Enjoy two free mystery episodes of The Whistler w/ Elliott Lewis
A) 3/19/45 Murder Will Shout
B) 11/12/45 The Seeing Eye
Eerie whistling, picked up by the orchestra for dramatic effect, was the signature tune for this CBS mystery/crime anthology created by J. Donald Wilson. Many considered The Whistler a sister program to Suspense but without the celebrity guests. Through a careless mistake or a twist of fate, nearly every killer, blackmailer, and criminal would ultimately be brought to justice by the show’s conclusion. Always looming in the shadows was the Whistler, an omnipresent figure acting almost as a guilty conscience. Having foreseen the fate of the protagonists, he nevertheless urged them on, strangely aware of what they were thinking. The Whistler’s grim chortles concluded each story of those unfortunate enough to be caught in a dark web of their own making. The program initially aired on the CBS Pacific Network without a sponsor, then in December of 1943 secured the backing of Signal Oil. Two productions with recycled scripts were also broadcast for both Chicago and the East Coast, but with a different cast. The radio program never managed to secure a coast-to-coast sponsor for a nationwide hook-up yet it still had a long and successful run airing from 1942 until 1955. For a time, Gale Gordon, Marvin Miller and Joseph Kearns supplied the voice of the Whistler but Bill Forman had the role the longest. Columbia Pictures produced a series of eight motion pictures based on the radio series from 1944 to 1948. A television series comprising 39 episodes was produced in 1954 which was distributed via syndication throughout the rest of the decade.