Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best this week we'll hear one of Radio's most unique detective shows, a mystery series

starring the one and only Frank Sinatra.

The voice of the century headlined an NBC detective show for a single season from 1953 to 1954,

Rocky Fortune. It might seem hard to believe that one of the biggest stars in the world wound up with a weekly radio gig like this one,

but Rocky Fortune came along during a rare slump in Sinatra's career.

The early 1950s saw him on the outs with MGM, recently divorced,

and without a record label after he was dropped by Columbia. He went from commanding high salaries

for movies to begging for a screen test for from here to eternity.

That film opened in August 1953, just a few months before Sinatra started on NBC in Rocky Fortune.

The series was developed by George Lefferts, one of the minds behind the Radio Science

Fiction Classic X-1 1 and it was Frank Sinatra's only

regular dramatic series on radio as the title character described by announcer Eddie King

as a footloose and fancy free young gentleman,

fortune bounced from job to job but always seemed to find trouble no matter how offbeat the setting.

Whether it was shucking oysters, working in a hamburger joint, or dusting statues at an art gallery, Fortune

always managed to find a little bit of danger. And what he couldn't find, find unfortunately were good reviews. Critics were very

unkind to the series. That's a bum rap that unfortunately holds up today in some

circles. Radio historian John Dunning says Rocky Fortune was an

undistinguished low-budget affair. I have to respectfully disagree.

I think Sinatra is in great voice and he has a lot of fun with the role.

And who knows if the show would have continued had Sinatra's comeback not shot him into the stratosphere.

Five days before the final episode of Rocky Fortune aired, Sinatra won an Oscar for best supporting actor in from here to eternity.

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