Defense Attorney (aka The Defense Rests, 1951-52) aired “The Basketball Fix” on July 17, 1952 as the 54th of its 75 episodes, of which only 13 are known to still exist. The audition took place in April of 1951 under the working title of The Defense Rests, but when it was given the green light and its first episode aired in June it was rechristened as Defense Attorney. Broadcast on Friday nights, each episode was devoted to righting a wrong, to defending a person unjustly accused–or actually convicted and sentenced, sometimes to the electric chair–for a crime they did not commit. It starred Mercedes McCambridge (1916-2004) as Defense Attorney Martha Ellis “Marty” Bryant.

This is only the 2nd episode of Defense Attorney we have offered, the first being in November of 2017, so a reprise of the original introductory notes is in order. McCambridge was fresh off her Oscar win as Best Supporting Actress in 1949’s All the King’s Men (Oscar winner, Best Picture), and in 1956 she would be nominated again in the same category for her role in Giant. Giant starred none other than Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean (with an all star supporting cast including Rod Taylor, Carroll Baker, Dennis Hopper, and Sal Mineo). Of interest to genre fans, McCambridge was the voice of the demon Pazuzu in 1973’s The Exorcist. Orson Welles, one of the most revered names in early radio and later film, touted McCambridge as “the greatest living radio actress.” Mercedes McCambridge has two stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, one for her film work and the other for her television work, which was extensive, including the following genre credits: Lost in Space (1966), Bewitched (1968), and Amazing Stories (1986).

As a side note, McCambridge was pregnant with her second child (the first died during childbirth) during the first 30 episodes of Defense Attorney. She was a vocal advocate for having children, believing that everyone needed to be needed, and none more so than children. She also strongly believed that having babies should not interfere with a woman’s career, holding the opinion that if she could juggle a radio and film career with having babies, then other women could as well.

Defense Attorney differs from the usual private eye/detective radio programs we’ve come to love in that while these stories show the evil doers getting killed or put behind bars for their crimes, Defense Attorney tells the stories of those few who have been wrongly imprisoned, or worse, who are about to be put to death. “The Basketball Fix” is one of these stories, and while on the surface it seems not an unusual storyline–that of illegal sports betting and point fixing–it quickly careens into a story of murder and the framing of an innocent individual for that murder. Unraveling this nest of deceit and possible miscarriage of justice is the job of our dedicated defense attorney, Marty Bryant, and makes for one of those satisfying stories that come our way far too seldom.