Episode 221 - The Wright Stuff (Sherlock Holmes & Pursuit)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Mystery, Detectives, Old, Radio, Time, Tv & Film, Oldtimeradio

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2017

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A master of dialects and accents, the British-born Ben Wright appeared all over the dial during the Golden Age of Radio and he could convincingly play characters from all around the world. He usually worked in supporting roles, but he had time in the spotlight as two old time radio detectives. We'll hear him as Sherlock Holmes in "The Singular Affair of the Ancient Egyptian Curse" (originally aired on ABC on March 10, 1947). Then on Pursuit, he's Inspector Peter Black in an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast of "Pursuit at the Vicarage."

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Welcome to down these mean streets where this week we're shining a spotlight on one of my favorite old time radio actors, Ben Wright.
0:29.0	Born May 5, 1915 in London, Wright isn't a household name, but he's a household voice to fans of old-time
0:36.3	radio, a master of accents and dialects he could convincingly play characters from all around the world.
0:44.0	But in his native British accent, Ben Wright starred as a pair of radio detectives.
0:49.8	On Pursuit, he was Inspector Peter Black of Scotland Yard, and he was the last actor to
0:55.8	star on American radio at Sherlock Holmes.
1:00.1	We've heard Ben Wright on the podcast before in his pursuit role, but we've also heard him
1:05.2	as Toulku, the Tibetan servant and sidekick of the Green Lama, and his Hey Boy, the Chinese
1:11.5	bellhop of Have Gunn will travel.
1:14.7	In addition to those parts, we've heard him in a number of supporting roles.
1:18.1	Ben Wright popped up on everything from Nightbeat to Johnny Dollar, Philip Marlow, Broadway is My Beat, Gun Smoke, and more.
1:26.4	In several shows, Wright appeared in multiple roles.
1:29.8	That was especially true on half-gun will travel. He'd play Hey Boy, usually at the beginning and the end of the episode, and then play another character in the course of the story.
1:40.0	Outside of Radio Ben Wright was a regular presence on television through the 60s and 70s on shows like Perry Mason Get Smart, The Wild Wild West, and the Rockford files.
1:52.0	He voiced Roger Radcliffe in Disney's 101 Dalmatians,
1:56.2	though he didn't sing Cruella de Ville, and his final role was as Grimsby in the Little Mermaid.
2:03.4	Though he found success on the big and small screens, Ben Wright never forgot his radio
2:08.2	roots.
2:09.2	For a release of Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes episodes in the 1980s, Wright was enlisted to provide audio
2:16.4	introductions and share anecdotes and memories of the Golden Age of Radio.
2:22.0	Ben Wright was an outstanding radio character actor, one who I'd describe as the glue that held
2:27.4	so many shows together, a versatile performer who came in and played multiple characters, bringing them to life and
	...

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