It's one of the single greatest tragedies in old time radio drama; that the incredible show Luke Slaughter of Tombstone produced only sixteen episodes in it's entire run.  It was 1958,  the tail end of the golden era of radio, and far fewer shows were being made. Television was the new kid on the block,  and it was forcefully draining away those vital listeners and advertising dollars. To add to the larger problem, LSoT had apparently been eclipsed in the CBS radio stable by the popularity of the recent Frontier Gentleman and the upcoming Have Gun Will Travel.  These were incredible shows,  (both starring John Dehner, one of the best voices in OTR),  but the stunning burst of energy that was LSoT was suffocated between them...and the merciless onslaught of television. Luke Slaughter was played by character actor Sam Buffington, whose hyper-masculine vocal timbre made for a commanding radio figure.  He had the kind of gravitas that one associates with more famous voices like William Conrad and Orson Welles, and I believe that, if his career had started twenty years sooner, he might have had a better place in radio history.   Buffington played dozens of bit parts on television throughout the late 1950's, primarily westerns,  ending with a regular part in the fun Audie Murphy series Whispering Smith.  Sadly, both his part on the show and his life ended with his suicide in 1960.  He was only 29 years old.  To me, this adds a poignancy to the strong impression that the loss of  LSoT itself naturally provides;  how such an amazing talent could have passed so quickly and unfortunately.

Unlike many westerns, the character of  Luke  Slaughter was the boss of the Cattle operation,  and unlike so many western figures,  he was no mysterious loner.  He was the man in charge,  the man giving the orders,  and everyone around him knew it.   LSoT was populated by a colourful cast of various cowboy-type characters,  including the obligatory coot, Witchita,  played by the highly amusing Junius Matthews (the voice of Rabbit in the classic Winnie the Pooh films from 1966 to 1977).  The noted writer and producer of radio dramas, William N. Robson,  the man who put some of the spine in the scripts of both Escape and Suspense, injected an amazing amount of colour in each of the personalities on the show,  coaxing the humanity from what could have easily been stock peripheral characters. 

In my opinion Luke Slaughter of Tombstone effortlessly rises to the level of legendary radio westerns like The Six Shooter and Gunsmoke.  Those 16 episodes are as solid as any I've heard,  with sophisticated scripts and acting that reflect the maturity of the classic radio drama in it's final years.  It's good,  potent stuff,  and I recommend it highly!
Free HQ downloads of the entire series on Archive.org HERE

Glenn Ford was a busy man.   Along with his extensive list of films, he appeared in numerous TV shows in his career, and,  it seems,  quite a bit of radio.  To illustrate the point,  in 1950 alone he was in three films,  The White Tower, Convicted,  and The Flying Missile.  On top of that, if that weren't impressive enough, he recorded at least twenty episodes of NBC radio's private eye drama, Christopher London.

The character of London was crafted "especially for radio" by Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the legendary Perry Mason,  and,  as it's intro informs us, the show itself was "transcribed, produced, and directed by William N. Robson",  the titan behind such radio epics as Escape, Suspense, and the short-lived cowboy classic, Luke Slaughter of Tombstone.  London is a smart and funny  character, but also quite tough as well;  he's a man that will "go anywhere and do anything...for a price."

The scripts are amazingly sophisticated, and the stories are both fun and quite serious, which is what one would expect from someone with Robson's serious chops.  They suit Glenn Ford's casually sober style perfectly;  Christopher London is a fully-realised person due to Ford's relaxed way with a phrase and complete control of every scene.

Normally when I like a newly discovered radio show,  I tend to ration them,  especially if there are few existing episodes.  Not so with Christopher London;  I gobbled them up greedily in one sitting.  They're so different in style and tone from other private eye dramas,  and such a pleasant listen.  It pains me that there are only three installments known to exist.  I have one of them below for download;   I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Download Christopher London - The Terrible Price of Sugar HERE
Download NIGHT BEAT - Christopher London Promo  HERE

Hot on the heels of the Basil Rathbone personality piece, Tales of Fatima,  we have another series to which he lends his outstanding presence.  Europe Confidential was a colourful 1950's suspense-adventure series, hosted by Rathbone, who introduced each story with that flair that his many fans had come to expect.  The show was very much in the mold of great radio dramas such as Night Beat, Box 13, & The Lives of Harry Lime (in fact, EC apparently recycled some scripts from the latter), and fans of those shows will enjoy the dry noir-type delivery here that made such dramas as Dragnet great classics of old time radio.

Although Rathbone was the big-name draw of the show,  it's star was actually British-Canadian character actor Lionel Murton.  Murton played bit parts in dozens of British television series,  including such notables as Danger Man,  Ghost Squad,  Man in a Suitcase,  an The Persuaders,  as well as making a few pointed blips on the international radar with small roles in films such as The Mouse That Roared, The Dirty Dozen, and Patton.

In Europe Confidential, Murton played Mike Connoy,  a reporter based in "the Paris office of a famous American newspaper",  because it's  "where the news is made".   Connoy is a serious but very human character;  behind his world-weary presentation, he always seems mildly bemused by the intensity of each situation he's in.  He's primarily an observer;  very rarely are there Sam Spade-type moments where Connoy tussles with a villain.  His specialty is awareness,  and that's Mike Connoy's secret weapon.

As an artifact of the the post-WWII Cold War era, Europe Confidential is interesting from a modern perspective.  That idea that Europe was the center of all manner of international intrigue is less valid today, after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and rise of the United States as the top world power.  Back then, Europe was the staging ground for hundreds of very real and dangerous games of political chess, and Mike Connoy was in the thick of it.

This is a very enjoyable suspense programme,  and I commend it to you highly;  if you enjoy the two episodes available below,  there are more available free on the web.

Download Europe Confidential:  The Whiplash Steele Affair  HERE
Download Europe Confidential:  The Time Machine Affair  HERE

I was a Communist for the FBI was a 1952 radio drama based on the activities of FBI informant Matt Cvetic.  Cvetic became a member of the Communist party in Pittsburgh, reporting their movements to the FBI.  These stories were detailed in the Saturday Evening Post, and inspired this radio drama,  a TV show called I Walk Alone,  and even an academy award nominated film.

The Radio drama ran for 78 episodes and starred Dana Andrews,  who starred in a legion of very good movies through the 40's and the 50's.  Like the film,  the radio incarnation of Matt Cvetic was  a strong figure of great patriotism and sterling moral character,  a characterisation which conflicts pretty starkly against the reality of the man.  It certainly made for great radio!   The radio version is very tightly written and very well produced,  which can probably be explained by the high budget allotted for it...$12,000 per week in 1952!

I've always enjoyed the intense drama of this show.  When I was younger,  it seemed quite a bit more sophisticated than most of the other shows,  which could be explained by the excellent budget and choice of subject matter, as well as being produced in the twilight of the radio years,  when the technology was superior and the writers were seasoned veterans of the 1940's.  To this day, when I listen to it,  I sit a bit nearer the edge of my seat;  Dana Andrews is exceptionally tough as Cvetic,  and the scenarios can be quite dire.  The villains are basically a mix between Nazis and mobsters,  and like the film version,  it comes across as a very good example of a private detective show.  The big selling point is that he's always on the edge of being found out;  the evil Communist agents trust no one,  especially not Matt Cvetic.  He's always forced to think on his feet, and sometimes...he slips.

It's great stuff.

Download the episode I Walk Alone - HERE

Tales of Fatima was a radio series that ran from January through October,  1949.  It was basically an advertising vehicle for the Fatima brand of cigarettes, but it had incredible personality, primarily due to the commanding voice of a legend of radio,  cinema, and the Shakespearean stage,   Basil Rathbone.  

Unlike his other great roles in such legendary features as The Mark Of Zorro, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and both the film and radio adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes canon,  Tales of Fatima had Rathbone playing himself, and quite charmingly so.   The shows, in spite of their dramatic and adventurous stories, were actually amusingly light-hearted,  and Rathbone brought to them all of those acting skills that made him a household name.  It's very cool to see him interact with the story as himself;  the characters refer to his profession as an actor,  and yet,  he also has this other side...a man of action and solver of murders and mysteries.  It's a treat for any true fan.

Each episode was set in an exotic locale, or on a dark and stormy night,  as befits a drama funded by a maker of Turkish cigarettes,  and the mysterious and oracular character of Fatima was usually the inspiration for the solution.  We would hear her breathy voice utter such sage-like (and cigarette-oriented) bits of wisdom as, "In the words of Fatima...habit is law...we're all of us slaves to a habit...".  

Sends chills up the spine, don't it?

Cigarettes were,  as now,  big business,  and the cigarette companies put big dollars into radio.  Fatima cigarettes had quite a few superstars putting a presentable face on lung cancer (Jack Webb being the voice of the brand in ad spots),  and any regular listener of old time radio has heard the ubiquitous commercials for Chesterfield cigarettes,  who boasted the (well-paid) support of such legends as Alan Ladd,  Rita Hayworth, Gary Cooper, Jack Webb, and yes, even Basil Rathbone himself.  I've included a few marketing images below.
In spite of Rathbone's amazing presence, clever scripts, and a few colourful guest stars (Rex Harrison, Bela Lugosi and Lili Palmer among them), Tales of Fatima ran only thirty-nine episodes before it ended in the late fall of 1949.  Rathbone continued to make movies,  and during this period he worked on radio and the stage,  winning a Tony award for his work on Broadway.  He went on to do a one-man stage show, as well as numerous appearances on the new medium of television. 

Sadly enough, only two episodes of  this fun radio drama exist today, and I include them both below.

Download   'Tales Of Fatima - A Much Expected Murder'  HERE
Download   'Tales Of Fatima - Time To Kill'  HERE

When I was a wee lad, growing weedlike in the historical hamlet of Napavine, I was a mad lover of radio shows. I searched the airwaves fanatically for the odd random radio drama here and there, with Jeff, my "basically bro", foraging alongside, somehow oblivious to the idea that radio stations had regular schedules where we might have a more regular listen. It was all in the good though, as the pursuit, in all truth, was the spice in the pie. At some point we caught the spoor, and took a more measured and logical approach, which succeeded admirably.

We had discovered the radio shows on Sunday after the big band broadcast called THE GOLDEN YEARS, broadcast from the local station KELA, which was only half an hour(only one show!!!). We had also found the incredible treasure trove from noon to midnight both Saturday and Sunday on a station from San Francisco called KFBK(a primarily news station, which back in the 50's was the home to Billy Jack Wills, the Country Boogie brother of western swing legend Bob Wills). What an incredible feast.

After that, the foraging was comparatively rare; why scrabble amongst the rocks for fungus when the larder is packed to the top with prime rib? But I was conditioned to the practice, and sometimes sat in the dark with my little plug-in radio on my lap, craning to hear if that monotone voice(ect.) was a radio drama or something less captivating, such as the local farm report.

It was on one of these nights that I discovered Bertie Wooster and his incredible gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves.

For them (rare oddballs) that aren't in-the-know, Jeeves and Wooster are the creations of british comic genius, Sir Pelham Grenville "P. G." Wodehouse, a madman with a sentence, and perhaps the most insanely funny writer in the English language. The scenarios that he puts poor Bertram Wooster in are complex and silly, maddening and charming...but he always makes sure the super-genius Jeeves is always there to steer the ship away from the rocks in to safe harbour.

To make a long story, one evening I heard them on the radio!!! The actors, Sir Michael Hordern (as Jeeves), and the skilled Richard Briers(as Bertie), mad me laugh out loud, which is next to impossible, and as rare as truth from an American politician! I told Jeff immediately, but sadly heard only the last few episodes before it finished, and in those pre-internet days (!!!), we just had to suffer in our isolations. It wasn't until Jeff spent a university term in the UK that we were able to hear a full broadcast, blissfully unaware that there were actually many full-cast dramatisations of these incredible shows. Mr. Jeff may remember the history differently, but old men must be forgiven their failings in memory.

I now own FIVE of the blessed dramas, and I'm in a kind of Brit-geek heaven!!! They are exactly as charming and funny as I remember. I've been listening to them on the bus to and from work, and I haven't yet managed to put the stifle to the occasional public guffaw.

Life does get better than that,  but not by much.