rand's esoteric otr

Crime Photographer - Pgm 4

"Casey, Crime Photographer" was a radio series that ran throughout the forties and into the early 1950s on CBS with a variety of titles and sponsors.  Based on a character appearing in "Black Mask" magazine, the show was heard as "Flashgun Casey", "Casey, Press Photographer" and "Crime Photographer".  The surviving run of the series is spotty and it's not as well remembered as some other genre shows of otr, but they can be fun little mysteries as Casey and his girl reporter sidekick snub their nose at the police and solve mysteries.

"The Upholsterer", program 4 in the series as heard on the Armed Forces Radio network, was originally broadcast November 17, 1949 on CBS as "Casey, Crime Photographer".  In this episode, we get the standard "murder in a locked room" mystery that stumps the cops, but is a breeze for Casey and his eagle eyes and pushy personality to sort out. The show was transferred from original AFRS vinyl transcription, matrix numbers D-63384 and D-63385. Listener Joseph Webb loaned me the disc to dub for the blog and provided a bit of trivia on the show.  There were two broadcasts of "The Upholsterer" in the series.  Both shows are only circulating in their AFRS versions and you can tell them apart by the closing announcement.  The episode broadcast November 17, 1949 ends with "This is the United States Armed Forces Radio Service" right after the last line of dialog.  On the repeat broadcast of November 16, 1950, the ending AFRS announcement includes the words "starring Staats Cotsworth as Casey, came to you through the facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service."