Episode 657 - Where's the Beef? (Boston Blackie, Suspense, The Saint, & Richard Diamond)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2026
⏱️ 127 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're serving up thick cuts of old time radio mystery with four stories involving butchers and their wares. First, Boston Blackie faces off against a black market meat ring in an adventure starring Chester Morris (originally aired on NBC on July 21, 1944). Kirk Douglas embarks on a dangerous affair in the grocery store aisles in "The Butcher's Wife" from Suspense (originally aired on CBS on February 9, 1950). After a disappointing dinner, The Saint finds a dead body in his trunk in "The Horrible Hamburger" (originally aired on NBC on September 10, 1950). Finally, Dick Powell goes undercover to protect a butcher from a protection racket in Richard Diamond, Private Detective (originally aired on ABC on March 9, 1951).
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Get this and get it straight. |
| 0:02.1 | Crime is a sucker's road. |
| 0:03.9 | And those who travel |
| 0:04.6 | it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave. |
| 0:12.3 | The story you were about to hear is true. |
| 0:15.2 | Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. |
| 0:18.6 | The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective. |
| 0:21.7 | The Adventures of the Saint, |
| 0:23.4 | starring Vincent Price. |
| 0:25.5 | Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures |
| 0:27.7 | of the man with the action-packed expense account. |
| 0:30.6 | America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator... |
| 0:33.4 | Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. |
| 1:03.5 | ... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more old-time radio detectives and crime fighters. |
| 1:08.3 | This week we've got a quartet of meaty stories. |
| 1:12.4 | Mysteries set in and around the butcher's shop. |
| 1:16.5 | First up, we have Chester Morris's Boston Blackie. |
| 1:22.0 | Now, usually, when we hear adventures of the master thief-turned-detective, he's played by Richard Colmer. |
| 1:22.9 | But Morris, who starred as Blackie in a series of B movies, played the character in a |
| 1:29.2 | 1944 summer series. We'll hear him in an episode known as Black Market Blackie, where he |
| 1:36.0 | runs afoul of a black market meat ring who wants him to join their organization. It |
| 1:41.2 | originally aired on NBC on July 21st, 1944. Next, it's a tale well calculated to |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jack Mooney, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jack Mooney and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.