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Home , Alan Ladd, Ben Bard, Star Spangled Rhythm, The Blue Dahlia, This Gun for Hire, Variety Girl

door within five days. There’s nothing medically wrong with LeFay…it’s just that this strong, healthy man is convinced that he’s been cursed by witchcraft. BOX THIRTEEN

CD 8A: “One-One-Three-Point-Five” (Episode # 31) Hot Box Dorothy Simmons has a request for Holiday: locate her brother Dave, who’s hiding somewhere in the city. He’s on Program Guide by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. the run for something he’s allegedly done. Dan’s manhunt will lead to a wealthy recluse, a missing folio...and murder. A Supreme Court decision, United States v. Paramount Pictures (1948), abolished Alan Ladd the motion picture industry’s practice of “block booking.” This was when CD 8B: “Dan and the Wonderful Lamp” (Episode # 32) independent theatres (unaffiliated with the studios) were forced to purchase The contents of a “Box 13” envelope contain an invitation to a garden charity second features (B-movies) in order to get the A-pictures and star vehicles. This bazaar at the Arthur Mannering estate. Dan correctly guesses the number of turned out to be a boon for radio drama. beans in a glass jar and wins a most unusual door prize. With the “Paramount Consent Decrees” in place, movie studios began to curtail the number of films in production. The contract system, which found popular actors and actresses under contract to individual studios, began to wane. This gave big-name Hollywood actors -- like Joel McCrea (Tales of the Texas Rangers) and If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommend Brian Donlevy (Dangerous Assignment) -- the freedom to commit to a regular Box Thirteen, available now at weekly radio series. The post-War demand for syndicated programs would also www.RadioSpirits.com. be well served, with stars like Dana Andrews (I Was a Communist for the FBI) and Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall (Bold Venture) taking advantage of a more flexible schedule.

Alan Ladd, Paramount Pic- tures’ most popular contractee, expressed an interest in starring in his own radio series around this time. Ladd and partner Bernie Joslin had owned a chain of eateries in the Los www.RadioSpirits.com Angeles area known as “May- PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424 fair Restaurants.” Though they had sold the chain after WWII, © 2020 RSPT LLC. All rights reserved. For home use only. the pair decided to name their Unauthorized duplication prohibited. radio syndication company Mayfair Productions. Getting Episode Guide © 2020 Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved. back into radio must have felt like Old Home Week for the 48602 actor, as it was a medium with which he was quite familiar before his phenomenal movie success in the 1940s. underwater. In MacIntosh’s case, he’s building a tunnel. It looks as if the contractor isn’t going to finish the project on time, and he wants Dan to look into Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1913, Alan Walbridge Ladd expressed an inter- who’s sabotaging the contract. est in acting while attending North Hollywood High in his teen years. His work in a production of The Mikado attracted the attention of a Universal Pictures CD 4B: “The Philanthropist” (Episode # 24) talent scout, who signed him and a few other young hopefuls to a contract that A red-headed transient has an appointment to meet Dan in the park at 3:00pm. (with options) could have lasted up to seven years. Universal dropped him after Red’s pal Sukie has gone missing, and he needs Dan’s help to locate his six months (despite bit parts in features like Tom Brown of Culver and Once in a whereabouts. Lifetime) because they thought he was too short. Undaunted, Alan kept his hand in the industry after graduating high school by working as a grip at Warner Bros. CD 5A: “Last Will and Nursery Rhyme” (Episode # 25) for two years. Dan accepts an invite from his old college chum Ted Kenworth, who owns a vacation lodge called Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks is on the financial skids because Ted’s A scaffold accident on the Warners’ lot convinced Alan Ladd to get out of the Uncle Thaddeus’ $3 million fortune apparently vanished before his passing. “grip” business...but not to abandon his love of acting. He started taking acting lessons at a school run by Ben Bard, a friend Ladd had made during his brief em- CD 5B: “Delinquent’s Dilemma” (Episode # 26) ployment at Universal. Bard’s advice, that Alan speak in a lower register, would Reginald “Biff” Kieran has been arrested for breaking into a store, and his mother prove to be an asset when the actor got hired to perform regularly on KFWB pleads with Dan Holiday to help her son. Unfortunately, Biff insists on taking the (the Warner Bros. owned radio station). Ladd would work as many as 20 shows rap for robbery…despite his mother’s insistence that he’s innocent. a week at KFWB, and became well-known to listeners as “The Richfield Re- porter.” Alan’s prolific radio work would be the catalyst for his return to motion CD 6A: “Flash of Light” (Episode # 27) pictures. Agent Sue Carol (below) heard her future client (and husband) perform- Jerry Fuller, a small-town youngster visiting the big city, has lost track of two ing in a play on KFWB one night (as both father and son) and was determined days of his life. He wants Dan to help him regain his memory of those missing to get him onscreen work. She did just that. Ladd landed credited roles in Rules days. Fuller refuses to go back home until the mystery is solved. of the Sea (1939), The Light of the Western Stars (1940), and Captain Caution (1940). Do you remember the reporter with a pipe silhouetted in the opening CD 6B: “Hare and Hounds” (Episode # 28) scenes of 1941’s Citizen Kane? That’s “Laddie!” An elderly man absconds with a “Box 13” letter after visiting Dan and Suzy at the office. Three days later, Dan gets a second request from the original Before achieving major movie stardom in the 1940s, author. After conducting an investigation of the letter Alan Ladd made the rounds, working for any studio writer’s apartment, Dan finds himself framed for the in need of his services. This benefited movie -mak man’s murder! ers who had hired him before he became Alan Ladd. For example, a 1940 Monogram release, Her First CD 7A: “Hunt and Peck” (Episode # 29) Romance, gave Ladd fourth billing...but for its 1943 Martin Kirby has 48 hours to live. He’s been sentenced re-release, the title was changed to The Right Man to die after being convicted of his best friend’s and billed Alan and actress Julie Bishop (who had murder. If ever anyone could use a helping hand from made the film as “Jacqueline Wells”) at the top. An- Dan Holiday, Kirby would be that individual. other Poverty Row mainstay, PRC, would move Alan from sixth billing in Crime, Inc. (1941) to first (when CD 7B: “Death is a Doll” (Episode # 30) it was re-released as Gangs, Inc. in 1943). In Ballou, Louisiana, Bart LeFay is on his death bed. He believes that he’ll be dragged through Death’s Edmund McDonald is heard as Lt. Kling. Sue Carol 2 7 The following Box Thirteen broadcasts star Alan Ladd as Dan Holiday, with Two 1942 films from “the majors” allowed the aforementioned B-picture fac- Sylvia Picker as Suzy and Edmund McDonald as Lieutenant Kling. The tories to cash in on Alan Ladd’s popularity. The first was RKO’s Joan of Paris, series was written by Russell Hughes, produced by Vern Carstenson, and in which Alan played “Baby”—a doomed RAF squadron flier. He’s shot down directed by Richard Sanville. Rudy Schrager composed and conducted the with four other airmen, and the gang has to make their way out of Nazi-occupied music. France and back to England. It was a small part for Ladd (though in its re-release, he once again moved up in the billing), but it convinced the studio to offer him CD 1A: “The Haunted Artist” (Episode # 17) a $400-a-week contract. Alan held out for a better offer from Paramount. That Artist Michael Davis is convinced that his studio is haunted. To prove it to Dan studio was adapting Graham Greene’s novel A Gun for Sale to the big screen, Holiday, he shows Dan his latest canvas. It’s a picture that contains the image of and they cast the actor as the baby-faced assassin known as “Raven.” Retitled a stone quarry...which Davis didn’t paint! This Gun for Hire (1942), the feature made Alan an “overnight” star, and would be the first of seven films he’d make with Veronica Lake. (Three of those would CD 1B: “The Sad Night” (Episode # 18) be “all-star” compilations: Star Spangled Rhythm [1942], Duffy’s Tavern [1945], Dan receives a child’s copybook in his Star-Times box and Kyle Layton—whose and Variety Girl [1947]). Because Lake measured 4’11” in her stocking feet she daughter Marina owns the item—offers Holiday $500 for its return. Why? The was the perfect leading lady for Ladd, who was only 5’6”. book may hold the key to unlocking a centuries-old fortune. Alan Ladd followed the success of This Gun for Hire with The Glass Key (1942), CD 2A: “Hot Box” (Episode # 19) a noir that re-teamed him with Lake. It also featured William Bendix in a mem- Dan is hired to acquire a Chinese teakwood box at an auction, but arrives too late orable turn as a sadistic henchman who wants to “bounce” Ladd’s character to place a bid. The gentleman with the winning bid is hit by a car while leaving around like a “little rubber ball.” At one point, Bendix’s character asks, “Wait a the auction, and a red-haired woman departs the scene of the accident with the minute—you mean I don’t get to smack Baby?” (This is a tad amusing in light of box in her possession. Ladd’s character in Joan of Paris.) Bill and Alan not only became close friends offscreen, as Paramount stablemates they appeared together in several films, in- CD 2B: “The Better Man” (Episode # 20) cluding China (1943), Two Years Before the Mast (1946), and Calcutta (1946). Wealthy Charles Winthrop invites Dan to dinner to present a proposition. The Ladd, Bendix, and Veronica Lake comprised the cast of The Blue Dahlia (1946), bored millionaire craves excitement, and Winthrop’s willing to fork over the tidy another of Alan’s most indelible films. sum of $100,000 to get some! Although Alan Ladd’s movie career at Para- CD 3A: “The Professor and the Puzzle” (Episode # 21) mount was threatened with interruption by Dan’s teacher friend Bob Lanham was engaged to be married to Evelyn Gardner, WWII, the studio was able to postpone the ac- but she had a change of heart shortly after her uncle’s suicide. She then made tor’s being drafted. (Ladd was originally classi- plans to wed Ed Macklin, Gardner’s former assistant…so when Macklin turns up fied “4-F” due to stomach problems, but found dead, Bob becomes the chief suspect. himself reclassified after taking an Army physi- cal.) He received enough deferments to allow CD 3B: “The Dowager and Dan Holiday” (Episode # 22) him to headline such features as Lucky Jordan Why would wealthy recluse Mathilda Courtland write a letter to Box 13? Maybe (1942) and Salty O’Rourke (1945). Ladd’s on- Dan will learn the reason on his honeymoon. Madame Courtland is ready to screen persona as a tough guy (with a sense of announce her engagement to Mr. Holiday! humor) would be perfect casting for when he decided to return to radio. Box Thirteen featured CD 4A: “Three to Die” (Episode # 23) Ladd as Dan Holiday, a one-time newspaper re- Douglas MacIntosh is a “sandhog”—someone who does construction work porter who had given up that business for loftier Movie Poster for The Blue Dahlia 6 3 literary pursuits as an author of fiction. Although Box Thirteen was produced specifically for syndication, the series did air in two separate network runs. It was heard on the West Coast Mutual network Holiday seemed to have developed a case of writer’s block when it came to his from March 15, 1948 to March 7, 1949, and on the East Coast (over WOR) new vocation. To compensate, Dan placed an ad in his old newspaper, the Star- from August 22, 1948 to August 14, 1949. Its 52 transcribed episodes gave it Times, that read: “Adventure wanted. Will go anywhere, do anything. Box 13.” tremendous staying power in terms of radio syndication, with the series being Holiday refused any sort of financial compensation from those individuals who broadcast on stations long after its West Coast/East Coast Mutual stints. Alan wrote to him requesting his services. That’s probably good, since an unsettling Ladd’s Mayfair Productions made the actor a mini-mogul in the medium. His number of those correspondents were “a little funny in the head.” Dan dealt acquisition of 156 stories penned by the legendary Damon Runyon in December regularly with blackmailers, cultists, and a generally sordid cast of characters. of 1948 would result in the long-running comedy-drama anthology series The Holiday must have had quite the nest egg squirreled away in order to pull this Damon Runyon Theatre. off. While he did plan to use these adventures as fodder for his books, you kind of had to wonder how he kept the lights on and paid his secretary each week. In Jim Cox’s Radio Crime Fighters, the author notes that Alan Ladd “simply wasn’t enamored with television and decided to cast his broadcasting lot in radio, Yes, Dan Holiday had a gal Friday—she was once employed at the Star-Times transcribing and distributing his own shows.” That may have been true when Box before deciding to work for Dan on a permanent basis. The fact that she went Thirteen originally went on the air...but to paraphrase Will Rogers, “Television is only by “Suzy” would suggest that she wasn’t paid much (in that she couldn‘t too big a thing to be out of.” Ladd would form a new production company, Jag- afford a last name) -- yet what she lacked in brains she made up for in loyalty. uar, for the purpose of bringing Box Thirteen to the small screen. However, the She was dizzier than Effie Perrine on a bad day. In fact, her distinguishing fea- closest the venture got to TV success was an installment of The General Electric ture was that she would drop at least one good malaprop per show (which would Theatre on December 5, 1954. The original Box Thirteen radio script, “Daytime always be patiently corrected by her employer). For example, in “The Sad Box” Nightmare,” was revamped by Russell Hughes into a teleplay entitled “Commit- episode, Suzy mentions “The Count of Monty Woolley.” When Dan informs her ted.” This story found Dan Holiday (Ladd) framed for murder, kidnapped, and that she must mean “Monte Cristo—two different people,” Suzy retorts: “Well, tossed into an asylum for good measure. “We hope it comes off well,” remarked they both have beards...” Ladd to the Los Angeles Times. “If so, the other 51 scenarios are on the shelf, waiting.” No Box Thirteen television series was forthcoming, though there were Actress Sylvia Picker played Suzy. She and Alan Ladd several proposals over the years. In fact, an idea for a feature film version was had been colleagues back in his KFWB days, and the announced by Alan shortly before his passing in early 1964. star made it his business to look out for his old friends. This is why the man who had originally hired Ladd to Box Thirteen remains a most enjoyable component of Alan Ladd’s radio legacy, work at the station (at $19 a week), Russell Hughes, was though it’s fun to speculate what might have happened if he hadn’t achieved mo- the show’s credited writer. (Ladd himself took a crack tion picture success. Radio veteran Frank Nelson once recalled Ladd’s struggle to at collaborating on occasion.) The only other regular on choose between radio and movies. “Frank, I have a chance to do some pictures; Box Thirteen was the irascible Lieutenant what do you think I ought to do?” Ladd asked Nelson. “Do you think I should Kling, portrayed by Edmund McDonald. stay in radio or do you think I ought to do the picture thing?” Nelson thought to John Beal (You may remember him as the victim in himself, “’Boy, he reads in a monotone; if he can do anything in pictures’—and I 1945’s Detour). A distinguished cast of didn’t think he could—‘he sure ought to take that.’ Well, fortunately he did, and radio veterans appeared in support from he did very well for himself.” week to week, including John Beal, Paul Frees, Betty Lou Gerson, Marsha Hunt, Alan Ladd’s not too shabby in radio, either. Join him as he sets a course for Joseph Kearns, Frank Lovejoy, Alan mystery and adventure in this latest Radio Spirits collection of Box Thirteen. Reed, Luis Van Rooten, and Lurene Tuttle. Marsha Hunt 4 5 literary pursuits as an author of fiction. Although Box Thirteen was produced specifically for syndication, the series did air in two separate network runs. It was heard on the West Coast Mutual network Holiday seemed to have developed a case of writer’s block when it came to his from March 15, 1948 to March 7, 1949, and on the East Coast (over WOR) new vocation. To compensate, Dan placed an ad in his old newspaper, the Star- from August 22, 1948 to August 14, 1949. Its 52 transcribed episodes gave it Times, that read: “Adventure wanted. Will go anywhere, do anything. Box 13.” tremendous staying power in terms of radio syndication, with the series being Holiday refused any sort of financial compensation from those individuals who broadcast on stations long after its West Coast/East Coast Mutual stints. Alan wrote to him requesting his services. That’s probably good, since an unsettling Ladd’s Mayfair Productions made the actor a mini-mogul in the medium. His number of those correspondents were “a little funny in the head.” Dan dealt acquisition of 156 stories penned by the legendary Damon Runyon in December regularly with blackmailers, cultists, and a generally sordid cast of characters. of 1948 would result in the long-running comedy-drama anthology series The Holiday must have had quite the nest egg squirreled away in order to pull this Damon Runyon Theatre. off. While he did plan to use these adventures as fodder for his books, you kind of had to wonder how he kept the lights on and paid his secretary each week. In Jim Cox’s Radio Crime Fighters, the author notes that Alan Ladd “simply wasn’t enamored with television and decided to cast his broadcasting lot in radio, Yes, Dan Holiday had a gal Friday—she was once employed at the Star-Times transcribing and distributing his own shows.” That may have been true when Box before deciding to work for Dan on a permanent basis. The fact that she went Thirteen originally went on the air...but to paraphrase Will Rogers, “Television is only by “Suzy” would suggest that she wasn’t paid much (in that she couldn‘t too big a thing to be out of.” Ladd would form a new production company, Jag- afford a last name) -- yet what she lacked in brains she made up for in loyalty. uar, for the purpose of bringing Box Thirteen to the small screen. However, the She was dizzier than Effie Perrine on a bad day. In fact, her distinguishing fea- closest the venture got to TV success was an installment of The General Electric ture was that she would drop at least one good malaprop per show (which would Theatre on December 5, 1954. The original Box Thirteen radio script, “Daytime always be patiently corrected by her employer). For example, in “The Sad Box” Nightmare,” was revamped by Russell Hughes into a teleplay entitled “Commit- episode, Suzy mentions “The Count of Monty Woolley.” When Dan informs her ted.” This story found Dan Holiday (Ladd) framed for murder, kidnapped, and that she must mean “Monte Cristo—two different people,” Suzy retorts: “Well, tossed into an asylum for good measure. “We hope it comes off well,” remarked they both have beards...” Ladd to the Los Angeles Times. “If so, the other 51 scenarios are on the shelf, waiting.” No Box Thirteen television series was forthcoming, though there were Actress Sylvia Picker played Suzy. She and Alan Ladd several proposals over the years. In fact, an idea for a feature film version was had been colleagues back in his KFWB days, and the announced by Alan shortly before his passing in early 1964. star made it his business to look out for his old friends. This is why the man who had originally hired Ladd to Box Thirteen remains a most enjoyable component of Alan Ladd’s radio legacy, work at the station (at $19 a week), Russell Hughes, was though it’s fun to speculate what might have happened if he hadn’t achieved mo- the show’s credited writer. (Ladd himself took a crack tion picture success. Radio veteran Frank Nelson once recalled Ladd’s struggle to at collaborating on occasion.) The only other regular on choose between radio and movies. “Frank, I have a chance to do some pictures; Box Thirteen was the irascible Lieutenant what do you think I ought to do?” Ladd asked Nelson. “Do you think I should Kling, portrayed by Edmund McDonald. stay in radio or do you think I ought to do the picture thing?” Nelson thought to John Beal (You may remember him as the victim in himself, “’Boy, he reads in a monotone; if he can do anything in pictures’—and I 1945’s Detour). A distinguished cast of didn’t think he could—‘he sure ought to take that.’ Well, fortunately he did, and radio veterans appeared in support from he did very well for himself.” week to week, including John Beal, Paul Frees, Betty Lou Gerson, Marsha Hunt, Alan Ladd’s not too shabby in radio, either. Join him as he sets a course for Joseph Kearns, Frank Lovejoy, Alan mystery and adventure in this latest Radio Spirits collection of Box Thirteen. Reed, Luis Van Rooten, and Lurene Tuttle. Marsha Hunt 4 5 The following Box Thirteen broadcasts star Alan Ladd as Dan Holiday, with Two 1942 films from “the majors” allowed the aforementioned B-picture fac- Sylvia Picker as Suzy and Edmund McDonald as Lieutenant Kling. The tories to cash in on Alan Ladd’s popularity. The first was RKO’s Joan of Paris, series was written by Russell Hughes, produced by Vern Carstenson, and in which Alan played “Baby”—a doomed RAF squadron flier. He’s shot down directed by Richard Sanville. Rudy Schrager composed and conducted the with four other airmen, and the gang has to make their way out of Nazi-occupied music. France and back to England. It was a small part for Ladd (though in its re-release, he once again moved up in the billing), but it convinced the studio to offer him CD 1A: “The Haunted Artist” (Episode # 17) a $400-a-week contract. Alan held out for a better offer from Paramount. That Artist Michael Davis is convinced that his studio is haunted. To prove it to Dan studio was adapting Graham Greene’s novel A Gun for Sale to the big screen, Holiday, he shows Dan his latest canvas. It’s a picture that contains the image of and they cast the actor as the baby-faced assassin known as “Raven.” Retitled a stone quarry...which Davis didn’t paint! This Gun for Hire (1942), the feature made Alan an “overnight” star, and would be the first of seven films he’d make with Veronica Lake. (Three of those would CD 1B: “The Sad Night” (Episode # 18) be “all-star” compilations: Star Spangled Rhythm [1942], Duffy’s Tavern [1945], Dan receives a child’s copybook in his Star-Times box and Kyle Layton—whose and Variety Girl [1947]). Because Lake measured 4’11” in her stocking feet she daughter Marina owns the item—offers Holiday $500 for its return. Why? The was the perfect leading lady for Ladd, who was only 5’6”. book may hold the key to unlocking a centuries-old fortune. Alan Ladd followed the success of This Gun for Hire with The Glass Key (1942), CD 2A: “Hot Box” (Episode # 19) a noir that re-teamed him with Lake. It also featured William Bendix in a mem- Dan is hired to acquire a Chinese teakwood box at an auction, but arrives too late orable turn as a sadistic henchman who wants to “bounce” Ladd’s character to place a bid. The gentleman with the winning bid is hit by a car while leaving around like a “little rubber ball.” At one point, Bendix’s character asks, “Wait a the auction, and a red-haired woman departs the scene of the accident with the minute—you mean I don’t get to smack Baby?” (This is a tad amusing in light of box in her possession. Ladd’s character in Joan of Paris.) Bill and Alan not only became close friends offscreen, as Paramount stablemates they appeared together in several films, in- CD 2B: “The Better Man” (Episode # 20) cluding China (1943), Two Years Before the Mast (1946), and Calcutta (1946). Wealthy Charles Winthrop invites Dan to dinner to present a proposition. The Ladd, Bendix, and Veronica Lake comprised the cast of The Blue Dahlia (1946), bored millionaire craves excitement, and Winthrop’s willing to fork over the tidy another of Alan’s most indelible films. sum of $100,000 to get some! Although Alan Ladd’s movie career at Para- CD 3A: “The Professor and the Puzzle” (Episode # 21) mount was threatened with interruption by Dan’s teacher friend Bob Lanham was engaged to be married to Evelyn Gardner, WWII, the studio was able to postpone the ac- but she had a change of heart shortly after her uncle’s suicide. She then made tor’s being drafted. (Ladd was originally classi- plans to wed Ed Macklin, Gardner’s former assistant…so when Macklin turns up fied “4-F” due to stomach problems, but found dead, Bob becomes the chief suspect. himself reclassified after taking an Army physi- cal.) He received enough deferments to allow CD 3B: “The Dowager and Dan Holiday” (Episode # 22) him to headline such features as Lucky Jordan Why would wealthy recluse Mathilda Courtland write a letter to Box 13? Maybe (1942) and Salty O’Rourke (1945). Ladd’s on- Dan will learn the reason on his honeymoon. Madame Courtland is ready to screen persona as a tough guy (with a sense of announce her engagement to Mr. Holiday! humor) would be perfect casting for when he decided to return to radio. Box Thirteen featured CD 4A: “Three to Die” (Episode # 23) Ladd as Dan Holiday, a one-time newspaper re- Douglas MacIntosh is a “sandhog”—someone who does construction work porter who had given up that business for loftier Movie Poster for The Blue Dahlia 6 3 which he was quite familiar before his phenomenal movie success in the 1940s. underwater. In MacIntosh’s case, he’s building a tunnel. It looks as if the contractor isn’t going to finish the project on time, and he wants Dan to look into Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1913, Alan Walbridge Ladd expressed an inter- who’s sabotaging the contract. est in acting while attending North Hollywood High in his teen years. His work in a production of The Mikado attracted the attention of a Universal Pictures CD 4B: “The Philanthropist” (Episode # 24) talent scout, who signed him and a few other young hopefuls to a contract that A red-headed transient has an appointment to meet Dan in the park at 3:00pm. (with options) could have lasted up to seven years. Universal dropped him after Red’s pal Sukie has gone missing, and he needs Dan’s help to locate his six months (despite bit parts in features like Tom Brown of Culver and Once in a whereabouts. Lifetime) because they thought he was too short. Undaunted, Alan kept his hand in the industry after graduating high school by working as a grip at Warner Bros. CD 5A: “Last Will and Nursery Rhyme” (Episode # 25) for two years. Dan accepts an invite from his old college chum Ted Kenworth, who owns a vacation lodge called Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks is on the financial skids because Ted’s A scaffold accident on the Warners’ lot convinced Alan Ladd to get out of the Uncle Thaddeus’ $3 million fortune apparently vanished before his passing. “grip” business...but not to abandon his love of acting. He started taking acting lessons at a school run by Ben Bard, a friend Ladd had made during his brief em- CD 5B: “Delinquent’s Dilemma” (Episode # 26) ployment at Universal. Bard’s advice, that Alan speak in a lower register, would Reginald “Biff” Kieran has been arrested for breaking into a store, and his mother prove to be an asset when the actor got hired to perform regularly on KFWB pleads with Dan Holiday to help her son. Unfortunately, Biff insists on taking the (the Warner Bros. owned radio station). Ladd would work as many as 20 shows rap for robbery…despite his mother’s insistence that he’s innocent. a week at KFWB, and became well-known to listeners as “The Richfield Re- porter.” Alan’s prolific radio work would be the catalyst for his return to motion CD 6A: “Flash of Light” (Episode # 27) pictures. Agent Sue Carol (below) heard her future client (and husband) perform- Jerry Fuller, a small-town youngster visiting the big city, has lost track of two ing in a play on KFWB one night (as both father and son) and was determined days of his life. He wants Dan to help him regain his memory of those missing to get him onscreen work. She did just that. Ladd landed credited roles in Rules days. Fuller refuses to go back home until the mystery is solved. of the Sea (1939), The Light of the Western Stars (1940), and Captain Caution (1940). Do you remember the reporter with a pipe silhouetted in the opening CD 6B: “Hare and Hounds” (Episode # 28) scenes of 1941’s Citizen Kane? That’s “Laddie!” An elderly man absconds with a “Box 13” letter after visiting Dan and Suzy at the office. Three days later, Dan gets a second request from the original Before achieving major movie stardom in the 1940s, author. After conducting an investigation of the letter Alan Ladd made the rounds, working for any studio writer’s apartment, Dan finds himself framed for the in need of his services. This benefited movie -mak man’s murder! ers who had hired him before he became Alan Ladd. For example, a 1940 Monogram release, Her First CD 7A: “Hunt and Peck” (Episode # 29) Romance, gave Ladd fourth billing...but for its 1943 Martin Kirby has 48 hours to live. He’s been sentenced re-release, the title was changed to The Right Man to die after being convicted of his best friend’s and billed Alan and actress Julie Bishop (who had murder. If ever anyone could use a helping hand from made the film as “Jacqueline Wells”) at the top. An- Dan Holiday, Kirby would be that individual. other Poverty Row mainstay, PRC, would move Alan from sixth billing in Crime, Inc. (1941) to first (when CD 7B: “Death is a Doll” (Episode # 30) it was re-released as Gangs, Inc. in 1943). In Ballou, Louisiana, Bart LeFay is on his death bed. He believes that he’ll be dragged through Death’s Edmund McDonald is heard as Lt. Kling. Sue Carol 2 7 door within five days. There’s nothing medically wrong with LeFay…it’s just that this strong, healthy man is convinced that he’s been cursed by witchcraft. BOX THIRTEEN