Larry Haines (who played Stu Bergman on Search for Tomorrow for 2670 episodes from 1951 to 1986, and was former first lady Pat Nixon's favorite soap opera star) was the first to portray Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer on the radio. That Hammer Guy ran on the Mutual/Don Lee Network from 1952 to 1954. Both George Petrie and Ted DeCorsia would play Hammer later in the show's run. Jan Miner (Madge the manicurist in the Palmolive ads) played Velda, as well as most of the female roles. It appears that most of the episodes are now lost to time; I could only find sixteen, more or less split between Haines and DeCorsia as Hammer; I could not find any Petrie apisodes.
That Hammer Guy was originally slated for CBS, which evidently recorded a pilot. Then NBC took over and had planned to have Spillane himself narrate the show, with Richard Lewis as producer and director. It eventually ended up on Mutual, with Lewis still on board.
Spillane did not write for the show; that was left to Ed Adamson, who did a good job capturing Spillane's tone. I believe Ed Ladd was the announcer on this episode.
In this episode, Hammer is followed by a man named Peter Morrison, who says he needs protection from a man who is trying to kill him. Hammer recognizes the man Morrison points out as a plain clothes detective. Then Morrison disappears.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yehAaZf1II
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