Episode 232 – Gargan vs. the Guilty (I Deal in Crime & Barrie Craig)

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

🗓️ 16 July 2017

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Perhaps the only radio detective star to have actually worked as a real-life private eye, William Gargan played several gumshoes on the air, as well as the big and small screens. He was most famous on radio as Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator but he gave voice to other hard-boiled private eyes with wry senses of humor. Today, William Gargan stars as two of those old time radio crime-solvers. First, he's Ross Dolan, ex-sailor and shamus in I Deal in Crime. We'll hear him in the premiere episode of that series (originally aired on ABC on January 21, 1946). Then he's Barrie Craig in "The Sneak Assassin" (originally aired on NBC on November 21, 1954).

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Welcome to Down these mean Streets and more of the wonderful crime solvers of the Golden Age of radio.
0:29.0	This week marks the 112th anniversary of the birth of actor William Gargan.
0:35.2	Before he entered show business, the Oscar nominated Gargan delivered boot like whiskey to
0:40.5	speakies during prohibition, and he worked as a private detective. He wasn't
0:46.6	suited for the job in real life but William Gargan was ideal for the world of
0:51.1	fictional private eyes.
0:53.5	He played several detectives on radio, TV, and the big screen,
0:58.2	including Ellery Queen, Martin Kane,
1:01.4	and Barry Craig confidential investigator.
1:05.0	Gargan's gum shoes were usually characterized by a cynical streak, a sly sense of humor,
1:11.0	and an arsenal of quips that was always at the ready.
1:15.0	William Gargan was a busy actor from the 1930s into the early 50s,
1:20.0	but his career was cut tragically short when he lost his larynx to throat cancer in 1958.
1:27.0	With his acting career finished, Gargan spent the rest of his life as an ambassador for the American Cancer Society and he warned about the consequences of smoking.
1:37.0	Today in honor of his birthday will hear a pair of radio mysteries starring William Gargan as two different radio detectives.
1:46.7	In the first show he stars as Ross Dolan, fresh from a stint with the Navy and back home to pick up his private eye practice.
1:55.9	Dolan's job description provides the series with its title,
2:00.1	I Deal in Crime. The show premiered on January 21st, 1946 on ABC. The same day radio
2:09.4	listeners met The Fat Man on the same network and it aired until May of 1947.
2:16.0	Unfortunately only a handful of episodes of ideal and crime survive
2:21.0	including the series premiere which we'll hear today.
2:25.7	Ted Hediger wrote the script and Leonard Reed directed this story that finds Dolan
	...

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