''Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator'' was a detective drama heard on

NBC Radio The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...

from October 3, 1951 to June 30, 1955. Detective Barrie Craig (

William Gargan William Dennis Gargan (July 17, 1905February 17, 1979) was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

) worked alone from his

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

office. Unlike his contemporaries

Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional character and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel '' The Maltese Falcon''. Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. ''The Maltese Falcon'', first published as a serial in the pulp ...

and

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...

, Craig had a laid-back personality, somewhat cutting against the popular hard-boiled detective stereotype. Others in the cast included Ralph Bell,

Elspeth Eric Elspeth Thexton Eric (September 15, 1907 – June 15, 1993) was an American actress in old-time radio, "usually cast as the other woman in soaps and serials".DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 ...

Parker Fennelly Parker W. Fennelly (October 22, 1891 – January 22, 1988) was an American character actor who appeared in ten films, numerous television episodes and hundreds of radio programs. Early life The son of gardener Nathan Fennelly and Estelle Doll ...

Santos Ortega Santos Edward Ortega (June 30, 1899 – April 10, 1976) was an American actor and comedian. He was best known for playing Will Hughes in ''As the World Turns'', taking over from Will Lee, who had played the role from the first episode on April 2, ...

Arnold Moss Arnold Moss (January 28, 1910 – December 15, 1989) was an American character actor. His son was songwriter Jeff Moss. Early years Born in Flatbush, Moss was a third-generation Brooklyn native. He attended Brooklyn's Boys High School. ...

Parley Baer Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Cheste ...

Virginia Gregg Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

and

Betty Lou Gerson Betty Lou Gerson (April 20, 1914 – January 12, 1999) was an American actress, predominantly active in radio but also in film and television and as a voice actress. She is best known as the original voice of Cruella de Vil from the Disney anima ...

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...

was the announcer. Gargan also starred in the role in an unsuccessful 1952 TV pilot written and directed by

Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...

. It was presented on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's '' Pepsi-Cola Playhouse'' as "Death the Hard Way" (October 17, 1954). A few years earlier Gargan had played a similar character in

Martin Kane, Private Eye ''Martin Kane, Private Eye'' is an American crime drama radio and television series sponsored by United States Tobacco Company. It aired via radio from 1949 to 1952 and was simultaneously a television series on NBC from 1949 to 1954. It was the "ea ...

References

External links

Streaming audio

Radio Lovers: ''Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator''

59 episodes of ''Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator'' from Internet Archive
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Logs

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140826115053/http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Barrie-Craig.html Episodic log (and more) of ''Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator'' from The Digital Deli Too]
Episodic log of ''Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator'' from RadioGOLDINdex
{{Portal bar, Crime, Radio, 1950s American radio dramas Detective radio shows 1951 radio programme debuts 1955 radio programme endings NBC radio programs Craig, Barrie 1950s American radio programs New York City in fiction