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Season 1 (3/3)


  The Adventures of Ellery Queen
   CBS Gulf Oil Sundays 7:30 - 8:00 pm 1940 (46-67)
   Producer/Director: George Zachary
   Announcer: Bert Parks
   Scripts: Frederic Dannay, Manfred B. Lee
   Music: Lyn Murray
   Stars: Hugh Marlowe (Ellery), Santos Ortega (Inspector Queen),
              Ted de Corsia (Velie), Marion Shockley (Nikki Porter)

 
ROSALIND RUSSELL will do the Garbo role, and Spencer Tracy, riding the crest again for his superb work in "Northwest Passage," will play the Melvin Douglas role in a radio version of Garbo's recent movie hit, "Ninotchka," on "Screen Guild Theater." Also during this program there will be a sample presentation of "The Adventures of Ellery Queen," which will replace "Screen Guild Theater" next week. CBS (Movie and Radio Guide - for Apr. 20-26)

After The Gulf Screen Guild Theater went of the air it was replaced by Ellery Queen and thus the program gained it's first sponsor. Bert Parks stepped in as announcer...

      As advertised in "Gulf Funny Weekly": "The Adventures of Ellery Queen".
Above: As advertised in Gulf Funny Weekly: The Adventures of Ellery Queen.

 
46* "The Double Triangle"  (1)
04-28-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 07-08-43 or 07-10-43 (Episode 133)
Script printed in in
The Case Book of Ellery Queen (1945)
Sample presentation of this episode available on the net...Guest Armchair Detectives: unknown (two)
On 04-21-40 the last episode of The Gulf Screen Guild Theater had a sample presentation of this episode

Ellery tries to locate the anonymous lover who's romancing the wife of a young  bookkeeper. His efforts to keep the husband from murdering the lover result in him becoming the eyewitness to the killing of the wife.
47*

"The Man who could double the Size of Diamonds"Script of this story included in "The Adventure of the Murdered Moths" ...   (1)
05-05-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 07-15-43 or 07-17-43 (Episode 134)
Script printed in EQMM, May '43
Guest Armchair Detectives: unknown

In March 2017 EQMM's Podcast page featured  a clever script from The Adventures of Ellery Queen radio series of the late 1930s and the 1940s. “The Adventure of the Man Who Could Double the Size of Diamonds” (which was reprinted in EQMM in May 1943 and August 2005) is read here by Mark Lagasse. To hear the podcast click here...Ellery not only solves the murder of a scientist who claims to have discovered a chemical progress for making diamonds grow, at the same time he untangles the impossible theft of four such stones from a locked and guarded vault.

Ellery turns to a favorite setting for mystery stories - the whole-sale diamond center in Maiden Lane in New York. Ellery approaches an unbelievable subject with the detective's assumption that anything can be possible. Greed, treachery and murder are the prime ingredients in this latest mystery which threatens to baffle even the infallible Queen.

48*  "The Firebug"
aka "The Fire Bug"  (1)
05-12-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 07-22-43 or 07-24-43 (Episode 135)
Script printed in EQMM, March '43
Guest Armchair Detectives: Joe Howard (singer), Paula Stone (actress)
 
A series of suspicious blazes in Ellery's neighborhood, each of which destroyed a building owned by the same man. Ellery will attempt to exonerate a fire Insurance salesman from suspicion of collusion in several mysterious conflagrations.
49*  "The Honeymoon House"  (1)
05-19-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 07-29-43 or 07-31-43 (Episode 136)
Script printed in
The Case Book of Ellery Queen (1945)
Guest Armchair Detectives:
Anna Neagle, actress, Arthur Mann (sport-writer, Umpire of the Choose Up Sides sports
 quiz)

Arthur Mann, was Ted Cott's victim on the popular Sunday afternoon musicquiz, "So You Think You Know Music." Then he umpired his own sports quiz, and wound up the day matching wits with Ellery Queen. No wonder Arthur looks bewildered... (from a Radio Studio Picture)A blonde and a tipsy play-boy. Love rivalries among the offspring of munitions manufacturers lead to a bride's murder on her wedding night.

Right: Arthur Mann, was Ted Cott's victim on the popular Sunday afternoon music quiz, So You Think You Know Music. Then he umpired his own sports quiz, and wound up the day matching wits with Ellery Queen. No wonder Arthur looks bewildered... (from a Radio Studio Picture)
50*  "The Mouse's Blood"  (1)
05-26-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 08-05-43 or 08-07-43 (Episode 137)
Script printed in EQMM September '42 and reprinted in The Fireside Mystery Book (1947)
Guest Armchair Detectives: two armchair detectives chosen from the radio audience and CBS network listeners in general.


Extortion and death in sports arena. Ellery happens to be outside the house where a blackmailer is stabbed to death by one of four athletes  (a boxing champ, an ace baseball pitcher, a jockey and a crack swimmer) who were to have made the payoffs to him that night.
 
Reportedly Hugh Marlowe and Marian Shockley flew to Washington D.C. early June and were shown through the F.B.I. by J. Edgar Hoover (Belvidere Daily Republican - May 2. 1940)
 
51*  "The Four Murderers"  (1)
06-02-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 08-12-43 or 08-14-43 (Episode 138)
Guest Armchair Detectives: Louis Connoll (newspaperman) and Mary Rhinehart (stenographer)

The two crime chasers of the kilocycles and Walker will pit their wits against the murderer of old Mrs. Twill, or as the title indicates, the four murderers. Everyone in this strange case is a killer, and for a change Ellery will lay his cards face up on the table from the beginning...
52*  "The Good Samaritan"
06-09-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 08-19-43 or 08-21-43 (Episode 139)
Basis for movie
A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen 1942
Script printed in EQMM November '42 
Guest Armchair Detectives:  two unknown guests

Ellery hunts the elusive Robin Hood who's been sending stolen $100 bills to the needy tenants in a certain tenement.
53*  "The Mysterious Travelers"  (1)
06-16-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 08-26-43 or 08-28-43 (Episode 140)
Guest Armchair Detectives:  Muriel Frizzell (supervisor of the central bureau of the travel...)

Murder suspects from Persia, Ceylon and the Fiji Islands in New York to thrust Ellery into one of most exciting peregrinations in crime.
54*  "The Dark Cloud"  Script of this story included in "The Adventure of the Murdered Moths" ...
06-23-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 09-02-43 or 09-04-43 (Episode 141)
Guest Armchair Detectives: Doris Gibson (magazine cover girl)
Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 05-20-55 (Episode 45)

When Ellery Queen, the Inspector and Nikki set out for a weekend's cruising in the luxurious private yacht The Dark Cloud, adventure seemed the last thing that could happen. But a murderer strikes, and Ellery solves one of his most intriguing problems. (The ABC Weekly)
55*  "The Blind Bullet"  (1)
06-30-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 09-09-43 or 09-11-43 (Episode 142)
Script printed in EQMM, 9/43
Adapted on television in the Dumont series The Adventures of Ellery Queen 12-7-50
Guest Armchair Detectives:  Fred Hogan (telephone maintenance man)
Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 09-03-54 (Episode 8)

A bear and a millionaire are hit. A ruthless tycoon feels threatened as he received a precise minute and day of his death. The magnate turns to Ellery to protect him from this anonymous enemy. 


Later recycled as premise for The King is Dead (1952) 
56*  "The Fallen Gladiator"  (1)
07-07-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 09-16-43  or 09-18-43 (Episode 143)
Based on "Mind over Matter" from Blue Book, October 1939 and collected in
New Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940)
Guest Armchair Detectives: unknown
Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 08-13-54 (Episode 5)

After attending a world heavyweight championship boxing match, Ellery discovers the dethroned champ's body in a parking lot.

For the first time in the history of the program, an Ellery Queen story that has appeared in print will be dramatized on the air.
57*  "The Frightened Star"  (1)
07-14-40 :30:00*
Repeated 10-21-43 or 10-23-43 (Episode 148)
Script printed in EQMM spring '42
Guest Armchair Detectives
West: Mitzi Cumming
East: Dr. Henry R. Junemann (dentistry professor)

Ellery visits the West Coast at the urgent request of movie producer Tony Pepper who wants to discover why his greatest star, Nina, an actress with one name, suddenly retired from public life and work at the height of her career. Pepper believes that if he can learn the reason for Nina's queer actions, he can induce her to resume screen work.
A locked-room mystery involving the death of a mysteriously retired Hollywood actress ...

Plot gimmick from The American Gun Mystery (1934)
 
58*  "The Treasure Hunt"
07-21-40 :30:00* 
Repeated on 09-23-43 or 09-25-43 (Episode 144)
Based on "The Treasure Hunt" Detective Story, December '35 and
EQMM fall '41 (first issue) and collected in New Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940)
Guest Armchair Detective: Carol Bruce (vocalist of Louisiana Purchase), Jack Berlind (cab pilot
)

One of the retired general's house guests stole a rope of pearls from his daughters' bedroom. Ellery sets out to find it and devises a treasure-hunting game as a psychological trap for the thief.
59*  "The Black Sheep"  (1)
07-28-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 09-21-44 or  09-23-44 as "The Robber of Fallboro" (Episode 196)
Source for "The Accused" in Today's Family February '53 and EQMM, December '54 and as "The Robber of Wrightsville" in Q.B.I. (1955)
Guest Armchair Detectives: Benny Baker (comedian), Marjorie Allen (soprano)

A masked thief steals a $ 15,000 payroll from the owner of a mill in the village of Fallboro. When the victim's stepson is arrested for the crime on circumstantial evidence, the  boy's mother calls in Ellery Queen.
60*  "The Fatal Million"
08-04-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 08-17-44 and 08-19-44 as "The Man who wanted Cash" (Episode 191)
Guest Armchair Detectives: Doris Sharp (radio casting director, CBS receptionist
), Ben Kish (Pittsburgh university quarterback)

An impersonator who murdered the owner of a chain of roadside restaurants, posed as his victim during a secret sales  transaction, and walked away with a million dollar cash in a suitcase.
61*  "The Mysterious Clock"
aka "
The Invisible Clock"
08-11-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 09-28-44 or 09-30-44 as "The Invisible Clock"(Episode 197)
Script printed in
The Case Book of Ellery Queen (1945)
Guest Armchair Detective: Andrew S.Telep (small town newspaper editor from Mayfield, Pennsylvania
)

A priceless ruby pendant disappears during a society ball Ellery and Nikki are attending. The clue is the clock that is heard ticking where no clock exists. Ellery Queen probes three air-tight alibis.
62*  "The Meanest Man in the World
08-18-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 08-03-44 and 08-05-44 as "The Man without a Heart" (Episode 189)
Script printed in EQMM July 42
Guest Armchair Detectives: Walter Wanger (movie producer)
Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 03-11-55 (Episode 35) "Man without a Heart"

Ellery and Nikki are empanelled side by side as jurors in the same murder trial. The defendant, Will Keeler, seems to be the only one who could have plunged the paperknife into the back of Sylvester Gaul's neck.
Ellery turns what might have been a restful two weeks in the jury box into a busman's holiday when he reveals the rightful killer through four questions asked of the coroner.
 
No photo: Unlike most fictional heroes, Ellery Queen has never been pictured except in words to readers of his detective novels. The collaborating authors have conflicting ideas of what their hero looks like and no artist has been able to satisfy both. (40-08-23 Wisconsin State Journal)
 
63*  "The Pharaoh's Curse"  (1)
08-25-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 07-06-44 and 07-08-44 as "The Pharaoh's Tomb" (Episode 185)
Guest Armchair Detective: Richard Himber (bandmaster).
Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 11-12-54 (Episode 18)

A murderer threatens the lives of all members of an Egyptian archeologists' expedition which has removed a mummy from an ancient Pharaoh's tomb.
64* 

"Box N° 13"
aka "
Box 13" & "Box Number Thirteen"  (1)
09-01-40 :30:00*
Guest Armchair Detectives: two armchair detectives chosen from the radio audience and CBS network listeners in general.

Ellery Queen takes in a baseball game and a murder for one price of admission and sees them both through in one afternoon.

65* 

"The Picnic Murder"
09-08-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 08-24-44 and 08-26-44 as "The Mayor and the Corpse" (Episode 192)
Guest Armchair Detectives: two armchair detectives chosen from the radio audience and CBS network listeners in general.

A Sunday outing attended by six persons, from which only five return is the subject of investigation. Belief in the innocence of a small town lawyer indicted for murder on circumstantial evidence leads the radio sleuth to look into a case that makes few headlines but almost sends the wrong man to the chair.

 
Q: Who is Ellery Queen, the mystery writer?
A: Ellery Queen isn't a fellow. He is two Jewish boys who produce radio shows--in addition to writing murder mysteries. Previously they wrote under the name of Barnaby Ross. (40-09-09 Denton Record-Chronicle)
 
66*  "The Disappearing Magician"
aka "The Vanishing Magician"
09-15-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 11-04-43 or 11-06-43 as "The Vanishing Magician" (Episode 150)
Guest Armchair Detectives: unknown

A two-story Chelsea brownstone owned by 4 ex-vaudevillians is threatened with foreclosure. Avanti the Magician tries to save the house by challenging Mr. Steele, a businessman who has made a standing offer of $25,000 for any illusionist's trick he can't solve within 24 hours. Avanti claims to be able to disappear from the closely examined and guarded brownstone. The  police guards the place and the trick is pulled off. Ellery sees through the gimmick but refuses to reveal his solution until the 24 hours are up.
67* 

The Pocket Mystery Reader - 1942"The House of Cain"
aka "The Mark of Cain
"
09-22-40 :30:00*
Repeated on 08-10-44 and 08-12-44 as "The Three Hands" (Episode 190)
Script printed in
"The Pocket Mystery Reader"(1942) (Right)
Director:
George Zachary
Guest Armchair Detectives: two unknown guests

Ellery, Nikki, Sergeant Velie and Inspector Queen masquerade as servants in an attempt to prevent murder among the heirs of eccentric millionaire John Cain. To no avail ...

 

The Screen Guild Theatre will replace the detective mystery series starting Sunday, Sep. 29.

 
Click if you think you can help out...!


References

(
1) Movie and Radio Guide
 
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