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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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Cole Younger, Jesse James, and their brothers terrorized the Old West in the years just after the Civil War. Later their names are used for stereotypical badmen in the movies. When Western Movies were often regarded as Grade B fare because they were cheap and quick for Hollywood to produce, it is a little bit remarkable that the Younger Brothers are given relatively fair treatment by radio’s Crime Classics.

Crime Classics usually falls into the Crime and Detective category, but it could easily be listed as a Historical program. The stories presented, although they can be rather gruesome, are all based on actual histories, using court records and news reports whenever possible. The host of Crime Classics, the “connoisseur of crime, Thomas Hyland played by Lou Merrill, takes a slightly tongue in cheek attitude towards his topic. Not as irreverent as Raymond from Inner Sanctum Mysteries, but he does manage to lighten the mood around a sometimes gory topic.

With better treatment than given in most of the B Westerns, Crime Classics explores the beginnings of Cole Younger’s killing spree. After Younger’s father was killed by Unionists, Cole joined a group of Confederate bushwackers led by William Quantrill. Under Quantrill, Younger demonstrated that he could be an efficient and ruthless killer, as well as an intelligent and cunning leader. When the war ended, Younger refused to acknowledge the defeat of the Confederacy.

His brothers were drawn into the cause, and in time they joined with Frank and Jesse James in a murderous crime spree. Eventually his dedication to his brothers would be Cole’s undoing. After their arrest, the Younger boys plead guilty to their crimes in order to avoid being hanged.

Many of the important details of Cole Younger’s murderous career are necessarily left out of the episode “The Younger Brother and Why Some of Them Grew No Older”. This has more to do with the restrictions of a half-hour format than artistic or editorial considerations. This episode, like the others of Crime Classics, shows that radio can be just as effective a documentary tool as motion pictures, or even cable TV.

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Compliments of Old Radio Cat

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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“Do they have a calendar down in their little hole?”
or ”
“How does a groundhog know when February the Second gets here”?

Enjoy this recording: Cedric is “helped” by Lum with his Groundhog Day school writing project:

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Dramatist Ian Martin, who has adapted seven plays by William Shakespeare for consecutive daily presentation on the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, starting Monday, April 19, was asked the other day why he had changed the plays’ titles.

“Even though each of the plays is basically Shakespeare,” he replied, “ I’ve had to compress them enormously to fit the 53-minute format of
MYSTERY THEATER . The story is there, virtually all of the well-remembered phrases are there, the characters are there, a lot of the poetry is there, but it would still be unfair, especially to the purists, to use Shakespeare’s titles for these adaptations. I hope I’ve made each play easily understandable and that when people hear them on
MYSTERY THEATER  they will say, ’Gee, that’s a great story and I’m sure that if I went now and saw it in the theater I’d get a lot more out of it’.”

In retitling the plays, Martin has either used lines from the dialogue or made up his own. “’The Assassination’ is an obvious title for ‘Julius Caesar’,” he said. “’Murder Most Foul’ is, of course, Macbeth’s own line. ‘The Love Song of Death’ is my own title for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ because I couldn’t find something in the text that

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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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Although there were many Jewish radio stars, there were few old time radio series dedicated to Jewish family, faith, and tradition during the golden age of radio.  Some of the favorites old time radio series about Jews include:

1. The Goldbergs
2. Eternal Light
3. Mama Bloom’s Brood

A great read on the subject is Radio and the Jews: The Untold Story of How Radio Influenced America’s Image of Jews, 1920s-1950s By David S. and Susan Siegel.

Enjoy an episode from Mama Bloom’s Brood from 1934 entitled “Mrs Fink Told Off”:

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Skipping down Christmas Nostaliga Lane we return to our favorite old time radio comedy, Fibber McGee and Molly:

On Christmas Eve 1946 becomes special; it is one of the few times the show is broadcast on Christmas Eve.  Teeny, the young girl that Marian plays in addition to Molly has convinced Fibberto fix some broken toys for less fortunate children. Of course toys that are broken become toys that are destroyed when Fibber tries to fix them! To be sure the kids have a good Christmas Fibber spends all of the McGee’s Christmas money on new toys. Teeny, with the help of the King’s Men finishes the show with a lovely rendition of Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas.  Enjoy the following Christmas Radio Show:

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This episode is from Old Time Radio’s Fibber McGee’s Christmas Collection.

In our continuing journey down Christmas Nostaliga Lane from last year with our favorite old time radio comedy, Fibber McGee and Molly:

In Christmas Radio Show episode from 1941, Fibber is determined not to spend money on a Christmas tree, so on Dec 16 he goes into the woods to cut his own. Of course it turns out that he avoids spending a couple dollars on a tree by losing his watch and hatchet in the snow, plus having to fix the tire on the family car! At this time America has been fighting WWII for less than two weeks, and the changes the war brings is on everyone’s mind.

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This episode is from Old Time Radio’s Fibber McGee’s Christmas Collection.

The Great Gildersleeve was one of the first households in broadcasting to feature a nontraditional family- two children being raised by an uncle with no father of mother. This doesn’t make Christmas any less special.

Christmas Day, 1946 would fall on a Wednesday, the night The Great Gildersleeve was broadcast. And it is going to be a wonderful traditional family Christmas, Except that Gildy has convinced himself that the Bullard’s across the street are having marital problems. Worse, Leroy’s friend Craig Bullard will be forced to spend the holiday alone. Of course Gildersleeve would never spread rumors unless he was absolutely sure, would he?

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The 1948 season is special with the addition of the “Mystery Baby” plot arc. Christmas that year is going to be extra special with a baby in the house. The Christmas season begins with a mystery as Christmas presents and other treasures begin to disappear from the house. There is fright and confusion, even the Summerfield police department becomes involved. Everyone has forgotten that there is a curious baby in the house…

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Two week later the family is happily making preparations for the baby’s first Christmas Eve. That is when Judge Hooker presents the baby’s missing father. There won’t be a dry eye around the radio as we hear Gildersleeve say good bye to the Baby that has brought so much joy to his world.

The genuine love and happiness we hear in the Gildersleeve Christmas Radio Shows household makes the holidays even more special for the rest of us.