''Charlie Wild, Private Detective'' is an American

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early ...

detective mystery drama. It was broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

September 24, 1950 - December 17, 1950, and on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

January 7, 1951 - July 1, 1951. The episodes broadcast on CBS were also carried on six stations of the Alaska Broadcasting System.

Origin

''Charlie Wild, Private Detective'' replaced ''

The Adventures of Sam Spade ''The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective'' was a radio series based loosely on the private detective character Sam Spade, created by writer Dashiell Hammett for '' The Maltese Falcon''. The show ran for 13 episodes on ABC in 1946, for 157 episod ...

'' on the air. The change followed the listing of ''Sam Spades star (

Howard Duff Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

) and creator (

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

) in the anti-Communist tract ''

Red Channels ''Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' was an anti-Communist document published in the United States at the start of the 1950s. Issued by the right-wing journal ''Counterattack'' on June 22, 1950, the pamphle ...

''. Radio historian John Dunning wrote that the association of the two names with Communist activities was "making ''Spade'' sponsor

Wildroot Cream-Oil Wildroot Cream-Oil is a men's hair tonic sold in the United States from the 1940s to the 1960s by the Wildroot Hair Tonic Company, based in Buffalo, New York. Background The company first started selling Wildroot Hair Tonic in 1911. In the 1920s, ...

increasingly unhappy." However, representatives of both the Wildroot company and the advertising agency that had the account denied that the cancellation of ''Sam Spade'' was related to the stir caused by ''Red Channels''. They said that the sponsor wanted a program with a lower budget on radio so that the money saved could be used for television. In either case, the last ''Spade'' episode aired on September 17, 1950, and the first ''Wild'' episode was heard on September 24, 1950. Duff provided a transition between the two programs by appearing as Spade on the first episode of the new series with what Dunning called "a vocal telegram, wishing the new hero well."

Premise

Private investigator Charlie Wild had his headquarters in New York City. Leon Morse wrote in a review in the trade publication ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' that the program had "tough talk, vivid similies, a hard-guy hero and fantastic descriptions of females."

Personnel

George Petrie played Wild in the NBC episodes.

Kevin O'Morrison Kevin O'Morrison (May 25, 1916 – December 11, 2016) was an American playwright and actor. He played the lead actor in the TV series ''Charlie Wild, Private Detective'' (1950–51) for the first seven episodes. The series began on CBS Television, ...

replaced Petrie when the program went to CBS, and John McQuade replaced O'Morrison on March 25, 1951. Peter Hobbs portrayed McCoy, Wild's assistant. The producers were Edwin Marshall and Lawrence White; the directors, Carlo D'Angelo and Stanley Niss; the writer, Peter Barry; the announcer, William Rogers; and the musical director, Charles Sherrill.

References

{{Reflist 1950 radio programme debuts 1951 radio programme endings 1950s American radio programs CBS Radio programs NBC radio programs Detective radio shows American radio dramas