he Adventures of Ellery Queen                            t e r u g  
                    ("A Kaiser-Frazer Adventure in Mystery")

Dumont, 14 Oct 1950-1951
ABC, 1951- Dec,1952

Producers: Norman and Irving Pincus
Directors: Donald Richardson, William Hart, Alex Cohen.
Scriptwriters: Helene Hanff, Reginald Denham,
Mary Orr, Eugene Burr, ...
Story editor: Jerry Sackheim
Composer "Ellery Queen Theme" (the same theme that was used on the last 2 Radio series): Chester ("Chet") Kingsbury.  Music Arranged by Ray Carter
Set designer: John Robert Lloyd
Ellery Queen:  Lee Bowman
Inspector Queen: Florenz Ames
Sergeant Velie: Elliott Sullivan
Police Sergeant: Charles F. McClelland  (9)

Scriptwriter Helene Hanff became what she described as "Ellery Queen's special write of arty murders", and wrote plots about a murder at an art gallery, one at the opera, two at the ballet and one at a Shakespeare festival. "We were just getting round to murder at a rare book shop when they took the show off the air."

First Season... 

"The Twilight Zone"  (2) (6)  (9) (10)
"The adventure of the twilight zone"  (7)
9/13/51
Script: Henry Misrock   (7) (10)
appeared as Photo Mystery in TV Show edition  of January 1952 where no title was given...   Full photo mystery of this episode
With: Guy Spaull (Marsden), Eva Gabor (Ilsa), Edgar Franken (Karl), Theo Goetz (Max Leopold), Cosmo Cordello, Luis Van Rooten

A German beer stein , bought on vacation in Germany reminds Ellery of what befell him and his father in a club in West-Germany. There they met British correspondent Marsden who meets Ilsa, a sultry singer.
Proprietor Max  Leopold does not approve. Marsden is drugged by a red agent Karl and swept off to East-Germany where he is tortured. In a attempt to find Marsden Inspector Queen also is kidnapped and subjected to the same treatment. Ellery, aided by Ilsa finds his  way through tunnels to the "Red Zone".

"The Garden of Death"  (2)  (6)  (7) (10)
10/4/51
Script: Henry Misrock   (7)
With (10):  Wesley Addy, Richard Purdy, Leona Maricle, Rita Gam and Ronald Telfer

Ellery gets to know a frightened sculptor and finds a murder problem.

"The Coffee House Murder" (2) (6) (7) (10) (11)
10/25/51 (11)
Script: Norman Lessing  (7) (10) (11)
With (10): Harry Bellaver, Joseph Buloff, John Shellie, Sy Travers and Henry Sharpe.

Ellery visits a poor neighborhood to solve murder in an ethnic coffeehouse and does so by means of an old Hungarian card game.

Survives on Kinescope (1) 

The series changed date, time slot, network and sponsor. It was seen Sundays on ABC from 7:30 to 8:00 PM sponsored by Kaiser-Frazer.

6:30-7:00 (6)

Ellery Queen will switch from Dumont to the ABC network Dec 9, increasing the audience potential from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 sets in operation according to Charles J. Leonard, Kaiser-Frazer ad manager. The show will move to Sundays at 7:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the five Sunday evening ABC periods preceding the Ellery Queen bow will feature a new show starring Betty Furness and titled "Kaiser-Frazer's Adventures in Mystery"

"Mr. Big"  (6) (10)
2/24/52   (6) (re-used as basis for an episode of TPA tv-series Adventures of Ellery Queen  01/01/56)
Script: Betty Loring
With  (10): Lily Darvas, Blair Davis, Robert Downing, David Kurlan and Dick Shankland

Ellery suspects that the suicide death of a smalltime gangster is connected with the operations of the underworld's Mr.Big. This mysterious figure has risen to the leadership of a narcotics ring.

Story of a man who dies twice in tracking down a mysterious leader of a narcotic ring   (6)

"The Red Hook Murder"
2/24/52
See 60*

Above left: Lee Bowman (right) in a scene from "The Red Hook Murder".
Above right: Lee Bowman as Ellery Queen in "Buck Fever" (01-10-1952).

"The Men without Faces" (2) (6) (10)
4/30/52 (re-used as basis for an episode of TPA tv-series Adventures of Ellery Queen  "The Night Visitors" 03/11/56)
Script: Henry Misrock
With (10): Royal Beal, Vaughn Taylor, Anna Minot

While traveling in Germany Ellery witnesses the beating of a young couple by a Neo-Nazi group wearing uniforms and masks. Ellery decides to expose it. He meets with no success  however until he meets an old innkeeper.

Television could use more of the hard hitting, courageous scripting that went into last week's installment of "Ellery Queen" on ABC-TV. Within the framework of the half-hour production, which generally hews to the standardized, pedestrian cops-and-robbers formula, producers Irving and Norman Pincus, writers Henry Misrock and director Donald Richardson, aided and abetted by star Lee Bowman and such capable TV thespians as Vaughn Taylor, detoured into seldom penetrated video avenues for a vivid  exposition of bigotry and intolerance as practiced in some sectors of the United States.
Inspired by recent accounts of floggings and attacks of minorities by masked marauders in small communities of the country, this "Ellery" episode had something important to depict, and did it with commendable forthrightness and honesty. It told of a reign of hooded terrorism in a small town, led by the mayor and sheriff, ostensibly to rid the community of "foreigners" but actually motivated by the town's vested interests bent on retaining their filling stations, hardware stores, etc., when competition threatened to move in.
It was not a pretty picture, which spanned the gamut of the tar-and-feather brand of terrorism to actual lynching's. All concerned acquitted themselves in fine style - with the single exception of the Bayuk cigar (Phillies) sponsors, with over-accented spiels and a closing filmed commercial (featuring Bobby Clark's cigar-wielding comicalities) that was so out of tempo with the half-hour stanza as to make the whole thing ludicrous. - Rose
                                        (Variety, Wednesday May 7. 1952)

"Cat & Mouse"  (6) (10)
"Cat and Mouse"  (2)
5/14/52
Script: Henry Misrock
With (10): Joseph Antony, Paul Langton, Flora Campbell, Glenn Gordon

A vengeful criminal threatens Ellery's life.

Episode 6/4/52 pre-empted: Betty Garde, local TV actress was injured when the taxi in which she was riding was involved in a collision with another car. As a result Ellery Queen scheduled for that night, in which she had the female lead was canceled and the entire cast paid off.
Norman and Irving Pincus used a kine of an earlier stanza in the 9-9:30 p.m. slot, via ABC which meant a second payment to members of that cast as well. Miss Garde was resting in a New York hospital with a split lip, banged nose and possible concussion. Her role was to be rescheduled for July.

Betty Garde, who was to play the femme lead on ABC-TV’s "Adventures of Ellery Queen” last Wednesday (4), was hurt while riding in a taxicab to a rehearsal on the day of the telecast. As a result, the N. Y.-originating live show had to be cancelled and an old kine used; It was too close to air time to get a substitute lead. Packagers Norman and Irving Pincus were clipped financially, since they had to pay the cast in the vehicle which wasn’t aired and also pay the performers and scripter on the kine. The cancelled yarn will be reprised in a month or so when Miss Garde is able to appear in it. Accident occurred when a pedestrian darted in front of the cab and the driver stopped short; a web spokesman said. Actress, was thrown against the jump seat, had a nose hemorrhage and had to be hospitalized.
                                                 (Variety, Wednesday June 11, 1952)

"... so many things can go wrong, it can give you ulcers overnight. Like having a principal on the show conk out just before broadcast time. This happened to us weeks ago when Betty Garde was hurt in a taxicab accident a few hours before airtime. It was impossible to get a replacement on such short notice, and so we used a kinescope of a previous show, which we kept for just such emergencies." (Variety, July 16. 1952)

A rehearsal of this episode, dated 6/4/1952 and directed by Donald Richardson is held at UCLA Library. It has the following description: "A young ballerina and her boyfriend are menaced by a brutal prima donna in their company. She is jealous of their love and is also desirous of getting rid of her drunken husband who has threatened to divorce her and replace her with another dancer. She pushes him off of a roof and Ellery Queen solves the crime with some very deft maneuvering" (8)

"The Ten Dollar Bill"  (2) (10)
"The $10 Bill"  (5)
9/3/52
Original script: Henry Misrock
Staff-directed
Technical director: Walter Kubillus
Supervisor: Burke Crotty
With (5) (10): Olive Deering, Henry Jones, Harry Bellaver, Joseph Sullivan

Ellery and his dad need to visit a waterfront magic shop as they found a strange banknote on the body of a murdered man.

Lee Bowman returns to the title role to expose an international counterfeit syndicate. (9)

Lee Bowman came back from a summer vacation last Wednesday night (3) to resume his lead sleuth role in the “Adventures of Ellery Queen” series on ABC-TV. 'Vehicle for his return was a good one, a script yarn by Henry Misrock, titled “The $10 Bill."' in which Bowman, as Ellery Queen, became involved with a ship-dock murder, a snazzy blonde, a waterfront shop selling articles of “magic” and an international counterfeit syndicate. Situations weren’t hard to follow — or to spot — but they maintained a good level of interest, thanks to excellent acting performances as well as good dialog. Smaller parts (such as Henry Jones’ and Olive Deering’s) were as well-taken and authentic as Bowman's and Florenz Ames’ (latter in the familiar role of Bowman’s father Inspector Queen). Commercials had punch, and were kept in proper focus.- Bron.
                           (Variety, Wednesday September 10. 1952)

"Buck Fever"  (2) (6) (10)
"The Case of the Buck Fever" (9)
10/1/52
Directed by Walter Hart, Script: Henry Misrock, Script Editor: Eugene Burr, Set Design:  John Robert Lloyd,  Music Arrangement:  Ray Carter, Technical director: Walter Kubilus, Supervision:  A.Burke Crotty
 With: Richard Caryle (Bill Williams), Rusty Lane (Sheriff), Robert Middleton (Tim Hadden, Lori March (Claire Williams), Dennis Dengate (Stick-man)    

Ellery goes hunting and gets accused of shooting a colleague hunter by accident.                               

"A Touch of Death"  (2)
10/22/52 re-used as basis for an episode of TPA tv-series Adventures of Ellery Queen  "Stranger in the Dark" 10/02/55
Script: Betty Loring
With (10): Raimonda Orselli, Frank Sutton, Florence Stanley, Betty Beuhler, Lauri Collier, Maurice Fain.

Ellery tries to save a blind girl, the only witness her roommate's murder, who is stalked by the killer in the Braille room of the public library.

Ellery catches the psychopathic murderer of a gal who apparently was a bit of a trollop, but who lived with a very nice blind girl. The viewer never finds out how these two girls got together, or what they had in common. There is never time to explain intriguing situations such as this. Instead we have to follow Ellery around while he tracks the killer. ("Public Enemy: Who Murder TV Sleuths" by Hal Humphrey -"The Detroit Free Press", June 4. 1954)

"Double Exposure"   (6) (10)
11/26/52 (re-used as basis for an episode of TPA tv-series Adventures of Ellery Queen  04/01/56)
Original script: Henry Misrock
Staff-directed
With (10): Frances Reid, William Kemp, Mary Beth Hughes, Allan Stevenson and Carol Harren.

A frightened father comes to Ellery for help when the kidnappers of his son warn him not to go to the police. Ellery compares two photographs and comes up with a clue.

After several years, the mother of a kidnapped child receives a note from the kidnappers (6)

  Last updated August 4, 2023