, "was a darling who sounded exactly like Basil Rathbone." To this writer's ears, Stanley outdoes his predecessors and emerges as the definitive radio Holmes. His performances are far more polished than Rathbone's, and Stanley is unencumbered by any of the baggage (such as frustration with the role) that Rathbone brought with him to the program. Stanley was also admired by Holmes fans; he wrote a monograph on the pistols used by Holmes and Watson that appeared in the July 1948 issue of Black Maskmagazine. And both he and Alfred Shirley were given wonderful lines by Edith Meiser.

Unfortunately, this season of Sherlock Holmes proved to be Meiser's last. She was fired for, as she put it, refusing to put more violence into her scripts. "The producers were always telling me to make Mr. Holmes more hardboiled," she'd recall years later. The show continued on without her, with a decidedly more modern feel to Holmes than what had come earlier, before leaving the airwaves in 1950. John Stanley left the role in 1949 and he was followed by Ben Wright (later to star as an intrepid Scotland Yard inspector on Pursuit) before the airwaves in 1950.

Holmes and Watson continued their radio adventures across the pond after they wrapped up on American radio. John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson starred in an excellent series of Conan Doyle adaptations in 1955. Co-produced by ABC, the series featured Orson Welles as Professor Moriarty in an adaptation of "The Final Problem." And of course, the character is still going strong on television (Sherlock and Elementary, which recast the sleuth in the modern world, draw millions of viewers) and in films (Robert Downey Jr.'s re-imagined take on the character has become a box office smash franchise). But few of the writers who have adapted the character since his creation have been able to match Conan Doyle's style in the way Edith Meiser pulled it off. Thanks in no small part to her work, the Sherlock Holmes radio adventures are a must-listen for Sherlockians and fans of radio drama alike.

"You've got a job for me - George Valentine." Oct 18, 2017

Show notes

Not all of the radio detectives were two-fisted tough guys, delivering purple dialogue through gritted teeth. There were a number of sleuths who took a lighter approach to solving crimes, often aided by a girl Friday to allow for some flirtation along the way. One of the best examples of the lighter school of radio detectives is the long running Let George Do It, a series that evolved from a comedy with a hint of mystery to a whodunit with a lighthearted touch.

In his first outing as a radio detective, Bob Bailey (later the star of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) played George Valentine, an ex-GI who seized upon an unusual method of finding post-war employment. He placed an ad in the newspaper where he offered to take a job - any job - that would prove too risky for anyone else. When the show premiered in 1946, George was backed up by a cast better suited for comedy than crime solving. Joseph Kearns (later Mr. Wilson on TV's Dennis the Menace) played Caleb, the elevator operator in George's building; Eddie Firestone played George's office boy, Sonny Brooks; and Frances Robinson as Sonny's sister Claire, aka "Brooksie," who became George's girl Friday. The earliest episodes found George in more comedic assignments than dangerous jobs, but as the show evolved the mystery element played a more prominent role. Sonny left the team and the shows became driven more by the George/Brooksie duo. The shows played like episodes of Richard Diamond, Private Detective if Diamond's Park Avenue girlfriend Helen Asher accompanied him on his cases (this would really be the case when Virginia Gregg and Frances Robinson swapped roles later in the run; Gregg played Brooksie and Robinson played Helen!). Often assisting the pair in their investigations was Lt. Riley of the police department. Like other long-suffering foils of radio private eyes, Riley would initially roll his eyes when George arrived on the scene but would quickly embrace his help in closing a case. Riley was played by the talented Wally Maher - a radio veteran who played Michael Shayne and supported Bill Johnstone on The Line-Up. Sadly, he passed away at age 43 in 1951, leaving a hole in the Let George Do It team. Actor Ken Christy joined the cast as Lt. Johnson, who while not outright hostile certainly saw Valentine as a hindrance rather than a help to an investigation. And the usual stable of great Hollywood radio actors rounded out the guest casts every week, including Alan Reed, Jeff Chandler, Lurene Tuttle, Betty Lou Gerson, and Parley Baer.

The 1950s saw not only a new police cohort but also a new tone for Let George Do It. The tide had turned and audiences were demanding a grittier sound to their mysteries as police procedurals and hard-boiled private eyes littered the airwaves. Even as scripts grew tougher, the cast continued to deliver strong performances, backed up by sharp scripts written by Herb Little, Jr., David Victor, and veteran mystery scripter Jackson Gillis, who would later pen thirty-two episodes of Perry Mason and eleven Columbo TV movies.

Bailey would remain in the role until 1954 when production moved from Hollywood to New York. Actor Olan Soule (later the voice of Batman in Filmation cartoons from the 1960s) played George for the final year of the series. But Bob Bailey wouldn't stay off the beat for long; in 1955, he kicked off a long run and cemented his place in radio history with his definitive portrayal of Johnny Dollar. Before he starred in that series, however, he proved his chops as a radio leading man in a series that called for comedy, action, romance, and drama. Just like George Valentine, Bob Bailey was the man for the job - no matter what it entailed.

A Crying Shayne Oct 16, 2017

Show notes

"Okay, Shayne…get the picture. A guy in front of you with a .38, a guy in back with a rifle. And you with nothing. If wishing will make it so, you better start wishing to be somewhere else fast because- (BLAM)"

Under the pen name of "Brett Halliday," writer Davis Dresser introduced the world to Florida-based private eye Michael Shayne in Dividend on Death in 1939. Dresser continued the adventures of his shamus for fifty novels and hundreds of short stories before farming out his pen name to a staff of writers who kept his character in print. Unlike his contemporaries, Shayne started out as an atypical private detective; he was married, and his adventures were equal parts domestic comedy and deduction of clues. But in 1943, Mrs. Shayne met an untimely end, the laughs fell by the wayside, and Michael Shayne was reinvented as a two-fisted, hard-nosed private eye. The various radio, film, and television incarnations of the character oscillated between the two Shaynes, with some playing up the his-and-hers patter, and others doubling down on the hard-boiled intensity.

Before Shayne came to radio, he hit the big screen. Lloyd Nolan starred in a series of films for 20th Century Fox before Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver himself) headlined a run for PRC. Shayne first came to radio in 1944 in a West Coast series that eventually went national in 1946. Radio character Wally Maher (heard as Sgt. Grebb on The Line-Up and as Lt. Riley on Let George Do It) starred as Shayne with Cathy Lewis as his secretary Phyllis Knight. This series focused on the lighter aspects of the character, with well-developed characterizations for Shayne and Cathy. The two would exchange flirtations as they solved their cases; imagine if Helen Asher accompanied Richard Diamond on his cases, and you'll get the idea. The Maher series ran until November 14, 1947. When it ran its course, Shayne would be off the air for almost a year before he returned in a very different style and format, and it's this series that is best remembered among radio fans.

The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, directed by radio veteran Bill Rousseau, came to the air in 1948 for twenty-six syndicated episodes. Rousseau had previously directed Jack Webb in the ultra-hard-boiled Pat Novak For Hire and he brought a similar tone to the revamped Shayneseries. Each episode opened with a musical barrage, ratcheting up the tension before audiences heard a tease of the story to come. Usually, it was Michael Shayne describing his latest tight spot, on the receiving end of a beating or facing down the business end of a gun. This new series uprooted Shayne from Miami and plopped him down in New Orleans. Phyllis Knight didn't make the trip, but a rotating assortment of femme fatales and damsels in distress turned up to keep Shayne in and out of trouble. Shayne took a licking and kept on ticking; Joe Mannix may be the only fictional private eye to rival Shayne in the injury department. Rousseau's old collaborator Jack Webb even joined the cast as Shayne's police foil, Inspector LeFevre. And stepping into the title role was Jeff Chandler, an actor selected by Rousseau out of a field of contenders.

Chandler is well known to radio fans as bashful biology teacher (and 180 degrees away from Michael Shayne!) Philip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks, and his most famous film role as Cochise opposite Jimmy Stewart in Broken Arrow. His first film role came opposite Dick Powell in Johnny O'Clock(1947), and he was a top leading man throughout the 1950s. Sadly, his career was cut tragically short in 1961 when a botched operation for a spinal disc herniation resulted in his death at the age of 42.

It's a shame; his performance as Michael Shayne helps to ground a series that is otherwise pretty over the top. Even throughout the beatings, the bullet wounds, the smoky dames and the snappy patter, Chandler's Shayne is a down to earth guy with the right touch of humor behind his gritted teeth. And his years on Our Miss Brooks demonstrate his comfort with comedy and versatility as an actor. There's no doubt he had decades of good work ahead of him, but we have 26 episodes of Michael Shayne to enjoy and celebrate the too-short life of this talented actor. Along with Jack Webb, Chandler is supported in these shows by great radio talents like Larry Dobkin, Frank Lovejoy, Hans Conried, Vivi Jannis, and more.

A 1952 - 1953 ABC series starred Donald Curtis, and later Robert Sterling and Vinton Hayworth as Shayne, but the Chandler syndicated series continued to air all across the country during this period. The Chandler episodes continued to run in several markets throughout the 1950s. Not bad for a private eye who was usually in debt, on the verge of losing his license, and nursing a head injury.

Episode 247 - Through Thick and Thin Man (Lux Radio Theatre) Oct 15, 2017

Show notes

"Are you packing?" "Yes dear, I'm putting away this liquor." William Powell and Myrna Loy are back as Dashiell Hammett's husband and wife crime solvers Nick and Nora Charles as The Lux Radio Theatre presents After the Thin Man. The sequel to the smash hit comedy mystery hit the big screen in 1936, and four years later the stars reunited to recreate the film for the airwaves. Join Mr. and Mrs. Charles as they solve a New Year's Eve murder in this episode originally aired on CBS on June 17, 1940.

Someday I'll find you... Oct 12, 2017

Show notes

Gatewood sat down and looked at his host. Then he said: "I'm searching for somebody, Mr. Keen, whom you are not likely to find."

"I doubt it," said Keen pleasantly.

(Robert Chambers, The Tracer of Lost Persons)

Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, and Philip Marlowe may be the more famous names in the crime-solving pantheon, but one wry little old man outpaced them all when it came to radio casework. Mr. Keen was a radio institution, popping up in 1,690 installments between 1937 and 1955. Even Johnny Dollar, with his own 13 year run only turned in 811 expense accounts. The Energizer Bunny of radio detectives, Mr. Keen tirelessly toiled to reunite people with their missing loved ones and to make sure guilty parties met with justice. Churned out like the soap operas that made his producers famous, Mr. Keen's adventures have been almost entirely lost, save for a small fraction of his hundreds of radio cases still available today.

Years before he hit radio, Mr. Keen came out of the pages of The Tracer of Lost Persons, a collection of short stories by Robert W. Chambers. The vignettes penned by Chambers focus more on the clients of Westrel Keen than on the "tracer" himself. Many of his clients were in search of lost loves, adding a romantic melodramatic flavor to the stories. Chambers would gain more fame from The King in Yellow, a collection of supernatural stories that have inspired dozens from H.P. Lovecraft to the first season of HBO's True Detective. This was not an introduction on par with Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, and Mr. Keen may have seemed an unlikely candidate for adaptation as a radio detective. Perhaps it was the romantic angle of the stories that drew the attention of the couple that - more than Chambers - would become the true architects of the character.

Anne and Frank Hummert, a husband and wife duo who were some of the most influential players in early radio, were responsible for bringing Mr. Keen to the airwaves. The two started in radio with soap operas, and their genre-shaping hits included Just Plain Bill, Ma Perkins, and Young Widder Brown. The two met while working at the same advertising firm, and they married in 1935. The Hummerts formed their own production company after their marriage, and launched several shows including Mr. Keen. At one point, the Hummerts had 90 episodes of various serialized shows airing on radio each week. Radio historian Jim Cox estimated the Hummerts controlled 4.5 hours of national radio each week, and more than half of the advertising revenue generated by daytime radio.

Mr. Keen was one of several mystery programs produced by the Hummerts. From the couple's home, Anne Hummert outlined the plots for all of her shows; she was celebrated for her ability to remember every twist and turn of the labyrinthine plots of her soaps. These outlines were dispatched to the writers – or "dialoguers" – in the Hummert's employ, who would turn the stories into actual scripts.

The program's earliest run resembled a soap opera in a three night a week, fifteen minute format. It aired in this serialized version from 1937 until 1943. In December 1943, CBS relaunched Mr. Keen as a 30 minute weekly program. It remained on the air until April 19, 1955, generating 1,690 episodes - far and away the leader of the pack of old time radio detectives. For most of the run, Keen was played by actor Bennett Kilpack, a stage and radio veteran who voiced Keen with a kindly charm. Providing the stereotypical lunkheaded sidekick support was Jim Kelly as Mike Clancy. The erstwhile Irishman's favorite expression was "Saints preserve us!" whenever his boss shed light on a hidden clue. Though Kilpack was in the lead for most of the run, Keen was played later in the series by actors Philip Clarke and Arthur Hughes.

Less than sixty of the Mr. Keen episodes survive, but the available episodes generally follow the same trajectory. The effect of churning out so many scripts can be heard in some of the repetitive aspects of the plots. A drinking game could be made for each time a character's name is uttered in dialogue ("Would you believe it, Mr. Keen?" "Frankly, no, Miss Smith," etc.), but there's a good chance the listener would be passed out in a stupor before the first commercial break. The clichéd plots and dialogue inspired parodies, including Mr. Trace, Keener Than Most Persons from radio satirists Bob and Ray.

So – in a world where we have Howard Duff as Sam Spade, Gerald Mohr as Philip Marlowe, and Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar – is Mr. Keen worth a listen to a modern audience? I think so. The world of radio detectives included an array of characters and behind-the-scenes talents, each catering to a different segment of the audience. There is a healthy appetite for cozier puzzle mysteries that's as strong as the desire for two-fisted private eyes and femmes fatale. And Bennett Kilpack – the Mr. Keen of most of the surviving shows – is very good in the role. His voice has a homespun, old-timer quality, similar in some respects to Titus Moody on The Fred Allen Show, but a steely determination sneak in when he's facing down a culprit. Another (albeit more cynical) view is that you need the mediocre offerings to underscore what is so good about the top of the heap.

Episode 246 - Nick's Knack (Nick Carter, Master Detective) Oct 08, 2017

Show notes

It's another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective - two of them, in fact - as Lon Clark stars as "that most famous of all manhunters." Carter sprang from the pages of pulp magazines and solved crimes on radio for twelve years. Clark voiced the super sleuth for the entire run of the program, and we'll hear him in two of his adventures. Charlotte Manson co-stars as Patsy Bowen, Nick's loyal secretary, in "The Case of the Make Believe Murder" (originally aired on Mutual on July 22, 1945) and "The Case of the Dictaphone Murder" (originally aired on Mutual on June 4, 1946).

"That footloose and fancy-free young gentleman..." Oct 06, 2017

Show notes

For a single season (1953 - 1954), the greatest singer of the twentieth century headlined a radio detective show. Hard as it may be to believe that the Chairman of the Board would slum it on a weekly series, Frank Sinatra starred as Rocky Fortune for a one year run. The series came to the air during a rare slump in Sinatra's storied career, finding the singer and actor in a transition period from his days as a crooner and bobbysoxer idol to his establishment as one of the most popular entertainers of all time.

In 1953, Sinatra was divorced and hurting publicly after leaving his wife Nancy for actress Ava Gardner. He'd been dropped from his contract at Columbia Records, and his big screen career was floundering. After commanding six figure salaries for films just a few years before, he had to beg for an audition for a supporting role in From Here to Eternity. That film opened in August 1953, and just a few months later Sinatra hit NBC in the premiere episode of Rocky Fortune.

The series was created by George Lefferts (who would later create and develop NBC's sci-fi revival X Minus One) at Sinatra's request. Lefferts recalled his first meeting with Sinatra at the singer's home, where the crooner was clad in only a towel. Lefferts was an in-house writer at NBC, and he was tapped by Sinatra to develop a mystery series in which Sinatra could star. It wasn't completely unheard of for major stars to head to radio. Alan Ladd produced and starred in Box 13, and Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall lent their voices each week to Bold Venture, but both of those series were syndicated and had a schedule that was more star-friendly. Sinatra would be appearing on network radio, perhaps a sign that his star had faded and not quite ascended again in late 1953.

Rocky was not a cop or a private eye. Rather he was a "footloose and frequently unemployed young gentleman" who bounced from job to job lined up for him by the Grindley Employment Agency. Later episodes revised the description to "footloose and fancy free," which conjures up less images of Rocky as a hobo. Each week, no matter where he ended up, Rocky would usually find trouble on his quest for a paycheck. He could be shucking oysters, barking at a carnival, or leading a bus tour of New York, odds were he would stumble over a dead body, interrupt a robbery in progress, or get strong-armed into playing unwilling accomplice for a criminal enterprise. Often, he'd run up against the aptly named Sgt. Hamilton J. Finger (played by several actors but most frequently by Barney Phillips), who was always ready to point one assigning blame at Rocky for whatever he'd happened into that week. Lefferts and his fellow writer Ernest Kinoy wrote up adventures that took Rocky Fortune across town, across the country, and even on the high seas. (In the episode we'll hear on this week's podcast, Rocky is hired as a babysitter for a vindictive drunk of a theater critic who has trouble staying awake during the shows he's assigned to review. Unfortunately, under Rocky's watchful eye the man ends up dead in an aisle seat during an intermission!)

The show suffered from poor reviews when it premiered (though Sinatra's performance was praised by Variety, among others), and today it is dismissed by some as a lesser effort from both Sinatra and the Golden Age of Radio. This writer respectfully disagrees with these harsh assessments. Rocky Fortune is a lot of fun, and it's an opportunity to hear Sinatra in his only regular dramatic role on radio. He was a frequent guest of Jack Benny and other radio comedians, and he made a memorable turn on Suspense, but Rocky Fortune stands as the best showcase of Sinatra's dramatic vocal range in the radio era. He finds the right amount of humor and dramatic tension in each show, and he could have continued in the series had his own fortunes grown less rocky in 1954. Just days before the final episode of Rocky Fortune aired, Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in From Here to Eternity, and he was off and running with a new recording contract at Capitol Records. Bouncing from job to job as Rocky Fortune wasn't in the cards anymore and the series left NBC on March 30, 1954. Today, it's an interesting footnote in Sinatra's career, and another fine detective show that brought a big screen star to weekly radio.

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