STAND BY FOR CRIME: THE COMMUNIST MENACE (1952; EXACT AIR DATE UNCERTAIN)

 Chuck Morgan( Glen Langan) is a news anchor at L.A.'s KOP radio who is often tipped off about hot crime news possibilities by his buddy, Lt. Bill Miggs of the LAPD.  Morgan's gal Friday is Carol Curtis (Adele Jergens, Langan's real-life wife), and the repartee between the two is enjoyable.  Each week the three meet various types of shady characters.  The dialogue is good and the plots more often than not were serviceable.

Stand by for Crime was a West Coast show with the "true style" of delivery made popular by Dragnet, Gangbusters, and Mr. District Attorney.  Unlike Dragnet, the show made no bones about being a fictional drama while still being awash with a veneer of reality.

The fear of the Red Menace during the Cold War was very real in Senator Joseph McCarthy's America of 1952, as is exemplified in this episode, "The Communist Menace."  At the request of his station owner and the FBI, Morgan reads a pro-Communist script in his broadcast and is fired.  This allows him to infiltrate the Communist party and discover who is leading the Party in Los Angeles.  Hopefully, those days are behind us.

Not much is known about this show.  "The Communist Menace" is recognized as the first episode in the series, although there appear to be two pilot episodes recorded previously.  The political aspect of this episode appears to be an outlier; other episodes tackled more ordinary crimes.

Enjoy this little bit of 1950's paranoia and propaganda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VJPZgQBxKk&list=PLDFIOdWlnzL-B1S92cKfFjsbucChveCqG&index=2

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE BODYGUARD

"The Bodyguard" by Lee Child (fist published in First Thrills, edited by Lee Child, 2010; reprinted in Child's collection Safe Enough and Other Stories, 2024)

Lee Child is best known as a novelist.  His Jack Reacher novels are perennial bestsellers and have spawned both films and a television show.  His first novel was published in 1997.  It then took seven years before he realized he could also write short stories, which he began to do in abundance, usually for charity ventures and for fundraisers for various writing organizations.  Although all of Child's novels feature Reacher, less than half a dozen of his stories do, giving the author a chance to spread his wings, trying something different each time.

The title character in "The Bodyguard" is a professional and very good at his job.  There are phony bodyguards -- ones hired for their looks, all muscle and show -- and there are those who rely on planning, intelligence, and courage -- ones who usually manage to avoid dangerous situations for their clients.  This bodyguard, now in business for himself after years of working for corporate clients, has never lost a client.

He came close to losing Anna, though.  She was young, twenty-two.  "she was rich in her own right.  she had an inheritance from a separate branch of the family.  I think she was actually richer than her old man, who was plenty rich to start with.  Her mother was rich, too.  Separate money again.  They were Brazilian.  The father was a businessman and a politician.  The mother was a local TV star.  It was a triple whammy.  Oceans of cash, connections, Brazil.  I should have walked away."

For anna to have been 100% safe, she would have to stay in her apartment twenty-four seven.  she didn't want that.  She thought about 80% safe would suit her better.  He told her, "Eighty percent means you live Monday through Thursday and die on Friday."  Still, she did not want to live in a gilded cage and the money was good so he took the job.

They flew to Rio, where she had an apartment.  Things went south on the very first day.  Exiting a store, they were confronted with four men with guns and were captured.  The bodyguard was thrown into a bare cell with his hands handcuffed behind his back and his legs shackled; Anna was taken to a separate room.  They were in an abandoned warehouse surrounded by some forty gang members.  A few hours later he is told that Anna was being held for political reasons to force her father into getting a government inquiry stopped.  They had no reason to keep the bodyguard, so he was to be killed once the men decided on an entertaining way to eliminate him.

What the kidnappers did not count on was Anna's intelligence and bravery, even when the odds were forty to one against her.

In the end, the bodyguard still had a perfect record of not losing a client.  The embarrassing thing was that it was the client herself who did the rescuing...

A slight but entertaining tale, with Anna being as undaunted in adversity as Jack Reacher would have been.

VA-CAY

 I'm off for a few days to visit my brother and his family in Massachusetts.  Actually, that's what my brother and his family think; in truth, I'm headed off to spend quality time with my grand-niece, the amazing Lily Marie, now nearly a year-and-a-half old.  Back next week sometime.

NAKED CITY: NICKEL RIDE (OCTOBER 7, 1958)

There are eight million stories in the Naked City.  This is one of them.

While detectives are visiting the captain of a Staten Island ferry, armed robbers are executing a heist on an armored car riding on the ferry...

Starring John McIntire, James Franciscus, Cameron Prud'Homme, and Harry Bellivar.

Directed by Douglas Heyes (Ice Station Zebra, Kitten with a Whip, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin) from a script by series creator Sterling Silliphant (Village of the Damned, In the Heat of the Night, The Poseidon Adventure).

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1VqGAKcCUo

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE DAVE MACON!

"The Dixie Dewdrop,'' Uncle Dave Macon was born David Harrison Macon on this day in 1870.  A noted country banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian, he first gained fame as a regional vaudeville player in the 1920s before becoming the first star of the Grand Ol' Opry in the latter half of the decade.  Macon provided the bridge between 19th century folk music and the radio-based music of the early 20th century.  His polished stage presence and lively personality, combined with his occasional chin whiskers, plug hat, gold tooth, and gates-ajar collar, made him one of the most popular performers of early country music.

[Note:  Some of the following may be offensive to some.  Times were different then.]

"Bile Them Cabbage Down"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrurlSqJ0DI

"Rock About My Sarah Jane"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxLV06fpCJ0

"Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103RxdsVKAk

"Buddy Won't You Roll Down the Line"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPrwa-MOBM

"Sail Away Ladies"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUDYKOBN5cM

"Way Down the Old Plank Road"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyQmI3AL0P8

"Over the Road I'm Bound to Go"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VU7mdicZY

{SPOILER:  I've censored this titile]

"Run, N*****, Run"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZ80EkHeQ4

[Another offensive title}

"The C*** That Had the Razor"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z55OCBbtmUQ

"Comin' Round the Mountain"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCZ0eW6b5-w

"Arkansas Traveler"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rClxMJpYKZM

"Soldier's Joy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfqMHJiFJtw

"Carve That Possum"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCGnBcj57UI

"Things I Don't Like to See"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUylbyQa6fQ

"Cotton Eyed Joe"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VMk92ozZYs

Uncle Dave Macon formed a band called the Fruit Jar Singers, performing traditional folk and country music; when it came to record spirituals, however, he changer the name of the group to the Dixie Sacred singers.

"O Bear Me Away on Your Snowy Wings"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9BScDNshk

HYMN TIME

 Keb Mo'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RXA6ugon1c

ELLERY QUEEN #4 (NOVEMBER 1949)

This was the fourth of four issues published by Superior Comics featuring the master sleuth,  Previously Ellery had appeared as a character in some stories in Crackerjack Funnies, beginning in 1940.  He went on to have his own title for two issues published by Ziff-Davis in 1952 and in three issues from Dell comics in 1962.

As for this issue, here is a current description from e-Bay:  "Art by Jack Kamen and others.  Adventures of the famed detective from Canadian publisher Superior, also featuring some early horror classics.  A romantic weekend is interrupted by by mystery, adventure -- and the secret of The Crooked Mile.  A beast-man stalks the unwary...or does he?  Cover by an unknown artist is a crazy over-the-top mash-up pf romance and horror comic cover tropes.  The Case of the Seventh Raven; The Crooked Mile; The Werewolf.  final issue of the series.  32 pages.  Full color."  (This particular copy is going for $180.00, plus $6.90 Economy Shipping.)

• The Case of the Seventh Raven - "Having a wonderful crime might have been written on the cards Ellery sent his friends from the country...if he ever had any time between murders to send any cards!  This yarn would seem to prove that intrigue will follow Ellery Queen wherever he goes...even along the grisly trail leading to the clue of The Seventh Raven..."  On vacation, Ellery, his father, and Nikki Porter (who carries a torch for Ellery but he is too much of a dim bulb to realize it) stop by the sleepy village of Cliffside for the night.  Nikki is frightened by a raven in her room, but by the time Ellery and Inspector Queen get there the bird is gone, leaving bloody claw prints on the bed linen.  They are interrupted by the appearance of a girl -- the hotel maid -- who tells them that Mr. Throckmorton fell over the cliff and is dead.  Who is Throckmorton, and why is he dead?  Ellery does not think this was an accident.  Suspects include the maid, the hotel janitor, the widow, and Throckmorton's assistant.  It turns out that Throckmorton loved birds and he owned seven rare black birds.  Hmm...
• Too Lucky to Live! - "Lovely Linda Haynes won the golf championship and found that the prize was...DEATH!  If you've ever celebrated at the end of a hard match, this yarn will have a familiar ring, but you've been lucky!  No grim spectre waited for you in the locker room!  Another thrilling Ellery Queen mystery unfolds as he solves the weird puzzle of the Murder at the Nineteenth Hole!"  Ellery is Nikki's caddy during the golf match (no explanation why Nikki is playing in this match; but we know Ellery is called into duty because of a caddy strike) as tensions ramp up between Linda Haynes and her rivals, including Vivian Marshall and Jessica She-doesn't-really-need-a-last-name.  After the match, the girls drink champagne from a bottle supplied by Vivian's father, and...Linda dies.  Can Ellery untangle the threads of professional jealousy to catch the culprit?  Is the sky blue?
• The Model and the Monster - Famous model Mary Jones is dead, strangled!  Clues include a man's size 15 shirt, a train time-table for Chicago, and a stranger who cheated a taxi driver out of a $19 fare, . Dogged police work solves the case because "Police data will always prove Crime Does Not Pay!"
• The Crooked Road - "It all started as a lovely evening, but ended as a nightmare!  Before it was over, Ellery Queen and his beautiful assistant experienced a night of terror such as few have ever known...or ,lived to tell about!  Your blood will freeze along with that of the two benighted travelers as Ellery follows a bloody trail to a bloodier ending in the tale of The Werewolf of Walpurgis Hollow!"  A fierce storm, a dangerous mountain road, a creepy old house, a creepier old family, murder, and...oh, yeah, they went there...a werewolf! 

By the way, the romance strongly hinted at on the cover just did not happen.  (But it probably sold a few extra issues.)

At the end of the last story there a coupon which, with the addition of a hard-earned dollar, promises the reader the next twelve issues of the comic book, which never materialized.

You can save yourself $180.00 (plus $6.90 shipping) by going to the link below:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=96024&comicpage=&b=i