A Crying Shayne
Oct 16, 2017
“Okay, Shayne…get the picture. A guy in front of you with a .38, a guy in back with a rifle. And you with nothing. If wishing will make it so, you better start wishing to be somewhere else fast because- (BLAM)”
Under the pen name of “Brett Halliday,“ writer Davis Dresser introduced the world to Florida-based private eye Michael Shayne in Dividend on Death in 1939. Dresser continued the adventures of his shamus for fifty novels and hundreds of short stories before farming out his pen name to a staff of writers who kept his character in print. Unlike his contemporaries, Shayne started out as an atypical private detective; he was married, and his adventures were equal parts domestic comedy and deduction of clues. But in 1943, Mrs. Shayne met an untimely end, the laughs fell by the wayside, and Michael Shayne was reinvented as a two-fisted, hard-nosed private eye. The various radio, film, and television incarnations of the character oscillated between the two Shaynes, with some playing up the his-and-hers patter, and others doubling down on the hard-boiled intensity.
Before Shayne came to radio, he hit the big screen. Lloyd Nolan starred in a series of films for 20th Century Fox before Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver himself) headlined a run for PRC. Shayne first came to radio in 1944 in a West Coast series that eventually went national in 1946. Radio character Wally Maher (heard as Sgt. Grebb on The Line-Up and as Lt. Riley on Let George Do It) starred as Shayne with Cathy Lewis as his secretary Phyllis Knight. This series focused on the lighter aspects of the character, with well-developed characterizations for Shayne and Cathy. The two would exchange flirtations as they solved their cases; imagine if Helen Asher accompanied Richard Diamond on his cases, and you’ll get the idea. The Maher series ran until November 14, 1947. When it ran its course, Shayne would be off the air for almost a year before he returned in a very different style and format, and it’s this series that is best remembered among radio fans.
The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, directed by radio veteran Bill Rousseau, came to the air in 1948 for twenty-six syndicated episodes. Rousseau had previously directed Jack Webb in the ultra-hard-boiled Pat Novak For Hire and he brought a similar tone to the revamped Shayneseries. Each episode opened with a musical barrage, ratcheting up the tension before audiences heard a tease of the story to come. Usually, it was Michael Shayne describing his latest tight spot, on the receiving end of a beating or facing down the business end of a gun. This new series uprooted Shayne from Miami and plopped him down in New Orleans. Phyllis Knight didn’t make the trip, but a rotating assortment of femme fatales and damsels in distress turned up to keep Shayne in and out of trouble. Shayne took a licking and kept on ticking; Joe Mannix may be the only fictional private eye to rival Shayne in the injury department. Rousseau’s old collaborator Jack Webb even joined the cast as Shayne’s police foil, Inspector LeFevre. And stepping into the title role was Jeff Chandler, an actor selected by Rousseau out of a field of contenders.
Chandler is well known to radio fans as bashful biology teacher (and 180 degrees away from Michael Shayne!) Philip Boynton on Our Miss Brooks, and his most famous film role as Cochise opposite Jimmy Stewart in Broken Arrow. His first film role came opposite Dick Powell in Johnny O’Clock(1947), and he was a top leading man throughout the 1950s. Sadly, his career was cut tragically short in 1961 when a botched operation for a spinal disc herniation resulted in his death at the age of 42.
It’s a shame; his performance as Michael Shayne helps to ground a series that is otherwise pretty over the top. Even throughout the beatings, the bullet wounds, the smoky dames and the snappy patter, Chandler’s Shayne is a down to earth guy with the right touch of humor behind his gritted teeth. And his years on Our Miss Brooks demonstrate his comfort with comedy and versatility as an actor. There’s no doubt he had decades of good work ahead of him, but we have 26 episodes of Michael Shayne to enjoy and celebrate the too-short life of this talented actor. Along with Jack Webb, Chandler is supported in these shows by great radio talents like Larry Dobkin, Frank Lovejoy, Hans Conried, Vivi Jannis, and more.
A 1952 - 1953 ABC series starred Donald Curtis, and later Robert Sterling and Vinton Hayworth as Shayne, but the Chandler syndicated series continued to air all across the country during this period. The Chandler episodes continued to run in several markets throughout the 1950s. Not bad for a private eye who was usually in debt, on the verge of losing his license, and nursing a head injury.