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Danger with Granger

Steve Granger was a typical Hard Boiled detective. Danger With Granger is filled with twists, turns, and double crosses. Granger assures us that each episode is "one of my most interesting cases."

Danger with Granger

36 old time radio show recordings
(total playtime 14 hours, 44 min)
available in the following formats:

1 MP3 CD
or
18 Audio CDs


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"Larry Simmons"



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Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2024 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.

New York City Skyline Circa 1950
Detective
late 1950s

Steve Granger was a typical Hard Boiled detective in most ways. He worked with a few disadvantages that didn't hamper others in the Hard-Boiled Genre. For one thing he came late in the Golden Age of Radio, premiering on the Mutual Network in the summer of 1956. Sam Spade first appeared in  The Maltese Falcon in print in 1929, and on radio in 1941 (Humphrey Bogart in the Lux Theater adaptation of the film). Chandler's Philip Marlowe first appeared in the novel The "Big Sleep" in 1939, and on the radio in June 1944 (Lux Radio Theater's "Murder My Sweet").

This doesn't mean that the Hard-Boiled Detective was used up by 1956, but the clichés that are such an important part of the genre don't have the punch in Danger With Granger. It is hard to see how Granger could have made a living, his clients seemed to have an unfortunate habit of dying on him. Granger was also missing the pretty secretary that many Private Eye's had, but he could depend on his Police Connection, Lt Jake Rankin. Information was easy to come by from newspaperman Cal Hendrix, who acted as Granger's personal advisor.

Danger With Granger is filled with twists, turns, and double crosses. The show is somewhat formulaic, but it is still plenty entertaining. Granger assure us that each episode is "one of my most interesting cases." The episode opens by revealing the motive for the upcoming murder, and goes through each of its four acts, working to the climax and ending with a wrap-up. Granger self narrates his stories, and gets knocked around by the bad guys, but some how always manages to find the villain.

The show is full of formulaic tough-guy detective talk such as "Larry should crawl into a hole and let someone fill it with water" or "You're on the right track, but you're on the wrong train." 

For more rare crime shows, see also: Rare Detective and Crime Shows Collection, Rarities: Adventure & Detective, and Dame Detectives, Female Crimefighters.

Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2024 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.

These classic recordings are available in the following formats:

  • Show Rating

    6
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    COMMENTS

    Steve Grainger was a typical hard-boiled detective, whose cases involved crimes from murder, to robbery, to smuggling. The series came much later in the golden age of radio, and sadly seemed to have 'missed the boat' in the hard-boiled detective genre, as it never saw the success of its predecessors.

    Bruce Verified Purchase

    Your description of DANGER WITH GRAINGER states that it was a very late addition to the American radio-detective genre, too late to make much of an impact -- but that is not quite accurate. By the summer of 1956, when GRAINGER premiered on Mutual, the network (or really, its home-base crew at New York's WOR) had pretty much abandoned in-house dramatic production in favor of an ever-increasing emphasis on newscasts, talk shows and sports, although management had, well before the other networks, long been open to scheduling pre-packaged/syndicated programs produced and transcribed out-of-house -- if the price was right or a sponsor insisted. And that's what DANGER WITH GRAINGER was: a syndicated package of less than thirty episodes, produced a few years earlier (when private eyes were "all over the dial") but never before heard on any American station or network.rnrnThe reason: it was an Australian production, written, produced and performed by a talented group of Aussies whose "stock company" of voice actors included several who had learned to imitate Yank dialects almost flawlessly. The cast was headed by the highly gifted mimic Ray Barrett, whose later career in London would make him one of British television's most acclaimed and popular character actors of the 1960s and 1970s.rnrnOne clue (as to the show's non-AFTRA origins) is the total absence of performer credits, a union-contracted "must" in the final years of America's golden-age radio; another is the "slightly British" tone of the briefly heard announcer who opens each episode. And close examination of the pronunciations of the supporting performers occasionally reveals a fleeting "flattened A" or "softened R" -- but overall the illusion is quite convincing. All the episodes circulating among OTR collectors appear to be taken directly from the syndication recordings and never from Mutual-affiliate airchecks, so it might be "most interesting" (as Steve Grainger would say) to hear how commercial (or PSA) insertions and network ID's were handled in this country -- if such an aircheck does someday turn up. The historical record should, indeed, be set straight on this very clever simulation of an American-radio production. I first became suspicious of the show's origin way back when, as a radio-crazed kid in the early 1960s I heard re-runs of it on a few 50kw (nighttime sky-wave) stations such as KSTP and WLW. They were also re-running, in addition to the Charles Michaelson-revived domestic titles (SHADOW, GREEN HORNET, etc.) some of the Harry Alan Towers (made in London) syndicated shows (THIRD MAN, BLACK MUSEUM, SECRETS OF SCOTLAND YARD, etc.) -- so whenever a slightly "off" pronunciation caught my teenage ear, I chalked it up to the likelihood that GRAINGER was also a product of that once-busy "Towers of London" radio-drama factory, which reportedly rented studio facilities at the BBC to record programs which would, ironically, later be played on "the Beeb's" only serious, 1950s-era rival for domestic listeners, ultra high-powered Radio Luxembourg. But that was not the case. The detective series actually came from "Down Under"! It was only decades later, after I had become a college professor teaching media courses (including Broadcasting History) that I discovered and read Ray Barrett's autobiography. What a remarkable guy! And before his stellar, character-acting career in Britain he had been one of Australian radio's top voice talents, a master of dialects and mimicry with a range as broad and convincing as, say, Peter Sellers, Rich Little or Frank Gorshin. One of these days I intend to dig deeply into the archives of both the American general-news press and its specialized show-biz publications, circa 1956, to see if there's any mention, any acknowledgement at all, of Mutual's airing an imported private-eye series that "pretends" to be a Stateside creation. Was everyone (everyone who was still listening to prime-time radio drama, that is) fooled? Did the Mutual time slot even have a sponsor?

    RMM Verified Purchase

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  • MP3 CDs are delivered by mail. These archival quality MP3 CDs are playable in your computer and many MP3 player devices.



    36 recordings on 1 MP3 CD for just $5.00. Total playtime 14 hours, 44 min
    36 recordings on 1 MP3 CD for just $5.00
    total playtime 14 hours, 44 min
    Add MP3 CD Collection to Cart

    1. 36 shows - total playtime 14 hours 44 minutes
    2. DWG 004 Amorous Amnesiac.mp3
    3. DWG 007 Coincidental Cartoon.mp3
    4. DWG 008 A Marriage Minded Girl.mp3
    5. DWG 018 Counterfeit Plates.mp3
    6. DWG 021 Sheila Randolph Is Sane.mp3
    7. DWG 024 Out of Jail for Christmas.mp3
    8. DWG 025 Insanity Was Just An Act.mp3
    9. DWG 026 Blackmailed Babe.mp3
    10. DWG 027 Out of Jail for Christmas.mp3
    11. DWG 028 Triple X Killer.mp3
    12. DWG 030 Marriage-Minded Girl (Repeat).mp3
    13. DWG 031 The Invented Husband.mp3
    14. DWG 032 Out of Jail for Christmas (Repeat).mp3
    15. DWG 033 Insanity Was Just an Act (Repeat).mp3
    16. DWG Arnold Lussick Story.mp3
    17. DWG Chase to Salvador.mp3
    18. DWG Clever Criminologist.mp3
    19. DWG Elwood Milroy, Criminologist.mp3
    20. DWG FBI, Scientist.mp3
    21. DWG Hired Help.mp3
    22. DWG Incident in Long Island.mp3
    23. DWG Innocent, Innocent.mp3
    24. DWG Invented Husband.mp3
    25. DWG Lady Liar.mp3
    26. DWG Larry Simmons.mp3
    27. DWG Murder by Hypnosis.mp3
    28. DWG Negated Necklace.mp3
    29. DWG Phony Photographer.mp3
    30. DWG Rainy Night Murder.mp3
    31. DWG Seafarer Mystery.mp3
    32. DWG Stiff Spouse.mp3
    33. DWG Triangle Affair.mp3
    34. DWG Triple X Trick.mp3
    35. DWG Vic Sully is Murdered.mp3
    36. DWG Wandering Weapon.mp3
    37. DWG Who's Trying to Kill Paula Crane.mp3
  • MP3 downloads are available instantly after purchase!



    36 recordings on 1 MP3 Collection Download for just $5.00. Total playtime 14 hours, 44 min
    36 recordings on 1 MP3 Collection Download for just $5.00
    total playtime 14 hours, 44 min
    Add Instant Download Collection to Cart

    1. 36 shows - total playtime 14 hours 44 minutes
    2. DWG 004 Amorous Amnesiac.mp3
    3. DWG 007 Coincidental Cartoon.mp3
    4. DWG 008 A Marriage Minded Girl.mp3
    5. DWG 018 Counterfeit Plates.mp3
    6. DWG 021 Sheila Randolph Is Sane.mp3
    7. DWG 024 Out of Jail for Christmas.mp3
    8. DWG 025 Insanity Was Just An Act.mp3
    9. DWG 026 Blackmailed Babe.mp3
    10. DWG 027 Out of Jail for Christmas.mp3
    11. DWG 028 Triple X Killer.mp3
    12. DWG 030 Marriage-Minded Girl (Repeat).mp3
    13. DWG 031 The Invented Husband.mp3
    14. DWG 032 Out of Jail for Christmas (Repeat).mp3
    15. DWG 033 Insanity Was Just an Act (Repeat).mp3
    16. DWG Arnold Lussick Story.mp3
    17. DWG Chase to Salvador.mp3
    18. DWG Clever Criminologist.mp3
    19. DWG Elwood Milroy, Criminologist.mp3
    20. DWG FBI, Scientist.mp3
    21. DWG Hired Help.mp3
    22. DWG Incident in Long Island.mp3
    23. DWG Innocent, Innocent.mp3
    24. DWG Invented Husband.mp3
    25. DWG Lady Liar.mp3
    26. DWG Larry Simmons.mp3
    27. DWG Murder by Hypnosis.mp3
    28. DWG Negated Necklace.mp3
    29. DWG Phony Photographer.mp3
    30. DWG Rainy Night Murder.mp3
    31. DWG Seafarer Mystery.mp3
    32. DWG Stiff Spouse.mp3
    33. DWG Triangle Affair.mp3
    34. DWG Triple X Trick.mp3
    35. DWG Vic Sully is Murdered.mp3
    36. DWG Wandering Weapon.mp3
    37. DWG Who's Trying to Kill Paula Crane.mp3
  • Standard Audio CDs are delivered by mail on archival quality media with up to 60 minutes on each CD and play in all CD players



    36 recordings on 18 Audio CDs. Total playtime 14 hours, 44 min
    36 recordings on 18 Audio CDs
    total playtime 14 hours, 44 min

    Danger with Granger Disc A001

    1. DWG 004 Amorous Amnesiac
    2. DWG 007 Coincidental Cartoon

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A002

    1. DWG 008 A Marriage Minded Girl
    2. DWG 018 Counterfeit Plates

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A003

    1. DWG 021 Sheila Randolph Is Sane
    2. DWG 024 Out of Jail for Christmas

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A004

    1. DWG 025 Insanity Was Just An Act
    2. DWG 026 Blackmailed Babe
    3. DWG 027 Out of Jail for Christmas

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A005

    1. DWG 028 Triple X Killer
    2. DWG 030 Marriage-Minded Girl (Repeat)

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A006

    1. DWG 031 The Invented Husband
    2. DWG 032 Out of Jail for Christmas (Repeat)

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A007

    1. DWG 033 Insanity Was Just an Act (Repeat)
    2. DWG Arnold Lussick Story

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A008

    1. DWG Chase to Salvador
    2. DWG Clever Criminologist

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A009

    1. DWG Elwood Milroy, Criminologist
    2. DWG FBI, Scientist

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A010

    1. DWG Hired Help
    2. DWG Incident in Long Island

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A011

    1. DWG Innocent, Innocent
    2. DWG Invented Husband

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A012

    1. DWG Lady Liar
    2. DWG Larry Simmons

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A013

    1. DWG Murder by Hypnosis
    2. DWG Negated Necklace

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A014

    1. DWG Phony Photographer
    2. DWG Rainy Night Murder

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A015

    1. DWG Seafarer Mystery
    2. DWG Stiff Spouse

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A016

    1. DWG Triangle Affair
    2. DWG Triple X Trick

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A017

    1. DWG Vic Sully is Murdered
    2. DWG Wandering Weapon

    Add Audio CD to Cart - $5.00
    Danger with Granger Disc A018

    1. DWG Who's Trying to Kill Paula Crane

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