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Dashiell Hammett, the famous “Sam Spade” detective novelist created The Fat Man series for a listening audience. Brad Runyon, the title character solved murder mysteries that often baffled ordinary law enforcement. Runyon was a tough, street-smart seasoned detective, who worked with his secretary, Lila North.

After his initial creation and debut, the character was further defined by producer, E. J. “Mannie” Rosenburg. J. Scott Smart, who played the title role, was considered a “fat man” in real life, weighing around 270 pounds.

The series was first broadcast on January 21, 1946. The program aired on Mondays at 8:30 p.m. on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) radio network. The Fat Man continued to be heard on radio until its last broadcast in January of 1951. The same year, a film adaptation was made and Smart starred alongside Rock Hudson, Jayne Meadows and Emmett Kelly.

Writer, Dashiell Hammett once confided that he had little to do with the series beyond the initial creation, other than to collect a check. He was not fond of radio and he preferred not to become involved in the series production. By 1966, a pilot of The Fat Man was made for television; however, the title character received a new name and a new background. Later detective series would have contain elements of the original Fat Man series, such as the popular Cannon television series.

You can enjoy listening to The Fat Man series, episode Murder Sends a Christmas Card:  

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Philo Vance came to the radio from the pages of popular fiction just like other popular detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Phillip Marlowe. Usually when a well loved character comes to broadcast from literature there are fans who don’t like the newer interpretation of the character. This was true for the Lord of the Rings movie franchise. It was true for the works of Tom Clancy. There has been a lot of debate over how true the radio and movie portrayals treated Arthur Canon Doyle’s Holmes.

Philo Vance was not a terribly well liked character.  He was created by S.S. Van Dine who wrote twelve crime novels featuring the character. There were also 15 films made about the character. Vance the man was a dilettante and a dandy. There is also some indication that Van Dine was ambivalent about the character’s sexuality. Vance is an aristocrat, but he wears his aristocracy with none of the grace of a character like James Bond. The many areas in which he has a snobbish expertise reinforce this.

Poet Ogden Nash wrote: “Philo Vance Needs a kick in the pance.”

Phillip Marlowe and his creator Raymond Chandler had little use for Vance. Chandler wrote that Vance was “the most asinine character in detective fiction”. Marlow would quip in The Big Sleep that he was “not Sherlock Holmes or Philo Vance ” then go on to explain that there is more to detective work than picking up the clues that the police missed.

On the radio Philo Vance becomes a pretty normal, if extremely courteous and intelligent gumshoe. Philo Vance would be played by Jose Ferrer, John Emery and Jackson Beck. Beck’s version of the character was made even more likeable with the addition of his “girl Friday”, secretary Ellen Deering played by Joan Alexander. He will always foil the bad guy with his skill at finding the missing clue rather than resorting to gun play of fisticuffs. More often than not the audience will also pick up the clue as well,but there is always an extra detail that the police, and the audience, won’t find without Vance’s help.

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Candy Matson was the creation of writer, Monty Masters. Masters had a long established career in radio and his wife was a successful actress in the theater. Monty Masters had originally created the private investigator series for a male lead, but his mother-in-law convinced him it was time to introduce a female P.I.

Candy Matson YU2-8209 premiered as a pilot episode in March 1949 on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network. The role of Candy was played by Masters wife, Natalie Parks. She immediately attracted an audience with her soft, sultry and sexy voice. At the beginning of each episode, Candy sensually answers the phone with “Candy Matson YU2-8209.” Candy takes the calls out of her San Francisco apartment and the cases take her all over the Bay Area. The blonde pistol-packing bombshell of a P.I. never gives in to intimidation.

The program aired only in 30-minute segments and did not have a sponsor. Although the show was popular, most advertisers were attracted to the new marketing tool, known as television. Candy was a busy and strong woman, but she was not without a love life. Lt. Ray Mallard. Mallard and Candy often worked the same cases at the same time and their work relationship developed into a love relationship, which was finalized during the final episode of the show on May 21, 1952.

In addition to promoting the value of women in the non-traditional workplace, the show also seemed to bring out the hidden side of San Francisco. Not allowed to broach the subject on the air, Masters scripts suggested that Candy’s partner was gay. Played by Rembrandt Watson, the character of Jack Thomas was portrayed as an opera loving photographer with a passion for fashion, leaving the audience to question his sexuality.

Unfortunately, the show only lasted two years. Candy Matson was a casualty of television. One thing is certain; Candy Matson reflected the changing attitudes toward women and work. Candy proved that women could be just as effective and successful as men could.

Enjoy listening to Candy’s crime solving skills in this episode, The Donna Dunham Case, compliments of Old Time Radio, at:

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“TUM de Dumdum, Tum de Dum Dum DUMMM!” Christmas is found on the mean streets of Los Angeles. One of the saddest possible Christmas stories is Dragnet‘s “Twenty Two Rifle for Christmas.” The story about an unsupervised boy whose friend is killed with his Christmas present, then hides the body is enough to do more for a holiday depression than credit card bills. “Twenty Two Rifle” became a Dragnet tradition and was broadcast for three years until the writers decided it wasn’t uplifting enough for the joyous season.

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The old mission church, the oldest in Los Angeles, is attended mostly by the poor Mexican families in the area. Several years ago the parishioners took a collection and purchased a nativity scene that had been displayed in the church every year. The Baby Jesus from the display is missing on December 24^th. Father Rojas explains to Sgt. Friday and his partner Frank Smith that the baby Jesus is the only one that many of the people had ever known. With less than twenty four hours before the first Christmas mass, Friday doesn’t hold much hope they will find the thief, but he does his best. Other cases are unfolding, but this is important to Friday. They interview the altar boys, and check out the local religious supply stores with little success. They do find a suspect, but his alibi that he is preparing for a Christmas program for down-and-outers checks out. Finally the detectives are forced to tell the Father that they cannot find the statue in time for the Christmas mass, but they will continue through the following week.

As they are speaking to the padre, the doors to the church open, and a young boy pulling a shiny red wagon comes in. Riding in the wagon is the baby Jesus. Young Paquito Mendoza haltingly explains to the Father in Spanish that for years he has prayed for a red wagon for Christmas. This year in his prayers he has promised that if he gets his wagon, he will take Baby Jesus for the first ride. As the statue is lovingly replaced Father Rojas explains that the local firemen refurbish toys for poor children, and that is where Paquito’s wagon has come from. The Padre says that Paquito’s family is very poor. There is not a dry eye around the radio when Sgt. Friday asks “Are they Father?”

Both of these Christmas Radio Shows would be adapted for the small screen when Dragnet came to TV, with “The Big Little Jesus” done in two different versions; first in 1953, then remade using the same script in 1967 as “The Christmas Story.”

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The phenomenal success of Dragnet, premiering in 1949, was bound to have imitators. One of the Columbia network’s answers was 21^st Precinct.

Comparisons between the two police procedural dramas are interesting. Both shows emphasize the human reality of police work. The sound effects are an important part of both shows, especially the background noise and chatter in the police station and the sounds of automobiles, and police jargon peppers the dialog.

The differences between the two programs are compelling. 21^St Precinct takes place in Manhattan, where as Dragnet is very much a part of the 50′s west coast scene of Los Angeles. Twenty First Precinct is seen through the eyes of the precinct captain, and so gives us an overview of the entire precinct’s business. While a single case is the focus of each episode, we also hear the captain’s distractions as different cases and police business are thrown in.

Dragnet focuses on the work of a single police detective sergeant and his partner. The partners serve in the various divisions of the department, thereby giving us a glimpse of many different facets of police work. We also are allowed brief looks into the personal lives of Sgt.s Friday and Romero, which are not part of the plot, but help to make the characters more real.

Although Dragnet makes more use of dramatic devices, the very recognizable theme music and “the names have been changed” disclaimer, Jack Webb managed to create a much more realistic feeling program. This is due to the gritty feel of the program, and Webb’s portrayal of Friday as a “cops cop”, tough but not hard, conservative but fair and understanding.

21^st Precinct lacks the “grab the audience by the throat” quality of Dragnet , but the stories, based on real events, are very well written and performed. In addition to being great police drama, 21^st Precinct also gives us a good aural picture of Manhattan in the 50s.

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In Pete Kelly’s Blues:

Pete Kelly (Jack Webb) fronts the house band, the Big Seven, at a speakeasy in the roaring ’20s is a world of jazz, gangsters, gun molls, g-men, bad booze and desperate people trying to save their skins.

Enjoy this episode broadcast today 60 years ago titled “Dr Jonathan Budd”:

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Mom gets all the credit.

Maybe that’s fair; she had the really tough part for the first nine months of the project. It seems like Dad is there mostly for the fun parts. Learning to ride a bike, going to your first ball game, teaching you how to make “fart noises” with your arm-pit…

The emotional ties that go along with fatherhood are just different from those to Mom. Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, WA, is credited with the idea of the Father’s Day Holiday. She got the idea while listening to a sermon on Mother’s Day, for which neck-tie manufacturers are eternally grateful. But if Father’s get the second holiday, they at least get to make a bit more fun out of it. Mother’s Day is a day for flowers and breakfast in bed. Father’s Day is an excuse to get some really good steaks for the summer’s first serious grilling session. After all, Father Knows Best!

If you don’t believe us, just ask Robert Young. Probably everyone wishes they had a Dad as understanding as Jim Anderson in Father Knows Best. Here again we have a wise and ever patient mother along with a son bordering on the wise-acre phase and two daughters who have Dad wrapped around their little fingers. It is traditional in radio and television sit-coms for the kids to be cleverer than Dad. This convention isn’t as abused in Father Knows Best as it is in other programs, but Jim Anderson does get fed a plate of humility on a few occasions. In the episode featured in our Father’s Day Special he returns to a house full of the ordinary emergencies, but they are unimportant in comparison to how good his golf game is going. And how good it will be when he gets into the championship round. Hopefully his pride won’t get the best of him, which it might. Who knows what could happen when he hurts his back the night before the semi-finals.

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Not all Father’s can be as ideal as the ones we find in the radio sit-coms. And it should be no surprise that Sgt Joe Friday runs across some of the worst. We know that Friday will have no sympathy for someone who is breaking the law, but he seems to come close on this one; after all, the guy is just trying to get a present for his daughter. Friday almost breaks, until the guy complains- how could they declare me an unfit parent. Joe Friday oozes with irony when he points out that the crooks actions had just proved the declaration correct.

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We hope you get a good tie this year. While you are waiting for the charcoal to get hot, turn on the radio and enjoy some of our favorite Father’s Day selections.

The series capitalized on America’s Second Red Scare and the era of McCarthyism. In many ways the series reflected the Film Noir genre of Detective movies; the radio show was actually a takeoff on a film of the same name. Seventy-eight (78) radio broadcasts were produced. Although asked for input as well as endorsement, the F.B.I. made it a point to not cooperate with the production.

Anti-Communist hysteria was at a peak during as taping began, and by the end of 1952, I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. was scheduled on more than 600 stations nationwide. The Show was a well done and well financed endeavor, and worth preservation for that reason alone. A big selling point was that the show was based on the real life adventures of Matt Cvetic.played by Dana Andrews.

The Man at the center of these stories faced double edged conflicts; Cvetic constantly jockeyed for information, walking a tightrope among suspicious Party Officials who would laughingly have him shot as a traitor if they found his true mission. All the while he is shunned by his family and community. He cannot reveal his mission to them because they may accidentally betray him, so they heap him with scorn as a traitor to his country and all they hold dear.

(Source: http://IWasACommunistForTheFBI.com/)

Enjoy this episode entitled “The Little Red Schoolhouse” broadcast 58 years ago today:

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A gong sounds and Gerald Mohr ominously intones “The Shadow…of Fooo ManChoo.”

There is a long period of eerie organ music at the beginning and end of each episode; this is because the show was recorded for Syndication. The long organ music is space for the local announcer to make his plug.

During the period following the Boxer Rebellion, the West was filled with fears of “the Yellow Peril.” The Rebellion had been pushed by a Secret Society, and there was a dread of these Societies gaining influence in the Chinatowns of American and European cities.

Author Sax Rohmer became familiar with the reputation of “Mr. King” in London’s Asian districts. Supposedly, Mr. King had a piece of the action in most illegal activities in the district; at the mention of King’s name, Chinese merchants became visibly terrified. Rohmer used Mr. King as the inspiration for his master villain, Fu Manchu.

Dr. Fu Manchu had an incredible intellect, and an incredible invisible empire. Dr. Fu had “all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources… of a wealthy government, which… has denied all knowledge of his existence… Dr. Fu Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.”

Fu Manchu would become the model for many arch villains: Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon, Lo-Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, Dr. Yen-Lo in The Manchurian Candidate, and James Bond’s adversary, Dr. No.

The Fu Manchu stories would be serialized in Collier’s Magazine in 1913. The first of several radio incarnations of the stories would be on The Collier Hour over the Blue Network starting in 1927. Probably the most popular incarnation was the syndicated The Shadow of Fu Manchu, recorded in the winter of 1938-39. Lou Marcelle, the uncredited narrator of the film Casablanca, played the evil Doctor. The actor’s identity was hidden for many years, until identified by radio historian Elizabeth McLeod in 2002. Two well known character actors took the roles of Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie: Hanley Stanford of Blondie and Baby Snooks; and Gale Gordon, Mayor LaTrivia of Fibber McGee and Molly and Principal Osgood in Our Miss Brooks. Paula Winslow played the lovely and seductive Karamaneh (one of Fu’s most dangerous agents, Karamaneh was sold as a slave to the Dr. as a child. She falls in love with Dr. Petrie and saves our heroes many times.) Gerald Mohr (The Adventures of Philip Marlowe) narrated and played several small roles.

Much of Fu Manchu seems less than politically correct, especially as China is becoming an important trading partner, and given the great contributions of Chinese-Americans. But the Fu Manchu stories are a product of their times.

In the end, The Shadow of Dr. Fu Manchu is diabolical fun in a grand criminal manner.

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