Episode 665 - Downbeat Pete (Pete Kelly's Blues)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2026
⏱️ 126 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our month of Jack Webb continues with his most unusual crime drama - Pete Kelly's Blues, a show that incorporated Webb's love of jazz into its weekly mysteries. Kelly played cornet in a combo at a Kansas City speakeasy during Prohibition, and each episode featured vocal and instrumental musical numbers. Though it didn't last long on radio, Webb brought Pete Kelly's Blues to the big screen with a cast that included Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. We'll hear four episodes of the short-lived series: "Gus Trudeau" (originally aired on NBC on August 15, 1951); "Zelda" (originally aired on NBC on September 5, 1951); "The Dutchman" (originally aired on NBC on September 12, 1951); and "June Gould" (originally aired on NBC September 19, 1951).
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. |
| 1:02.7 | ... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more old-time radio detectives and crime solvers. |
| 1:14.3 | Our month-long salute to Jack Webb continues this week with his unique crime drama Pete Kelly's Blues. Unlike the other shows we've heard this month starring Webb, Pete Kelly's Blues was a period piece, set in Kansas |
| 1:20.5 | City, Missouri during the Prohibition era, and the show incorporated Webb's love of jazz, |
| 1:26.8 | with multiple musical numbers performed in each episode. |
| 1:30.3 | Webb starred as Pete Kelly, a cornet player with a combo that performed in a speakeasy run by the often-mentioned, |
| 1:38.3 | but never seen or heard, George Lupo, a penny-pinching character who had more than a few things in common |
| 1:46.2 | with Anthony J. Lyon of Jeff Regan investigator. Pete Kelly's world was full of gangsters, |
| 1:52.8 | gun malls, crooked cops, and other desperate characters, and in between sets, Kelly was |
| 1:59.5 | pulled into murders, missing persons cases, and more. |
... |
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