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 are 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. And the Happy Holidays Radio fans and welcome to a bonus episode of Down These Mean Streets.

Last month I presented a pair of Thanksgiving radio comedies

and the response I received from listeners was so positive that I wanted to do it again for Christmas.

So there's no crime solving on the show today, even though we'll hear a few radio detective stars along the way.

Instead, we'll hear a pair of shows from two fantastic radio sitcoms starring two of the

era's funniest comedians.

First, we'll hear Lucille Ball in My Favorite Husband,

the wonderful radio sitcom that paved the way for

I Love Lucy on television.

The series centered on Liz Cooper, a slightly silly housewife with a knack for harebrained

schemes and her titular favorite husband George, played by Richard

Denning of Mr and Mrs North. The show was so popular that CBS asked Ball to bring it to TV in 1950, but she didn't want to do

the show unless her then real life husband Desi Arnaz could co-star.

Eventually, CBS gave in, and that show came to TV as I Love Lucy.

Ball brought her my favorite husband writers with her to the new show, and several radio episodes were worked into scripts for the

classic TV sitcom. In this holiday episode originally aired on CBS on

...