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.

A look at another female radio detective series. This one had two big stars in Joan Blondell and Dick Powell, then husband and wife. The series, Miss Pinkerton, Inc. is based on the characters created by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

Note: I'll be taking a couple of weeks off - repeat programs will be appearing here the next two weeks.

Background music is called "Speak Low" by Akili.

In 1914, pulp fiction writer, Louis Joseph Vance, published the first in a series of mystery detective books starring Michael Lanyard, aka The Lone Wolf. Though Vance died before he could see the industry his books created in the thirties and forties, the books left him a successful writer.

This week, a look at the radio serial, The Lone Wolf with the only available episode of the series which first starred Gerald Mohr, then later Walter Coy (seen in the photo).

One of the lesser known detective radio series, The Cases of Mr. Ace appears to have been in very limited run mostly on WNEW in New York in the late forties. The series was one of only two in which George Raft starred. So listen in to the somewhat noirish Eddie Ace.

One of the lesser known radio detective serials was The Amazing Mr. Malone also known as Murder and Mr. Malone. Yet this series had three separate runs, a television series and several movies all based upon the fictional detective mystery books by author Craig Rice, whose real name was Georgiana Ann Randolph Rice (right).

Adventures of Frank Race was purely a radio series with no connection to other media. It's first star was Tom Collins whose suave (but fake) British sounding accent provided some well crafted narrative to the series. The second star was Paul Dubov who was more hardboiled.

This week, a look at the international detective whose primary business was following insurance scams.

While one might not think of Big Town as a detective series, it wasn't as much in its first run with Edward G. Robinson. But by 1942, the cast had changed and so had the theme. Managing Editor Steve Wilson of the Illustrated Press (portrayed by this time by Edward Pawley [right]) spent more time on the street investigating crime than he did running a newspaper.

Music underneath is "Seven Eleven" by Chillerstadt available on the Podshow Music Network.

A delightful but intentionally short-lived series starring Rex Harrison. This series was written by Ed Adamson, who I will talk about a bit and whose talent makes this the wonderful little series it was.

A look at Mickey Spillane and his explosive private investigator - Mike Hammer. Hammer was a true pulp hero who was seen and heard in various media including film, radio, television and comic strips. Mickey Spillane was never respected by his peers, but laughed all the way to the bank as his hero was extremely popular with readers.

This week, I am experimenting with a different format as I present William Gargan as investigator Barry Craig. The series from the early fifties was actually quite entertaining. A look at the actor himself as well as the series. Music included this week are from music.podshow.com and include:

Evan Stone performing KCAMS
Robin Stine performing "Shy Boy"
lastfuture performing "detective double bass"

A return look at Raymond Chandler's private detective, Phillip Marlowe. Last time I focused on Gerald Mohr's protrayal, but this time, we look at the first radio Phillip Marlowe - Van Heflin.

I also look at other Phillip Marlowe's from other media and how they interpreted him.

Crime and Peter Chambers was a short term replacement for the featured podcast last week - Rocky Fortune. The series starred screen and television actor Dane Clark as a suave but tough private detective based upon the detective novels by long time mystery novelist Henry Kane.

In the early fifties, Frank Sinatra's career seemed nearly over. His musical style was out of date and while he had appeared in some films, most were musically oriented. Then came From Here to Eternity for which he carried away a best supporting Oscar.

Radio too saw money in this seemingly new side to the man and signed him first to a radio series that never got past the planning stage, then to this week's feature Rocky Fortune.

Beginning with the Lucky Strike Program the first known dramatization of an FBI case was heard on the radio in 1933. The FBI continued its relationship with the networks at times opening their case files to scriptwriters to present them in dramatic form. The most popular of these types of programs is featured on this podcast including The FBI in Peace and War and This Is Your FBI.

"I've been here so long, even the seagulls must recognize me. They must pass the word along about me from generation to generation, from egg to egg."

This week a program that never became a series. Based loosely on the best selling book by Max Miller, this William N. Robson production starred Larry Thor as Joe Miller, a reporter cum detective whose beat is the fog-bound, sometimes seedy side of the waterfront.

Originally from the pen of pulp crime/mystery writer, George Harmon Coxe, Casey, Crime Photographer achieved fame through radio starring Staats Cotsworth (right).

One of the earliest police procedual dramas and possibly the model for Gang Busters and later Dragnet, Calling All Cars happened because of the public's interest in new technology - police car radios!

Plus, something completely different - an experiemental musical piece from Jon Baker at http://www.pikdesign.com. If you are open to music experiments, be prepared to crank your portable mp3 player.

Every so often one discovers a little known radio series that turns out to be a fun listen. This week you'll hear one. It's called Pursuit and stars Inspector Peter Black, a Scotland Yard detective portrayed by Ted de Corsia (right).

One of the best known fictional detectives in the world - Hercule Poirot was heard in books, movies and radio. This week, a look at this little man with the "little gray cells." I'll look at a number of his radio appearances with the full show being the premier episode of the first serialized version from 1945 starring Harold Huber (right) as the master detective.

This week a visit to Pier 23 to meet Johnny Modero, the last of the Jack Webb pre-Dragnet private detectives on radio. Probably the least of the three Webb detectives and a clone of his previous Pat Novak.

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This week a look at the gravely voiced, square-jawed actor Charles McGraw as he appeared in an audition episode of the Man From Homicide. I'll also do some sound snapshots from his radio/screen career.

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E. Jack Neumann and John Michael Hayes (right) were two of radio's finest writers of detective and suspense. This week a brief return to an episode from The Adventures of Sam Spade written by these two writers. Listen for the well defined characters the create as well as the tension and comedy. An example of some of radio's finest writing. Nuemann went on to write for television and Hayes wrote several of the classic Alfred Hitchcock films.

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