Ellery Queen's radio plays - page 4

b a c k
Season 2
The Adventures of Ellery Queen NBC Bromo-Seltzer Thursdays 9:30 - 10:00 pm 1942 (68-93) East Coast version aired Saturdays 7:30 - 8:00 pm Producer/Director: George Zachary - Knowles Entriken Announcer: Ernest Chappell Scripts: Frederic Dannay, Manfred B. Lee Music: Charles Paul, organist Stars: Carleton Young (Ellery), Santos Ortega (Inspector Queen), Ted de Corsia (Velie), Marion Shockley (Nikki Porter).

Above: The articulator at the right is forming the words of the Bromo-Seltzer commercial with the aid of Sonovox. The source of the train sounds is on the record in the foreground. Carleton Young and Marian Shockley at left. (Courtesy of Wright-Sonovox Inc.)
*Carleton Young Is Bromo's Version of Ellery Queen* Carleton Young will play the title part in 'Ellery Queen' when the whodunit series returns to the air Saturday (10) for Bromo-Seltzer. Hugh Marlowe originally played it when the show aired as a CBS sustainer and later for Gulf oil. Marion Shockley, who created the part of Nikki in the original edition, will play it again in the forthcoming version. Santos Ortega will be Inspector Queen and Charles Paul will play the organ and provide arrangements. Lanny Ross will probably be a member of the guest group trying to guess the solution on the first broadcast George Zachary, who worked out the original show with co-authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, will again direct. Lee Cooley will supervise for Ruthrauff and Ryan. (Variety, January 7, 1942)

68*	"The Song of Death" 01-08-42 (West) or 01-10-42 (East): 30:00* with Arthur Allen (medical examiner), Peg LaCentra, James Van Dyke. Guest Armchair Detectives West: Frank Buck (explorer) and Dorothy McGuir (actress) East: Frederick Chase Taylor (radio's Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle) and a surprised member of the studio audience: Neysa McMein (illustrator/poster artist). This story concerns a string of counterfeit $100 bills in a nightclub background.
	Radio version of the 'Ellery Queen' (Ruthrauff & Ryan) mysteries has been on the shelf since the early fall of 1940. Gulf Oil had used them as a pinch hitter for its Screen Guild during that same summer with nip and tuck results. The initial installment (10) of the Emerson Drug sponsorship indicated that there's more than one kink to be pressed out. The lack of an orchestra, to help heighten the dramatic effects between the dialog bridges, is quite noticeable, and Carleton Young, who plays the Ellery Queen character, could invest his assignment with much more dash, color and authority. The program's present source of incidental music is an organ. A better choice could have been made of the opening script. The clues were grounded strictly in an understanding of music and that's a technical twist that guarantees a mental blackout for the average listener. Considering the materials at hand, George Zachary turned in a tightly knit and well balanced job of production. As for the rest of the permanent cast. Marian Shockley Is still doing Girl Friday to the amateur sleuth; Santos Ortega is there In the grumpy character of Inspector Richard Queen; Ted de Corsia again fills the Sgt. Velie role, while Arthur Allen is the newcomer to the part of the medical examiner. Opening story, which dealt with counterfeiting and a nightclub background, uncorked deftly acted bits by Peg LaCentra and James Van Dyke. The program has retained the device of stopping the action just before the solution to give a couple guested armchair detectives an opportunity to do some finger-pointing. Young seemed to lack the necessary knack tor this particular interlude. Plenty of sales copy got Into the introductory session. The ability of Bromo Seltzer to do a three-way curative job was retailed in fulsome measure at the beginning of the program and then again just before the script moved 'on to its solution. - Odec (Variety, Wednesday, January 14. 1942)
69*	"The Invisible Clue" 01-15-42 or 01-17-42: 30:00* Script printed in Adventures in Radio (1945) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Charles Herbert (radio producer/composer) and Mark Warnow (radio orchestra conductor) East: Meyer Davis (orchestra leader) and Ham Fisher (cartoonist, originator of the Joe Palooka cartoons) Repeated on 01-15-48 as "The Terrified Man" (Episode 336) Ellery, debonair detective and Nikki Porter, receive a phone call from a man who says, he is threatened with death. The person, a former inventor, tells them he is being plagued constantly by someone whom he never sees, but who claims to see him.
70*	"The Patient Murderer" 01-22-42 or 01-24-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Aubrey Waller Cook (pianist) and Bea Wain (radio singer) East: Lois January (actress) and George Jessel (comedian), both in the Broadway musical High Kickers) The theme is a rather gruesome affair. In fact what affair isn't when four slain men are found stabbed in the back? A realtor, a lawyer, a meat packer and a judge all found with a note beside them reading "Patient Murderer".

Ellery Queen broadcasts in an empty studio. he believes that uncontrollable laughter, coughs and applause from a studio audience are hazards to his program in which suspense runs high. Even the guest armchair detectives are not permitted to see the broadcast. They listen in an adjoining room where Ellery and Nikki Porter, his comely secretary, go to interview them. Ernie Chappell has snagged the announcing chores since the series returned to the air, while Charles Paul waves the baton. (Southern Cayuga Tribune, King Ferry, N. Y., January 23, 1942)

The two cousins appeared on Behind the Mike (42-01-25 3:30 pm) a program which provided listeners not only an insight into NBC behind the scenes but into many of the technologies and practices behind most broadcast networks of the era. This episode came under the title "Creating *Ellery Queen*". In 1942, it coincided with the start of the new season when after an absence of 15 months, a new sponsor for the regular series was found...

71*	"The Fifty-Second Card" aka "The 52nd Card" 01-29-42 or 01-31-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: A.Finn and M.Kingsley East: Gypsy Rose Lee (stripper) and Norman Corwin (radio writer). A blackmailer is murdered who has been demanding huge payments from each of 4 persons he'd been victimizing for years. A deck of cards comes to Ellery's aid.
72*	"The Imaginary Man" With Joan Tetzel as the heiress. Directed by George Zachary. 02-05-42 or 02-07-42: 30:00* Repeated on 03-27-44 as part of Red Cross Benefit Show Guest Armchair Detectives West: Mel Ott (baseball star) and Hank Warden (actor) East: Frank Forest (singer) and Lucille Manners (singer) A frantic young heiress persuades Ellery Queen to come to her aid when she suspects that her uncle and cousin, a girl about her own age, with whom she is living, are attempting to poison her. With her out of the way, they will get the fortune she will inherit if she marries before she reaches the age of 30. A wallflower sort, she invents a fiancé to confuse her relatives, and when Queen takes the case he appears on the scene as imaginary suitor. But that doesn't prevent a murder which gives subsequent events a very unusual twist.

Around this time George Zachary left the program.

73*	"(The) St.Valentine's Knot" 02-12-42 or 02-14-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Lady Hardwicke (wife of actor Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and Mary Lewis (Metropolitan Opera soprano) East: D.Fritsch and Parks Johnson (host radio's Vox Pop series) Ellery investigates when a retired actress at a sanatorium for show business people is murdered by eating poisoned chocolates.
74*	"George Washington's Dollar" 02-19-42 or 02-21-42: 30:00* Adapted as "The President's Half Disme" in EQMM, February '47 and collected in Calendar of Crime (1952) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Mr. and Mrs. Parks Johnson (of radio's Vox Pop series) East: Gilda Gray (actress) and Joe Howard (musician) Can Ellery find a rare coin which Washington is believed to have buried at a remote Pennsylvania farm in 1791?
75*	"The Old Witch" 02-26-42 or 02-28-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Vicki Baum (novelist) and Howard Dietz (theatrical producer) East: Em Locker and Florence Dornin (models) Announced: Em Bowles Locker, a John Powers model, and her boss, John Robert Powers. Witch Hazel, a demented old woman, has been terrorizing the neighborhood's children in Sergeant Velie's apartment. This includes Velie's daughter. Ellery investigates and finds murder.
76*	"The Missing Tumbler" 03-05-42 or 03-07-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Bill Stern (sportscaster) and Blue Barron (orchestra leader) East: Aubrey Waller Cook (pianist) and Mayor George J. Harter of Ohio (via phone) Announced: Mayor Harter of Ohio and Alton Cook. (There was an Alton Cook, critic/columnist of the New York World Telegram) Fixing in the sports world. A sports columnist who was to about to expose three celebrities in three different sports is murdered.
77*	"The Income Tax Robbery" 03-12-42 or 03-14-42: 30:00* Printed as "The Ides of Michael Magoon" in Calendar of Crime (1952) and reprinted as "Filled in for Murder" in Adventure Magazine, June 1959 Guest Armchair Detectives West: Alice Marble (tennis star) and Chicago Mayor Edward Joseph Kelly (via phone) East: M.Hedstrom and Baltimore Mayor Howard Wilkinson Jackson (via phone) Mike Brady, a private detective asks Ellery for help. He helps out wealthy families who have a kleptomanic problem... (visit to the LoC 4/27/2005) Chicago's Mayor Edward J. Kelly took no chances of being put on a spot when invited to be a guest "detective" on an Ellery Queen mystery case. Preferring to hear the show at NBC's Chicago studios (the program originates in New York), he arrived at the Merchandise Mart accompanied by three "real McCoys" from Chicago police force. When decisions were handed down, the mayor and tennis star Alice Marble, who also was a "detective" on the case, place the guilt on the same man. Must have been three red faces when the culprit was unveiled by Ellery Queen, and he wasn't the guy picked... (Movie-Radio Guide 06-13-42) Between 1918 and 1955 income tax returns were due on March 15. hence the timing of this episode... Ed Gardner, scheduled to guest Saturday night (14) as kibitzer-sleuth on the 'Ellery Queen' program, failed to show ....He was in a script confab for his own show, 'Duffy's Tavern,' and forgot the date. A friend of announcer Ernest Chappell was in the studio and took over the assignment. (Variety - Wednesday, March 18, 1942)
78*	"The Out-of-order Telephone" 03-19-42 or 03-21-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: G.F.Donahoe and M.S. McDermott East: Miss F.E. Conaty and Gordon S.Miller (two telephone company executives) Right: Marian Shockley, actress heard as Nikki Porter on NBC Ellery Queen. NBC photo is marked 3/18/42 included text: "SCREAM TEST: screaming technique is part of the necessary equipment for Marian Shockley" The owner of a so-called "Beauty Salon" that was actually a front for a racket is murdered. A telephone clue helps Ellery to solve the case.
79*	"The Servant Problem" 03-26-42 or 03-28-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Jim Ameche (radio actor) and John Allen (radio newscaster) East: Leo G. Carroll (actor) and Judith Evelyn (actress). Stars of Angel Street as armchair detectives. Later that night Ellery turns sports expert with Bill Stern (03-28-42 WEAF, 10 p.m.)

On April 1. Lee visited the studios during rehearsals and met with Kaye Brinker, a young actress, who would become his second wife.

80*	"The Black Syndicate" 04-02-42 or 04-04-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Mayor A.Rossi (via phone) and Lois Wilson (actress) East: Judge Harry S.McDevitt and Selena Royle (actress) Mayor Bernard Samuel of Philadelphia and Selena Royle (Radio Daily) Blake, the head of an export firm, directs his four partners - Llewellyn in London, Arnot in Paris, Casini in Berne and Kotch in Istanbul - to shut down their branches of the business and send all the proceeds to him in New York where the money will be evenly split among the five at a meeting. Ellery is called in when both Blake and the money disappear.
81*	"Ellery Queen, Swindler" 04-09-42 or 04-11-42: 30:00* Script printed in Rogues Gallery (1945) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Bill Johnson (bandleader) and Allen Prescott (radio comedian) East: Arthur Murray (dance instructor) and Marian Anderson (singer) A 'respectable' jeweler, Adolf Humperdinck cheats one of his employees out of $ 4,000. Ellery, with the help of M. Jallet, works out a jewel-switching maneuver to retrieve the young man's money.
82*	"The Superstitious Client" 04-16-42 or 04-18-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Z. S. Leymel, mayor of Fresno, California, (via phone) and Loire Brophy, an author and employment counselor who specializes in bringing people and jobs together. East: Mrs.Octavus Roy Cohen (wife of author) and Mayor R. Perkins. Boston Globe announced Mayor William Hart Hussey of Mount Vernon. N. Y.. and Mrs. Octavus Roy Cohen (wife of author) as guests. Ellery is called to investigate a series of weird events that befell his client just before moving into the house he designed especially to ward off all sorts of supernatural threads.
83*	"The Millionaires' Club" 04-23-42 or 04-25-42 :30:00* Adapted as "The Inner Circle" in EQMM, January 1947 and collected in Calendar of Crime, 1952 Guest Armchair Detectives West: Bernardine Flynn (radio announcer/actress) and Otto Soglow (cartoonist) East: L.Brophy and Ward Greene (author) Repeated on 12-28-44 and 12-30-44 as "The Inner Circle" (Episode 210) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 06-03-55 (Episode 47) Super-sleuth Ellery Queen, who never fails to get his man, plunges into high finance. Ellery intervenes when four members of a subgroup within a larger club if twelve rich men are seemingly threatened by a series of fatal accidents.
84*	"The Living Corpse" 04-30-42 or 05-02-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: N.W.Lathan and Mayor E.J.Reilly (via phone) East: Ed Gardner (Duffy's Tavern star) and Shirley Booth (actress and married to Ed Gardner) While helping her out-of-town friend find a place to stay Nikki finds a corpse in an apartment closet. Before Ellery arrives the corpse disappears only to reappear as a living man who in turn is murdered.
85*	"The Missing Child" 05-07-42 or 05-09-42: 30:00* Condensed from "The Lost Child" 11-26-39 (Episode 24) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Shep Fields (orchestra leader) and Mrs.Joy Lyons East: Lawrence E. Spivak (publisher) and Bea Wain (radio singer) Announced in The New York Post Ed Gardner (Duffy's Tavern star) and Shirley Booth (actress and married to Ed Gardner) Ellery sets out to find a missing child who's parents are about to divorce and finds a mysterious letter and a negligent nurse.
86*	"The Green Hat" 05-14-42 or 05-16-42: 30:00* With John P. McIntyre as prominent Washington war correspondent Guest Armchair Detectives West: a "jury" of servicemen East: a so-called "blue ribbon jury", jurymen which convicted a real killer to the electric chair at Sing-Sing, will switch from fact to fiction as the guest armchairs detectives. Program was advertised with a warning "Attention Colored Folks". The bodyguard of an industrial tycoon turned wartime Federal bureaucrat is found murdered at a Washington victory ball, clutching a piece of crepe paper in his hand.
87*	"The Three IOU's" 05-21-42 or 05-23-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: R.Porterfield and Earl Young (radio newscaster) East: Alice Marble (tennis ace, radio sportscaster) and E.J.Reilly (Mayor of Chicago via phone) A loan shark is murdered who carried in his pocket three IOU's from people to whom he had lent money.
88*	"The Old Men" 05-28-42 or 05-30-42: 30:00* Adapted as "As Simple as ABC" in EQMM, May 1951 and collected as "The Gettysburg Bugle" in Calendar of Crime (1952) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Joan Caulfield (actress) and Emery Deutsch (bandleader) East: D.Lind and Judge J.T.Mahoney Memorial Day, in a tiny town near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where the three nonagenarian Civil War veterans are quickly dying off, killed for an old joke they shared of finding Confederate treasure.
89*	"The Dog Fires" 06-04-42 or 06-06-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Joan Edwards (singer/actress) and J.Scheeter East: Warren Hull (actor/radio announcer) and Joana Leschin (concert pianist) The Evening News, Harrisburg announced the stars of the Vox Pop show, Hull and Johnson as armchair detectives. Story of heartless pyromaniac responsible for a strange series of fires in a pet shop.
90*	"The June Bride" 06-11-42 or 06-13-42: 30:00* Adapted as "The Medical Finger" in EQMM, June '51 and collected in Calendar of Crime (1952) Guest Armchair Detectives West: Lois January (actress) and Lem Ward(painter/woodcarver) East: C. Agar and Jack Nimblefoot McManus of PM Seven minutes after a wedding ceremony the very wealthy bride drops dead. Main suspect appears to be the violent-tempered former boyfriend who had threatened to kill the woman. Ellery is attending.

Odds are five to one against armchair detectives solving ELLERY QUEEN* murder mysteries, according to the guesses in the NBC series which started in January. Thirteen were correct; 68 missed.* (42-06-13 The Billboard)

91*	"The Golf Murder" 06-18-42 or 06-20-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Alphonso d'Artega (band leader) and Kay Lorraine (vocalist) East: Joan Edwards (singer/actress) and Conrad Thibault (singer) An executive gets murdered on a private golf course
92*	"(The) Midnight Visitor" 06-25-42 or 06-27-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: James and Dorothy Kilgallen (father and daughter, journalists) East: E.Allardice and A.Simon Right: Marion opposite Carleton Young in a photo for episode 92 "The Midnight Visitor" (1942). No peace and quiet when Ellery and Nikki accept an invitation for a quiet weekend in the country. The suave sleuthing of Ellery Queen is always top-flight mystery drama fare (WEAF-7:30). Last night's "Adventure of the Midnight Visitor" was no exception, though not as gory as some thriller fans might wish . . . (Daily News from New York, New York June 28, 1942)
93*	"The Air Raid Warden" 07-02-42 or 07-04-42: 30:00* Guest Armchair Detectives West: Benay Venuta (singer/actress) and D.Mich East: Gracie Barrie (baritone and Mrs. Stabile) and Dick Stabile (bandleader) What happened to the air raid warden who entered a house and vanished? Ellery witnessed the disappearance, and all kinds of exciting events, including espionage, occur. Ellery Queen becomes involved in this civilian defense mystery when he helps Nikki Porter, his secretary, patrol her beat in the suburban town where she is an air raid warden. They see the warden on the next post inspecting various houses. He goes into one and never comes out. The people living there never heard or saw him, and a search of the house fails to locate him.

After a whirlwind courtship Manfred B. Lee and Kaye Brinker were married on July 4, 1942 the same day as this last broadcast. The series went of the air for three months...

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