Episode 449 – Action Jackson (Jeff Regan, Rocky Jordan, & Let George Do It)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Tv & Film, Arts, Performing Arts

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2021

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before he was writing episodes of Perry Mason, Columbo, and Murder, She Wrote, Emmy-nominee Jackson Gillis got his start in radio. Gillis penned mysteries for several old time radio sleuths, and we'll hear three of them. First, Jack Webb stars in "The Lady With Too Much Hair" from Jeff Regan, Investigator (originally aired on CBS on November 6, 1948). Then, it's adventure in Egypt with Rocky Jordan in "Passport for Vivi" (originally aired on CBS on March 20, 1949). Finally, we'll hear "Run Until Dead" from Let George Do It (originally aired on Mutual on November 14, 1949).

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 means streets and more crime fighters from the golden age of radio.
1:05.8	This week our spotlight isn't shining on a particular actor or series.
1:11.3	Instead we're saluting a writer who penned adventures for several old-time radio
1:16.8	sloths.
1:18.8	Over the course of his long Emmy-nominated career, Jackson Gillis wrote television adventures of Superman,
1:26.2	Colombo, the men from Uncle, and Perry Mason. But before that, he conceived of radio mysteries to be solved by the likes of Jeff Regan,
1:37.2	Rocky Jordan, and George Valentine.
1:41.1	Jackson Gillis was born in Washington State on August 21st, 1916.
1:47.0	His family moved to California when he was a teenager.
1:51.0	After he earned an English degree from Stanford, Gillis went into acting.
1:56.3	He performed alongside a young Gregory Peck at the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia,
2:02.3	where one of his performances earned him a written critique from George Bernard Shaw, who happened to be in the audience.
2:11.0	Gillis kept that postcard from Shaw for the rest of his life.
2:15.0	During World War II, Gillis served as an Army Intelligence Officer in the Pacific,
2:21.0	and after the war, Gillis and his wife Patricia moved to
2:25.6	Los Angeles where he started writing for radio. Some of his earliest credits came
	...

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