Nostalgic Mystery Radio

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Ep.152 The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe: The Case Of The Care Worn Cuff Jan 24, 2022

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Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.
He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.
The Case Of The Care Worn Cuff: A man with one shirt cuff more worn than the other pays Wolfe $1000 to drop Dorothy Spencer as a client, even though Wolfe never heard of her.
Originally aired October 27th,1950.

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Ep.151 The Adventures of Philip Marlowe: The Grim Hunters Jan 20, 2022

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Get this and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave.
Philip Marlowe was Los Angeles's toughest detective in the groundbreaking series by Raymond Chandler that helped establish the "hard-boiled" detective subgenre.
The Grim Hunters: Marlowe is lured to a party as a human item in a scavenger hunt. Things take a serious turn when he finds the woman who called him was murdered.
Originally aired March 12th,1949.

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Ep.150 Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder Jan 18, 2022

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Miss Jane Marple doesn’t look like your average detective. Quite frankly, she doesn’t look like a detective at all. But looks can be deceiving... For a woman who has spent her life in the small village of St Mary Mead, Miss Marple is surprisingly worldly. But as she often points out she has had every opportunity to observe human nature.
Sleeping Murder: Spinster sleuth Miss Marple probes a woman's terrifying flashbacks to trap a murderer. Originally aired December 8th,2001.

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Ep.149 Dragnet: The Big Tomato Jan 14, 2022

Show notes

Dragnet ran from June 3rd,1949 to February 26th,1957 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show's run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander).
Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possible, down to the last sound effect. The stories were based on actual police files and "the names were changed to protect the innocent".
Dragnet broke a few radio taboos as well, such as dramatizing sex crimes. Children also were killed on occasion as in the episode "Twenty-Two Rifle For Christmas". The series eventually went to television and ran there for many years.
The Big Tomato: A high school boy named Kenneth Morrow is killed in an auto accident. He had been using marijuana! Friday and the cops track down "The Big Tomato." Originally aired January 25th,1951

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Ep.148 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Girl With The Gazelle Jan 14, 2022

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Sherlock Holmes, fictional character created by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The prototype for the modern mastermind detective, Holmes first appeared in Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. As the world’s first and only “consulting detective,” he pursued criminals throughout Victorian and Edwardian London, the south of England, and continental Europe.
From 1939 to 1946, Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes with his friend Nigel Bruce on cinema and radio.
The Girl With The Gazelle: Holmes battles Dr. Moriarty again, as he tries to solve the puzzle of how a valuable painting was stolen from a sealed room. Originally aired March 25,1946.

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Ep.147 Tales of the Texas Rangers: Death In The Cards Jan 11, 2022

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Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952.
Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to him), to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.
Death in the Cards: A double murder is blamed on a gambler with red hair, but hoofprints in the frost give Jace Pearson an important clue. Originally aired January 14th,1951.

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Ep.146 The Adventures of Sam Spade: The Biddle Riddle Caper Jan 11, 2022

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The Adventures of Sam Spade was a suspense/detective radio show starring Howard Duff (in the colorful title role along with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary Effie. It was based on the private detective character created by Dashiell Hammett, well-known from the book and movie The Maltese Falcon. The show ran from 1946 to 1951. Duff was replaced by Steve Dunne in later episodes.
The Biddle Riddle Caper: Sam is hired by a radio producer to help solve a three-year-old-murder. He finds a reel of recording tape disguised as a typewriter ribbon and exposes the murder with the recording. Originally aired January 5th, 1951.

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Ep.145 Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: Lord Edgware Dies Jan 07, 2022

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Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: the world-renowned, moustachioed Belgian private detective, unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe.
Since his inception over 100 years ago, Poirot has stolen the hearts and minds of audiences from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and his celebrated cases have been recorded across 33 original novels and over 50 short stories.
Lord Edgware Dies: Lord Edgware is found brutally stabbed, his wife the prime suspect. But did she murder him?

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Ep.144 The Man Called X: Rendezvous With Death Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

A Man Called X was a CBS/NBC spy radio series that aired from July 10, 1944 to May 20, 1952. The lead character, Intelligence Agent Ken Thurston, was portrayed by Herbert Marshall. His sidekick, Pagan Zeldchmidt, was played by Leon Belasco. Together, they took various cases, all of which were extremely dangerous, and had happened at different exotic places in the world. The background music was supplied by Gordon Jenkins' Orchestra.
Rendezvous With Death: Ken Thurston flies to Burma when a telegrapher is shot in Rangoon to prevent him from sending a message. Originally aired November 11th, 1950.

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Ep.143 The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe: Stamped For Murder Jan 05, 2022

Show notes

Nero Wolfe is a fictional character, a brilliant, oversized, eccentric armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky.
He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.
Stamped for Murder: A woman seeks help from Nero Wolfe to recover a $10,000 treasure map from two swindlers. Wolfe becomes suspicious when the con-men return the money to eagerly. Originally aired October 20th,1950.

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