Episode 367 – I'm Just a Poe Boy (Weird Circle, Suspense, & NBC University Theatre)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2020
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're celebrating the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe - the master of the macabre and the father of the modern detective story. Poe's super sleuth C. Auguste Dupin and his methods of solving crimes through logic and observation inspired a genre and directly led to the creation of Sherlock Holmes. We'll hear old time radio adaptations of the three Dupin mysteries: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" from The Weird Circle; "The Mystery of Marie Roget" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on December 14, 1953); and "The Purloined Letter" from The NBC University Theatre (originally aired on NBC on September 17, 1948).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 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. |
| 0:07.0 | The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. |
| 0:18.0 | The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective. |
| 0:22.0 | The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize |
| 0:25.4 | Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account |
| 0:30.6 | America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. |
| 0:33.0 | Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets where today we're celebrating the birthday of the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. |
| 1:08.0 | For in January 19, 1809, Poe is remembered today for his terrifying tales of horror, stories like the |
| 1:16.6 | tell-tale heart, the black cat, the fall of the house of usher, and the cask of a montiado, |
| 1:22.4 | among others. But there was more to |
| 1:25.7 | poe than his scary stories. He was a literary critic of wide renown and of |
| 1:31.8 | particular interest to us and to this podcast he was the father of the |
| 1:36.9 | modern detective story. Poe's character see Auguste Japan is considered to be the first detective in fiction and the three stories he wrote about Dupin inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes. |
| 1:53.0 | Like Holmes, DuPont used his tremendous intellect and eye for detail to solve crimes, |
| 1:58.7 | talents that were so great that he came across as a mind reader to bewildered associates. |
| 2:05.0 | DuPont solved crimes not out of a sense of justice, but from a hunger for logical puzzles and challenges. |
| 2:12.0 | And like Holmes, the detective was eccentric and more than a little arrogant. |
| 2:17.5 | Not only did Poe define the characteristics of a master detective of fiction, he also created the tropes of the modern detective story. |
| 2:26.3 | Du Pan is consulted by a prefect of police, a man known only in the stories as G, who asks Du Penn to help the police solve baffling crimes. |
| 2:36.7 | Du Penn is joined by a friend and confidant, a character who inspired supporting characters from Dr. Watson to Captain Hastings in the Poirot stories. |
| 2:47.0 | And finally, the de-Noumont, the summation of the case where the detective explains how he arrived at the solution is a trope |
| 2:55.0 | that still anchors detective stories in print and on screen today. This week |
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