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The Mystery of the Surviving Ellery Queen
Radio Shows

Here's a list of the Ellery Queen radio shows known to exist.  It was long believed that about 18 half hour shows had survived. That would be right if we take only take those who are widely available on the internet. Several episodes are preserved in e.g. Library of Congress,...
Perhaps there are more, who knows?... after all even Ellery was fallible...

If you are an OTR fanatic and want to contribute to this site please get in touch ... Thanks to Joey Lindstrom (The Vaultkeeper), Martin Hunt, Walt Pattison Michael Simons, Tom Van der Voort and Brad Bahr for their unselfishness in sharing some of 'their' radioplays.

Content
Adventures of Ellery Queen
   UMKC Miller Nichols Library Kansas City
   Library of Congress Washington D.C.
   Columbia University of  New York
   Internet
Mystery Related material
Other Queen related audio products

The ones marked with red dot are missing from my collection...

Could you help? e-mail

he Adventures of Ellery Queen

All material in this section are renditions of Ellery Queen radiomysteries. Most of them regular broadcasts or Mystery House AFRS broadcasts. Some however are restaged version by e.g. The Columbia Workshop, NBC's The Molle Mystery Theater, NBCFord Theatre or in the case of the Australian Ellery Queen adventures by Grace Gibson Radio Productions.

UMKC Miller Nichols Library Kansas City  

List of programs preserved in MARR Sound Archives at UMKC Miller Nichols Library Kansas which holds the J.Goldin collection
Since the sound quality of the programs is wonderfull all are listed here
(E=Excellent, VG= Very good, G= Good,  F=Fair).
All these episodes are not in our collection... except the ones marked with a grey dot

       The Singing Rat   1-07-43 (West)  E
       The Circus Train   03-25-43 or 03-27-43 (guest deleted but complete) VG
       The World Series Crime  09-30-43 (East)  VG/E
       The Vanishing Magician   11-06-43 (East)  VG
   The Bullet-Proof Man (as The Wounded Lieutenant - Produced by OWI
                                and taken from the West Coast broadcast - 2 versions)  11-18-43   E
       The Mischief Maker   01-15-44 (East)  VG/E
       The Scarecrow and the Snowman   01-20-44 (West)  E
       Dead Man's Cavern   04-13-44 (West)  VG/E
       Nick The Knife   08-01-45   VG/E
       The Message in Red   11-07-45   VG/E   
       The Reign Of Terror  01-46 A sales presentation program   E   
       The Woman who Died Several Times  10-23-46   E 
       Ellery Queen's Rival  10-30-46   E
       The Crime of Inspector Queen  11-06-46   E   
       The Uneasy Voyage  11-13-46   E   
       The Prizefighter's Birthday  11-20-46   E 
       Ellery Queen, Blackmail Victim  11-27-46   E 
       Ellery Queen, Gigolo  12-04-46   E 
       The Old Man's Darling  12-11-46   E 
       A Hurricane That Committed A Murder  12-18-46   VG/E 
       The Unhappy New Year  01-01-47   E 
       The Man Who Could Vanish  01-08-47    F/G 
       The Lollipop Murders  01-15-47   E 
       The Queen Solomon   01-22-47   E 
       The Stone Age Detective  01-29-47   E 
       The Haunted House  02-05-47   E
       The Big Brain  02-19-47  (guest deleted + incomplete)   E
       The Specialist in Cops  03-19-47  (guest deleted + incomplete)  E
       The Ten Thousand Dollar Bill  03-26-47   E
       The Man who Murdered a City  04-02-47   VG/E
       The Red Headed Blonde Brunette  04-16-47   VG
       The Green Gorilla's  06-01-47  (East)  E
       The Sky Pirates  06-08-47  (East)  E
       The Atomic Murder  08-03-47   (East)  E
       The Foolish Girls  08-10-47 (East)  E
       Murder for Americans  08-17-47 (East)  E
       The King's Horse  08-31-47 (East)  E
       Number Thirty-One  08-10-47 (AFRS rebroadcast)  VG/E
       Number Thirty-One  08-10-47 (East) E
       Tragedy in Blue  09-14-47 (East) E
       Nikki Porter, Bride  12-11-47  VG/E
       The Melancholy Dane  12-18-47  E
       Ellery Queen: Santa Claus  12-25-47  E
       The Head Hunter  01-08-48   VG
       The Terrified Man  01-15-48   G
       Death House   01-29-48   G/VG
       Bubsy  02-05-48   G/VG
       A Question of Color  02-12-48  (incomplete - last 15') VG/E
       The Old Sinner  02-19-48  E
       The Blue Egg  02-19-48  (incomplete - last 15') VG/E
       The Human Weapon  03-04-48  VG
       The Lynching of Mr.Q  03-11-48  VG
         The Armchair Detective  03-18-48  E
         The Farmer's Daughter  03-25-48  E
         The Vanishing Crook  04-01-48  VG
         The K. I. Case 04-08-48  VG/E
         The Slicer  04-15-48  E
         Murder By Installments  04-22-48   E
       The Three Frogs  04-29-48  E
       One Diamond  05-06-48   VG/E
       Misery Mike  05-20-48   VG/E

       Nikki Porter, Suspect  (Australia) (Nikki Porter, Killer) 11-19-54   E
       The Man Who Could Vanish (Australia)  ??-54   VG/E

Library of Congress Washington D.C. 

The list of NBC programs preserved in the Library of Congress ...
all have been donated by the NBC Radio Collection.
There are even some identified parts of episodes including one from 1943,...
All these LoC episodes are not in our collection...

       The Income Tax Robbery 03-14-1942 (West)
       The Poet's Triangle  11-12-42 or 11-14-42
                                                     (First 15 minutes)
       The Singing Rat  01-07-43 (West)   P
       The Circus Train 03-27-43 (East)   P
       The World Series Crime 10-2-43 (East)  
       The Mischief Maker  01-15-44 (East)  
       The Scarecrow and the Snowman  01-20-44 (West)  
       The Dark Secret 06-10-44 (East) 
       The Blue Chip 06-17-44  (East) 
       The Corpse in Lower Five 06-24-44 (East)
       The Devil's Head  07-01-44 (East) 
       The Egyptian Tomb  07-08-44 (East) 
       The Yang Piece 07-22-44 (East) 
       The Four Prisoners  07-29-44 (East) 
       The Man without a Heart   08-05-44 (East) 
       The Three Hands  08-12-44 
       The Atomic Murder  08-03-47

(P= poor audioquality)

Columbia University New York

   The Dark Secret 06-08-44 or 06-10-44

The internet..
   The Great Microphone Mystery    aka
          The Case of the Mysterious Leap Year" The Columbia Workshop
   The Invisible Clue  01-15-42 or 01-17-42
      The Income Tax Robbery 06-14-42 (East)
      The Singing Rat  01-07-43 (West)
      The Circus Train 03-27-43 (East)
      The World Series Crime 10-2-43 (East)
      The Vanishing Magician 11-06-43  (East)  P
      The Mischief Maker  01-15-44 (East)
      The Scarecrow and the Snowman  01-20-44 (West)
      Dead Man's Cavern  (Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services)  
             04-13-44 (West)
      The Wounded Lieutenant 1944 Office of War and Information (15 min)
               (from west coast version of "The Adventure Of The Bullet-Proof Man"¹)
      The Thief in the Dark   May 44
           Sneak-preview for Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services
      The Foul Tip  07-13-44 (West)
      The Booby Trap Nov 44
           Sneak-preview for Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services
   The Dark Secret Jun 44
           Sneak-preview for Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services
   The Diamond Fence  Jan 45 (30 minutes)
           Sneak-preview for Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services
      Nick the Knife 08-01-45 (Mystery Playhouse Armed Forced Radio Services)  
      The Message in Red 11-07-45
      The Atomic Murder  08-03-47 (Conclusion from the episode see UMKC)
      The Armchair Detective 03-27-46 and 3-18-48
      The Adventure of the Fallen Angel
                 for NBC's Molle Mystery Theater 06-14-46  (30 minutes)
   The Green Gorillas (30 minutes) Radio transcription disc 16"  02-12-47.
      Number Thirty One 09-07-47
      The Saga of Ruffy Rux  11-27-47
      The Man in The Street 12-04-47
      The Three Frogs  04-29-48
      One Diamond  05-06-48
      The Adventure of the Bad Boy NBC Ford Theatre 1-4-48 (1 hour)
   The Man who could Vanish (Australia)   09-??-54 
      Nikki Porter, Suspect  (Australia) (originally Nikki Porter, Killer) 11-19-54


(P= poor audioquality)

The ones marked with red dot are missing from my collection... 

Could you help? e-mail

ystery related material

Material in this section, not certain to be regular Ellery Queen stories but still under the heading of "mysteries"

The Shadow
episodes attributed to Ellery Queen (list by William Nadel)

      Shyster Payoff 11-06-38
      Black Rock 11-13-38
      Murder in E Flat 12-04-38
  Fountain of Death 11-27-38 not available for examination 
  Murder by Rescue 12-11-38 not available for examination   
  Give Us This Day 12-25-38 not available for examination
      Valley of the Living Dead 01-22-39
      The Ghost of Captain Bayloe 02-05-39
      Friend of Darkness 02-19-39
      Sabotage by Air 03-05-39
      Can the Dead Talk? 03-19-39

The Campbell Playhouse

  Do not Disturb CBS The Campbell Playhouse 04-25-41 #78 
       Edmund Lowe, screen star, comes to the "Playhouse" to star in an especially
        written comedy-mystery by Ellery Queen
     (None of the 30 minutes Campbell episodes seem to have survived)

The Fred Allen Show

  On June 6. 1943 the Fred Allen show had "Ellery Queen" as guest.
      This was Carleton Young and Fred Allen was armchair detective (along
      with a couple of him comedy characters).
        Texaco Star Theater 9:30 - 10:00pm - CBS

Mr & Mrs North

  The Murder in Mink (11-07-45) 
        The Message in Red episode from the regular EQ series (with Victor Jory as guest
        armchair detective) was followed by this episode where Ellery helped to solve the
        mystery

Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries

  At least 520 episodes. (see missing episodes * in following list )

 The ones marked with red dot are missing from my collection...

Could you help? e-mail

ther Queen related OTR Shows

  11-21-38 Alias Jimmy Valentine
      04-07-39 Author! Author!*   P
  02-05-44 NBC War Bond parade (12:00 pm) had Captain Glenn Miller;
                     Band of the Army Air Force Training Command; Grantland
                     Rice; cast of "Adventures of Ellery Queen"; Harry Hershfield
                     on the show
      08-04-44 Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel: Ellery Queen 15' with
                      Sydney Smith as EQ  

(P= poor audioquality)

ther Queen related audioproducts
     (existence unsure or specified)

  Turning from fiction to fact, three writers of mystery stories, known
      under the 'nom de plume' as Ellery Queen, Barnaby Ross and
      "Diplomat", applied their wits to the solution of a real unresolved
      mystery as presented by Captain John Ayer, head of the NYPD's
      missing persons bureau,  during one of the new series programs known
      as "America's Grub Street Speaks", presented each Sunday evening
      over the WABC-Columbia network. We're looking for the episode
      dated November 27.1932 or others...

  Interview with Ellery Queen and his biographer (Dr. Elliot L. Gilbert?)

  TV-Interview with Ellery Queen by Dick Cavett (on PBS)
      (June 1978 billed as Dick Cavett Show) PBS Nighttime was the fifth
      of several talk and variety shows hosted by Dick Cavett. After a
      two-year break from TV series, he returned to host this show which
      came to PBS after he had been involved with variety and talk-variety
      formats on CBS and on ABC; it was a return to focus on the more
      intimate talk-interview format of a single guest, which was his forte.
                                                                                      (Source classicthemes.com)

  10-26-78 Whodunnit? 59' Produced by John Weber. In the
      National Public Radio program entitled Options. Reporter Wendy Blair
      explores how fact and fantasy are turned into mystery. She talks to
      publishers, booksellers, editors, readers, and writers of detective thrillers.
      Among those interviewed are Ross MacDonald and half of the Ellery
      Queen team, Frederic Dannay (Cassette preserved at Library of
      Congress, also a cassette at the Chicago Public Library.)

The ones marked with red dot are missing from my collection...

Could you help? e-mail

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