It’s a Crime, Mr. Collins was a series from late in the Golden Age of radio in the United States. It had a format similar to the 1955 NBC Series, the Adventures of the Abbotts using a similar format but not using the name of the characters, thus avoiding royalty payments to the Abbotts creator Frances Crane. The series starred Mandel Kramer (the last actor to play Pat Abbott) and ran for twenty-nine weeks from August 1956-February 1957. No episodes of this series exists.
What does exist is the Australian version of the series that was syndicated by Macquarie Broadcast Service over twenty-eight stations beginning in March 1957. It starred Melbourne radio staple Keith Eden as Greg Collins and Mary Disney as his wife Gail. The series ran for fifty-two weeks featuring the husband and wife team tackling a wide variety of murder and mystery, and Gail getting jealous frequently because of all the beautiful women involved in these.
About the Star:
Keith Eden (1917-2003): Eden became one of the standout players in Melbourne, Australia’s radio community in the 1930s and continued to be prominent for decades to come, and successfully made the transition to television in the late 1950s and continued to be active in a wide of variety of productions, making his last TV appearance in 1994 in Blue Heelers.
Episode Log:
- The Brown Paper Bag (Original Air Date: March 4, 1957)
- The Bowl of Temple Fire Red (Original Air Date: March 11, 1957)
- The Green Stop Light (Original Air Date: March 25, 1957)
- The Dull Blue Treasure (Original Air Date: April 1, 1957)
- Death Wore Green (Original Air Date: April 8, 1957)
- The Chrome Yellow Death (Original Air Date: April 15, 1957)
- The Brown Alligator Briefcase (Original Air Date: May 6, 1957)
- White Plumes, Red Blood (Original Air Date: April 29, 1957)
- Ghost in the Sea Blue Dress (Original Air Date: June 24, 1957)
- The Burnt Copper Powder (Original Air Date: July 15, 1957)
- The Bullet-Grey Cottage (Original Air Date: July 29, 1957)
- The Murder of the Fabulous Redhead (Original Air Date: August 19, 1957)
- The Pink Elephant (Original Air Date: August 26, 1957)
- The Fabulous Emerald Necklace (Original Air Date: August 2, 1957)
- The Dead White Lifeboat (Original Air Date: September 9, 1957)
- The Green-Eyed Divorcee (Original Air Date: September 16, 1957)
- Clue of the Ivory Thread (Original Air Date: September 30, 1957)
- The Red Hot Mama (Original Air Date: October 28, 1957)
- The Lost Film (Original Air Date: November 11, 1957)
- The Green-Eyed Dragon (Original Air Date: December 2, 1957)
- The Yellow Streak (Original Air Date: December 9, 1957)
- The Pink Lady (Original Air Date: December 23, 1957)
- The Blue-Steel Fountain Pen (Original Air Date: Unknown)
- The Rockabye Murder (Original Air Date: January 20, 1958)
Log Complete