"I am the Whistler. And I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak!
The Whistler was a phenomenal radio mystery anthology series that aired on CBS from May 16, 1942-September 22, 1955. It was a west coast program - and announcer Marvin Miller opened most broadcasts by noting the Whistler was the highest-rated west coast program in radio history. From December 1943 to October 1954, the series was sponsored by Signal Oil, a west coast-based independent chain of gas stations. Signal's sponsorship definitely did a lot to maintain the series' quality.
The Whistler promised a "startling surprise" in each episode. These were not exactly the same sort of twist endings that other programs used. For example, I looked at the show the Diary of Fate in which the criminal was always undone by a mistake they'd made. Once you know the protagonist is always a criminal who always fails, the Diary of Fate becomes very ho-hum. However, although the Whistler was pretty good at punishing guilty people, they were also compassionate towards the innocent; when the protagonist of the Whistler is an innocent person, they're rewarded by the drama.
The narrator - the Whistler himself - was usually played by Bill Forman (the whistling was performed by Dorothy Roberts). The series was created by J. Donald Wilson, who left the show at the end of 1943 (Wilson also worked on mystery shows like Charlie Chan and Nero Wolfe). Wilson was replaced by George W. Allen, who produced and directed the series from then on and is probably most responsible for the program's format. The music was by Wilbur Hatch and the writing staff included John Michael Hayes, Harold Swanton and Joel Malone.
Although the Whistler had Signal Oil sponsoring them, it didn't provide Hollywood star money such as Suspense enjoyed. Instead, the series featured CBS' best performers, including Joseph Kearns, Jack Webb, Elliott Lewis, William Conrad, Gerald Mohr, Jeff Chandler, Cathy Lewis, Lurene Tuttle, Betty Lou Gerson, Paul Frees, Hans Conreid, Howard Duff, Willard Waterman, Virginia Gregg, Lawrence Dobkin, John Dehner, Bill Johnstone and Ben Wright.
Particularly during the early days when J. Donald Wilson ran the program, the Whistler's surprise endings were a bit cumbersome. The twists would be narrated by the Whistler himself instead of being dramatized and they involved considerable reversals and new information. For example, here's how the Whistler delivers the twist ending of the very first episode:
What did he say? 'Things like this just sometimes happen?' Just happen? Well, sometimes they do and can't be explained - but not this time. Oh, no, not this time. This can be explained. Remember John Hendricks' cellmate, Bill? Bill, #1014? He can explain. He knows all about it, because he planned it. Bill wanted the money; he learned all the dope from Hendricks; he sent his pals, the phony spooks made up like the lady and her son to grab the money when Hendricks recovered it. Too bad they dropped it in their hurry to get away. Bill didn't want to hurt John, he wanted to scare him out of it. Remember, Bill #1014 had changed? He said he'd never do things the way he had done them before. And he didn't. Bill meant what he said. Good night.
The George W. Allen years of the program avoided the clunky exposition and was better for it.
The Whistler seldom adapted works from other sources, unlike programs such as Suspense. In fact, aside from using a couple of Suspense scripts ("The Doctor Prescribed Death" and "In Fear and Trembling") the only adaptation I'm aware of is a Christmas program, "Three Wise Guys" adapted from Damon Runyon's story. There's also an episode titled "His Own Reward" that is inspired by the real-life events surrounding Benedict Arnold but otherwise, episodes of the Whistler all tend to sound alike - the same music, narrator, performers and product announcer. The most memorable part of each episode is usually the twist ending.
That's not to say that the Whistler didn't have a life outside the show; it became a film series from 1944-1948 generating 8 motion pictures, plus it became a television series that aired from 1954-1956. And episodes of the Whistler were adapted to Suspense, including "the Search for Maxine" (which became the Suspense episode "Four Hours to Kill"), "Death Carried a Lunch Kit" (became "Lunch Kit"). During the Signal Oil days, the sponsor ran a fun series of limerick contests from July 1949 to April 1950 and featured the best listener-submitted limericks on air. Despite its status as a west coast series, the Whistler became the subject of an episode of the Jack Benny Program on October 20, 1946 in which Jack satirized the series as "the Fiddler." The Whistler reacted to this on their own program the following evening.
There's too much to say about the Whistler to fit into a single blog post. In fact, I wrote a bit about the Whistler in an earlier post. There's also a great Whistler fan site, the Whistler Files, which has helped me fill in a few of the gaps in my listening schedule. But tomorrow I'm going to post again about the Whistler, this time looking at my favourite episodes of the series!
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