Nick Carter received the first knock at his radio door on this date in 1943.  I know this sounds like an odd statement, but I’m referring to the memorable opening that signaled the start of Nick Carter, Master Detective—a popular radio crime drama, and a program that would become one of the Mutual network’s most enduring hits.  The show would begin with the rapping on the door to Carter’s brownstone office (bang-bang-bang-bang-bang)—an action that received no response.  There would follow a second series of knocks, but still no answer.  Finally, the unknown individual rapping on Nick’s chamber door would get desperate—BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!!!  The door would open, and Carter’s girl Friday, Patsy Bowen, would respond with a startled, “What’s the matter?  What is it?”

A male voice would urgently reply: “Another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective!”  The show’s announcer would back him up by intoning: “Yes, it’s another case for that most famous of all manhunters…the detective whose ability at solving crime is unequalled in the history of detective fiction—Nick Carter, Master Detective!”

The sleuth that John J. “Jess” Jevins (author of the just-released Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes) tabbed “the grandfather of superheroes” had his origins in the pulps.  John Russell Coryell introduced Nick Carter in a story published in Street & Smith’s New York Weekly in 1886, “The Old Detective’s Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square.”  Carter shared many of the qualities ascribed to the legendary Sherlock Holmes: a keen analytical mind, a knowledge of arcane trivia, and a talent for disguise. (Nick was also in remarkable physical condition, having been taught by his father to maintain good health as well as solid mental acuity.)  It’s important to note that while some often refer to Nick Carter as “the American Sherlock Holmes,” the reality is that the detective was pounding a beat in the pulps nearly a year before Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth arrived on the scene.

Coryell wrote the first three Nick Carter exploits…and then the job of chronicling the detective’s further adventures fell to a variety of writers employed by Street & Smith.  Most of Carter’s cases would eventually be penned by Frederic van Rensselaer Day.  Nick struck an immediate chord with pulp fiction fans, and it wasn’t long before he was being published in his own magazine…under a variety of names, but usually referred to as Nick Carter Weekly.  Publication stopped in 1915, and the tales of Nick Carter (along with his fellow gumshoes) moved to Detective Story Magazine, which could be found on newsstands until 1927.  With the success of both The Shadow and Doc Savage in the 1930s, Carter was brought out of retirement with Nick Carter Detective Magazine in 1933.  Stories about Nick continued in other periodicals after that; he was even in the inaugural issue of Shadow Comics in March of 1940, which republished stories of many of Street & Smith’s popular pulp heroes.  That line of comic books continued well into the remainder of the decade.

Despite his print popularity, it took a while for Nick Carter to start solving cases over the radio on a weekly basis.  The radio program was even preceded by a short-lived movie franchise, which began in 1939 with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release of Nick Carter, Master Detective.  MGM’s own Walter Pidgeon essayed the role of Nick, and continued in the two Carter follow-ups, Phantom Raiders and Sky Murder (both released in 1940).  Though the studio had purchased the rights to all the Nick Carter stories before starting on the fictional detective’s cinematic endeavors, they had original screenplays written for the series.  After those three films, however, MGM abandoned the franchise.

Deprived of his movie income, Nick Carter then made his move into the aural medium.  It was tough for Nick Carter, Master Detective to establish a beachhead on the Mutual schedule; during its initial years on the air, the program would be bounced around in eleven different time slots between 1943 and 1946…and to make things even more confusing for the listening audience, the series went by the title of The Return of Nick Carter for a time as well.  The show eventually stayed put in a Sunday night time slot (6:30pm) from 1946 to 1952, sponsored by Old Dutch Cleanser and Cudahy Packing (makers of Del Rich Margarine).  Libby Packing took over sponsorship for a year after that.

In the role of Nick Carter was actor Lon Clark, who handled the part for the entire run of the series.  This is an amazing accomplishment…particularly when you know that nearly 700 broadcasts of Nick Carter, Master Detective aired between 1943 and 1955.  (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar had close to as many episodes…and they needed six actors to play the title role.)  Clark also had decent luck in keeping a secretary.  Helen Choate played Patsy Bowen, Nick’s assistant, in the early years of the program.  Choate would be replaced by Charlotte Manson, who held the role until the series’ finale. Carter’s sidekick, “Scubby” Wilson (described as a “demon” reporter…but don’t be scared—he didn’t have horns or anything), was portrayed by John Kane.  The trio of Nick, Patsy and Scubby often made life difficult for Sergeant “Matty” Mathison (Ed Latimer), Nick’s friendly cop nemesis.  (Patsy wasn’t shy about reminding Matty that he’d be toiling in another area of civil service were it not for Nick; she’d even take the time to make sure that Mathison’s superior, Lt. Riley [Humphrey Davis], had this pertinent information.)

Additional actors who appeared on Nick Carter, Master Detective included Bill Johnstone, Bryna Raeburn, Raymond Edward Johnson, Maurice Tarplin, and Al Hodge.  For a time, the detective’s adopted son Chick (played by Bill Lipton and Leon Janney) was featured on the program.  That character moved on to a spin-off series titled Chick Carter, Boy Detective, which premiered on Mutual in July of 1943.  Whereas Chick’s old man solved his cases in a weekly half-hour format, young Chick went the serial route: in fifteen-minute installments five-days-a-week.  Nick even flirted with that same format briefly in 1944, with an attempt made to combine the two show’s storylines.  But in the end Chick didn’t have the stamina, and his series came to a close in 1945.  Nick Carter, Master Detective, on the other hand, would remain a Mutual network staple until September 25, 1955.

Even after bidding radio a fond fare-thee-well in the mid-1950s, Nick Carter would continue to demonstrate the importance of maintaining top physical condition by getting a second lease on life in the 1960s.  The Carter franchise, influenced by the success of the James Bond novels/movies, would jump-start with a series of highly successful pulp novels under the Nick Carter: Killmaster banner.  Those novels continued to be cranked out until the late 1990s, proving that “the most famous of all manhunters” could take a licking but keep on ticking.

You’ll excuse us, however, if we state a preference for the Nick Carter who presented his adventures courtesy of “the theater of the mind”; Radio Spirits offers several collections of vintage Nick Carter, Master Detective broadcasts, including our latest collection, Records of Death, and the previously released Echoes of Death and Chasing Crime (I wrote the liner notes!).  You’ll also find a Nick Carter adventure (“Death in the Pines”) on our Great Radio Detectives compendium, and some Yuletide Nick (“Nick Carter’s Christmas Adventure”) on The Voices of Christmas Past.  For a nightcap, why not venture back to the early pulp fiction days of the great detective in this fantabulous reprint which features “Calling Nick Carter”—an entertaining tale that teams the sleuth with none other than The Shadow!

“Just play it like a nagging wife” was comedy writer Philip Rapp’s suggestion to actress-singer Frances Langford, who was about to take on a facet of radio performing with which she had only a passing familiarity.  Frances, born Frances Newbern Langford in Lakeland, FL on this date in 1913, had traded funny quips with comedian Bob Hope as the vocalist on his Pepsodent show from 1941 to 1946 (not to mention accompanying him on his many overseas jaunts during WW2), and before that she appeared in musical comedies such as Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935) and Born to Dance (1936).  But portraying Blanche Bickerson, the never-ceasing shrewish spouse of the hapless John Bickerson (played by Don Ameche), would be a new experience for her.  Langford took it in stride.  As she reminisced in an interview years later, “Actually, it wasn’t that hard to do at all.  Phil’s scripts were so well written that the laughs got themselves.”

From childhood, a musical career seemed to be in the tea leaves for young Frances.  Her mother was Annie Newbern, a renowned concert pianist, and Frances set her sights on studying music at Florida Southern College.  Her operatic ambitions were sidelined by a tonsillectomy she underwent at age 17—the result was that her beautiful soprano voice had been transformed into a husky contralto.  Fortunately for Langford, she had the perfect pipes for the big band era, which was just getting underway at that time.  Eli Witt, a Tampa cigar manufacturer, heard Frances sing at an American Legion party and hired her to do her thing on his local radio show for $5 a week.  It was there that she attracted the notice of the Vagabond Lover himself, Rudy Vallee, who invited her to sing on his popular Fleischmann Hour.

Invited to New York, Frances entertained at a birthday party for Cole Porter…and that’s where she was heard by Paramount’s Walter Wanger, who signed her to a movie contract without a screen test.  In Hollywood, Frances had appeared in two short subjects for Vitaphone-Warner Brothers (circa 1932), but under Wanger’s tutelage she made her feature film debut (alongside Alice Faye, George Raft, and Patsy Kelly) in 1935’s Every Night at Eight.  Every Night was the movie in which Frances sang what would become her signature tune, I’m in the Mood for Love.  The vocalist charted several popular songs, including I’ve Got You Under My Skin, I Feel a Song Comin’ On, Easy to Love, Harbor Lights, So Many Memories, Was it Rain?, and Falling in Love with Love.  In addition, Langford would be in much demand for movie musicals, gracing the cast of tunefests like Collegiate (1936), Palm Springs (1936), The Hit Parade (1937), and Hollywood Hotel (1937).

That last film was a movie version of a popular radio variety program hosted by gossip maven Louella Parsons and featuring boy crooner Dick Powell.  Frances would be a regular on Hollywood Hotel from 1934 to 1938, and she was also building a radio resume that included The Spartan Hour, The Colgate House Party (also known as The Joe Cook Show), and The Texaco Star Theatre (starring Ken Murray).  When Bob Hope asked her to accompany him on the first of many excursions he would make to entertain those in the military during the Second World War, Langford also joined Hope’s weekly radio show as the featured vocalist.  Her many visits to military bases in the U.S. and around the world inspired Frances to keep a journal, which would eventually be printed in Hearst-owned newspapers as a regular column (“Purple Heart Diary”).

Despite the hectic pace of “entertaining the troops,” Frances Langford still found time to make movies.  She appeared in such films as Dreaming Out Loud (1940—the first of several films starring the boys from Pine Ridge, Lum ‘n’ Abner), Too Many Girls (1940—with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz), and Swing It Soldier (1941—Frances plays twins, and the movie also features Hanley Stafford, Don Wilson, and Brenda [Blanche Stewart] and Cobina [Elvia Allman]!).  For 1941’s All-American Co Ed, Langford dyed her brunette tresses blonde, and kept them that way for the rest of her career.  Although Frances appeared in major motion pictures like Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and This is the Army (1943), most of her film appearances were in smaller B-musicals (several built around radio themes), including Follow the Band (1943), Cowboy in Manhattan (1943), Never a Dull Moment (1943), Career Girl (1944), Radio Stars on Parade (1945), People are Funny (1946), The Bamboo Blonde (1946), and Beat the Band (1947).  Langford would close out the 1940s with a B-western, Deputy Marshal (1949), which bears the distinction of featuring actor Jon Hall (her real-life husband) as her leading man (it would be their only film together).

On radio, Frances Langford starred on The Chase and Sanborn Hour—a 1945 summer replacement for the popular program starring Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy.  Langford would headline another summer show in 1947, when George Burns & Gracie Allen took a break from Maxwell House Coffee Time.  It was with Don Ameche on NBC’s The Drene Show (also known as Drene Time) in the fall of 1946, however, that Frances would play the radio role for which she’s best known today.  Ameche and Langford would convulse listeners every week as “The Battling Bickersons.”  After their show for Drene, the pair would join Frank Morgan for The Old Gold Show, which ran on CBS from 1947 to 1948.  Despite the popularity of the Bickersons sketches, radio had a hard time turning their verbal squabbling into a regular series.  There was a half-hour audition record made in 1948, and “The Bickersons” continued to be heard occasionally on the Bergen-McCarthy program (with Marsha Hunt replacing Frances as Blanche.)  But in the summer of 1951, Langford reprised her role in a full CBS sitcom devoted to the couple, with Lew Parker replacing Ameche as John.

In the 1950s, Frances Langford would make two more motion pictures: Purple Heart Diary (1951), based on the previously mentioned column detailing Langford’s WW2 experiences, and The Glenn Miller Story (1954)—Frances played herself in both movies.  By this time, she was turning her attention to television.  With Don Ameche, Langford had a go at making the Bickersons a small screen success in the series Star Time (1950) and The Francis Langford-Don Ameche Show (1951-52).  Langford would later headline Francis Langford Presents in 1959, and The Francis Langford Show in 1960…but for the most part, was content to appear on TV screens in a guest star capacity on shows hosted by Spike Jones, Jackie Gleason, Jack Carter, and Perry Como, among the many.  In the 1960s, she chatted on talk shows hosted by Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas, and made appearances on series like The DuPont Show of the Week and The Hollywood Palace.

For all intents and purposes, Frances Langford left Hollywood in 1955…and with her second husband, Ralph Evinrude, settled for a more content existence in Jensen Beach, FL as the featured singer in a nightclub, The Frances Langford Outrigger Resort.  Frances was devoted to philanthropic causes, giving generously to The Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island, and a park in Jensen Beach also bears her name (Langford Park).  Langford lived to the ripe-old age of 92 before her passing in 2005, and to this day entertains fans old and new with CD collections of her songs and radio appearances.

And speaking of CD collections (oh, these segueways just write themselves sometimes), Radio Spirits features our birthday girl’s signature role as Blanche in the hilarious Bickersons set Put Out the Lights!—with a program guide penned by my chum Ben Ohmart, whose Bear Manor Media publication The Bickersons came in mighty handy writing this post.  Frances can also be heard among many singing celebrities in the 3-CD collection With a Song in My Heart: Hooray for Hollywood (Langford sings Hooray for Hollywood from Hollywood Hotel, and with James Cagney—from Yankee Doodle Dandy—Over There).  On the DVD front, check out a most entertaining documentary (reviewed previously on the blog) entitled Entertaining the Troops, which allows Frances to stroll down Memory Lane with Bob Hope, dancer Patty Thomas, and guitarist Tony Romano…as well as feature timeless clips from your old-time radio favorites “doin’ their bit.”  Happiest of birthdays to you, Frances!

Lester Joseph Damon—born in Providence, RI on this date in 1908—was memorably described by my Radio Spirits colleague Elizabeth McLeod as “the prototype of the radio actor on the go.”  From his earliest acting experience in stock companies during the 1930s to his busy radio gigs from the 1940s and onward, Les Damon never allowed grass to grow under his thespic feet.  He was one of the medium’s most versatile performers, appearing on dramatic anthologies and soap operas—and is fondly remembered by new generations of old-time radio fans for his detective roles on The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Falcon.

Acting for Les Damon became a profession immediately after graduating from high school.  He became a member of the prestigious Albee Stock Company in his hometown of Providence—in stock companies, actors performed in different plays every night, from leads to character roles.  It was great training for Les, and he pursued his craft in 1934 by serving an apprenticeship with the Old Vic Company in Lambeth, England for a year.

Upon his return to the states, Damon learned to his chagrin that in the acting world…he was a small fish in a trout-stocked pond.  When his stock company folded in 1938, Les gravitated to Chicago in search of employment.  He got lucky: The Windy City was at that time an important hub in radio, particularly in the area of daytime drama.  His talent attracted the notice of Air Features, Inc., the production company run by soap opera moguls Frank and Anne Hummert, and Damon soon began securing roles on such programs as The Romance of Helen Trent and Houseboat Hannah.  That valuable experience would lead to work on soaps not produced by the Hummerts, including The Right to Happiness, Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories, and Portia Faces Life.  Les would eventually move to New York, but continued to work on daytime dramas throughout his radio career, notably The Bartons, Girl Alone, Lone Journey (on which he starred, playing Wolfe Bennett), The Second Mrs. Burton, This is Nora Drake, and Young Dr. Malone.

July 2, 1941 marked a very important date in the radio career of Lester Damon.  That night, The Adventures of The Thin Man premiered over NBC for Woodbury Soap, a light-hearted detective series based on the famous sleuthing couple created by Dashiell Hammett (and the subjects of a popular MGM film series, with William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora).  The Thin Man radio series (produced by Inner Sanctum Mysteries’ Himan Brown) became a solid radio hit, but Les’ tenure with the show would be interrupted via a letter from his Uncle Sam.  Inducted into the Army Air Force, Les served with distinction in WW2 and would eventually return to his work in radio during his hitch as a member of the staff of the India-Burma Network.  (Technical Sergeant Damon did newscasts, interviews, and live spot announcements during his time at the IBN.)

Mustered out of the service, Les reclaimed his Thin Man job in 1946 from another Les—Tremayne, who had been portraying Nick Charles in Damon’s absence.  It only lasted a brief period, however; by 1947 Damon had moved onto other gigs, including taking over for Myron McCormick in the titular role on the short-lived The Adventures of Christopher Wells.  Les’ radio resume would eventually make room for many popular series, including The Big Story, The Cavalcade of America, Dimension X (and its sister series, X-Minus One), Gangbusters, The FBI in Peace and War, The Ford Theatre, The Haunting Hour, Suspense, Under Arrest, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.  In May of 1950, Damon inherited another role from Les Tremayne: that of gumshoe Michael Waring on The Falcon, a show that had been airing on radio since 1943 (Tremayne played the part from 1947-50).  Les Damon would spend three seasons as Waring (who would graduate from P.I. to secret agent during his time on the air), with George Petrie taking over in Falcon’s last season.

Les Damon did not remain idle in radio: in the fall of 1954, he was reunited with his former Thin Man co-star, Claudia Morgan, in another mystery series—The Adventures of the Abbotts.  Abbotts had been kicking around on radio since 1945 (as a summer series on Mutual), and the show’s protagonists—Jean and Pat Abbott—were remarkably similar to the Charles of Thin Man fame.  The Adventures of the Abbotts never really captured the appeal of Nick and Nora, however, and it was dropped after a single season.  Les would also play Inspector Mark Sabre on Mystery Theatre for a time, and the part of Captain Frank Kennelly on Twenty-First Precinct (a role previously tackled by Everett Sloane and James Gregory), but by that point in his career he was ready to give the small screen a try.  In a parallel to his start in radio, Damon made the rounds on several TV soap operas: The Guiding Light (a radio transplant), Search for Tomorrow, The Edge of Night, and As the World Turns.

In addition, Les chalked up several appearances on Jackie Gleason’s TV variety series, as well as the sitcom version of Gleason’s The Honeymooners that ran from 1955 to 1956.  Damon’s guest shots on the boob tube include roles on The Big Story, Window on Main Street, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, and Bus Stop.  His final TV credit was in an episode of Have Gun – Will Travel, while his last radio performance was befittingly on Suspense in June of 1962…a few months before “Radio’s Golden Age” ended.  Sadly, the hard-working Damon wouldn’t be around to see it—he succumbed to a heart attack in July at the age of 54.

Les Damon’s signature radio role of Michael Waring is featured in the Radio Spirits set of The Falcon broadcasts entitled Shakedown (with liner notes by yours truly), but you can also listen to Les in collections of Dimension X (Adventures in Time and Space, Future Tense), The Haunting Hour, Words at War, and X-Minus One (Countdown).  Damon also turns up in our potpourri compendiums Great Radio Detectives (in the Falcon episode “The Case of the Widow’s Gorilla”) and Science Fiction Radio: Atomic Age Adventures (X-Minus One’s “The Discovery of Mornial Mathaway” and Suspense’s “Report from a Dead Planet”).  Happy birthday to you, Mr. Damon—your dedication and hard work has paid off handsomely for fans of old-time radio!

Old-time radio historian Jim Harmon minced no words in his book Radio Mystery and Adventure and Its Appearances in Film, Television and Other Media: “He was the announcer, perhaps the greatest announcer-narrator in the history of radio drama.  He pronounced words like no one ever had—‘SIL-ver,’ ‘hiss-TOR-ee.’  But hearing him, you realized everybody else had been wrong.”  That announcer was born Frederick William Foy on this date in 1921 in Detroit, MI…and although his wasn’t the first voice to recount the tales of “the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains,” he “literally made many people forget there had been others before him,” according to Harmon.

Born to Anna and Ferdinand Frederick Foy, an autoworker, Fred did not enter this world unaccompanied—he had a twin sister named Betty (his only sibling).  (Foy joked in a 2008 interview: “My Mom and Dad were not expecting a double feature.”)  He developed a love of acting by emulating the heroes in the various library books he checked out as a child.  Graduating from Detroit’s Eastern High School in 1938, Foy decided to remain home (instead of attending drama school) and look for any job opportunities in local radio.  His lack of experience hampered his ambitions, but he eventually landed a gig at WBMC, a small 250-watt station. Fred wasn’t paid for his on-air duties—he depended on his second job as an elevator operator in a downtown department store to keep body and soul together.

With his WBMC experience, Fred Foy eventually made the move to Detroit’s WXYZ in 1942—the home of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet (and later Challenge of the Yukon).  His stint at “Wyxie Wonderland” was brief, however; Foy was soon inducted into an Armed Forces Radio unit.  His attachment with the 14th Special Service Company would prove most fortuitous.  Fred would become the American voice of Egyptian State Broadcasting in Cairo, announcing news and sports while handling the distribution of American recordings throughout the Middle East.  In concert with the USO, Foy helped sponsor and stage shows featuring the likes of Jack Benny and Lily Pons.  Before his discharge in 1946, Fred received a commendation for voluntarily remaining at his post from August 10 until August 15, 1945 (the official confirmation of the Japanese surrender), issuing updates and news bulletins on the emerging situation.

Fred Foy returned to WXYZ after being demobbed, and for a couple of years served as a “second announcer” for many of the station’s popular series (doing the commercials at mid-break).  The decision of Lone Ranger announcer Harry Golder to relocate to the West Coast to further his career would provide Fred with the opportunity of a lifetime: to announce The Lone Ranger, a show he had listened to faithfully in his youth…never dreaming that he would one day be associated with the program.  Foy’s first broadcast was July 2, 1948, and he was also assigned the task of being star Brace Beemer’s understudy, frequently taking over for Brace during the show’s rehearsals.

Then came the day only dreamed about in old movie musicals: Fred would be pressed upon to play the role of the Ranger on a March 29, 1954 broadcast when Beemer came down with laryngitis!  (“I guess I did all right,” Foy reminisced in 2003 to The New York Daily News, “because we didn’t get any complaints.”) Had the series not bid listeners an official fare-thee-well in September of that same year, Foy could have eventually taken over for Beemer…though doing public appearances would have been a little tricky; WXYZ’s George W. Trendle suggested Fred take riding lessons, but the announcer quit after the first one.  When Brace Beemer took over as the titular hero of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon during that program’s final season…Fred Foy officially came along as Preston’s announcer-narrator (though he had appeared on that show—not to mention The Green Hornet—on earlier occasions).

When The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion Tonto rode onto television screens on September 15, 1949, Fred Foy brought up the rear by reprising his role as announcer…though the narration for the initial episodes came courtesy of actor Gerald Mohr.  Fred would continue his weekly invite to “return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!” until ABC-TV cancelled the TV series on June 6, 1957.  Foy stayed with the American Broadcasting Company; he joined ABC’s New York staff in 1961, and plied his announcing trade for talk shows hosted by Les Crane and Dick Cavett, not to mention The Generation Gap and other quiz shows.  For ABC Radio, he was the host-narrator of Arch Oboler’s attempt to revive radio drama with Theatre Five, and he also lent his voice to an award-winning documentary series for the radio network, Voices in the Headlines.

Fred Foy would continue his love of radio by doing newscasts over WABC in New York, and his familiar voice could be heard not only as a narrator of documentaries on such notables as Sir Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy, but as pitchman for such products as Colgate and General Motors.  Foy stayed with ABC until 1985, and in retirement he wrote an autobiography entitled Fred Foy from XYZ to ABC: A Fond Recollection.  Inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2000, and awarded the Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture and Television Fund four years later, Fred became a frequent guest at old-time radio conventions…where he would enthusiastically recreate what many believe to be radio’s most recognized opening.  Foy left this world for a better one in 2010 at the age of 89.

“A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-Yo Silver’—The Lone Ranger!”  You better believe that Radio Spirits has plenty of collections featuring the voice of today’s birthday celebrant, with The Lone Ranger Rides Again, Masked Rider, and Plains Thunder more than sufficient to whet any old-time radio fan’s appetite.  But be sure to check out our latest Sergeant Preston of the Yukon set, Return to Danger—just in case you want a little dessert.  Happiest of birthdays to you, Fred Foy—you’re not only one of the medium’s all-time greats…it’s safe to say that without you I’d be operating a blog without a proper name.

The untimely death of “platinum blonde” Jean Harlow at the age of 26 was devastating news to moviegoers…but since the motion picture business is a business, MGM (Harlow’s employer) soldiered on by completing Jean’s final movie, Saratoga (1937), with Jean’s body double, Mary Dees.  Filming Dees from behind could go a long way towards covering for Jean’s incomplete scenes…but Mary’s voice wouldn’t pass muster—it was much too high.  So, MGM called upon a starlet who had been working for the studio as a voice actress to do her flawless impression of Harlow…and to this day, it’s a challenge for classic film buffs to pick out which scenes feature the authentic voice of Jean, and which sequences depended on the amazing vocal talent born on this date in 1910: Paula Winslowe.

Paula Winslowe hailed from Grafton, North Dakota…and if anyone can claim responsibility for her interest in an acting career, it was her husband (and childhood sweetheart) John Sutherland.  John had been captivated by movies since he was a little shaver, and wanted to “follow the yellow brick road” to Tinsel Town to try his luck in “the flickers.”  Sutherland never did achieve his dream of becoming the next Cecil B. DeMille…but he did eventually manage to make a good living as a writer, director, and producer of educational film shorts (with captivating titles like A is for Atom [1953] and It’s Everybody’s Business [1954]).

As for Mrs. Sutherland…well, her arrival in The Golden State coincided with the motion picture industry’s revolution of “talking pictures.”  Many movie actresses—while certainly photogenic—often had voices at complete odds with their camera-friendly looks.  That’s why “voice doubles” were needed, and since Paula demonstrated some acting talent (as well as an ability to carry a tune when necessary) she was pressed into service to dub many performers.  “Voice doubling” may not have led to stardom (these actresses often went uncredited), but it kept the red ink away from the checkbook register.  Sadly, this work began to dry up when a series of articles criticizing the practice began to appear in fan magazines.

Paula Winslowe had a Plan B.  Though she studied dramatic acting in New York for a year, intending to work on stage, the growing medium of radio guaranteed work for voice actresses.  Winslowe soon garnered gainful employment with KHJ, the Don Lee network’s Hollywood flagship station.  KHJ would feature Paula in many of their dramatic productions—she can even be heard on a surviving December 30, 1936 broadcast commemorating the merger of Don Lee with the larger Mutual network.  But before that coupling, Don Lee served as the West Coast outlet for CBS…allowing Paula to appear regularly on Bing Crosby’s Woodbury Program in the show’s dramatized commercials (hawking Woodbury Soap).  Winslowe accepted every one of these jobs (she worked with notables like Louella Parsons on Hollywood Hotel and Alexander Woollcott on The Town Crier), and later became a fixture on The Lux Radio Theatre (more soap!) in the same capacity. In addition, Big Town (with a regular role as Miss Foster, Steve Wilson’s secretary), The Shadow of Fu Manchu, The Texaco Star Theatre (hosted by John Barrymore), and The Silver Theatre were just a few of the other programs that availed themselves of Paula’s services.  She also appeared on comedy broadcasts headlined by the likes of Eddie Cantor, Joe E. Brown (she portrayed Jill, Brown’s sweetheart), George Burns & Gracie Allen, and Edgar Bergen.

Before giving her all to radio, Paula Winslowe did one more notable bit of film work: she provided the voice of Bambi’s mother in the 1942 Walt Disney classic Bambi (her husband John also worked in the movie…as the adult Bambi!).  (Though if you look and/or listen sharply enough, you’ll spot Winslowe in the auction scene in 1959’s North by Northwest.)  Radio was good to Paula; she appeared regularly on such anthologies as The Cavalcade of America, Encore Theatre, Escape, The Hallmark Hall of Fame, Hollywood Sound Stage, The Railroad Hour, Romance, The Screen Guild Theatre, and Stars Over Hollywood.  Winslowe later became a member of Elliott Lewis’ “stock company,” with choice roles on Lewis-helmed series like Suspense, Broadway’s My Beat, The CBS Radio Workshop, Crime Classics, and On Stage.  (Her association with “Mr. Radio” continued even into the 1970s, when she worked on his attempts to revive radio drama, including The Hollywood Star Theatre and The Sears Radio Theatre.)

If Paula Winslowe had a signature radio role—it’s unquestionably that of Margaret “Peg” Riley, the long-suffering spouse of good-hearted slob Chester A. Riley (William Bendix) on the long-running sitcom The Life of Riley.  Paula was on that radio program for its entire run from 1944 to 1951…but incredibly enough, she was bypassed to reprise her radio gig in the 1949 movie adaptation.  Rosemary DeCamp got the part in both the feature film and the first attempt to bring Riley to TV screens later that year.  (To add insult to injury, Marjorie Reynolds tackled the role of Peg in the 1953-58 boob tube version that starred Bendix, the original radio Riley.)  Winslowe settled for playing Martha Conklin, spouse of Madison High principal Osgood Conklin (Gale Gordon), when radio’s Our Miss Brooks made the jump to the small screen (Paula also played Martha on radio several times).  Her Life of Riley bona fides landed her work on such radio sitcom favorites as The Great Gildersleeve, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day, The Halls of Ivy, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (she also appeared on the TV version on numerous occasions), and Fibber McGee & Molly…while also emoting on dramatic hits such as Mayor of the Town, The Line Up, Gunsmoke, Frontier Gentleman, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Paula Winslowe kept busy as radio began to cede attention to its newer sibling, television.  On the small screen, she guest-starred on favorites like I Love Lucy, December Bride, The Bob Cummings Show (Love That Bob), Father Knows Best, The Gale Storm Show (Oh Susanna!), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Perry Mason, The Real McCoys, and 77 Sunset Strip—just to name a few of the many.  (She would also resurrect her radio vocal talents on a few episodes of the primetime animated series The Flintstones.)  Paula’s final onscreen credit was in an episode of Run for Your Life, and in the well-chosen words of my Radio Spirits colleague Elizabeth McLeod: “Paula Winslowe kept working in radio as long as there was radio to work in.”  Winslowe passed away in 1996 at the age of 85.

Here’s something I’ll bet you’ll be asking yourself while listening to Paula Winslowe in Radio Spirits’ The Life of Riley collections Magnificent Mug and Blue Collar Blues: how could Peg stay married to that knucklehead all those years and not kick him to the curb?  (It’s all due to how Paula expertly blended exasperation with, and devotion to, her well-intentioned spouse, I suppose.)  Birthday girl Paula can also be heard on such program collections as Broadway’s My Beat (Great White Way, Murder), Suspense (Around the World, Suspense at Work, Ties That Bind), and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (Expense Account Submitted, Wayward Matters).  By the time you finish with Big Town: Blind Justice, Burns & Allen & Friends, Crime Classics: The Hyland Files, Frontier Gentleman: Life and Death, The Great Gildersleeve: For Corn’s Sake, The Line Up: Witness, and Our Miss Brooks: Faculty Feuds—we think you’ll agree that Paula Winslowe was the textbook definition of “a working actress.”

On March 24, 1949, actress Claire Trevor—born in Brooklyn, NY on this date in 1910—received one of the highest honors a performer can obtain from their peers in the motion picture industry: an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  The role for which Trevor garnered her Oscar was that of Gaye Dawn in the film Key Largo (1948)—a faded torch singer now coating her sugar throat with liberal applications of booze.  Who can ever forget Gaye’s pitiful attempt to belt out “Moanin’ Low” in exchange for one little drink…only to be refused by her abusive boyfriend, mobster Johnny Rocco (memorably played by Edward G. Robinson)—who reneges on his promise by telling her “But you were rotten.”  I’ve always thought it fascinating that Claire got her statuette for this film…because in appearing opposite Robinson, it’s almost like watching their Big Town characters, Steve Wilson and Lorelei Kilbourne, in some Bizarro-universe where Steve quit the newspaper game to join the rackets.

Claire Trevor started out in life as Claire Wemlinger—the only daughter of Benjamina (“Betty”) and Noel, a Fifth Avenue merchant tailor.  Though born in Bensonhurst, Claire spent her formative years in Larchmont, NY, attending high school in Mamaroneck before going on to Columbia University (where she studied art) and then the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (she had wanted to be an actress since the age of 11).  By the late 1920s, Trevor was performing in theatrical stock companies and made her Broadway debut in 1932 in Whistling in the Dark.  (Her co-star, Ernest Truex, would reprise his starring role in that play in a 1933 film adaptation…but Claire’s part was portrayed in the movie by Una Merkel.)

While performing on Broadway, Claire Trevor got an apprenticeship appearing before the motion picture camera by making shorts for the Vitaphone company, like The Meal Ticket (1931) and The Imperfect Lover (1932).  When a play in which she had a starring role, The Party’s Over, was an enormous flop, Claire was fortunate that 20th Century Fox offered her a five-year contract—though she was disappointed that she couldn’t continue to work in the theatre, economic realities (jobs were scarce) dictated she move to Hollywood in 1933.  Her stay at Fox was marked by a series of programmers in which she played a lot of tough, hard-bitten female reporters; most of these films rarely see the light of day on Turner Classic Movies or Fox Movie Channel, save for exceptions like 1934’s Baby Take a Bow (Claire plays Shirley Temple’s mother) and Dante’s Inferno (1935), in which she acted opposite Spencer Tracy.

Claire Trevor would eventually leave Fox for better roles…and landed one almost immediately in 1937’s Dead End—where she played a tubercular prostitute and the old flame of gangster Humphrey Bogart.  That role earned her the first of her three Academy Award nominations and, in a sense, became her cinematic stock-in-trade: gangster’s molls in crime pictures and dance hall girls in Westerns.  She returned as Bogie’s girl in The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse (1938—which also featured her Big Town co-star, Eddie G.) and gave mobster husband George Raft moral support in I Stole a Million (1939).  Trevor received top billing in Stagecoach (1939)—the movie that cemented John Wayne’s stardom—as a bar girl run out of town by a contingent of nosy biddies.  Claire would later appear opposite The Duke in Allegheny Uprising (1939) and Dark Command (1940) …and in 1954, as a member of the all-star cast in Wayne’s The High and the Mighty, she earned her final Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

In the world of film noir, Claire Trevor had no equal when it came to playing femme fatales—witness her in Street of Chance (1942), in which she misleads Burgess Meredith (suffering from amnesia) into thinking he’s wanted for a murder.  One of her finest roles (and my personal favorite) is in 1944’s Murder, My Sweet as Helen Grayle, the seductive temptress who turns the knees of P.I. Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) to jelly.  Claire followed this with a succession of turns in such noir classics as Johnny Angel (1945), Crack-Up (1946), Born to Kill (1947—her nastiest femme fatale onscreen, hands down), Raw Deal (1948), Borderline (1950), Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951), and Hoodlum Empire (1952).  Other vehicles that are all the better for featuring Trevor include Texas (1941), Crossroads (1942), The Woman of the Town (1943), The Velvet Touch (1948), and Best of the Badmen (1951).

From 1937 to 1940, Claire emoted opposite Edward G. Robinson on the previously mentioned radio series Big Town.  Trevor would relinquish her role to Ona Munson after complaining that the part had been reduced to two lines: “I’ll wait for you in the car, Steve” and “How’d it go, Steve?”  But Claire never completely abandoned the aural medium: her radio resume includes appearances on such radio anthologies as Academy Award Theatre, The Cavalcade of America, The Gulf/Lady Esther Screen Guild Theatre, Hollywood Star Playhouse, Hollywood Star Time, The Lux Radio Theatre, Screen Director’s Playhouse, Suspense, The Theatre Guild on the Air, and The Theatre of Romance.  Claire stood before the mike on AFRS broadcasts of Command Performance, G.I. Journal, and Mail Call, and guested on programs headlined by Bud Abbott & Lou Costello, Jack Carson, Bob Hope, and Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis.  Trevor would also appear with Lloyd Nolan on Results, Inc.—a lighthearted comedy-mystery program heard briefly over Mutual in 1944.

Claire Trevor continued to work regularly in motion pictures until 1967 (though she would return for a small role as Sally Field’s mother in 1982’s Kiss Me Goodbye) with memorable turns in Marjorie Morningstar (1958), Two Weeks in Another Town (1962—her third and final outing with Edward G. Robinson), and How to Murder Your Wife (1965).  The actress also began making appearances on the small screen with guest shots on boob tube hits such as Wagon Train, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Dr. Kildare; one of her major television triumphs was winning an Emmy Award for her performance in a 1956 production of Dodsworth on NBC’s Producers’ Showcase.  After retirement, she maintained an active interest in stage work and, with her third husband, contributed close to $10 million to The School of Arts at the University of California-Irvine.  With her death in 2000 at the age of 90, UCI renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts…with her Academy Award for Key Largo also finding a permanent home there, displayed in a glass window located in the school’s arts complex.

One of the many movie actors who worked alongside our birthday girl was westerns icon Randolph Scott—and the two films they made together, The Desperadoes (1943) and The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953), are available in the DVD collection Randolph Scott Round-Up Volume 2, available for purchase here at Radio Spirits.  We’ve also Claire to spare in the Big Town collection Blind Justice—a collection of classic broadcasts including a few rarities from Trevor’s years on the program.  For dessert? Sample two of Trevor’s guest star appearances on “radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills” with Suspense: Ties That Bind (“The Plan,” from May 16, 1946) and Suspense: Wages of Sin (“Angel Face,” May 18, 1950).  Happy birthday to one of our favorite “wanton women” from the movies!

He was an actor who did it all: stage, television, movies…and for us fans of the aural medium, plenty of old-time radio.  James Gilmore Backus arrived in Cleveland, OH on this date in 1913, and for most of his show business career was identified as a consummate comedic character actor…though he could, on occasion, show off impressive dramatic chops as well (witness his amazing turn as James Dean’s father in Rebel Without a Cause).  Dedicated couch potatoes like myself remember Jim Backus as the obscenely wealthy Thurston Howell III, one of seven stranded castaways on the popular TV sitcom Gilligan’s Island (1964-67) …and the man who gave voice to the nearsighted Quincy Magoo.

Raised in the wealthy enclave of Bratenahl, Jim Backus’ early years in education were spent in preparatory school in East Cleveland—one of his teachers was Margaret Hamilton, who later achieved silver screen immortality as The Wicked Witch of the West in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz.  His interests at that time were golf (which remained a lifelong passion) and acting.  In his teens, he worked for a stock theater company, where he would get small roles in various productions.  His father Russell, a mechanical engineer, wanted his son to focus on academics…so he enrolled young Jim in the Kentucky Military Institute (one of Backus’ classmates was another struggling young thespian, Victor Mature).  Backus’ stay there was not a lengthy one—purportedly he was expelled after riding a horse through the school’s mess hall.

Jim persuaded his father to allow him to forego traditional college and try his luck at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.  He graduated in 1933, and since acting jobs were often difficult to come by, Backus decided to try his luck in radio as an announcer.  This led to freelance work on daytime dramas and The Kate Smith Hour.  Jim also achieved success on stage in the hit Broadway comedy Hitch Your Wagon in 1937, and a dramatic role in Too Many Heroes that same year.  Surviving audio recordings from the 1940s feature Jim on such shows as Great Plays, The Shadow, Forecast, and The Kay Thompson Show (these last two programs showcased his talents as a writer!).

On the radio series Society Girl, Jim Backus played a millionaire aviator named Dexter Hayes…a character that would more-or-less become his stock-in-trade in his varied radio roles.  The actor himself once described these characters as parodies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, delivered through a sort of “patrician lockjaw.”  For example, on The Mel Blanc Show, Backus was the conceited Hartley Benson, and on The Great Gildersleeve’s later run, he took over for Gale Gordon as Gildy’s stuffed-shirt neighbor Runsom Bullard.  But Jim’s best-remembered radio persona was that of rich playboy Hubert Updike III on The Alan Young Show; Hubert’s favorite expression was “Heavens to Gimbels!” and he would issue veiled threats to the show’s star like “Careful, or I’ll have your mouth washed out with domestic champagne!”  Backus’ portrayal of Hubert proved so popular that he later reprised the character on comedy programs headlined by favorites like Judy Canova and Bob Hope.

On The Sad Sack, Jim Backus played the conniving Chester Fenwick, roommate to the titular hard luck ex-serviceman portrayed by Herb Vigran.  In addition, Jim was Mr. Hendricks, boss to Bill Goodwin on the announcer’s self-titled sitcom, and real estate partner Horace Wiggins on The Penny Singleton Show.  Backus made the rounds of such radio sitcoms as The Aldrich Family, December Bride, Fibber McGee & Molly, The Halls of Ivy, The Life of Riley, Life with Luigi, Lum and Abner, The Magnificent Montague, Mr. and Mrs. Blandings, My Favorite Husband, Our Miss Brooks, and The Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show.  The actor also served as a solid second banana on shows starring the likes of Don Ameche, Jack Benny, Bob Burns, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Jack Carson, Cass Daley, Edgar Bergen, Danny Kaye, Jack Kirkwood, Jerry Lester, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis, and Ed Wynn.  As the decade wore on, Jim headlined his own self-titled comedy-variety show on Mutual from 1947 to 1948 for Pharmaco, and in the summer of ’48 hosted The Great Talent Hunt on that same network, a parody of musical participation programs.

Before Staats Cotsworth began his weekly emoting as Casey, Crime Photographer…Jim Backus played the titular shutterbug for a few shows.  This gave Jim experience that he later used in supporting roles on episodes of Suspense, and on detective dramas such as Jeff Regan, Investigator, The Line-Up, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and This is Your FBI.  Rounding out Jim’s radio resume are credits on such series as Encore Theatre, Family Theatre, Hollywood Star Time, The Lux Radio Theatre, The Man Behind the Gun, The Railroad Hour, Screen Directors’ Playhouse, and The Screen Guild Theatre.

Backus’ extensive radio experience made him a natural for voicing cartoon characters—he was a memorable genie in the classic Bugs Bunny short A-Lad-in His Lamp (1948) (Bugs refers to him as “Smoky”).  It was a successful audition for a 1949 cartoon entitled Ragtime Bear that would bring the actor his greatest fame, however; it was the first of several outings featuring the myopic Quincy Magoo, a vision-impaired individual who frequently found himself in funny situations due to his stubborn refusal to make an appointment with his optometrist.  Jim provided the voice of Magoo in over fifty shorts until 1959 (becoming the UPA studio’s most famous character), then followed those with a feature film (1001 Arabian Nights) and a 1960 TV series.  Magoo would later be the focus of a primetime animated show from 1964 to 1965 (The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo) and a Saturday morning revival in the 1970s, What’s New, Mr. Magoo?  (In addition, Jim could be heard in commercials for General Electric, since the company hired Magoo as a spokesman.)

1949 was the year that Jim Backus also received his first onscreen film credit in the Warner Brothers romantic comedy One Last Fling; he would appear in four additional features that same year, including Father Was a Fullback (billed as James G. Backus), Easy Living (starring his old pal Victor Mature), and The Great Lover, an underrated Bob Hope comedy.  To list all of Jim’s film credits would eat up our allotted bandwidth rations…but a few of our favorites include Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town (1950), The Killer That Stalked New York (1950), M (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), Here Come the Nelsons (1952), Deadline – U.S.A. (1952), Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), Macabre (1958), Boys’ Night Out (1962), and The Wheeler Dealers (1963).  Backus was one of the many funsters to appear in the all-star comedy spectacular It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), playing a tipsy amateur airline pilot named Tyler Fitzgerald.  (Fitzgerald’s observation “it’s the ooooonly way to fly” was an in-joke reference to some Western Airlines TV commercials of the 1950s, in which Jim voiced the character of Wally the Bird.)

On the small screen, Backus became well known for supporting Joan Davis on her 1952-55 sitcom, I Married Joan (he played her husband, Judge Bradley Stevens).  One of Joan’s writers was Sherwood Schwartz, who had also penned much of Hubert Updike’s dialogue on The Alan Young Show…and when Schwartz got the idea for Gilligan’s Island, he couldn’t get Jim out of his mind when he created the character of Thurston Howell III.  In an interview with Jordan R. Young, Schwartz recalled that when he learned that Backus was available he begged Jim to do the part…but was chagrined because the role was so small since he hadn’t had the time to flesh out the character.  (After reading the script, Jim joked: “My part is shorter than the wine list on an airplane.”)  Despite this, Backus agreed to the role…and not only spent three successful seasons as TV’s favorite blue-blood (with support from Natalie Schafer as his wife “Lovey”), but reprised the part in three “reunion” TV-movies that aired during 1979 and 1981, as well as two animated spin-offs: The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974-75) and Gilligan’s Planet (1982).

Jim Backus’ other contributions to TV include a 1960-61 syndicated sitcom, The Jim Backus Show (also known as Hot Off the Wire), and portraying the irascible J.C. Dithers in a sitcom based on Chic Young’s Blondie in 1968 (with his real-life wife Henny as Mrs. D).  He was constantly in demand as a guest star on any number of popular boob tube programs, from The Beverly Hillbillies to The Love Boat, but in the 1980s his acting began to be hampered by Parkinson’s disease—his last feature film credit was 1984’s Prince Jack, and his television farewell came in the form of an Orville Redenbacher Popcorn commercial that reunited him with his Gilligan’s Island spouse, Natalie Schafer.  Backus passed away from pneumonia in 1989 at the age of 76.

On a personal note—while I was aware that today’s birthday boy did radio…I had no idea he did a lot of radio.  Radio Spirits features Jim Backus on a slew of collections: Bergen & McCarthy: The Funny Fifties, Burns & Allen: Muddling Through, Fibber McGee & Molly: For Goodness Sakes, Life with Luigi, The Line Up: Witness, The Man from Homicide, Our Miss Brooks: Good English, Richard Diamond, Private Detective: Dead Men, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective: Mayhem is My Business.  On our compilation Comedy Goes West, you can check out a May 23, 1947 broadcast featuring Jim Backus’ signature radio role (Hubert Updike III) as the star of The Alan Young Show pays a visit to Hubert’s million acre ranch.  Happy natal anniversary to Jim Backus—as a comedic actor without peer in every aspect of show business, you might say his career was (in a nod to his 1958 novelty record, which was a Top 40 hit) “Delicious!”

Before radio audiences eagerly anticipated each week the memorably unsettling sound of a creaking door (on Inner Sanctum Mysteries) or an ominous gong signaling that they should dim the lights (Lights Out), they had to tune into The Witch’s Tale for the proper raising of goosebumps.  Tale was the true granddaddy of radio horror, premiering over New York’s WOR on May 21, 1931 and running until June 13, 1938.  The creative mind behind this series—who would later introduce radio listeners to the thrilling crime adventures of “Flashgun Casey”—was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on this date in 1897: Alonzo Deen Cole.

Young Alonzo made the decision to be a writer at an early age, perhaps spurred on by winning a statewide competition among Minnesota schoolchildren at the age of 11.  (He took first prize at the Minnesota State Fair for a scenario he contributed to a military pageant.)  In high school, he kept in close contact with his creative muse by writing plays performed by the school’s dramatic society—in addition, he directed and starred in those same productions.  He graduated from high school at the age of 16, and took up study at the Minnesota Academy of Arts…this was soon discarded in favor of his acting ambitions, and he found work with stock companies in Minneapolis and St. Paul, eventually earning the princely salary of $15 a week.

World War I interrupted Deen Cole’s acting career temporarily.  He enlisted in the Army as a medic and, after serving briefly in France, he received a transfer to the Entertainment A.E.F.  After the Armistice, he was assigned to a repertoire company comprised of actors in uniform.  A return to civilian life in 1919 proved difficult for Alonzo where acting was concerned; finding steady acting work was tough due to the Equity strike. (Stage performers, led by Ed Wynn, had squared off against producers and theatre owners for better wages and working conditions.) However, he eventually secured a contract that ensured him gainful employment in both vaudeville and legitimate theatre until the stock market crash and the Depression.  It was during this time that Deen Cole met (and later married) an actress named Marie O’Flynn, who would become his vaudeville partner.

Alonzo and Marie also teamed up for a WOR daytime serial broadcast as Darling and Dearie, which ran for a little over a year on the New York station.  Deen Cole, a voracious reader and efficacious raconteur, sold the station on the idea of doing a supernatural horror series in the late evening hours as counterprogramming to the various music broadcasts airing on rival stations.  Both Alonzo and Marie would perform the various male and female parts in his scripts on The Witch’s Tale.  The role of “Old Nancy,” the elderly, cackling witch who served as the series’ narrator, was essayed by Adelaide Fitz-Allen…who was seventy-five at the time she began playing the part before the microphone.  The long tradition of featuring a host-narrator for horror programs—think of the later Raymond (Edward Johnson) on Inner Sanctum or The Mysterious Traveler (Maurice Tarplin), for example—began on Tale.  Nancy was also accompanied by a black cat named “Satan” …with Deen Cole getting in touch with his feline side as the narrator’s familiar.

Not long after its WOR debut, The Witch’s Tale was a solid hit with listeners and critics.  Dorothy Kardel of The New York Daily News gushed in a June 12, 1931 review: “Thrill seekers miss plenty when they fail to hear this new dramatic series.”  Even the death of Fitz-Allen (she passed away on February 26, 1935, having never missed a performance) didn’t slow down the series.  After auditioning several contenders for “Nancy,” Alonzo selected thirteen-year-old Miriam Wolff to continue as the cackling host.  (Wolff had previous appeared on the children’s series Let’s Pretend—in fact, it was the creator of that program, Nila Mack, who recommended Miriam to Deen Cole as she and Alonzo had formed a strong friendship during their years in vaudeville.)  Though The Witch’s Tale aired its final episode on June 13, 1938, Alonzo Deen Cole recorded enough of the live broadcasts to ensure that the show lived on in syndication for an additional six years.  (Sadly, Deen Cole destroyed his collection of recordings in 1961 after moving to California—he didn’t think they had any commercial value.)

Alonzo kept busy in radio after that, contributing scripts to such series as The Shadow and Gang Busters.  In the summer of 1943, he signed a contract with CBS to write, produce, and direct a program based on a pulp magazine creation by George Harmon Coxe.  The show premiered on July 7, 1943 as Flash-Gun Casey and, though it went by several names (Crime Photographer, Casey, Press Photographer, etc.), old-time radio fans know it best as Casey, Crime Photographer.  The titular shutterbug (portrayed at various times by Matt Crowley, Jim Backus, and Staats Cotsworth) worked for The Morning Express.  When Casey wasn’t plying his trade at crime scenes (where he would often find himself in the role of amateur detective), he spent a copious amount of time at a watering hole known as The Blue Note Café.  There he would hold forth with girlfriend Ann Williams (played by Jone Allison, Alice Reinheart, Lesley Woods, Betty Furness, and Jan Miner), a reporter at the paper, and bartender Ethelbert (John Gibson).  The popular series was a solid favorite with listeners until 1955.

Casey, Crime Photographer enjoyed a brief run on television from 1951 to 1952, and Alonzo Deen Cole had hopes that The Witch’s Tale could establish a beachhead on the small screen as well.  But a pilot (filmed in 1958) never got off the ground (Alonzo admitted later that the cheapness of the production worked against its favor).  After a lifetime of writing for radio—he churned out 332 Witch’s Tale scripts, not to mention the entirety of Casey, Crime Photographer (384 in all)—he had earned a well-deserved vacation.  What ultimately sidelined Deen Cole was a diagnosis of a heart condition in 1962—and though he adopted a regimen of proper medication and a salt-free diet, he finally succumbed to his heart ailment in 1971 at the age of 73.

Not many broadcasts of The Witch’s Tale have endured for a new generation of old-time radio fans to enjoy…but what have survived can be found in the Radio Spirits collection The Witch’s Tale, a 10-CD set with liner notes by the late David S. Siegel.  (David also edited a book containing thirteen scripts — how appropriate — from the series that’s well worth seeking out if you have time on your lunch hour.)  You can also find a classic Tale (“Rockabye Baby,” from 1934) on our supernatural radio compendium Great Radio Horror.  For those of you who gravitate more to crime stories, our birthday celebrant’s other series, Casey, Crime Photographer, is well represented here with the sets Snapshots of Mystery and Blue Note.  Happiest of birthdays to one of radio’s true masters of chilling and thrilling drama!