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This is the story of the WWII special governmental
agency, the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services.
Its mission was to develop and maintain spy networks
throughout Europe and into Asia, while giving aid
to underground partisan groups and developing espionage activities for Allied forces overseas.The show is based on the book of the same name by
Lt. Col. Corey Ford and Major Alastair MacBain (who
were associated with the OSS from its early days.)
The dramas are not Hollywood-style, in that they sometimes
end with plans foiled or leading characters dead.
Each week was a new half-hour story of the OSS's exploits,
with different actors. The casts were drawn from the
best of the New York radio scene, including Raymond
Edward Johnson (Inner
Sanctum Mysteries), Virginia Payne, Joseph
Julian, Jackson Beck (Hop
Harrigan, Cisco
Kid, Casey,
Crime Photographer and Philo
Vance), Jan Miner, Les Tremayne, Maurice Tarplin
(Mysterious Traveler)
and Boris Aplon (Captain
Midnight), Everett Sloane (Mercury
Theatre, Campbell Playhouse), and Martin Balsam,
The show was directed by Sherman Marks and written
It opened with the question, "Are you willing
to undertake a dangerous mission for the United States,
knowing in advance you may never return alive?"
Of course, today's headlines make this dramatization
of our history all the more intriguing, and all the
more relevant.
For more espionage and adventure see: Top
Secret, The Silent
Men, I was
a Communist for the FBI, Counterspy
- David Harding!, Dangerous
Assignment, The
Adventures of Frank Race, Harry
Lime (The Third
Man), Secret
Agent K7 Returns, Spy
Catcher, and The
Man Called X.
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