Personal Notice:

Do you have a crime that needs solving?
Do you have a dog that needs walking?
Do you have a wife that needs spanking?
Let George do it. Danger’s my stock-in-trade.
If the job’s too tough for you to handle,
you’ve got a job for me,
George Valentine.
Write FULL Details

Let George Do It (1946-54) aired “One Against a City” on February 7, 1949, as the 126th of its 414 episodes. The George of the title was an ex-GI now home and trying to find his place in civilian society after the war. Intentional or not, George Valentine, as an “everyman” character the common man could relate to, who exhibited no special abilities to speak of, found his calling as a freelance investigator, but not the usual hardboiled gumshoe in the mold of Mickey Spillane or Sam Spade. Like the character Dan Holiday of the radio program Box 13, who placed a classified ad in the newspaper soliciting his services, George used the same approach—see the Personal Notice above and in the ad below. While the first few lines of the ad would change from time to time the ad always ended with the lines:  “Danger’s my stock-in-trade. If the job’s too tough for you to handle, you’ve got a job for me, George Valentine. Write FULL Details.” George’s cases ran the gamut as did those of other private investigators or detectives:  theft, blackmail, abduction, scams, political malfeasance or worse, and of course murder. But there were also the oddball cases that provided a welcome freshness and change of pace to the program which would make George Valentine one of America’s more popular radio characters.

George Valentine was played by none other than Bob Bailey (1913-1983, photo top right), who would go on to be the star in one of radio’s most beloved programs, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1949-62), where he would become the most famous of Dollar’s voices from 1955-60. Though he had been a supporting or bit actor in numerous shows before he hit it big as the star of Let George Do It, this was Bailey’s first starring role in a major program, and he made it his own, stepping down for only the final 37 shows (January through September of 1954).

George Valentine’s loyal assistant/secretary and love interest was Claire Brooks, affectionately known as “Brooksie,” who was perfectly played by Frances Robinson (1916-1971, photo at left), and then others including Virginia Gregg who would follow Bailey to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar as his secretary Nancy Turner. Both Robinson and Gregg would play Brooksie as “smart and sassie” as one source characterized their interpretation of the role, but it was Robinson’s little touches that made her Brooksie priceless, as when she made it clear on more than one occasion that “the case he was the most off base on was the ‘Case of the Missing Engagement Ring.'” The charming way she presented Brooksie to the program’s loyal listeners was evident, which led one critic to comment that “Frances Robinson’s Brooksie remains one of Radio’s most endearing and versatile sidekicks. Lilian Buyeff, Shirley Mitchell and Virginia Gregg would later replace Frances Robinson over the years, but despite their own considerable talents, could never completely erase the memory of Frances Robinson’s absolutely letter-perfect characterization of Brooksie.” Robinson also enjoyed a film and TV career, appearing in more than a dozen films, a couple of interest to science fiction fans include The Invisible Man Returns (1940) and 1941’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She would die of an apparent heart attack at the much too early age of 55 on August 16, 1971.

In “One Against a City” we find George and Brooksie in the small town of Sharondale, where a rich old woman explains that before she dies she would like to see her town cleaned up of the trio of strong arm hoodlums who control all the illegal activities with an iron fist. It’s a rough and tumble job as George finds out early on when he is thrown from a train, and then a small boy is almost run over by a truck—all as a warning to George to back off. All these scare tactics accomplish, however, is to reinforce George’s determination to bring these petty tyrants to justice. There is plenty of action and with Brooksie’s undercover help the bad guys get theirs, but the icing on the cake is in the perfectly legitimate twist revelation at the end, which proves once again that it was the right call to involve George and make him “One Against a City.”

(The CD linked at top includes this episode and 19 others.)

Play Time: 29:31

{This noirish episode of Let George Do It aired on a Monday evening in February of 1949. Though the temperature was seasonally frigid, it didn’t stop the neighborhood gang from making a dash to the nearby newsstand after school the next day. They were not only looking to catch up on a few of their favorite SF/F magazines but some hardcore detective fare in the vein of “One Against a City.” As usual, they were in luck. Avon Fantasy Reader (1947-52) was the brainchild of Donald A. Wollheim, who realized there were treasure troves of classic fantasy stories that appeared in various non-genre publications before there even were pulp magazines devoted to, and filled with them. Wollheim collected these classic tales by some of the early giants in the field and would publish 18 total volumes in the series’ 6 year run, most years seeing 3 volumes, one of which was 1949. fantastic Adventures (1939-53) was founded by Raymond A. Palmer as a sister magazine to Amazing Stories. Earlier issues ran relatively light fantasy fare but according to one reliable source by the end of the 40s was running fiction almost indistinguishable from Amazing, though the fantastic element became even more pronounced. It was a monthly in 1949. One of the guys favored dark, page-turning detective stories and never missed a Saturday matinee when a detective flick was on the marquee, so found the newest issue of Popular Detective (1934-53) as a change of pace from his sfnal reading. The magazine ran more or less standard mystery and detective stories but kept its readers happy for almost 20 years by making sure the stories were written by many of the most popular names of the period, thus assuring a consistently high quality. It was a bi-monthly in 1949.}

[Left: Avon Fantasy Reader 9, 2/49 – Center: fantastic Adventures, 2/49 – Right: Popular Detective, 3/49]

To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.