Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it'd 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 Down These Mean Streets. Today we're

celebrating the birthday of Dashil Hamlet,

the master of hard-boiled detective fiction,

and the creator of memorable sloths like Nick and Nora Charles,

the Continental Op, and the San Francisco Seamus will hear today Sam Spade.

Spade first appeared in Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon,

a book adapted three times for the big screen with the third and final version,

the John Houston directed Noir Classic with Humphrey Bogart starring as Sam.

In 1946, producer William Spear, the man behind suspense, who was known as the Hitchcock of the

airwaves, brought Spade to radio in a weekly series of adventures with Armed Forces radio service

announcer Howard Duff stepping into Spade's trench coat.

The Adventures of Sam Spade was a massive hit, both a critical and an audience favorite.

Today, it stands out as one of the best private eye dramas of the radio era,

thanks largely to Howard Duff's performance.

Duff strikes the right balance between tongue-in-cheek and hard-boiled, and the scripts

feature plenty of inside jokes and breaking of the fourth wall.

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