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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

BONUS - Five Favorites: Rocky Fortune

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Arts, Performing Arts, Mystery, Detectives, Old, Radio, Time, Tv & Film, Oldtimeradio

4.6982 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2023

⏱️ 131 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this bonus show, I'm sharing my five favorite episodes of Frank Sinatra trading crooning for crimesolving in Rocky Fortune. Ol' Blue Eyes starred in this short-lived series as a "footloose and fancy-free young gentleman" bouncing from job to job and finding mystery and murder wherever he landed. We'll hear Mr. Fortune as a cruise ship steward in "The Shipboard Jewel Robbery" (originally aired on NBC on October 20, 1953) and as the minder for a drunk theatre critic in "Murder on the Aisle" (originally aired on NBC on November 24, 1953). He tries not to get lassoed for a crime he didn't commit in "The Rodeo Murder" (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1954) and he finds a fresh body in a sarcophagus in "The Museum Murder" (originally aired on NBC on January 19, 1954). Finally, Rocky is behind the wheel of a truck hauling nitro in "Hollywood or Boom" (originally aired on NBC on January 26, 1954).

Transcript

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0:00.0

Get this and get it straight.

0:02.0

Crime is a sucker's road,

0:04.0

and those who travel it'd wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

0:07.0

The story you're about to hear is true. The

0:12.5

The story you were about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

0:18.5

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

0:21.5

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize.

0:25.0

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account.

0:30.0

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator

0:33.2

yours truly Johnny Deller The Hello and welcome to a long overdue bonus show of down these mean streets.

1:05.0

Another installment where I share my five favorite episodes from a classic radio detective series. And today that series is Rocky Fortune, a show that blends two of my favorite things, old time radio mysteries, and Frank Sinatra.

1:26.0

The series aired on NBC from October, 1953, when Sinatra's career was in a bit of a slump until March of 1954

1:36.0

when he dramatically rebounded with a new recording contract and an Academy Award

1:42.0

for Best Supporting Actor.

1:44.6

In my opinion, it marked an all-too-brief run for old Blue Eyes as the titular Mr Fortune,

1:51.4

a man bouncing from job to job, but always managing to find mystery and usually

1:57.0

murder wherever he went.

2:00.0

The show's format allowed for a wide variety of stories and settings.

2:04.7

Each week, Rocky could be almost anywhere doing almost anything.

2:09.5

He worked as an oyster shucker, a messenger, a carnival barker, a short order cook, and even a department store

2:16.0

Santa at Christmas.

2:19.4

Scripts were written largely by George Leffertz and Ernest Kanoy, two immensely talented writers who

...

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