Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

We need a little Christmas - and some Christmas mysteries! To celebrate the season, I'm sharing more of my favorite holiday adventures of old time radio detectives. Dr. Watson dresses as Santa and Sherlock Holmes thwarts a robbery in "The Night Before Christmas," with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (originally aired on Mutual on December 24, 1945). On Casey, Crime Photographer, our hero spies a pickpocket at a department store and discovers a case of kidnapping and murder in "Christmas Shopping" (originally aired on CBS on December 19, 1946). Boston Blackie tries to catch a jewel thief on Christmas Eve in a syndicated mystery, and Candy Matson is hired to find one of Santa's helpers who's gone missing in "Jack Frost" (originally aired on NBC on December 10, 1949). Finally, Charles Russell is "the man with the action-packed expense account" in "Small Time Swindles of Big Time Department Stores, or How I Played Santa Claus and Almost Got Left Holding the Sack" from Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (originally aired on CBS on December 24, 1949).

Howard Duff stars as Sam Spade in an hour-long episode of "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - Suspense. It's "The Kandy Tooth," a story originally presented on The Adventures of Sam Spade and recreated on the anthology thriller series. This unofficial sequel to The Maltese Falcon with an all-star radio cast originally aired on CBS on January 10, 1948.

Follow reporter Randy Stone on his nightly sojourn through the streets of Chicago in Night Beat. Stone, voiced by Frank Lovejoy, covers the city after dark for his paper, and he makes his trek in search of stories for his columns. What he usually finds are desperate people and dangerous situations in one of radio’s best dramas. We’ll hear Randy Stone on the trail of a scoop in “Am I My Brother’s Keeper” (originally aired on NBC on March 13, 1950) and “City at Your Fingertips” (originally aired on NBC on July 31, 1950).

Cast your line for mystery with these old time radio shows involving fishing. Casey, Crime Photographer finds murder on a fishing trip in "Treasure Cave" (originally aired on CBS on September 25, 1947), and a stolen fishing boat leads to a pair of corpses in "Rita Malloy" from Pat Novak For Hire (AFRS rebroadcast from April 23, 1949). Charles Russell stars as Johnny Dollar in "I Caught a Fishing Boat, But You Should Have Seen the One That Got Away" (originally aired on CBS on October 1, 1949), and Dan Dailey tries to survive a fishing trip from hell in "Over the Bounding Main" (originally aired on CBS on September 14, 1950).

The Saint hit radio in January 1945, but Leslie Charteris’ “Robin Hood of Modern Crime” didn’t find long-lasting success on the air until 1947 when big screen star Vincent Price donned Simon Templar’s halo. In honor of his radio anniversary, we’ll hear two mysteries starring the Saint. Price is Templar in “No Hiding Place” (originally aired on November 19, 1950). Then, Tom Conway steps in as the heavenly hero in “Death of a Cowboy” (originally aired on July 1, 1951).