The Murder Will Out Radio Program

Background

Mystery dramas were highly popular air fare from the very earliest days of Radio. Throughout the Golden Age of Radio literally hundreds of mystery programs of one form or another filled the airwaves from morning to night. And of course the great appeal of such mystery dramas was figuring them out--preferably well before the actual dénouement, or at the least by the time all the clues were given.

Introducing audience involvement one step further, some of the more clever mystery programs of the era either encouraged the listening audiences to participate in solving the mystery or crime of the evening or had their listening audiences compete with members of the in-studio audiences to solve the mystery or crime.

Some of the more popular and compelling audience participation mystery or crime programs of the era were:

• 1937 Phyl Coe Radio Mysteries
• 1938 Night Cap Yarns
• 1939 Armchair Adventures
• 1939 The Adventures of Ellery Queen
• 1940 What Would You Have Done?
• 1941 Who–Dun–It?
• 1943 Let’s Play Reporter
• 1944 Kelly’s Courthouse
• 1944 Quick as a Flash
• 1944 Stop That Villain!
• 1945 Calling All Detectives
• 1945 Detect and Collect
• 1945 Murder Will Out!
• 1965 Ellery Queen Minute Mysteries

While the above list is just a representative sampling of the various audience participation mystery programs from the Golden Age of Radio, they provide a cross section of the type of programming that captured the imagination of armchair sleuths of the era--both at home and in the studio. It's easy to understand why so many of these programs were popular. Everyone listening to a radio mystery gets caught up to one degree or another with the details of the unfolding mystery or crime. And to one degree or another, most listeners formed quite well-supported theories regarding the unraveling of such mysteries by the actual point of dénouement. If the listeners felt the solution or resolution was presented fairly, then whether or not they actually solved it themselves, they didn't feel in any way cheated by the actual resolution. And of course that was the fine line all mystery script writers were tasked with throughout the era, whether the program was specifically targeted to audience participation or not.

Audience participation mystery programs of the era also leant themselves to a degree of audience manipulation. The natural temptation by sponsors or networks to milk a particularly popular audience participation mystery vehicle often lead to gambits such as providing the resolution of the night's mystery the following night or week, depending on its scheduling. This was a way to ensure that listeners felt compelled to return to hear the next installment. If that proved too intrusive or manipulative, sponsors would tie prizes, premiums, or awards of one type or another to the successful resolution of a particular program episode or series of episodes. Juvenile mystery programs of the era often proved a great success employing such tactics.

Mystery quiz programs provided almost all of the elements of a successful audience participation mystery format. Listeners had the option of solving the mystery themselves or seeing if they could beat the selected quiz participants at solving the night's mystery. In some instances, they could even find themselves competing against both quiz contestants selected from the studio's audience and/or Radio and Film actors or other prominent luminaries of the era.

Both types of audience participation mystery programs were also depicted in mystery films of the era. Whether an extension of a popular series of mystery books or emulating one or more of the popular mystery quiz programs over Radio, such films provided the same level of audience satisfaction in providing a means to compete for the most accurate resolution of the underlying crime or mystery.

Needless to say, such audience participation dramas, whether over Radio or in Film succeeded or failed based on the integrity of the trail of clues presented to their respective audiences right up until the dénouement itself.

ABC Key Station KGO premieres Murder Will Out!

"Though it hath no tongue, Murder Will Out!"

ABC Key Station KGO, San Francisco, had long been an innovator of compelling and popular West Coast programming. From quiz shows to locally originated dramas to comedy and music, KGO consistently brought some of the West Coast's earliest regional and national hits to the radio waves during the heyday of the Golden Age of Radio. KGO, while under their affiliation with NBC-Blue had mounted a straight San Francisco Police crime drama, Murder Will Out, premiering on, Thursday, July 22, 1937 in a half-hour format, and narrated by former Police Chief Quinn. The premiere episode of that series was titled The White Rabbit. It was possibly KGO's continuing ownership of that program title that inspired the station to develop their murder mystery quiz format vehicle, Murder Will Out! for 1945, this time under American Broadcasting Company auspices.

French-born Lew X. Lansworth had been a viable San Franciso Bay commercial artist until the Great Depression hit. He then turned his talents to writing, soon becoming one of the more prolific writers in the Bay area. Lansworth is credited with writing virtually all of the Murder Will Out episodes. He married busy Film, Radio and Television actress Jeanne Bates in 1943 just about the time her own Radio career was taking off. Beginning in 1941, Lansworth had written the lion's share of the long running weekly Who-Dun-It series. That audience participation format made Lansworth a natural to write and direct for KGO's Murder Will Out series which premiered on Tuesday, January 23, 1945.

Murder Will Out's format was both clever and compelling. The audience participation angle was also well supported from beginning to end. Sponsored by Rainier Brewing Company of San Francisco and Los Angeles, the murder mystery quiz program aired virtually uninterrupted from January 1945 through July 1946, ultimately replaced by Philo Vance after seventy-five broadcasts.

The series was framed in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Edmund MacDonald starring as Inspector Burke, Chief of the SFPD Homicide Division, and aided by local favorite Eddie Marr as Inspector Burke's sidekick, Detective Nolan. MacDonald remained in the role through the thirty-ninth episode, at which point seasoned Film, Radio and Television character actor William Gargan was brought in as Inspector Burke. Gargan retained the role through the last installment.

The series' announcer and commercial spokesperson was the soon to be highly popular Larry Keating, later to become a comedy fixture in Film, Radio and Television. Keating is most remembered for his roles as next-door neighbor Harry Morton in Television's The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1953-1958) and in Television's Mister Ed (from 1958-1963) as Roger Addison, Allen Lane's long-suffering neighbor. Keating's sudden death from leukemia in 1963 almost shut Mister Ed down.

The Rainier Brewing Company of San Francisco and Los Angeles sponsored Murder Will Out from start to finish. One of the better supported regional programs of the era, Rainier Brewing provided all the financial support necessary to ensure the highest production values throughout the series' run.

The audience participation element of Murder Will Out was cleverly supported and virtually seamless to the entire production. After the introduction of the title of the episode for the evening, a dramatic teaser and/or exposition framed the ensuing script. The announcer and commerical spokesperson would then sketch out the rules for the four amateur sleuths selected from the studio audience. After the commercial announcement, the evening's murder mystery would commence.

When the evening's mystery was completed, the second commerical break would lead into the four contestants' opportunity to solve the evening's murder mystery. Larry Keating laid out the rules as follows:

• To each contestant who finds the murderer and the correct key clue, Rainier Brewing Company awarded a $50 Savings Bond.
• If any of the amateur sleuths identified the murderer but not the correct key clue, they received a $25 Savings Bond.
• Each contestant solving the night's mystery received a Gold Detective's Certificate, suitably framed, bestowing upon them the honor of joining the ranks of Expert Amateur Detectives .

Note that during the 1945 run, Victory Bonds and Stamps were awarded instead of Savings Bonds and Stamps.

Each contestant had been given a script and a pen to take notes during the dramatic presentation. Each contestant, in turn, was then asked a series of questions. For each correctly answered question the contestant would receive $5 in Savings Stamps. Edmund MacDonald or William Gargan (Inspector Burke) were then handed the papers upon which each contestant had annotated their deductions for both the murderer and correct key clue for the evening. MacDonald or Gargan would then read the results of each contestant's recorded deductions, announcing any respective awards for each contestant's submissions.

MacDonald or Gargan would then recite the correct clue(s) that led to the actual murderer in the evening's mystery. 'Inspector Burke' would then thoroughly synopsize the entire mystery, citing the trail of clues and the character development points for each potential suspect. The respective winners were then announced, summarizing their winnings for the evening. MacDonald or Gargan would then synopsize and announce the title of the following week's murder mystery.

In the circulating exemplars, the contestants were predictably as entertaining as the evening's murder mystery presentation, very cleverly handled by Larry Keating. Further exemplars of this entertaining series will unquestionably surface in time. There's no question that at least a few more episodes reside in collectors' hands.

Murder Will Out! was an entertaining concept very cleverly, smartly, and satisfactorily executed. The byplay between the contestants and Larry Keating was as entertaining as the murder mysteries. As demonstrated in the two circulating exemplars, the murder mysteries themselves took great pains to provide a rational and entirely supportable trail of clues to the actual murderer in each dramatization. Lew Lansworth kept the mysteries interesting and challenging with no 11th hour revelations to throw a monkey wrench into either the contestants' or audiences logical deduction processes--no mean feat in itself.

The series also affords us an advance glimpse at the natural comedic talent and ascerbic charm of Larry Keating prior to his extraordinary success in Television. All told, Murder Will Out! had something for everyone. It's a shame that a national audience never had the opportunity to hear the series. All the more reason to treasure the West Coast-only exemplars currently in circulation.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

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

OTRisms:

With only two known exemplars in circulation, it's all but impossible to nail down the entire episode chronology of Murder Will Out. But even with the two circulating exemplars we can dispel a great deal of OTR myth and lore persistently attached to this series:

• There have been three known Murder Will Out series' determined to have aired during the Golden Age of Radio:
  • A 30-minute 1937 San Francisco Police drama series narrated by former San Francisco Police Chief Quinn over KGO, then affiliated with NBC-Blue.
  • A 15-minute 1938 crime drama series airing in the Midwest.
  • The 30-minute, 1945-1946 murder mystery quiz, Murder Will Out! over ABC's Key Station, KGO.
• None of the above three productions bear any resemblance or relationship to each other, apart from the tenuous fact that KGO originated two of the three productions. The three are otherwise completely unrelated to each other in format, concept or production credits.
• The 1945 Murder Will Out! series premiered on Thursday, January 23, 1945, not the widely cited January 30, 1945 in Hickerson, Dunning and others.
• The series ended with the broadcast of July 2, 1946, subsequently replaced by Philo Vance, on July 9, 1945, not the widely cited end date of June 25, 1946.
• As best we can determine, William Gargan didn't take over the role of Inspector Burke until Episode 40, on October 30, 1945.
• The widely cited dates for the two circulating exemplars are problematic on several levels:
  • Both circulating exemplars feature William Gargan in the role of Inspector Burke. That places both exemplars in the post-October 30, 1945 time frame.
  • Given the above, neither exemplar could have been dated earlier than October 30, 1945.
  • Goldin cites the exact same date for both circulating exemplars, which can't possibly be correct given that each exemplar cites different program titles for the following week(s).
  • Goldin cites 1946 for both circulating exemplars, which we feel is accurate as to the year, in any case.
  • The widely cited dates, 45-05-08 and 45-08-07, for the circulating exemplars are suspect given that William Gargan didn't appear as Inspector Burke until October of 1945.
• All of the above issues bring into question the correct dates for either of the circulating exemplars.
• It's purely conjecture and inductive reasoning that lead us to believe the correct date and sequence of The Mystery of Death Undersea, as Episode No. 65 airing on April 23, 1946. William Gargan's expositional narrative framing the beginning of that episode cites the events having transpired on April 22, 1946, the probable studio performance date of that episode and the day prior to the date we cite as the broadcast date for that exemplar. We have no other basis for citing that date, but it seems more plausible than the currently circulating dates.
• Likewise, we cite the date for The Mystery of the Swindled Song Writers ['Writers', not 'Writer'] as 46-05-07 for no other reason than for the fact that Goldin cites the dates of both of his exemplar transcriptions as from 1946. The date 46-05-08 couldn't have been a 1946 date for The Mystery of the Swindled Song Writers, since the series always aired on Tuesday evenings. 46-05-08 was a Wednesday. Since the series never aired outside of California, 46-05-08 can't have been the date for any episode of the series.
• Both circulating exemplars announce the synopsis and title of the following weeks' episode, so we've included those titles as following their respective preceding programs.
• Until more exemplars--or provenances--surface, we reluctantly continue to question our own conclusions as to the sequence and date(s) we've applied to our own copies of the circulating exemplars.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]