It's Christmas time and this week's podcast is a special one! Staying in the vein of our detective theme, I present a variation on Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" with the puckish Dick Powell in his Richard Diamond hat.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

A bit outside the regular "detective" stories, this episode from the Campbell Playhouse (Mercury Theater on the Air) takes Dash Hammett's (right) story about power and corruption rolls one character into a "detective" mold and comes up with "The Glass Key."  This one is well done.

This one is a bit longer than normal due to the length of the episode.

A look at Edith Meiser (right), who was responsible for first bringing Sherlock Holmes to radio. Meiser adapted almost all the Holmes canon for radio beginning in the early thirties until 1945. She later wrote the text for a comic stripe of Holmes in the fifties.  An accomplished actress, who also wrote books, films and radio plays.  You'll hear a rare Holmes radio play from 1934.

The final actor to portray Johnny Dollar is featured this week. Mandel Kramer (right) was the last Dollar and also the last featured star of a dramatic radio serial from its Golden Age. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar had the sad distinction of being the final dramatic radio program when it ended in September 1962.

When Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was moved from Hollywood to New York City, Bob Bailey chose not to move with it and left the show. His long running stint as Dollar came to an end. New York actor Robert Readick became the new Johnny Dollar.

A look at how the new series changed yet again.

We're nearing the end of our run of Johnny Dollar actors. This week a look at probably the best known and one of the most popular radio Johnny Dollar's among radio fans - Bob Bailey (right).

Bailey is not well-known outside of his role although he was on a number of other series, mostly in minor roles. His story is a somewhat sad one as Bailey was a victim of his life as a radio actor.

Music under is fantasia by Duke Ellington.

Nearing the end, a look at Johnny Dollar #5 and another one that was never heard over radio. Veteran radio and television actor Gerald Mohr - the voice of Philip Marlowe (right) - did an audition recording of the revival of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar after it left the air the previous year.

Music under is "Blue in Rain" by kosaito from the Podshow Music Network.

We're now at the 4th Johnny Dollar actor in my continuing run on this well known radio detective. John Lund (right) was the fourth actor to portray the famous insurance investigator. Like Edmond O'Brien, his portrayal was a darker one, but flatter than O'Brien's. He was my least favorite of the Dollar's perhaps, but consideration will be given to his acting.

Music under is is "Forty-Eight" by Whispering Johnson from the Podsafe Music Network.

We're now at part 3 of our look at Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. This week I'll focus on the portrayal of the detective by actor Edmond O'Brien. This run of the series takes on a much darker less whimsical tone as created by the new producer Jaime De Valle.

Continuing the look at the history of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. I'll be looking at the first serial Johnny Dollar - actor Charles Russell (right) and how he approached the character. I'll also look at how he differed from Dick Powell's portrayal that was heard in the previous podcast.

Music under is "Evansessence" by Anne Farnsworth from the Podshow Music Network.

This week the start of a series looking at the history of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and how it changed over its 13 year history. This week's is an audition recording starring Dick Powell as Johnny in an episode that never aired.

Another police procedural radio series besides Dragnet was 21st Precinct. It was in some ways even more straight-forward than Jack Webb's version. This show looked at the 21st precinct of a New York City borough and the people who lived and died in it.

This week an extensive look at the history of The Saint, aka Simon Templer and its author Leslie Charteris (right). I'll look at the different media appearances of the series plus snippets of interviews with one of Charteris' biographers Dick Fiddy.

Interview clips come from Geoffrey Richards and the BBC.

Music under is "Fantasia" by Duke Ellington.

Another radio detective from the factory of Frank and Ann Hummert was Inspector Thorne. The series was short-lived and also had two stars portraying the lead. The first was Karl Weber and the second was Staats Cotsworth (right).

This week - a return to hardboiled detective fiction writer, Raymond Chandler. In 1944, the film Murder, My Sweet was released based on Chandler's book Farewell, My Lovely. In 1945 the Lux Radio Theater produced an adaptation of the film starring much of the original cast including Dick Powell and Claire Trevor (right). Some interesting Chandler tidbits about the production.

Music under is "Evan's Essence" by Anne Farnsworth on the Podshow Music Network.

I'll be taking a week off attending the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Maryland.

Arthur Conan Doyle (right) is best known for his creation of the detective Sherlock Holmes. This week I look at another detective creation of his - one Inspector Collins of Scotland Yard. He only appeared once on radio and that was in the Escape presentation of a Conan Doyle short story - "The Lost Special" about a train that seems to totally vanish.

Collins has Holmesian characteristics in his detective skills.

Music under is "Katy's Melting Song" by Monika Herzig on Podshow.com

While John P. Marquand (right) found literary success in his books such as The Late George Apley, he found commercial success in a series of detective/spy novels featuring a Japanese mystery man - Mr. I.A. Moto. This week I feature the agent that Peter Lorre made famous and also made Lorre successful. By the time radio found the novels, Moto had become a detective/agent fighting Communism in America.

This week another radio detective cum lawyer born from the daytime serial dramas. Perry Mason on radio was wedged between two other "soap operas" and though it was also one, it was different from the others. I'll look at Earl Stanley Gardner and his famous lawyer who did a lot of detective work on the radio version. There were several actors who portrayed him on radio, but the most frequently remembered one was John Larkin (right).

Music under the commentary is "Midnight in Chicago" by the Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra from Garageband.com.

A look at the detective serials as "soap drama."  Mr. Chameleon came from the factory of Frank and Ann Hummert who are best known as the creators of many of radio soap operas and now some of the long running television daytime dramas. The series starred Karl Swenson (right) as the detective who could disguise himself to solve a crime.

Music under the commentary is "Old Folks" by the Ron Helman Jazz Ensemble from the Podshow music network.

Though he was much better in Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, gravely-voiced William Gargan starred several more times on radio. This week a look at one of his lesser roles in which he seemed to sometimes sleep his way through. This crime detective series starred Gargan as Ross Dolan.

Just as his successful radio series, Dragnet, was making a move to television, Jack Webb starred in another short lived radio vehicle - Pete Kelly's Blues. I'll look at why he might have done so when he had so much on his plate at the time. The series had some great New Orlean's Style Jazz!

This week you'll hear an audition episode of a series that apparently never aired. San Francisco Final was produced by many of the same personnel who brought Dragnet to the television. Though San Francisco Final is a very well written episode, it has many of the same elements of Dragnet in style and feel.

The series starred Jeff Chandler who was then a major Hollywood star.

I'm back with an all new podcast about a Raymond Chandler short story called "Spanish Blood." The story is an integral one in Chandler's development of his "tarnished knight" - Phillip Marlowe. 

A look at Raymond Chandler's idea of the fictional detective and the radio play "Murder in City Hall" from the Molle Mystery Theater.

Repeat podcast while I am on leave from July 2005.

Charlie Chan was the creation of author Earl Derr Biggers (right) whose famous detective was best known in a series of films. But Chan also had a modest run on radio as you will hear in this podcast.

Repeat episode (Sep 2005) while I take some time off.

A look at an unusual Radio Detective - one doesn't always think of this radio character in the detective vein, though he was indeed the investigator as much as a crime fighter. The Shadow is one of the best remembered radio characters from his pulp creation to radio and films.