Box 13

 

 

Renown film actor and radio veteran, Alan Ladd plays Dan Holiday, retired newspaper man turned fiction writer and adventurer extraordinaire. To gain ideas for his books, he places an ad in the paper:

 

Adventure wanted – will go anywhere,

do anything – Box 13

 

Needless to say, Box 13 becomes jammed with adventures galore, from psycho killer letters to birds carrying secret messages beneath their wings. Suzy (played by Silvia Picker), HolidayÕs scatty secretary, adds touches of humor to this mystery-adventure seat-clinching program.

It was heard on Sunday evenings over the Mutual Network and ran for 52 thirty minute episodes - all of which have survived (thank heavens!)

The series is distinguished by three major "pluses": Alan Ladd himself whilst often accused of "expressionless" film acting, plays the role of Dan Holiday with warmth, humor and lots of expression! Secondly, the setup of the series allowed for a tremendous variety of stories (often written by Ladd himself). Finally, there was the wonderful scoring of Rudy Schrager - music that really sets the scene.

The sound effects, so vital to action radio shows, were excellently done and typical of Mutual productions of that period.

 

The Lux Radio Theatre attracted all of the big movie stars to their sound stages for some fine dramatizations of current movie releases. These 50 minute radio shows effectively publicized the film with a resultant increase in box office earnings. Among others, Alan Ladd and his relevant two co-stars duplicated their movie roles in radio dramatizations of these 4 great action / adventure films: This Gun for Hire, China, Salty O'Rourke and O.S.S.

 

Want to check out an episode? - why not "taste & try"?

 

This episode can be freely downloaded to your computer - just right button click on any link below and chose "Download Linked File" (or words to that effect). The file is on an average about 21Mb - download time will depend on your (broadband) speed

 

BX13_1948-11-07 Triple Cross.mp3

 

These 2 MP3 CDs contain all of the 52 episodes of "Box 13" plus Alan Ladd's Lux Radio Theatre performances in This Gun for Hire, China, Salty O'Rourke and O.S.S.

 

A. Box 13

 

1.       BX13_1948-08-22 The First Letter

2.       BX13_1948-08-29 Insurance Fraud Scheme

3.       BX13_1948-09-05 Blackmail is Murder

4.       BX13_1948-09-12 Actor's Alibi

5.       BX13_1948-09-19 Extra! Extra!

6.       BX13_1948-09-26 Shanghaied

7.       BX13_1948-10-03 Short Assignment

8.       BX13_1948-10-10 Double Mothers

9.       BX13_1948-10-17 Book of Poems

10.     BX13_1948-10-24 The Great Torino

11.     BX13_1948-10-31 Suicide or Murder

12.     BX13_1948-11-07 Triple Cross

13.     BX13_1948-11-14 Damsel in Distress

14.     BX13_1948-11-21 Diamond in the Sky

15.     BX13_1948-11-28 Double Right Cross

16.     BX13_1948-12-05 Look Pleasant, Please

17.     BX13_1948-12-12 The Haunted Artist

18.     BX13_1948-12-19 The Sad Night

19.     BX13_1948-12-26 Hot Box

20.     BX13_1949-01-02 The Better Man

21.     BX13_1949-01-09 The Professor and the Puzzle

22.     BX13_1949-01-16 The Dowager and Dan Holiday

23.     BX13_1949-01-23 Three to Die

24.     BX13_1949-01-30 The Philanthropist

25.     BX13_1949-02-06 Last Will and Nursery Rhyme

26.     BX13_1949-02-13 Delinquent's Dilemma

27.     BX13_1949-02-20 Flash of Light

28.     BX13_1949-02-27 Hare and Hounds

29.     BX13_1949-03-06 Hunt and Peck

30.     BX13_1949-03-13 Death is a Doll

31.     BX13_1949-03-20 One One Three Point Five

32.     BX13_1949-03-27 Dan and the Wonderful Lamp

33.     BX13_1949-04-03 Tempest in a Casserole

34.     BX13_1949-04-10 Mexican Maze

35.     BX13_1949-04-17 Sealed Instructions

36.     BX13_1949-04-24 Find Me, Find Death

37.     BX13_1949-05-01 Much Too Lucky

38.     BX13_1949-05-08 One of These Four

39.     BX13_1949-05-15 Daytime Nightmare

40.     BX13_1949-05-22 Death is No Joke

41.     BX13_1949-05-29 The Treasure of Hang Lee

42.     BX13_1949-06-05 Design for Danger

43.     BX13_1949-06-12 The Dead Man Walks

44.     BX13_1949-06-19 Killer at Large

45.     BX13_1949-06-26 Speed to Burn

46.     BX13_1949-07-03 House of Darkness

47.     BX13_1949-07-10 Double Trouble

48.     BX13_1949-07-17 The Biter Bitten

49.     BX13_1949-07-24 The Perfect Crime

50.     BX13_1949-07-31 Archimedes and the Roman

51.     BX13_1949-08-07 The Clay Pigeon

52.     BX13_1949-08-14 Round Robin

 

 

B. Lux Radio Theatre

1.         LT_1943-01-25 This Gun for Hire

2.         LT_1943-11-23 China

3.         LT_1945-11-26 Salty O'Rourke

4.         LT_1946-11-18 O.S.S

 

 

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