The Welcome to down these mean streets where this week we'll hear from the greatest

private detective of them all, Dashelhammets Sam Spade. On July 12, 1946, Spade. On July 12th, 1946, Spade jumped from the page in the big screen to radio in one of the era's best mystery

shows. What makes it so great? So great that for many it's the best old-time radio

detective show of all time. For me it's a combination of producer, writers, and actor that came together to make a unique and

enormously entertaining program.

The producer was William Spear, the man known as the Hitchcock of the airwaves for his work on

suspense. But where Spear was deadly serious on radio's outstanding theater of

thrills, he saw the opportunity to depart from the tough, ultra-hard-boiled

hamlet style. The Radio Adventures of Sam Spade were never a flat-out parody of the detective genre, but they managed to have fun with the conventions within the world of the story.

And those stories were written for the most part by the pair of Robert

Tallman and Gill Dowd. The pair also wrote the adventure series The

Voyage of the Scarlet Queen and before they teamed up to work on Sam

Spade, Dowd did some work on Pat Novak for hire.

In their script, Sam Spade's clients were colorful and eccentric, but danger still lurked around every corner.

They gave Sam Spade a sarcastic streak and a playful sense of humor, particularly with

his secretary, Effie Perrine.

But perhaps most important of all to the success of Sam Spade

was the actor in the title role.

William Spear was making a Sam Spade radio show when Humphrey Bogart's

performance as Spade in the Maltese Falcon was still fresh in the minds of

audiences. You can't out Bogart Bogart, so Spear went in another direction and hired Armed Forces

radio service announcer and actor Howard Duff to fill the shoes of the legendary detective.

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