Old Time Radio Detectives

In addition to great audio shows like OTR Detectives check out the thousands of free online videos on MEVIO. You can download them for later or you can watch videos right in your browser here.

OTR Detectives
Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming lasting from the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, when radio was dominant and the airwaves were filled with a variety of radio formats and genres, people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs. OTR Detectives brings back the marvelous detective and private eye stories of the Golden Age.

Here are just a few of the shows presented on the series.

The Boston Blackie radio series began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show: Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950.

Michael Shayne was a fictional private detective character created by writer Brett Halliday during the late 1930's. Shayne debuted in the novel Dividend on Death first published in 1939, written by David Dresser, a pseudonym of Halliday. Dresser wrote fifty Shayne novels, with the help of Ryerson Johnson. Twenty seven more were written by Robert Terrall for a total of seventy seven; three hundred short stories, a dozen films, radio and television shows, and a few comic book appearances have resulted from the character.

Pat Novak For Hire, played by Jack Webb, was a private detective working out of Pier 19, a waterfront office in San Francisco. The stories were always very similar: Someone would hire him, (if not a beautiful woman, the job would lead to a beautiful woman) someone would get murdered, he would investigate the case, get beaten up by the thugs, and then the case would be solved and end with glorious violence. The closing was always the same; the listener would be told who had done what, to whom and why they had done it. Broadcast History: From 1946 to 1949.

Philo Vance was the detective creation of S. S. Van Dine first published in the mid 1920s. Vance, in the original books, is an intellectual so highly refined he seems he might be ghostwritten by P. G. Wodehouse. Thankfully, the radio series uses only the name, and makes Philo a pretty normal, though very intelligent and extremely courteous gumshoe.

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for The Maltese Falcon. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episodes on CBS in 1946-1949, and finally for 51 episodes on NBC in 1949-1951.

You might also like the following Old Time Radio programming on MEVIO.

• Hear Frank Sinatra's 1950s Radio Detective Series Rocky Fortune on The Frank Truth Sinatra Podcast.

• Dennis Humphrey presents Swing Music from the 30s and 40s on Big Band Times.

• Hear great plays from The Lux Radio Theater, CBS Radio Workshop and more on OTR Dramas.

• For classic mystery stories like Sherlock Holmes and and more, listen to OTR Mysteries.

• It's suspense with Gangbusters, Mysterious Traveler, Dr. Danfield and more on OTR Suspense.