Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to introduce you to Martin Caine Private Detective. First,
I do want to encourage you to check out our
other podcast, particularly as we're getting into the Christmas season.
I want to highlight the amazing world of radio where
starting tomorrow we will be bringing you Christmas specials on
that podcast every other day through Christmas Eve. We have
four great specials for you. Also on the Old Time
Radio Snackwagon, we have a special Christmas Tree that you
can hear on Monday at snackwagon dot net. And of course,
our Christmas programming for Great Detectives of Old Time Radio
starts tomorrow now Onto Martin Kain Private Detective. Martin Kain
is a forgotten multimedia franchise that really had a huge
present in nineteen forty nine into the early nineteen fifties.
The series premiered over mutual radio and on television over NBC.
The NBC TV version was one of the first popular
TV detective franchise, with each episode broadcast live. William Gargan
started in the rule to start with but would be
succeeded by Lloyd Nolan, Lee Tracy, and finally Mark Stevens,
who will hear today will The series was popular due
to it being broadcast live. Most of the episodes from
this run were lost, although a few surviving recordings have
surfaced and have been released by various public domain DVD
companies and are available online. However, Martin Kine was so
popular that there was a syndicated TV version starring Gargan
and filmed in Europe that was released in nineteen fifty
seven to cash in on the character's popularity. In addition
to radio and television, there was also a two issue
comic book released in nineteen fifty by Fox Features. Now
there are said to be twenty nine radio episodes of
Martin Kain in existence, at least that's what Wikipedia tells me. However,
none of them are actually available or in circulation to play.
This episode we have is from nineteen fifty three, but
according to the Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio, the Martin
Kaine radio series, which had moved to NBC, signed off
the air in nineteen fifty two, and this is listed
on various websites as a traditional old time radio program,
but it's a bit more complicated. This is a recording
of the audio broadcast over the TV band. For analog TV,
the audio was broadcast on a slightly different frequency than
the video, and then the television combined them. However, during
that period of analog television, there existed TV band radios
where you could listen to what was being played on
television even if you couldn't see it. I remember seeing
one of these back in the late nineteen eighties. Such
a device does not currently exist for digital television signals.
I feel comfortable playing this episode because this is something
that people would have listened to on their radios during
the golden age of radio. And I'm excited to hear
this episode. I've been looking forward to it for quite
a while. I'm not going to a lot of little
technicality ruin it, and it'll be interesting to hear how
this works out. So here from October twenty ninth, nineteen
fifty three is Martin Caine, Private Detective.
Speaker 2: The makers of those increasingly popular cigarettes.
Speaker 3: Sento the cigarette with.
Speaker 2: Fireless nicotine on course, cigarettes that fill to the smoke
but not the taste. Present Martin Caine, starring Mark Stephens, m.
Speaker 4: H m hmmm, y what's your name? Don't try anything?
Speaker 3: I said, what's your name? Thompson? Albert Thompson? Something wrong, officer?
Are you sure that's the man? He's the one I saw?
All right? He did it?
Speaker 5: Did?
Speaker 4: What what's your talk talking about?
Speaker 3: You? I saw you running out of that store after
the shooting. You killed that store keeper. I don't know
what you're talking about? What store?
Speaker 4: I haven't done an he's the one.
Speaker 3: I'll sweat it.
Speaker 6: Come along, look off yourself, office, please, I'll need you to.
Speaker 3: Oh no, nohing's going to happen that safe place, Yes, sir, yes, there,
anytime you want it for the grand jury, he'll be there. Well,
thank you. I'll be checking with you right along, right. Well.
Speaker 6: The DA is a very happy man. He's got a
sense case against Albert Thompson. Oh what did you drop
in for Kane?
Speaker 3: Congratulations? What'd you do?
Speaker 7: Not me?
Speaker 8: It's you, the rates, the medals, lieutenant, you and your department.
The way you solve that murder. That's pretty good.
Speaker 6: Well, the whole case just kind of walked in here.
Fred Wallace, the guy who spot Thompson at that bus stop,
he's the one.
Speaker 3: He gets all the credit. Have you got anything new
on Thompson.
Speaker 6: Well, the identification looks pretty solid.
Speaker 3: King, He's got a smart lawyer, Ed Randall.
Speaker 8: He could beat you in court unless you come up
with more evidence, including the murder weapon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're working on it. You know came had taken.
Speaker 6: That robbery was about two hundred bucks when we examined Thompson.
Speaker 3: He had two hundred and seven bucks on him. Maybe
saved it up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, how his wife didn't know anything about it?
Speaker 8: Look, lieutenant, and a fella's planning on buying his wife
a new coat for her birthday.
Speaker 3: He doesn't tell her what he's stating up for. Tell me,
how do you know so much about Thompson? He's Ed
Randall's client. So Ed Randald's a client of mine. Oh,
he thinks Thompson's innocent. Thinks that your witness made a mistake.
A good lawyer, smart too.
Speaker 6: Oh you you think the witness made a mistake too.
I don't know.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm hard to find out. He sure picked
a tough way to make a living. Some guys climb mountains.
Speaker 6: You won't even get off the ground. Fred Wallace made
a positive butification, by the way, I.
Speaker 3: Called his house. You've taken him somewhere wide for his
health gate.
Speaker 8: Oh, come on, Lieutenant Thompson couldn't hurt anybody.
Speaker 3: He has gonny mob connections. He's just a little guy
that fell in the great big hole. I want to
see Wallace. You're wasting your time, Kane, and that's straight.
You're convinced that Thompson's Gilly.
Speaker 6: I can't be.
Speaker 3: Not yet.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm only about ninety percent convinced because we still
haven't found the gun.
Speaker 3: However, Fred Wallace kind of makes up for it. I
still want to see him. Well you don't see him,
all right, but not alone. I'll be there too. Everything
all right, mister Wallace. Fine, huh yeah, yes, sir? Are they?
Speaker 4: What are the commissioners?
Speaker 3: Says this guy's food bill? Oh okay, Lieutenants Wallace. Uh,
this is uh Martin Kane, mister Thomas Wallace.
Speaker 6: Kane's a private detective right now. He's working for Thompson's. No, yeah,
I see, he'd he'd like to ask a few questions.
Speaker 8: Uh, mister Wallace, you're sure you couldn't have been mistaken
in your identification? No, sir, what makes you so positive
it was Thompson you saw running out of the shop
after you heard the shots?
Speaker 3: Just was that's all? Tellbody was wearing a hat? A hat, yeah, hat, Yes,
yes he was. Thompson. Doesn't more I have? Mister Wallace
never does, never has, well, he could have on this job, Kane.
Do I have to talk to him? Why not, mister Wallace?
We're both after the same thing, aren't we? The truth?
That's just why I went after that policeman the moment
I saw Thompson. It's my duty as a citizen.
Speaker 9: You think I like hanging around this hotel room, not
being able to go about my normal business. Everything, My
name is spread all over the newspapers. I have to
testify that trial.
Speaker 3: It's the right thing to do. You're okay?
Speaker 6: Most people would be afraid to stick out the next
We could use more men like mister Wallace.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Civic virtue is a great thing, Lieutenant, as long as
it doesn't convict the wrong man.
Speaker 3: Why would I do a thing like that?
Speaker 8: Just a mistake, mister Wallace, A simple, ordinary human mistake.
It happens all the time, every day, just like it
happened here. You couldn't possibly see Thompson run out of
that store. He was clear across town at the time.
Speaker 3: That's what he says. I should telling mister Wallace, what
was the weather that day? Kind of a question is that?
Would you answered?
Speaker 6: Please?
Speaker 9: I don't see what difference it makes act. I think
it was a nice day. Yes, it's a nice, warm day.
Speaker 3: The man who ran out of the store. Was he
wearing a topcoat? He could add? Was he?
Speaker 7: No?
Speaker 3: I just told you it was a warm day. Wouldn't
be wearing a top coat.
Speaker 8: Your logic is good, mister Wallace, but your memory is bad.
It was a warm day and Thompson was wearing a topcoat.
The people who desire I was so square to that.
Speaker 3: He's just trying to trick me.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 8: I just want you to think and think hard, mister Wallace.
Isn't possible that you made a mistake in.
Speaker 9: Your identification, Mister King, I'm not a fool. If I
listened to you and change my story, I'd be a fool.
Some people would say I was scared off, others that
I was bought off. No, I said it was Albert Thompson.
And Albert Thompson it stays.
Speaker 3: Well convinced. Nope, But I got a better chance of
talking back to.
Speaker 10: Tide Albertson here, Missus Thompson, Thanks, why don't you go
right on here and now wait out here for mister King.
Speaker 3: Alfred.
Speaker 4: Oh you're right. Yeah, yeah, they're treating me.
Speaker 7: Mister Randall's here with me.
Speaker 4: He said he was coming. He's a very fine lawyer.
Speaker 5: Let me.
Speaker 3: He tried to get him lower the bail.
Speaker 7: He's still working very hard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: They won't do it.
Speaker 8: My guard told me that twenty five thousand dollars is
the lowest Bailey ever heard.
Speaker 4: Of for a murderer. When mister Barnes came to see
me from the office, wanted to know if you needed
any money, what'd you tell him?
Speaker 7: I thank him very much. I told him we'd manage.
He said, he said, all your friends believe in.
Speaker 1: You, Helen.
Speaker 4: Mister Randolds very optimistic.
Speaker 3: He thinks this mister Kane is sure to find some
new evidence.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I may not even have to go to trial. Hell,
amn't I Helen, I Helen. I want you to meet
Martin Kane.
Speaker 3: Hello, Missus Thompson, can you help? I don't know yet.
Have you talked to Wallace? Yeah, I talked to him.
He'll make an excellent witness for the state.
Speaker 4: How do you see it in.
Speaker 3: It's not good.
Speaker 4: It's not bad.
Speaker 11: District Attorney's office has been.
Speaker 3: Working just as hard as we have, and you got
enough for indictment.
Speaker 4: Pretty hands, see Alberdar.
Speaker 3: Main problem is your alibi. If we can only prove
that you were nowhere near that store when it happened.
But I wasn't. I was on my way home. A
dozen people must have seen me.
Speaker 8: Two dozen, one hundred people could have seen you, mister Thompson.
Nobody ever sees you on a subway or a bus.
I'm afraid you have no alibi, and I'll keep right
on working mainly on finding the gun.
Speaker 3: A big job of the yours in court.
Speaker 11: I know I'll need everything you can get me to
shake wallace and cross examination. Oh, let's not give up
the ship. You never can tell about juries. Sometimes they
go for the stranger's story.
Speaker 4: What's strange about albt story?
Speaker 3: That's the truth?
Speaker 4: Well, he'd never heard a soul.
Speaker 7: And its lif.
Speaker 3: He isn't a hard working man. What jury would believe
he's a murderer.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, I know, Inspector, Yes, sir, I know this
isn't that big. But the well, the district attorney's been
on my neck all week. Yeah, he says he's got
to have the gun that killed Thompson or else.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 6: So I put all the men I could spare on it, sir, No, sir, no, sir,
nothing so far? What, well, Inspector. I think my men
know their jobs. I pick most of them myself. Yes, sir,
that's all right.
Speaker 3: I understand you.
Speaker 4: Yes, I certainly do.
Speaker 6: Well, Thank you, inspector.
Speaker 7: Good night.
Speaker 3: Want some cane warm tonight? Not for a private detective?
What do you want?
Speaker 6: I want some help?
Speaker 3: Still working for at Randall, that's right. Well, don't come
around saying when you quit. Maybe that'll be too late
for Albert Thompson. Oh for you, lieutenant. You want to
find the gun, don't you? What do you think.
Speaker 5: I get it?
Speaker 3: All right? Get fired. I don't know whether it'll be
the inspector first or maybe neither.
Speaker 7: Do.
Speaker 3: I want to help me? Hey, Kane, you holding out
on me?
Speaker 6: Hey?
Speaker 3: Do you know where that gun is? I know where
that gun isn't And I know a little fella that
doesn't know anything at all about it.
Speaker 8: Albert Thompson, Caine, say what you've got to say, all right,
you won't find the gun until you find the man
who used it, and it was Albert Thompson. You've already
proved that. Yeah, you've had your best man out looking
for the gun and they can't find it. They've questioned
every enemy, every friend that Thompson ever had. They looked
every place where he could have bought a rent of
the gun. And they're gonna keep right on looking, keep
on looking from now until next year.
Speaker 3: But they're gonna come up with nothing. Maybe and maybe not.
We'll see, lieutenant, Stop wasting time and look. Tell me
what you want to or take off.
Speaker 8: Get me a run down a description of every every
stick up artist that looks like Thompson.
Speaker 3: Oh, from crying out loud?
Speaker 6: Can there be fifty one hundred five hundred? I don't know,
and I can't spare a crew on the fire to
find out. Yeah, and then you find him, and while
you're right it, try and find a witness who saw
him do it. Meantime, I'll go along with Thompson.
Speaker 3: I got a witness for him.
Speaker 6: They're kind of great, guess sir, Oh she did. Yeah,
that's too bad. No, No, I didn't think of that. Well,
all I can do is keep right after yes, or
of course, as soon as I get anything.
Speaker 3: District Attorney. They just took missus Thompson to tell you
a complete nervous collapse. How much being new about that?
Speaker 7: Is that? Kane.
Speaker 6: Everything we've got so far says that Thompson did it.
You show the DA one solid fact on the other
side of the ledger, and Thompson's practically.
Speaker 3: A free man. Look, will you get me the rundown.
I'll try to get that fact and you show it
to the DA. Did you ever meet missus Thompson?
Speaker 12: Real nice woman, that's right, Starry, meet me in the
photo gallery in five minutes.
Speaker 6: This better be good, Kane, for everybody's sake, especially for
my clients.
Speaker 3: If we miss we get another. He doesn't an this
is his last time at bat well, kata. I hope
you play your Texas. I had three men working on
that list all night, Thanks Retunnan. Only nine names, huh,
that's right.
Speaker 6: Out of about four hundreds, we eliminated everyone who didn't
correspond at least roughly that Thompson's physical description.
Speaker 3: Only two possibilities. Three are in prison, thre are on
the West coast. Two were in the hospital at the time,
and the other two right here in New.
Speaker 6: York, Carl Shaw, Marry Spencer, with a complete rundown on each.
Speaker 3: Okay, this isn't a lending library.
Speaker 8: If I tag one of these guys, I'll buy you
a set of cast iron bookends for your birthday.
Speaker 3: You'll be hearing from me.
Speaker 8: My first possibility. Carl Shaw was working in the garage.
He told me a straight sounding story about not being
crooked anymore. He had a wife and kids now, his
past was really behind him, and so on and so on.
I thought he'd never stopped telling me how he'd become.
Speaker 3: A new man. But all I wanted to hear from
him was his alibi for.
Speaker 8: The time of the killing.
Speaker 3: And he had won. He was working here. The fellow
at the next bench could prove it. Carl Shaw was
in the clear.
Speaker 4: What will it be, mister Kane.
Speaker 3: A little information, Charlie on. A guy named Larry Spencer. Well,
he comes around, regular customer. He was so a couple
of weeks ago. The last night he showed up again,
I'll come, says he was away vacation. He wouldn't have
gone away around the day after.
Speaker 8: Columbus Day, would he? What on October thirteenth, the Druggist
was killed in a heist. Yesterday they indicted a man
named Albert Thompson for the murder.
Speaker 3: Twenty eight between those two dates, Larry Spencer decides he
needs a vacation. That's quite a coincidence, isn't it. Oh,
excuse me, mister, Charlie. I've got customers, mister, I know
you got customers. You got customers because he still got
a license.
Speaker 8: Remember when I proved that those high school kids didn't
take up their booze here?
Speaker 3: I remember what Spencer has been up to lately. I
don't know, honest, do you got any money?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 3: I let him run a tab once in a while.
The last one had me worried.
Speaker 6: Oh why Well, when he didn't show up those couple
of weeks, I figured he was going for good.
Speaker 3: And yesterday he came in and settled up. Okay, Charlie,
thanks lot?
Speaker 5: Oh is it?
Speaker 3: Hi came? I'm telling Gray phone to come on in.
Ill'm mister Wallace. Well, mister Kane, how are you What
do you want? I want you to look at the picture,
mister Wallace? What pictures? Well?
Speaker 4: Who's this?
Speaker 3: Where'd you get this? A? Guy named Larry Spencer.
Speaker 12: He's got a police record, he's got a hobby also
holding up store keepers.
Speaker 3: Are you sure, mister Wallace, this isn't the man you
saw run out of that store.
Speaker 5: What are you trying to do to me?
Speaker 8: Mister kelmind what I'm trying to do to you? Think
of Albert Thompson. Are you sure this isn't the man
you saw run out of the store after the shooting.
Speaker 9: No, I told you once before. You're not going to
make a fool of me, not now or not on
a witness. Dad, I'm not changing my story.
Speaker 6: That of Gray.
Speaker 3: Oh as Kane say, I'm great, you got my message.
Listen to some of the boys down the hall brought
in a quite a gay crapshooter. One of them was
Larry Spencer.
Speaker 5: You want me to hold him?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Do you get anything on him? Nope? I was hoping
to well, there's no point in holding him. He won't
do me and he good in the tank. You think
he'll lead you to the gun? Huh?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 8: I think he's got his sash to win some nice
quiet place ready for another job.
Speaker 1: He'll write that.
Speaker 6: How's it look?
Speaker 3: I made a contact with a friend of his. All
now his girlfriends works in the Diamond dance place. I'm
going over there now. Hey, you don't care how you
spend your money. Do you let me know if it
was with it? Will you? Sandy should forgot about Spencer fast.
She's been dancing with that new guy all evening. He
would need to get me an a ticket. I'd answer
them for free. Well, I hope Spencer doesn't come in.
That's all sanded be awful.
Speaker 7: Sorry, so with that dream boat spent to killing Marry
Spencer killing by you kidding?
Speaker 3: No, I don't get it. What's a guy like you
doing in this place? Maybe I like to dance?
Speaker 1: Oh there we go?
Speaker 3: Yeah, hey you must don't an oil? Will anyway? The
next setting? Well, I could use you. You're getting time little?
I want to sit down. No, I like dancing with
you too much. It's not a job. I like it. Well,
that last one was sure living it up. One ticket. Hey, hey,
Sandy's still dancing with that guy. Do you blame her?
Maybe somebody ought to tell.
Speaker 4: Larry Spencer die.
Speaker 3: Don't mind your own business. Say they look nice together
and make yourself at home. Thanks, I'll get some coffee.
You're awfully night. I'm glad you're here.
Speaker 8: I was glad to be here too, But all I
had in mind was finding out if Larry Spencer used
this flat for a gun?
Speaker 3: Drop? Who's the guy? SAME's Larry Spencer? Girls, tell me
about the guy you're gonna marry him?
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You haven't helped much, I command, Sandy, No, please let
me say something. You know things, things happen quick, too quick.
If you want something, you have to put out your
hand and grab it or else it goes right by.
Larry thinks fast, he gets thin.
Speaker 5: I never wanted to know how you get what you
want to, don't you? I try, Sandy, only maybe with
you it'd be diffey. It'd be a chance to stop
being scared. Try to tell him every time I see him.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Time rushes blind.
Speaker 8: There's never rough left.
Speaker 3: What are you scared of, Sandy? What Larry done? I
don't want to talk about him? What he done?
Speaker 7: Sandy?
Speaker 3: Why tell me?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 3: Why why do you have to know? Long story? Sandy?
Speaker 7: Hello?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there is someone here who told you. Hello.
You can ask Lara yourself. He's coming over right now.
What do you want. I'm waiting for you.
Speaker 7: Who is he?
Speaker 11: Friend?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 3: Get out? Have I ever catch you around here again?
I'll break your face in. Hear me?
Speaker 9: I hear you?
Speaker 3: Who is this guy?
Speaker 7: Let me go?
Speaker 3: I said it?
Speaker 7: With it?
Speaker 3: What do you want? I want you to change places
with a nice little guy that's being framed for murder?
Did you committed? You're nuts? Pretend I went out and
came back on. Beat my face in.
Speaker 8: Let me alone.
Speaker 13: I'm gonna start paying you off now, Sandy, help me.
Thanks Sannie for not helping him.
Speaker 3: Okay, couldn't not after what you said. I always thought
Larry was a small time he killed somebody. Get the
gun here.
Speaker 4: Came?
Speaker 3: I told you, didn't I do you want something? You
have to reach out and get it? Will I will
I ever see you again if you ever need me. Sandy,
you're ever in trouble?
Speaker 4: Why now?
Speaker 3: I want to start the wheels rolling for some of
your ways. A ton of great please.
Speaker 1: M welcome back. Another episode that reflects the challenge of
eye witness testing. In this case, the stubbornness of the
witness and his pride made it hard for him to
admit he'd made a mistake or could have. The episode
had a mix of solid, talented leads and somewhat amateurish
over the top guest stars with a decent enough mystery,
which kind of fits my experience of the TV episodes
of Martin Kine as well. The actors who played Martin
Kine were all very, very talented performers, but they really
had to carry the show when dealing with the spotty
guest performances. For William Garden, he identified that the show
was casting good looking but untalented actresses, which offended his
sense of professionalism and morality because he viewed it as
them just trying to sell sex in a much less
overway than television just today. I do think that for audio,
without being able to see it, it still worked pretty
well for the most part. The narration by Martin Kin
helps witch I can be a bit superfluous over television,
but I think it is a nice touch over radio
to help the listener's imagination. Mark Stevens was a very
good actor with a solid career as a leading man
in Hollywood in the late nineteen forties and into the
nineteen fifties, and he probably deserves more attention than he gets.
In addition to playing the lead role on Martin Kin.
He also starred in another TV series that was related
to Radio Big Town, and he has a star on
the Walk of Fame in Hollywood for television, although I
kind of sense that is more of a combined thing
for his work both in television and in motion pitch.
We probably should have heard Mark Stevens on the podcast before.
He did a few really good in war films and
also start in the Lux Radio Theater adaptations, and hopefully
we will get to some of those adaptations soon. Well,
now it is time to thank our Patreon supporter of
the day. I want to go ahead and thank our
Patreon support of the day, and I want to thank
Cherry Lee. Chery Lee has been one of our Patreon
supporters since March of twenty eighteen, currently supporting the podcast
at the Master Detective level of fifteen dollars or more
per month. Thanks so much for your support, Sharlee, and
that will actually do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software,
And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark
the notification bell. We will be back next Tuesday with
a special Christmas Eve episode. But join us back here
tomorrow as our Christmas episodes get under away with broadways
my beat?
Speaker 3: Where?
Speaker 8: Excuse me?
Speaker 9: What is it?
Speaker 1: I can hardly hear you?
Speaker 6: List listen?
Speaker 3: Ny? Can you see what I mean? Why the sarens?
What's the trouble? What trud trick? Take?
Speaker 7: Ulus is in a tree on the Avenue eight playground, Enny,
this lit.
Speaker 1: He's showing anyone to listen to There ain't no I
hope you'll be with us then in the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.