Category: OTR Detective

Dragnet: The Big Chance (EP4520)

Today’s Mystery:

Joe Friday and Ben Romero join an inter-agency search for a missing Highway Patrol Officer.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: August 24, 1950

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben Romero; Raymond Burr; Herb Butterfield; Stacy Harris

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Yours Truly Matter (EP4519)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery: Johnny and Buster Favor are carjacked on a desert road on a hot night.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: July 21, 1957

Originated from Hollywood

Stars: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar. Virginia Gregg, Lawrence Dobkin, Barney Phillips, Chester Stratton, Junius Matthews

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Mr. and Mrs. North: The Norths Buy a Letter (EP4518)

Joseph Curtain and Alice Frost

Today’s Mystery: A perjurer whose testimony got a friend of the Norths’ convicted of murder is offering them a chance to buy a letter that clears their friend’s name.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: October 6, 1943

Originated from New York City

Starred: Joseph Curtain as Jerry North, Alice Frost as Pamela North

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Broadway’s My Beat: The Mary Gilbert Murder Case (EP4517)

Larry Thor

Today’s Mystery: At the request of the mother of a condemned man, Danny re-investigates the murder of a jeweler’s daughter.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: November 26, 1945

Originated in Hollywood

Stars: Larry Thor as Lieutenant Danny Cloverk, Charles Calvert as Sergeant Gino Tartaglia, Lillian Buyeff, Parley Baer, Tony Barrett, David Ellis, Vivian Baylor

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Bulldog Drummond: The Island of Death (EP4516)


Today’s Mystery:

Captain Drummond and Denny pursue an escapee from a mental asylum with homicidal intentions across an isolated island.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: May 12, 1948

Originating in New York

Starring: Ned Wever as Bulldog Drummond; Luis Van Rooten as Denny

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The Falcon: The Case of the Broken Fingerprint (EP4515)

Les Damon

Today’s Mystery:

A man who is having an affair is murdered.

Original Radio Broadcast Date:June 20, 1951

Originating from New York

Starring: Les Damon as The Falcon; Chuck Webster as Sergeant Corbett

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Old Time Radio Snack Wagon Smorgasboard (EP4514e)

In August 2023, we launched the Old Time Radio Snack Wagon, featuring a variety of short old time radio programs. In this episode, we offer five samples of the type of programs we feature on the Old Time Radio Snack Wagon.

Family Doctor: False Witness

“Hello there, this is the Family Doctor….”

Join us as we travel back in time to a small town, where Doctor Grant Adams dispenses medicine for the body and common sense advice for the soul, in this little-known family drama series from the 1930s.

In this first episode, a teenage girl becomes the subject of gossip after some church money turns up missing. Can Doc Adams prevent a tragedy?

Potential series air dates for the series vary from 1932-38. The earliest I can find a record of the series being aired was in the fall of 1937.

 

Unsolved Mysteries: The Borden Mystery

On this first syndicated episode of the 1930s series Unsolved Mysteries, we take a look at the mysterious slaying of Andrew Borden and his second wife Abby in 1892 and how suspicion fell on Andrew’s daughter, Lizzie. Unsolved Mysteries not only explains the case in a nutshell but also offers a solution to the crime.

While Unsolved Mysteries was a syndicated true crime series in the 1930s, it didn’t start out that way. We take a look at the series’s origin and the original program’s sponsorship by Ken-Rad, a Kentucky-based firm selling radio tubes.

The series originated from Station WLW in Cincinnati, and we talk about the station’s forgotten role in the Golden Age of Radio as America’s superstation, and why it was called that.

 

Cecil B. DeMille interviews Walt Disney about Snow White

Two Hollywood legends share a stage in this listener-inspired Snack Wagon.

The year is 1937. A young filmmaker is about to release a groundbreaking new work, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Walt Disney was invited on the Lux Radio Theater to be interviewed Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille about the film and about what future projects he was working on.

The interview took place on December 20, 1937 in Hollywood, the day before Snow White‘s premiere.

 

The Adventures of Babe Ruth: Babe Takes the Blame

While on the road in Chicago, Babe tries to help a young boy who was pressured to steal from him by an older boy, and finds himself in plenty of trouble.

Originally Aired in 1949

Sponsored by US Navy Recruiting; the announcer is Jackson Beck

 

Jack Benny and Fred Allen Patch Up the Feud for Christmas

For the special Command Performance Christmas Eve show, a serviceman requested that Jack Benny and Fred Allen patch up their feud, and this is their answer.

The segment is introduced by Bob Hope who hands the show to Fred Allen and Jack Benny in New York.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: December 22, 1942

Subscribe to the Old TIme Radio Snack Wagon at https://www.snackwagon.net

Dragnet: The Big Youngster (EP4514)

Today’s Mystery:

Joe Friday and Ben Romero investigate when a young lawyer’s office is vandalized.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: August 17, 1950

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben Romero; Herb Butterfield

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Heatherstone Players Matter (EP4513)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery:

Johnny is called in to protect a Shakespearean actor and producer who is hated by everyone in a Shakespearean radio festival he’s putting on.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: July 14, 1957

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Virginia Gregg; Lawrence Dobkin; Richard Crenna; Sam Edwards; Frank Gerstle; Herb Vigran; Hans Conried

Article on Yours Truly Johnny Dollar returning to the air in Iran.

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Mr. and Mrs. North: The Contagious Confession (EP4512)

Joseph Curtain and Alice Frost

Today’s Mystery:

Lieutenant Weigand calls the Norths in on the case of the murder of a wealthy man where multiple conflicting confessions have gone him baffled.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: September 22, 1943

Originating from New York City

Starring: Joseph Curtain as Jerry North; Alice Frost as Pamela North; Frank Lovejoy as Bill Weigand

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Broadway’s My Beat: The Eugene Bullock Murder Case (EP4511)

Larry Thor

Today’s Mystery:

A visitor to New York is found dead in a rundown sanitarium, and he is missing $5,000.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: November 19, 1949

Originating in Hollywood

Starring: Larry Thor as Lieutenant Danny Clover; Charles Calvert as Sergeant Gino Tartaglia; Jerry Hausner; Bea Benaderet; Alan Reed; Tony Barrett; Joseph Kearns; Georgia Ellis

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Bulldog Drummond: Murder Has an Open Mind (EP4510)


Today’s Mystery:

A woman feigns a horseriding accident to get Bulldog Drummond’s help and tells him to go to a Penny Arcade and speak to a mentalist.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: April 28, 1948

Originating in New York

Starring: Ned Wever as Bulldog Drummond; Luis Van Rooten as Denny

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The Falcon: The Case of the Sweet Swindle (EP4509)

Les Damon

Today’s Mystery:

An unethical competing detective tries to pass off a young woman as the long-lost daughter of a friend of The Falcon.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: June 13, 1951

Originating from New York

Starring: Les Damon as The Falcon; Florence Halop; Jackson Beck; Ralph Bell

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Campbell’s Playhouse: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Encore) (EP4508e)

Orson Welles

While trying to retire, Poirot investigates the murder of a rich man in the country.

Original Air Date: November 12, 1939

Originating in New York

Starring: Orson Welles as Hercules Poirot and Dr. Sheppard; Edna May Oliver as Caroline Shepherd; Alan Napier; Brenda Forbes; Mary Taylor; George Colouris; Ray Collins; Everett Sloane

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Dragnet: The Big Actor (EP4508)

Today’s Mystery:

Joe Friday and Ben Romero investigate the theft of narcotics from a Catholic hospital pharmacy.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: August 10, 1950

Originating from Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday; Barton Yarborough as Sergeant Ben Romero; Herb Butterfield

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