Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio! A podcast featuring the best vintage detective radio programs. Each week from Monday through Saturday, we feature six of Old Time Radio's great detective series from the beginning of the show to its very last episode. And as a bonus, twice a month we also post a public domain movie or TV mystery or detective show video.
Along the way, I'll provide you my commentary and offer you opportunities to interact.
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- Your host, Adam Graham
Listen to "The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio" on Spreaker.
Currently Featuring
YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR THE FALCON DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT DRAGNET MR. CHAMELEON MEET MISS SHERLOCK… and more!
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Recent Posts
ABC, Nero Wolfe, Podcast
EP0277: Adventures of Nero Wolfe: The Last Laugh Murder
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 1 Comment
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Nero Wolfe attempts to deduce the details of a passerby’s life. The man denies all of Wolfe’s deductions, and after he leaves, Wolfe concludes he’s a murderer.
Original Air Date: July 14, 1944
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NBC, Podcast, Thin Man
EP0276: Thin Man: The Strange Case of Professor Wainger
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A brother and sister approach Nick Charles to ask him to introduce them to a long-lost Uncle who is working as a scientist for the allies. The scientists claims not to know who they are.
Original Air Date: Sometime in 1942
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Golden Age Article
How I’ve Learned About Classic Radio
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
When I mentioned listening to You Bet Your Life, a friend on Facebook was curious about my interest and asked, “How did you even HEAR about these folks?”
There are two stages where I learned about old radio shows:
1) Growing Up
My dad talked about listening to the radio growing up, but the first time we actually got to hear any old time radio was when I was about 12 or 13. We were at a Salvation Army and saw an old set of Old Time Radio comedy cassette tapes. My dad bought them cheap and we took them home and listened to them.
I found some shows I liked immediately (Fibber McGee and Molly, Burns and Allen, Abbott and Costello) and a couple that I didn’t care for.
However, I had no conception that there were old radio clubs. Indeed, when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, Old Time Radio was limited to distribution on expensive Cassettes or CDs, or on old time radio replay shows that I never knew were on.
This doesn’t mean that I had no exposure to the classics. My dad was a huge Abbott and Costello fan, so I got to see dozens of these adventures. When I was a kid, there was nothing quite exciting as a new Abbott and Costello movie.*
For a homeschooling convention, my brother and I performed, “Who’s on First?” with me playing the straight man part that Bud Abbott did. We weren’t the only homeschooled family with old time radio exposure. At another convention, a home schooled family did a Fibber McGee and Molly old time radio play with a 13-year old boy trying to replicate Harold Peary’s Gildersleeve laugh and doing quite well.
2) 21st Century Exposure
It all started with Dragnet, and you can read about that over at the Old Time Dragnet site. After Dragnet, my curiosity remained somewhat limited. I found out that Superman had a radio show. As the Dragnet show had been pretty successful in first ten months, I launched the Old Time Radio Superman podcast.
I owe a burgeoning interest in radio to fans of the Dragnet show who shared some of their programs and the Antioch Radio Network, a station I listened to on a lark as I was feeling like listening to something to relax and I heard Let George Do It and was amazed at how good the show was.
This sent me researching, listening to a wide variety of different detective shows and led to the launch of The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio and then the app. For the app, I wanted to obtain our detective actors in other sorts of roles. To do that, I had to research their radiography to find shows they appeared in and find which might be entertaining. Through this process, I’ve come to really enjoy shows like Cavalcade of America and Mayor of the Town.
I became a fan of Life with Luigi because of an ad that appeared in an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar that made me curious enough to listen to the show.
I’ve also rediscovered some childhood favorites in Burns and Allen and Abbott and Costello.
Other shows I learned of because others were excited about the same show. Lum and Abner for example was a show that I was led to by die-hard fans who had created a wonderful collection of their radio adventures and made available for donwload.
And there are different stories for different shows, but they’re mostly in this vein.
1949-54 Johnny Dollar, CBS, Podcast, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar
EP0275: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Trans-Pacific Export Matter
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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Johnny is called in when an export Company has a fire at its Hong Kong Office that looks suspiciously like the same thing as happened at their Shanghai office, where an insurance investigator was murdered.
Original Air Date: August 24, 1950
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Mutual, Podcast, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Old Time Radio
EP0274: Sherlock Holmes: The Tankerville Club Scandal
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A young man is accused of cheating at cards. Holmes believes the man is innocent and one of Moriarity’s associates is behind the frame with the goal of murder in mind.
Original Air Date: April 22, 1946
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Let George Do It, Mutual, Podcast
EP0273: Let George Do It: Vultures on the Wing
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George is hired to guard $20,000 and pick up four paintings, but finds a collection of characters trying to stop him.
Original Air Date: May 9, 1949
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Father Brown, Mutual, Podcast, Rare Detectives
EP0272: Adventures of Father Brown: The Mystified Mind
by Yours Truly Johnny Blogger • 0 Comments
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A young man is accused of killing a windowcleaner, but Father Brown believes he’s innocent.
Original Air Date: August 13, 1945
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