Nostalgic Mystery Radio

Yours Truly, Johnny DollarFor over twelve years, from 1949 through 1962 (including a one year hiatus in 1954-1955), this series recounted the cases "the man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar". Johnny was an accomplished 'padder' of his expense account. The name of the show derives from the fact that he closed each show by totaling his expense account, and signing it "End of report... Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar".The Harol...

Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC in 1949. Diamond was a slick, sophisticated detective, with a sharp tongue for folks who needed it. Diamond enjoyed the detective life, but not as much as entertaining his girl, Helen Asher. After each show, he would croon a number to his Park Avenue sweetheart.Mr. Powell, a former song and dance man, was perfect for the role. He added an extra dimension to the 40's hokey private eye drama.Diamond was a rough gumshoe that would often get knocked ...

The WhistlerYou're walking alone on the street at night, but then you hear another set of footsteps and a haunting tune being whistled by an unseen stranger. The unseen Whistler didn't kill anyone (that we know of), but he certainly loved watching murders take place, narrating them for us, and chuckling at the suffering of others instead of doing anything to stop it. He kept walking the streets every week for thirteen long years, whistling his ominous thirteen notes and telling us anoth...

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 ...

Pat Novak For Hire: Classic old time radio showing starring Jack Webb (1946, 1949) and Ben Morris (1947-48) as Pat Novak, a street wise guy who rents boats and anything else a good man pays a bad one to do.Novak is always getting into scrapes when taking on jobs for hire or occasionally as a favor to a friend. When he does, he goes to see "The Only Honest Guy I Know" an ex-Doctor and a boozer named Jocko Madigan (played by Tudor Owens). Novak's nemesis is Lieutenant Hellman of Homicide (playe...

Nick Carter, Master Detective, which aired on Mutual from 1943 to 1955. Nick Carter first came to radio as The Return of Nick Carter. Then Nick Carter, Master Detective, with Lon Clark in the title role, began April 11, 1943, on Mutual, continuing in many different timeslots for well over a decade. Jock MacGregor was the producer-director of scripts by Alfred Bester, Milton J. Kramer, David Kogan and others. Background music was supplied by organists Hank Sylvern, Lew White and George Wright....

In the the world of the hard boiled detective, Boston Blackie comes comes real close to fitting in, but he just doesn't quite. Of course Blackie isnt a detective or private eye, he is a reformed safe cracker and constantly good natured irritant to the cops!A real Hard Boiled Detective solves the mystery that the cops think he is guilty of, and manages to make the cops look foolish while he does it. So does Boston Blackie.The Stolen Car Ring: Mary's car is stolen. Originally aired April 23rd,1...

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 Black Halo: Marlowe is hired to find the missing Julia Perry. Murder and a suicide complicate the case and add a surprise ending. Originally aired: January 15th,1949.Did You Hear About This?This humorous pop...

The Adventures Of The Falcon: This hard boiled spy drama began as an RKO Radio Pictures theatrical serial in the 1940s, went on radio in 1943, and then came to TV around ten years later in a Syndicated series produced for distribution by NBC Films; the series was about an American agent whose code name was "Falcon".The success of the films led to a radio series that premiered on the American Blue Network in April 1943, and aired for the next ten years on various networks. It was here that his...

The Jack Benny Program: The Jack Benny Program was first broadcast on the Blue Network on 2nd May 1932. With his capable cast of supporting players Benny made his show into one of great radio comedy shows. What was so special about this golden-age classic is Benny's ability to come across as a likeable guy despite being vain, argumentative, and a skinflint. People related to Benny and his willingness to often give the best comedy lines in the show to his supporting cast made him popular with ...

The WhistlerYou're walking alone on the street at night, but then you hear another set of footsteps and a haunting tune being whistled by an unseen stranger. The unseen Whistler didn't kill anyone (that we know of), but he certainly loved watching murders take place, narrating them for us, and chuckling at the suffering of others instead of doing anything to stop it. He kept walking the streets every week for thirteen long years, whistling his ominous thirteen notes and telling us anoth...

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 Shot in the Dark Caper: Sam is hired by a newspaper to solved a murder that was captured in a news ...

Rough and tough Hard-boiled detectives grab a lot of attention, but who would have a better insight on the nature of human evil than “a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins”?Where could you find a more “soft-boiled” character than the parish priest. Mutual brought The Adventures of Father Brown to the air in 1945. Father Brown was the antithesis of the more celebrated soft-boiled detective, Sherlock Holmes. Where Holmes was a master of deduction, Father Brown relied on intuit...

Philo Vance is the detective creation of S. S. Van Dine first published in the mid 1920s. Jose Ferrer played him in 1945. From 1948-1950, the fine radio actor Jackson Beck makes Vance as good as he gets. George Petrie plays Vance's constantly impressed public servant, District Attorney Markham. Joan Alexander is Ellen Deering, Vance's secretary and right-hand woman. The organist for the show is really working those ivories, and fans of old time radio organ will especially enjoy this series.Th...

Yours Truly, Johnny DollarFor over twelve years, from 1949 through 1962 (including a one year hiatus in 1954-1955), this series recounted the cases "the man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar". Johnny was an accomplished 'padder' of his expense account. The name of the show derives from the fact that he closed each show by totaling his expense account, and signing it "End of report... Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar".The Edwar...