The Crime Club Radio Program

Background

Crime club literary selections were all the rage during the first half of the 20th century. Doubleday was the first to form a literary Crime Club in 1928. Doubleday's distinctive 'Crime man' (left sidebar) was strategically imprinted on their Doubleday Crime Club selections. The Collins Publishing House in England had their Collins Crime Club launched in 1930, issuing Agatha Christie's first novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, as one of their first selections. The Collins Crime Club imprint (left sidebar) announced its Crime Club selections as "The sign of a good detective novel."

Eno Fruit Salts, and the Columbia Basic Network joined forces in 1931 to air the Eno Crime Club. The program ran for two years over the Columbia Basic Network and for three years over NBC's Blue Network. During April 1933, the program was renamed Eno Crime Clues. The program ultimately left the air at the end of June 1936. The Eno Crime Club franchise was by way of a quasi Crime Club for Radio. No book tie-ins were ever associated with Eno Fruit Salts' sponsorship of the program. The program was, however, during its era viewed as a natural extension of the book club phenomena. Crime or mystery book clubs joined other monthly or quarterly selected book clubs for all manner of literary interests. Science fiction book clubs had been popularized as early as the 1920s, as well as romance fiction book clubs, supernatural thriller book clubs, and of course, childrens' book clubs.

Given their popularity, natural tie-ins to Doubleday Crime Club imprint selections were inevitable. The first medium to capitalize on the tie-in was Film. During the late 1930s, Universal Pictures struck a deal with Doubleday Crime Club to employ their imprint for a series of mystery films. Universal ultimately produced eleven such features:

• The Westland Case (1937)
• The Black Doll (1938)
• The Lady in The Morgue (1938)
• Danger In The Air (1938)
• The Last Express (1938)
• The Gambling Ship (1938)
• The Last Warning (1938)
• The Mystery of The White Room (1939)
• Inside Information (1939)
• House of Fear (1939)
• The Witness Vanishes (1939)

Crime club book selections and crime club Radio installments came together in the Mutual Broadcasting System's program, Crime Club, which first aired on Monday, December 2, 1946, in the slot previously occupied by Bulldog Drummond. Contrary to persistent 'otr myths', there was never any relationship whatsoever between either Eno Crime Club or Eno Crime Clues and Mutual's 1946 run of Crime Club. The Mutual Broadcasting System produced its own Crime Club series beginning in December 1946, a consequence of which the two 'Crime Club' programs are often conflated with each other or rolled into one long 'Crime Club' log. The two 'Crime Club' series' differed in any number of respects:

• The various Eno Crime Club programs aired over CBS and NBC. 1946's Crime Club aired over MBS.
• Many of Eno's various crime programs aired in multi-segment installments for the first year or so. Mutual's Crime Club aired once a week as a complete, stand-alone production.
• Eno's 1933 crime programs over NBC-Blue were accompanied by the artifice of an Inspector Spencer Dean and his sidekick, Dan 'Danny' Cassidy, shepherding the various segments of each two-part story from beginning to denouement. A resultant ''Manhunter Mysteries'' theme, employing Inspector Spencer Dean and Dan Cassidy exclusively, were reportedly later spun off as a West Coast production, ''Manhunter Mysteries with Stewart Sterling", airing in the early 1940s. Stewart Sterling and Arthur Miller were credited with the adaptations for most of the Eno Crime Club adaptations during the mid-1930s.
• Most self-evident of all, Eno's various crime club renditions were all sponsored--by Eno Fruit Salts. Mutual's Crime Club aired sustained for its entire run.
• While some of the Eno program serializations were inspired by or adapted from Doubleday Crime Club or Collins Crime Club selections, they were also adapted from other prominent magazine and pulp fiction serial installments of the era.
• When the Eno Crime Club moved to NBC-Blue, the production dispsensed with adaptations of pulp, magazine or book club selection material altogether. Prentiss Winchell, writing under the name, Stewart Sterling, began penning or adapting the remaining episodes of the Eno-sponsored series'.
• While initially airing over NBC-Blue as Eno Crime Club, it wasn't until its third month under the NBC banner that it changed its name to Eno Crime Clues, though most newspapers continued listing it as Crime Club for the remainder of its runs. Mutual's Crime Club retained the same name and format for the entirety of its run.
• When applicable, Mutual's Crime Club attributed every Doubleday Crime Club selection to its author, while deliberately avoiding any mention of the Doubleday Crime Club itself. The various Eno Crime Club derivations never credited any of the works they adapted on-air.

Mutual Broadcasting System's Crime Club of the air.

Crime Club's premiere presentation was adapted from a Doubleday Crime Club selection from 1935 titled, Death Blew Out the Match, by Kathleen Moore Knight, from her Elisha Macomber series. The second selection of the series was For The Hangman, by John Stephen Strange, first published as a 1934 Doubleday Crime Club selection. Mr. Smith's Hat, Crime Club's 9th episode was a Doubleday Crime Club selection from 1936, by Helen Kiernan Reilly, part of her Inspector McKee series. If you see a pattern developing here, it might appear that there was a tie-in between the Doubleday Crime Club and Mutual's Crime Club radio program. While there was never an explicit tie-in to the Doubleday Crime Club, it becomes clear that the selections employed throughout the series were predominately from the Doubleday Crime Club imprint canon.

Crime Club's selections weren't all of 1930s vintage. Episode No. 10, Murder Goes Astray, was a 1943 selection of the Doubleday Crime Club, by Mary Violet Heberden. Nor were all of the Crime Club episodes from the Doubleday Crime Club canon. Several of the Crime Club scripts were original stories penned by Stedman Coles, the adapter and scriptwriter for the series. Of the entire Crime Club canon of Radio programs, less than half of the 'Crime Club selections' were from a Print source. The remainder were overwhelmingly penned by Stedman Coles. The actual Doubleday Crime Club selections known from their circulating Crime Club exemplar titles are as follows:

• Death Blew Out the Match by Kathleen Moore Knight (1935)
• For the Hangman by John Stephen Strange (1934)
• Under A Cloud by Hilda Van Siller (1944)
• Mr. Smith's Hat by Helen Kiernan Reilly (1936)
• Murder Goes Astray by Mary Violet Heberden (1942)
• Flowers For the Judge by Margery Allingham (1934)
• Murder Solves A Problem by Marion Bramhall (1944)
• Call Me Pandora by Abbie Harris (1946)
• The Absent-Minded Professor by Aaron Marc Stein (1943)
• Fear Came First by Vera Kelsey (1945)
• Dead Man Control by Helen Kiernan Reilly (1937)
• The Grey Mist Murders by Constance and Gwenyth Little (1939)
• Death Cuts A Silhouette by D. B. Olsen (1939)
• Epitaph For Lydia by Virginia Rath (1937)
• The Corpse Wore A Wig by George Bagby (1940)
• Murder On Margin by Robert George Dean (1936)
• Hearses Don't Hurry by Stephen Ransome (1941)
• Death At 7:10 by Harry F. S. Moore (1943)
• A Frame For Murder by Kirke Mechem (1936)

There were in all likelihood at least five more actual Doubleday Crime Club imprint selections among the Crime Club canon, which would represent just less than half of the entire canon. The remainder of the stories used in Crime Club were penned by Stedman Coles.

It's not as if Mutual was coyly implying a connection with the Doubleday Crime Club. Indeed, the Doubleday Crime Club--as much as the Collins Crime Club, for that matter--were clearly benefitting from Mutual's weekly reminders to go to their nearest book store for the latest 'Crime Club' selections. In that respect it was probably a symbiotic relationship, and may be the reason that the Doubleday Crime Club was never mentioned anytime during the run of Crime Club.

Crime Club format and production history

Crime Club's program format and signature elements were consistent throughout the run, with the exception of programs originated by Stedman Coles. Actual Doubleday Crime Club selections were appropriately credited by author only. As indicated above, no mention was ever made regarding the publisher of the selections.

Raymond Edward Johnson was the first 'Librarian' for the series, followed by Barry Thomson for the remainder of the run. Since we have no access to Episodes 2 through 8 at present, we can't say precisely when Raymond Edward Johnson passed the Librarian duties to Barry Thomson. All we can say with certainty is that by Episode No. 9, Barry Thomson is heard as the Librarian.

For the premiere episode, Raymond Edward Johnson as 'The Librarian' opened the program in a manner very reminiscent of Inner Sanctum. At the close of the presentation for the evening, the Librarian for the Crime Club announced the credits to a phone ringing in the background. Upon finally answering the phone, the Librarian would announce the next presentation and encourage the 'caller' to listen in the following week. The announcer would then encourage the listening audience to hustle down to their favorite bookshop or library and obtain the latest 'crime club' selection.

By Episode No. 9, with Barry Thomson as the Librarian, the ringing phone element was presented at the beginning of each broadcast as well, serving as a device to frame both the prologue and epilogue of each presentation. Both Raymond Edward Johnson and Barry Thomson continued to appear in the cast of many of the subsequent programs.

As mentioned above, Stedman Coles adapted the majority of the scripts, with Wyllis Cooper and James Erthine filling in as needed. A WOR production, the series' various casts were comprised of some of the East Coast's finest Radio talent, most prominent among them, William Podmore, Irene Hubbard, Alice Frost, Elspeth Eric, Julie Stevens, Mason Adams, Bryna Raeburn, Jack McBride, Dan Ocko, Joe DeSantis, Lawson Zerbe, Al Hodge, Ted Osborne, Joseph Julian, Larry Haines, Chet Stratton, Walter Kinsella, Joan Alexander, Joan Tompkins, King Calder, Stefan Schnabel, and Myron McCormick.

Roger Bower produced and directed the vast majority of the programs with MBS stalwart, Jock MacGregor, filling in whenever needed. Though the series failed to attract a sponsor during its post-World War II run, it remains one of the more compelling MBS productions of its era. It was a natural lead-in for either Johnny Madero, Pier 23 or Quiet Please, that followed it in most MBS affiliate markets. MBS also had the good sense to leave it in the same timeslot for the vast majority of its run--Wednesday evenings, just before or after dinner-time in most households.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the RadioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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