spies on radio

Now, I'm planning on setting up a website to include information that won't be in the book, including the list of radio shows below. While I spend a lot of time in one chapter overviewing radio drama, I couldn't provide much detail and, in many cases, couldn't find some details I was interested in. So I'm sharing what I found with y'all and hope some of you can fill in gaps and add information.

Thanks!

Wes Britton

P.S. Oh, you can find information about SPY TELEVISION at the Greenwood Publishing website. It's listed at Amazon.com as well.

----

Spy Shows on Radio

While researching Spy Television, I discovered just how important old-time radio dramas were on the formative years of TV spies. Not only were television series in the 1950s based on radio series, but pioneer producers and writers in the 1960s were often veterans of radio serials. While this issue is explored in depth in Chapter 2 of Spy Television, we provide a list of radio spies here as no such list exists elsewhere. Details about networks, years of broadcast, and stars are provided when known. For those seeking much more comprehensive information, I suggest beginning with John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio (New York: Oxford UP) 1998.

It should be noted that, especially during World War II, many radio dramas took on spy trappings, particularly counter-espionage in the U.S. Such shows included SUPERMAN, THE SHADOW, SHERLOCK HOLMES, and TOM MIX. Many anthology series featured undercover stories such as THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND (NBC, 1950) featuring John Wayne as a drunk secret agent. There were to adaptations of novelist John Buchan's 1919 THE 39 STEPS including Orson Welles 1938 version for his Mercury Theatre. Welles claimed his adaptation was truer to the book than Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film version which was in turn adapted into a 1937 CBS "Lux Radio Theatre" broadcast starring Robert Montgomery and Ida Lupino.

Armstrong of the S.B.I. 1950. (Formerly Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy)
Cloak and Dagger. 1950. Raymond Edward Johnson, Gilbert Mack.
Counterspy, AKA David Harding, Counterspy. (NBC, CBS, Mutual, the Blue network) 1942-1957. Don MacLaughlin, Mandel Kramer.
Dan Dunn, Secret Operative Number 48 (local, San Francisco) 1937. 15 min. serial.
Foreign Assignment (Mutual) 1943-1944. Jay Justman, Vicki Bola.
I Love Adventure. 1948. Michael Laseto, Tom Collins, Martin Yarborough.
Intrigue. 1946. Anthology series with no recurring cast.
I Was a Communist for the FBI. 1952-1954. Dana Andrews.
John Winslow of the Navy. 1937-1942. Raymond Edward Johnson.
The Man Called X. 1944-1952. Herbert Marshall, Leon Delasco.
The Man From G-2 (AKA Major North) 1945-1946. Scott Kotsworth.
The Modern Adventures of Casanova. 1952. Errol Flynn
Ned Jordon Spy Stories. (Mutual) 1938-1942. Jack McCarthy.
Secret Agent K-7. 1939.
Secret Missions. 1948-1949. (An unrelated series with the same name was broadcast during the 1950s.)
Secret Service Spy Stories. (NBC) 1932-1933.
Spy at Large. (NBC) 1938. Writer, George Ludlam.
Spy Catcher. (BBC) 1960-1961.
Spy Secrets (NBC) 1938. Producer, Himan Brown.
Stories of the Black Chamber. (NBC) 1935. Gale Gordon.
Tennessee Jed. (ABC) 1945-1947. Johnny Thomas.
The Third Man. 1951-1952. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Top Secret (NBC) 1950. Alana Massey.

Another series that dealt a lot with spies was Marlene Dietrich's "Time For Love."

Jack French
Editor: RADIO RECALL
www.mwotrc.com