Bogart & Bacall
Season 13, Episode 08
August 18, 2025
Part 2: Bold Venture
Re-Imagined Radio concludes its two-part Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall tribute. Part 2 samples the first two episodes of Bogart and Bacall's syndicated action-adventure radio series Bold Venture, 1951-1952. Slate Shannon (Bogart) and Gail "Sailor" Duval (Bacall), operate a hotel and charter boat in Havana, Cuba, before the revolution, and are natural magnets for adventurers and revolutionaries. From our tribute series.
Access the episode script
Background
Content
Samples from the first two episodes of Bold Venture, "Deadly Merchandise" and "Kuan Yin Statue," both starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Both episodes are in the Public Domain. Available at Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Bold_Venture_Singles).
Cast
Humphrey Bogart as Slate Shannon
Lauren Bacall as Gail "Sailor" Duval
Jester Hairson as King Moses
Credits
Written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin
Backup and theme music by David Rose and His Orchestra
Morton Fine and David Friedkin were well-known and respected for their work with the Suspense, Broadway Is My Beat, Escape, The Lineup and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar radio series.
Syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv Company and a good example of radio program syndication, which Re-Imagined Radio details in the episode Syndication, where we examine Alan Ladd's Mayfair Productions.
Bold Venture was a radio series produced by Humphrey Bogart's Santana Productions and then transcribed and syndicated by the Frederic W. Ziv Company during the winter of 1950 and 1951. Episodes about adventure and modern piracy were heard on radio stations in more than 400 markets through 1952.
Bogart played Slate Shannon, owner of a hotel, Shannon's Place, and boat, Bold Venture, both in Havana, Cuba. Lauren Bacall, real-life wife to Bogart, voiced Gail "Sailor" Duval, a sarcastic, quick witted femme fatal whose dying father left her under Shannon's guardianship.
Sailor Duval: "You talk about Havana like it was a woman."
Slate Shannon: "Do I?"
Sailor Duval: "How do you talk about me behind my back?"
Slate Shannon: "Walk ahead of me an' I'll think of something."
Shannon's Place is the perfect crossroads for all sorts of treasure hunters, revolutionaries, and pirates. Following the lead of Casablanca, Shannon's Place features a calypso singer, King Moses (played by Jester Hairson) who threads plot situations into the lyrics of his songs.
Resources
Amari, Carl. Hollywood
Radio Legends: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall→. The Saturday Evening
Post. Oct.
1, 2021.
"It took years of coaxing to get Bogart and Bacall to agree to the radio series Bold Venture, but it was
worth the wait."
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/10/hollywood-radio-legends-humphrey-bogart-and-lauren-bacall/
Amari, Carl and Martin Grams. Lauren Bacall's Sex Appeal Could
Be Seen on Radio→. Hollywood 360. 2024.
https://www.hollywood360radio.com/newsletter-january-2024/
Bold Venture→.
A website devoted to the radio series. Features 57 of the 78 episodes produced.
Bold
Venture→. The Digital Deli Too.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100117022729/http://digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Bold-Venture.html
Byrne, Bob. A
(Black) Gat in the Hand -- Bogart and Bacall's "Bold Venture"→. Black
Gate: Adventures in
Fantasy Literature. July 27, 2020.
https://www.blackgate.com/2020/07/27/a-black-gat-in-the-hand-bogart-and-bacalls-bold-venture/
Bold Venture→. Jerry
Haendiges Vintage Radio
Logs.
https://otrsite.com/logs/logb1035.htm
Grams, Martin. Humphrey
Bogart and Lauren Bacall on Bold Venture→. Martin Grams Blog.
Sep. 28, 2023.
https://martingrams.blogspot.com/2023/09/humphrey-bogart-and-lauren-bacall-on.html
Ramsburg, Jim. Bogart and
Bacall's Bold Venture→. Jim Ramsburg's GOldtime Radio.
http://www.jimramsburg.com/bogart--bacalls-bold-venture-audio.html
--. Fred Ziv: King of
Syndication→. Jim Ramsburg's GOldtime Radio.
http://www.jimramsburg.com/fred-ziv---king-of-syndication-audio.html
Yours Truly Johnny Blogger. Radio Review: Bold
Venture→. The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio.
https://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/radio-review-bold-venture/
Production
Credits
Written, Produced, and Hosted by John F. Barber
Sound Design, Music, and Post Production by Marc Rose
Promotional Graphics by Holly Slocum with Evan Leyden
Social Media and announcing by Rylan Eisenhauer
Significance
The Bold Venture series continues the earlier successful radio collaboration between Bogart and Bacall on the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of To Have and Have Not with a more action-oriented syndicated series.
Promotion
Press
Graphics
