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The Last of the Radio
Detectives á
Crime and Peter
Chambers á
Matthew Slade,
Private Investigator |
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The 1950s saw the gradual
eroding of interest in radio as television made greater inroads into the
living rooms of the public. Private Detectives in stand-alone 30 minute radio
action/adventures - so long the staple of radio (and eventually to become a
reliable vehicle in television) were also beginning to disappear from the
airwaves. However in 1954, two
interesting and well-produced PI shows premiered in the US: Crime and Peter Chambers - Matthew
Slade, Private Investigator Although both were
short-lived series, they were well received and when listened to nowadays,
one gets feeling that there was a lot more that could have been
"investigated" if the bean-counters had not been so hell-bent on
moving to TV. These two series can be
considered to be (effectively) the last of the Private Eye dramas that were
to appear on network radio in the 1950s. Television had taken over and
virtually replaced radio by the mid 1950s. Regular TV series included a slew
of PI programs which in many case contained stories that were originally
penned for radio. This MP3 CD has been
assembled to pay tribute to the last of this great radio genre. Crime and Peter Chambers Created by Henry Kane, Peter
Chambers was a man with a passion
for the fashion, a man-about-Manhattan, and very much the eligible bachelor,
with an eye for the ladies and a nose for danger, in a long-running series of
books and short stories that may have actually inspired Peter Gunn. The radio series based on
the books was titled Crime and Peter Chambers and it was written, directed, and produced by Henry
Kane. YouŐre a Private Eye É thatŐs your business É anything else? É thatŐs for laughs É Kane got movie actor Dane
Clark to play the lead. Clark had a
fairly successful career in Hollywood starting in 1942, usually playing tough
guys for Warners, and he made a convincing detective in this always
interesting radio version of Kane's character. Detective Lt. Louis Parker, Chambers's "good friend, good cop and good
companion" was played by Bill Zuckert. In all 21 episodes were
produced and broadcast on NBC, Tuesday nights at 9:30pm and luckily the
entire series has survived is available here (the log of episodes is below) 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 20Mb - download time will
depend on your (broadband) speed CPC_1954-05-11
Old Man Krause's News Stand.mp3 Interestingly Dane Clark
was to soon move onto a regular TV series: Bold Venture which was a TV adaptation of Bogart / Bacall radio
series Bold Venture (For
your information, the Bold Venture
Radio Series is available from
this section of the website, whilst the Bold Venture TV series is available on DVD in the TV Series A-H section of this website) Matthew Slade, Private
Investigator Matthew Slade is a San Francisco private investigator. He charges
clients "$200 a day plus expenses", drives a Continental, and often
ends up in some rather exotic adventures. Often assisting him is his
secretary, Loretta Jones, whom he refers to as Jonesy and Sergeant Sid Donelli, his local pal in the Homicide Bureau: In my job, the hours are odd, so are the
circumstances and the people I meet. You could even call some of them dangerous É
my calling card reads: Matthew Slade, Private Investigator Slade has some truly
exciting adventures: in one program, a model named Clover Shannon is killed
by one of 12 members of an exclusive "Bachelor's Club" whilst in
another, Slade is tortured by a crazed German scientist, who has imprisoned
Slade in his castle near Lake Tahoe. But of greater significance is his Day
of the Phoenix adventure, a 3 part
adventure which closely mirrors the story Sam Spade's The Maltese Falcon. Not a lot is known about
this certified "cult" series except that it was broadcast sometime
in the mid to late 1950s and that each episode ran for about 24 minutes
(without commercials). William Wintersol played Matthew Slade with Sylvia Wheeler as Jonesy and Norman Belkin as Donelli. Only 12 episodes have
survived which luckily include all 3 parts of the Day of the Phoenix adventure 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 20Mb - download time will
depend on your (broadband) speed MSPI_No.
09 The Bachelor's Club.mp3 The Last of the Radio Detectives This MP3 CD contains all 21 episodes of Crime
and Peter Chambers starring Dane Clark as well as the 12 surviving episodes of
Matthew Slade, Private Investigator (including the quite rare 3-parter Day of the
Phoenix). All digitally restored and of perfect sound
quality A. Crime and Peter
Chambers 1.
CPC_1954-04-03 Bruce
Burke Murder Frame-Up.mp3 2.
CPC_1954-04-13 Charles
Avon, Druggist.mp3 3.
CPC_1954-04-20
Cemetery Attack.mp3 4.
CPC_1954-04-27 Joan
Bradley.mp3 5.
CPC_1954-05-04 Abigail
Chrisenberry.mp3 6.
CPC_1954-05-11 Old Man
Krause's News Stand.mp3 7.
CPC_1954-05-18 La
Grand Mezon - 3rd Booth.mp3 8.
CPC_1954-06-01 Angela
Wentworth's Uncle.mp3 9.
CPC_1954-06-15 Stoney
Carter.mp3 10.
CPC_1954-06-22 Cafe
Tropical - Bruce Eldridge.mp3 11.
CPC_1954-06-29 Bubbles
Greko - The Bubbles Club.mp3 12.
CPC_1954-07-06
Cufflink Is.mp3 13.
CPC_1954-07-13
Masquerade Party.mp3 14.
CPC_1954-07-20 Donald
Sloane - Embezzler.mp3 15.
CPC_1954-07-27
Nursemaid to Three Beautiful Women.mp3 16.
CPC_1954-08-03 Rhonda
Duffy's Race Horse.mp3 17.
CPC_1954-08-10 Tina
Diaz - Utopia Ballroom.mp3 18.
CPC_1954-08-17 Elaine
Janis - School Teacher.mp3 19.
CPC_1954-08-24 Winston
Carr.mp3 20.
CPC_1954-08-31 Clair
Connely - The Hot Spot.mp3 21.
CPC_1954-09-07 Irene
Wilson's Dead Uncle Stanley.mp3 B. Matthew Slade,
Private Investigator 22.
MSPI_No. 01 The
Incredible Dr Lintz.mp3 23.
MSPI_No. 02 A Sweet
Scent of Mystery.mp3 24.
MSPI_No. 03 Day Of The
Phoenix (I).mp3 25.
MSPI_No. 04 Day Of The
Phoenix (II).mp3 26.
MSPI_No. 05 Day of the
Phoenix (III).mp3 27.
MSPI_No. 06 Find Julie
Rayton.mp3 28.
MSPI_No. 07 Passage to
Tangiers.mp3 29.
MSPI_No. 08 Pattern
for a Frame.mp3 30.
MSPI_No. 09 The
Bachelor's Club.mp3 31.
MSPI_No. 10 A Case of
Murder.mp3 32.
MSPI_No. 11 The Secret
Grey Man.mp3 33.
MSPI_No. 12 Who Killed
My Pen Pal.mp3 |