The New Adventures of Michael Shayne (1944-53) aired “The Case of the Purloined Corpse” on October 9, 1948. Since this is only the 3rd episode of this show we’ve run (the first two were on on July 2, 2022 and April 1, 2023), it is time to reprise the original introduction for newcomers to this excellent detective program.
The show had three different iterations and titles: Michael Shayne, Private Detective (1944-47), The New Adventures of Michael Shayne (1948-49), and from 1952 until its demise in 1953 simply The Adventures of Michael Shayne. While each show had a different lead actor playing Shayne, many will say their favorite was probably film actor Jeff Chandler (1918-1961, photo below right), who played Shayne in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, from which this week’s episode is taken. It should be noted that due to syndication the precise first air dates for these programs are difficult to pin down, so we have used the date for this episode as given by the Old Time Radio Researchers Library.
The character of Michael Shayne, Detective was the brainchild of Davis Dresser (1904-1977, photo top right) who used the pseudonym of Brett Halliday for his mystery novels. Rather prolific, he would also pen a number of westerns as well as many stories for other genre pulps using a variety of other pseudonyms, but it is the work bylined with the Brett Halliday pen name that has had the most enduring legacy of all of Dresser’s works. His first Michael Shayne novel, Dividend on Death (and first novel of any kind) was turned down by 21 publishers until Henry Holt & Co. bought and published it in 1939. Dresser would go on to write 30 Michael Shayne novels for the next 25 years or so, turning over the reins to others in 1958, leaving the series in the capable hands of the ghost writers. Some of these “ghost writers” (many quite popular in their own right as mystery novelists, or having proved themselves in other genres, including science fiction and/or fantasy) include Sam Merwin, Jr., Robert Arthur, Frank Belknap Long, and Bill Pronzini.
The Shayne character is of the hard-boiled detective school, and does not exhibit the highest ethical standards when it comes to catching the bad guys. Known as “the reckless, red-headed Irishman,” Shayne is no doubt derived from many of Dresser’s own life experiences. From his wikipedia page: “Dresser was born in Chicago, Illinois, but mostly grew up in West Texas. Here he lost an eye to barbed wire as a boy, and thus had to wear an eye patch for the rest of his life. At the age of 14, he ran away from home and enlisted in the U.S. 5th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, followed by a year of Border Patrol duty on the Rio Grande. After his service, he returned to Texas to finish high school. In search of adventure, Dresser traveled throughout the Southwest working at various odd jobs, including that of muleskinner, farm hand, deckhand on a freighter in the Gulf of Mexico, laborer in the California oilfields, etc. Eventually, he went to Tri-State College of Engineering, where he received a certificate in civil engineering. Back in Texas, he worked as an engineer and surveyor for several years before turning to writing in 1927.”
While Shayne’s given residence and base of operations in the novels was Miami, for the radio versions the script writers played a little fast and loose with his hometown and had him solving mysteries in Oakland and New Orleans before eventually returning to Miami. This story, for instance, has Shayne working out of New Orleans.
Dresser/Halliday was one of the founding members of the Mystery Writers of America and in 1954 he and his wife were honored with Edgar Awards for their critical work in the field. Dresser’s/Halliday’s Michael Shayne character was a multi-genre character, appearing not only in novels and on radio, but in films (7 films starring Lloyd Nolan, and 5 with Hugh Beaumont who would later star in TV’s Leave it to Beaver), a television show (1958-61), and even a comic book spinoff tie-in to the popular television show. And last but not least was the Michael Shayne Mystery Magazine, begun in 1956 and lasting for almost 30 years, which for several years was edited by Frank Belknap Long.
This caper begins when Shayne accepts the request from an old man to find his missing son. Shayne soon learns that the old man is both extremely wealthy and extremely unliked. While neither fact is a dealbreaker for what looks like a routine missing persons case, Shayne soon discovers there’s a lot more involved and the road to his goal takes several odd turns. Odd indeed, as one strange set of circumstances leads him to a sanctuary for homeless young girls and a pair of spinster-like old women. But what really takes the cake and sets this job apart from any other is that the MacGuffin, the missing son, has been dead for weeks and his remains corpse-napped. Trying to make sense of all the disparate clues, which seemingly have no relationship to one another, forces Shayne to turn things up a notch and bring his A game if he is going to earn his fee by solving “The Case of the Purloined Corpse.”
(The linked CD at the top includes this episode and 13 others.)
Play Time: 26:55
{With the Michael Shayne detective mystery fresh in their minds and wanting more, the neighborhood gang could hardly wait to get home from church the following morning, change their clothes, and meet at the nearby newsstand. They found what they were after with the following detective pulps. Crack Detective Stories (1938-57), while not considered a standout for any particular reason, still managed to draw in readers well enough to make a profit for nearly 20 years, even if it meant changing the title no fewer than eight times over its lifespan. The title on the cover below adorned the magazine from November 1943 through September 1949. It managed a bi-monthly schedule in 1948. Dime Mystery Magazine, (1932-50) began its run featuring a novel and a few short stories in each issue. This formula proved unsuccessful and after a mere 10 issues it dropped the novel in favor of a few novelettes to go with the short stories. The publisher also drastically altered the magazine’s focus to one of “weird menace” stories, which proved a profitable decision. It ended up with 7 issues in 1948 as it switched from a short stint as a monthly for the first two months of the year and closed out 1948 as a bi-monthly. Thrilling Detective (1931-53) managed to attract and keep several generations of readers happy with a remarkable 213 issues over its 20+ year history. It stands to reason that it must have been doing something right, for as times and interests evolved in the real world so must its fiction have evolved to keep pace with those changing views of crime and the role of the detective, police or private. It held to an unbroken monthly schedule for an amazing 14 years, when at the very end of 1945 it slowed down a bit to a regular bi-monthly effort, one it maintained until its final year and a half.}
[Left: Crack Detective, 9/48 – Center: Dime Mystery, 10/48 – Right: Thrilling Detective, 10/48]
To view the entire list of weekly Old Time Radio episodes at Tangent Online, click here.