THE JOE DIMAGGIO SHOW

Joe DiMaggio

Hank Greenberg told Sport magazine in the September 1949 issue that Joe DiMaggio covered so much ground in center field that the only way to get a hit against the Yankees was “to hit ‘em where Joe wasn’t.” On February of that same year, DiMaggio signed a record contract worth $100,000 and became the first baseball player to break $100,000 in earnings. He already broke Wee Willie Keeler’s all-time hitting streak record and was a weekly celebrity in the New York newspapers. So it came as no surprise that on September 17, 1949, CBS Radio premiered The Joe DiMaggio Show, with that catchy theme, “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.” After 26 weeks, the series went off the air (concluding on March 18, 1950) and NBC immediately attempted to cash in on the ball player’s popularity. On April 15, NBC premiered The Joe DiMaggio show, offering more stations and larger coverage than CBS.

Among the notable guests on the CBS series were Jack Dempsey and Tommy Henrich. The final broadcast of the series featured former president Herbert Hoover opening Boys’ Club week. The Joe DiMaggio Show on NBC pretty much followed the same format of the CBS version. The famous center-fielder for the New York Yankees was the emcee and sports commentator who each week presented on his program the following special features:

Joe DiMaggio in living color

Commentary on outstanding happenings in the baseball world tied in with the various big league games played each week. A sports quiz, featuring Jack Barry, famous emcee of Juvenile Jury as conductor for the quiz, which pitted “Kids versus Grown-ups” with contestants chosen from the studio audience and with questions on various sports subjects both general and specific, past and current. The contestants were arranged in two “teams” – the teams play a “3-inning game” following the rules of baseball. For every question correctly answered, the team scores one run. At the end of the quiz, the team with the greater number of runs was the winner. Jack Barry was the “pitcher”… of questions; Joe DiMaggio was the “umpire” who called the “hits” or errors. Scores were announced at the end of every inning and at the end of the game. Each member of the winning team received a 17-jewel Helbros wrist watch. Each member of the losing teams received a year’s subscription to Sport Magazine.

Each broadcast featured a famous sports writer and Joe DiMaggio invited them to tell their favorite sports story. This was revealed in the form of a brief dramatization, for which the celebrated athlete would also appear as a guest for a quick interview with Joe DiMaggio. (The interviews were scriped, not improv, as evident when reviewing the scripts.) The dramas featured New York radio actors Leon Janney, Mandell Kramer and Everett Sloane more often than any others, but the productions used different actors from time to time.

Joe DiMaggio

There was a letter-answering spot in which DiMaggio answered some of the questions asked in letters sent to the program by listeners, who were instructed to mail their sports questions to Joe DiMaggio, NBC, New York 20. The most interesting letters each week were answered on the air by DiMaggio himself.

The program was a Barry-Enright Production and was under direction of Dan Enright. Production-direction was handled by Fred Weihe. The show was taped in advance and edited by Dan Enright. The script writer for the biographical dramas was Mike Oppenheimer. Musical background and bridges: Arlo Hults (generally known simply as Arlo), organist. While the exact reason is not known, the most obvious answer of why the series was transcribed rather than broadcast “live” was to accommodate DiMaggio’s schedule. On the same day the series premiered, April 15, DiMaggio was not in the radio studio but was playing against the Dodgers on the field at Yankee Stadium. No one could predict a game would or would not go into extra innings, and his performance on the field could not be affected by the radio series.

The premiere broadcast was reviewed in the Pine Plains, NY Register-Herald: “…the fans of baseball rated a four-star salute… this column recommends it for good radio listening if you are a baseball follower… Incidentally, DiMaggio has a voice which could, if he desires, bring him in the ranks of the top-notch radio sports announcers when his baseball days are over.”

Don DiMaggio (left) and his brother Joe DiMaggio (right).

For baseball fans, the radio series is a fascination of sports commentary. The Yankee Clipper in his opening show gave his version of the major league races for 1950 by picking the Yankees to win in the American League closely contested by Boston, Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia in that order. In the National League, DiMaggio picked the Dodgers to repeat with plenty of trouble from the Cardinals, Boston Braves and the Giants with the Giants the dark horse to win the National League crown.

Another interesting part of the show was Tommy Henrich’s answer to DiMaggio’s question: “Tommy, what is the hardest park in the American League for you to hit in?” Henrich replied by naming the parks in Boston and Washington stating that the distance in both stadiums to the right field fence was longer than in other parks.

Joe DiMaggio takes a swing.

For the broadcast of May 20, special guest was David W. Armstrong, National Director of the Boys’ Clubs of America, who presented Joe DiMaggio with the First Annual Boys’ Clubs of America “Man and Boy Award” in recognition of DiMaggio’s leadership and guidance among the Boys’ Clubs of America members.

The August 19 broadcast featured a dramatization of Jim Braddock, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Braddock’s success story would later be filmed as a motion-picture in 2005 as Cinderella Man. Playing the role of Braddock was George Reeves, before he became a household name as the Man of Steel on television.

The September 2 broadcast included a salute to the Fresh Air Fund, a fund used to send deserving youngsters to camp in the summer. Guest Irving Marsh told about the approaching Fresh Air Fund Football Game planned for the next week, the 12^th annual game for the Fund – would be played September 7 at the Polo Grounds in New York between the Los Angeles Rams and the Giants.

DiMaggio himself did appear on radio prior to The Joe DiMaggio Show, in the form of guest appearances. On the April 14, 1946 broadcast of The Radio Hall of Fame, DiMaggio was among the guests saluting America’s favorite pastime. On the February 12, 1941 broadcast of It’s Time to Smile, Joe DiMaggio participated in a comedy sketch titled “The Teetering Towers,” in which the ball player was moving into Eddie Cantor’s apartment building. DiMaggio was interviewed by Rudy Vallee on the November 17, 1938 broadcast of The Royal Gelatin Hour.

Broadcast Schedule

April 15, 1950 to October 7, 1950

East Coast Broadcasts: Saturday evening from 7:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Chicago Broadcasts: Saturday evening from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. (not broadcast in Chicago on October 7).

West Coast Broadcasts: Saturday evening from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

The final three episodes were broadcast West of Chicago only. In New York and along the East Coast, Art Linkletter’s People Are Funny was broadcast in the time slot. (The Joe DiMaggio Show was not broadcast on October 7 in Chicago.)

Episode Guide

Broadcast of April 15, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Tom Meany, associate-editor, Collier’s magazine and one of the country’s leading sports reporters and columnists.

Dramatic story is about Tommy Henrich, Yankee baseball star, and his performances of last season.

Tommy (Old Reliable) Henrich is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Ed Latimer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of April 22, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Ben Epstein of the New York Daily Mirror sports staff.

Dramatic story is about the true experience of Charley “Casey” Stengle who wanted to be a ball player and who became one of the greatest managers of all time.

Charley “Casey” Stengel, manager of the New York Yankees, is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story. This was not the first time Stengel and DiMaggio appeared together on the same radio broadcast. On October 12, 1948, an official announcement was made over the Mutual Broadcasting Company with Stan Lomax introducing Dan Topping and Del Webb, who in turn introduced Stengel as the new manager of the New York Yankees. Both Stengel and DiMaggio were interviewed during the 1948 broadcast.

Supporting cast: Charles Irving, Frankie Thomas and Stefan Schnabel.

Broadcast of April 29, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Art Morrow, sports writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dramatic story is about Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics.

Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, was special guest after the drama.

The Morrow and Mack portions were transcribed from Philadelphia.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandell Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of May 6, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Milt Gross, sports reporter and columnist for the New York Post.

Dramatic story is about Dominic (Dom) DiMaggio, Joe’s kid brother and player with the Boston Red Sox.

Dominic DiMaggio was special guest after the drama.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandell Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of May 13, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Lou Effrat of the New York Times.

Dramatic story is about Luke Appling, Chicago White Sox infield star.

Luke Appling is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Charles Irving, Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Broadcast of May 20, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Joe Trimble, sports writer for the New York Daily News.

Dramatic story is about Lou Boudreau, playing manager for the Cleveland Indians.

Luke Appling is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Charles Irving, Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Broadcast of May 27, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Bob Cooke, of the New York Herald Tribune

Dramatic story is about Gene Sarazen, famous golfer, who is also a special guest following the dramatization of the story Cooke has told.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Leon Janney and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of June 3, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Jim Kahn, associate editor of Collier’s magazine.

Dramatic story is about Phil Rizzuto, shortstop for the New York Yankees. Rizzuto is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story Jim Kahn has told.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of June 10, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Charlie Hankinson, a nine-year-old boy who was probably the youngest sportscaster in radio history, and who recently went on the air with his own radio sports program.

Dramatic story is about Dizzy (Jerome) Dean.

Dizzy Dean is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Jay Jackson and Mandel Kramer.

Broadcast of June 17, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Mel Allen, famous sportscaster in New York City.

Dramatic story is about Bob Feller, famous pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.

Bob Feller is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story Mel Allen has told.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Broadcast of June 24, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Dan Daniel, baseball editor for the New York World Telegram and Sun and author of the daily column, “Dan’s Dope.”

Dramatic story is about Hal Newhouser, famous pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.

Hal Newhouser is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story Dan Daniel has told.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of July 1, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Arthur (Art) Daley, popular columnist of the New York Times, and author of the column “Sports of the Times” since 1942.

Dramatic story is about the life of Pee Wee Reese, short-stop of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Pee Wee Reese is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Leon Janney and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of July 8, 1950.

Instead of a sports writer, the program has a special guest: Ham Fisher, creator of the Joe Palooka comic strip, and considered one of the outstanding contributors to the sport of boxing through his comic character. Fisher says next to Joe Palooka, his favorite fighter is Sugar Ray Robinson.

Dramatic story is about the life of Sugar ray Robinson.

Sugar Ray Robinson is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Trivia: For this broadcast only: musical bridges by John Gart, replacing Arlo at the organ.

Broadcast of July 15, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Al Buck, sports columnist for the New York Post.

Dramatic story is about Lefty Gomez (Vernon Gomez), known as the “whackiest left-hander big league baseball pitcher in the country.

Lefty Gomez is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of July 22, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Don Dunphy, one of the top boxing announcers in the country.

Dramatic story is about Willie Pep, featherweight boxing champion of the world.

Willie Pep is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of July 29, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Jim Burchard, sportswriter for Scrips-Howard newspapers and president of the Lawn tennis Writers Association of America.

Dramatic story is about Pancho Segura, professional tennis champion of the world.

Pancho Segura is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast is unknown.

Broadcast of August 5, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Max Case, sports editor of the New York Journal American.

Dramatic story is about Yogi Berra, catcher for the New York Yankees. Berra’s real name is Larry Berra, and he appears as a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Everett Sloane.

Broadcast of August 12, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Jess Abramson, sports reporter of the New York Herald Tribune.

Dramatic story is about George Kell, battling champion of the American League, and third baseman with the Detroit Tigers.

George Kell is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and Grant Richards.

Broadcast of August 19, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Red Smith of the New York Herald-Tribune.

Dramatic story is about Jimmy Braddock, former heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

Jim Braddock is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney, Mandel Kramer and George Reeves.

Broadcast of August 26, 1950.

Sports writer guests: Frank Graham, feature writer and columnist of the New York Journal-American, who also wrote a regular feature for Sport magazine under the title, “One for the Book.” It wasn’t done on prior broadcasts, but on this date there were two sports writer guests. The second was Dick Young of the New York Daily News reporter who covers the Dodgers games for his paper.

Dramatic story is about Mel Ott, who was until his retirement in 1948, was the manager of the New York Giants.

Mel Ott is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast in unknown.

Broadcast of September 2, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Irving Marsh, assistant sports editor of the New York Herald Tribune.

Dramatic story is about Florence Chadwick, the woman Channel swimmer who this year broke Gertrude Ederle’s record in crossing the English Channel. Charlotte Manson plays the role of Florence Chadwick in this episode.

Supporting cast: Jay Jackson, Mandel Kramer and Charlotte Manson.

Trivia: John Gart was the organist for this episode, the first of two consecutive episodes, replacing Arlo who left for vacation.

Broadcast of September 9, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Harold (Hal) Weisman of the New York Daily Mirror.

Dramatic story is about Umpire Dolly Stark, a retired baseball umpire. Stark retired in 1940 after 21 years as an umpire and ranked with Bill Klem as one of the “greats” in baseball arbitration.

Dolly Stark is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Trivia: John Gart was the organist for this episode, the second of two consecutive episodes, replacing Arlo who was on vacation.

Broadcast of September 16, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Ed Fitzgerald of Sport magazine.

Dramatic story is about Jack Kramer, tennis star.

Jack Kramer is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Donald Buka, Leon Janney and Mandel Kramer.

Trivia: Arlo Hultz, organist, returns from vacation.

Broadcast of September 23, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Lou Effrat, sportswriter of the New York Times.

Dramatic story is about Gus Mauch, trainer for the New York Yankees baseball team.

Gus Mauch is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast: Jackson Beck, Charles Irving and Mandel Kramer.

Broadcast of September 30, 1950.

Sports writer guest: Dick Young of the New York Daily News reporter who covers the Dodgers games for his paper.

Dramatic story is about Carl Hubbell, great pitcher of the Big Leagues of the past. Hubbell retired 14 Yankees in a row during the first game of the 1937 World Series, including Joe DiMaggio, which is mentioned briefly on this program.

Carl Hubbell is a guest in person following the dramatization of the sports story.

Supporting cast is unknown.

Broadcast of October 7, 1950.

There was no sports writer guest for this episode. Instead, Joe DiMaggio presents guest Sid Luckman, pro football star, and interviews him about his personal and professional life.

Closing Notes

To date, only six episodes are known to exist in recorded form. April 15, May 20, July 8, July 15, September 23 and September 30.

After a successful run on radio, Joe DiMaggio tried his hand with television. On September 23, 1950, The Joe DiMaggio Show premiered on NBC-TV as a fifteen-minute series, lasting a short thirteen weeks.

Special thanks to Ken Stockinger for his vast baseball knowledge.

THE GREEN LAMA: The Radio Program (Part Three)

The first eight episodes featured continuity that carried over with a mention of last week’s adventure. If Tulku was shot and injured in last week’s episode, a mention that he was recovering was made at the beginning of next week’s broadcast. In the beginning of episode seven, Tulku makes mention of enjoying the teas of France, the locale of last week’s adventure. This system of reminding the audience of last week’s adventure faded away by episode nine, but was applied in a number of the pulp novels, additional evidence that Crossen had a larger hand in the development of the scripts than initially conceived.

Continuity, however, was thrown along the wayside. Early episodes concluded with Jethro and Tulku discussing an article in the newspaper that intrigued them, a mystery they intended to file away as “The Adventure of….,” offering a tease of next week’s adventure for the benefit of the radio audience. The next week, however, Dumont and Tulku experience or witness the deed described in last week’s newspapers! Could the radio audience have been so observant as to notice this break in continuity? The script writers apparently did. This procedure of teasing the audience about next week’s drama was revised as a mere mention (instead of the characters reading about it in the newspaper) and eventually dropped altogether with the last two broadcasts.

In “The Million Dollar Chopsticks,” Jethro and Tulku arrive in Hong Kong to solve a murder and a theft. In “The Last Dinosaur,” a woman is found murdered by the swimming pool at a Hollywood cocktail party and evidence suggests a baby dinosaur was the culprit. “The Last Dinosaur,” which exists in recorded form, also features an inside-joke. George Fisher, a famed Hollywood columnist, plays himself in character at the party. In “The Adventure of the Perfect Prisoner,” a talented sculptor named Frank Cobb is about to be pardoned from a “model prison” when he is knifed to death. When Jethro investigates, he finds himself up against a prison riot and hundreds of inmates attempting to escape. Other adventures took our heroes to Cairo in “The Man Who Stole A Pyramid,” Paris in “The Return of Madame Pompadour,” and Havana in “The Case of the Dangerous Dog.”

Many radio heroes spent time looking over their shoulders for the baddies who lurked in dark alleys. Criminal psychologists, international couriers and U.S. Intelligence agents were heard at least three times every night on the major networks -- making The Green Lama just another crime program with little to overshadow the competition.

Kendall obviously knew that the hero had to be smarter than the police, but he managed to avoid typifying the police force as dim-witted. Agitated, yes. Keystone Cops, no. The Green Lama would painstakingly expound on each item during an epilogue, proving he was smarter than the criminals, but details so refined that most would consider them “assumptions,” not facts. The Adventures of Ellery Queen gave radio listeners a fair chance to solve the mystery themselves. On The Green Lama, no radio listener could “assume” the facts Dumont revealed to the police and his sidekick at the conclusion of each mystery. The moral of the story, however, was demonstrated to each radio listener: “crime does not pay.”

The Green Lama never had a secretary-love interest like many of his radio competition. There was never a flirtatious relationship. Almost every episode featured a beautiful woman -- married or single -- who would, momentarily, eye the lama with lustful admiration, and this was clearly projected (and instructed) in the scripts. This was never more evident than in “Tapestry in Purple,” when Jessica Bigelow proposes taking Dumont back home for a spell. Naturally, he rejects her advances.

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Jethro Dumont never drank liquor like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, but Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon was clearly an inspiration for the format of the radio program. In half of the cases the criminals shot and killed their partners-in-crime via a double cross, or offered Dumont a fee ten times larger than the value of the stolen property he was hired to find. His clients generally wanted to avoid the police for obvious reasons. 

The Green Lama was against stiff competition, however, regardless of the fact that the character was not the same as other detectives on the airwaves. But then again, every private detective on radio had their own distinct variation-on-a-theme motif.  In The Private Files of Matthew Bell (1952), a police surgeon drew upon his medical skills to pursue crime solving. In Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1949-1962), the title character was a private insurance investigator with an expense account which he would dictate to his clients, thus narrating the weekly mystery. In I Deal in Crime (1946-48), ex-seaman Ross Dolan, suddenly cut from nautical duty, returned to his profession as a Los Angeles private eye. In Mystery is My Hobby (1945-46), Barton Drake, a mystery writer who earned the core of his income as a police detective investigator, pursued the perpetrators of many atrocities. In Dear Margie, It’s Murder (1953), an American vet studying in England under the G.I. Bill found time to assist a Scotland Yard inspector in crime solving. (The show’s title was derived from letters he sent home to his girlfriend, Margie, in which he recalled for her his sleuthing experiences.)

Jethro Dumont and Tulku often exchanged proverbs that meant little to the average radio listener. “It is written that silence is the only true friend of discretion” and “It is written that the unspoken word watches over the hidden action” are two such examples. The script writers went overboard with the use of proverbs during the earliest broadcasts, eventually trimmed down to two or three per broadcast. Scriptwriters Gene Levitt and Bob Mitchell were clearly not a fan of the proverbs, and the slogans were limited in the final two broadcasts of the series. Radio listeners not familiar with the pulp stories for which the series was based on, might consider The Green Lama as a bland imitation of Charlie Chan.

Green Lama scripts used for reference to compile the log.

By 1949, radio listeners were overwhelmed with more private detectives than they could keep track in their own private case files. Almost all of the brash, abrasive gumshoes brushed up against beautiful women, resentful and impatient police inspectors, and an assortment of bookies, touts and stool pigeons who fell victim to a fatal bullet before revealing an important clue. More than one dead body (often three for a general rule) fell within the first 20 minutes. The Green Lama was no exception.

If anything, The Green Lama fell into the Sam Spade clutch. The Adventures of Sam Spade premiered in the summer of 1946 and broke new ground as a weekly private eye show. Spade stole money out of a dead man’s wallet, slept with married women and drank alcohol while dictating his capers to his secretary. Within two years, detective programs ran rampant on all the major networks, but none of them pushed the borders of decency that was commonly found in the pulp magazines, where censorship was lax. When the script writers for the Sam Spade program departed for greener pastures, the new script writers were unable to maintain the sharp edge that made the program so venerated. The program ultimately reverted to the same style as the competition which tried so hard to imitate Spade. This has since become known as the “Sam Spade clutch,” and it wasn’t until two days before the premiere of The Green Lama on CBS that Jack Webb’s new Dragnet program on NBC broke new ground, making all other detective programs weak in comparison.

This was no fault of The Green Lama. In the radio industry, timing was everything and sensational sponsor contracts dictated the longevity of a radio program. Without a sponsor, and Norman MacDonnell’s departure, The Green Lama was bound to fail.

Unable to secure a sponsor, the network allowed the program to air sustaining with the hopes that a potential sponsor would sign a contract. Part of the problem may have been the growing concern for blood n’ thunder programs, which concerned parents were campaigning against. Radio thrillers (and comic books) were considered a bad influence on young children who were influenced by the cops-and-robbers lingo. According to an inter-office memo in the CBS Archives dated July 15, 1949, an unnamed insurance company in New York sought interest, under the condition that the program air at a later time slot to avoid “apprehensive parents and their lettering.”

For the final two broadcasts of the series, Gene Levitt and Bob Mitchell were brought in to co-write the scripts, under the supervision of Kendall Crossen, who clearly provided the plots and nothing more. This ultimately meant a change in character for Jethro Dumont for the last two episodes. He displayed a short fuse and quickly lost his temper. He was briefly depicted lighthearted, with more laughter than the solemn persona radio listeners were used to.

Two of radio’s busiest thespians, both with readily identifiable voices, appeared in the leads. The title character was played by the talented Paul Frees, future voice of the ghost host at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, the dastardly Boris Badenov on Rocky & Bullwinkle, and the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy. Ben Wright, who sported an authentic British accent (and acted in several West End stage productions in England before the war), played the role of Tulku in a similar manner he would, nine years later, enact as Hey Boy on radio’s Have Gun-Will Travel. Wright also doubled as a British Captain and an Inspector for two broadcasts. Actor Herb Vigran played the recurring role of Sgt. Weylan of the local New York police force, but his appearances were limited to the three broadcasts of the series because not all of the adventures took place in New York City. Larry Thor was the announcer.*

* Ironically, weeks before the premiere of The Green Lama, Larry Thor took over the role of Danny Clover from Anthony Ross on Broadway Is My Beat.

actor William Conrad

Today, enthusiasts of old-time radio programs regard the short-run radio program as a mere curio. Recent articles in club newsletters describe the series as “a sleeper” and “a rather easygoing adventure.” Anyone reading the radio scripts would consider the series below par. However, under the capable direction of Norman MacDonnell (who would soon after bring Gunsmoke to CBS airwaves), the series offered above average production values. The supporting cast on The Green Lama also included the cast of Gunsmoke, including Georgia Ellis, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, John Dehner and William Conrad.

The Green Lama never capitalized on the premium concept, and neither the pulps nor comics were being printed and sold in 1949. According to the October 29, 1949, issue of Television-Billboard Magazine, CBS still retained the broadcasting option for The Green Lama, among other radio programs, and the radio program was up for consideration for television adaptation. But The Green Lama never made it to television so the final radio broadcast of August 20, 1949, marked the final adventure with the chant of justice.

EPISODE GUIDE (continued)

Episode #7  “TAPESTRY IN PURPLE”
 East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, July 23, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., ESTWest Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, July 24, 1949, 8:00 to 8:30 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, July 23, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Tony Barrett (Lt. Sloane and the clerk); Gloria Blondell (Jessica Bigelow); John Dehner (Harrison Bigelow); Virginia Eiler (the secretary); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jack Kruschen (Rene Sebastian); Jay Novello (Dahli Han); Peter Rankin (Sidney); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: Berne Surrey and Eugene Wombly
Music: Del Castillo
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Harrison Bigelow hires Jethro Dumont to retrieve a delivery of ten valuable Tibetan paintings of Azmu Sah’ai that are scheduled for arrival at the local airport. Dumont accepts the job, only to discover two crooks, Rene Sebastian and Sidney, are after the same goods. When the paintings fail to arrive at the airport and Dahli Han from Tibet claims they were stolen property, Dumont investigates the details of the case. When the shipping clerk at the airport is shot dead and Harrison Bigelow is murdered in his office, Dumont leads the police to the Bigelow home where he reveals the facts. Jessica Bigelow, widow, partnered with Rene and Sidney to retrieve a valuable purple tapestry known as the Seventh Return of Buddha, hidden in the frame of one of the paintings. The guilty parties are apprehended and the tapestry is handed over to Dahli Han, who will oversee its return to the rightful owners.

Trivia, etc. The original proposed title for this episode was “The Blue Tapestry,” scratched off in last week’s script in favor of the more colorful title.

Episode #8  “THE WORTHLESS DIAMOND”
East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, July 30, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, July 31, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, July 30, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jack Kruschen (Vino Simmons and Damos); Junius Matthews (Hans Judkin and the bellhop); Yvonne Peattie (Louise Lanier); Eric Snowden (Sir Herbert Dunbar); Herb Vigran (Eddie); and Ben Wright (Tulku and Inspector Peters).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: Berne Surrey and Eugene Wombly
Music: Dick Aurandt
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Jethro Dumont flies down to Vallpris, South Africa, to assist Hans Judkin with a problem. It seems diamonds discovered in a new mine are not only genuine, but have created chaos, disorder and riots because money-hungry men have flocked into town to purchase land and start mining for valuable gems. Before he can reveal his suspicions, Judkin is shot dead in the street. Louise Lanier, owner of the Diamond Palace, a gambling hall, seems to be one of the few who profit from the new strangers arriving in town, but she isn’t the only suspect. Damos, her servant, threatened Dumont’s life. When Damos is stabbed to death in the gambling hall, Dumont asks Eddie, the barkeep, to escort him to Lanier’s private diamond. That’s where the solution is revealed: Vino Simmons has been mining her private real estate and then claimed a diamond discovery elsewhere to keep the new arrivals from discovering the real source. Sir Hubert, the local real estate agent, profited from half of the diamonds and the sale of real estate. Dumont apprehends the guilty parties and turns them over to Inspector Peters.

Trivia, etc. A continuity error? Police Commissioner Peters is also referred to as Inspector Peters in the same episode.

Episode #9  “THE GUMBO MAN”
East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, August 6, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, August 7, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, August 6, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Edgar Barrier (Robert Frisbee and the cab driver); Don Diamond (Leo Harrison and the maitre); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Betty Lou Garson (Yvonne Perrin); Jester Hairston (Achille Dufresne); Jack Kruschen (Eddie Damon); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: unknown
Music: Dick Aurandt
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Jethro Dumont and Tulku venture to New Orleans, partly because The Green Lama was to give a lecture on The Effect of the Himilayas on Tibetan Philosophy, and meets Robert Frisbee, the famous historian. Frisbee’s secretary, Pauline Evans, small, blonde and bright as a whip, vanished three days ago. The police have been on it since day two, but haven’t learned anything. Attempting to find a photograph of Pauline, Dumont and Tulku witness two murders. It seems someone doesn’t want her found. There are three suspects in the case: Achille, the gumbo man, who probably never heard of Pauline Evans; Eddie Damon, who wants to see Pauline Evans for business purposes; and Yvonne Perrin, who once hired Pauline Evans and hasn’t seen her in months. After discovering a map in Frisbee’s missing book reveals the location of the hidden gold of Jean Lafitte, Jethro has the gumbo man take him to the swamp to catch Yvonne Perrin in the act of removing the gold. Yvonne posed as Pauline Evans in order to get the information needed to retrieve the treasure. After sneaking up on the woman and stealing her gun, The Green Lama apprehends the murderer.

Trivia, etc. Tulku refers to this as “The Adventure of the Gumbo Man” in the beginning of this episode, but the script cover verifies the title as “The Gumbo Man.” This is a case in point where the title varies from one page of the script to another. Tulku was not referring to the title of the drama, but using the word “adventure” as a noun. Anyone listening to the broadcast would naturally assume the script title is “The Adventure of the Gumbo Man,” but that is inaccurate.
    In this episode, Robert Frisbee comments, “I can’t find my copy of The History of New Orleans by J.S. Kendall.” The last name was a obvious in-joke.
    This is the only episode that reveals Tulku’s last name: Sikkim.
    Closing of episode originally proposed next week’s episode: “Jethro Dumont and I were well out to sea in a small ship when we discovered we had shipped with a ruthless murderer. It was four bells and the end of THE DEATH MARCH before the killer was stopped by…” It seems “The Death March” was proposed but never broadcast.

Episode #10  “THE ADVENTURE OF THE WHITE LADY”
East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, August 13, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, August 14, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, August 13, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Edgar Barrier (Lt. Harlow); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jerry Hausner (Pepita, the dog); Jack Kruschen (Garfield Brommel); Bill Lally (Manfred Thomas); Jack Lloyd (Juan Martinez); Ed Max (Reynolds, the gunman); Ann Tobin (Nina Martinez); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Gene Levitt and Bob Mitchell, from a story by Richard Foster.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: Billy Gould
Music: Dick Aurandt
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Flying back to New York from a recent visit to the island city of Havana, Jethro Dumont and Tulku are forced to bring along a stowaway -- a small, white Chihuahua. Arriving in New York, they are surprised to find the dead body of the dog’s owner, Juan Martinez, in the cargo hold of the plane. Two men, Garfield Brommel and Manfred Thomas, attempt to learn the location of the White Lady, believing Dumont is in possession of the valuable diamonds. In an effort to discover what the White Lady is, Dumont searches for Nina Martinez, the niece of the dead man. After Nina is shot dead, Dumont solves the mystery. The White Lady is a gorgeous white sapphire, imbedded in the rubber of the dog’s toy bone. After the thieves have a falling out, The Green Lama apprehends the survivors of the double-cross and turns them over to Lt. Harlow of the New York Police. The star sapphire is turned over to a U.S. Customs Inspector.

Trivia, etc. The original title of this episode (first draft of the script) was “The Adventure of the Dangerous Dog,” later re-titled “The Case of the Dangerous Dog.” This episode was dramatized on stage at the 1997 Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention under the title of “The Case of the Dangerous Dog,” because the cast had access to the first draft of the script, not the final draft.

Episode #11  “THE CASE OF THE PERFECT PRISONER”
East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, August 20, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, August 21, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, August 20, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Edgar Barrier (Warden Sandoe); William Conrad (Captain Ed Summers); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jack Kruschen (Sammy the Singer); Ed Max (Big Ben Hackett); Clayton Post (Frank Cobb and Al Bowers); Bud Widom (Sgt. Newton and Prisoner #455877); Ben Wright (Tulku); and Dave Young (the guard).
Script Writers: Gene Levitt and Bob Mitchell, from a story by Richard Foster.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: Billy Gould
Music: Dick Aurandt
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Frank Cobb, an inmate at a prison in New York City, is about to receive the surprise of his life. Jethro Dumont helped with Cobb’s rehabilitation by getting his sculptures shown in New York. Arriving at the prison to be present when Cobb receives his pardon, the lama is surprised to discover the dead body of Cobb, knifed in the back. Soon after, an attempted prison break occurs and The Green Lama manages to talk the inmates into dropping their weapons and coming out with their hands up. After further investigation, it appears (initially) that Cobb was responsible for smuggling the weapons into the prison. After questioning inmates like Sammy the Singer and Big Ben Hackett, Dumont finds Sammy’s dead body stashed in a closet. It doesn’t take long for The Green Lama to reveal to Warden Sandoe the guilty culprit. Captain Ed Summers smuggled the guns into the prison, hoping a prison break would cause the Warden to lose his job, so Summers could take his place. Confronted with the truth, and disarmed, Summers is taken into custody.

In Conclusion
Since the Internet these days is flooded with mis-information, usually reprinting the same information found on other websites, it seems fitting to debunk a number of modern-day myths that have sprouted across the globe. One such myth is that the audition recording (and only the audition) offers a teaser of next week’s episode. The fact remains that a teaser was employed at the end of most episodes. Another myth is that a rehearsal recording circulates among collectors. The transcription discs that the five surviving recordings originate verify that they were in fact recordings for broadcast (except for the rehearsal recording). Another claims that The Green Lama was pre-empted on July 10 due to a special “Citizen of the World” radio broadcast. The program was not pre-empted on July 10. The program simply moved from Saturday to Sunday throughout most of the CBS Radio Network.

Picture of an mp3 bootleg

The most common myth is that The Green Lama radio programs are in the “public domain,” legal terminology that a number of fans use to declare innocence regarding posting copies of the existing recordings on the Internet. (This means any and all download services, paid or free, offering recordings of the radio program are committing a copyright violation -- plain and simple.) The initial contract with Ken Crossen and CBS in early 1949 stipulated the rights were sold to the network for a specific period of time. After which, the rights were reverted back to Crossen. For the scripts co-written by Crossen and Froug, William Froug’s estate retains half of the copyrights. For the two scripts written by Gene Levitt and Bob Mitchell, the copyright is divided equally among three parties (Crossen included). The recordings still remain copyrighted.

Notes
The titles of the episodes originate from the radio scripts available at the Kendall Crossen Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and the Library of Congress. More than one hard copy of each script exists, revealing a number of differences between the first and final draft. The initial broadcast log consisting of titles and broadcast dates was compiled by archivist Ray Stanich in the early 1980s. Stanich consulted the first draft of each script, which on occasion revealed the intended title before the producers settled on a more colorful one. Episode 11, for example, was originally titled “The Case of the Patient Prisoner.” Episode eight was originally titled “The African Diamond Affair.” This was no fault of Stanich, who at the time had no other reliable information from which to base his findings. It is hoped that the broadcast log featured in this chapter will help correct the many errors found on the Internet.

Altus Press has recently released a three-volume set of all the Green lama pulp magazine stories, along with essays of historical nature, including the radio program and the comic books. Buy all three of them and own the complete series! http://www.altuspress.com/

Special thanks to Jo Bagwell, Stephen Jansen, Mel Simons, Ken Stockinger and Jerry Williams.

GREEN LAMA is a trademark controlled by, and licensed from, Argosy Communications, Inc.

THE GREEN LAMA: The Radio Program (Part Two)

Paul Frees, a.k.a. Jethro Dumont

Taking a page from The Shadow radio program, The Green Lama audio adventures varied considerably from the pulp stories. In the pulps, the Green Lama is really Buddhist Jethro Dumont, who was made a lama in Tibet. He disguised himself as Reverend Dr. Pali, a Buddhist priest, preventing anyone from connecting Dumont with his shrouded alias. Like The Shadow in the pulps, Dumont had several agents who helped gather information that was used to deduce the motive and operation of the criminals. One of these agents was the mysterious Magga, who helped the Green Lama, but her real identity was never revealed. Much like Lamont Cranston, Dumont was a wealthy resident of New York City. On radio, Dumont traversed the globe accompanied by a native minion, Tulku, played by Ben Wright. This was Dumont’s only agent in the combat against crime. In the earliest broadcasts of the series, Dumont encountered cab drivers, providing comic relief, who offered their services for a small fee. 

Like the incarnation depicted in the pulps, the Green Lama applied newly acquired supernatural powers to fight evil wherever he encountered it. Having been exalted with honorary status as a Tibetan Lamaist monk, Dumont christened himself The Green Lama -- the hue representing justice in Tibet. Dumont was known to radio listeners for his relentless efforts to conduct a “single-handed fight against injustice and crime.” The Dr. Pali alias was discarded for the radio program. The pulp stories were lauded for their attention to detail regarding the Buddhist faith. The radio program avoided such details, in an effort to focus more on action and plot. The use of Radioactive Salt powers was also discarded on the radio program.

In the pulps, Jethro Dumont traveled across the globe as a lecturer to spread the basic doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism. Dumont did so on two particular radio programs, but it was never fully revealed on the radio program exactly what his profession was. Listeners who never read the pulps could only assume he was a wealthy enough not to have to work. Having inherited his father’s fortune, an estimated ten million dollars, Dumont was able to devote his time to more important matters such as seeking justice as a criminal combatant. On the radio program, it was never revealed how Dumont was able to retain a financial life of luxury. His disregard for the want of money was evident when Harrison Bigelow attempted to hire Dumont for his services.

DUMONT: Mr. Bigelow, you mentioned hiring me. If you know anything about me, you must know I’m not for hire.

BIGELOW: Nonsense. Every man is for hire -- it’s only a question of finding his price. I was thinking about ten thousand dollars for you.

DUMONT: I said I’m not for hire.

BIGELOW: (HARD) Fifteen thousand dollars.

DUMONT: You know, you’re beginning to interest me, Mr. Bigelow. Is there anything that you think you can’t buy?

BIGELOW: I’ll make it twenty thousand dollars, Mr. Dumont, but not a cent more.

TULKU: It is written that when money talks it is nearly always with a raised voice.

DUMONT: You are so right, Tulku… Mr. Bigelow, I’ll break an old habit and let you hire me for twenty thousand dollars -- on two conditions.

BIGELOW: What are they?

DUMONT: First, make out the check payable to the Cancer Fund. I’ll tell you the second condition after I have the check.

BIGELOW: All right.

SOUND: WRITING OF CHECK

JESSICA: Ouch! Jethro -- you’re just costing me half of my next week’s allowance.

DUMONT: How is that?

JESSICA: I bet Harrison that he couldn’t hire you.

DUMONT: Then perhaps this will teach you not to gamble, Mrs. Bigelow.

JESSICA: Not at all -- Jethro. I bet him the other half of my allowance that you’d never pick up the paintings.

SOUND: TEARING CHECK OUT OF BOOK

BIGELOW: There you are, Mr. Dumont. Now, what is the second condition?

DUMONT: That you tell me the truth.

BIGELOW: What? You mean to say --

DUMONT: (INTERRUPTING)-- that you’re lying? Yes. You may want to present the paintings to the university all right, but that’s not why you’re willing to pay me twenty thousand dollars to pick them up! I want the truth -- or we can just forget the whole thing.

BIGELOW: But you’ve already accepted the check.

DUMONT: I’ve accepted your check as a donation to a worthy cause. I haven’t accepted your employment.

JESSICA: (LAUGHS) You know, Jethro -- you interest me more and more. Harrison, I think he has you on the hook. You’d better tell him the truth.

The radio scripts were written with the assumption that the listeners have not read the pulp magazines. The origin of The Green Lama was revealed within single paragraph at the beginning of each episode:

    “And now we bring you another exciting adventure taken directly from the files of Jethro Dumont -- the wealthy young American who, after ten years in Tibet, returned as The Green Lama to amaze the world with his curious and secret powers in his single-handed fight against crime!”

Tulku, his servant, explained further in detail.

    “Many have wondered why Jethro Dumont is called the Green Lama. Jethro Dumont is a lama because of his great wisdom and powers of concentration, and the Green Lama because green is one of the six sacred colors and is the symbol of justice.”

The opening billboard was revised beginning with episode eight.

    “From the mystery of the Far East -- from the mountain peaks of a Shangri-la -- from Tibet -- come the exciting adventures of Jethro Dumont. Jethro Dumont, the wealthy young American who, after ten years in Tibet, returned as The Green Lama to carry on a single-handed fight against injustice and crime. It is the wisdom and power of concentration, enabling the Green Lama to do things impossible for ordinary men, which has made him the nemesis of the underworld!”

Exactly what those powers are, other than receiving visions when closing his eyes and clearing thoughts, probably remained unknown to the listeners. Physical combat sometimes included a chant beforehand, but the action was depicted in the same manner as private eyes who wrestled a gun out of a thug’s hand.

None of the radio broadcasts were adaptations of the pulp stories, but elements and locales were certainly borrowed from the pulps. A total of 11 radio broadcasts were produced at the CBS studios in Los Angeles. Supposedly an audition recording was produced on the afternoon of May 17, 1949. While there does appear to be two different recordings of “The Man Who Never Existed” in circulation, with an eight minute difference in length, and different music cues and scripted dialog, nothing has been found to verify the audition was dated May 17. A few sources report June 2 as the recording date.

On June 8, Variety reviewed the premiere broadcast and referred to The Green Lama as “satisfactory hot-weather stuff, with exotic atmosphere added as extra whodunit flavor. Format follows the usual air crime mystery motif, but judged by Sunday’s premiere, interest is sustained by good writing, acting and situation. Colloquial dialog, a slew of false clues, and good performances helped put the program over. Paul Frees, as the Green Lama, is convincing, and support is good.” 

EPISODE GUIDE (Part One)

Episode #1  “THE MAN WHO NEVER EXISTED”
 Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 5, 1949, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 5, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Sunday, June 5, 1949, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 2, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Cast: Harry Bartell (Pancho Kulkulcan and Prof. Harlan A. Hendrix); Paul Dubov (Howard Crane); Laurette Filbrandt (Marta Hendrix and voice of the operator); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Clark Gordon (Philmore Merton); Nestor Paiva (the clerk and the voice on the p.a. system); Herb Vigran (Sgt. Weylan); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: Norman MacDonnell
Assistant: Roy Rowan
Sound: Dave Light
Music: Richard Aurandt
Engineer: Stan Carr
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: Soon after Jethro Dumont arrives in New York, his good friend Professor Hendrix is found murdered. The only clue is the recent robbery at the Museum of Primitive Art. One of Professor Hendrix’s discoveries, a Kulkulcan, was stolen from the Mayan exhibit. Discovering that Hendrix himself stole the piece and mailed it back to the excavation site in Mexico, Dumont and his faithful servant, Tulku, book tickets to fly south. In Mexico, Dumont meets Marta Hendrix, the professor’s daughter, and discovers the stolen Kulkulcan was a fake. Philmore Merton, director of the museum, flies to Mexico in the hopes of recovering the stolen artifact before (as Professor Hendrix discovered) that he was selling the original pieces and replacing them with fakes. Merton is too late, however, because Dumont already solved the case and found the proof. Merton is apprehended and flown back to New York to face a charge of murder.

Episode #2  “THE MAN WHO STOLE A PYRAMID”
East Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 12, 1949, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 12, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Sunday, June 12, 1949, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 2, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Edgar Barrier (Police Chief Mohammed Bey); Lillian Buyeff (Yadida Damietta); John Dehner (Count Nikolai Sumotkin); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Vivi Janiss (Helen Patterson); Lou Krugman (Hussein el Had); Jack Kruschen (Rakmir Pasha); Don Randolph (Roger Cartwright); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: Norman MacDonnell
Assistant: Roy Rowan
Sound: Harry Essman and Dave Light
Music: Richard Aurandt
Engineer: Stan Carr
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: The Green Lama, attending the reception of the grand opening of the newly-excavated Mastaba Pyramid of King Kbebe, is shocked to discover the massive stone structure has completely vanished outside city limits of Cairo, Egypt. The local authorities, as well as Jethro Dumont, are baffled. The prime suspect is Count Nikolai Sumotkin, a pyramidologist who believes the future can be told according to the physical measurements of the pyramids, and who predicted the disappearance the night before. As Jethro wanders Egypt investigating the details of the case, Hussein el Had, chairman of the Pyramid commission, is stabbed to death. Another attempt on Jethro’s life leads to a clue that ultimately solves the mystery. Mr. Cartwright, owner of an American oil well, was operating an illegal enterprise. Cartwright tapped the main oil pipe line and ran a spur to the pyramid. Then he stored oil in the chambers below and from this reserve he sold oil that was supposed to come from his well. If the pyramid were opened, his scheme would fail. All he did was dynamite the foundations so that the pyramid fell down into the first chamber and the sand storm covered the hole with sand. The Green Lama apprehends the guilty party and turns him over to the police.

Episode #3  “THE GIRL WITH NO NAME”
 East Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 19, 1949, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 19, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Sunday, June 19, 1949, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 3, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 4, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Nina Klowden (Susan Carter); Eve McVeagh (Leslie Leeds); Peter Prouse (Mike Flaharty and George Carter); Charles Russell (Norman J. Mathews); Herb Vigran (Sgt. Weylan); Bud Widom (Harry Betes); and Ben Wright (Tulku).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: Norman MacDonnell
Assistant: Roy Rowan
Sound: Harry Essman and Dave Light
Music: Richard Aurandt
Engineer: Stan Carr
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: The Green Lama and Tulku answer a plea from Susan Carter, who fears her uncle, an engineer, may be involved in a recent rash of subway booth robberies. When a subway train carrying the day’s payload from the change booths suddenly vanishes almost before their eyes, Jethro Dumont and Tulku investigate. They soon discover an unfinished and deserted tunnel where the train secretly vanished, masked by dirty beaverboard that looks the same color as rock, fooling investigators. After rescuing Susan’s uncle, The Green Lama witnesses the murder of George Carter, and realizing dead men tell no tales, pieces the clues together. Leslie Leeds, who claimed to have witnessed the attempted murder on Susan Carter, was working hand-in-hand with Harry Betes, an employee at the change booth, and hired a gang of thugs to steal the payroll. Exposed, the crooks are taken into custody by Sgt. Weylan.

Trivia, etc. The original title of this drama was “The Case of the Lost Subway.”

Episode #4  “THE MILLION DOLLAR CHOPSTICKS”
 East Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 26, 1949, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, June 26, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Sunday, June 26, 1949, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 3, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 4, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Lillian Buyeff (Madame Jade Ming); Larry Dobkin (Toby Holbrook); Georgia Ellis (Rita Randolph); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jack Kruschen (Lu Bing How and Yen Fu and voice 1); Paul McVey (Captain Jenson); Charles Russell (Howard Stacy); and Ben Wright (Tulku and Captain Trembolt Smyth and voice 2).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: Norman MacDonnell
Assistant: Roy Rowan
Sound: Harry Essman and Dave Light
Music: Richard Aurandt
Engineer: Stan Carr
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: In Hong Kong, a city of Oriental charm and beauty, there was a murder involving a pair of chopsticks said to be worth one million dollars. The Green Lama faced death and violence in order to help a friend, Rita Randolph, discover how her business partner, Toby Holbrook, cheated her out of the money she invested. When Holbrook staggers into Rita’s hotel apartment with a knife in his back, The Green Lama investigates to uncover the facts: the business venture was masking a smuggling operation involving small emeralds looted from Pekin. The chopsticks are hollow and the emeralds were placed inside. Howard Stacey, would-be playboy, partnered with Holbrook. When Rita claimed a pair of chopsticks, unaware of what was inside them, the guilty culprits attempted to retrieve them and Stacey attempted to eliminate his business partner. Confronting The Green Lama, Stacey falls overboard and unable to swim, drowns.

Trivia, etc. There is internal evidence among the scripts in the Kendall Foster Crossen Collection that “The Million Dollar Chopsticks” was originally intended for broadcast on June 19, and “The Girl With No Name” for June 26. It remains uncertain why the switch, except the possibility that the script for “The Million Dollar Chopsticks” was not yet ready for broadcast.

Episode #5  “THE LAST DINOSAUR”
 East Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, July 3, 1949, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, July 3, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Sunday, July 3, 1949, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 3, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m., and 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 4, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Gloria Blondell (Mary Carter); William Conrad (Herman K. Herman); George Fisher (George Fisher); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Frank Gerstle (Philbert Jones); Jerry Hausner (Cy Martin); Yvonne Peattie (Gloria Spear); Ben Wright (Tulku); and Dave Young (Lt. Furnald).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Roy Rowan
Sound: Harry Essman and Dave Light
Music: Richard Aurandt
Engineer: Stan Carr
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: The LaBrea Tar Pits, in Hollywood, are long famous for having preserved the fossils of prehistoric animals and it is rumored all over the glamour city that a live dinosaur came out of the pits and is loose in Hollywood. A publicity stunt for Herman K. Herman’s latest picture, “The Last Dinosaur,” gone bad or a masquerade for murder? The discovery of the murder of Gloria Spear at Herman’s latest Hollywood party suggests a dinosaur was the culprit. The Green Lama suspects otherwise. Further investigation leads to Triumph Pictures and the murder of the film’s producer, Herman K. Herman. After confronting a raging dinosaur on the lot, The Green Lama throws himself against one of its legs so it would go off balance and fall. The guilty culprit was Mary Carter, in love with Herman and jealous of Spear’s engagement to the producer, who faked the dinosaur footprints by the swimming pool where Gloria’s body was found. It was Mary Carter who controlled the mechanical dinosaur used for the motion-picture.

Trivia, etc. That really is George Fisher, Hollywood radio columnist, playing himself in this broadcast!

“The Green Lama strikes terror into the hearts of all evil doers…”                                                                   -- Tulku in “The Last Dinosaur” (July 3, 1949)

Episode #6  “THE RETURN OF MADAME POMPADOUR”
 East Coast Network Broadcast: Saturday, July 16, 1949, 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., EST
West Coast Network Broadcast: Sunday, July 17, 1949, 2:30 to 3:00 p.m., PST
Recording: Saturday, July 16, 1949, 3:00 to 3:30 p.m., PST
Rehearsals: Studio 1, 9:30 to 12 noon, and 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Music Rehearsals: Studio 2, 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Cast: Nan Boardman (Lilly Jardin); Guy de Vestel (Jacques Flourard); Paul Frees (Jethro Dumont); Jerry Hausner (Sam Pulowski); Rolfe Sedan (Inspector Courtier); Martha Wentworth (Madame Tusconi); Ben Wright (Tulku); and Dave Young (Pierre Reynard).
Script Writers: Richard Foster and William Froug.
Producer/Director: James Burton
Assistant: Ralph Jones
Sound: Berne Surrey and Eugene Wombly
Music: Del Castillo
Engineers: Hook and McKnight (first names unknown)
Announcer: Larry Thor
Plot: The Tusconi Wax Museum in France unveils the new likeness of Jeanne Antoinette Poisson le Normant d’Etioles, also known as the Marquise de Pompadour. When Lilly Jardin, the model for the wax figure, is stabbed to death, Jethro Dumont suspects a connection with the theft of the Pompadour necklace. Sam Pulowski, an American formerly employed by the National Library, was responsible for the theft. It isn’t until a slip of the lip that Dumont figures out how Pulowski accomplished the feat. He hid the necklace around the statue’s neck until the heat was off, but learning that the statue was not good enough and a replacement was needed, Pulowski panicked and began killing the people responsible for issuing the replacement. This meant killing the model, Lilly, as well.  

Trivia, etc. Jacques Flourard, the artist, did ice sculptures for the expensive restaurants, so he always had blocks of ice in his place. When Pulowski killed him, he propped the body in the window with a chunk of ice, then timed it so Dumont would break into the room just as the ice was gone, giving the appearance that Flourard committed suicide. Hoping the blame would fall on Flourard, Pulowski’s plan failed. For the radio audience, whether they bought this flimsy solution to an unsolved mystery remains unknown.

Notes
The titles of the episodes originate from the radio scripts available at the Kendall Crossen Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center and the Library of Congress. More than one hard copy of each script exists, revealing a number of differences between the first and final draft. The initial broadcast log consisting of titles and broadcast dates was compiled by archivist Ray Stanich in the early 1980s. Stanich consulted the first draft of each script, which on occasion revealed the intended title before the producers settled on a more colorful one. Episode 11, for example, was originally titled “The Case of the Patient Prisoner.” Episode eight was originally titled “The African Diamond Affair.” This was no fault of Stanich, who at the time had no other reliable information from which to base his findings. It is hoped that the broadcast log featured in this chapter will help correct the many errors found on the Internet.

Special thanks to Jo Bagwell, Stephen Jansen, Mel Simons, Ken Stockinger and Jerry Williams.

This is the second of a three-part article. To read the first part, CLICK HERE.

Altus Press has recently released a three-volume set of all the Green lama pulp magazine stories, along with essays of historical nature, including the radio program and the comic books. Buy all three of them and own the complete series! http://www.altuspress.com/

GREEN LAMA is a trademark controlled by, and licensed from, Argosy Communications, Inc.

THE GREEN LAMA: The Radio Program (Part One)

Before we explore The Green Lama, it seems fitting to explore Ken Crossen's background in radio before the summer of 1949.

Dubbed the “Robin Hood of modern crime,” the polished, urbane private eye named Simon Templar, a.k.a. "The Saint," was a devil-may-care swashbuckling do-gooder. Based on the fictional character created by novelist Leslie Charteris, The Saint maintained a healthy run on radio from 1945 to 1951. Radio scripts were not entirely faithful to the character that appeared in the Charteris novels, but was accepted by the radio audience craving a good mystery and the program’s sponsors, Bromo-Seltzer, Campbell Soups, Ford, and Pepsodent. The success of The Saint can be attributed to script writers Michael Cramoy, Louis Vittes and Ken Crossen.

Vincent Price on The Saint

In early 1948, Crossen wrote a radio script for The Saint titled “Babies for Sale.” Simon Templar’s girlfriend, Patricia Holm, is doing volunteer social work where she meets Horace J. Atwood and philanthropist Gordon Phillips, who work at the Sanctuary Foundling Home, a free maternity hospital for indigent mothers. The maternity hospital, however, has a three-fold racket. After telling the mothers their babies have died, they sell the offspring via adoption to future foster parents for high donations, in addition to the usual thousand dollar fee. Denton, an ex-con, works with the hospital executives to then call upon the foster parents and, after convincing them he is the father, blackmail them. After tricking a confession out of Denton, Templar approaches the guilty parties, including Atwood, whereupon the police overhear the details of the plot and arrest the culprits.

The above synopsis, based on a radio script found in the Kendall F. Crossen archive at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, is about all we know of this particular episode of The Saint.* It has become a commonplace of radio scholarship that less than ten percent of all radio broadcasts pre-dating 1960 are known to exist in recorded form. And it is with a heavy heart that more than half of The Green Lama radio broadcasts from 1949 are among those statistics. Crossen’s involvement with the radio program did not involve paying for transcription discs to be recorded. He was apparently more focused on story structure and plot proposals.

* This radio script was loosely based on The Green Lama adventure of the same title, originally published in the June 1940 issue of Double Detective, and reprinted in the first of this three-volume pulp reprint. Both stories took place in Hollywood, California. Instead of a maternity hospital, the original pulp story involved a home for children.

"Babies for Sale" short story

Very little is known about Ken Crossen’s script writing career for radio mysteries. Only recently have excavations through the Library of Congress revealed some of his earliest known efforts, mainly as a contributor for The Molle Mystery Theatre, which premiered over NBC on September 7, 1943, featuring dramatizations of classic and current mystery stories. The novels, short stories and original mysteries were introduced by a mysterious narrator who used the name of Geoffrey Barnes, a distinguished criminologist, played by actor Roc Rogers. Cornell Woolrich, Craig Rice, Edgar Wallace and many other creators of modern detective fiction had their stories adapted for the program by script writers Jay Bennett, Charles Tazewell and Everett George Opie.

Crossen wrote pulp detective fiction and novels under his own name as well as the pseudonyms Kim Locke, Richard Foster, M. E. Chaber, Christopher Monig, Clay Richards, Bennett Barley, and others. With pulp stories to his list of credits, Crossen attempted to venture into radio. 

His first assignment for The Molle Mystery Theatre was an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s "Lady in the Lake," which was broadcast on the evening of December 14, 1943.

It is apparent that Crossen admired the writings of Raymond Chandler, and never turned down the opportunity to adapt one of Chandler’s novels for the program. Subsequent offerings included "Farewell My Lovely" (February 29, 1944), "Goldfish" (July 18, 1944) and "Murder in City Hall," a.k.a. "Spanish Blood" (September 14, 1944)*. While the exact number of Crossen’s radio scripts remain unknown (he did not write under a pseudonym), four others have been verified. Dwight V. Babcock’s "Homicide for Hannah" (December 28, 1943), Michael Venning’s "Murder Through the Looking Glass" (September 5, 1944) and Jonathan Pierce’s "A Crime to Fit the Punishment" (December 5, 1944), the latter of which he co-scripted with H.L. Gold. For the broadcast of June 20, 1944, Crossen chose to adapt the Richard Powell novel, Death Talks Out of Turn, cleverly designed to remind radio listeners that “loose lips sink ships.” The story involved a ring of spies who are in contact with an enemy sub off shore, who propose to blow up an Allied ship loaded with supplies and about ready to sail.

* Crossen’s radio script for "Murder in City Hall" was dramatized again with a different cast on April 5, 1946.

Crossen continued writing scripts for radio mysteries, including one contribution for The Adventures of Ellery Queen. In “Nikki Porter, Killer” (March 5, 1947), Ellery comes to the rescue when his secretary/girlfriend Nikki, suffering amnesia, steps off a train just as the loot from a bank robbery disappears from her compartment and a man is found murdered. While the majority of the Ellery Queen radio broadcasts exist on transcription disc from 1947 to 1948, the March 5 broadcast does not. From 1954 to 1955, the Ellery Queen radio program aired on Australian airwaves, courtesy of Grace Gibson Radio Productions. Purchasing scripts from the America, Gibson’s staff at the Australian Record Company performed their own renditions, changing only minor essentials such as Sydney, formerly New York City. The only existing copy of Crossen’s radio production in collector hands exists in the form of the Australian counterpart.

Crossen succeeded in selling one script for The Saint, which was broadcast on May 19, 1948, titled “With No Tomorrow.” It tells the tale of Warner Wilson, an executive of the exporting firm of Wilson and Lynn, who believes he is the victim of a monstrous plot against him. His entire existence is being removed, including the removal of his birth certificate at the Bureau of Vital Statistics and the records at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Fearing his sanity, he turns to Simon Templar to investigate. The murder of Jerome Lane, his business partner, leads to the guilty culprit, Stephen Hurley, a young politician who had ambitions for Wilson’s wife and the money she would inherit upon her husband’s death. Hurley devised an elaborate scheme to drive Wilson crazy and create a situation whereby the two business partners have a deadly falling out. Templar intervenes and proves without a shred of doubt that Hurley committed the crime. Sadly, no recording is known to exist.

Among the most prestigious radio programs was Suspense, broadcast over CBS, featuring a large budget (courtesy of the Auto-Lite Company) and a weekly Hollywood star. Soon after Anton M. Leader took over the producing/directing chores for Suspense over the CBS Radio Network in early 1948, Crossen learned that Leader purchased scripts from the open market (before the days of studio policy that declared reviewing unsolicited scripts was a legal liability). Crossen approached the producer with a total of three radio scripts, all adaptations of classic mysteries. “The Hands of Mr. Ottermole” (December 2, 1948), John Collier’s “De Mortuis” (February 10, 1949) and “Murder Through the Looking Glass” (March 17, 1949). The third and final broadcast was loosely re-written from his former Molle Mystery script.

Norman Macdonnell  (Photo courtesy of Roy Bright.)

It was during his tenure on CBS that Crossen was introduced to producer/director Norman MacDonnell. MacDonnell had purchased the radio rights to Graham Greene’s 1939 novel, Confidential Agent, and like many of Greene’s literary properties, proved a challenge for feasible adaptation. The story, attempting to avoid political opinion, involved a chivalrous agent who starts out as a hunted man and becomes the hunter, the peaceful man who turns at bay, and the man who learned to love justice by suffering injustice. MacDonnell was unable to find someone capable of writing a feasible adaptation for his radio program, Escape. Crossen agreed to take on the task and succeeded. The Graham Greene story was recorded on March 30, 1949, and broadcast on April 2, 1949, with Ben Wright in the supporting cast, the same actor who, months later, would play the role of Tulku on The Green Lama. It was here that MacDonnell and Crossen struck a friendship. “Ken was very ambitious and high strung. Always nervous and looking over his shoulder,” recalled MacDonnell in a 1971 interview. “He was a smooth pitchman that knew the right words to say when he wanted something. Ken submitted a radio script adapted from his Green Lama creation. I believe this was for Escape. After I looked over it, I discouraged him, briefly, by asking for a revision to fit the mold of a weekly sustainer. Establish the plot, format, recurring characters and so forth… Ken might say otherwise but it was I who convinced CBS to broadcast the program.”

Knowing that Broadway is My Beat was going off the air for the summer, MacDonnell pitched the proposal to executives at CBS for the summer time slot. Ken Crossen agreed to write the radio scripts but MacDonnell, fearing Crossen did not have enough experience to meet the demands of completing a full thirty-page script every week, assigned William Froug to co-write. Froug was an experienced newcomer to the field, having already helped create the Rocky Jordan radio program, and served as a mentor to Crossen.*

* William Froug would later take helm of the critically-acclaimed CBS Radio Workshop and for a number of months act as producer for the television classic, The Twilight Zone.

There has been some speculation that Crossen only created the plots and Froug wrote the physical scripts. This appears to be a myth because further review of the radio scripts reveals many of Crossen’s trademarks and influences. This includes not one, but two direct references to Philip Marlowe and one reference to Raymond Chandler.

Altus Press has recently released a three-volume set of all the Green lama pulp magazine stories, along with essays of historical nature, including the radio program and the comic books. Buy all three of them and own the complete series! http://www.altuspress.com/ 

For more information about the books, also check out this review, which makes reference to the radio program.
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=34&s=267&ai=117890

To Be Continued...
In the next two blog postings, I'm going to explore the origin of The Green Lama radio program, with a complete episode guide for all eleven episodes.