Mr District Attorney
Mr District Attorney was for many years the nation’s best-liked crime show.
The thirty-minute drama was inspired by the real-life exploits of Thomas E Dewey, a racket-busting district attorney of the late 30s in New York.
However, the crusading D.A. in the series was never named, initially known only as "Mr District Attorney", or "Chief".
The show was directed and often written by Ed Byron, a former law student who devoted all of his time researching crime, which was the reason that the show was so topical.
Byron lent an air of accuracy and immediacy to his scripts through close study of crime statistics, a library of criminology texts, following the newspapers, and even going around rough bars to gain tips, background, and color from crooks and police alike, and his techniques sometimes enabled predictions of major crime waves before the news even broke!
The radio series was produced throughout its run in New York City, and began as a 15-minute serial in April 1939, becoming a half-hour broadcast three months later, as a summer replacement for The Bob Hope Show.
Near the end of the radio run, the series successfully made the transition to television, and the current radio cast reprised their roles. However, the D.A now had a name - Paul Garrett. The radio version picked up this name in the final 1952-1953 radio syndication, when David Brian played the role.
You can watch some of the TV episodes on YouTube, which I've had fun catching up with this week, but I still consider the radio shows far superior. I've been adding more episodes to RUSC recently, so there will soon be nearly 100 episodes available for you.
Happy listening my friends,