Ellery Queen's radio plays - page 10

b a c k
Season 7
*The Adventures of Ellery Queen* CBS Anacin Wednesdays 7:30 - 8:00 pm 1946 - 1947 (292-318) Producer/Director: Bob Steel Announcer: Don Hancock Scripts: Anthony Boucher, Manfred B. Lee, Tom Everitt Stars: Sydney Smith, Richard Coogan and Lawrence Dobkin (Ellery), Santos Ortega and Bill Smith (Inspector Queen), Ted de Corsia and Ed Latimer (Velie), Charlotte Keane (Nikki Porter)

Above: Fragment form a letter dated 16. September 1946 announcing the return of the *Ellery Queen* radio adventures...

292*	"Ellery Queen, Criminal" 10-09-46 :30:00* Guest Armchair Detective: Jean Sablon (romantic French singer) The story begins with a chess game and winds up with Queen in a tight spot - he cannot convince Secretary-assistant Nikki Porter, Sergeant Velie and Inspector Richard Queen that he is Ellery and not an imposter. While tracking down a thief-impersonator Ellery gets beaten up and is held prisoner in a Hotel room, guarded by a woman. Back in New York Nikki doesn't recognize him and to worsen matters the woman guard is murdered in a room of dust.

Program of 10-16 pre-empted as CBS decided to present a documentary dramatization "The Empty Noose", in connection with the Nuremberg executions. Followed at 9:15 with a pool broadcast after the executions in Nuremberg. At an announced loss in revenue of $11,000 CBS canceled last Wednesday's half-hour broadcast of "Ellery Queen, " sponsored by Whitehall Pharmacal Company through Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, in order to present a documentary program, "Noose Over Nuremburg," on the conclusion of the war crime trials. (Advertising Age Oct 21. 1946)

293*	"The Woman who Died Several Times" 10-23-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: John Carradine (actor) (Initially John was scheduled for 10-16) A rich young businessman thinks he has silenced a blackmailer. A politician confesses shooting his mistress. Only she appears to be alive and well as she managed to let the politician shoot blanks. Some time later a well-known book reviewer comes up with the same story, only this time she really is dead. Carradine comments that he needs an aspirin (not an Anacin)...

At some point between this episode and Episode 307 three of the four regular cast were replaced. Richard Coogan took over from Sydney Smith as Ellery, Bill Smith from Santos Ortega (after episode 299) as Inspector Queen and Ed Latimer from Ted De Corsia as Sergeant Velie, Charlotte Keane remained as Nikki Porter

294*	"Ellery Queen's Rival" 10-30-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: Rear Admiral H.B. Miller (Retired Navy admiral, now TWA vice-president of public relations and author) who speaks from WTOP, Washington, D.C. will direct the audience's attention to Navy Day. Ellery isn't at his best. He's distressed because his secretary- assistant, pretty Nikki Porter, has become interested in another mystery writer, a competitor. While dating Nikki and Larry Kinnaire (Connair?) come across a locked room murder. Soon another locked room murder occurs which brings the two detectives together and they vie frantically with each other to be first to solve it - all to win Nikki's favor. The Adventures of Ellery Queen is the one with the two-voice commercial, where the gal comes in at the end of every sentence-buildup with a sing-song “take an Anacin.” (Fill in your own sentence here). I caught the one of October 30 , which deals with a house in which dwell several psycho ex-actors. Michael O’Mallory is found dead, then Uncle Terence, whose nephew Larry Canare is given a play by Ellery’s girl friend Nikki. This makes Ellery and Larry rivals in love as well as crime-detection. In the course of the proceedings the houseful of people are drugged and get their faces scratched up by the murderer to scramble the clews. What’s wrong with this show is not so much the story as the writing. Ellery and Larry scrap over every clue in a manner supposed to be true to the psychology of rival males in the throes of competitive amour. Papa Queen, the Police Inspector, buzzes on and off, chewing them both out for acting like kids. He had something there, but he should have jumped on the script-writer. (The Chicago Star, November 16, 1946 - Taking Ellery Queen with 'Anacin' - by Fred Quincy)
295*	"The Crime of Inspector Queen" Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: Paul Douglas (actor, Broadway star) Inspector Queen has to pick up Joe Krupp, accused murderer willing to testify against his boss. On the way back from LA Krupp is killed and Inspector Queen is the prime suspect. Fortunately Ellery went along...
296*	"The Uneasy Voyage" 11-13-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee, Carmina Freeman & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: Carmina Freeman (editorial director of Baffling Detective magazine) Ellery tries to prevent a murder on a ocean liner. Soon after discovery of the presence of a professional hit man, the French patriot is murdered. Ellery and Nikki are hired by a French ocean liner to protect a prominent member of the French resistance on his way back to France. Carmina Freeman presents an award to the program. Ellery announces that as of next week's program, the "Guest Armchair Detective" will be contacted by telephone from among the listeners.

LONG-DISTANCE SLEUTHING Mystery fans in all sections of the country now get a chance to compete with Ellery Queen in solving his cases on CBS's Wednesday "Adventures of Ellery Queen". Ellery's secretary, Nikki Porter, played by Charlotte Keane, is shown with the master sleuth as they put in a long-distance call to the night's guest armchair detective before Ellery reveals his solution on the air. 11-19-46 Note: EQ is Richard Coogan
Ellery Queen is trying an experiment which will extend the scope of his murder mystery series. Beginning tonight, he will reach out all over the United States, by long distance phone, to call on listeners for their solutions. The voices of the guest will not be heard on the air, but his reported solution will be given, and then compared to Queen's solution. (11-20-46 The Chester Times)

297*	"The Prizefighter's Birthday" 11-20-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Richard Manoff Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone Columbus, Ohio Announced armchair detective (10-23-46): Richard Arlen (screen star) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 06-17-55 (Episode 49) A prizefighter is asked to throw his his 26th fight on his 26th birthday, he refuses and gets a bomb package which nearly kills him.
298*	"Ellery Queen, Blackmail Victim" 11-27-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone Chicago, Illinois A journalist threatens to kill innocent people if he isn't paid $25,000 to be delivered by Ellery. An ambush is laid out, the criminal escapes after having hidden the money in the morgue.
299*	"Ellery Queen, Gigolo" 12-04-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone Cambridge, Massachusetts Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 05-27-55 (Episode 46) When investigating a jewel robbery Ellery goes undercover in an escort service. The woman running the service is murdered in the street clutching a chess piece. Charlotte Keane, Santos Ortega and Ted De Corsia in the cast (Radio Vision)
300*	"The Old Man's Darling" 12-11-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone in Indiana (Helen Decker, nurse) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 04-15-55 (Episode 40) Ellery has the chance to earn $ 5,000 for a children's fund to investigate if old wealthy financier John Spuyten's young nurse has been stealing. Can he find certain missing objects? After the bargain is struck the nurse is murdered.
301*	"The Hurricane that Committed Murder" 12-18-46 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone Mrs. Anne Rymer, librarian at the Scarsdale Library was one of the three judges. Appearing with her were a professor of New York University and a White Plains police inspector. A man gets murdered by a bomb triggered by a barometer and an approaching hurricane. A murdered drug dealer leads to a waterfront boarding house, which promptly explodes.
302*	"Ellery Queen, Santa Claus" 12-25-46 :30:00* Christmas Show Repeated on 12-25-47 (Episode 333) Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone in Jersey City, New Jersey Ellery visits a man on death row to try to prove his innocence. A $1000 diamond ring on the finger of a movie theatre box office clerk is the clue he needs to pull this off. The trail leads to a department store and Santa Claus who is knifed to death!
303*	"The Unhappy New Year" 01-01-47 :30:00* New Year's Show Repeated 01-01-48 (Episode 334) Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. When trying to commit suicide an unhappy advertising man gets nearly shot. Inspector Queen solves the case.
304*	"The Man who could Vanish" 01-08-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: Mrs. George Tullis through telephone from 2424 South 26th Street, Arlington, Virginia. Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 08-06-54 (Episode 4) Mr. Revenant enters the police station to confess to a murder and says he can disappear at will. Put in jail he subsequently disappears without a trace.
305*	"The Lollipop Murders" 01-15-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone Ellery is forced on a hoodlum' yacht. A dead woman left as dying message with a wrapped lollipop in her mouth.
306*	"The Queen Solomon" 01-22-47 :30:00* Repeat of 11-26-43 "The Three Mothers" (Episode 101)Written by Frederic Dannay & Manfred B.Lee Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone in Baltimore, Maryland Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 02-04-55 (Episode 30) Mrs. Heather found a baby on her doorstep eight months previously. Two women claim to be the real mother. Ellery Queen finds out both the identity of the real mother, and of the murderer who kills her.
307*	"The Stone Age Detective" 01-29-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Guest Armchair Detective: reached through telephone in Detroit, Michigan An 84-year old man paid a famous scientist to find a way to extend his life and had a tribesman as bodyguard. To no avail: he gets murdered. Ellery has had to compete with a varied assortment of sleuths in his time, but never before has he had to match wits with a detective right out of the stone age - an aborigine from a forgotten corner of the world. This strange primitive, who thinks he is immortal, almost beats Ellery Queen at his own game, but the civilian sleuth wins in the end.
	WJR got the most out of "*Ellery Queen*" tie-in. As noted previously (December sponsor) a member of the home audience is chosen to sit in judgment on each *Ellery Queen* case. In Detroit, Mark Haas, publicity director, and Bob Anthony, promotion director, weren't content to do the routine thing when it came WJR's turn to pick a Detroit amateur detective. Entrants came from 2,500 station listeners and the judges were the Mayor, Police Commissioner, and columnists from the News, Times, and Free Press. When the Queen session hit the air the week that a Detroit fan was to be armchair detective, the Motor City knew about it, and how. (Sponsor, March 1947) The guest detective received 5 valuable gifts for participating. (Harrisburg Telegraph - Jan 25. 1947)
308*	"The Haunted House" aka "The Hunted House" 02-05-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Richard Manoff With Richard Coogan (Ellery), Ed Latimer (Velie), Bill Smith (Inspector Queen), Charlotte Keane (Nikki) Guest Armchair Detective: Victor Jory (actor) Gentlemen sleuth Ellery Queen has his hands full rescuing Sergeant Velie, from a morass of blackmail and murder. Sergeant Velie gets himself blackmailed by his landlord after being photographed in an incriminating pose. A murder soon occurs. Tom Velie is a victim of the housing shortage. When the sergeant finally does find a place to live he gets into such a mess that it takes the whole Queen troupe to deliver him from impending disaster.

Lawrence Dobkin stepped in to play Ellery Queen* (Nevins)*

309*	"The Green Gorilla's" 02-12-47 :30:00* Guest Armchair Detective: Jose Ferrer Repeated 06-01-47 (Episode 319) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 07-08-55 (Episode 52) A program about juvenile delinquents. Who is behind the street gang "The Green Gorillas." Ellery uses a teen-ager "Bob Brown" to get the goods on the gang.
310*	"The Big Brain" 02-19-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt Announcer: Bill Cullen(standing in) Guest Armchair Detective: Jean Parker (actress in Broadway's Burlesque) Ellery and Nikki visit Florida for a brief vacation. As soon as Ellery arrives he runs into villainy in the person of Senor Macatrez, as South American promoter, buying up big league baseball players. It's a busman's holiday for the detective when he lands in the middle of a situation that seems amusing, but ends in tragedy. Above right: Bill Cullen filling in for regular announcer on the *Ellery Queen* radio show, February 19, 1947.

''Ellery Queen": or The Case of The Unwanted Whodunit Having cancelled out the Bob Burns NBC Sunday night show, effective June 1, American Home Products has served notice on CBS that it plans moving "Ellery Queen" to the vacated 6:30 p.m. Burns slot. However, there's one little hitch that apparently hasn't been reckoned on. NBC doesn't want "Ellery." at least not in the Sunday 6:30 period, and from all indications not at all, and while there's no decision as yet, it's likely that the network will nix the switchover. Not that NBC has anything against "Ellery" as an entertainment package, but it doesn't feel it should invite new whodunits into the network fold, particularly at a time of mounting pressure against the multiplicity or bang-bang shows. NBC is content to ride along with only two who whodunits, "Molle Mystery Theatre" and "Mr. District Attorney," both high rating pullers, with the latter also regarded as a prestige airer, as whodunits go. And NBC questions the advisability of spotting "Ellery" in a time segment that follows the Catholic Hour, a network "must." (Variety, Wednesday, February 26, 1947)

311*	"The Strange Death of Mr. Entricson" 02-26-47 :30:00* Guest Armchair Detective: June Knight (actress) In this locked room murder a lawyer, hired by four racketeers looking for legal redemption, gets murdered.
312*	"Nikki Porter, Killer" 03-05-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Kendall F. Crossen ^* Guest Armchair Detective: Alfred Drake (actor, Broadway musical star) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 11-19-54 (Episode 19) "Nikki Porter, Suspect" Nikki, suffering amnesia, gets blamed for a murder after stepping off a train just as the loot from a train robbery disappears from her compartment and a bank robber with a broken nose is murdered.
313*	"The Crooked Man" 03-12-47 :30:00* Likely adapted as an episode from Dumont TV-series The Adventures of Ellery Queen, 11/30/50 Guest Armchair Detective: Warren Hull, Parks Johnson(co-hosts radio's Vox Pop) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 07-16-54 (Episode 1) A private eye is blackmailing culprits of crimes, many of them have committed suicide. Ellery sets a trap by framing himself for Nikki's murder. The evidence is in a safe with a time bomb. The clue to to the combination is the second verse of the nursery rhyme "Simple Simon".
314*	"The Specialist in Cops" 03-19-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: Bela Lugosi (actor), Joan Barton (?) Part of a series of EQ episodes to be restaged with Australian actors and local commercials. Airdate 12-10-54 (Episode 22) Nutsy Yapp specializes in killing police officers for hire, now has kidnapped Ellery. Yapp lets him write a note to his father. Can Ellery include a clue to his whereabouts?
315*	"The Ten Thousand Dollar Bill" 03-26-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher Guest Armchair Detective: Ted Malone (poetry reader) Announced armchair detective: June Knight (actress) Ellery and Nikki spends some time at country inn due to a disappearance, an embezzlement and a murdered man with a $ 10,000 bill in his hand.
316*	"The Man who Murdered a City" 04-02-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher with Ted Osborne Guest Armchair Detective: Andre Baruch (radio announcer), Bea Wain (singer) Ellery wants to expose "The Buzzer" who got elected because citizens didn't want to vote. When Ellery tells how he discovered the identity of "The Buzzer," remember that there was no "Z" on a telephone dial!
317*	"The Big Fix" 04-09-47 :30:00* Guest Armchair Detective: Tom Torsey (American Indian artist at N.Y. Museum of Natural History, known in his Onondage tribe as "Two Arrows.") Larry "Hot" Lipps gets murdered. This gambler was just told by his doctor he had only a few weeks to live.
318*	"The Redheaded Blonde Brunette" aka "The Redhead-Blonde Brunette" 04-16-47 :30:00* Written by Manfred B.Lee & Tom Everitt with Kaye Brinker (supporting cast) Guest Armchair Detective: Arthur Godfrey (radio personality) A night-club singer tries to cash in on the insurance by marrying several soldiers. Then she gets murdered. Arthur Godfrey sounded either drunk or very sleepy...

NEW YORK, May 24.--Three renewals for half-hour periods on the full network were racked up this week by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Two of the three nighttime shows were re-packed by Procter & Gamble. Thru Benton & Bowles, the soap company has signed again for the 8 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday period, currently housing Life of Riley. The Compton agency renewed the following half hour for Truth or Consequences. Whitehall Pharmacal, thru Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell & Bayles, has renewed the 6:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday period, on which Ellery Queen is slated to replace the Bob Burns Show June 1. (05-24-47 The Billboard)

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