July 1, 2009
The Adventures of Nero Wolf came to radio in the spring of 1943 in a short-lived series starring J. B. Williams over a New England network. The series moved onto ABC with Santos Ortega starring in a summer series (July 5, 1943-September 27, 1943) with John Gibson as Archie Goodwin. Luis Van Rooten moved into the title role when the series was revived the following year (January 21, 1944-July 14, 1944). Francis X. Bushman starred as The Amazing Nero Wolfe in a 1945-46 Mutual series, with Elliott Lewis as Archie. NBC's The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe aired from October 20, 1950 through April 27, 1951 and starred Sydney Greenstreet. The actor had made his film debut at age 61 in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, receiving a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Casper Gutman (a.k.a. "The Fat Man"). Though the series ran only six months, five different veteran radio detective stars were heard as Archie Goodwin: Gerald Mohr (radio's Philip Marlowe and The Lone Wolf), Wally Maher (Michael Shayne), Harry Bartell (announcer of Sherlock Holmes), Herb Ellis (Dragnet's Frank Smith) and Lawrence Dobkin (Ellery Queen).
THIS EPISODE:
March 23, 1951. NBC network. "The Case Of The Final Page". Sustaining. Nero Wolfe and Archie attend a dinner at the home of Arthur Merle, only to find him knifed in the back. Sydney Greenstreet, Don Arthur (writer), Rex Stout (creator), William Johnstone, Don Stanley (announcer), Edwin Fadiman (producer), J. Donald Wilson (director), Harry Bartell, Evelyn Eaton, Lucille Alex, Peter Leeds, Monica Nealy, Herb Butterfield. 29:27.
