The Johnny Madero, Pier 23 Radio Program

Background

Johnny Madero--or either Johnny 'Log' or Johnny 'Timber' [surname translated]--was the second in a series of inspired gumshoe characters from the collaboration of Jack Webb and Richard L. Breen. Webb and Breen had been roommates in San Francisco during the mid-1940s after both had returned home from World War II. Jack Webb had been a B-26 Marauder crewmember in the Army Air Forces and Breen had served his hitch in the Navy. Jack Webb had been born and raised in Depression-era Santa Monica, California; Breen was born and raised in Depression-era Chicago. Both were 20-somethings trying to make their break into Bay Area Radio--Webb as a performer and writer, Breen as a writer and director.

Their chronology in the Bay Area was as follows:

• 1946 (February) One Out of Seven (Webb as Narrator and performer; written by Jim Moser)
• 1946 (March) Great Caesar's Ghost [Audition] (Webb as Announcer)
• 1946 (March) The Jack Webb Show (Starring Jack Webb; written and directed by Dick Breen)
• 1946 (August) Pat Novak . . . for Hire for Gallenkamp Shoes (Jack Webb as Pat Novak)

Webb and Breen's various efforts in the Bay Area were admitedly all over the map, considering the array of Radio genres they attempted together. One Out of Seven had been a docudrama anthology, markedly political in nature. Great Caesar's Ghost was to be a situation comedy. The Jack Webb Show was a sketch/variety program along the lines of the later Steve Allen programs.

It was Pat Novak . . . for Hire that established the pair as a viable creative force in Radio. Pat Novak . . . for Hire was an entirely new and highly stylistic, satirical take on the radio noir wave of gumshoe dramas of the era. Leveraging the colorful, Chandleresque dialogue that had marked the film noir sensations of the era, Webb and Breen wove a satirical tapestry of such dialogue, backchat, and interplay between the series' characters, which carried on after their February 1947 departure from the initial 1946-1947 run. Needless to say, Pat Novak had created a sensation during its initial run. The buzz it created carried forward for over three years--and beyond.

Breen and Webb left the Bay Area for the greener palm tree pastures of Hollywood over creative differences between Breen and KGO/ABC management back in San Francisco. Webb plied his trade seeking acting and writing roles and Breen landed on his feet writing for Paramount Studios. Breen's first big hit was a writing credit for the screenplay of A Foreign Affair (1948). Webb bounced around the studios until landing a role in ABC Radio's Murder and Mr. Malone (1947), starring Frank Lovejoy.

Webb and Breen's initial chronology in Hollywood was as follows:

• 1947 (January) Murder and Mr. Malone for Guild Wine (Webb as ensemble performer)
• 1947 (April) Johnny Madero, Pier 23 (Jack Webb as Johnny Madero; Breen as writing consultant)
• 1948 (July) Jeff Regan, Investigator (Jack Webb as Jeff Regan)
• 1949 (February) Pat Novak . . . for Hire (Jack Webb as Jeff Regan; Richard Breen as writing consultant)
• 1949 Three for Adventure [Audition] (Jack Webb, Barton Yarborough, and Elliot Lewis)
• 1949 (June) Dragnet (Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday)
• 1951 (July) Pete Kelly's Blues (Jack Webb as Pete Kelly; Richard Breen as writer)

We provide their overlapping chronologies to frame the sequence of events and controversy that surrounded the Johnny Madero, Pier 23 production from the outset.

Johnny Madero, Pier 23 premieres in controversy

The buzz that Pat Novak . . . for Hire had created throughout the entertainment industry was reaching its peak during 1947 and 1948. During the Spring of 1947 Don Lee-Mutual's Ken Dolan and Walter Lurie had secured the rights to Webb and Breen's Johnny Madero, Pier 23 package for the Mutual Broadcasting System. Before the series even aired, a picture deal was hinted at--to be based on the first episode, concerning some sort of blackmail scheme. The announcement of a potential picture deal caught the attention of ABC, who still owned the rights to Pat Novak . . . for Hire, and indeed were still airing the series from San Francisco with Ben Morris in the lead.

To say that Johnny Madero, Pier 23 was to be similar to Pat Novak . . . for Hire put it mildly. The location setting was the same, the lead would be the same, the supporting characters would be transparent renditions of those from Pat Novak, and of course the dialogue and feel of the production would be almost identical to that of Pat Novak . . . for Hire:

• Pat Novak's setting was cited near Pier 19 on the San Francisco waterfront, while Johnny Madero's setting was clearly to be Pier 23 on the San Francisco waterfront.
• Pat Novak's erstwhile profession was renting out his boat, but he was clearly available for all manner of adventurous, money-making schemes. Johnny Madero owned a boats hop adjacent to Pier 23, and clearly made his money undertaking all manner of investigations or bodyguard activities.
• Pat Novak's 'conscience' in the series was Jocko Madigan, an ex-physician with a drinking problem. Johnny Madero's 'conscience' was a waterfront priest named Father Leahy with connections to both the waterfront underworld and the SFPD. Johnny Madero's original 'conscience/sidekick' was to be a character named Dipso, but the character was abandoned after the first episode as part of a format restructuring agreement with ABC.
• Pat Novak's legal nemesis was Inspector Helmann of the SFPD's Homicide Squad. Johnny Madero's legal nemesis was Inspector Warchek of the SFPD's Homicide Squad.

Clearly, ABC had a valid beef with MBS. They settled it by requiring MBS to change the opening and dispense with the 'Dipso' character--a clone of Jocko Madigan. The changes apparently met with reserved approval by ABC, their plagiarism suit was abandoned, and the series continued with the required changes. Gale Gordon was brought in as Johnny Madero's 'conscience--critic--advisor', Father Leahy, the waterfront priest with connections to both waterfront denizens and members of the SFPD. The remainder of the basic ensemble cast remained the same, including Webb as Johnny Madero and William Conrad as Inspector Warchek.

The series continued to create a buzz as a virtual clone of Pat Novak . . . for Hire, though Johnny Madero, Pier 23 ran for only twenty of its twenty-six ordered installments. Indeed it was probably the popularity of Johnny Madero, Pier 23 that persuaded ABC to coax Jack Webb back into the fold with an offer of a revival of Pat Novak . . . for Hire in 1949. In the interim, Jack Webb had married lovely jazz songstress and budding starlet, Julie London with the money he earned from Johnny Madero, Pier 23. CBS inaugurated a somewhat softer clone of both Pat Novak and Johnny Madero with their Jeff Regan, Investigator series in 1948 with Jack Webb in the lead, supported by Wilms Herbert as Jeff Regan's boss, Anthony J. Lyon.

Webb's release from Jeff Regan, Investigator after its first season allowed him to revive Pat Novak . . . for Hire for another twenty installments and, upon completing the last season of Pat Novak, Webb launched his history-making Dragnet production over Radio with Barton Yarborough as his sidekick.

Johnny Madero, Pier 23, was very much still a clone of Pat Novak . . . for Hire which, irrespective of the kerfuffle between MBS and ABC, allowed Webb's loyal fans to enjoy almost four years of Pat Novak-like characterizations. Webb's growing body of fans didn't much care whether their antihero was named Pat Novak or Johnny Madero--or even Jeff Regan. What they craved--and received--from Webb's characterizations was an entirely new and rivetting brand of Radio dialogue during the waning years of The Golden Age of Radio. Jack Webb, Richard Breen, William P. Rousseau, and Jim Moser had brought an entirely new brand of radio noir to popular Radio. Their early collaborations ultimately spun off a series of highly influential Radio programming of the era.

The two Johnny Madero, Pier 23 episodes that survive were broadcast at the mid-point of the run. The characters had grown into their roles, the writing was into a polished groove, the dialogue had acquired its own flavor and both script and music direction were crisp and complementary.

Of the two circulating episodes, Episode No. 9, anecdotally titled Find Pete Sutro, remains the most remarkable in several respects. Most notably, the episode has Film sensation, John Garfield, as the guest star in the role of 'Nat' Findlay, an apparent amnesia victim obsessed with the name 'Pete Sutro,' the only name he can remember. Joan Banks portrays Findlay's scheming wife. Findlay had offered Madero $50 a day and a $200 bonus to find Pete Sutro, while Findlay's wife gave Madero $500 to forget the whole investigation--Johnny Madero naturally took both checks. We won't spoil the twist for you, but it's a compelling and entertaining puzzler.

The second circulating recording, Episode No. 10, anecdotally titled, Fatal Auction, concerns a locked black case purchased at a waterfront auction house. An attractive brunette, Claire Underwood, hires Madero to bid on the case at the auction, eventually driving the price up to $1000. The case contains a saxaphone and a gross of reeds. Needless to say, the saxaphone and reeds disappear almost as soon as Madero gets them back to his apartment.

There's every reason to expect that a few more missing episodes of Johnny Madero, Pier 23 will eventually surface. Don Lee-Mutual had been transcribing each episode for airing on Thursdays from Mutual's flagship station, WOR, for the east coast. Personal recording equipment was, by 1947, readily available--and affordable--to America's middle class. Johnny Madero, Pier 23 was as popular for its short run as Pat Novak . . . for Hire and Jeff Regan, Investigator had been. When more exemplars surface, we'll have even more reason to marvel at the creative talents that produced them.

Following Johnny Madero, Pier 23, Jack Webb took the lead for CBS' Jeff Regan, Investigator with his new sidekick, Barton Yarborough, as Joe Canto in the series. Webb subsequently tackled another season of Pat Novak . . . for Hire in 1949. 1949 also found Webb, Yarborough and Elliott Lewis auditioning an I Love Adventure type of format titled, Three for Adventure, with Jack Webb as Duke Kalitta, Barton Yarborough as 'Jex' Waco, and Elliott Lewis as McCullough Jonathan 'Mac' Cornell. Spun as three adventurous fortune seekers in search of next big prize, the format was never picked up. Webb and Yarborough launched Webb's legendary Dragnet series in June of 1949 and the rest was both literally and figuratively, Radio history.

Throughout late 1947 and much of 1948, Billboard magazine continued to tease stories reporting two possible returns of Johnny Madero, Pier 23, but neither bid came to fruition. When it came time for Webb to launch a new favored pet project, Pete Kelly's Blues, it was the Spring of 1951. Dragnet had enjoyed two seasons of rave reviews of the concept and both Jack Webb in the role of Sgt. Joe Friday and Barton Yarborough in the role of Sgt. Ben Romero. Yarborough also became a regular in the summer run of Pete Kelly's Blues and upon completing Pete Kelly's Blues, the pair later launched the Television version of Dragnet together, portraying the same roles for Television. Tragically, Yarborough suffered a massive heart attack in his home the evening following completion of the second production episode of Television's Dragnet.

The loss of Barton Yarborough hit Webb particularly hard. The two--and their respective families--had enjoyed four years of successful collaboration together and had every expectation of riding the crest of their Dragnet success through years of Radio and Television episodes on top of the 133 episodes of the Radio version of Dragnet that they'd already completed.

On December 27, 1951, eight days after Yarborough's death, Jack Webb remembered his friend and partner in a Dragnet radio episode he dedicated to Barton Yarborough. The Big Sorrow has Joe Friday working Homicide when he gets the news that his partner, Ben Romero, has died at his home from a heart attack--a poignant memorial to one of Radio's giants and a fitting example of Jack Webb, the man.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

We invite you to compare our fully provenanced research with the '1,500 expert researchers' at the OTRR and their Johnny Madero [sic] log, which the OTRR claims to be correct according to their 'OTTER log' they represent as the "most authoritative and accurate vintage Radio database in the world".

We've provided a screen shot of their current log for comparison, HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE to protect our own further due diligence, content and intellectual property.

OTRisms:

Johnny Madero, Pier 23 was a fascinating series with only two currently circulating exemplars from this controversial Jack Webb vehicle.

• One might well ask how it can be that 'the most authoritative and accurate otr database in the world' could fail to correctly cite the name of this program on every page of their OTRRpedia. The name of the series is Johnny Madero, Pier 23, not Johnny Modero, Pier 23.
• One might also wonder how they got the name of one of the two famous Radio writers of the program, Lou Morheim wrong, versus the Lou Markheim that the OTRR cites. Or, for that matter the name of the announcer, Tony LoFrano.
• And finally, one might justifiably ask how they overlooked the seven titles of the series that they missed.

The answer is quite obvious. Here are the sources from which they simply copied their 'original research':

• The Thrilling Detective Johnny Modero [sic] article
• The Wikipedia Johnny Modero, Pier 23 [sic] article
• The radioGOLDINdex Johnny Madero, Pier 23 page

While they're to be commended for consulting the radioGOLDINdex, we're at a loss to understand why they'd copy anything from either the Wikipedia Johnny Modero, Pier 23 [sic] article or the Thrilling Detective Johnny Modero article, two of the most notoriously inaccurate vintage Radio article sites on the Internet. Beyond that, there are two--and only two--circulating exemplars to listen to. How hard is it to actually listen to two, 30-minute, highly entertaining episodes? Is actually listening to the only two circulating exemplars of Johnny Madero, Pier 23 too much to ask, to qualify as 'the most authoritative and accurate otr database in the world'?

One might think the immediate tipoff to the OTRR when they're wandering the Internet finding information to copy would be to avoid sites or articles that can't even spell the name of the series they're seeking, correctly. Wouldn't that be a dead giveaway? How, by any meaningful measure, does that qualify the OTRRpedia as the most 'authoritative and accurate otr database in the world'? On the plus side, they did get seven of the fourteen known titles for the series correct. That would give them at least 50% accuracy.

The articles in the sidebar at left are typical examples of the often ambiguous results of research into these seventy-year old programs. In Billboard Magazine's first announcement from May 10, 1947 the packager maintains that the program will debut on April 30, 1947. In fact, Johnny Madero actually debuted on April 23, 1947. Reading further, we come to the cancellation of Johnny Madero, in which the series is cited as having debuted on April 23, 1947 and was going to be cancelled on September 3, 1947. Had research turned up only the first announcement and the review, one might well have mistakenly concluded that Johnny Madero debuted on April 30 instead of April 23.

For an even more stark illustration of what plagues the commercially co-opted 'otr' community one need but perform the following quoted search:

"Johnny Modero"

That search will disclose every commercially co-opted, 'otr' site on the worldwide web. By our last count there were some 3,900 such commercial, misinformation peddling 'otr' sites. You'll find all the usual suspects: libsyn, boxcars711, wikipedia, otrr, etc. If you visit those sites with any frequency, you're simply reading plagiarism and misinformation, Q.E.D.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here's the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

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