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Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, a weekly trip back to the Golden Age of Radio where we rub elbows with the era's greatest private eyes, cops, and crime-fighters. Since 2013, I've been podcasting everything from cozy mysteries to police procedurals, spotlighting characters ranging from hard boiled gumshoes to amateur sleuths. 

Be sure to tune in each Sunday for adventures of a radio detective and the behind-the-scenes stories of their shows. Join me as we spend time with Sam Spade, Johnny Dollar, Sgt. Joe Friday, and more!

Feb 22, 2015

“Down These Mean Streets” marks its one hundredth episode with a king-sized, extra-large podcast starring four old time radio detectives. First, Alan Ladd is Dan Holiday in “Find Me, Find Death” from Box 13. Then, Dick Powell croons his way through a crime as Richard Diamond, Private Detective in “Lady in...


Feb 15, 2015

For fourteen films and hundreds of radio episodes, Nigel Bruce brought the most famous sidekick in detective fiction to life. As Dr. John H. Watson, Bruce gave an avuncular charm and character to Sherlock Holmes’ friend and biographer. We’ll hear him co-starring with Basil Rathbone in “The Amateur Mendicant...


Feb 8, 2015

Charles Russell stars as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar in one of the earliest adventures of "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator." Russell, a 20th Century Fox contract player, portrayed Dollar in the show's first year on the air and introduced listeners to a glib, tough gumshoe who was a genius at...


Feb 1, 2015

Sixty-five years ago this week, radio listeners met Randy Stone, the intrepid Chicago reporter of Night Beat. Every night, Randy (played by Frank Lovejoy) wanders the streets of the Windy City in search of stories for his column, and he finds dangerous and desperate people and gets involved in their trials and...