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Mystery, Crime & Detective · NBC

Rocky Fortune

October 6, 1953 – March 30, 1954 · 25 broadcasts

Rocky Fortune is the one time Frank Sinatra carried a dramatic radio series of his own. NBC built it for him in October 1953, between his crooning fame and his screen comeback, and put it on Tuesday nights right after Dragnet with no sponsor at all. Sinatra played Rocco Fortunato -- a footloose young New Yorker who takes whatever the Gridley Employment Agency sends him: oyster shucker, ship's steward, chauffeur, museum guide, truck driver, Catskills social director, carny, prize fighter, and once a passenger on a rocket to the moon. Every job turns up a corpse, and every case leaves him needing work again. Barney Phillips turns up throughout as Sergeant Hamilton J. Finger, dependable and not quite quick enough. The scripts came mostly from George Lefferts, who created the show, and Ernest Kinoy -- the pair behind NBC's Dimension X. The timing was cruel. From Here to Eternity opened two weeks into the run and took Sinatra to Hollywood for good; the last broadcast went out in March 1954, less than a week after he won the Oscar for it. Toward the end he worked the phrase "from here to eternity" into nearly every script. Twenty-five episodes survive, all of them here.

Collection status: 25 of 25 held (100% complete)
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Episode Spine

Grouped by year. Jump to the full list below, or open a season on its own page.

1953

October 6, 1953 Oyster Shucker Listen (MP3)
The first show. Shucking oysters at the 50 Fathoms Clam House, Rocky finds a pearl in each of his first dozen -- then gets beaten up in an alley and taken on an unplanned sea voyage.
October 13, 1953 Steven in a Rest Home Listen (MP3)
Behind the wheel as a hired chauffeur, Rocky finds the job is the setup for a killing meant to look like an accident -- and the motive is an insurance payout.
October 20, 1953 Shipboard Jewel Robbery Listen (MP3)
Rocky signs on as a steward on the Bermuda-to-New York run. When jewels go missing at sea he is in exactly the wrong place, and takes the frame for it.
October 27, 1953 Pintsized Payroll Bandit Listen (MP3)
Nights behind the counter of an all-night diner between a saloon and a dance hall bring Rocky nobody but trouble -- in this case a nine-year-old in a cowboy suit carrying a shoebox with fifty thousand dollars in it.
November 10, 1953 Messenger for Murder Listen (MP3)
A thousand dollars to carry one package into a bad neighborhood sounds like the best wage Rocky ever drew. Then come a tough blind woman, a murder, and five thousand more.
November 17, 1953 A Hepcat Kills the Canary Listen (MP3)
Rocky picks up a few dollars on bass with a small combo. He has played weddings and bar mitzvahs before; this booking turns out to be closer to a funeral, and nearly his own.
November 24, 1953 Murder on the Isle Listen (MP3)
Rocky takes $48.50 a week to keep a drunken and thoroughly hated drama critic alive. The critic is stabbed on opening night anyway.
December 1, 1953 Murder Among the Statues Listen (MP3)
Sent by the agency to play parlor maid to a roomful of plaster statues, Rocky watches one of them turn green -- which interests a wealthy collector far more than it should.
December 8, 1953 Carnival One Way Listen (MP3)
Rocky goes looking for work at a carnival and meets a magician with a disappearing act. The trick is meant for him, and it is meant to be permanent.
December 15, 1953 Companion to a Chimp Listen (MP3)
Rocky is hired to mind a chimpanzee. He does not mind being made a monkey of, he says, until he finds out the monkey is dead.
December 22, 1953 The Plot to Murder Santa Claus Listen (MP3)
The Christmas show. Two weeks' work as an auxiliary store detective, answering a department store's holiday ad, lands Rocky in a plot to murder Santa Claus.
December 29, 1953 Prize Fight Setup Listen (MP3)
Two heavies mistake Rocky for a prizefighter called the Great Gondolfo and will not hear otherwise. He wins his bout, which surprises him -- until he learns why, and what the gamblers have planned for him.

1954

January 5, 1954 On the Trail of a Killer Listen (MP3)
Ellie spent her youth raising her brothers and sisters and now, near forty, has finally found a man to marry. He is a bad one, and she is soon dead. Rocky goes after him and nearly catches a bullet.
January 12, 1954 Rodeo Murder Listen (MP3)
Sent to the Ninth Avenue arena for the Grand National Rodeo, Rocky finds his new boss watching a cowboy ride a very unhappy bull -- and shortly finds himself framed for murder.
January 19, 1954 The Museum Murder Listen (MP3)
Talking tourists through a museum of ancient history, Rocky has no objection to corpses five thousand years old. He objects when somebody tries to embalm a fresh one, and it is him.
January 26, 1954 Hauling Nitro Listen (MP3)
The advertisement wanted a truck driver and warned the work was hazardous. It was not overstating things: the load is nitroglycerine, and there is an escaped killer riding with it.
February 2, 1954 Football Fix Listen (MP3)
At Arty's pool palace the best quarterback in pro football walks up to Rocky and says he has trouble. Rocky is hired to protect a player who will not take a bribe -- and who somehow turns up in two places at once.
February 9, 1954 Catskills Cover-Up Listen (MP3)
Mama Greenspan needs a social director at her Catskills resort, and Rocky has done the job before. He nearly dies on the drive up, and the work turns on a man mixed up in a post office robbery.
February 16, 1954 Too Many Husbands Listen (MP3)
Lou, lately of New Orleans, is married to Perry and also to Marvin. Her way out of the arithmetic is to offer Rocky five thousand dollars to make it one.
February 23, 1954 Decoy for Death Listen (MP3)
The Organ Grinder has broken out of jail and is working through everyone who helped put him away. Rocky is on the list, and feeling rather like a bull entering the ring.
March 2, 1954 The Doctor's Dilemma Listen (MP3)
Working for the Park Avenue lawyer whose life he saved, Rocky is asked to help a doctor whose own son has stolen twenty-five thousand dollars in narcotics from his office. Rocky poses as a blackmailer to set the trap.
March 9, 1954 Incident in a Bar Listen (MP3)
The actuaries give a man like Rocky sixty-six years. A friend who knows better says the statistics do not always hold -- and produces a fresh corpse to prove it, after an insurance executive confesses to strangling his girlfriend.
March 16, 1954 Psychological Murder Listen (MP3)
Called in to witness a wealthy woman's will, Rocky hears her say she is afraid she is going to kill her husband. He is asked to move in and watch her, and finds she may not be losing her mind by accident.
March 23, 1954 Rocket Racket Listen (MP3)
The Zenith Foundation wants an adventurous young man with no family, for experimental and highly dangerous work at unusual pay. The job is ten thousand dollars to ride a rocket to the moon.
March 30, 1954 Boarding House Doublecross Listen (MP3)
The last show. All Rocky wants is a room. The landlady's terms turn out to be steeper than money, and her superintendent is sent to settle the account permanently.
The Story

Rocky Fortune is the one time Frank Sinatra carried a dramatic radio series of his own. NBC built it for him in October 1953, between his crooning fame and his screen comeback, and put it on Tuesday nights right after Dragnet with no sponsor at all. Sinatra played Rocco Fortunato -- a footloose young New Yorker who takes whatever the Gridley Employment Agency sends him: oyster shucker, ship's steward, chauffeur, museum guide, truck driver, Catskills social director, carny, prize fighter, and once a passenger on a rocket to the moon. Every job turns up a corpse, and every case leaves him needing work again. Barney Phillips turns up throughout as Sergeant Hamilton J. Finger, dependable and not quite quick enough. The scripts came mostly from George Lefferts, who created the show, and Ernest Kinoy -- the pair behind NBC's Dimension X. The timing was cruel. From Here to Eternity opened two weeks into the run and took Sinatra to Hollywood for good; the last broadcast went out in March 1954, less than a week after he won the Oscar for it. Toward the end he worked the phrase "from here to eternity" into nearly every script. Twenty-five episodes survive, all of them here.

Full story — coming soon while it's being curated.
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