The Priestly Pugilist: the Personal Blog of a Catholic Priest.

The 1931 Philco Model 90 "Baby Grand" (pictured on the PP Radio Theater) was an upgrade from the smaller Direct Current seven-tube Model 70, and was the first in the "Baby Grand" series to operate solely on Alternating Current. 106,050 were made, and sold for $69.50 each.
1931 was the last year that Philco offered Direct Current only radios, with most of the new models being superheterodynes, and able to operate on both AC and DC. It was also the first year that Philco offered battery powered radios, intended for the rural market, four years before the "Rural Electrification Act." Though most of these were floor consoles, a few of these were in the "Baby Grand" design.

[ Left to right: the 1928 Model 115, the 1930 Model 20, and the 1939 Model 39-70. ]
Philco had introduced the first table top radios in 1928 with the Model 115 and subsequent decorative variations; but they covered the entire table, needed a separate speaker not attached to the radio, and cost over $100.00; clearly, a rich man's toy in those days. The first in the "Baby Grand" design, the Model 20, was introduced in August, 1930, and cost $49.50 (without the tubes). By 1936, Philco had discontinued designing new radios in the "Baby Grand" series, but continued to offer alternate versions of newer radios in "Baby Grand" cabinets. The last of these was the 1939 Model 39-70, a four-tube battery operated radio for use in rural areas, which sold for $29.95.
The terms "cathedral radio" and "beehive radio" would not come into use until the radios became collector's items decades later; though the term "tombstone radio" was used to describe the model 39-70 in it's own time.

The Priestly Pugilist_© Radio Theater
Descriptions of past programs (the programs themselves are not available):
11:22 AM 3/2/2010 — Having regaled you last week with one of the earliest, longest-runniung and most popular shows on American radio, this week the PPRT invites you to mortify yourself with one of the last, shortest-running and most painful-to-listen-to shows ever broadcast. It is, after all, Lent.
“The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dried brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both The Six Shooter.” And after hearing that line of deep-fried corn, the only reason you wouldn’t turn the dial to something else would be because, by September, 1953, when this show debuted, most of the great radio dramas were done; and TV was still too new to have anything of interest on it.
Westerns typically did well on radio in the “Golden Age”: The Lone Ranger had always been a favorite of the kids, and Gunsmoke was popular with their parents—so much so that both shows made successful leaps onto television. There was no chance that was going to happen here, in spite of the fact that The Six Shooter enjoyed the services of one of Hollywood's most popular screen stars of the day: Jimmy Stewart.
In retrospect, the timing of the debut of The Six Shooter was analogous to the era it sought to portray: the last waning years of the “not-so-wild” West. While some radio shows enjoyed a popular momentum that propelled them successfully into the late fifties and early sixties—shows such as Dragnet; Challenge of the Yukon; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; The Adventures of Philip Marlow; etc.—The Six Shooter had no popular nostalgia to keep it going for more than a single season; and it died in April, 1954, just as the “Golden Age of Radio” itself was grinding to a conclusion. The character it sought to portray, a drifting ex-gunfighter named Britt Ponsett, like the show itself, was out of place in a changing world: both him and the show would have done much better many years earlier (ironically not unlike the character of Tom Donovan, played by John Wayne opposite Stewart in the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).
Oddly enough, the writer of this show, series creator Frank Burt, seemed to be aware of its anachronism as the scripts drifted between tales of the reluctant former gunfighter being swept into confrontations through no fault of his own, and comic distractions that were downright silly. It’s an example of the latter we’ve selected for you this week.
Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90 (but only if you have nothing else to do) to hear our drifting cowboy hero drift into a small town and get caught up in a dual of a sort he’s never faced before, in “The Battle at Tower Rock”, which aired on NBC on February 21st, 1954.
2:20 PM 2/21/2010 — This week your PPRT moves from the sublime to the even-more-sublime and, in the process, presents an example of one of the longest running and most popular shows ever produced—so popular, in fact, that it leapt from radio to television and onto the pages of comic books, making its two central characters household names for decades in United States (where, ironically, they had never lived).
In the 1930s, Detroit’s station WXYZ had produced more than one successful Saturday morning serial which made the leap to the national networks. Following the success of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, station owner George W. Trendle asked for a similar adventure show, but with a dog as the hero. According to WXYZ staffer Dick Osgood, in his history of the station, Trendle insisted that it not be "a dog like Lassie because...this must be an action story. It had to be a working dog." Writer Tom Dougall, a fan of the the poems of Robert W. Service, which had made the rustic world of the Klondike gold rush come alive in such poems as The Spell of the Yukon, The Shooting of Dan McGrew, and The Cremation of Sam McGee, naturally chose a Husky. The dog was originally called Mogo; but, after criticism by Trendle, Dougall re-christened the canine King, and paired him with a character who would become one of the most iconic creations heard on radio: Sgt. Preston of the Northwest Mounted Police. Fran Striker, who wrote for The Lone Ranger, also contributed scripts. It was not coincidental that, at the same time, popular adventure author Zane Grey, who had a comic book series in circulation featuring one “Sgt. King of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” died afer a long illness; and some believe the name of the dog was chosen as a tribute.
Challenge of the Yukon began as a 15-minute serial, airing locally from 1938 until May 28th, 1947. Shortly thereafter, the program acquired a sponsor, Quaker Oats, and moved to the networks in a half-hour format, airing on the Mutual Broadcasting System from June 12th, 1947, to December 30th, 1949, and on ABC from January 2nd, 1950, through the final broadcast on June 9th, 1955. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November, 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series, when it made the transition to television. With a total run of 17 years, it was one of the longest running shows on radio. It’s theme song (after the move to Mutual), taken from the overture to Emil von Reznicek's long-forgotten opera, Donna Diana, is known by most people only through the show; and, decades after it was over, the series was still fresh enough in the minds of its youthful audience to be successfully lampooned on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show through the character of Dudley Do-Right.
The always proper and annoyingly perfect Preston was played by three different actors over the course of the long run: Jay Michael, who had often played villain Butch Cavendish on The Lone Ranger, originated the role, and played the brave Mountie from 1938 through the mid 1940s, when former movie actor Paul Sutton took over, becoming indentified with the role for the duration (though his tenure would be briefly interrupted in 1954 by Brace Beemer when the latter’s run as The Lone Ranger ended). The barks, whines and howls of Yukon King were supplied by one of the station's sound effects men, Dewey Cole, and, following Cole's death, by actor Ted Johnstone. The original Sgt. Preston, Jay Michael, remained involved in the show throughout, serving often as the announcer, and touting the virtues of “the breakfast cereal shot from guns” to “all you fellas and gals.”
One mystery remains: throughout the entire run of the show, the phrase “Royal Canadian Mounted Police” is never heard, though the RCMP’s motto, “Maintain the Right,” is used liberally throughout. Since it’s doubtful that the name would have offended the show’s American audience, we may never know the reason; however, after listening to these offerings, you, too, like Sgt. Preston, may be able to say, “Well, King, this case is closed.”
First up, click on the Philco "Baby Grand" Model 90 to hear the second episode (the first full episode) from the original WXYZ serial, as Sgt. Preston and King track down a couple of surly bank robbers in a 15 minute adventure cleverly entitled “Bank Robbery,” starring Jay Michael, which aired in Detroit on February 10th, 1938.
Next, click below to hear Sgt. Preston and King teach the residents of White Horse a lesson in loyalty, and instruct another young mountie on the limitations of “Circumstantial Evidence,” which aired on ABC on February 1st, 1950, starring Paul Sutton.
As an extra bonus, click directly below to hear a special nine minute promotional episode from April 2nd, 1953, recounting how Constable Preston, again played by Paul Sutton, first met the wonder-dog King, entitled “The Orphaned Dog.”
And just to round things out, here’s Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic in a live performance of Reznicek's Donna Diana overture.
8:18 PM 2/15/2010 — As far as detectives go, your PPRT has provided you with the hard-boiled, the cerebral, the cynical, the comedic; but we can't go any further without a visit from that smooth-talking lady's man "with a hand for oppressed men and an eye for repressed women." For millions of radio listeners from 1945 through 1954, that line meant it was time for The Adventures of the Falcon.
In his 1940 short story "Gay Falcon", published in Town & Country Magazine, author Michael Arlen created his free-lance investigator and all-around trouble-shooter, Gay Stanhope Falcon. A year later, RKO turned it into a popular film. Some fans of the Falcon, however, are dubious as to whether this character is, in fact, the true inspiration for the one immortalized in later films and radio shows, and instead suggest a character created in 1936 by author Drexel Drake: a detective named Michael Waring who—for no apparent reason—went by the nickname "The Falcon", and who was almost as seedy as the criminals he was pursuing. The now-famous series of films, starring Tom Conway (whom you'll remember from last week also did a stint on radio as Sherlock Holmes after Basil Rathbone gave up the role), seemed confused as to which of the two literary creations they sought to present—most likely an amalgam of both.
In any case, the popularity of the films made a radio series inevitable; and it premiered on the Blue Network on April 10th, 1943, bouncing over to NBC and eventually to the Mutual Network until its last episode on November 27th, 1954. There were 70 episodes in all featuring numerous actors along the way: Barry Kroeger (1943), James Meighan (1945-47), Les Tremayne (late 1940s), Les Damon (early 1950s) and George Petrie. Equally as confused was the presentation of the character himself: originally a somewhat rude and shadowy detective, weary of police,—not unlike the character created by Drexel Drake—the Falcon was constantly evolving, eventually finding work in espionage toward the series' end. Each episode began with a phone call from a woman looking for an evening on the town; and each time the offer would be rejected since our hero had a case to solve; and off we would go on another exciting episode of The Adventures of the Falcon.
This week, click on the Philco "Baby Grand" Model 90 to hear the velvety-voiced James Meighan as the Falcon, as he discovers that, more often than not, "Murder is a Family Affair," which aired on the Mutual Network on November 27th, 1945.
1:09 PM 2/9/2010 — The PPRT has purposely resisted introducing the subject of Sherlock Holmes simply because there’s too much to say about the Master Dectective’s long career on radio. With almost 400 episodes off of various networks, with a large variety of actors, choosing how to begin was a daunting task; but, thankfully, a solution has presented itself.
In 1998, the BBC aired an episode of their series, The Radio Dectectives, in which they chronicled the history of Sherlock Holmes on radio, both in America and Britain. The episode was occasioned by the release of their new series of Sherlock Holmes radio adventures, written by an acquaintance of your PP, Bert Coules (yes, I know everybody); but it gives a good thumbnail sketch of the whole spectrum of shows which, over the years, have attempted to bring the “dynamic duo” of Holmes and Watson to life on radio. So, rather than try it ourselves, we invite you first to listen to “In Search of the True Voice of Sherlock Holmes,” which is linked directly below.
Once you're up to speed, then get ready for a treat; for, rather than present an episode that everyone’s heard before on Sirius Radio Classics or found on CD at Borders Books, your PPRT has dug up an episode we know you’ve never heard before: Click on the Philco "Baby Grand" Model 90 to hear a very early offering starring Richard Gordon as Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell as Dr. Watson in an adaptation of one of Conan Doyle’s stories they’ve renamed “Murder by Proxy,” which aired on the Blue Network on January 18th, 1933, just three years after the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
4:08 PM 2/1/2010 — As we’ve already seen in a previous presentation, Jack Web made his mark in Dragnet as the deadpan Sgt. Joe Friday (first on radio and then on television); but this was not Web’s first flight as a radio “dick”. In 1946 he starred in a crime drama entitled Pat Novak for Hire, which aired on a local San Francisco station, with episodes written by his roommate, Richard L. Breen. When the two friends moved to Los Angeles to work on a similar, short-lived nationwide program entitled Johnny Modero for the Mutual Network, Web was replaced on the local show by actor Ben Morris.
When ABC took over Pat Novak for Hire and made it national in 1949, Web resumed the role, and Breen his script-writing duties. The ABC show didn’t last long—only 19 episodes—probably because it was as formulaic as any show could be; that, and the fact that it was unclear exactly what the main character was supposed to be: part detective, part bum, part entrepreneur, Novak (unlike Joe Friday) isn’t always on the right side of the law. He solves crimes, but only because, if he doesn’t, he’ll most likely be arrested for them himself by his nemesis, Inspector Hellman, played by future Perry Mason star, Raymond Burr. He’s assisted by his alcoholic pal, Jocko Madigan, an ex-doctor who has drunk himself into an early retirement (oddly enough, the Novak-like Johnny Modero had a similar assitant who was a priest).
But the show’s charm lies in a combination of some of the most clever writing ever done for any medium, and its laconic delivery by the show’s star. With his one-liners piling up on top of each other, Web displays an innate comic sensibility that would be completely submerged in Dragnet, never to be heard again—which makes the few existing episodes of Pat Novak for Hire real collectors’ items.
Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90 to hear a typical day in the life of Novak: chased by women, conked on the head, framed for murder, yelled at by Hellman and remaining detached through it all in an episode entitled “Go Away Dixie Gillian”, which aired on April 16th, 1949.
6:00 PM 1/10/2010 — During your PP’s vacation, the PPRT presents plenty of adventure and skullduggery to keep you occupied until his return. Pack your bags, because you’re about to embark on the insurance adventure of a lifetime; and, when your done listening to this, you’ll be sure to put your insurance agent back on your Christmas card list.
You wouldn’t think that a mystery series about investigating insurance claims would be that popular; but CBS, in search of new ideas, decided to give it a try in 1948. The concept was unique in several respects, not the least of which being that it was the first major radio drama in which every episode was completely transcribed (recorded for later broadcast rather than performed live). Someone is dead...or something has been stolen...or something has been burned down...and someone has filed an insurance claim asking for a bundle; and the insurance company, smelling a fraud, rings up “the man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator,” to get to the bottom of things. Off our hero goes to exotic locales to confront equally exotic villains, pausing for the occasional romance with an even more exotic array of femme fatales. He works for a fee plus expenses; and the entire adventure is recalled in the form of items marked down in his expense account, which he then sends in a letter to the company—the last line of which gave this show it’s name: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Several actors played the role from 1948 through 1955;—Dick Powel, Charles Russell, Edmund O’Brien, John Lund, Gerald Mohr—but the most remembered by far is Bob Bailey, who played Johnny Dollar from 1955 until 1960, and whose tenure in the role saw even more innovations by CBS. They abandoned the weekly half-hour format in favor of a weekly adventure in fifteen minute daily installments, Monday through Friday, giving each episode a run time of an hour and a quarter. The writers went wild with detailed, complicated plots; and the lavish musical score by Amerigo Marino (later, music director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra), along with the size of the cast, showed the money the network was willing to spend.
When CBS shut down its West Coast operations and moved its radio drama unit to New York in 1960, Bailey, unwilling to relocate, gave up the role. Actors Bob Readick and Mandel Kramer each took the role for a year, and the show reverted to its original weekly half-hour format. The last episode aired in 1962, marking the end of America’s “Golden Age of Radio.” That same year, Bob Bailey appeared briefly in the last scene of the film, The Birdman of Alcatraz, as one of the reporters gathered around Burt Lancaster and Edmund O'Brien (who had also played Johnny Dollar, from 1950 to 1952). Struggling with ill health in his later years, Bailey died at the age of 70 on August 13th, 1983.
Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90 to meet an international playboy who lives on the edge. It isn’t Andrew Forbes’ lifestyle that has the folks at Tri-Eastern Indemnity worried, but the hunk of compressed carbon he carries around in his pocket, insured by them for $150,000. Of course, there’s only one man they trust to protect their investment and sort out “The Star of Capetown Matter,” which aired from July 16th through 20th, 1956. Installments 2 through 5 are linked below.
Then...your PP isn’t the only one who needs a vacation. When you’re done chasing diamonds, find out why the Greater Southwest Insurance and Liability Co. wants to interfere with Johnny's fishing trip...sort of. Click on the links below to head for the high desert and cast your line after a fish worth $3,000,000—and get in a little real fishing at the same time—in "The Midas Touch Matter,” which aired from July 2nd through 6th, 1956.
Don’t go anywhere yet! The crew over at East Coast Underwriters is worried, too! They’ve written a $2,000,000 policy against the life of a man who doesn’t seem all that interested in living. You remember Dick Powel, right? He starred in our very first PPRT presentation as Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Well, here he is in his only outing as “the man with the action-packed expense account,” in the series’ pilot episode from December 12th, 1948, “The Milford Brooks III Matter,” which is linked below.
Tired yet? Too bad for you, because the good folks at North East Indemnity are having a fit. A cracksman in the State Pen knows where the loot from a ten year old burglary is stashed, but may die before he gets a chance to spill the beans. Click below to hear Mandel Kramer as our hero dive headfirst into “The Tip-Off Matter,” the very last episode of this remarkable series, which aired on September 30th, 1962.
But don’t worry. The Priestly Pugilist© Radio Theater will be back with more action, adventure and romance—and maybe a blog entry or two—when your PP returns from vacation.
3:42 PM 1/3/2010 — “Get this and get it straight! Crime is a sucker’s road, and those who travel it wind up in the gutter, the prison or the grave.” And if what your looking for is a hard-boiled detective, there ain’t none boiled harder than Raymond Chandler’s iconic creation, Philip Marlowe, played to explosive effect by the incomparable Gerald Mohr. No jokes, no songs, no ditzy secretaries off which to bounce clever one-liners, no buddies to bail him out of a tight spot, the no-nonsense Marlowe works alone. He hits the ground running—and anyone who happens to be in his way—fists flying, guns blazing; impervious to pain, bullets, even the wiles of women. Barking and snarling his lines from the outset, Mohr’s take-no-prisoners portrayal of America’s first “private eye” is why radio was invented; and has you wondering by the end of the story if you might be the crook.
That being said, what does the acerbic creator of the “Peter Pageant” comic strip want with the two-fisted, hard-drinking detective? Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90—if you dare—to hear Philip Marlowe in pursuit of “The Fatted Calf,” which aired on September 24th, 1949.
1:11 PM 12/27/2009 — You’re a Detective Sergeant. You’re assigned to burglary detail. The Baby Jesus has been stolen from a poor parish’s Nativity scene. The statue itself is of no intrinsic value; but, as the priest explains, for his people it’s the only Jesus they’ve ever known. Your job: Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90 to track down “The Big Little Jesus,” which aried on December 21st, 1954.
Dragnet was a sensation on radio long before it became a staple of American television, and can arguably be called America’s first “reality show.” Having debuted in 1949, it continued strong up through 1957, coexisting with its television counterpart for its last season. It was Jack Web’s deadpan portrayal of Sgt. Joe Friday that made the show click—very different from his previous role as Pat Novak (in a show to be featured here later). Based on true stories from police files, Dragnet on radio won every award in the book, such as they were in those days. During the first season, each show was dedicated to a police officer who had given his life in the line of duty.
3:26 PM 12/19/2009 — Welcome to the PPRT’s first Christmas Special, featuring a full hour and a half of holiday (and Holy Day) listening enjoyment!
Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater on the Air is best remembered today for its October, 1938, dramatization of H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” which got the struggling show noticed. By the end of that year, Welles had secured sponsorship from the Campbell Soup Company of Camden, New Jersey, renaming the program The Campbell Playhouse. Assuming that it’s absolutely necessary for the PPRT to present someone’s version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, one could do worse than this Welles production, which aried on December 23rd, 1938, and which you can listen to by clicking on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90.
However, as a special Christmas gift to our listeners, and because of our affinity for detective shows,—and in contrast to Welles’ pessimistic pomposity—your PPRT also presents Dick Powel’s tongue-in-cheek version, presented by the cast of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, which aried on December 24th, 1949, and which is linked below.
12:23 PM 12/14/2009 — Although Sam Spade is perhaps the most famous of all hard-boiled detectives, creator Dashiell Hammett only featured the character in three short stories and a single novel, The Maltese Falcon. It was the film version of the novel, starring Humphrey Bogart, that made his acerbic private-eye a household name, and inspired CBS to approach Hammett with an offer to bring the detective to life on radio. Spade burst onto the airwaves in 1946, portrayed to cynical perfection by Howard Duff, with Lurene Tuttle costarring as his ditzyer-than-life secretary, Effie Perrine. Hammett supervised the scripts himself, retooling the character for a more family-friendly effect, and creating a plot device by which each week’s adventure would be a flashback, as he dictates his report to the faithful Effie.
This week, when Sam is hired to transport an historical artifact to a prospective buyer, it seems like the easiest hundred bucks he’s ever made; but, as usual, nothing is as it seems as a train ride becomes a sea voyage; and, of course, there has to be a damsel in distress...or two...or three...in “The Vaphio Cup Caper,” which aired on August 22nd, 1948. And if you’re bald—like your PP—you’ll get a kick out of the jingle for Wild Root Cream Oil.
12:21 PM 12/7/2009 — Ellery Queen was a successful mystery writer before his voice was ever heard on radio; and his monthly anthology of short stories, The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, showcasing the work of young new authors, is sitll published today. He had already written episodes of Escape and Suspense when ABC offered him a show of his own in 1943. His program could have become just another crime melodrama; but Queen, always looking to do something unique, came up with a new twist: after all the evidence had been presented, he would halt the program and give the listening audience a chance to solve the crime. Usually, a famous celebrity was on hand to try as well. The formula was a hit, making The Adventures of Ellery Queen one of the most popular shows on radio.
This week, an eccentric millionaire suspects that one of the three international buyers he’s invited to his home, to bid on the famed “Gallows Diamond,” is a fraud. So, why is he throwing stumbling blocks in the path of the private detective he’s hired to find out? Click on the Philco “Baby Grand” Model 90 to hear Ellery Queen invite you to match wits with him, along with his father, Dect. Insp. Queen of the NYPD, and his insanely jealous secretary, Nikki Porter, in solving “The Case of the One Diamond,” which aired on May 6th, 1948.
2:15 PM 11/30/2009 — When your new client is as nutty as a fruitcake, do you believe him when he says he's found a corpse? This week, turn on my Philco "Baby Grand" Model 90 to hear Dick Powel as Richard Diamond, Private Dectective, with Ed Begley, Sr., as Lt. Levinson, in "The Case of Jerome J. Jerome," which aired on September 17th, 1949.
Written by Blake Edwards (later, writer and director of the "Pink Panther" movies), this series is known for it's campy approach to mystery drama. Diamond is a former cop turned private eye ("a hundred dollars a day plus expenses"), who teams up with his old pal, the easily upsettable Lt. Levinson from Homicide ("where's my bicarbonate?"), and erstwhile bumbler, Sgt. Otis.
Powel was a song and dance man whose contract with NBC allowed him to include a song at the end of every mystery, usually sung to Diamond's girlfriend, Helen Asher.