Nightbeat
Volume 3


"Hi, this is Randy Stone. I cover the nightbeat for the Chicago Star..."

In the postwar years, a new style of filmmaking began to emerge. Inspired in part by the moody and avant-garde expressionistic school that the Germans brought to the medium in the last days of the silent era, American mystery and detective films began adopting a dark and shadowy look, as well as an air of anxiety, pessimism, and suspicion in both plot and characterization. To critics, it became known as "film noir" -- literally "black film" or "black cinema" -- a style that would also quickly make its way to radio in such hard-bitten, downbeat series as "The Adventures of Philip Marlowe" and "Broadway's My Beat."

One of the top proponents of this style - and arguably the best of radio's various newspaper-based dramas - was "Nightbeat," the story of hard-nosed Chicago Star newsman Randy Stone and his quest for the human news behind the headlines. Starring Frank Lovejoy in the leading role, Stone came to vivid life thanks to expert scripts by experienced scribes like Russell Hughes (who would also write similar stories for "Box 13" and "Richard Diamond"), E. Jack Neumann, John Michael Hayes (who would later go on to write the Hitchcock film classics "To Catch a Thief" and "Rear Window"), and Larry Marcus. Lovejoy's distinctive voice and manner, combined with performances by veteran radio performers like Lurene Tuttle, Peter Leeds, Jeff Corey, and Jerry Hausner, gave "Nightbeat" an unusual and engrossing style - literally film noir for the mind. One week the story would be lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek, the next an emotional tragedy with a downbeat ending; there would be suspenseful races for time and quiet reflections on everyday life among the masses. Through it all, Randy Stone, in a hard-boiled yet sensitive portrayal by Frank Lovejoy, would narrate the story and comment on it from beginning to end -- often with a hard-edged cynicism that long-time fans knew was a cover for Stone's personal sense of fairness and morality.

Though generally popular with listeners, "Nightbeat" spent most of its two-year run bouncing around the NBC schedule -- usually without a sponsor and sustained by the network. Fans of the series often complained that they didn't know from week to week when (or if) it would be on at all. As a result, radio enthusiasts of today have probably heard more "Nightbeat" programs that most listeners heard when it was first broadcast over fifty years ago. But you'll never have a problem knowing when you can hear "Nightbeat" with this third Radio Archives collection, which features twenty more full-length NBC broadcasts originally aired between 1950 and 1952.

The Black Cat
Friday, November 3, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Fear
Friday, May 25, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Will of Mrs. Orloff
Friday, June 1, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Search for Fred
Friday, June 8, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Otto, the Music Man
Friday, June 15, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Sanctuary
Friday, June 22, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

A Byline for Frank
Friday, June 29, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Bill Perrin Amnesia Case
Friday, July 6, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Antonio's Return
Friday, July 13, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Pay Up or Die
Thursday, May 1, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Long Live the Clown
Thursday, May 8, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Death of Riley
Thursday, May 15, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Target for a Week
Thursday, May 22, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Jockey Brothers
Thursday, May 29, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Marvelous Machine
Thursday, June 5, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Railroaded
Thursday, June 19, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

The Old Itch
Thursday, July 3, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer

Flight from Fear
Thursday, July 31, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Ellen
Thursday, September 4, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining

Policy Wheel Racket
Thursday, September 18, 1952 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining