Mathew Slade, Private Investigator

Listen to “The Great Detectives Present Mathew Slade” on Spreaker.

The Golden Age of Radio is usually viewed as having concluded on September 30, 1962. Yet the meaning of the date is often overstated. It marked the cancellation of the last two remaining network radio shows, Suspense and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. However, it is often misstated as “the day radio drama died.” Radio drama never went away entirely, even in the United States.

The only American detective show launched during the 1960s was The Starlight Mystery Theater, featuring Mathew Slade (often spelled with the more common “Matthew” Slade). It aired over the small Pacifica Radio Network on a bi-weekly basis, with a feature-length opener, Day of the Phoenix, which was based on an unfilmed screenplay. The series was based on a Canadian radio series that aired from 1957-1960. The creative team had high hopes of testing out Slade radio scripts and expanding them into film or even a television series, with Slade as an international troubleshooter, to cash in on the popularity of the James Bond franchise. None of these came to fruition. However, an eleven-episode run over the Pacifica radio network was resyndicated further as a thirteen-episode offering by breaking the featuring length first episode into a three-part story. The series was syndicated by the American Forces Network, specifically the Far East Network of the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, among others.

The series starred up-and-coming actor William Wintersole as Slade, with New York radio veterans Karl Swenson and Norman Belkin as the two police foils, and Sylvia Walden as his secretary, Jonesy. In many ways, the series was quite similar to programs of a decade previously, with typical private investigator fare. The series is often viewed as an homage to the earlier stories.

About the Stars:

William Wintersole (1931-2019): Wintersole served in the army in Korea and worked for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in the 1950s. He worked on stage before landing the lead role as Mathew Slade in the syndicated Starlight Mystery Theater. Wintersole landed his first TV role in 1964 in an episode of The Outer Limits. For the next two decades, Wintersole’s career would follow a somewhat traditional career actor arc, with guest appearances in everything from Emergency and Star Trek, to Little House on the Prairie and Simon & Simon. In 1981, he was cast in a recurring role as Ted Ballantine on the soap opera General Hospital. Then in 1986, he was cast as Attorney Mitchell Sherman on The Young and the Restless, a role he would play for the next twenty-five years.

Karl SwensonKarl Swenson (1908-78):  Known to families across America as Mr. Hanson on Little House on the Prairie, Swenson enjoyed a long career over radio, television, and movies.  He got his start in New York radio, where he played the lead in the comedy soap opera Lorenzo Jones, briefly starred in The Adventures of Father Brown and had a major recurring in one of radio’s longest-running soaps Our Gal Sunday. Swenson was in-demand both for lead and guest roles, owing to his ability to master dialects and create different voices. This would become the centerpiece of his longest-running prime radio role as the police detective/master of disguise Mister Chameleon. The same versatility would guarantee a steady stream of character work on television when he made the move to Hollywood in the mid-1950s. (Picture Courtesy of Digital Deli)

 

 

Episode Log:

Missing Episodes:

  • The Day of the Phoenix (Third Part Missing) (Original Air Date: July 5, 1964)
  • The Avarice Heir (Original Air Date: July 19, 1964)

Episodes in Circulation:

New Episodes will be posted every Tuesday starting January 14.