Mon 4 Jan 2010
OTR: MICHAEL SHAYNE, PRIVATE DETECTIVE – 12 November 1946.
Posted by Steve under Characters , Old Time Radio[4] Comments
Speaking of Michael Shayne, there were several different series of his adventures that appeared on radio. The first of these starred Wally Maher as Shayne, with Cathy Lewis featured as his secretary (and close companion) Phyllis Knight. While there was an earlier and much longer run on the West Coast Mutual-Don Lee string of stations, the series didn’t appear on the full Mutual network until 8 October 1946 and only lasting to 14 January 1947. The one I offer you here (click on the link) is generally referred to as “The Case of the Poisoned Fan,” but there is no announcement to that fact on the program itself.
The show is very well done, even though there is nothing I can see that particularly identifies the radio version with Brett Halliday’s character — all they seem to have in common is the name. Shayne talks tough enough, pretty much as a generic PI is supposed to talk, but the puzzle aspect of this particular episode is the key element: How did the killer make sure the victim was the one who was served the poisoned coffee?
January 5th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Thanks for the connection. Previously I had only heard the Jeff Chandler series — which was pretty good.
Does anyone know if the pilot film Mark Stevens did for a Michael Shayne series exists anywhere? I know a few episodes of the Richard Denning series have surfaced, but have never heard anything about the Stevens pilot. It’s not listed on IMDb, but was supposedly filmed and aired.
January 11th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Steve,
I clicked on the link and it connected me to Napster, which played all of 8 seconds worth of the show and then wanted me to buy the rest? Do you have a better web address for the show?
January 11th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
It was working before, and David didn’t seem to have trouble. Don’t know what happened since. I’ll check into it!
— Steve
January 11th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
I downloaded the show to my hard drive a second time, and I think it’s OK now. Let me know. (I have no idea how Napster got involved on your end.)
— Steve