Stand by for Crime was a syndicated mystery program that aired in 1953. Glenn Langan starred as Chuck Morgan, a news anchor at KOP Los Angeles. Adele Jurgens (Glen's real-life wife) portrayed Carol Curtis, Chuck's blonde secretary. Other performers weren't credited, such as Chuck's news editor "Pappy." It sure sounds to me like June Foray portrays children heard on this series. Episodes of Stand by for Crime have clipped endings (often the files end at the exact moment of the last line of dialogue), indicating that if there were credits, they've been removed.
Although Chuck Morgan was supposed to be a Los Angeles news anchor, he spent a lot of time getting involved in breaking up criminal activities of all sorts, ranging far wide of L.A. Not only the police but even the FBI often kick off an episode by asking for his help. Heck, in one episode Chuck visits the South American nation of "Payola" (groan) just after a revolution has installed a dictatorship. In another episode, Pappy asks Chuck to go undercover and find out who the local communist ringleaders are; that certainly sounds like the premise of I Was a Communist for the FBI, but Chuck somehow manages to discredit himself as a communist sympathizer, find himself sought out by local communists then expose them to the authorities in what seems to be about a week's time. Credibility was not Stand by for Crime's strong suit.
The attempts at quippy dialogue between Chuck and Carol didn't always come off well. Although Carol was not portrayed as a ditzy blonde, Chuck would deride her intelligence as though she were. For example, there's this exchange:
Chuck: "Did you say something, glamourpuss?"
Carol: "No."
Chuck: "Well, why not? You're usually talking."
Carol: "I was just thinking."
Chuck: "With what? I-I mean, what about?"
Old-Time Radio misogyny!
Chuck never fails to remind you once per episode that Carol is his blonde secretary, but Carol wasn't My Friend Irma- just a seemingly average secretary who puts up with a lot of jokes at her expense.
I think Chuck is by far the series' greatest drawback; it's not just the constant put-downs delivered at Carol, he also has a way of sounding bored and laconic when people bring him their problems. A good example of that is the episode where a man being threatened by the Mafia asks Chuck for help. After the man explains his problem and why he's afraid of speaking to the police, Chuck sounds rather bored and dismissive of the man (all of this is immediately preceding another insulting remark directed at Carol). Glenn Langan just couldn't make Chuck sound like an appealing protagonist, not with dialogue and delivery like that; Dick Powell or Howard Duff could make a series lead with Chuck's qualities work just through wry and witty delivery; absent such talent, you're left with a somewhat loathsome leading man.
Fortunately, at times the writers seemed to get that; one episode, "the Clueless Crime," has Chuck behave at his most odious towards Carol during the drama, but he closes the episode with a very earnest apology, entirely devoid of his usual condescending smart-aleck tone; it's a welcome anomaly.
The Old Time Radio Researchers have all 26 episodes of Stand by for Crime at the Internet Archive.
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