BW - EP133—002: Thanksgiving With I Love A Mystery—The First Two Runs

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

I Love A Mystery first took to the air Weekdays at 3:15PM on NBC’s West-Coast network in January of 1939. Michael Raffetto starred as Jack Packard, head of the A-1 Detective Agency, with Barton Yarborough as Texan Doc Long, and Walter Paterson as the British Reggie Yorke. The three world travelers searched for action, thrills, and mystery. From the ghost towns of wind-swept Nevada, to the jungles of vampire-infested Nicaragua, they righted wrongs, rescued women, battled evil, and explored unknown parts of the globe. Morse utilized threatening elements: dark jungles, bizarre rituals, strange languages, sacred amulets, thick fogs. Three characters could be murdered in a single episode. There were ancient curses, hidden panels, piercing cries in the night, and the gathering of a diverse group of suspicious people, all of whom had secrets to hide. Jack Packard was once a medical student. He shrugged off superstition in favor of logic. Reggie Yorke was British and clever. Doc Long was a red-headed Texan. He defied the laws of chance and always had time for women. By that autumn it was airing nationally. The show ran from the west coast for five years, first over NBC’s Red Network, then its Blue, and then CBS. The original I Love A Mystery run ended on December 29th, 1944. A 1945 film with its title starred Jim Bannon, Barton Yarborough, George Macready, and Nina Foch. Two more movies followed with Bannon and Yarborough followed in 1946. Morse recorded a new radio audition for ABC in May of 1945, but the show wasn’t picked up again until it was briefly revived on ABC as I Love Adventure in the spring of 1948. It lasted thirteen weeks before going off the air.