Radio Recap: Crime Club

"Hello, I hope I haven't kept you waiting. Yes, this is the Crime Club. I'm the Librarian. '__________'? Yes, we have that Crime Club story for you. Come right over." ...

"Ah, you're here. Good. Take the easy chair by the window. Comfortable? The book is on this shelf. Here it is..."

Airing on Mutual from December 2, 1946 to October 15, 1947, Crime Club was a mystery anthology program sponsored by the line of Crime Club mystery novels, which "the Librarian" host would introduce each week. Initially Raymond Edward Johnson portrayed "the Librarian"; although he remained a cast participant throughout the series, he was later replaced by Barry Thomson as the Librarian. During Johnson's tenure as the Librarian, it's hard not to think of him as "Raymond" of Inner Sanctum Mysteries, especially since both hosts promoted a line of mystery novels! The series was produced and directed by Roger Bower and Jock MacGregor; MacGregor also ran Mutual shows like Nick Carter, the Mysterious Traveler, the Sealed Book and the Strange Doctor Weird.

Crime Club was descended from Eno Crime Club, which was based on the same line of books. Unlike the earlier series, Crime Club adapted actual texts from the Crime Club library, but none of the works by more famous authors (such as Rex Stout and Sax Rohmer). Crime Club is almost exactly what the radio series Mystery House pretended to be - a showcase for books from the Crime Club library of titles.

As a half-hour anthology program, episodes of Crime Club had to run through their plots pretty quickly. Some of them were stories of a police detective investigating a murder scene in a very Agatha Christie-esque type of plot. Others would involve amateur sleuths - often a man with a female sidekick - who would get caught up in a mystery. Considering these were entire novels being adapted to radio, I think the adaptors must have been doing a pretty good job because the results are very easy to listen to and the mysteries are cogent, not murky like some radio mystery shows. I would dub Crime Club one of the better mystery anthology shows.

You can hear the surviving episodes of Crime Club in the Old Time Radio Researchers Group's collection at the Internet Archive.