The Adventures of Ellery Queen (radio program)
From left: Santos Ortega as Richard Queen, Hugh Marlowe as Ellery Queen and Marian Shockley as Nikki Porter in 1939.
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| Genre | Mystery |
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| Running time | 1 hour for first 7 months 30 minutes thereafter |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Syndicates | CBS NBC ABC |
| Starring | Hugh Marlowe Carleton Young Sydney Smith Lawrence Dobkin Howard Culver |
| Announcer | Ken Roberts Bert Parks Ernest Chappell Don Hancock Paul Masterson |
| Created by | Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee |
| Written by | Frederic Dannay Manfred Lee Anthony Boucher |
| Directed by | George Zachary Tom Victor Dick Woolen Dwight Hauser |
| Produced by | George Zachary |
| Original release | June 18, 1939 – May 27, 1948 |
| Sponsored by | Gulf Oil Bromo Seltzer Anacin |
The Adventures of Ellery Queen was a radio detective program in the United States. Several iterations of the program appeared on different networks, with the first one broadcast on CBS June 18, 1939, and the last on ABC May 27, 1948.
The Adventures of Ellery Queen grew out of the combined efforts of producer-director George Zachary and writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee. Dannay and Lee, who were cousins, originated the Ellery Queen character. Initially they wrote the program's scripts, and Zachary handled production. Beginning in 1945, Anthony Boucher replaced Dannay and worked with Lee writing scripts.
During the program's first season, Radio Guide magazine called it "a CBS drama that will keep you on the edge of your chair." It added "You will find Ellery Queen both brave and brilliant and you will find yourself participating joyously in the ageless thrill of the manhunt."
The Adventures of Ellery Queen invited a panel of armchair detectives to try to solve each case during its broadcast. Adapting a technique that had been used earlier in the Author! Author! radio program, when an episode's script reached a point at which all of the clues had been revealed, the scripted portion stopped, and the panel was challenged to identify the culprit.
Even with changes in networks, sponsors and stars, the basic format of the program remained constant throughout its time on the air. As listed on The Digital Deli Too website, the elements of each episode were as follows:
Listeners were encouraged to follow the clues, drawing their own conclusions, and match wits with the panel and the detective himself. Jim Harmon described the situation in his book, "The Great Radio Heroes": "Ellery Queen's show was the detective program that gave you, the listener, a chance to join in on the fun and games. You were given all the clues, and you could solve the mystery – if you happened to be a deductive genius on the level of Ellery Queen."
The guest panelists were usually wrong in their solutions; in the program's first four months, only one panelist was correct. Yet such appearances were quite popular with celebrities. Trade magazine Billboard reported in a 1942 article, "In some cases an agent's entire list of performers eventually ask to get on 'prestige' shows like Information Please as guest experts, on Ellery Queen as guest armchair detectives". The number of panelists over the show's life has been estimated at more than 750.
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Wikipedia