Charlie Wild, Private Detective (radio program)

Charlie Wild, Private Detective replaced The Adventures of Sam Spade on the air. The change followed the listing of Sam Spade's star (Howard Duff) and creator (Dashiell Hammett) in the anti-Communist tract Red Channels. Radio historian John Dunning wrote that the association of the two names with Communist activities was "making Spade sponsor Wildroot Cream-Oil increasingly unhappy." In either case, the last Spade episode aired on September 17, 1950, and the first Wild episode was heard on September 24, 1950. Duff provided a transition between the two programs by appearing as Spade on the first episode of the new series with what Dunning called "a vocal telegram, wishing the new hero well." ==Premise==

Private investigator Charlie Wild had his headquarters in New York City. Leon Morse wrote in a review in the trade publication Billboard that the program had "tough talk, vivid similies, a hard-guy hero and fantastic descriptions of females." ==Personnel==

George Petrie played Wild in the NBC episodes. Kevin O'Morrison replaced Petrie when the program went to CBS, and John McQuade replaced O'Morrison on March 25, 1951. Peter Hobbs portrayed McCoy, Wild's assistant. The producers were Edwin Marshall and Lawrence White; the directors, Carlo D'Angelo and Stanley Niss; the writer, Peter Barry; the announcer, William Rogers; and the musical director, Charles Sherrill. == References ==