“Cairo, gateway to the Ancient East…where modern adventure and intrigue unfold against the backdrop of antiquity…”
Rocky Jordan (1948-1950) aired “The Strange Fate of Professor Amar” on April 2, 1950. This is the 14th Rocky Jordan episode we have showcased since 2011 and the first in over a year. From a previous introduction for the benefit of new listeners unfamiliar with the Rocky Jordan program, here are the basics of the show’s background. Rocky Jordan ran from October 21, 1948 through September 5, 1950 and starred Jack Moyles as Rocky Jordan. There were several iterations of the show, the first of which aired in 1945 under the title A Man Named Jordan. Only two episodes of this early precursor are known to still exist. This version was set in Istanbul, Turkey but was otherwise the same as its successor. An attempt to revive the series with famed Hollywood actor George Raft aired for one season from 1950-51. A couple of half-hearted attempts were made at further revivals in 1955 and ’57, but none of these fifteen-minute episodes survives.
Rocky Jordan was modeled on the classic, much revered movie Casablanca, which premiered in New York on November 26, 1942 and then in general release on January 23, 1943. Casablanca starred Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, the American exile who ran Rick’s Cafe Americain in Casablanca, Morocco, an unallied country during World War II located in northwest Africa and bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Rocky Jordan is set in Cairo, Egypt, in northeast Africa, said country also bordering the Mediterranean. Rocky calls St. Louis home (but was chased abroad by his enemies), whereas Rick hailed from New York; both are intimated to have shady pasts. The counterpart to Rick’s Cafe Americain is Rocky Jordan’s Cafe Tambourine, not far from the “mosque Sultan Hassan,” (photo below) where Rocky finds himself routinely involved with “crime, mystery, and beautiful women.” Much like Rick’s Cafe Americain which is set during WW II, Jordan’s Cafe Tambourine, while set a few short years following the war, is a magnet for all ethnicities and types, from the respectable to the rogue.
As you might imagine, Rocky seems always to find himself at the center of trouble. Egyptian-Muslim police Captain Sam Sabaaya (married with four children) plays it straight and by the book but helps Rocky when he can, while Sabaaya’s Sergeant Greco dislikes Jordan and attempts to pin every mishap and crime on the part-time detective and foreigner.
The writers always strove for authenticity in Rocky’s adventures, researching names of streets and places for accuracy, and the show’s producers even hired an Egyptian writer/consultant in later episodes for further accuracy of detail in regard to the locales and various cultures, Cairo being a centuries-long crossroads and melting pot of the Middle East.
In this episode Rocky runs into an old friend at the train station, the professor Amar of the title, only to see him murdered. Understandably angered, Rocky sets himself to finding out why and who would want the professor dead, and in so doing is thrust into a web of political intrigue of the heady sort not uncommon in the years surrounding WWII, especially in Cairo and the middle east in general. Rife with danger and mystery—not to mention a surprise revelation—Rocky finds himself at the heart of “The Strange Fate of Professor Amar.”
(The CD linked above includes this episode and 19 others, all digitally remastered.)
Play Time: 29:47
{Airing on a Sunday evening, the neighborhood gang couldn’t wait for school to end the next day so they could high tail it to the nearby newsstand in search of other tales filled with danger and excitement of the sort they enjoyed while listening to episodes of Rocky Jordan. Detective Tales (1935-53) filled the bill perfectly, especially when a story by popular author John D. MacDonald was featured on the cover. It didn’t hurt that each issue was chock full of anywhere between 12-15 stories, which made the 25-cent cover price more attractive. It was a monthly in 1950. 15 Mystery Stories (1932-50) began under a different title and story emphasis, but when sales suffered it changed course (and title) to one featuring stories of “weird menace,” and ran for another 144 successful issues. It was a bi-monthly in 1950. New Detective (1941-53) promised, according to a reliable source, “the NEWest in crime fiction,” with pretty much tried and true fare with an emphasis on police detectives and by “some of the most popular authors.” With its August 1953 issue it merged with Detective Tales and became 15 Detective Stories. It was a bi-monthly in 1950.}
[Left: Detective Tales, 4/50 – Center: 15 Mystery Stories, 4/50 – Right: New Detective, 5/50]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.