Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

In celebration of the December birthdays of Rex Stout and Sydney Greenstreet, here are two episodes of  The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe starring Greenstreet as the gargantuan gourmet created by Stout. There's no case too baffling for the sedentary sleuth and his loyal legman Archie Goodwin, and we'll hear two of their mysteries: "The Case of the Deadly Sellout" with Larry Dobkin as Archie (origin...

Cornell Woolrich - aka William Irish - was one of the great crime writers of the twentieth century with his works winning acclaim and adaptations on radio and the big screen (including Hitchcock's classic  Rear Window ). We'll celebrate the anniversary of his birth with three of his tales adapted for the airwaves - "The Bride Wore Black" from The Mollé Mystery Theater (originally aired on NBC on F...

Master mystery writer John Dickson Carr embraced radio in a big way. He wrote scripts for  Suspense and his own anthology show  Cabin B-13 . Carr also acted as master of ceremonies for  Murder by Experts . In honor of his birthday on November 30th, we'll hear two of his original radio mysteries: "Will You Make a Bet with Death?" from  Suspense (originally aired on CBS on November 10, 1942), and "A...

No sleuths today - just a heaping helping of Thanksgiving comedy from the Golden Age of Radio. Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore present a comedy opera about the pilgrims, and Jack Benny and his gang are off to the big football game in this Turkey Day bonus show.

"Down These Mean Streets" has reached 300 episodes! To mark the occasion, we're hearing again from Bob Bailey as "the man with the action-packed expense account" -  Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar . Bailey stars as "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" in the six-part mystery "The Kranesburg Matter" (originally aired on CBS between August 24 and August 31, 1956).

This week on "Down These Mean Streets," we'll hear Howard Duff in two radio mysteries as Sam Spade and as a scriptwriter plotting the perfect crime in "Suspense."

Dick Powell reinvented himself as a hardboiled hero with his performance as Philip Marlowe in  Murder, My Sweet , and several films noir and radio detective shows followed. We'll hear Powell as gumshoe Richard Rogue in "Blood on the Sand" from Rogue's Gallery (originally aired on Mutual on December 13, 1945). Then he's  Richard Diamond, Private Detective in "The Martin Hyer Case" (originally aired...

Grab a drink and a mystery at the Cafe Tambourine in Cairo with two-fisted club owner and adventurer  Rocky Jordan . The ex-pat and amateur detective kept audiences thrilled with tales told against an exotic backdrop. Jack Moyles stars as Rocky in "The Bartered Bridegroom" (originally aired on CBS on October 31, 1948) and "Adventure with Andrea" (originally aired on CBS on September 11, 1949). The...

We're celebrating the lighter side of October 31st with this year's "Down These Mean Streets" Halloween special. Grab your favorite candy and enjoy a pair of trick or treating comedies from  The Jack Benny Program (originally aired on NBC on October 31, 1948) and Lucille Ball's  My Favorite Husband (originally aired on CBS on October 28, 1949).

It didn't take a brilliant detective to bring one of fiction's greatest sleuths to radio, but it did take a talented writer and devoted fan. Edith Meiser penned the very first Sherlock Holmes radio show on October 20, 1930, and her efforts behind the scenes kept the character going for nearly twenty years on the air. We'll celebrate Holmes' anniversary with three of Meiser's original mysteries sta...

Before she became a commercial star as "Madge" for Palmolive, actress Jan Miner was busy working on the stage and the radio. Miner was heard regularly on soap operas, dramas, and radio detective shows. We'll hear her as Mary Wesley in the syndicated episode "Alibi Time" from  Boston Blackie and as Ann Williams in "King of the Apes" from  Casey, Crime Photographer  (originally aired on CBS on May 1...

The Chairman of the Board fights crime as Frank Sinatra stars in  Rocky Fortune . The singer played Fortune - a man whose odd jobs always led to trouble - for a single season in a fun, well-produced mystery series. To celebrate the sixty-fifth anniversary of the show's debut, we'll hear a pair of Rocky's adventures - the show's first episode (originally aired on NBC on October 6, 1953) and "The Mu...

William Gargan is on the case as  Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator - the sardonic gumshoe with a healthy sense of humor to go along with his powers of deduction. We'll hear "Murder Masquerade" (originally aired on NBC on August 9, 1953) and "Hay is for Homicide" (originally aired on NBC on August 31, 1954).

In celebration of what would have been his 98th birthday, we're tipping our hat to William Conrad. Before he was the narrator of The Fugitive and Rocky and Bullwinkle and before he solved TV crimes as  Cannon , Conrad was one of the biggest talents of the golden age of radio. He had thousands of credits to his name but he was best known as Matt Dillon, US Marshal, on  Gunsmoke . We'll hear him in...

With his polished radio presence and his mellifluous British accent, Tom Conway was a natural as a radio detective, and he put his voice to great use as both Sherlock Holmes and Simon Templar. We'll hear him as Holmes - with Nigel Bruce as Watson - in "The Adventure of the Original Hamlet" (originally aired on ABC on November 2, 1946). Then as  The Saint , he stars in "The Girl with the Lower Bert...

In the film noir classic  D.O.A. , the detective is also the victim of the crime. Edmond O'Brien, one of radio's Johnny Dollars, recreates his big screen role as Frank Bigelow, a man with only days left to live who is frantically searching for the man who murdered him, in this adaptation from the  Screen Directors Playhouse (originally aired on NBC on June 21, 1951).

Alan Ladd didn't just star in mysteries and thrillers on the big screen - audiences could also hear Ladd on their radios in tales of daring detectives and heroes. We'll hear him in "Double Right Cross," an episode of his syndicated series  Box 13 where he starred as reporter turned mystery writer and amateur sleuth Dan Holiday. Then he's joined by Veronica Lake in a radio recreation of his wartime...

From the Broadway stage to the world of daytime soap operas, Lesley Woods found success in every medium she tried during her six decade career. She was very busy on radio, appearing on soaps, sci-fi shows, thrillers, and detective programs. We'll hear her opposite Richard Kollmar in  Boston Blackie as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley in "The Wentworth Diamonds." And she's reporter Ann Williams alo...

Crooks made the mistake of underestimating private detectives Max Carrados and Captain Duncan Maclain because both men were blind. After you hear their radio adventures, you'll know that a lack of sight doesn't stand in the way of these gentlemen as they solve seemingly impossible murders. Ernest Bramah's gentlemanly Carrados (voiced by Alfred Shirley) stars in "The Holloway Flat Tragedy" from  Mu...

San Francisco shamus Candy Matson was the greatest girl detective of the radio era. Charming, cool, and cute, Candy made her way in the man's world of private eye gumshoeing. Before and after her series aired on NBC, two audition shows were recorded to bring the sassy sleuth to audiences. We'll hear Natalie Masters as Candy in both of those shows – "The Donna Dunham Case" from April 1949 and "The...

If you've got to walk down the mean streets of Los Angeles, it helps to have Philip Marlowe by your side. Gerald Mohr brought Raymond Chandler's private eye to life in one of the best detective shows to come out of the radio era. We'll hear a pair of Marlowe's mysteries: "The Bum's Rush" (originally aired on CBS on September 3, 1949) and "The Fox's Tail" (originally aired on CBS on May 23, 1950).

After a hiatus, it's time once again to head "Down These Mean Streets." I'm kicking off a new season with the king of the radio cops – Sgt. Joe Friday. Jack Webb is keeping Los Angeles safe in three old time radio mysteries: "The Big Girl" (originally aired on NBC on February 9, 1950); "The Big Evans" (originally aired on NBC on March 16, 1952); and "The Big Impossible" (originally aired on NBC on...

To celebrate Dashiell Hammett's birthday, we'll hear a pair of radio adventures of his most famous creation - the hard-boiled San Francisco shamus Sam Spade. Howard Duff stars as Spade in "The Queen Bee Caper" (originally aired on CBS on July 10, 1949). Then, Steven Dunne steps into Sam's shoes for "The Biddle Riddle Caper" (originally aired on NBC on January 5, 1951).

We're celebrating the birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle with radio adaptations of three of his greatest Sherlock Holmes mysteries. In these productions from the BBC, John Gielgud stars as Holmes with Ralph Richardson as Dr. Watson. The game's afoot in "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Red-Headed League," and "The Six Napoleons."

Walk in the shoes of a killer as he plans and carries out his crime. Just watch out for a twist ending when the story is told by  The Whistler . Bill Forman stars as the sinister storyteller who introduces his tales with a haunting melody. We'll hear "Brief Pause for Murder" (originally aired on CBS on September 11, 1949) and "A Law of Physics" (originally aired on CBS on June 10, 1951).