Radio Recap: The Adventures of the Thin Man

I was a bit surprised to discover the Adventures of the Thin Man had a very long run on the radio. I mean, it's one of the most famous properties created by Dashiell Hammett, what with the six movies William Powell and Myrna Loy made from 1934-1947 and a 1957-1959 TV series. Since the set-up of the series involves a witty, urbane couple who indulge in romantic and sarcastic dialogue while solving crimes, it's a perfect scenario for a weekly radio series.

And the series did have a very long run; first it was heard on NBC for Woodbury Soap from July 2, 1941-December 23, 1942; then it motved to CBS for General Foods from January 8, 1943-December 26, 1947, with a brief return to NBC for June 16-September 8, 1944. After that it returned to NBC with Pabst Beer from June 22-September 22, 1948; then to Mutual from October 28, 1948-January 20, 1949 and finally to ABC and sponsor Heinz June 23-September 1, 1950. The series toured all of the networks!

Over that herky-jerky decade Les Damon, Les Tremayne, David Gothard and Joseph Curtin took turns as Nick Charles; Claudia Morgan was usually Nora Charles. Through it all, the series' producer-director was none other than Himan Brown, better-known for Inner Sanctum Mysteries and CBS Radio Mystery Theater among many, many others (such as the Private Files of Rex Saunders).

Yet for all that, there's shockingly little of the Adventures of the Thin Man that exists in circulating collections today and what there is hasn't been well-researched or organized, just kind of thrown out there. Many of the surviving episodes are from the Armed Forces Radio Theater's series Mystery Playhouse with Peter Lorre as host. I've listened to what there is and it sounds pretty good, all the comedy, romance and dead bodies you'd expect from their film counterparts. It's too bad most of it appears to be lost for all time.

The largest collection I've found online of the Adventures of the Thin Man is this YouTube playlist a fan put together; it has 10 full episodes, 3 fragments and 2 Lux Radio Theater film adaptations. It's a surprisingly small selection of episodes from a long-running and popular property!