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 Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets. Today we're kicking off a new year of

old-time radio detectives with an adventure of Ellery Queen.

The Super Sleuth starred in his own radio series, a show we've heard on the podcast before, but this week we'll hear him in a mystery presented on the Ford Theater anthology program.

Sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, the series aired on radio from 1947 to 1949,

and in 1948, a television version launched that ran in different incarnations through the 1950s.

We'll hear the adventure of the Bad Boy,

originally aired on NBC on January 4th, 1948.

It's an interesting production because it's a reunion of actors who had starred in earlier radio versions of Elery Queen.

Hugh Marlow stars as Elery.

He played the detective on the air from 1939 until 1940,

and he'd returned to the role on television in the 1950s.

Inspector Richard Queen Elery's father is played by Santo Sortega.

He played the inspector from 1939 until 1947. Ortega also did stints on the

air as Nera Wolf, Charlie Chan, and Commissioner Weston on the Shadow.

And Sergeant Veely, the inspector's right-hand man,

is Ted Dercorsia, who played Vili from 39 to 47.

...