Mystery-detective drama · CBS
Casey, Crime Photographer
July 7, 1943 – April 22, 1955 · 434 broadcasts
Casey, Crime Photographer put a newspaper cameraman at the center of CBS crime drama for a dozen years (1943-1955). Jack "Flashgun" Casey -- created by pulp novelist George Harmon Coxe in the pages of Black Mask -- shoots the crime news for the Morning Express, and between assignments he and reporter Ann Williams unwind at the Blue Note Cafe, a smoky jazz club where bartender Ethelbert pours the drinks and Casey talks over the case that always seems to find him. Matt Crowley played Casey at the start; Staats Cotsworth, one of radio's busiest actors, made the role his own from early 1944 and held it to the end. The series changed titles almost as often as sponsors -- Flashgun Casey, then Casey, Press Photographer, then Crime Photographer -- but its texture stayed constant: hard-boiled cases lightened by cafe banter and, unusually for a mystery, live jazz woven right into the drama, first Archie Bleyer's orchestra and Herman Chittison's piano, later the Teddy Wilson Trio. It remains one of old-time radio's warmest crime series, as much about the Blue Note's regulars as about the killers Casey's flashbulb exposes.
Collection status:
90 of 434 held (21% complete)
◆ ◆ ◆
Episode Spine
Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.
- 1943 (25 episodes)
- 1944 (50 episodes)
- 1945 (48 episodes)
- 1946 (45 episodes)
- 1947 (52 episodes)
- 1948 (52 episodes)
- 1949 (52 episodes)
- 1950 (46 episodes)
- 1954 (48 episodes)
- 1955 (16 episodes)
1943
The premiere, aired as Flashgun Casey: covering a society wedding, Casey walks off with a look-alike camera belonging to another guest, and the plates he develops expose far more than newlyweds.
July 14, 1943
Murder Off the Record
July 21, 1943
The Lost Melody
July 28, 1943
Love Is a Whisper
August 4, 1943
The Case of the Painted Walls
August 12, 1943
Murder Comes in Threes
August 19, 1943
No Answer
August 26, 1943
Hoodoo for Hire
September 2, 1943
The Case of the Whispering Gun
September 9, 1943
(untitled)
September 16, 1943
(untitled)
September 23, 1943
Kidnapping of the Rare Book Dealer
September 30, 1943
Murder for Breakfast
October 7, 1943
The Case of the Indigant Lady
October 14, 1943
The Picture in the Park
October 21, 1943
Five Thousand Dollar Reward
October 30, 1943
A Butterfly Dies
November 6, 1943
Death in the Dentist's Chair
November 13, 1943
Ghosts Work for Money
November 20, 1943
The Killer's Kid
November 27, 1943
The Man with the Crippled Arm
December 4, 1943
Last Will and Testament
December 11, 1943
Mystery Girl
December 18, 1943
Set to Kill
December 25, 1943
Christmas Is a Family Day
1944
January 1, 1944
Casey Begins a New Year
January 8, 1944
Casey Goes Into Society
January 15, 1944
Casey Compounds a Felony
January 22, 1944
Casey Remains to Dance
February 5, 1944
Casey and the House with the Hedge
February 12, 1944
Casey and the Man Called John Doe
February 19, 1944
The Mystery of the Ten Dollar Bills
A pilotless helicopter lurches out over the water and vanishes with flier John Hampton aboard, and Casey, watching from the Blue Note, reads it as murder rather than mishap.
March 4, 1944
Casey and the Strong Man
March 11, 1944
Man Overboard
Milquetoast Wellington Cliffside schemes to look like a hero for his teenage sweetheart, and a police call on Casey's dashboard radio pulls the photographer into the charade.
March 25, 1944
Star Witness
April 1, 1944
The Case of the Glowing Ghost
April 8, 1944
The Man Who Couldn't Be Killed
April 15, 1944
It's a Dog's Life
April 22, 1944
Strange Invitation
April 29, 1944
Air Tight Alibi
May 6, 1944
A Matter of Reputation
May 13, 1944
Killer on Patrol
May 20, 1944
Murder in the Rain
May 27, 1944
The Little Man Who Wasn't There
June 3, 1944
Skeleton on Horseback
June 10, 1944
Photo Finish
June 17, 1944
Lamb to the Slaughter
June 24, 1944
Cinderella Girl
July 1, 1944
Old Nobody
July 8, 1944
The Case of the Self-Made Hero
July 15, 1944
Picture of Murder
July 22, 1944
Danger for Blonds
July 29, 1944
One of the Family
August 5, 1944
The Last Beat
August 12, 1944
The Little Black Dog
August 19, 1944
Man Hunt
September 2, 1944
Gun Boy
September 9, 1944
Birthday Present
September 12, 1944
The Case of the Laughing Dog
September 19, 1944
The Old Girl Friend
September 26, 1944
The Anonymous Letter
October 3, 1944
A Treatment for the Doctor
October 10, 1944
Beaten by a Nose
October 17, 1944
Bad Luck for Sale
October 24, 1944
Hanged by the Neck
October 31, 1944
Diary of Death
November 14, 1944
The Picture and the Frame
November 28, 1944
The Substitutes
December 5, 1944
Trial Balloon
December 12, 1944
A Girl Named Kate
December 19, 1944
Group Picture
December 26, 1944
The Unknown Caller
1945
January 2, 1945
The Engagement Ring
January 9, 1945
The Key to Room 424
January 16, 1945
Professional Widow
January 23, 1945
Beware of the Dog
February 6, 1945
Don't Call the Cops
February 13, 1945
Suicide Note
February 20, 1945
Diamonds Are Tombstones
March 6, 1945
Complete Acquittal
March 13, 1945
Picture in the Dark
March 20, 1945
Incredible Evidence
March 27, 1945
The White Monster
April 3, 1945
The Impossible Crime
April 10, 1945
Account Settled
April 17, 1945
Outline in Clay
April 24, 1945
Gambler's Luck
May 1, 1945
The Killer's Kid
May 8, 1945
(untitled)
May 15, 1945
Free Confession
May 22, 1945
The Unexpected Guest
May 29, 1945
Degree of Arson
June 5, 1945
The Invisible Man
June 12, 1945
The Strange Case of Mr. Strange
June 19, 1945
Vacation in Maine
June 26, 1945
Man Overboard
July 4, 1945
The Cat's Paw
July 11, 1945
The Double Cross
July 18, 1945
Uncle John
July 25, 1945
The Retired Camera
August 1, 1945
Danger for Blonds
August 8, 1945
Bird Expert
August 15, 1945
Hot Ice
August 22, 1945
Tiger on the Loose
August 29, 1945
Chamber of Horrors
September 5, 1945
Gun Boy
September 12, 1945
A Walk in the Rain
September 19, 1945
Death Insurance
September 26, 1945
One for the Family
October 27, 1945
(untitled)
November 3, 1945
The Case of the Battered Playboy
November 10, 1945
Last of the Faraday's
November 17, 1945
The Little Man Who Wasn't There
November 24, 1945
Strictly Confidential
December 3, 1945
No Evidence
December 10, 1945
The Considerate Burglar
December 24, 1945
Two New One Hundred Dollar Bills
December 31, 1945
A Date with Hester
1946
Casey's rival cameraman Shorty Irwin chases a $5,000 bounty on a hunted killer and nearly earns himself a slab instead.
January 14, 1946
Finger of Death
January 21, 1946
Fighting Fool
January 28, 1946
Iron Mike
February 4, 1946
Prince of Darkness
February 11, 1946
Killers Can Be Beautiful
February 18, 1946
(untitled)
A midnight rattle in Casey's car strands him and Ann at a cemetery gate, where a peculiar old woman and her pet stuffed snake, Roger, are only the start of the strangeness.
March 4, 1946
Motive for Murder
March 12, 1946
Beaten by a Nose
March 19, 1946
Family Arguement
April 2, 1946
The Body Was Buried Deep
April 23, 1946
The Joker
April 30, 1946
The Butterfly
May 7, 1946
The Man That Nobody Liked
The wife who made a celebrated sculptor's career won't be cast aside quietly, and turns his ingratitude into a case of murder.
June 10, 1946
Mr. Big
June 17, 1946
Social Afternoon
June 24, 1946
The Poker Game
July 1, 1946
The Bloodless Murder
July 8, 1946
The Man Called John Doe
Newspaper rewrite man Henry Brower has an unshakable, nameless dread of his dentist, a hunch Casey learns is worth heeding.
July 22, 1946
A Girl Named Kate
August 8, 1946
Three Sapphires
August 15, 1946
Unlucky Day
August 22, 1946
The Fat Lady Dies
An ordinary rayon-lined raincoat becomes the key exhibit as Casey picks apart a suburban tangle of affairs and killing.
A tavern owner is murdered on payday night with $20,000 gone from his safe, and the man everyone fingers may be the wrong one.
September 12, 1946
Johnnie's Got a Gun
A rich exile lying low in a skid-row flophouse is found hanged, the victim of two men chasing a lost European crown.
September 26, 1946
The Brownze Peacock
October 3, 1946
(untitled)
October 10, 1946
The Carved Bed
October 17, 1946
The Tip Off
October 24, 1946
Prison Break
October 31, 1946
Halloween Story
November 7, 1946
Missing Persons
November 14, 1946
The Cuckoo
November 21, 1946
The Searchlight and the Tomb
November 28, 1946
Thanksgiving Dinner
December 5, 1946
Room 1110
December 12, 1946
Dangerous Characters
To corner a pair of killers at Christmas, Casey recruits a light-fingered pickpocket and commandeers a ten-ton truck.
December 26, 1946
Buried Evidence
1947
January 2, 1947
Last of the Faradays
January 9, 1947
Dead Pigeon
A counterfeit nobleman lures a gullible heiress into a killing plot, only to be out-schemed by a chain of double-crosses.
January 23, 1947
The Purloined Payroll
January 30, 1947
Held for Ransom
A stray grey cat leads Casey to a lakeside bluebeard who has been marrying and murdering his way through a string of wives.
A man is shot dead mid-sentence while phoning his insurance agent on the very day his policy lapses, suicide on paper but murder to Casey.
February 27, 1947
The Red-Headed Kid
A frail widow reports that her woman lodger has been stabbed to death, a quiet little killing that very nearly beats Casey.
March 13, 1947
Undercover Man
When six miners die in identical accidents, the pit crew swears a demon walks the coal seams, and Casey goes underground to prove otherwise.
March 27, 1947
Blood Pact
April 10, 1947
Ugly Duckling
A patrolman finds a packing crate abandoned on the sidewalk at three in the morning, and inside is a woman's husband, delivered dead by a killer who trusts a lucky penny.
A soft-spoken madman strangles his way through three victims, a judge first, then turns his patient hands toward Casey.
Death stalks the big top during a trained-ape circus act, and Casey's press assignment becomes a hunt for who has been monkeying with murder.
An oddly-sized pistol is planted to pin a killing on a newly-released convict, unspooling a tale of a ruined bandleader, a scheming blues singer, and a gambling boss.
May 15, 1947
Mad Dog
Casey survives being killed twice in a single night while a street-corner acquaintance is silenced for knowing too much about a dead jockey.
May 29, 1947
Out of the Past
June 5, 1947
The Haunted House
June 12, 1947
In the Sweet Name of Charity
June 19, 1947
Find the Papers
June 26, 1947
A Package for Annie
Suspended for roughing up a suspect, hard-nosed cop Big Mike Ryan becomes the obvious killer when that suspect turns up shot dead.
A smooth stranger back from ten years in Europe may be the lady-killer who has left eight different women dead.
A restaged favorite: timid Wellington Cliffside manufactures his own heroics to impress his sweetheart, and Casey exposes the fraud.
A bogus swami peddles photographs of the departed to grieving marks, and Casey, camera in hand, calls the spirit racket's bluff.
On the eve of a Broadway opening its leading lady is brutally killed, leaving Casey a stageful of suspects with motive.
Casey hunts a murderer known as the Lover's Lane Killer, who signs each victim with a calling card reading I'm Death.
A witness to a robbery-murder won't name the gunman, and jealousy finally cracks a case built around a loan-office safe.
With Casey conveniently on vacation, Inspector Logan and Ann handle a waitress's beau who has swiped a diamond and doesn't know it's the priceless Bishop's ring.
Two fugitives sitting on $100,000 pay a grasping flophouse keeper a thousand a week to hide, until his greed turns deadly.
A three-hundred-pound gambler is found stabbed atop a pair of loaded dice, with every clue pointing at the debtor who swears he is innocent.
A restaging of the cemetery yarn: a stalled car at a graveyard gate throws Casey and Ann together with an eccentric old woman and her stuffed-snake companion, Roger.
Shopping with Ann, Casey spots a gentlemanly pickpocket who robs the rich to help the poor, just as murder strikes the department store.
A fishing trip becomes a murder assignment as Casey, Ann and Captain Logan probe four eerie deaths in the depths of Treasure Cave.
A man sits in prison for murdering a wife who is very much alive, and his father's chance street encounter with her could free him, if she survives.
A titled bridegroom is murdered on his wedding morning with the framed man out cold beside him, and the answer may wag in on a cocker spaniel.
A would-be press photographer chasing a job on the Morning Express catches a murder on film and puts himself in the killer's frame.
A cowboy's kindness toward a frightened woman who then vanishes leads Casey to a swindle dressed up as murder.
Told in flashback, the roguish tale of Casey's great-grandfather Patrick and a hundred-year-old rent receipt back in the old country.
A welfare-fund collector disappears with $10,000 in cash, and the trail, to Casey's embarrassment, runs straight through the Blue Note.
Ethelbert's investment in a shaky Broadway show turns sour when murder strikes before the curtain, a washed-up dance team waiting in the wings.
A restaging: rival lensman Shorty Irwin risks his neck for a $5,000 reward on a killer and nearly develops his own death.
A Thanksgiving filling-station holdup pins the blame on a young ex-convict, and Casey trades dessert for a surprising truth.
Two jungle adventurers come home rich in emeralds and trailing a legend, a woman-faced serpent said to squeeze its victims to death.
A millionaire is murdered moments after rewriting his will to disinherit his daughter and her phony-Count suitor, and the new will has vanished.
An art student plunges a knife into his own chest as Casey and Ann look on, a suicide the photographer refuses to take at face value.
On Christmas Day the skid-row Santa who hands out cash is robbed of his $300, and Casey works the crumbiest street in town for the thief.
1948
A New Year's blaze that kills a fireman turns arson into murder, and an old cipher unlocks a kidnapping tucked inside the case.
A circus strong-woman's stolen hope chest sends Casey and Ann out to a farm for what looks like comedy, until it isn't.
A dying millionaire's only hope is a quack doctor who, impossibly, cures him, and Casey digs for the trick behind the miracle.
Casey goes undercover as an ex-convict to learn who is pinning fresh crimes on paroled men taken in by a kindly philanthropist.
A cub photographer is beaten senseless after his little boy's piggy bank is robbed, and the whole mystery turns on a single key.
A blonde is found murdered and her boyfriend wounded, with his wife one apartment away and a blaring dance-band radio setting the scene.
A snowy-night coffee stop makes Casey the eyewitness to a mob killing, and the next name on the shooter's list.
A man rumored to be a warlock is stabbed and burned in Frogtown, and a fortune-teller's prophecy guides Casey's hex appeal to the killer.
Mike Warren turns up murdered, and a gimmicked derby hat is the odd clue Casey follows to the killer.
A hard-luck cabbie is played for a patsy, his fare an alibi for the men who rob a theatre and leave a corpse behind.
A foggy night at a millionaire's estate, a fortune in diamonds to photograph, and a debt-driven showdown that ends in death.
A body in a frostbound city park begins a run of killings with no black-and-white proof, until Casey asks whether the camera can lie.
A shady defense lawyer shrugs off a death threat, until the bullet meant for him kills his wife and Casey reads the note again.
April 1, 1948
Sleeping Dogs Awake
April 8, 1948
A Present for Percy
April 15, 1948
The Considerate Burglar
April 22, 1948
You Die Today
April 29, 1948
Half Guilty
May 6, 1948
'x' Marks the Spot
May 13, 1948
Dead Man's Fortune
May 20, 1948
My Brother's Keeper
A jealous ex-husband walks out of jail breathing threats, and the man he blames scrambles for a gun before the day is out.
June 3, 1948
Murderers, Ltd
June 10, 1948
Letters from Mexico
June 17, 1948
Wife Number Eight
June 24, 1948
No Tears for Terry
July 1, 1948
Missing Heiress
July 15, 1948
Farewell Performance
July 22, 1948
In for Trouble
July 29, 1948
Man Hater
August 5, 1948
Pattern for Murder
August 12, 1948
The Pirates
August 19, 1948
On the Record
August 26, 1948
Kangaroo Court
September 2, 1948
Little Feathered Friends
September 9, 1948
Winning Streak
September 16, 1948
Two Thousand Suspects
September 23, 1948
Finger Man
September 30, 1948
Poisen Pen
October 7, 1948
Old Blankety-Blank
October 14, 1948
Only Saps Work for Wages
October 21, 1948
Election Bet
October 28, 1948
The Ghost See-Ers
November 11, 1948
The Mystery Man
November 18, 1948
String of Beads
Casey and Ann surrender their Thanksgiving turkey to save a reformed safecracker being forced into one last job.
December 2, 1948
The Wild Man
December 9, 1948
The Genius
December 16, 1948
Blackout
December 23, 1948
Two Days Before Christmas
December 30, 1948
Meet the Wife
1949
January 6, 1949
Box of Ashes
January 13, 1949
Tiger on the Loose
A gangster's murder tangles Casey in thrown fights, blackmail and double-crosses, a maze where even the killers get killed and the truth stays buried.
January 27, 1949
Pick Up Your Marbles
February 3, 1949
Unwelcome Party
February 10, 1949
The Grandson of Mr. Smith
February 17, 1949
The Chinese Room
February 24, 1949
Blood Money
March 3, 1949
You Are the Killer
Bartender Ethelbert enrolls in a mail-order detective course and, to Logan's dismay, proves so useful he nearly gets himself killed.
March 17, 1949
An Attempt to Murder
March 24, 1949
Terror
March 31, 1949
I'll See You Hanged
April 7, 1949
Murder in the Air
April 14, 1949
Too Many Knives
April 21, 1949
Rest Cure
April 28, 1949
Death from the Dead
A self-styled avenger called The Wolverine matches wits with the police while methodically executing the city's gangsters.
May 12, 1949
Booby Trap
A long-range rifle killer named Bat McCoy strikes again, and Casey dangles the victim's widow as bait to spring the trap.
May 26, 1949
Return from the Grave
June 2, 1949
Brotherly Hate
June 9, 1949
Deadline -- Midnight
June 16, 1949
Notice to the Public
June 23, 1949
Dragon Head
June 30, 1949
The Lily
July 7, 1949
Murder Farm
July 14, 1949
Crazy Like a Fox
July 21, 1949
Durable Dennis
July 28, 1949
Murder-Go-Round
Handed $15,000 to buy a tip, Casey is framed for murder as a stool pigeon dies and a double-cross puts a bullet in a cop.
A caller offering a rare Swedish stamp is found stabbed at a wealthy collector's door, and Casey sorts the killer from the collection.
August 18, 1949
Big Danger
September 1, 1949
Scrub Woman
September 8, 1949
Peace Mission
September 15, 1949
The Maniac
September 22, 1949
The Blackmailer
September 29, 1949
The Unstandard Model
October 6, 1949
The Weasel
October 13, 1949
Museum of Murder
October 27, 1949
The Vampire
November 3, 1949
Fall of the Cards
Upholsterer Goldblatt is shot dead inside a locked, iron-barred shop, and cracking the sealed room takes a ten-year-old squeezing through a transom.
November 24, 1949
A Gift for Thanksgiving
December 1, 1949
Murder at the Auction
December 8, 1949
Witness for the Prosecution
December 15, 1949
Appointment for Murder
December 22, 1949
A Picture
December 29, 1949
The Chisler
1950
January 5, 1950
Justice
January 12, 1950
Love Story
A jailbird's threats send a frightened man to a pet-shop gun dealer, and the weapon he buys drags him into murder.
January 26, 1950
Unsolved Murder
February 2, 1950
Four Forefingers
February 9, 1950
Bad Hunch
February 16, 1950
Girl Hitch-Hiker
February 23, 1950
The Jinx
A phoned warning and an attempt on Casey's life bring down mobster Kirby and expose the real loyalties of his moll, Sondra.
March 9, 1950
The Quarrel
March 16, 1950
Platonic Friendship
March 23, 1950
Rest Cure Murder
March 30, 1950
Death Calls a Number
Firemen pull a body from a blaze that didn't kill him; the flames were set to hide the murder of an office clerk named Henry Milton.
Housekeepers hear shots and glimpse a black sedan fleeing as a rare-book dealer is snatched, and Casey smokes the kidnappers into the open.
April 20, 1950
Junior Bad Man
April 27, 1950
Dead Pigeon
A humiliated playwright who wrote about suicide leaps from his own window, but Casey won't accept the too-fitting ending.
May 11, 1950
The Diamonds of Mrs. Divonne
May 18, 1950
Buried Treasure
May 25, 1950
Doll Face
June 1, 1950
Death Threat
June 8, 1950
Unknown Passenger
Assigned to crack the numbers racket, Casey follows a compulsive gambler's ruin to the men running the game.
June 22, 1950
Freak House
June 29, 1950
The Master Mind
July 6, 1950
Collision
July 13, 1950
Murder at the Yacht Club
July 20, 1950
Lorelie Killer
July 27, 1950
The Red Hots
August 3, 1950
Written in Blood
August 10, 1950
The Love Death
August 17, 1950
Gun Crazy
August 24, 1950
The Women with Golden Hair
August 31, 1950
The Fatal Visitor
September 7, 1950
The Mascot
September 14, 1950
Hit and Run
September 21, 1950
Inside Job
September 28, 1950
Man of Mystery
October 5, 1950
Alibi
October 12, 1950
The Eyes of Death
October 19, 1950
Scheme for Liquidation
October 26, 1950
On the Spot
A landlady reports her lodger stabbed in a locked room, an improbable puzzle owing more than a little to the just-released Sunset Boulevard.
A restaging of the locked-room case: upholsterer Goldblatt shot dead behind bolted doors and iron bars, the sealed room cracked by a boy at the transom.
1954
The 1954 return, with Teddy Wilson now at the Blue Note piano: a beautiful hitchhiker who loathes men robs and murders her way down the highway.
An old crime reporter is killed to bury the memoirs of his forty years on the beat, an expose that could rock the whole town.
January 27, 1954
(untitled)
February 3, 1954
(untitled)
February 10, 1954
(untitled)
February 17, 1954
(untitled)
February 24, 1954
Portrait of an Artist
March 3, 1954
(untitled)
March 10, 1954
(untitled)
March 17, 1954
(untitled)
March 24, 1954
(untitled)
March 31, 1954
Dateline
April 7, 1954
(untitled)
April 14, 1954
Full Circle
April 21, 1954
Casey Visits a Circus
May 12, 1954
Yellow Streak
May 19, 1954
(untitled)
May 26, 1954
The Legacy
June 2, 1954
(untitled)
June 9, 1954
(untitled)
June 16, 1954
(untitled)
June 23, 1954
(untitled)
June 30, 1954
(untitled)
July 7, 1954
(untitled)
July 14, 1954
(untitled)
July 21, 1954
(untitled)
July 28, 1954
Target Unknown
August 4, 1954
(untitled)
August 11, 1954
(untitled)
August 18, 1954
(untitled)
August 25, 1954
The Moth
September 1, 1954
Man in Brown
September 8, 1954
For the Family Honor
September 15, 1954
Death in the Rain
September 22, 1954
Street Carnival
September 29, 1954
The Strangling Ghost
October 8, 1954
The Protection Racket
October 15, 1954
Life for Sale
October 22, 1954
The Football
October 29, 1954
Black Magic
November 5, 1954
Showdown
November 12, 1954
Widgeon Is a Ducky Word!
November 19, 1954
Poor Little Rich Kid
November 26, 1954
No Publicity
December 3, 1954
Juanita
December 10, 1954
What's in a Name?
December 17, 1954
Ex-Cop
December 24, 1954
A Red Wagon for Junior
1955
January 7, 1955
A Dead Man's Message
January 14, 1955
Peaches
January 21, 1955
Criminal for a Day
January 28, 1955
The Watchdog
February 4, 1955
The Late Unlamented
February 11, 1955
Valentine
February 18, 1955
One Grave for Three
February 25, 1955
Panic
March 4, 1955
Bogey-Man Story
March 11, 1955
(untitled)
March 18, 1955
Check -- and Double Check
March 25, 1955
Death Watch
April 1, 1955
Death Visits Five
April 8, 1955
Top Secret
April 15, 1955
Battleground
April 22, 1955
Circus Kodiak Bear Goes Amuck
The Story
Casey, Crime Photographer put a newspaper cameraman at the center of CBS crime drama for a dozen years (1943-1955). Jack "Flashgun" Casey -- created by pulp novelist George Harmon Coxe in the pages of Black Mask -- shoots the crime news for the Morning Express, and between assignments he and reporter Ann Williams unwind at the Blue Note Cafe, a smoky jazz club where bartender Ethelbert pours the drinks and Casey talks over the case that always seems to find him. Matt Crowley played Casey at the start; Staats Cotsworth, one of radio's busiest actors, made the role his own from early 1944 and held it to the end. The series changed titles almost as often as sponsors -- Flashgun Casey, then Casey, Press Photographer, then Crime Photographer -- but its texture stayed constant: hard-boiled cases lightened by cafe banter and, unusually for a mystery, live jazz woven right into the drama, first Archie Bleyer's orchestra and Herman Chittison's piano, later the Teddy Wilson Trio. It remains one of old-time radio's warmest crime series, as much about the Blue Note's regulars as about the killers Casey's flashbulb exposes.
Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
Gallery
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