Episode 663 - Waterfront Webb (Pat Novak for Hire)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 128 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We kick off a new month-long series saluting the great Jack Webb in honor of his April 2nd birthday, and we're starting with Pat Novak for Hire - his ultra-hard boiled series that put him on the map. Novak never looked for trouble but always found it on the San Francisco waterfront, and we'll hear him try to keep his head above water in four radio mysteries: "Jack of Clubs" (originally aired on ABC on February 20, 1949); "Fleet Lady" (originally aired on ABC on March 6, 1949); "John St. John" (originally aired on ABC on May 21, 1949); and "Agnes Bolton" (originally aired on ABC on June 4, 1949).
Transcript
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| 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. |
| 1:02.0 | ... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more Old Time Radio detectives and crime solvers. This month we're celebrating the birthday of one of the patron saints of old time radio mystery and crime drama, producer, director, and actor Jack Webb. |
| 1:14.9 | Born April 2nd, 1920, Webb is best known today for Dragnet, |
| 1:20.7 | but that landmark police procedural was just one of many radio mysteries he headlined in the 40s and 50s. Each Sunday in April will |
| 1:29.5 | shine a spotlight on one of those shows, starting today with Pat Novak for Hire, the series that |
| 1:36.5 | really put Webb on the map and helped pave the way for his future success. Pat Novak never went |
| 1:43.3 | looking for trouble, but it always found him. Novak |
| 1:47.0 | tried to make a living renting boats on the San Francisco waterfront, but he inevitably wound |
| 1:52.2 | up involved in a mystery. Along the way, he'd be helped by Barfly Jaco Madigan, one of Radio's |
| 1:59.4 | best supporting characters, and he'd be hindered by |
... |
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