Listen to “The Great Detectives Present Richard Diamond” on Spreaker.

During Dick Powell’s lengthy career, he had many stages. From the 1930s to 1944, he was known as a skilled singer and comic actor. He landed the film role Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, he starred in the first true hard-boiled Private Eye show Rogue’s Gallery, and then he spent many years playing a variety of hard-boiled characters in Noir films. In many ways, Richard Diamond was a perfect marriage of the two halves of Powell’s performing career before the next stage of Powell’s career which saw him as a creative force behind programs such as the Zane Grey Theater.

The series was unusual in that there are many episodes which featured hard-boiled fisticuffs and gunfights. Then the series shifts to Richard Diamond showing up at his girlfriend Helen Asher’s (Virginia Gregg) to serenade her as he softly sings and plays the piano and the two banter back and forth. It’s an unusual series that only Powell could make work.

Diamond was a former NYPD detective who served in the O.S.S. during the war before returning home to start his own private agency. His rates are quite exorbitant at $100 a day plus expenses. Compare this to Philip Marlowe’s $25 a day. He enjoys a good relationship with Lt. Levinson of the Homicide Squad while being a bane to the existence of the slow-witted Sergeant Otis.

The series aired for eighty episodes over NBC, fifty-one were sustaining (without a sponsor) and twenty-nine were sponsored to Rexall. The series jumped to ABC and was sponsored by Camel Cigarettes for sixty-five weeks. The series returned to radio in an unusual way as CBS aired reruns of the show as a summer replacement in 1953, which was very unprecedented for the time.

The character of Richard Diamond returned in 1957 with less of the comedy as a half hour detective program starring David Janssen (The Fugitive). The new series lasted four seasons and also featured appearances by a young Mary Tyler Moore.

Star Biography:
Dick Powell (1904-63): Dick Powell is one of the most distinct leading men in the world of Old Time Radio Detectives.  Powell began his career as a song and dance man and then shifted to serious drama with his lead role as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet. 

Powell would also come to radio as a sleuth on three other occasions in stand-alone shows. He played the lead in Rogue’s Gallery as a detective that was knocked silly and encountered Eugor, a character in his subconscious that would help him solve whatever case he was on.

He parlayed that into the role of Richard Diamond, a laid-back, singing detective. He also played the police officer foil for his then-wife Joan Blondell’s private investigator in Miss Pinkerton, Incorporated.

In television, Powell was a pioneer, his Four Star Productions turned out memorable programs such as The Four Star Playhouse, Richard Diamond Private Detective (with David Janssen in the lead), The Zane Grey Theater, Burke’s Law, and the Dick Powell Theater.

Powell died far too young as a result of making The Conqueror, a classically bad film that featured John Wayne as Genghis Khan. The film was shot downwind from a nuclear testing site. He developed cancer along with nearly half the cast and crew and half the population of nearby St. George, Utah.  Powell succumbed to cancer in 1963.

Episode Log:

• The Dick Barton Case (Original Air Date: April 24, 1949)
• The Ralph Chase Case (Original Air Date: May 15, 1949)
• The Stolen Purse (Original Air Date: May 22, 1949)
• The Betty Moran Case (Original Air Date: May 29, 1949)
• The Bertram Kalmus Case (Original Air Date: June 5, 1949)
• The Fred Sears Murder Case (Original Air Date: June 19, 1949)
• The Tom Waxman Bombing Case (Original Air Date: June 26, 1949)
• Escaped Convicts after Diamond (Original Air Date: July 9, 1949)
• The Man Who Hated Women (Original Air Date: July 16, 1949)
• The Martin Hyer Frame Up Case (Original Air Date: July 23, 1949)
• The Lynn Knight Case (Original Air Date: August 16, 1949)
• The Jean Cooper Murder Case (Original Air Date: August 20, 1949)
• The Eddie Garrett Case (Original Air Date: August 27, 1949)
• The Jerome J. Jerome Case (Original Air Date: September 17, 1949)
• The Two Thousand Dollar Bundle (Original Air Date: September 24, 1949)
• The Gibson Murder Case (Original Air Date: October 8, 1949)
• The Bogus Bills Case (Original Air Date: October 15, 1949)
• The Rene Bennet Case (Original Air Date: October 22, 1949)
• Diamond’s Severest Critic (Original Air Date: November 5, 1945)
• The Lan Jacoby Case (Original Air Date: November 19, 1949)
• The Ruby Idol Case (Original Air Date: December 3, 1949)
• The House of Fear Case (Original Air Date: December 10, 1949)
• The John Blackwell Case (Original Air Date: December 17, 1959)
• The Thomas Jason Case (Original Air Date: December 31, 1949)
• The Angelino Giuseppe Case (Original Air Date: January 7, 1950)
• The Cathy Victor Case (Original Air Date: January 15, 1950)
• The Martin White Case (Original Air Date: January 22, 1950)
• Timothy the Seal (Original Air Date: February 5, 1950)
• The Elaine Tanner Case (Original Air Date: February 12, 1950)
• The Mario Cimino Case (Original Air Date: February 19, 1950)
• The Pop Skoals Case (Original Air Date: February 26, 1950)
• The Louis Spence Case (Original Air Date: March 5, 1950)
• The Joyce Wallace Case (Original Air Date: March 12, 1950)
• The Private Eye Test (Original Air Date: March 19, 1950)
• The Photographer’s Card (Original Air Date: March 26, 1950)
• The Mother Kali Statue (Original Air Date: April 5, 1950)
• The Man Who Hated Women (Original Air Date: April 12, 1950)
• Who Shot the Messenger (Original Air Date: April 19, 1950)
• The Ralph Baxter Case (Original Air Date: April 26, 1950)
• The William Carnes Case (Original Air Date: June 14, 1950)
• Mrs. X Can’t Find Mr. X (Original Air Date: June 21, 1950)
• The Mary Bellman Case (Original Air Date: July 28, 1950)
• The Tobias P. Briggs Case (Original Air Date: July 5, 1950)
• The Martha Campbell Ransom Case (Original Air Date: July 26, 1950)
• The Frank Bowers Case (Original Air Date: August 2, 1950)
• The Edna Wolfe Murder Case (Original Air Date: August 9, 1950)
• The Madame Tanya Case (Original Air Date: August 16, 1950)
• The Evans-Farmer Murder Case  (Original Air Date: August 23, 1950)
• The Big Foot Grafton Case (Original Air Date: August 30, 1950)
• The Misplaced Laundry Case (Original Air Date: September 6, 1950)
• The Lexington Murder Case (Original Air Date: September 13, 1950)
• The Bald Head Case (Original Air Date: September 20, 1950)
• The Hatpin Murder Case (Original Air Date: September 27, 1950)
• The Pete Rocco Case (Original Air Date: October 4, 1950)
• The Homing Pigeon Case (Original Air Date: October 11, 1950)
• The Kidnapped Policeman (Original Air Date: October 18, 1951)
• Dead Man’s Letter (Original Air Date: November 8, 1950)
• The Mona Lisa Murder (Original Air Date: November 15, 1950)
• The Chapel Hill Case (Original Air Date: December 13, 1950)
• The Marilyn Connors Case (Original Air Date: January 12, 1951)
• Man With a Scar (Original Air Date: January 19, 1951)
• The Rawlins Case (Original Air Date: January 26, 1951)
• The Caspary Case (Original Air Date: February 2, 1951)
• The Blue Serge Suit (Original Air Date: February 9, 1951)
• The Grey Man (Original Air Date: February 16, 1951)
• The Lady in Distress (Original Air Date: February 23, 1951)
• The Red Rose (Original Air Date: March 2, 1951)
• The Butcher Shop (Original Air Date: March 9, 1951)
• Monsieur Bouchon (Original Air Date: March 16, 1951)
• Little Chiva (Original Air Date: March 23, 1951)
• The Carnival (Original Air Date: March 30, 1951)
• The Brown Envelope Case (Original Air Date: December 7, 1951)
• The Plaid Overcoat Case (Original Air Date: December 28, 1951)
• The Merry Go Round Case (Original Air Date: January 4, 1952)
• The White Cow Case (Original Air Date: January 11, 1952)
• The Simpson Case (Original Air Date: January 18, 1952)
• The Al Brenners Case (Original Air Date: January 25, 1952)
• The Garrabaldi Case (Original Air Date: February 1, 1952)
• The Eddie Burke Case (Original Air Date: February 8, 1952)
• The Dixon Case (Original Air Date: March 14, 1952)
• The Hank Burton Case (Original Air Date: March 21, 1952)
• Mr. Walker’s Problem (Original Air Date: March 28, 1952)
• The Enigma of Big Ed (Original Air Date: April 4, 1953)
• The William B. Holland Case (Rebroadcast Date: May 31, 1953)
• The Cover-Up Murders (Rebroadcast Date: June 7, 1953)
• The Missing Night Watchman (Rebroadcast Date: June 21, 1953)
• The Rifle Case (Rebroadcast Date: June 21, 1953)
• The Kidnapped Policeman (Rebroadcast Date: August 2, 1950)
• The Wheat Germ Case (Rebroadcast Date: August 9, 1953)
• The Hatpin Murder Case (Rebroadcast Date: August 16, 1953)
• The Hollywood Story (Rebroadcast Date: August 23, 1953)
• The Charles Johnson Matter (Rebroadcast Date: September 13, 1953)

Christmas Episodes Played Out of Order:

• A Christmas Carol (Original Air Date: December 24, 1949)
• The Christmas Show (Original Air Date: December 21, 1951)

Log complete:

Log source: The Digital Deli FTP