Radio Recap: A Life in Your Hands

"You never know when you may be called upon to testify to an act of violence to which you have become involved quite innocently. Even now, there may be a crime in the making."

One of the earliest old-time radio shows I recall hearing was an episode of the series a Life in Your Hands but I never knew much about it until I decided to revisit it as a Radio Recap. It's basically a courtroom drama program; it was created by Erle Stanley Gardner, who was best-known as the creator of Perry Mason. It was around the same time that he created the series the Adventures of Christopher London. Apparently Gardner was keen on creating radio programs although it doesn't appear that he actually wrote for them himself.

A Life in Your Hands spent it's entire existence as summer replacement program, on two different networks no less! First it ran on the summer of 1949 as a replacement for People Are Funny on NBC; then it reappeared in 1951 as a replacement for the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on ABC; finally it came back to NBC for the summer of 1952 to replace Father Knows Best.

A Life in Your Hands featured as its lead character lawyer Jonathan Kegg (portrayed at various times by Ned LeFevre, Carleton KaDell and Lee Bowman). Kegg was an amicus curiae, which, as every episode explained, was a "friend of the court" who worked for neither the defense nor prosecution. Kegg was always involved in criminal cases on the program and would explain that he could afford to work for free as an amicus curiae because of his wealth. There is something reminiscent of Horatio Alger in Kegg's character.

Now, you might be wondering about the "Your" in the series title. Since we have a lead character, you might think it refers to Kegg. Actually, it refers to the listening audience. The narration in a Life in Your Hands would frequently address the listener and ask them if they could recall the details they heard earlier in the drama. The use of Kegg as protagonist seems to me at odds with the narration, which continually tells the listener to put themselves in the shoes of the cases' witnesses or jurors - but really, it doesn't come down to them so much as it does Kegg.

As neither defense or prosecution, Kegg would basically swing at all sides. When a witness made a guarded response he'd impuign their character, even badger them (apparently an amicus curiae isn't bound by the behaviours expected of regular counsel?). But when witnesses are reluctant to speak he could be quite friendly.

We only have a few episodes of a Life in Your Hands and several of them (including the episode I first heard) lack their musical bridges. Well, at least that means I can't complain about the stock NBC filler music! The lack of music suggests the recordings aren't the broadcast versions of those episodes.

Here's a YouTube playlist of surviving episodes of a Life in Your Hands as compiled by a fan.