Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

This week on "Down These Mean Streets," we salute Gerald Mohr with four of his radio performances: two mysteries as Philip Marlowe ("The Last Laugh" and "The Last Wish"), one as Archie Goodwin ("The Case of the Vanishing Shells"), and one comedy from "Our Miss Brooks."

This week on "Down These Mean Streets," we're celebrating the 70th anniversary of the radio debut of "Dragnet" with four episodes: "Homicide" (6/10/1949), "The Big Fake" (6/1/1950), "The Big Bible" (9/28/1954), and "The Big No Tooth" (4/5/1955).

This week on "Down These Mean Streets," Sam Spade is on the case in three radio mysteries: "The Wheel of Life Caper," "The Battles of Belvedere," and "the Spanish Prisoner Caper."

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” Les Damon stars as private eye and occasional spy Mike Waring – better known as The Falcon. We’ll hear “The Case of the Sweet Swindle” (6/13/1951) and “The Case of the Babbling Brooks” (7/3/1952).

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” Bulldog Drummond travels across the pond to battle criminals on the air. We’ll hear his 1941 audition program plus “Death Loops the Loop” (3/10/1948).

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” it’s a birthday salute to Orson Welles. We’ll hear him as Harry Lime from “The Third Man” in “Horse Play.” Plus he narrates the bloody history of a khaki handkerchief from “The Black Museum.”

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” we’re saluting Frances Robinson, busy radio actress and frequent sidekick and secretary to radio gumshoes. We’ll hear her in “Let George Do It” (“The Elusive Hundred Grand,” 4/18/1949), “Richard Diamond” (“The Blind Man and the Cop Killer,” 2/26/1950), and “The Whistler” (“Murder in Mind,” 4/16/1950).

This week, Lon Clark is “the most famous of all manhunters” in two radio adventures of Nick Carter, Master Detective: “The Double Disguise” (1/8/1944) and “The Case of the Candidate’s Corpse” (9/26/1948).

This week on "Down These Mean Streets," Stacy Harris stars as Special Agent Jim Taylor in a pair of case files from "This is Your FBI" - "The Case of the Curious Coin Collector" (10/4/1946) and "The Agent Apprentice" (8/11/1950).

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” we salute Jack Webb – one of the patron saints of radio detectives. We’ll hear him as Jeff Regan in “The Gambler and the Lady” (12/11/1948); as Pat Novak in “Rory Malone” (3/20/1949); and in “June Gould” from “Pete Kelly’s Blues” (AFRS rebroadcast from 9/19/1951).

Today in a Bat-bonus episode of "Down These Mean Streets," we're celebrating the Caped Crusader's 80th anniversary with a complete serialized adventure starring Batman, Robin, and Superman: "The Mystery of the Dead Voice."

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” we’re saluting Charles Russell – the first actor to play Johnny Dollar in a radio series. We’ll hear three of Russell’s adventures: “The Perikoff Policy” (originally aired on CBS on 2/11/1949); “Melanie Carter and the Un-Nice Niece” (11/12/1949); and “The Animal Show Unscheduled Performances” (12/10/1949).

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” we’re deep in the heart of Texas with Joel McCrea as Ranger Pearson in two mysteries from “Tales of the Texas Rangers” – “Quicksilver” (originally aired on NBC on 8/12/1950) and “The Trap” (originally aired on NBC on 2/25/1951).

This week, we’re saluting Kathleen Hite - the first female staff writer hired at CBS who would go on to pen hundreds of radio episodes. We’ll hear two of her Philip Marlowe mysteries plus an episode of “Fort Laramie.”

This week on “Down These Mean Streets,” Alan Ladd is mystery writer and amateur sleuth Dan Holiday in two “Box 13” mysteries. The star of “This Gun for Hire” answers two letters that lead to dangerous adventure both at home and abroad.