Journey back to a time when radio reigned supreme in the hearts and minds of most Americans. Enjoy two Old Time Radio shows from the Golden Age of Radio.
The Golden Age of Radio was host to some of the greatest Sleuths of all time. Here are two of the best! So put your thinking cap on and tag along with these gumshoes and try to crack the case before they do. And while youre at it, rediscover some of the greatest detectives of radio in this landmark collection from Radios Golden Age. The Golden Age of Radio lives again in two classic broadcasts digitally restored and remastered for your listening pleasure.
Richard Diamond, Private Detective- Jerome J. Jerome starring Dick Powell:
Dick Powell was a baby-faced singer of Warner Brothers musicals in the early 1930s who had been struggling for years to change his image. In frustration he purchased his contract from Warner Brothers and moved to Paramount in the 1940s but the dramatic roles that he yearned for seemed to elude him. He badly wanted the lead in Paramounts Double Indemnity, and when he didnt get it, he left them too. In 1945 he wound up at RKO and landed the role of a lifetime, playing detective Philip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet. With this one film, his newfound career as a tough-guy was launched. He followed up Murder My Sweet with Cornered and Johnny OClock and began moonlighting as a detective on radio portraying Richard Rogue on Rogues Gallery. After the success of Rogues Gallery, NBC assigned young screenwriter Blake Pink Panther Edwards to create a new radio detective character for Powell. Edwards, who had never worked in radio, saw Richard Diamond as a former OSS Agent, fast on his feet and even quicker with a wisecrack. Diamond became an ex-cop whose ties to the police remained sarcastically tepid; a happy-go-lucky detective who barely made ends meet and loved to frustrate Lieutenant Walt Levinson, head of the local police effort. He took extra special delight though in making fun of dumb desk sergeant Otis, whose sole purpose in the series was comic relief. The stories were filled with two-fisted action and usually ended with Diamond in the Park Avenue penthouse of his girlfriend, the rich and very beautiful redhead Helen Asher. Diamond would sit at Helens piano and belt out a song or two which added nice frosting to the rough and tumble.
Sherlock Holmes- Case of the Six Napoleons starring John Gielgud as Sherlock and Ralph Richardson:
Sherlock Holmes, the remarkable hero of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles novels and stories first came to radio in 1930 starring William Gillette in the title role. Gillette had toured with his Holmes stage play and also played the character on The Lux Radio Theatre in 1935 before convincing NBC to give the character a regular radio series. The stories were well suited for radio and many actors played the London-based detective on the air including: Richard Gordon, Louis Hector, Basil Rathbone, Tom Conway, John Stanley, Ben Wright, and John Gielgud. The stories were told in retrospect by Holmes close friend and assistant, Dr.Watson. The plots relied on detail, Holmes reconstructing entire scenarios with tiny clues and bits of evidence, his mind many steps ahead of Watsons and the police. The radio series hit its stride when the actors best known for playing Holmes and Watson on celluloid (Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce) lent their voices to the show. It enjoyed a long run on radio bowing out in 1956.
