Night Beat (1950-52) aired “The ‘Bug’ Killings” on September 25, 1952 as its 112th episode out of approximately 118 (depending on how one counts). Some 80 episodes are estimated to remain in circulation. This radio noir “detective” show featured film–and later TV–star Frank Lovejoy (1912-1962) as Randy Stone, the nightbeat reporter for the fictional Chicago Star newspaper.
This is only the sixth episode of Night Beat we have showcased, the first being “The Devil’s Bible” from July of 2013, and the last being “Marvelous Machine” from February of this year, 2021. So a bit of background on the show is in order for newcomers. While well received, it ran for a modest two years before being cancelled, but not from any fault of its own. It had two factors going against it, both with origins at NBC. The time for a new radio show, and for a network to pour money into it, wasn’t the best. The early 1950s was becoming a growth spurt for the relatively new medium of television, and advertisers realizing its much larger potential audience were diverting their ad dollars away from radio and into this promising new market. Secondly, and for whatever reason, NBC around this time had a reputation for not supporting many of its shows with in-house advertising around the country, or allowing them the benefit of stable time slots so audiences could plan on listening to their favorite shows at a regular time. Both of these factors had a role in Night Beat‘s short life span. NBC would move it from one day of the week to another and at a different nightly time slot, without notice or fanfare, making it difficult for its audience to follow. Thus, while the show was a success, it was in spite of NBC, not because of anything its parent network did to support it.
As noted above, Frank Lovejoy portrayed Randy Stone, the night beat reporter for the fictional newspaper, the Chicago Star. He wasn’t the show’s first choice, however. Noted film actor Edmond O’Brien played Stone in an audition episode, but the censorship watchdogs that had for a long time been active in radio felt O’Brien’s hardcore, gritty characterization of Stone to be too stark for younger listeners, so decreed that Night Beat would have to air in a later time slot (after 9:30 PM) if it was to be given a green light. Rather than moving their new show in the making to a late night venue (with fewer listeners and thus fewer potential ad dollars spent), they would soften the Stone character. Enter Frank Lovejoy, with a voice historians would later place in the top ten of the most distinctive voices in radio. Lovejoy also brought his own sense of down to earth humanity and heartfelt compassion to the role (which he did to all of his radio roles, some 3,000 productions during his radio career), and Night Beat had its winning formula.
Lovejoy was a well known and respected film actor in the 1940s and 50s, having supporting or major roles in more than two dozen films, a scant few of many worth mentioning being 1949’s In a Lonely Place (starring Humphrey Bogart), and the title role in the classic 1951 noir crime thriller I Was a Communist for the FBI. Lovejoy featured prominently in several world War II and/or Korean War films, the most high profile probably his co-starring role with James Stewart in 1954’s Strategic Air Command. Of interest to SF genre fans is Lovejoy’s role as Lt. Tom Brennan opposite Vincent Price in the 1953 3D horror flick House of Wax (the first color 3D film to be released by a major American studio, and the first in a regular theater setting to offer stereophonic sound).
“The ‘Bug’ Killings” is the horrific story of a psychopathic serial killer who calls himself only “Bug.” He calls to taunt the police (and then our night beat reporter Randy Stone), confessing he has killed 3 women by himself, but someone else is now forcing him to kill again. Who or what, Bug fails to tell them, making this one of the more intriguing murder mysteries Stone and the police have come across. See if you can figure out who is responsible for “The ‘Bug’ Killings.”
Play Time: 29:33
{This episode of Night Beat aired on a Thursday evening in September of 1952. The neighborhood gang could hardly wait for the end of school the next day, primed and ready were they for a quick sprint to the local newsstand for at least a weekend’s worth of their favorite reading. Astounding Science Fiction (1930-present, now Analog) was always eagerly sought and never missed. It was a monthly in 1952. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1949-present) offered a more “literary” (if that is the correct word) style of SF since its debut issue in the Fall of 1949. Then a quarterly, it quickly assumed a monthly schedule with its August 1952 issue and wouldn’t look back, though it wouldn’t be until its April 1954 issue that it would publish all new stories. Galaxy (1950-80) was the other new SF magazine on the block with its emphasis on treating familiar themes from different perspectives and opening its doors to new themes hitherto unexplored in SF magazines altogether. Writers jumped at the chance and ere long it was one of the places to be (for both fans and authors). It was a monthly in 1952.}
[Left: Astounding SF, Sept. 1952 – Center: F&SF, Sept. 1952 – Right: Galaxy, Sept. 1952]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.