Episode 67 - X Marks the Spot (Man Called X)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2014
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
British big screen star Herbert Marshall finds danger at every turn as secret agent Ken Thurston, aka The Man Called X. From 1944 to 1952, Thurston crossed oceans and continents on top secret missions to keep America safe in the perilous years following World War II. We'll hear this debonair man of mystery in "Five Ounces of Treason," originally aired on NBC on January 13, 1951.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, |
| 0:28.0 | there you will find the man called thanks. That's how radio audiences were introduced to our detective this week, |
| 0:39.0 | as they tuned in for the adventures of Globetrotting secret agent Ken Thurston, better known by his |
| 0:45.3 | code name or code letter, X. The man called X was one of radio's most popular espionage programs and it's anchored by the lead |
| 0:54.5 | performance of a big screen star. Ken Thurston was an agent of the Bureau, an |
| 1:00.0 | American-based Intelligence Agency and each week he was dispatched to another part of the world |
| 1:06.1 | on assignments ranging from thwarting saboteurs to assisting with defections. |
| 1:11.9 | Tagging along on those assignments was Pagon Zelschmidt, a con man |
| 1:16.1 | always after a buck and who provided the comic relief for the proceedings. The man called |
| 1:21.7 | X was created by J Richard Kennedy and it was directed for most of its run by Jack Johnstone |
| 1:27.7 | The talent behind the Bob Bailey years of yours truly Johnny Dollar |
| 1:31.9 | The shoes of the man called X were filled by British character actor Herbert Marshall, |
| 1:37.0 | who may be best known for his turn in Alfred Hitchcock's foreign correspondent. |
| 1:42.0 | Marshall's suave debonair delivery was perfect for the voice of an international |
| 1:47.2 | trouble shooter. |
| 1:48.2 | He had served in World War I in the London Scottish Regiment, an outfit that included actors Ronald Coleman, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone. |
| 1:58.0 | Marshall was shot in the knee by a sniper during the war, and doctors had to amputate his right leg. He was able to |
| 2:04.9 | hide his prosthetic limb from audiences for nearly his entire career. |
| 2:08.8 | Marshall worked on radio as a frequent guest onense, the Lux Radio Theater, and as a guest host of the Jack Benny program. |
| 2:18.0 | Pagan was played by Leon Bilasco, a Russian-born musician and actor who appeared in Casablanca, Yankee Doodle, Dandy, and other films of the 1940s. |
| 2:29.1 | And for most of the run, the chief of the Bureau was played by Will Wright, a radio veteran who could be heard on |
| 2:35.2 | suspense and tales of the Texas Rangers. Like other shows we've heard on the podcast, |
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