I Love a Mystery
Encyclopedia
Carlton E. Morse
Carlton Errol Morse was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I...
, the program was the polar opposite of Morse's other success, the long-running One Man's Family
One Man's Family
One Man's Family, is a long-running American radio soap opera. It was heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted serial in the history of American radio...
.
The central characters, Jack Packard, Doc Long and Reggie York, met as mercenary soldiers fighting the Japanese in China. Later, they met again in San Francisco, where they decided to form the A-1 Detective Agency. Their motto was "No job too tough, no adventure too baffling." The agency served as a plot device to involve the trio in a wide variety of stories. These straddled the genres of mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
, adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
and supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, and the plotlines often took them to exotic locales. Over the years, Jack was played by Michael Raffetto, Russell Thorson, Jay Novello
Jay Novello
Jay Novello was an American radio, film, and television character actor.Born in Chicago as Michael Romano, of Italian descent, Novello began his career as a radio actor, playing Jack Packard on the Hollywood version of I Love a Mystery for a brief period, circa 1944...
, Jim Bannon and John McIntire
John McIntire
John McIntire was an American character actor.-Career:The craggy-faced film actor was born in Spokane in eastern Washington State but reared in Montana, growing up around ranchers and cowboys, an experience that would later inspire his performances in dozens of westerns.A graduate of USC, McIntire...
. Doc was played by Barton Yarborough
Barton Yarborough
William Barton Yarborough was an American actor who worked extensively in radio drama.As a youth, Yarborough ran away from home, attracted by the vaudeville stages, and he first worked in radio during the 1920s...
and Jim Boles. Reggie was portrayed by Walter Paterson and Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
. The agency's secretary, Jerry Booker, was played by Gloria Blondell
Gloria Blondell
Gloria Blondell is the younger sister of Joan Blondell. She was an actress and voice actor between 1938 and 1962. In 1935 she appeared in the Broadway production of Three Men on a Horse at the Playhouse in New York City. She is probably best remembered for her role as Honeybee Gillis in the 1950s...
. After Paterson committed suicide in 1942, his friend Morse could not bear to recast the role and Reggie was written out of the series. In later shows, Jerry's role was increased, and she replaced Reggie.
Movie
A 1945 movie called I Love A MysteryI Love a Mystery (film)
I Love a Mystery is a 1945 drama film directed by Henry Levin and starring Jim Bannon, Nina Foch, George Macready and Barton Yarborough. Based on Carlton E...
starred Jim Bannon as Jack, Barton Yarborough as Doc, George Macready and Nina Foch. Reggie did not appear in the movies, because he had been written out of the radio series. The movie was about a man who seeks protection after he predicts his own death in three days. Two more movies in the series starring Bannon and Yarborough followed in 1946: The Devil's Mask and The Unknown.
Chronology: 1939-44
Sponsored by Fleischmann's Yeast, I Love a Mystery first aired on the NBC West Coast network from January 16 to September 29, 1939, weekdays at 3:15pm Pacific time, and then moved to the full NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
network from October 2, 1939 to March 29, 1940, airing weeknights at 7:15pm. In 1940, it expanded to 30-minute episodes from April 4 to June 27 on NBC Thursdays at 8:30pm. Continuing on the Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
from September 30, 1940 to June 29, 1942, it was heard Mondays and Wednesdays at 8pm. Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
(for Oxydol
Oxydol
Oxydol is the name of a laundry detergent sold in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1914. Purchased by Procter & Gamble in 1927, it was P&G's first detergent. In the 1930s, Oxydol was the sponsor of the Ma Perkins radio show, considered the first soap opera. As Oxydol...
and Ivory Soap
Ivory (soap)
The name "Ivory" refers to a series of products created by the Procter & Gamble Company , including varieties of a white and mildly fragranced bar soap, that became famous for its pure content and for floating in water. Over the years, the bar soap has been altered into other varieties...
) replaced Fleishmann's Yeast as the sponsor in the series broadcast by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from March 22, 1943 to December 29, 1944 with 15-minute episodes heard weeknights at 7pm. A TV movie with David Hartmann was broadcast in the mid-1970s.
Revivals
After a four-year lapse, Jack, Reggie and Doc returned in 1948 with a title change to I Love Adventure, broadcast on ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
from April 25 to July 18, 1948. It followed the post-war adventures of the trio who worked for the Twenty-One Old Men of 10 Gramercy Park in London, an extra-governmental organization of some power. I Love Adventure ran for 13 episodes.
A year later, I Love a Mystery was revived on the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
, and the production relocated from Hollywood to New York. This series began October 3, 1949 and continued until December 26, 1952 with 15-minute episodes heard weeknights at 7pm during 1949-50 and then 10:15pm from 1950 to 1952. The Mutual series recreated the original scripts written by Morse for the NBC series.
"The Fear That Creeps Like A Cat", the serial preceding "The Thing That Cries in the Night", was completely recreated in 1996 by Jim Harmon
Jim Harmon
James Judson Harmon , better known as Jim Harmon, was an American short story author and popular culture historian who wrote extensively about the Golden Age of Radio. He sometimes used the pseudonym Judson Grey, and occasionally he was labeled Mr...
Productions starring Les Tremayne
Les Tremayne
Les Tremayne was a radio, film, and television actor. Born Lester Tremayne in England, he moved with his family at the age four to Chicago, where he began in community theatre. He danced as a vaudeville performer and worked as amusement park barker...
as "Jack Packard", Tony Clay as "Doc Long", Frank Bresee
Frank Bresee
Frank Bresee is an American radio actor and radio historian.Bresee hosted the radio program Golden Days of Radio on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service from 1967 to 1995: the program looked at radio programs and personalities from the early days of radio to the 1950s. His tape collection...
as "Reggie York" and Fred Foy
Fred Foy
Frederick William Foy was an American radio and television announcer, who used Fred Foy as his professional name. He is best known for his narration of The Lone Ranger...
as "The Announcer".
Story situations and characters
Tough, charismatic group leader Jack is usually the first to figure solutions to the mysteries. Jack has more of an edge than the typical radio hero of the period. He distrusts the attractive women who always seem to show up, and he professes to dislike women in general. The series' writer claimed that Jack's problems with women had to do with his youth. He had gotten a girl pregnant and had to leave his home town in shame. This was only a back story detail and was never made explicit on the show. Doc and Reggie are slightly less edgy characters. The Texas-born Doc is a hard-fighting, boastful, high-spirited character who provides comic relief. Reggie, an Englishman noted for his great strength, however, usually shied away from the fairer sex.Morse, regarded as one of the best writers in radio, took delight in creating vividly imagined settings for the show and elaborate, often bizarre plots. In a medium whose heroes tended to be serious and strait-laced, he created three who were wonderfully reckless and exuberant. Jack, Doc and Reggie were more interested in the thrill of adventure than in righting wrongs. When they collected a fee, their only goal was to spend it as quickly as possible.
Actor Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
once sent Morse a letter threatening legal action because a character named Michel in two of the serials, sounded like Lorre. Morse dropped the character from the series days after. The serial "The Temple of the Vampires" was the first serial to cause concerned parents to write letters to the network. When Walter Patterson committed suicide, the character of Reggie was written out of the series, but he was mentioned by name two years later.
Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
was the program's theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
. There were several film adaptations of I Love a Mystery by Morse, but none had the success of the radio series. Surviving recordings of the show are rare.
It was announced that in 2009 Audio Cinema Entertainment, Inc. has gotten the blessings of the Morse Estate to do recreations of the full series based on the Hollywood run.
Surviving serials
Despite the popularity of the program, few series have survived in a listenable state. The few that have survived in a complete form are "The Thing That Cries in the Night" and "Bury Your Dead, Arizona". Other surviving series are "The Million Dollar Curse", "The Temple of Vampires", "Battle of the Century" and "The Hermit of San Felipe Atabapo"; however, several episodes of these serials are missing, leaving plot holes.Series log
First SeasonNBC Pacific Coast, Monday-Friday 15-minute episodes
1 "The Case of the Roxy Mob" (1/16-2/3 1939 15 episodes)
2 "Death Aboard the Lady Mary" (2/6-2/24 1939 15 episodes)
3 "The Case of the Nevada Cougar" (2/27-3/31 1939 25 episodes)
4 "Mystery of the Lady K Ranch" (4/3-4/28 1939 20 episodes)
5 "Strange Affair of Sandy Spring Sanatorium" (5/1-5/19 1939 15 episodes)
6 "The Texas Border Smugglers" (5/22-6/9 1939 15 episodes)
7 "The El Paso, Texas Murders" (6/12-12/30 1939 15 episodes)
8 "Flight to Death" (7/3-7/31 1939 15 episodes)
9 "Murder Hollywood Style" (7/27-8/11 1939 15 episodes)
10 "Incident Concerning Death" (8/14-9/1 1939 15 episodes)
11 "Yolo County/Battle of the Century" (9/7-9/29 1939 18 episodes)
12 "The Blue Phantom" (10/2-10/20 1939 15 episodes)
13 “Castle Island" (10/23-11/17 1939 20 episodes)
14 “Hollywood Cherry" (11/20-12/8 1939 15 episodes)
15 "Bury Your Dead, Arizona" (12/11-12/29 1939 15 episodes)
16 "San Diego Murders" (1/1-1/19 1940 15 episodes)
17 "Temple of Vampires" (1/22-2/16 1940 20 episodes)
18 "The Brooks Kidnapping" (2/19-3/8 1940 15 episodes)
19 "Murder in Turquoise Pass" (3/11-3/29 1940 15 episodes)
(NBC Red Network, Thursdays as 30-minute episodes.)
20 "The Snake with the Diamond Eyes" (4/4-6/27 1940 13 episodes)
Second Season
(Mondays as 30-minute episodes on NBC Blue Network)
21 "The Tropics Don't Call It Murder" (9/30-12/30 1940 13 episodes)
22 "The Case of the Transplanted Castle" (1/6-3/3 1941 9 episodes)
23 "Murder on February Island" (3/10-5/5 1941 9 episodes)
24 "Eight Kinds of Murder" (5/12-6/30 1941 8 episodes)
Third Season
25 "The Monster in the Mansion" (10/6-11-24 1941 8 episodes)
26 "Secret Passage to Death" (12/1/41-02/02/42 10 episodes)
27 "Terror of Frozen Corpse Lodge" (2/9-4/4 1942 9 episodes)
28 "Pirate Loot of the Island of Skulls" (4/13-6/29 1942 12 episodes)
Fourth Season
(CBS as 15-minute, M-F )
29 "The Girl in the Gilded Cage" (3/22-/4/9 1943 15 episodes)
30 "Blood on the Cat" (4/12-5/7 1943 20 episodes)
31 "The Killer of Circle M" (5/10-6/4 1943 20 episodes)
32 "Stairway to the Sun" (6/7-7/16 1943 30 episodes)
33 "The Graves of Whamperjaw, Texas" (7/19-8/6 1943 15 episodes)
34 "Murder Is the Word for It" (8/9-8/27 1943 15 episodes)
35 "The Decapitation of Jefferson Monk" (8/30-10/1 1943 25 episodes)
36 "My Beloved Is a Vampire" (10/4-11/5 1943 25 episodes)
37 "The Hermit of San Felipe Atabapo" (11/8-12/3 1943 20 episodes)
38 "The Deadly Sin of Richard Coyle" (12/6-12/24 1943 15 episodes)
39 "The Twenty Traitors of Timbuktu" (12/27/43-02/24/44 44 episodes)
40 "The African Jungle Mystery" (2/28-3/24 1944 20 episodes)
41 "The Widow with the Amputation" (3/27-4/21 1944 20 episodes)
42 "I Am the Destroyer of Women" (4/24-5/12 1944 15 episodes)
43 "You Can't Pin a Murder on Nevada" (5/15-6/2 1944 15 episodes)
44 "The Corpse in Compartment C, Car 75" (6/5-6/9 1944 5 episodes)
45 "The Thing Wouldn't Die" (6/13-7/7 1944 20 episodes)
46 "The Case of the Terrified Comedian" (7/10-8/7 1944 21 episodes)
47 "The Man Who Hated to Shave" (8/8-8/21 1944 10 episodes)
48 "Temple of Vampires" (8/22-9/18 1944 20 episodes)
49 "The Bride of the Werewolf" (9/19-10/9 1944 15 episodes)
50 "The Monster in the Mansion" (10/10-11/09 1944 23 episodes)
51 "Portrait of a Murderess" (11/10-12/7 1944 20 episodes)
52 "Find Elsa Holberg, Dead or Alive" (12/8-12/29 1944 16 episodes)
Listen to
- OTR Network Library: I Love a Mystery (57 episodes)
- Theater of the Ears: I Love a Mystery
- Archive.org: I Love A Mystery
- Archive.org II: I Love A Mystery