Showing results by author "Hollywood 360" in All Categories

The Lineup was a hard-boiled drama. Like Dragnet, it realistically showed police doing their jobs. The show always began with a police sergeant ordering suspects to stand at attention so that the victim, behind one-way glass, could try to identify the criminal. While the lineup was rarely the key to solving the case, it did give the show a rhythm and also allowed for humor in the interrogation of the suspects by the sergeant. The series began as a summer replacement for The FBI in Peace and War in 1950, but soon got its own time slot.

Here are 12 episodes of the horror and mystery series written and produced by radio announcers beginning in 1946. There were several series under the Hall of Fantasy banner, all produced by Richard Thorne. The first originated from radio station KALL in Salt Lake City. Richard Thorne and Carl Greyson were announcers for the station and coproduced the bare-bones horror series beginning in 1946. Written or adapted by Robert Olson and directed by Thorne, the stories were mostly murder mysteries with traditional endings.

In 1949, NBC brought handsome Irish American actor Brian Donlevy to the radio microphones as international troubleshooter Steve Mitchell in the spy series Dangerous Assignment. Mitchell worked for an unnamed US government intelligence agency, whose boss, "the Commissioner," dispatched him to world trouble spots. Mitchell's assignment was to solve problems in record time and in accordance with US interests.

Although "Ol' Blue Eyes" would conquer records, film, and television, it was radio that first made Frank Sinatra a star. Spanning the years 1943 to 1954, this collection showcases Sinatra from such shows as Suspense, The Frank Sinatra Show, The Jack Benny Program, The Burns and Allen Show, and more. Included is the final episode of Sinatra's action/detective series, Rocky Fortune, a low-budget radio series that he decided not to continue after winning his Academy Award.

Frontier Gentleman was a radio western series aimed at adults that aired on CBS radio for one season in 1958. It starred radio veteran John Dehner as J. B. Kendall, a reporter for the London Times. The series followed the adventures of the freelance journalist as he roamed the western United States in search of stories for his newspaper. Kendall often crossed paths with well-known historical figures, such as Jesse James, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickok.

Lyon, portrayed by Wilms Herbert, ran the International Detective Bureau, a small private investigations firm in downtown Los Angeles, with often oversized ambitions. Regan handled rough assignments from Lyon, with whom he was not always on good terms. Actor Jack Webb played Regan as tough and tenacious, with a dry sense of humor. The series ended when Webb left the show in December 1948, but was resurrected in October 1949 with a new cast.

The CBS Radio Workshop regularly featured the works of the world's greatest writers, including Ray Bradbury, Archibald MacLeish, William Saroyan, Lord Dunsany, and Ambrose Bierce, among others. The radio series aired from January 27, 1956, through September 22, 1957, and was a revival of the prestigious Columbia Workshop from the 1930s and 1940s. Creator William Froug launched the series with this powerhouse two-part adaptation of Brave New World and booked author Aldous Huxley to narrate his famous novel.

Movie star Alan Ladd played Dan Holiday, a former newspaperman turned mystery novelist and adventurer. To gain ideas for his books, Holiday placed an ad in the Star-Times newspaper: "Adventure wanted - will go anywhere, do anything - write Box 13, Star-Times." It wasn't long before his post office box became jammed with adventure offers galore. The stories follow his escapades when he responds to the letters.

The Weird Circle radio show was an anthology of classic thrillers from the pens of the world's best-known and respected fiction authors of the 19th century. The focus was on stories of horror, suspense, and the supernatural by such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Mary Shelley, with an occasional drama by the likes of Emily Brontë, Charles Dickens, and George Eliot.

Fibber McGee & Molly had a long and successful run on radio from 1935 to 1959, featuring its creators and stars, married couple Jim and Marian Jordan. Living in the fictional Midwestern city of Wistful Vista, Fibber was an American teller of tall tales and a braggart, usually to the exasperation of his long-suffering wife, Molly, who tried to keep him out of trouble.

Created by Blake Edwards of The Pink Panther fame, Richard Diamond, Private Detective came to NBC radio in 1949 starring film actor and singer Dick Powell. Powell had recently played Philip Marlowe in the popular RKO film Murder, My Sweet and jumped at the chance to play a suave detective on radio.

Created by author Jack Boyle, Boston Blackie was a master safecracker and hardened criminal who served time in a California prison. Rehabilitated, he decided to use his knowledge of the underworld to fight crime as an amateur detective. Known as "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend", Boston Blackie's exploits were adapted to film, radio, and television.

Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve was a popular character appearing each week on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show. On August 31, 1941, Gildersleeve landed his own situation comedy, The Great Gildersleeve, becoming radio's first spin-off. Gildersleeve moved from the town of Wistful Vista, where Fibber McGee and Molly lived, to Summerfield, where he oversaw his late brother-in-law's estate and took on the rearing of his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie and Leroy Forrester.

Rogue's Gallery was an old-time radio program starring Dick Powell as Richard Rogue, a private detective who trailed luscious blondes, protected witnesses, and did whatever else detectives do to make a living. What set this show apart from others in the genre was that midway through every episode, Rogue would invariably end up getting knocked out and spending his dream time in acerbic conversation on Cloud 8 with his subconscious self named Eugor - Rogue spelled backward.

The Lux Radio Theatre was one of the longest running - and most extravagant - shows from radio's golden age. The show featured the greatest stars in Hollywood appearing in hour-long radio adaptations of their biggest motion pictures. Cecil B. DeMille was the host for the lavish production of what was to become a veritable checklist of many of Hollywood's best films from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s.

Philo Vance is a fictional character featured in numerous crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine, published in the 1920s and 1930s, who was later revived in film and on radio and television. During that time Vance was immensely popular. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant with a highly intellectual bent - America's Sherlock Holmes. He worked closely with his secretary and right-hand woman, Ellen Deering, and his pal, John Markham, New York County district attorney.

This Is Your FBI, as the title suggests, was a crime drama that featured true cases from the FBI and was told from an agent's viewpoint. The show's producer and director, Jerry Devine, had once worked for the FBI, so having him for the show would allow each story to be told in the best way possible. J. Edgar Hoover, who was the chief of the FBI at the time, gave it his endorsement, calling it "the finest dramatic program on the air", and gave Devine access to the FBI files for the stories used in the show.

Candy Matson was a response to all the hard-boiled detectives on the radio, like Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Pat Novak, and all those other detectives who were beaten up on a regular basis. Candy, played by Natalie Park, was hard-boiled in her own way. She never compromised her femininity, but she did know how to use a gun and didn't hesitate to use it when it was necessary. She didn't take any guff from the guys - the good guys or the bad guys. With a snappy comeback, she could take anybody's head off.

Set in Los Angeles, and starring Jack Webb as the stoic Sergeant Joe Friday, Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama of all time, having made extensive runs on both radio and television. Webb, also the producer of the show, took the series to new highs, insisting on realism in every facet of the program. The dialogue was clipped and sparse, taking its cue from hard-boiled crime fiction à la Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Here are 12 adventure-packed episodes of the radio drama Rocky Fortune. This 1953 radio adventure series stars Frank Sinatra as Rocco Fortunato, aka Rocky Fortune, a footloose and fancy-free young man of several talents. In constant need of employment, Rocky accepts odd jobs from the Gridley Employment Agency - jobs that typically lead him into situations where he tracks down criminals and ends up rescuing people in trouble - especially women. The job done, Rocky ultimately needs to find more work.