Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best another detective from the Golden Age of radio.

Today we're catching up with actor Dick Powell, who we heard from a few months ago as Richard

Diamond, private detective.

But before that series, he had his first shot at solving radio crimes as private investigator Richard Rogue in Rogue's Gallery.

Powell's well-received performance as Philip Marlow in Murder My Sweet helped him shed

the baby-faced crooner image that had up to that point defined his career.

It also gave him clout to approach the

F. W. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F. F.

Bandsghan.

About a summer series where Powell would star as a hard-boiled detective in the Marlow

mold.

The result was Band-Waggin Mysteries, which enjoyed a three-month run in the summer of

1945 on NBC. Bandwagon mysteries

introduced the world to the character of Richard Rogue and it gave Powell his

first weekly dramatic radio series. The show's popularity led to a regular series

titled Rogue's Gallery that aired over Mutual beginning in September 1945.

When it finished its run on Mutual in 1946, it returned to NBC, coming full circle as a summer

replacement once again for Fitch bandwagon.

Along with Powell's signature style, Rogue's Gallery had another unique aspect that set it apart from the crowd of radio's post-war private eyes. Like most gumshoes, Richard Rogue would be on the receiving end of a beating at least once every episode.

But where other detective shows simply cut to music and rejoined the sleuth several hours later when he woke up,

Rogue's gallery sent its hero on an unconscious journey

to Cloud 8, where he bantered with his impish alter ego,

...