The Welcome to down these mean streets where today we're heading for Egypt to catch up with

Rocky Jordan. Rocky hills from St. Louis, but he set himself up as the owner and proprietor of the Cafe Tambourine, a popular Cairo

Night Spot.

Rocky would be content to make a few bucks serving drinks, but Fate frequently has other plans for him.

Trouble is regular guest at the cafe, and Rocky is pulled into mystery and intrigue.

Rocky Jordan could be described as a cross between two classic Humphrey Bogart characters, hard-boiled

private eye Sam Spade and Casablanca's Rick Blaine. The series has a lot of things going for it, beginning with the title character.

He was a two-fisted man of adventure who wouldn't be out of place in a big American city, but he was dropped into the culture of the Middle East and the cosmopolitan city of Cairo.

As played by Jack Moils, Rocky was an outwardly tough loner, but he was ultimately willing to stick his neck out for a friend or for a damsel in distress. A big part of the show was Jordan's occasionally uneasy friendship with Captain Sam's Subaya of the Cairo Police.

Jay Novello played Subaya and the role was a great showcase for his talents as an actor

and as a master of accents and dialects.

Going back to Casablanca, the Rocky Subaya dynamic is reminiscent of that of Bogart and

clawed reins in the classic film.

The show's setting also makes it stand out.

At a time when nearly every radio detective

pounded a beat in New York or Los Angeles,

Cairo was an exotic location and opened up new possibilities

for storytelling.

In post-war Egypt, Rocky Jordan could run afoul of killers, smugglers, thieves, and spies, Native Egyptians,

and foreign citizens alike.

The scripts were largely written by Gomer Kool and Larry Roman, and they used the U. the US Army Field Guide for Cairo to make sure they were accurate in settings and locations for their stories.

Admittedly, Rocky Jordan wasn't a show I was crazy about the first time I heard it, but as I listened

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