Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it'd wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to this week's bonus comedy episode of Down These Mean Streets and the second part of our birthday salute to Orson Wells.

Now comedy may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think of the legendary actor and director.

After all, his most celebrated films aren't known for their jokes.

Movies like Citizen Kane, The Lady from Shanghai and Touch of Evil.

Plus his most celebrated radio work climaxes

with basically the destruction of the human race.

But Orson Wells showed that he was right at home with gags and gaffaws when he acted as the

unlikely guest host of the Jack Benny program. In the spring of

1943, Benny, who was already one of radio's biggest comedy stars,

missed five weeks of shows after he came down with a bad case of pneumonia.

George Burns and Gracie Allen stepped in his guest hosts for the

broadcast from March 7th, but for the next four weeks the Grape Nuts the Graberks and

Grabnuts and Grabnuts Flakes program starred Orson Wells alongside Jack Benny's

usual gang, bandleader Phil Harris, who had just returned from a several

month stint at the Merchant Marines, singer Dennis Day, announcer Don Wilson, Eddie Rochester

Anderson is Jack's Valet, and Benny's real-life wife Mary Livingston.

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