Tag: Raymond Burr

Pat Novak for Hire: Sam Toliver (Encore) (EP4538e)

Jack Webb

Pat Novak does a favor for a friend who has just gotten out of prison – he picks up a package. He returns to his office to find a cop standing over a dead body.

Original Air Date: April 23, 1949

Originating in Hollywood

Starring: Jack Webb as Pat Novak; Raymond Burr as Inspector Hellman; and Tudor Owen as Jocko Madigan

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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 Ellen Dear Matter (EP4387)

Bob Bailey

Today’s Mystery:

Set sail on a treacherous journey with Johnny Dollar, the man with the action-packed expense account, as he embarks on a mission to safeguard a fortune in jewels. The sleek motor cruiser Ellen Dear carries a cargo worth over $300,000, but disaster strikes when the yacht sinks in deep waters.

Original Radio Broadcast Date: January 6, 1957

Originated from Hollywood

Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar,Virginia Gregg, Lawrence Dobkin, Howard McNear, Jay Novello, Jack Edwards, Barney Phillips, Raymond Burr

The tragedy of Andrea Doria

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Twice Told Tale – The McCoy: Three Wayward Girls and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Starlet Matter

Once again, we take a look at an old time radio script that was recycled. In this case, the script was a pilot for a new radio series, The McCoy, and then was reused as an episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.

The McCoy is called in by an agent who fears that one of his clients, a promising actress, will be murdered. While they’re talking, a phone call comes in and they learn she was strangled to death.

Originating in Hollywood

Audition date: April 24, 1951

Starring: Howard Duff as The McCoy; Sidney Miller; Sheldon Leonard; Cathy Lewis; Ed Max; Barton Yarborough

Johnny is sent to Hollywood because an agent fears his starlet client is going to be murdered. Johnny finds she’s already been strangled to death.

Originating in Hollywood

Original Air Date: January 16, 1953

Starring: John Lund as Yours Truly Johnny Dollar; Sidney Miller; Raymond Burr; Dick Ryan; John McIntire; Vic Perrin; Virginia Gregg; Jeanette Nolan

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Radio’s Most Essential People Countdown: #90-#86

Previous Posts: 91-9596-100

90) Frank Nelson

Frank Nelson is probably best remembered as a long-time radio presence as a regular on the Jack Benny Show. However, his career as one of radio comedy’s most powerful character actors dated back well before that. He was practically a regular on the Lux Radio Theater in the mid-1930s. His 1940s radio work reads like a who’s who of comedy including work with Eddie Cantor, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Lucille Ball, and Eve Arden. His career also included appearances on Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In 1949, he played the boss of Jeff Regan (Frank Graham) in CBS reboot of the series and put an entirely different spin on the character of Anthony J Lyon.

Bill Goodwin89) Bill Goodwin: To most people, commercials are merely interuptions in their entertainment. However, Bill Goodwin was the master of making commercials entertaining. Working as an announcer for Bob Hope and later for George Burns and Gracie Allen, Goodwin made the commercial breaks entertaining and laugh out loud hilarious as he inserted ads for Swan Soap or Maxwell House Coffee into the plot of the story with comedic brilliance. In addition to his announcing gigs, Goodwin was a reliable comedic actor, often appearing on Screen Guild Theatre and Lux Radio Theater.

88) David Friedkin and Morton Fine

There are a few entries on this list that will be for two people because it’s hard to imagine one without the other. Such is the case with legendary writers David Friedkin and Morton Fine. The two collaborated on writing many classic episodes of EscapeSuspense, and Crime Classics. They even wrote the first audition episode for Gunsmoke which imagined the series as Philip Marlowe set in the old west. Their biggest collaboration was Broadway’s My Beat. Their writing style was crisp and poetic. They were masters at getting an audience emotionally involved in their stories. The team went on to bigger things in Television, but in my opinion they did some of their best work on the radio.

87) Raymond Burr

Raymond BurrRaymond Burr would find stardom in television as Perry Mason. His radio career began a decade before. Burr was a character actor for most of his radio career, playing roles similar to those taken by William Conrad with many heavies and cops, although Burr was not nearly as prolific. Burr provided support for programs like Suspense, The Line-Up, and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. In addition, he worked himself into two recurring roles in crime dramas featuring Jack Webb. He was radio’s most brutal cop, Inspector Hellman of San Francisco Homicide on Pat Novak for Hire. He then joined Webb on Dragnet as Ed Backstrand, Chief of Detectives. Even though he was only 32, Burr projected all the authority the role required and was a bit of a show stealer during his five months on the show. Towards the twilight of radio’s golden age, Burr finally landed a lead role on radio as Captain Lee Quince in Norman Macdonnell’s brilliant western Fort Laramie, which he left to begin filming Perry Mason. Even after landing the role of his career, Burr made occasional appearances on radio for Suspense, The Family Theater, and the Salvation Army’s Heartbeat Theater.

86) Frank Sinatra

While not the peak of Sinatra’s appeal, the Golden Age of Radio played a big part in the Chairman of the Board’s career. He sang with Tommy Dorsey in the early 1940s, and in the mid-40s, his albums were regularly featured inYour Hit Parade. He became known as an upcoming star beloved by the bobby socks set. Radio comedians had fun with him  as a guest joking about his rail thin figure. Another recurring joke had him as a rival of Bing Crosby, although he didn’t eclipse Crosby for many years. Radio was there for Sinatra when his career was on the rocks in 1953. NBC gave him the role of Rocky Fortune, a footloose and fancy free young man who found mystery and adventure at every job he took. Unlike Dick Powell in Richard Diamond, Sinatra eschewed singing on the program and did the show as a typical crime drama. A best supporting actor win by Sinatra for his performance in From Here to Eternity placed his career back on solid footing and thus put an end to the jobless adventures of Rocky Fortune, but the series along with Sinatra’s other work, has left an indellible impression on radio.

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