Radio
Legends:
Nightbeat, Volume 2
Liner notes written by Harlan Zinck
"Hi, this is Randy Stone. I cover the nightbeat for the Chicago Star..."
In the postwar years, a new style of filmmaking began to emerge. Inspired in
part by the moody and avant-garde expressionistic school that the Germans
brought to the medium in the last days of the silent era, American mystery and
detective films began adopting a dark and shadowy look, as well as an air of
anxiety, pessimism, and suspicion in both plot and characterization. To critics,
it became known as "film noir" -- literally "black film" or "black cinema" -- a
style that would also quickly make its way to radio in such hard-bitten,
downbeat series as "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe" and "Broadway's My Beat."
One of the top proponents of this style - and arguably the best of radio's
various newspaper-based dramas - was "Nightbeat," the story of the hard-nosed
but often soft-hearted Chicago Star newsman Randy Stone and his quest for the
human news behind the headlines. Starring Frank Lovejoy in the leading role,
Stone came to vivid life thanks to expert scripts by experienced scribes like
Russell Hughes (who would also write similar stories for "Box 13" and "Richard
Diamond"), E. Jack Neumann, John Michael Hayes (who would later go on to write
the Hitchcock film classics "To Catch a Thief" and "Rear Window"), and Larry
Marcus. Lovejoy's distinctive voice and manner, combined with performances by
veteran radio performers like Lurene Tuttle, Peter Leeds, Jeff Corey, and Jerry
Hausner, gave "Nightbeat" an unusual and engrossing style - literally film noir
for the mind. One week the story would be lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek, the
next an emotional tragedy with a downbeat ending; there would be suspenseful
races for time and quiet reflections on everyday life among the masses. Through
it all, Randy Stone, in a hard-boiled yet sensitive portrayal by Frank Lovejoy,
would narrate the story and comment on it from beginning to end -- often with a
hard-edged cynicism that long-time fans knew was a cover for Stone's personal
sense of fairness and morality.
Though generally popular with listeners, "Nightbeat" spent most of its two-year
run bouncing around the NBC schedule -- usually without a sponsor and sustained
by the network. Fans of the series often complained that they didn't know from
week to week when (or if) it would be on at all. As a result, radio enthusiasts
of today have probably heard more "Nightbeat" programs that most listeners heard
when it was first broadcast over fifty years ago. But you'll never have a
problem knowing when you can hear "Nightbeat" with this second Radio Legends
collection, which features twenty more full-length NBC broadcasts from 1950.
Here is the complete content of this 10-CD set:
The Girl from Kansas
Monday, June 5, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
The Football Player and the Syndicate
Monday, June 12, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
Vincent and the Painter
Monday, June 19, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
The Juvenile Gangster
Monday, June 26, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
Marty
Monday, July 3, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
'Twill Be the Death of Me
Monday, July 10, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
Molly Keller
Monday, July 17, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
The Devil's Bible
Monday, July 24, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
The City at Your Fingertips
Monday, July 31, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Wheaties
Old Blind Pop
Monday, August 7, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Gunner's Last Fight
Monday, August 14, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Doctor's Secret
Monday, August 21, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Old Home Week
Monday, September 4, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Monday, September 11, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Wanna Buy a Story?
Monday, September 18, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
A Case of Butter
Monday, September 25, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Kenny Day Amnesia Case
Friday, October 6, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Einar Pierce and Family
Friday, October 13, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Judge Arnold's Daughter
Friday, October 20, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Doctor's Daughter
Friday, October 27, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
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