Carlton E. Morse was certainly one of the leading scriptwriters for radio dramas. He began his career at NBC in 1929 and was the creator of two of the most remembered radio programs of the 1930s and 1940s: One Man's Family and I Love a Mystery. His contribution tot the art of writing for radio is regarded and treasured by both young and old alike.
But behind the microphone there were discussions about the wording of commercials, openings and closings of the broadcasts, questions about which version of "Valse Triste" should be used, objections to episode content, disucussions of networks/time slots/format, and so on.
I Love a Mystery evolved out of Morse's earlier plays for the radio. Bits and pieces of previous shows would regenerate on different shows. Morse was writing two shows at the same time. He'd spend Monday and Tuesday writing the scripts for the 15-minute daily show One Man's Family, and then spend the rest of the week with Jack, Doc and Reggie.
The show is better known for it's characters: Jack, Doc and Reggie. Three adventurers who traveled the world in search of action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of Nevada and Arizona, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women in distress, and did battle with evils of natural and supernatural origin.
They were the three musketeers of the airwaves: all for one and one for all. They had met during China's war with Japan, when all three had enlisted in the Chinese cause. Then they returned to California, to form the A-1 Detective Agency, just off Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
These weren't your squeaky-clean heroes. Frequently the jams they found themselves in were caused by themselves. In retrospect, Jack's name should have been Cassandra-he was always telling Doc and Reggie to do things that they proceeded not to do. The minute he told them to stay put, you KNEW they'd be off in a second. They loved a good fight, and would frequently pick one.
It ran on NBC from 1939 to 1944, then resurfaced on Mutual from 1949-1950
Chapter 1, of the 13-part series "The Tropics Don't Call it Murder"
(Sept 1940) Plot: The state of San Moreno, hiding itself on the east coast of South America, may become an important landmark, if it can produce good rubber. Therefore, the Charles H. Fortune Scientific Expedition is approaching the back hills to see what kind of rubber grows there. Jack, Doc and Reggie are hired on as guides and scouts. When the piano player in the Blue Circle, a waterfront gin mill, is unaccountably stabbed to death, Jack send Doc and Reggie back to the hotel to wait for him. It looks like a frame-up to get the three men thrown in the local bastille. A second murder, the fatal shooting of John Cottenridge, chief scientist of the Charles H. Fortune Expedition, involved Jack Packard and a little French adventuress named Josette.
Morse reused the many of the same episodes every time I Love A Mystery started another season. Oct 3, 1949-Dec. 1952, it was transcribed in New York, produced from the original scripts, on Mutual. They were 15 minute shows, and starred Russell Thorson as Jack Packard, Jim Boles as Doc Long, and Tony Randall as Reggie Yorke."Tropics" was re-done as a 26-part series in February 1950, in New York.
I Love A Mystery lasted more than 1,700 broadcasts, and yet very few of them exist today in recorded form. The episode Chapter 2 of "The Tropics Don't Call it Murder" is no exception. Following ART's goal of giving old-time-radio shows a new voice, this episode comes to us from Jack Edwards, who played Flutey in Feb. 24, 1950.
