FOUR COLOR RADIO | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Oct04

FOUR COLOR RADIO: The Great DICK TRACY

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Oct 4, 2026

A DICK TRACY ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: Old-time radio shows and their comics connections… By PETER BOSCH Welcome back, fellow Four Color Radio connoisseurs. This month – this day, actually – is very special because October 4, 2026, is the 95th anniversary of the first Dick Tracy newspaper strip (debuting in 1931), which you can read about here. So there is no better time to showcase the Dick Tracy radio show, plus two very special broadcasts involving America’s favorite flatfoot! The Dick Tracy radio show debuted just three years after the comic strip started. The program’s early broadcasts in 1934 were heard over NBC’s New England radio stations. CBS was next in line and they took it nationally for the first half of 1935, then it was off to the Mutual radio network for almost three years. Following Mutual, it returned to NBC from Jan. 3, 1938, to September 30, 1939, at first five times a week for 15-minutes episodes and then once a week at 30 minutes. The show went off the air for a few years but returned March 1, 1943 – this time on the Blue Network/ABC… and that is where it stayed until the final Dick Tracy radio broadcast on July 16, 1948. The first radio actor to play Tracy was Bob Burlen in 1934. Following Burlen were Barry Thomson, Ned Wever, and Matt Crowley, who was the longest running of all the radio Tracys. If the Crowley name sounds familiar, you might be remembering the article I wrote about The Adventures of Superman radio show earlier this year. Crowley was one of the actors to play Batman on it, as well as Inspector Henderson — and if you were to tune into other shows at the time, you would find he played Mark Trail, Jungle Jim, and Buck Rogers! Dick Tracy’s sweetheart Tess Trueheart was voiced by Helen Lewis throughout the series. Also appearing in various parts was Mercedes McCambridge, who went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in All the King’s Men (1949). The major sponsor for the Dick Tracy radio program was Quaker Oats. (Tootsie Roll sponsored it for the 1944 season.) As a side note: When you listen to the announcer saying that Quaker Oats’ products were shot from cannons, you may think it pure malarkey. Actually, it was true…...

Aug29

FOUR COLOR RADIO: The All-Time Classic CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Aug 29, 2026

FOUR COLOR RADIO: The All-Time Classic CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

Old-time radio shows and their comics connections… By PETER BOSCH Welcome back, my fellow Four Color Radio devotees. I am your host, the rajah of old time radio, the curator of classic comics characters on the air. This time around, we’re featuring one of the most popular radio programs ever — America’s ace of the airwaves, CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT! Captain Midnight was developed by an advertising firm and the scripts and characters were created by Wilfred Moore and Robert Burtt, a writing team coming off the success of their previous radio hit, The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen. (Both writers had also been aviators in World War I.) The Captain’s adventures began October 17, 1938 (not 1939 as sometimes reported) on WGN in Chicago and a few other areas where the original sponsor, the Skelly Oil Company, had a presence with their gas stations. Midnight’s heroic deeds were first briefly told in back story, beginning in World War I when he was Captain Jim Albright completing a dangerous nighttime mission. Captain Midnight’s origin was retold when Ovaltine took over the sponsorship with this September 30, 1940, program. It has been reported over the years that Bill Bouchey was the original Captain when the series began in 1938 but, according to radio historian Jim Harmon’s interview with actor Ed Prentiss, it was actually Prentiss in the starring role at first. Bouchey played it after that for one season, and when Ovaltine became the new sponsor (and took the series national over the Mutual radio network) Prentiss was rehired starting with the September 30, 1940 broadcast. Prentiss continued portraying Captain Midnight for most of the series’ run and only when the series was coming to an end in 1949 was Paul Barnes given the part. As the saying goes, a hero is only as good as the villain he must face. In the case of Captain Midnight, there was one menace that stood above the rest — Ivan Shark. It was a role played with relish by Boris Aplon for the length of the series. Even more deranged was Ivan’s poisonous daughter, Fury (voiced first by Rene Rodier and then by Sharon Grainger). Together or apart, when Ivan and Fury appeared within the program storylines, it was a worrisome affair for the heroes. March 15, 1940, radio broadcast featuring Ivan and Fury Shark ...

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