''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' is a 15-minute 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 earl ...

juvenile crime drama. It was carried on the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

weekday afternoons from July 5, 1943, to July 6, 1945.

Premise

Chickering "Chick" Carter was the adopted son of (and assistant to) Nick Carter of ''

Nick Carter, Master Detective ''Nick Carter, Master Detective'' is a Mutual radio crime drama based on tales of the fictional private detective Nick Carter from Street & Smith's dime novels and pulp magazines. Nick Carter first came to radio as ''The Return of Nick Carter ...

'' fame, making this program a spinoff of the elder Carter's show.Terrace, Vincent (1999). ''Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . p. 74. Episodes of ''Chick Carter'' typically ended with a

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

, enticing young listeners to tune in again for the next installment of the program. Although ''Chick Carter'' ostensibly had a young audience, both it and the older Carter program "kept fans of varying ages engrossed in their crime-stopping pursuits." Officials at

WOR (AM) WOR () is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, including '' ...

, Mutual's

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

station in New York City, believed the duo to be "the first related pair of adult and juvenile series in radio." Both programs were products of the

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc., was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp magazine, pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting year ...

publishing company, which 11 years earlier put ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...

'' on radio to promote the company's ''

Detective Story Magazine ''Detective Story Magazine'' was an American magazine published by Street & Smith from October 15, 1915, to summer 1949 (1,057 issues). It was one of the first pulp magazines devoted to detective fiction and consisted of short stories and seri ...

''. 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 advertis ...

'' reported that the broadcasts combined "the public yen for escape with treet & Smith'sneed for protection against further cuts in paper" during World War II. Street & Smith's writers provided scripts for the programs at no charge if the shows were not sponsored.

Inner Circle Club

Followers of either or both of the Carter programs could join the Inner Circle club, which provided a membership card and a folder that contained background information on the casts of the two shows. Initially, membership was available only to listeners of WOR.

Personnel

Bill Lipton initially had the title role, with

Leon Janney Leon Janney (April 1, 1917 – October 28, 1980) was an American actor and radio personality from 1920 to 1980. Career Leon Elbert Janney was born in Ogden, Utah, to Nathan Haines Janney and Bernice Rebecca Kohn. The names of his parents are con ...

taking his place beginning July 3, 1944. Janney had been honorably discharged from the Army two weeks earlier, and Lipton was entering the Navy. Sisters Jean and Joanne McCoy played Sue, and Gilbert Mack played Tex. In supporting roles, (Neither Sue nor Tex had a last name on the program.) Bill Griffis played Rufus Lash, and

Stefan Schnabel Stefan Artur Schnabel (February 2, 1912 – March 11, 1999) was a German-American actor who worked in theatre, radio, films and television. After moving to the United States in 1937 he became one of the original members of Orson Welles's Mercury ...

played the Rattler. Ken Powell was the announcer. Fritz Block directed and was one of the writers.

Walter B. Gibson Walter Brown Gibson (September 12, 1897 – December 6, 1985) was an Americans, American writer and professional magic (illusion), magician, best known for his work on the pulp magazine, pulp fiction character The Shadow, and as a ghost-writer ...

, Ed Gruskin, and Nancy Webb also wrote for the program. Charles Michelson was the producer.

Unauthorized broadcasts

In 1971, Charles Michelson, president of Charles Michelson Inc. (a program distributing company in New York) threatened to launch legal action against radio stations that were airing unauthorized broadcasts of ''Chick Carter'' or any of seven other old-time radio shows for which his company held the copyrights. He said that about 300 radio stations were broadcasting at least some of the series after having bought the rights to use them. In some cases, those stations had notified Michelson of other stations in their markets that were broadcasting the programs illegally.

Adaptations

*The film serial ''

Chick Carter, Detective ''Chick Carter, Detective'' is a 1946 Columbia Pictures, Columbia Serial (film), film serial. Columbia could not afford the rights to produce a Nick Carter (literary character), Nick Carter serial so they made ''Chick Carter, Detective'' about h ...

'' (1946) was based on the ''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' program. *''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' was the basis for a comic strip that ran in ''Shadow Comics Magazine''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Logs

Log of episodes of ''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' from Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs

Log of episodes of ''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' from Old Time Radio Researchers Group

Streaming

Episodes of ''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' from the Internet Archive

Episodes of ''Chick Carter, Boy Detective'' from the Old Time Radio Researchers Group Library
1943 radio programme debuts 1945 radio programme endings 1940s American radio programs Detective radio shows Mutual Broadcasting System programs American radio dramas Nick Carter (character)