Why not lead off with two of The Whistler's more deft yarn-spinnings?
The Whistler: Murder on Paper (CBS, 1945)—A gambling-addicted former police reporter and detective fiction writer, chafing when his penurious wife—bent on keeping him in the chemical industry she inherited—refuses to help him satisfy a mob-connected bookmaker who fronted him racetrack money, becomes involved with one of her less-penurious girlfriends, with whom his plan to escape his marriage takes a turn that haunts him after he marries his new paramour, liquidates his sudden inheritance, and panics when he fears a mechanic uncovers evidence in his first wife's demise. Cast: Unknown. Announcer: Bob Anderson. The Whistler: Bill Forman. Music: Wilbur Hatch. Director: George W. Allen. Writer: J. Donald Wilson.
The Whistler: Burden of Guilt (CBS, 1950)—A rainy day in a San Diego mansion is the setting for a wealthy couple and their executive assistant to plan journeys, with the assistant intending his to be a kind of escape—from facing their likely wrath after he's systematically embezzled thousands from them during his service—until the wife (Betty Lou Gerson), impatient to wait for her husband's death to inherit his fortune, blackmails him into helping her escape likewise and with further, shall we say, funding. Additional cast: Unknown. The Whistler: Bill Forman. Announcer: Marvin Miller. Music: Wilbur Hatch. (Whistling: Dorothy Roberts.) Writers: Unknown.
FURTHER CHANNEL SURFING . . .
Adventure
Adventures By Morse: The City of the Dead (Syndicated, 1944)—In the first serial in the series, San Francisco investigators Bart Friday and Skip Turner (Elliott Lewis, David Ellis) continue helping their fathers—the mayor and the town's most prominent doctor—fight a continuing grave-robbing epidemic. The successor series to I Love a Mystery and, in more ways than one, a superior successor, which makes its very brief life even more to lament. Additional cast: Russell Thorson, Jack Edwards. Writer/director: Carlton E. Morse.
Comedy
The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny: Jack Challenges Fred Allen to a Fight (NBC, 1939)—If the once-infamous Jack Benny-Fred Allen feud really climaxed during a Benny visit to New York in 1937, as many radio historians will come to believe, that doesn't mean the gag didn't remain good for a decade's worth of extension, without making the country sick and tired of it, as tonight demonstrates rather neatly: The cast eavesdrops on Benny as he wrestles by phone with a telephone operator who can’t seem to find the way to patch him to Western Union, the better to send Allen another challenge to another fight—in case of which he hires a bodyguard. Somehow, Benny and company also find a way to perform an equally pleasant if no great shakes satire of the Hopalong Cassidy Westerns. Additional cast: Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson (announcer), Phil Harris, Kenny Baker. Music: Phil Harris Orchestra. Writers: Ed Beloin, Bill Morrow.
The Great Gildersleeve: Marjorie's Hot-Rod Boyfriend (NBC, 1947)—Marjorie's (Louise Erickson) late dates with Jerry Walsh and a wild bunch in his souped-up wreck have Gildersleeve (Harold Peary) somewhere between flustered, frantic, and fuming—especially when she forgets her house keys and has to wake him to let her in, leading to a breakfast showdown neither really enjoys . . . and a tactical gamble by Uncle Mort. Birdie: Lillian Randolph. Leroy: Walter Tetley. Peavey: Richard Le Grand. Floyd: Arthur Q. Bryan. Hooker: Earle Ross. Announcer: John Lang. Music: Jack Meakin Orchestra. Writers: John Whedon, Sam Moore.
The Jack Carson Show: Who's Sending Threatening Letters? (CBS, 1947)—Jack (Carson) would like to know, when he receives a telegram from “The Mad One” saying he has 42 days left and has no idea what the message or the messenger really mean. Neither will you, more or less. Himself: Arthur Treacher. Tugwell: Dave Willock. Norma Jean: Norma Jean Nilsson. Herself: Irene Ryan. Additional cast: Unknown. Announcer: Del Sharbut. Music: Freddy Martin Orchestra. Director: Sam Fuller. Writer: Leonard L. Levinson.
Our Miss Brooks: School on Saturday (CBS, 1950)—That's Conklin's (Gale Gordon) brilliant idea, the better to get a jump on the rest of the school district for scheduling and class assignments, provoking the student body to boycott the Saturday session—which happens to be against school district policy—and to dragoon Connie (Eve Arden) into being their faculty spokesman. Walter: Richard Crenna. Mrs. Davis: Jane Morgan. Stretch: Leonard Smith. Harriet: Gloria McMillan. Boynton: Jeff Chandler. Stone: Bill Johnstone. Announcer: Bob LaMond. Music: Wilbur Hatch. Writer/director: Al Lewis.
Crime Drama
The Green Hornet: Escape for Revenge (ABC, 1946; KRLD nostalgia rebroadcast)—Death row killer Jack Ludlow abducts his prison warden to facilitate his escape, where he plans to kill the prosecutor who got his conviction and make it resemble the work of the Green Hornet (Bob Hall), who left him for capture in the first place. Casey: Leonora Allman. Axford: Gilbert Shea. Additional cast: Unknown. Writer/director: Fran Striker.
Drama/Dramatic Anthology
Lux Radio Theater: Lady in the Dark (CBS, 1945)—The Gershwin-Hart-Moss stage musical comedy and film—whose story was based loosely on Moss Hart's own experiences under psychoanalysis—gets a splendid adaptation: Fashion magazine editor Liza Elliott (Ginger Rogers, reprising her film role) experiencing great success and great pressure from voluminous suitors undergoes psychoanalysis to relieve the spells of headaches, daydreaming, and indecision to which she's been prone of late. Johnson: Ray Milland (also reprising his film role). Additional cast: Howard McNear, Carlton KaDell, Charles Sel, Verna Felton, Doris Singleton, Herbert Rawlinson, Charlotte Treadway, Edward Marr, Norman Field, Ed Emerson, Norma Jean Nilsson, Robert Clarke, Gloria Fisher, Jay Novello. Host/producer: Lionel Barrymore, filling in for Cecil B. DeMille. Music: Louis Silvers.
Music
Mutual Coast-to-Coast: Count Basie at the Blue Room: “We Just Got a Little Mixed Up There" (Mutual, 1945)—Announcer Jack Scanlan may confuse the opening two numbers, but there'll be no confusing the driving swing of Count Basie and his men, from the Blue Room of New York City's Hotel Lincoln. Highlights include "Together," "Just After Awhile," "On the Upbeat," "One O'Clock Jump"; soloists include Jimmy Rushing (vocal), Earle Warren (tenor saxophone, vocal), Count Basie (piano), and the nonpareil Lester Young (tenor saxophone).
Soap Opera
One Man’s Family: Book 82, Chapter 21 (NBC, 1951)—The new Harper and Barbour real estate partnership's experiencing growing pains, with Harper (Marvin Miller) questioning Clifford's (Barton Yarborough) drive until Henry (J. Anthony Smythe)—whom Harper's thinking of selling his half the business, and who is never really shy about what he champions—cautions Harper not to mistake Clifford's casual style for business listlessness, while Clifford has misgivings about a successful deal. This is one splendid example of why this soap endures as long as it does even if you usually cringe at the genre. Announcer: Ken Carpenter. Music: Paul Carson. Writer/director: Carlton E. Morse.
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