Syndication
Season 12, Episode 04
April 15, 2024
Alan Ladd's Mayfair Production Company
Re-Imagined Radio samples from Box 13 and The Damon Runyon Theater, offered by Paramount movie star Alan Ladd's Mayfair Productions, as syndicated radio programs. Both are significant examples of compelling, immersive radio storytelling.
Access the episode script
Background
Mayfair Productions
Mayfair Productions was created in 1948 by Paramount movie actor Alan Ladd and Bernie Joslin. They had partnered previously to operate a restaurant chain with the same name. This time their focus was on radio.
Alan Ladd
Alan Walbridge Ladd (1913–1964), began his acting career in 1935 at the Warner Brothers Studio-owned radio station, KFWB, working as many as 20 shows a week (Radio Archives). He was often heard as "The Ridgefield Reporter."
Film Career
Although he started in radio, Ladd wanted a career in the movies. An early movie role was in 1941, as a reporter in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. His break came in 1942 when Ladd played Philip Raven, a psychotic killer with a conscience, in Paramount Pictures' This Gun for Hire. His most famous movie was Shane, released in 1953 by Paramount Pictures. Ladd played the title role, a skilled gunfighter with a mysterious past, known only as "Shane." He helps homesteaders in Wyoming Territory stand up to a cattle baron who seeks to take over their properties.
Return to Radio
While developing a career in motion pictures, Ladd kept his hand in radio. In 1943 he reprised his role as Philip Raven in a radio adaptation of This Gun for Hire for Lux Radio Theatre. Several other radio adaptations Lux followed, including, on January 24, 1944, when he played the lead in radio adaptation of the movie Casablanca, and on February 22, 1955 when he reprised Shane. Ladd also appeared on Burns and Allen (1945), Jack Benny Program (1945), The Dinah Shore Show (1945), GI Journal (1945), Duffy's Tavern (1946), Hollywood Star Time (1946), Guest Star (1949 and 1958), The Screen Guild Theater (1949), The Screen Directors Playhouse (1949, 1950, and 1951), and in four episodes of Suspense, "One Way To Nowhere" (episode 73, January 7, 1944), "The Defense Rests" (episode 82, March 9, 1944), "Motive for Murder" (episode 376, March 16, 1950), and "A Killing in Abilene" (episode 407, December, 14, 1950).
The idea behind Mayfair Productions was to create radio content, and then license broadcast rights for that content to radio stations and networks around the country. This practice was called syndication, and it offered several benefits.
First, Mayfair could license broadcast rights to its content to any radio station or network interested, anywhere in country. This meant potentially a wider audience for its content since it could be heard on more radio stations than even the largest network might provide.
Second, the costs for leasing broadcast rights for syndicated content were more affordable, especially for small stations with small budgets. Transcribed (recorded) programs were sent to individual radio stations ready for broadcast to listeners.
Third, individual radio stations could secure local sponsors for syndicated content, thus making money from advertising sales and connecting the program to their listening community.
And, in the case of Mayfair Productions, syndicated content was often compelling, immersive radio storytelling. One program offered was The Unexpected, featuring 15-minute episodes delivering a quickly drawn weird story, with a twist ending. We explore and listen to two other radio programs by Mayfair Productions with this episode of Re-Imagined Radio, Box 13, Mayfair's primary contribution to radio entertainment, according to Radio Archives, and The Damon Runyon Theatre, stories by Damon Runyon adapted for radio.
Box 13
August 22, 1948-August 14, 1949
Syndicated mystery/adventure series, created by Mayfair Productions
Heard on Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS), WOR, New York, and other stations
NOTE: Newspaper listings indicate broadcast as early as August 1947. Syndication could be the reason
this series would start at different times in different cities around the country.
30-minute episodes
52 episodes produced, 52 survive
Retired newspaper reporter Dan Holiday has a unique way of finding ideas for his new career writing novels about mystery and adventure. He advertises for them in his former newspaper.
As radio historian Fred MacDonald writes "the most glamerous ingredient [in a radio detective series] was adventure. . . . Dan Holiday in Box 13 began his weekly adventures by placing a classified ad in the local newspaper—a bold invitation to action reading, 'Adventure wanted. Will go any place, do anything'" (181). Readers were asked to respond to Box 13, Star-Times newspaper. And they did, offering plenty of adventure for Holiday, who becomes an unofficial detective, meets and deals with colorful characters, and has life threatening adventures along the way.
The Box 13 series was bought by Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) and broadcast on their West Coast network, March 15, 1948 thru March 7, 1949, and on the East Coast network, originating from WOR in New York, August 22, 1948 thru August 14, 1949. In all, 52 episodes were produced.
Ladd produced the series, collaborated on some of the scripts, and starred in each episode as Dan Holiday. He brought a tough guy persona, and a stoic, chrismatic presence to this role (Radio Archives).
Most of the 30-minute weekly episodes were based on Holiday replying to letters he received at Box 13. And did he receive letters! More requests and adventures than bargained for. But, all the more research material for his mystery novels. And all the more mayhem and adventure for listeners.
Cast (continuing)
Alan Lad as Dan Holiday
Sylvia Picker played Suzy, Holiday's scatter-brained secretary
Edmond MacDonald as Police Lieutenant Kling who tries to keep Holiday out of trouble.
Other cast included Betty Lou Gerson, Lurene Tuttle, Alan Reed, Luis Van Rooten, John Beal and Frank Lovejoy.
Credits
Verne Carstensen, Announcer/Director
Richard Sanville, Producer
Russell Hughes and E. Jack Neuman, Writers
Rudy Schrager, Music
Alan Ladd, Co-producer
Exemplary Episodes
Episode 20, January 2, 1949, "The Better Man"
An eccentric millionaire hides $100,000 somewhere in the city and sets Dan head to head with a ruthless
killer on a bizarre treasure hunt to find it.
With Lurene Tuttle, Alan Reed, Betty Lou Gerson, Luis Van Rooten, John Beal, Frank Lovejoy.
Episode 30, March 13, 1949, "Death is a Doll"
Bart LaFaye is a perfectly healthy young man, but for some reason he's dying. Dan travels to a remote
part of Louisiana to see if a Voodoo curse really could be responsible.
With Lurene Tuttle, Alan Reed, Betty Lou Gerson, Luis Van Rooten, John Beal, Frank Lovejoy
Resources
"Box 13." Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs.
https://otrsite.com/logs/logb1005.htm
MacDonald, Fred J. Don't Touch That Dial! Radio Programming in American Life, 1920-1960.
Nelson-Hall, 1979.
Radio Archives.
https://www.radioarchives.com/Box_Thirteen_Volume_1_p/ra225d.htm
The Damon Runyon Theatre
October 1948 - September 1949, with reruns until 1951
Syndicated
Heard on Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS), WOR, New York, and other stations
30-minute episodes
52 episodes produced, 52 survive, plus 2 auditions, both survive
Stories by Damon Runyon, adapted by Russell Hughes for Mayfair Productions. Each story is told through the eyes of the main character, known only as Broadway (voiced by John Brown), who spends a lot of his time at Mindy's Bar (Terrace 89-90).
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon (1880–1946) was an American newspaperman and short story writer. Born in Manhattan, Kansas, he moved with his family to Pueblo, Colorado, in 1855, and began working in the newspaper trade under his father, a former newspaper editor.
Newspaper Experience
After military service in the Spanish-American War—Runyon was assigned to write for the Manila Freedom and Soldier's Letter—Runyon returned to Colorado, where he worked at the Pueblo Star and the Denver Daily News, 1900-1910. He moved to New York, in 1911, where, for a decade, he covered New York Giants baseball and professional boxing for the New York Journal-American, a daily newspaper owned by William Randolph Hearst. He became noted for his ability to spot unusual and the eccentric characters, and to write about them in essays and stories.
Runyon's short stories appeared in a long-running newspaper column, "The Brighter Side." Each story is a humorous or sentimental tale about the small-time gangsters, gamblers, and hustlers of New York's Lower East Side during the years of Prohibition.
Runyon's stories are almost always told in the first person present tense by an unnamed narrator, an observer, a bystander who seems to know everyone and everything. Standing on a street corner, or sitting in a speak easy, this narrator uses an argot invented by Runyon, a combination of formal language and Brooklyn slang, avoiding contractions and the past and future tense. The result is sometimes pompous. Sometimes humorous. Always compelling.
Radio Adaptations
Russell Hughes, writer for Ladd's Mayfair Productions, adapted fifty-two of Runyon's stories for radio in 1948. His scripts were dramatized and recorded. These recordings (transcriptions) were offered as weekly broadcasts to radio stations. The series was first heard on KSL, Salt Lake City, October 3, 1948. Then KFI, Los Angeles, beginning January 11, 1949, and on WOR New York, beginning July 30, 1949 and/or June 22, 1950. Other stations started the series on other dates. Reruns continued until 1951.
Runyon's unnamed narrator now has a name: "Broadway." He is a small time criminal with a heart of gold. British actor John Brown voices "Broadway," who, speaking in Brown's invented Brooklyn accent, doubles as narrator and host.
Works Cited
Terrace, Vincent. Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland,
1999.
Production
Contents
"The First Letter"
Box 13
Episode 01, August 22, 1948
A struggling writer, Dan Holiday, runs an ad in the newspaper seeking adventure. He receives his first
letter, from a woman needing help confronting her blackmailer of five years.
With Lurene Tuttle, Alan Reed, Betty Lou Gerson, Luis Van Rooten, John Beal, Frank Lovejoy
"Tobias the Terrible"
The Damon Runyon Theatre
Episode 01, January 2, 1949
"Twelve Gun" Tobias is a meek little man who wants to meet some underworld characters and winds up as
one of them! The first show of the series.
Cast and Credits
John Brown, Broadway
Frank Gallop, Announcer/Director
Vern Carstensen, Production Supervisor
Richard Sanville, Director
Russell Hughes, Writer/Adapter
Alan Ladd, Producer
Recurring actors, Alan Reed, Frank Lovejoy, Eddie Marr, Luis Van Rooten, Joseph Duval, Gerald Mohr, and
William Conrad
Significance
With syndication, private companies create and license transcribed (recorded) programs to radio stations and/or radio networks. Syndication helps radio programs reach wider audiences, radio stations save money on production costs, and listeners hear fine examples of radio storytelling.
Several radio stars had syndication companies, notably Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Alan Ladd.
Producer's Notes
This episode appeals to me as I have dreams of syndicating Re-Imagined Radio. I know we'll have to grow
quite a lot in terms of crew, resources, and content production abilities, but it's good to think about
as we work through episodes.
— John F. Barber
Promotion
Press
Graphics
