BOX THIRTEEN Hot Box

(1)

BOX THIRTEEN Hot Box

Program Guide by Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

A Supreme Court decision, United States v. Paramount Pictures (1948), abolished the motion picture industry’s practice of “block booking.” This was when independent theatres (unaffiliated with the studios) were forced to purchase second features (B-movies) in order to get the A-pictures and star vehicles. This turned out to be a boon for radio drama.

With the “Paramount Consent Decrees” in place, movie studios began to curtail the number of films in production. The contract system, which found popular actors and actresses under contract to individual studios, began to wane. This gave big-name Hollywood actors -- like Joel McCrea (Tales of the Texas Rangers) and Brian Donlevy (Dangerous Assignment) -- the freedom to commit to a regular weekly radio series. The post-War demand for syndicated programs would also be well served, with stars like Dana Andrews (I Was a Communist for the FBI) and Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall (Bold Venture) taking advantage of a more flexible schedule.

Alan Ladd, Paramount Pic- tures’ most popular contractee, expressed an interest in starring in his own radio series around this time. Ladd and partner Bernie Joslin had owned a chain of eateries in the Los Angeles area known as “May- fair Restaurants.” Though they had sold the chain after WWII, the pair decided to name their radio syndication company Mayfair Productions. Getting back into radio must have felt like Old Home Week for the actor, as it was a medium with door within five days. There’s nothing medically wrong with

LeFay…it’s just that this strong, healthy man is convinced that he’s been cursed by witchcraft.

CD 8A: “One-One-Three-Point-Five” (Episode # 31) Dorothy Simmons has a request for Holiday: locate her brother Dave, who’s hiding somewhere in the city. He’s on the run for something he’s allegedly done. Dan’s manhunt will lead to a wealthy recluse, a missing folio...and murder.

CD 8B: “Dan and the Wonderful Lamp” (Episode # 32)

The contents of a “Box 13” envelope contain an invitation to a garden charity bazaar at the Arthur Mannering estate. Dan correctly guesses the number of beans in a glass jar and wins a most unusual door prize.

If you enjoyed this CD set, we recommend Box Thirteen, available now at www.RadioSpirits.com.

www.RadioSpirits.com PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424

Unauthorized duplication prohibited.

48602

Alan Ladd

(2)

which he was quite familiar before his phenomenal movie success in the 1940s.

Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1913, Alan Walbridge Ladd expressed an interest in acting while attending North Hollywood High in his teen years. His work in a production of The Mikado attracted the attention of a Universal Pictures talent scout, who signed him and a few other young hopefuls to a contract that (with options) could have lasted up to seven years. Universal dropped him after six months (despite bit parts in features like Tom Brown of Culver and Once in a Lifetime) because they thought he was too short. Undaunted, Alan kept his hand in the industry after graduating high school by working as a grip at Warner Bros.

for two years.

A scaffold accident on the Warners’ lot convinced Alan Ladd to get out of the

“grip” business...but not to abandon his love of acting. He started taking acting lessons at a school run by Ben Bard, a friend Ladd had made during his brief em- ployment at Universal. Bard’s advice, that Alan speak in a lower register, would prove to be an asset when the actor got hired to perform regularly on KFWB (the Warner Bros. owned radio station). Ladd would work as many as 20 shows a week at KFWB, and became well-known to listeners as “The Richfield Re- porter.” Alan’s prolific radio work would be the catalyst for his return to motion pictures. Agent Sue Carol (below) heard her future client (and husband) perform- ing in a play on KFWB one night (as both father and son) and was determined to get him onscreen work. She did just that. Ladd landed credited roles in Rules of the Sea (1939), The Light of the Western Stars (1940), and Captain Caution (1940). Do you remember the reporter with a pipe silhouetted in the opening scenes of 1941’s Citizen Kane? That’s “Laddie!”

Before achieving major movie stardom in the 1940s, Alan Ladd made the rounds, working for any studio in need of his services. This benefited movie mak- ers who had hired him before he became Alan Ladd.

For example, a 1940 Monogram release, Her First Romance, gave Ladd fourth billing...but for its 1943 re-release, the title was changed to The Right Man and billed Alan and actress Julie Bishop (who had made the film as “Jacqueline Wells”) at the top. An- other Poverty Row mainstay, PRC, would move Alan from sixth billing in Crime, Inc. (1941) to first (when it was re-released as Gangs, Inc. in 1943).

underwater. In MacIntosh’s case, he’s building a tunnel. It looks as if the contractor isn’t going to finish the project on time, and he wants Dan to look into who’s sabotaging the contract.

CD 4B: “The Philanthropist” (Episode # 24)

A red-headed transient has an appointment to meet Dan in the park at 3:00pm.

Red’s pal Sukie has gone missing, and he needs Dan’s help to locate his whereabouts.

CD 5A: “Last Will and Nursery Rhyme” (Episode # 25)

Dan accepts an invite from his old college chum Ted Kenworth, who owns a vacation lodge called Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks is on the financial skids because Ted’s Uncle Thaddeus’ $3 million fortune apparently vanished before his passing.

CD 5B: “Delinquent’s Dilemma” (Episode # 26)

Reginald “Biff” Kieran has been arrested for breaking into a store, and his mother pleads with Dan Holiday to help her son. Unfortunately, Biff insists on taking the rap for robbery…despite his mother’s insistence that he’s innocent.

CD 6A: “Flash of Light” (Episode # 27)

Jerry Fuller, a small-town youngster visiting the big city, has lost track of two days of his life. He wants Dan to help him regain his memory of those missing days. Fuller refuses to go back home until the mystery is solved.

CD 6B: “Hare and Hounds” (Episode # 28)

An elderly man absconds with a “Box 13” letter after visiting Dan and Suzy at the office. Three days later, Dan gets a second request from the original author. After conducting an investigation of the letter

writer’s apartment, Dan finds himself framed for the man’s murder!

CD 7A: “Hunt and Peck” (Episode # 29)

Martin Kirby has 48 hours to live. He’s been sentenced to die after being convicted of his best friend’s murder. If ever anyone could use a helping hand from Dan Holiday, Kirby would be that individual.

CD 7B: “Death is a Doll” (Episode # 30)

In Ballou, Louisiana, Bart LeFay is on his death bed.

He believes that he’ll be dragged through Death’s Edmund McDonald is heard as Lt. Kling.

Sue Carol

(3)

The following Box Thirteen broadcasts star Alan Ladd as Dan Holiday, with Sylvia Picker as Suzy and Edmund McDonald as Lieutenant Kling. The series was written by Russell Hughes, produced by Vern Carstenson, and directed by Richard Sanville. Rudy Schrager composed and conducted the music.

CD 1A: “The Haunted Artist” (Episode # 17)

Artist Michael Davis is convinced that his studio is haunted. To prove it to Dan Holiday, he shows Dan his latest canvas. It’s a picture that contains the image of a stone quarry...which Davis didn’t paint!

CD 1B: “The Sad Night” (Episode # 18)

Dan receives a child’s copybook in his Star-Times box and Kyle Layton—whose daughter Marina owns the item—offers Holiday $500 for its return. Why? The book may hold the key to unlocking a centuries-old fortune.

CD 2A: “Hot Box” (Episode # 19)

Dan is hired to acquire a Chinese teakwood box at an auction, but arrives too late to place a bid. The gentleman with the winning bid is hit by a car while leaving the auction, and a red-haired woman departs the scene of the accident with the box in her possession.

CD 2B: “The Better Man” (Episode # 20)

Wealthy Charles Winthrop invites Dan to dinner to present a proposition. The bored millionaire craves excitement, and Winthrop’s willing to fork over the tidy sum of $100,000 to get some!

CD 3A: “The Professor and the Puzzle” (Episode # 21)

Dan’s teacher friend Bob Lanham was engaged to be married to Evelyn Gardner, but she had a change of heart shortly after her uncle’s suicide. She then made plans to wed Ed Macklin, Gardner’s former assistant…so when Macklin turns up dead, Bob becomes the chief suspect.

CD 3B: “The Dowager and Dan Holiday” (Episode # 22)

Why would wealthy recluse Mathilda Courtland write a letter to Box 13? Maybe Dan will learn the reason on his honeymoon. Madame Courtland is ready to announce her engagement to Mr. Holiday!

CD 4A: “Three to Die” (Episode # 23)

Douglas MacIntosh is a “sandhog”—someone who does construction work

Two 1942 films from “the majors” allowed the aforementioned B-picture fac- tories to cash in on Alan Ladd’s popularity. The first was RKO’s Joan of Paris, in which Alan played “Baby”—a doomed RAF squadron flier. He’s shot down with four other airmen, and the gang has to make their way out of Nazi-occupied France and back to England. It was a small part for Ladd (though in its re-release, he once again moved up in the billing), but it convinced the studio to offer him a $400-a-week contract. Alan held out for a better offer from Paramount. That studio was adapting Graham Greene’s novel A Gun for Sale to the big screen, and they cast the actor as the baby-faced assassin known as “Raven.” Retitled This Gun for Hire (1942), the feature made Alan an “overnight” star, and would be the first of seven films he’d make with Veronica Lake. (Three of those would be “all-star” compilations: Star Spangled Rhythm [1942], Duffy’s Tavern [1945], and Variety Girl [1947]). Because Lake measured 4’11” in her stocking feet she was the perfect leading lady for Ladd, who was only 5’6”.

Alan Ladd followed the success of This Gun for Hire with The Glass Key (1942), a noir that re-teamed him with Lake. It also featured William Bendix in a mem- orable turn as a sadistic henchman who wants to “bounce” Ladd’s character around like a “little rubber ball.” At one point, Bendix’s character asks, “Wait a minute—you mean I don’t get to smack Baby?” (This is a tad amusing in light of Ladd’s character in Joan of Paris.) Bill and Alan not only became close friends offscreen, as Paramount stablemates they appeared together in several films, in- cluding China (1943), Two Years Before the Mast (1946), and Calcutta (1946).

Ladd, Bendix, and Veronica Lake comprised the cast of The Blue Dahlia (1946), another of Alan’s most indelible films.

Although Alan Ladd’s movie career at Para- mount was threatened with interruption by WWII, the studio was able to postpone the actor’s being drafted. (Ladd was originally classi- fied “4-F” due to stomach problems, but found himself reclassified after taking an Army physi- cal.) He received enough deferments to allow him to headline such features as Lucky Jordan (1942) and Salty O’Rourke (1945). Ladd’s on- screen persona as a tough guy (with a sense of humor) would be perfect casting for when he decided to return to radio. Box Thirteen featured Ladd as Dan Holiday, a one-time newspaper re-

porter who had given up that business for loftier Movie Poster for The Blue Dahlia

(4)

Although Box Thirteen was produced specifically for syndication, the series did air in two separate network runs. It was heard on the West Coast Mutual network from March 15, 1948 to March 7, 1949, and on the East Coast (over WOR) from August 22, 1948 to August 14, 1949. Its 52 transcribed episodes gave it tremendous staying power in terms of radio syndication, with the series being broadcast on stations long after its West Coast/East Coast Mutual stints. Alan Ladd’s Mayfair Productions made the actor a mini-mogul in the medium. His acquisition of 156 stories penned by the legendary Damon Runyon in December of 1948 would result in the long-running comedy-drama anthology series The Damon Runyon Theatre.

In Jim Cox’s Radio Crime Fighters, the author notes that Alan Ladd “simply wasn’t enamored with television and decided to cast his broadcasting lot in radio, transcribing and distributing his own shows.” That may have been true when Box Thirteen originally went on the air...but to paraphrase Will Rogers, “Television is too big a thing to be out of.” Ladd would form a new production company, Jag- uar, for the purpose of bringing Box Thirteen to the small screen. However, the closest the venture got to TV success was an installment of The General Electric Theatre on December 5, 1954. The original Box Thirteen radio script, “Daytime Nightmare,” was revamped by Russell Hughes into a teleplay entitled “Commit- ted.” This story found Dan Holiday (Ladd) framed for murder, kidnapped, and tossed into an asylum for good measure. “We hope it comes off well,” remarked Ladd to the Los Angeles Times. “If so, the other 51 scenarios are on the shelf, waiting.” No Box Thirteen television series was forthcoming, though there were several proposals over the years. In fact, an idea for a feature film version was announced by Alan shortly before his passing in early 1964.

Box Thirteen remains a most enjoyable component of Alan Ladd’s radio legacy, though it’s fun to speculate what might have happened if he hadn’t achieved mo- tion picture success. Radio veteran Frank Nelson once recalled Ladd’s struggle to choose between radio and movies. “Frank, I have a chance to do some pictures;

what do you think I ought to do?” Ladd asked Nelson. “Do you think I should stay in radio or do you think I ought to do the picture thing?” Nelson thought to himself, “’Boy, he reads in a monotone; if he can do anything in pictures’—and I didn’t think he could—‘he sure ought to take that.’ Well, fortunately he did, and he did very well for himself.”

Alan Ladd’s not too shabby in radio, either. Join him as he sets a course for mystery and adventure in this latest Radio Spirits collection of Box Thirteen.

literary pursuits as an author of fiction.

Holiday seemed to have developed a case of writer’s block when it came to his new vocation. To compensate, Dan placed an ad in his old newspaper, the Star- Times, that read: “Adventure wanted. Will go anywhere, do anything. Box 13.”

Holiday refused any sort of financial compensation from those individuals who wrote to him requesting his services. That’s probably good, since an unsettling number of those correspondents were “a little funny in the head.” Dan dealt regularly with blackmailers, cultists, and a generally sordid cast of characters.

Holiday must have had quite the nest egg squirreled away in order to pull this off. While he did plan to use these adventures as fodder for his books, you kind of had to wonder how he kept the lights on and paid his secretary each week.

Yes, Dan Holiday had a gal Friday—she was once employed at the Star-Times before deciding to work for Dan on a permanent basis. The fact that she went only by “Suzy” would suggest that she wasn’t paid much (in that she couldn‘t afford a last name) -- yet what she lacked in brains she made up for in loyalty.

She was dizzier than Effie Perrine on a bad day. In fact, her distinguishing feature was that she would drop at least one good malaprop per show (which would always be patiently corrected by her employer). For example, in “The Sad Box”

episode, Suzy mentions “The Count of Monty Woolley.” When Dan informs her that she must mean “Monte Cristo—two different people,” Suzy retorts: “Well, they both have beards...”

Actress Sylvia Picker played Suzy. She and Alan Ladd had been colleagues back in his KFWB days, and the star made it his business to look out for his old friends.

This is why the man who had originally hired Ladd to work at the station (at $19 a week), Russell Hughes, was the show’s credited writer. (Ladd himself took a crack at collaborating on occasion.) The only other regular on Box Thirteen was the irascible Lieutenant Kling, portrayed by Edmund McDonald.

(You may remember him as the victim in 1945’s Detour). A distinguished cast of radio veterans appeared in support from week to week, including John Beal, Paul Frees, Betty Lou Gerson, Marsha Hunt, Joseph Kearns, Frank Lovejoy, Alan Reed, Luis Van Rooten, and Lurene Tuttle.

John Beal

Marsha Hunt

(5)