Nick Carter Master Detective - The Glass Coffin - Ep 25 - Aired 9-27-43 - Bird Youmans
2Nick Carter first made an appearance in a pulp novel in 1886. His popularity lasted over 100 years until the last Nick Carter-Killmaster book was published in 1990. The master detective first ventured into radio on April 11, 1943 on the Mutual Broadcasting System as The Return of Nick Carter, a nod to his pulp fiction history. The title was changed to Nick Carter, Master Detective shortly thereafter.
Lon Clark starred as Mr. Carter throughout the run, with his assistant Patsy Bowen first voiced by Helen Choate for three years, then by Charlotte Manson for the rest of the series. The cast also included John Kane as reporter and friend, Scubby Wilson, Ed Latimer as Sgt. Mathison, Nick’s inside man at the police department, and Michael Fitzmaurice served as the announcer.
Interestingly, the head script writer Walter B. Gibson was the co-creator and writer of The Shadow pulp novels which were published by the same group that published the Nick Carter books. When Gibson asked for a raise in 1946 he was summarily fired, then picked up by Jock MacGregor, the producer and director of the master detective scripts. Other writers included Milton J. Kramer, David Kogan, and Alfred Bester, who won the first Hugo Award in 1953 for his novel The Demolished Man. Organ music was supplied by Hank Sylvern, Lew White and George Wright.
The series had a spinoff Chick Carter, Boy Detective, which featured Nick’s adopted son in his own adventures geared toward younger listeners. It aired from July 1943 to July 1945. Chick was played by Bill Lipton and Leon Janney, who later became a staple member of the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre.
Detective Carter solved his last radio mystery on September 25, 1955, but would live on through television, movies, and books.