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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!

May 23, 2021

When Dashiell Hammett put pen to paper, he forever changed the genre of detective fiction. He created characters and stories that popularized the hard-boiled school, and those tales still entertain readers today. Hammett's works were adapted for successful films, television shows, and radio dramas. In this birthday salute to the author, we'll hear a pair of radio mysteries starring his master private detective Sam Spade: "The Quarter-Eagle Caper" starring Howard Duff (AFRS rebroadcast from November 28, 1948) and "The Shot in the Dark Caper" with Steve Dunne (originally aired on NBC on February 23, 1951). Plus, we'll hear a Suspense adaptation of Hammett's short story "Two Sharp Knives" (originally aired on CBS on December 22, 1942).