Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you were about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. the Hello and welcome to a bonus episode of Down These Mean Streets.

Today we're tipping our hat.

Well, maybe it's more appropriate to tip our

cowl to Batman in honor of his 80th anniversary.

Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the Caped Crusader made his first comic book appearance in Detective

Comics, issue number 27 on March 30, 1939.

Since then, Batman has been one of the most popular characters not only in comics but on the big and small screens

Personally Batman has long been one of my favorite characters from watching syndicated reruns of the Adam West Burt Ward series to making Batman the animated series and after-school ritual when I was in second and third grade, right up to the big-screen

incarnations from the late 1980s to the recent Ben Affleck films and whatever director

Matt Reeves has planned for the character in 2021.

But one medium where success eluded Batman and his side kick, Robin the Boy Wonder, was radio.

In 1943, the same year Batman and Robin came to movie theaters in a 15 chapter serial, an audition

recording was prepared, but a regular series starring the dynamic duo never got off the ground.

Their stablemate Superman, on the other hand, had been a hit with listeners since his radio exploits premiered in

February 1940. The Superman radio show came to the air two years after the Man of Steel

made his debut in action, and much of the mythology surrounding the character

...