In April, 1947 the New York Times announced that the summer replacement for Bob Hope would be a new adventure-mystery series, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. Airing on NBC at 10:00 p.m. on June 17th, the show starred Van Heflin with a script by Milton Geiger based on the stories of Raymond Chandler. Most radio shows had live audiences in the studio. The Philip Marlowe producers decided against the common practice because they thought audiences might detract from the show. However 19 of Los Angeles' top detectives were in the studio during the airing of the first show.

No one knows what the detectives thought of the production, but according to the New York Times review, Van Heflin did well but struggled with an awkward script. The reviewer thought the show depended too much on straight narration at dramatic moments instead of action or dialog. "Leaving ones play in the wings, as they say on Broadway, always makes for disconcerting theatre, and this was painfully true in the case of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe."

Raymond Chandler wasn't enthralled by the show either. In a letter to Erle Stanley Gardner, author of the Perry Mason novels, Mr. Chandler said "It was thoroughly flat."

This initial run of Philip Marlowe went from June 17 to September 19, 1947, with Pepsodent as the sponsor. The announcer was Wendell Niles, music was by Lyn Murray, and the producer was Jim Fonda. After the summer run ended, NBC dropped the show. As far as we know, only four episodes of this series have survived.

The character of Philip Marlowe was too good to stay off stage for long though. A year later CBS decided to take a chance on reviving the show. Norman Macdonnell was producer/director; Gene Levitt, Robert Mitchell, Mel Dinelli, and Kathleen Hite wrote the scripts; and Richard Aurandt was responsible for the music. CBS cast Gerald Mohr to star as Philip Marlowe, with Roy Rowan as announcer. Philip Marlowe, being a loner, was really the only regular character, but throughout the three years the series ran a long string of high-quality supporting Hollywood actors appeared on the show. Performing alongside Mohr at various times were Jeff Corey, Howard McNear, Parley Baer, Lawrence Dobkin, Virginia Gregg, Gloria Blondell, and Lou Krugman. The CBS production ran from September 26, 1948 to September 29, 1950 with an additional short summer run from July 7 to September 15, 1951.

This revival of Philip Marlowe was more favorably received, probably because of a combination of writing and acting. No one could duplicate the writing of Raymond Chandler, but this group of writers was very good. While Chandler's distinctive similes were largely lacking, the strong dry, sarcastic narration was there, and the way Gerald Mohr delivered the lines had a way of making you forget that they weren't written by Chandler. Mr. Mohr seemed born for the part of the cynical detective. His voice and timing were perfect for the character. In a letter to Gene Levitt, one of the show's writers, Raymond Chandler commented that a voice like Gerald Mohr's at least packed personality; a decided an improvement over his opinion of the original show. By 1949 the show had the largest audience in radio.I

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices