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Old Time Radio Researchers GroupBoston Blackie - Single Episodes

BOSTON BLACKIE

Boston Blackie is a fictional character who has been on both sides of the law. As originally created by author Jack Boyle, he was a safecracker -- a hardened criminal who had served time in a California prison. Prowling the underworld as a detective in adaptations for films, radio, and television, the detective Boston Blackie was "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend".

The Boston Blackie radio series, starring Chester Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show -- Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer.

On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer. While investigating mysteries, Blackie invaribly encountered harebrained Police Inspector Farraday (Maurice Tarplin) and always solved the mystery to Farraday's amazement.

Initially, friction surfaced in the relationship between Blackie and Farraday, but as the series continued, Farraday recognized Blackie's talents and requested assistance. Blackie dated Mary Wesley (Jan Miner), and for the first half of the series, his best pal Shorty was always on hand. The humorless Farraday was on the receiving end of Blackie's bad puns and word play.

Updated with Version 3 Files on 18-Nov-2009

From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Notes

OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHER'S GROUP

This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

If you are interested in preserving old time radio, you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Yahoo.


This is the Single Episode Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.

Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.


Relax, listen, and enjoy!

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OTRR Definitions:

OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that is Certified Accurate indicates that all the episodes are properly identified and labeled but that the series does not contain all known extant episodes.

OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that is Certified Complete is the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implies that all the files in the series are Certified Accurate but also indicates that the series is as complete as possible – it includes all extant episodes.

Individual Files

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Reviewer: OTRRArchive - - November 19, 2009
Subject: Updated Files
18-Nov-2009: Corrected the Larry the Kid vs Savinni episode, plus some minor corrections on about a dozen other episodes.

Reviewer: LeGrande - - June 1, 2009
Subject: One of the more entertaining detective series
The well-written back-and-forth bickering between Blackie and Inspector Farriday helps propel this series beyond more mundane "solve the crime" shows. Blackie also has to solve his cases without the help (and often with direct opposition) from the police, which adds a nice twist. And rather than Mary just being a female friend, she's really Blackie's girl, which makes things just a tad more believable. It's a very listenable show, even after repeated listenings.

Reviewer: catfreak - - January 11, 2008
Subject: Boston Blackie mistake
The episode titled Larry The Kid vs Savinni is incorrect. The episode is, in fact, Eva Cronin Is Stalked.

Otherwise, this is a fine set that sounds great!

A "must have"