Month: March 2017

EP2150: Dragnet: The Big Border

Jack Webb

Friday and Jacobs search for two convicts who escaped from San Quentin.

Original Air Date: March 20, 1952

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EP2149: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Deadly Swamp Matter

Bob Bailey
Johnny returns to Missouri to catch the murderer of a young mother he met on a previous trip.

Original Air Date: April 17, 1960

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP2148: Boston Blackie: Murder On the Flying Trapeze

Richard Kollmar

An old school friend of Mary’s who is a trapeze artist tells Mary that if anything happens to her it would be an accident. Mary’s friend then dies while performing her act

Original Air Date: April 2, 1946

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EP2147: Richard Diamond: The Mother Kali Statue

Dick Powell

A dying man gives Diamond a package containing a strange statue.

Original Air Date: April 5,1950
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EP2146: Inspector Thorne: The Dark Cigarette Case

Karl Weber

Inspector Thorne investigates a case of murder at a music school.

Original Air Date: August 31, 1951

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Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715
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EP2145: Night Beat: Vincent and the Painter

Frank Lovejoy

A disgruntled former security guard says his boss at an art gallery killed Vincent.

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Original Air Date: June 19, 1950

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Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715

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Video Theater 105: Dragnet: The Big Test

At their end of their shift, Friday and Smith meet a young man who came in to report the murder of his best friend while the two were in Mexico.

Original Air Date: April 9, 1953 (Season 2, Episode 22)

Watch it on YouTube.

EP2144: Dragnet: The Big Fire

Jack Webb

Friday and Jacobs are called in by a family that rented an apartment only to be threatened by the landlord with a gun when they try to move in.

Original Air Date: March 13, 1952

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Audio Drama Review: The History of Harry Nile, Volume 7

The final dozen stories to wrap up Phil Harper’s historic run as Harry Nile are collected in the History of Harry Nile, Volume 7, containing twelve episodes including three double length episodes and Harper’s final episode before he died.

Some of my favorites are:

The Case of the Interstate Stalker: A case where Harry helps out his sister who is being chased across the country by an obsessed used car dealer. It’s not a typical detective story, but it does show Harry’s personal side, and shows the aging private eye relating to his family.

The Friends of Jules Riskin: Another personal story that follows up on a previous episode, this time involving the death of Harry’s younger brother Joey. Harry’s been told it’s an accident but finds out otherwise, and faces a mob vendetta that could wipe out his family.

Twenty Grand: A shady business deal investigation leads Harry on the hunt for a rare car, and an encounter with an even more unusual woman. There’s some great twists and solid tension.

The Mobius Matter: The last Harry Nile story starring Phil Harper. A husband comes to Harry and Murphy saying he believes his wife is trying to kill him. Independently, the wife comes to them saying her husband is trying to kill her. It’s a very clever case with a lot of twists. The story features Richard Sanders from WRKP in Cincinnati.

Motive: Russell Johnson (the Professor from Gilligan’s Island) appears and the story has solid and unexpected twists.

The stories in this set are well-written and well-acted. My only minor quibble is with the ending of, “The Miracle Mile,” a story which took Harry back to Los Angeles to solve a problem for an old friend and then ended without Harry doing anything for his friend.

Beyond that, this was really a joy to listen to. Phil Harper’s run as Harry Nile was an all time classic run that’s been a pleasure to listen to, and his chemistry with the late Pat French was superb.

This is a good buy for long-time fans of Harry Nile. There are many callbacks to prior episodes, so those who are new to the character may want to try the History of Harry Nile, Volumes 1 or 2, or pick up one of the Adventures of Harry Nile sets with Larry Albert, who took over the role after Harper passed away.

However, if you do want to purchase this, be aware that March 19th, 2017 may be the last day you can order. Jim French productions is closing and there’s currently no plan for the episodes to continue to be legally available. So if you’re interested in any of their products, March 19th, 2017 is the deadline.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0

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EP2143: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Double Exposure Matter

Bob Bailey

Johnny investigates a beneficiary who contacted the company claiming never to have received his insurance check even though the company has a record of it being cashed.

Original Air Date: April 3, 1960

When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com

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EP2142: Boston Blackie: Pierre the Designer

Richard Kollmar

Farraday thinks Blackie robbed a safe in a deal with a fashion designer. Then the fashion designer turns up murdered.

Original Air Date: March 26, 1946

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Announcing the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio YouTube Channel

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve added a YouTube channel for the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio You Tube channel and it’s not a channel for video.

Over the years I’ve noticed a lot of audio only being posted on YouTube and decided it’d be a good way to share our audio archives, so I’ve begun the process of uploading all of the episodes I’ve done up through last year onto YouTube. More recent episodes will only be available here, but our archives will be available on YouTube.

The YouTube channel will allow listeners to listen to all the episodes of a particular series in order or a particular run of a series. I’ve seen some of these Audio Only “videos” getting upwards of 10,000 hits per year, so I’m hopeful that I’ll see some of those results and we’ll get more people listening to the podcast.

So we’ve added another way to experience our program. As of right now, I’ve posted about 2% of the show’s archives, so we’ll be constantly adding old episodes for the foreseeable future. You can check out the channel and subscribe to it here.

EP2141: Richard Diamond: The Photographer’s Card

Dick Powell
An ex-con photographer slips Diamond a film negative and then Diamond finds him murdered.

Original Air Date: March 26, 1950

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EP2140: Inspector Thorne: The Mastermind Murder Case

Karl Weber

Four guards are murdered in a bank robbery, and Thorne suspects an international bank robber is behind it.

Original Air Date: August 24, 1951

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Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715
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EP2139: Night Beat: The Football Player and the Syndicate

Frank Lovejoy

A private eye who is a former football star and down on his luck needs Randy’s help to find a missing man or risk getting killed by the a crime syndicate.

Original Air Date: June 12, 1950

Support the show monthly at patreon.greatdetectives.net

Support the show on a one-time basis at http://support.greatdetectives.net.

Mail a donation to: Adam Graham, PO Box 15913, Boise, Idaho 83715

Take the listener survey…http://survey.greatdetectives.net

Give us a call 208-991-4783

Become one of ourfriend on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter@radiodetectives