The Falcon

April 10, 1943 saw the debut of The Adventures of the Falcon on network radio over NBC Blue for a brief series that ended in December of that year. The character underwent his third and final name change as Michael Waring, a freelance gumshoe first played by Berry Kroeger. The show then resurfaced over Mutual on July 3, 1945, staying until June 18, 1950—it then moved to NBC in the fall for a two-year stint before coming home to Mutual in January 1953, where it finished its long radio run on November 29, 1954. Actor James Meighan took over the role of Waring from Kroeger beginning with the Mutual debut of 1945; he was then replaced by Les Tremayne from 1948-51, and the series ended with Les Damon and George Petrie in the part.

Apart from having a keen bird nickname, there wasn’t anything particularly distinctive about Michael Waring. He shared a knack for spotting the fine details with fellow sleuth Ellery Queen, did not suffer law enforcement gladly like Richard Diamond, and definitely had a keen eye for a shapely leg a la Michael Shayne. Often Waring would be accompanied on cases by his girlfriend Nancy (played by Joan Alexander), who had no last name to speak of. Later on in the series’ run, Waring worked for Army Intelligence (let the oxymoron jokes commence!), and tangled with espionage agents, saboteurs and other foreign baddies. (I suppose when you find yourself in a job that offers nothing but the opportunity to crack wise to cops you’re due for a little career advancement.) If there’s anything remotely memorable about The Falcon, it would probably be the sponsorship of Gem Razor Blades from 1945-47, in which a classic commercial would start with the announcer intoning against a clock ticking and tolling: Avoid (chime) …five (chime) …o’clock (chime) …shadow (chime)! Use Gem Blades! Use Gem Blades! Use Gem Blades!

The Adventures of the Falcon was based and produced in New York, which allowed the crème de la crème of its radio talent to frequently perform on the program; among the actors heard in support: Mandel Kramer (as Sgt. Johnny Gleason), Ken Lynch (Sgt. Corbett), Joan Banks, Robert Dryden, Elspeth Eric, John Gibson and Everett Sloane. I checked out a pair of Falcon episodes last night at work, starting with “The Case of the Careless Client” (10/15/50), in which a woman named Eve Lowery hires our man Waring after allegedly being threatened by a hood named Caesar Juliano. When Juliano is later discovered taking “the big sleep,” Waring finds himself accused of the murder.

In the second show, “The Case of the Double Nephews” (10/22/50), a disgruntled jewelry store employee swipes $250,000 in bling-bling after discovering he won’t be replacing his departing supervisor. Yes, you heard that right—I have to say though, it's true that both of these shows are pretty standard stuff, but I enjoyed “Double Nephews” because the villains of the piece are so pathetic and in-over-their-heads it’s almost noir-ish. The employee, Tom Lacey, not only commits a boneheaded crime (he’s the likely suspect, seeing as how he locks up the safe in the jewelry store) but he also kills the new supervisor—and then goaded by his conniving bitch of a wife, tries to set up his departing boss for the jewelry theft. They remind me of people who’d turn up on a Barnaby Jones repeat, a nice, middle-class husband and wife who commit a depraved act in a temporary mindset of idiocy, and then commit blunder after blunder as the noose tightens around their necks. (I use this analogy because I wish to dispel a myth about this TV series; contrary to people’s memories, Barnaby Jones was not a good-old-fashioned, folksy crime drama—no dount discerned due to the participation of friendly Buddy Ebsen—but a fascinating study into the evil minds of some really twisted people.)