Get this and get it straight.

Crime is a sucker's road.

And those who travel

it 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 Saint,

starring Vincent Price.

Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures

of the man with the action-packed expense account.

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator...

Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.

... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Happy holidays and welcome to Down These Mean Streets, where today we're celebrating the season with a trio of radio mysteries set on and around Broadway.

But these aren't tales of actors in the theater. These are stories of the other side of Broadway. But these aren't tales of actors in the theater. These are stories of the other side of

Broadway, the dimly lit bars and back alleys, where characters are focused more on dodging a bullet

than counting the take at the box office. Appropriately, our first two stories come from

Damon Runyon, the Poet Laureate of Broadway,

whose tales of colorful crooks inspired guys and dolls, and gave us the term Runyon-esque to describe a character.

Many of his stories were adapted for radio in the syndicated series The Damon Runyon Theater.

We'll hear an episode from that show titled Dancing Dance Christmas.

The show starred John Brown, a very talented radio actor who may be best known as

...