"Enemy to those who make him an enemy...Friend to those who have no friend!"

That's Boston Blackie, safecracker turned crime fighter and a long-running favorite with fans of straight-ahead detective fiction in a wide range of media. Beginning inauspiciously in a 1919 short story by author Jack Boyle, Blackie progressed from the printed page into silent films, then into talkies -- and finally, in the 1940s, into radio.
The first radio Blackie was Chester Morris, who played the role in a long series of B movies during the 1940s. Beginning in 1944 as a summer replacement series for "Amos 'n' Andy," Morris brought a certain wrong-side-of-the-tracks charm to his portrayal and gave the character a well-crafted introduction to the broadcast medium.
But the longest-running radio Blackie was an odd casting choice: Broadway and sometime soap opera actor Richard Kollmar, best known to radio fans along the Eastern seaboard as the urbane Dick of WOR's "Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick," a morning show which also featured his wife, newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. Beginning in 1945, Kollmar starred in a series of 220 syndicated episodes of "Boston Blackie," produced at WOR and distributed by the Frederic W. Ziv Company of Cincinnati. The programs were solid, workmanlike products of the WOR dramatic staff and remained in distribution well into the 1950s, becoming a reliable feature for small-town stations across the US. Kollmar is joined in these syndicated episodes by two other familiar WOR voices: Maurice Tarplin -- the "Mysterious Traveler" himself -- as Inspector Faraday, and Jan Minor as girlfriend/inconvenience Mary Wesley.
There's no tormented noir drama here, no deep layers of introspection -- just good old-fashioned crime solving fun. And you can enjoy the clean, crisp sound of these newly restored episodes in this 20-episode collection from Radio Archives - ten full hours of light-hearted detective action and adventure, transferred directly from original 16" transcription discs.
#64 Uncle Frank Murdered by Joe Parker
Tuesday, July 2, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#65 The Skating Rink Murders
Tuesday, July 9, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#66 The Murdered Truck Driver
Tuesday, July 16, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#67 The Murdering Cuckoo Clock
Tuesday, July 23, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#68 Mutiny Leads to Murder Aboard the Freighter Swan
Tuesday, July 30, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#69 Jerry Williams Fixed Court Case
Tuesday, August 6, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#70 The Diamond Smugglers
Tuesday, August 13, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#71 Jealous Partners and Arson
Tuesday, August 20, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#72 The Rockwell Diamond
Tuesday, August 27, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#73 The Stolen Rare Book
Tuesday, September 3, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#74 The Backstage Murder
Tuesday, September 10, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#75 The Apartment Swindler
Tuesday, September 17, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#76 The Abbott Painting
Tuesday, September 24, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#77 The Undersea Murder
Tuesday, October 1, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#78 The Murdered Show Dog Owner
Tuesday, October 8, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#79 Murder at the Rodeo
Tuesday, October 15, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#80 Faraday Shot
Tuesday, October 22, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#81 Granny's Witchcraft
Tuesday, October 29, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#82 A New Face for Joe Harvey
Tuesday, November 5, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
#83 Only One Way Out For Me
Tuesday, November 12, 1946 - 30:00 - Ziv Syndication
