Arts
Just a few weeks ago, I was listening to an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective when I heard a line that jumped out at me. The episode I was listening to is called "The Hollywood Story" and begins with someone coming to see Richard Diamond to get his help on a case in CA (and for those of you unfamiliar with Richard Diamond, he lives in New York City). Diamond agrees to take the case but while in route to CA he says to the man "Why come all the way to New York for me? You've got some pretty good boys in California. Spade, Novak…" Now, as I mentioned in my first podcast, Sam Spade is another fictional character that appears on his own radio program. So it Pat Novak. So what stood out to me as I was listening to this was that this was the first time I'd ever heard what I'd consider to be a "connected universe" in the land of Old Time Radio. The idea of a connected universe is not unfamiliar to anyone who's read a comic book or been to the movie theater in the last 12 years. It's fairly common to see character's like Batman and Superman appear in each other's comic books and since the release of the movie Iron Manin 2008, Marvel has been raking in billions on this concept as they create movie after movie with iconic character's like Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk all living in the same universe. In fact, it's been such a success that their most recent movie, Avengers: Endgame, holds the record as the highest-grossing movie of all time after passing Avatar which had held the record since 2009. Universal Studios even tried to create a "dark universe" with all of their classic monsters like Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man but they scrapped those plans after their Mummy reboot with Tom Cruise bombed in 2017. I personally find that disappointing as I loved the 1999 reboot with Brendan Fraiser and Rachel Weisz and I was excited to see a world where all those characters interacted with one another. Now, while it's not uncommon to see this happen in today's pop culture, I'd never heard an example of it on the radio. If anyone listening thinks I'm crazy for not noticing this before, please let me know of other episodes that do the same thing. I'd love to listen to them. And since this is the first time we'll be listening to something from Richard Diamond, Private Detective, I want to give a quick series intro before playing the episode. I forgot to do the same last week when we listened to an episode of Suspense so I'll be sure to provide some background the next time we listen to something from that series. Richard Diamond, Private Detective is radio series featuring Dick Powell as a wisecracking, former police officer turned private detective. Episodes typically open with a client visiting or calling cash-strapped Diamond and agreeing to his fee of $100 a day plus expenses. It began airing on NBC Radio on April 24, 1949 and jumped around to various networks and sponsors until it's final broadcast on September 20, 1953. The script for today's episode was originally used on the CBS radio network on November 16th, 1951. However, since a recording of that episode is not available, what you'll be hearing today is a second performance that aired on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) on August 23rd, 1953. Please enjoy "The Hollywood Story" from Richard Diamond, Private Detective. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/otr-behind-the-mic/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/otr-behind-the-mic/support