Frederick W Ziv was one of Radio's most prolific and successful programming syndicators


Billboard announcement of Ziv's Manhunt feature from November 20 1943

Frederick W. Ziv was a syndicated programming genius. Throughout The Golden Age of Radio, Ziv produced some of the most star-studded, popular, transcribed syndication programming to ever air. Innovative programming such as:

• Easy Aces (1935) with Goodman and Jane Ace
• One for The Book (1938)
• Forbidden Diary (1938)
• Dearest Mother (1938)
• Lightning Jim (1939)
• The Career of Alice Blair (1940)
• Korn Kobblers (1941)
• Manhunt (1943)
• The Weird Circle (1943)
• Sincerely, Kenny Baker (1944)
• Boston Blackie (1944) with Richard Kollmar
• Philo Vance (1945) initially with Jackson Beck
• The Cisco Kid (1942)
• Pleasure Parade (1945)
• The Barry Wood Show (1946)
• Favorite Story (1946) with Ronald Colman
• The Guy Lombardo Show (1948)
• Meet The Menjous (1949) with Adolph Menjou and Verree Teasdale
• Bold Venture (1951) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
• Freedom U.S.A. (1951) with Tyrone Power
• I Was A Communist for The F.B.I. (1952)
• Bright Star (1952) with Fred MacMurray and Irene Dunne
• Showtime From Hollywood
• Mr. District Attorney (1952)

Working with Frederick W. Ziv was usually a very profitable decision for all parties associated with Ziv. Guy Lombardo made a reported $3,000,000 with Ziv over the years of their association. The Bogarts (Bold Venture) made an estimated $600,000 for their son's trust fund with Ziv. The Menjous earned a reported $750,000 with Ziv. Ronald Colman was also reported to earn $750,000 for Ziv's award-winning Favorite Story.

Frederick Ziv had a formula--and the formula was a successful one. He developed appealing programming, backed it with the best writers of the era, obtained the perfect talent for each project and generally hyped them and almost always rolled them out with all the attendant splash, promotional hype, and star-power associated with the elaborate promotions.

All of this is by way of explaining Frederick W. Ziv's programming, marketing, and promotion genius, as much as to underline the huge business that syndicated, transcribed Radio had become by the late 1940s. It didn't hurt in the least that Ziv's transcribed syndications were invariably of the highest quality and production values. Ziv financed his programming out of pocket, in the expectation of generating a growing number of subscribers for his programs. With a combination of excellent business sense, a prior legal background, a proven track record of success and glowing testimonials from the famous artists he'd already promoted, Ziv had every good reason to bet the farm on most of his new productions. Since he bankrolled his own productions, he routinely employed Hollywood's finest, most versatile and most reliable talent for supporting roles and production.

Ziv rolls out Manhunt in November 1943

Billboard magazine announcement of Ziv's forthcoming Manhunt program here described as 'open-ended' from October 9 1943

While most of Ziv's 30-minute, name-star features were customarily introduced to great fanfare, an equal number of his features over the years were simply calculated to generate a larger canon of available programming. Indeed, many of Ziv's 15-minute programs were created precisely to fill a perceived niche. Radio programming during the mid to late 1940s was still a patchwork quilt of programs of varying length. Spot programs of two to 5 minutes and fifteen minute features were routinely employed to balance a network or local affiliate's programming schedule.

Manhunt was a 15-minute crime drama anthology. The scripts ran twelve and a half minutes, so as to allow stations to insert their own commercial messages and announcements in the remaining two and a half minutes. Starring Larry Haines and featuring Frances Robinson, the series was introduced and narrated by Maurice Tarplin. Tarplin's portentious opener for each episode went something like this:

"No crime has been committed . . . . . yet.
No murder has been done . . . . . yet.
No manhunt has begun . . . . . yet. "

Having instilled a sense of foreboding in the listener, the script would launch into the dramatic exposition necessary to frame the ensuing plot. Each episode posed a crime puzzle of one kind or another--usually a murder under impossible conditions. Larry Haines portrays Andrew 'Drew' Stevens, a police lab forensic detective and Frances Robinson portrays his secretary--and love interest--Patricia 'Pat' O'Connor. Homicide Detective Sergeant Bill Morton is Stevens' local police contact.

The format is tight by mystery standards of the era. The introductory exposition usually provides enough intrigue to involve the listener. Generally twelve minutes in length, the scripts necessarily contained enough exposition to explain or advance the plot. "Manhunt" was probably an unfortunate title for the series' premise. The series of plots didn't involve manhunts as much as crime puzzlers, such as the classic 'sealed room' murders so much the fashion in detective fiction. The real twist of this series is the forensic angle. Drew Stevens, as the Head of the Police Laboratory, is a forensics expert. And indeed, the circulating exemplars contain an entertaining collection of interesting forensic puzzles.

The announced titles of the overwhelming number of circulating exemplars are "The Clue of the . . . " something or other. And indeed, therein lies the clue to understanding this series. The scripts, in their limited format, go to great lengths to juxtapose homicide detective Morton and his 'traditional' detection methods and Drew Stevens' forensic detection methods.

An east coast production, most of the production details have yet to surface. Jackson Beck is heard in one role or another in the majority of circulating episodes.