Martin Kane, Private Eye
Encyclopedia
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
and television crime series sponsored by United States Tobacco Company.
Radio
Martin Kane, Private Eye began as a 1949-52 radio seriesRadio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
starring William Gargan
William Gargan
William Gargan, born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died February 17, 1979 aged 73 on a flight between New York and San Diego.He was an American motion picture, television and radio actor...
in the title rôle as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
private detective
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
Martin Kane. It aired 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...
, broadcast Sundays at 4:30pm from 7 August 1949 to 24 June 1951.
When the crime drama moved to NBC Radio on 1 July 1951, Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
took over the title role until mid-1952. Lee Tracy
Lee Tracy
William Lee Tracy was an American actor.- Early life :Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia.After graduating from Western Military Academy in 1918 he studied electrical engineering at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor...
portrayed Kane for the remainder of the radio series, ending 21 December 1952.
The radio episodes aired between 1949 and 1952 were not merely audio rebroadcasts of the television show, but original episodes produced for the radio medium. Only 29 radio broadcasts are known to exist.
Television
Gargan, Nolan, Tracy and Mark Stevens played the title role in Martin Kane, Private Eye on live televisionLive television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
, airing on NBC-TV from 1 September 1949 until 17 June 1954. The series, again sponsored by United States Tobacco Company, integrated commercials into the detective drama by having Martin Kane enter his favorite tobacco shop where he discussed pipe tobaccos and cigarettes with the tobacconist Happy McMann (Walter Kinsella), before leaving to continue the mystery narrative.
Walter Greaza
Walter Greaza
Walter Greaza , was an American television and film actor. Greaza was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States.-Career:...
portrayed Capt. Leonard. Captain Evans was played by Loring Smith
Loring Smith
Loring B. Smith the Great was an American stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career in every aspect of the entertainment business....
, Capt. Burke by Frank M. Thomas
Frank M. Thomas
Frank Marion Thomas , was an American actor on the stage, screen and television.Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Jesse and Virginia Thomas, he first appeared on Broadway in 1914. Thomas also played many supporting roles in films from the 1930s through the 1970s...
, King Calder as Lt. Gray, Sgt. Ross by Nicholas Saunders, and Sgt. Strong by Michael Garrett
Michael Garrett
Professor Michael Garrett is the General Director of the Dutch astronomy research foundation ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy....
. Frank Burns produced and directed shows scripted by Harry Kane and Lawrence Young. Charles Paul provided the music. At the start and finish of the show, Kane was shown in shadow, lighting his pipe. Six episodes of this show have been released in the Best of TV Detectives DVD box set.
Gargan returned to the role in 1958 with a syndicated series
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
, The New Adventures of Martin Kane, filmed in Europe for United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
.
Comic books
The radio-TV series had a 1950 tie-in comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
, Martin Kane, Private Eye, published by Fox and illustrated by Wally Wood
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
, Joe Orlando
Joe Orlando
Joseph Orlando was a prolific illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades...
and Martin Rosenthal.
Cultural references
In episode two of the "Topsy Turvy World" sequence ("Funny Business in the Books, or The Library Card") of The Bullwinkle ShowThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 28, 1964 on the ABC and NBC television networks...
(which aired on NBC), Rocky and Bullwinkle are being escorted out of the town library by a gun-wielding man in a black fedora. Rocky wonders aloud whether the unknown man is from another TV show, leading Bullwinkle to confront him. "Say, fella, the Martin Kane show was dropped this year, you know?"
The series was satirized in Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
5 (June-July 1953) as "Kane Keen, Private Eye", illustrated by Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
.
Mads lampoon of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
(Mad 17, illustrated by Wally Wood
Wally Wood
Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
) references a detective called "Martin Walking-Kane".