Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best looking at an actor who more than any other

had the chops to play a detective on radio. Before he got into acting he had

worked as a private detective. He's William Gargan and today will hear him as Barry Craig, confidential

investigator. William Gargan had a life that rivaled those of the detectives he played.

His father was a bookie, exposing Gargon at a young age to all manner of shady customers and

competitors.

Gargon dropped out of school and became a salesman of bootleg liquor to

speakieces in New York. His sales partner was another

soon-to-be actor named Dave Chasen who would go on to open the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood.

Gargan worked as a credit investigator and collection agent for a clothing company on one job to pursue a delinquent account the customer took a shot at him.

He wasn't as adept at detecting as the characters he later played.

Gargon lost his $10 a day job as an investigator for one New York firm when the man he was trailing gave him the slip.

But Gargan had better success as the detective on film, TV, and radio. He played Ellery Queen in two

1942 films, appeared as Private Detective Ross Dolan in

Ideal in Crime from 1946 to 1947 and he started on radio and TV as Martin Kane

Private Eye from 1949 until 1951 but his his longest-running Radio Detective series was an NBC drama called

Barry Craig, confidential investigator. That series came to the air in 1951 as part of a five-year $1 million deal, Gargan signed with the network.

The deal included not only Barry Craig, but also appearances on other NBC radio and television programs.

Barry Craig didn't have a hook or gimmick to separate it from other radio PI shows,

but it had Gargan's strong performance honed by years at the microphone and time spent on stage.

Craig was a dogged investigator with a wry sense of humor, very much cut from the Philip Marlow and Sam Spade cloth.

He was usually in need of a buck and his finances led him to accept jobs that looked like trouble from the outset. The series was originally

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