Golden Age of Radio

Washington Afro-American – Sep 18, 1951 With only a five-minute-break during a rehearsal for their Saturday night NBC-TV “ Your Hit Parade ” show (10:30), the program’s singing stars (left to right), Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson and Eileen Wilson have to tackle one ice cream soda between them. The radio edition of the program is now heard on Thursday nights, at 10. Jack Webb , heard twice weekly over the NBC radio network, has gained a reputation for being authentic as well as versatile in the dramatizations of “ Pete Kelly’s Blues ” and “ Dragnet .” When playing as Pete Kelly or Detective Sergeant Joe Friday on “ Dragnet ,” Webb has a manner and a voice that are not easily forgotten. A regular feature of this show is the straight role played by actress, Meredith Howard, who sings a blues number during each performance. She is not identified as to race nor is there any reference made forward the part she plays. This is in keeping with NBC policy of integration on th...

Ready Eagle – May 3, 1954 ‘ Night Watch ,’ Radio Show, Real Thing in Police Work By NON THOMAS Hollywood , May 3 (AP) – The new “ Night Watch ” radio show tops “ Dragnet ” for realism in the cops-and-criminal department. It’s the genuine thing. Listeners to “ Night Watch ” on CBS Monday nights will hear the actual nabbing of a criminal. The recording was made during an arrest by Culver City, Calif., police. Columbia ’s answer to Jack Webb is an enterprising young man named Donn Reed. A radio veteran, he dreamed up “ Night Watch ” in an effort to find something new in radio. “I remember one day I came out of a radio conference feeling very depressed,” he told me. “I said to another fellow that I was tired of rehashing the same old things in radio. If only there was something new. “That day I went over to the place where I play handball. Another person who plays there is Ron Perkins who plays there is Ron Perkins, a sergeant with the Culver City police. H...

PAT NOVAK BROADCAST HISTORY   Ladies and Gentlemen, the American Broadcasting Company brings to its entire network one of radio's most unusual programs . . . The show was produced in 1946-47, ABC West; produced at KGO, San Francisco, and aired on the West Coast network only. Feb 13-June 18, 1949, ABC. 30m. Pat Novak  was  Jack Webb's  first significant radio crime drama. It was also the vanguard of radio crime drama, so hard-boiled as to be high camp in its own time. The show was rich with hilarious pessimism, rippling with ridiculous metaphors. In two separate stands as Pat Novak , Webb was propelled to national prominence. Novak operated out of "Pier 19," a small office where "I rent boats and tell a few white lies, if the price is right." Writer  Richard Breen  wrote the kind of dialogue that Webb delivered better than any one else: it was sassy, brassy, and full of pent-up anger. The series existed, in fact, simply to push one-liners. Each story wa...

"It was a pretty room, if you like dead women on your rugs. She was stretched out in a pale, yellow dressing gown, as quiet as an April morning and twice as pretty." - Pat Novak, Private Investigator 490423 Rita Malloy "The veins stood out in his face and made a pattern as if he slept on an alligator bag instead of a pillow." "He was crumpled up against the desk and she was staring down at him as if she forgot to water the plants." - 490604 Agnes Botton "The sky was the color of a bruised spot on a man's arm." "He was crumpled up against the desk and she was staring down at him as if she forgot to water the plants." - 490604 Agnes Botton Jeff Regan: "All kinds of people have followed me at one time or another - and I have followed all kinds of people. This had a professional feel to it. "I stood there, listening... remembering my automatic in the suitcase back at my hotel. "It only took him seco...