Wed 15 Sep 2010
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: XANTIPPE – Death Catches Up with Mr. Kluck.
Posted by Steve under Old Time Radio , Reviews[5] Comments
William F. Deeck
XANTIPPE – Death Catches Up with Mr. Kluck. Doubleday Crime Club, hardcover, 1935. Film: Universal/Crime Club, 1938, as Danger on the Air (with Nan Grey as Christina “Steenie” MacCorkle & Donald Woods as Benjamin Franklin Butts).
The Mr. Kluck, inventor, owner, and manager of Kluck’s Korjul — “Feeling depressed? Headache? Nervous? Drink Kluck’s Korjul. Lack pep, vitality? How about the sparkle in your eyes? Do you attract the opposite sex? For vim, vitality and vigor, drink Kluck’s Korjul, America’s fastest selling drink. . . ” — is at Radio Forum, Consolidated Broadcasting Company’s new studios, to watch one of his radio programs being produced. Unfortunately, he is a much unloved man, and no one mourns him when he dies in a sponsor’s room.
Kluck’s death is a complex one, first attributed to a heart attack, then to arsenic, and finally to carbon monoxide poisoning through the ventilating system. Doing the amateur investigating is Benjamin Franklin Butts, with the help of Finny McCorkle, of McCorkle, McCorkle, and Fish, radio productions. Butts has encyclopedic knowledge and Finny writes mystery scripts for radio.
Xantippe’s view of early radio, its alleged talent, and its programs is delightful and illustrates the saying that the more things change the more they stay the same. Even the footnotes are amusing, as well as being informative. The predictions for what radio might do for good and for harm are especially fascinating.
Editorial Comments: Bill Deeck did not know, or I assume that he would have mentioned it, but the exotically named Xantippe was the pseudonym of Edith Meiser, 1898-1993, herself the writer and producer of many radio programs, including the long-running Sherlock Holmes series, including the one that starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce for many years. One online source states that she wrote over 300 radio scripts for the series, far more stories than Sir Arthur did himself!
Xanthippe (meaning blonde horse in the Greek) was the wife of Socrates and the mother of their three sons. There may be some significance to this.
A complete listing of the Crime Club movies can be found in this preceding post from not too long ago. Danger on the Air itself has been released on DVD by oldies.com.
September 15th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
This was a pretty good entry in the Crime Club series, and it’s nice to know the book was either as good or better than the film. One notable thing about the series, is that the ones I’ve seen and read the book seem to be fairly faithful compared to Hollywood’s usual manner of using little but the title and the names (if that).
September 16th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I’ve never read anything by this author. She sounds interesting!
The Crime Club movies are entirely new to me too.
Thanks for the review.
September 16th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Steve
Re Xantippe, there is a sitcom that sometimes runs on BBC7 Digital Radio that features Socrates, Plato, Xantippe, cafe owner Heraclitus, and his brother playright Aristophanes as the main characters. It’s broadly satiric in the tradition of such British series as UP POMPEI and the CARRY ON films with Xantippe a sexually frustrated housewife having a huge crush on Plato, who like all Athenian men, finds heterosexuality unnatural … Probably the best character is Aristophanes mother, a Seer and Delphic Oracle who sees signs … such as DO NOT PASS ON THE YELLOW LINE, NO PARKING IN THE GREEN ZONE, and CHILDREN MUST BE ATTENDED AT ALL TIMES.
Anyway, not often you get a chance to do a Xantippe reference.
The original series ran in the 90s and features Robert Hardy as Socrates. Hardy frequently played Winston Churchill in films and on television, and was Sherlock Holmes on many audio book productions.
September 17th, 2010 at 6:27 am
Brings back memories. Manymany years ago, Ellen Nehr loaned me old mimeographed copies of a zine called THE ARMCHAIR DETECTIVE, where I read a review of this and actually managed to find a copy in the Library!
The book is somehow less memorable, but I think it was filmed again as RADIOLAND MURDERS.
September 17th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Thanks for featuring this. I was employed at a public radio station many years ago and between that experience and the influence of my husband have come to appreciate the almost-lost art of radio drama (although it’s making a sort of comeback in podcast form on the Web). Sounds like the historical insights alone would make it a fun read.