Wednesday, December 3, 2014

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas: Day 3 - Stolen Rings at Christmas with Boston Blackie

Working on sending out one blog entry each day in December to showcase great Old Time Radio for the Christmas season.  Here is day #3!

If you have Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#82). He has a number of great programs available throughout the month of December on his great show.  You can also get a large number of these programs at a variety or resources on the web. One place to find these shows is the 500 OTR Christmas Shows from the Internet Archive. This is a great resources for many of these wonderful radio shows!

Scenes from John Wayne Airport (Orange County, California) - Sunday July 15, 2012
Antique Radios on display at John Wayne Airport, Orange County, California (July 2012)

"Enemy of those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend."

That kinda tells you all that you need to know about Boston Blackie.  He moves effortlessly on both sides of the law, but is primarily interested in doing what is right.  If that means working with the police, then so be it!  The character was created by author Jack Boyle, Boston Blackie was a safecracker who served time in prison before turning his attention to making things right.  The most well known episodes were syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other networks after World War II.  Staring in the role as Boston Blackie was Richard Kollmar.  Mary Wesley (his constant companion) was played by Jan Miner.  Maurice Tarplin plays Police Inspector Farraday, who starts off most episodes with the belief that no matter what the crime was, Blackie was involved.  Tarplin is also know as the voice of the Mysterious Traveler and The Strange Dr. Weird.  

It starts out with Boston Blackie, Mary Wesley, and....Farraday singing Jingle Bells in a car as they are heading out for a Christmas Eve meal.  When they see a store owner chase a suspect of stealing four rings from a jewelry story, their plans get changed!  Brought into the mix was the suspects association with gigantic muscle fresh off the boat from Italy.  Since he did not know English, a quick thinking Boston Blackie was able to foil their plans...as he always did...and save the day.  Here is the link to the episode:
Here are some links to programs relating to Boston Blackie

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas:

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