On this episode of the Whistler, three gangsters go looking for some money they hid in a barn, only to find a woman there who's about to have a child. The name of the place? Bethlehem... Pennsylvania.
"Three Wise Guys" is based on a story by Damon Runyon and originally aired December 24, 1950. The Whistler normally didn't adapt stories from other mediums! John Brown, who portrayed Broadway on the Damon Runyon Theatre, stars in this episode.
Tomorrow: Words at War!
"Over the minds of mortal men come many shadows; shadows of greed and hate; jealousy and fear. Shadows which fog the minds of men and women which urge them on into their venture in the dark..."
Dark Venture was a mystery anthology program heard over ABC from May 30, 1945 until February 10, 1947. For part of its run it was sponsored by Wildroot Cream Oil. It was produced in ABC's San Francisco studio like other shows of the time such as Pat Novak, for Hire. The series was narrated by John Lake, directed by Leonard Reeg and produced by J. Donald Wilson.
If that last name sounds familiar, it should - J. Donald Wilson was the original producer of the Whistler for CBS and took up Dark Venture after leaving that series. Wilson also produced the 1930s Adventures of Charlie Chan and the New Adventures of Nero Wolfe.
J. Donald Wilson must have had some interest in the idea of getting into the psychology behind crimes, just as the Whistler got inside the heads of each episode's would-be criminal. Dark Venture promoted itself as being interested in secenarios that "solve the outcome by applying psychology." Like the Whistler, there were often surprise endings but the series played pretty fair with the audience, usually relying on a protagonist who lacked a vital piece of information which would lead to his defeat (or, if wrongly accused, vindication).
The series drew from a lot of great California radio talent, with episodes led by the likes of Elliot Lewis, William Conrad, Marvin Miller (who was also the announcer on the Whistler), Howard McNear, Bill Johnstone and Lurene Tuttle. Many episodes were written by Larry Marcus, who also wrote for the Whistler, Suspense and Night Beat.
I rather like Dark Venture - it is, certainly, reminiscent of the Whistler, but that's not a detraction. The focus on characters' psychological torment gives the series a feel that's totally unlike the bulk of mystery/crime anthology shows.
My pick for the best of Dark Venture is "Eclipse," in which Elliot Lewis portrayed an amnesiac man who discovers a small fortune hidden in his clothes and a white-suited man hot on his trail! "The Miser" could have been produced on the Whistler, concerning itself with a clerk who schemes to pocket money from the register following a robbery and the escalating trouble that brings him. "Hideout" is a pretty rote criminal-on-the-run story elevated by William Conrad's terrific performance as the lead character. Easily the least-conventional story is "Ten Dollar Bill," which follows a $10 bill that falls into various hands through both crime and circumstance.
We only have 15 surviving episodes of Dark Venture in circulation, several of them through the Armed Forces' Mystery Playhouse program. Here's a YouTube playlist created by a fan with those 15 episodes.
My pick for the best episode of the Whistler is "Letter from Cynthia" (December 25, 1949). This to me is an excellent instance which showcases what makes the Whistler different from other shows that boast of having a "surprise ending." The story ends with the protagonist choosing against committing a crime - which is itself unusual for a mystery-crime series - but then he receives a surprise he didn't anticipate.
But there are many other episodes from the 13-year run which are worth celebrating. Here's the rest of my picks for the best of the Whistler (all links lead to YouTube videos from the Old-Time Radio Researchers' collection):
We don't seem to have a complete archive of the Whistler all in one place. You can find most existing episodes in the Old Time Radio Researchers Group's Internet Archive collection. However, there are a few more out there, such as this collection of USAFE recordings.
Good night and good whistling.
"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!
"And now stay tuned for the mystery program that is unique among all mystery programs - because even when you know who is guilty, you always receive a startling surprise in the Signal Oil program: The Whistler!"
As noted in the intro above, the Whistler was a radio mystery program which offered surprise endings. Many programs promised surprise endings but in the Whistler, they were the entire reason to keep listening. You always knew there would be a surprise ending and you looked forward to recognizing the clues and predicting what the surprise might be. Since the point of view character was often a criminal often the surprise would be an overlooked element which spoiled the criminal's scheme. The Whistler aired on CBS' west coast stations from May 1942 to September 1955.
For example, take "X Marks the Murderer" from August 20, 1945. A killer is stalking the streets, murdering what seem to be random targets (and somewhat reminiscent of either Jack the Ripper or the Lodger). A housewife who puzzles over the crimes (much like today's true crime-obsessed women) begins to notice patterns in the killer's actions which the police have seemingly overlooked. But will her sleuthing draw the killer even closer to her?
You can hear "X Marks the Murderer" on the Internet Archive!
Have you heard the strange stories of The Whistler?
I don't often blog about The Whistler. In fact, although it's been a favourite program of mine for as long as I've been a fan of old-time radio, I haven't sought each and every existing episode the way I did Suspense, Escape, Quiet, Please or The Shadow. Recently I've been listening to each of the episodes I hadn't heard before.
Unlike a lot of other radio mystery anthology programs, The Whistler wasn't sold on the basis of its talent. It did have a lot of talent behind it - the best dramatic players CBS Radio had - but it had no big name Hollywood stars like Suspense, nor did it trumpet the names of its authors like Murder by Experts. The selling point of The Whistler was simply, as they said: "Even when you know who's guilty, you always receive a startling surprise at the final curtain." And that was enough to sustain The Whistler for 13 years!
Unlike programs such as Suspense and Escape where certain production choices (or sponsors) help the listener to identify different "eras" of the show, after its first season The Whistler sounds very much the same year after year. The same sponsor (Signal Oil), usually the same Whistler (Bill Foreman) and frequently the same actors (William Conrad, Elliott Lewis, Betty Lou Gerson). Not only is it consistently solid and professional, but you can likewise expect that "startling surprise" near the end of each episode.
The first year of the program is a bit clumsy in how it handled the "startling surprise". Far too often the Whistler would narrate a twist as a post-script to the drama rather than the actors performing the twist. At times it feels similar to those scenes at the end of Alfred Hitchcock Presents where Hitchcock would (jokingly) claim that the killer didn't really get away with his crime. Sometimes the "startling surprise" was extremely complicated and resulted in a lengthy bit of exposition as the Whistler explained how several characters had different motivations than what we assumed. Listening to that first year, the "startling surprise" feels like a cheat - it doesn't fit organically with the drama as presented, instead somewhat extraneous to it.
Fortunately, the show figured itself out very quickly and from then on would dramatize the "startling surprise", frequently building up to a moment where the criminal has seemingly gotten away with his crime, but after a brief interruption from the Whistler the story continues and we see a sudden reversal of fortune for the protagonist, usually owing to some simple mistake which was telegraphed earlier in the drama.
Not every "startling surprise" is great, but it's always a pleasant program to listen to. In fact, the "startling surprise" isn't always that the criminal got caught - sometimes it's that the crime you thought was going to happen didn't, leaving the protagonist unblemished.
For instance, there's a fantastic holiday episode entitled "Letter from Cynthia" (broadcast December 25, 1949) in which a physician is reunited with the man who ruined his career. He realizes his old enemy is now within his power and he could kill him as an act of revenge, a perfect crime for which he could never be caught. The episode builds up to the moment where the physician has taken action; then the Whistler reveals the doctor chose to spare his old foe's life. That seems like a very modest reveal... but the drama isn't over. The story continues as "the startling surprise" occurs and boy, it's a good one! This is possibly my favourite episode of The Whistler!
And, what do you know, it's Christmas in two weeks! What better program could I have signed off with? Merry listening, friends!
The Whistler was a program which offered interesting thriller stories where there would be a sudden reversal in the closing moments. The most frequent format of an episode of The Whistler involves a person committing murder or a robbery and thinking they've gotten away with it, then discovering a huge oversight in the closing minute.
The Whistler may not seem like a program suited to the holidays, but the show I've chosen, "Letter from Cynthia" from December 25, 1949 manages a delicate balancing act. As always, there is a surprise reveal at the end. It involves a medical intern whose career was ruined when his best friend let him be framed for drunk driving. When his friend turns up at the hospital where he works, he realizes he has a chance for revenge.
You can hear "Letter from Cynthia" at archive.org here.
John Lund is the sympathetic leading man of "Lunch Kit," broadcast on June 9, 1949. Lund's character is the son of a radical anti-atomic energy extremist. To pacify his father, he must carry a bomb into the plant where he works - concealed within his lunch kit. All that remains is for him to trifle his way through an ordinary day of work, then the bomb will take care of itself. However, knowing what he's agreed to do and how soon the bomb will detonate, his nerves fall apart. You can download the episode from archive.org here.
"Lunch Kit" is one of the few episodes which originated on another radio series (a series other than Escape, I should add). As "Death Carries a Lunch Kit," it was first heard as an episode of the Whistler on October 23, 1944. I prefer the Suspense version but if you'd like to compare flavours, you can find it at archive.org here.
Tomorrow: "I saw the knife. He'd fallen on it! It stuck out of the middle of his chest!"
