Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator

About Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator

Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator is an old time radio detective show that ran on NBC from October 3, 1951, to June 30, 1955, and here you can listen to it free online, around the clock, or as a free podcast. William Gargan stars as Barrie Craig for the whole run, a private eye who works alone out of an office on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. NBC's promos called him "your man when you can't go to the cops," with confidentiality his specialty.

Craig is more easygoing than Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, a laid-back investigator in a field full of hard-boiled ones. Gargan knew the job: before his radio stardom he worked for a Wall Street detective agency and was fired for losing a man he was tailing. He had already played radio and TV's Martin Kane, Private Eye, and earned an Oscar nomination for They Knew What They Wanted (1940). Ralph Bell plays Craig's police contact, Lieutenant Travis "Trav" Rogers, and Don Pardo announced most of the New York shows.

The show came from New York until July 1954, then moved to Hollywood, where West Coast regulars such as Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Virginia Gregg and Betty Lou Gerson joined the casts. It was one of the few detective series heard in versions from both coasts. The titles are half the fun: "Death and the Purple Cow," "Microfilm in the Fishtank," "Dead Bull in a China Shop" and "Never Murder a Mummy." Only a fraction of the run survives, so each recording is a rare one.

What you’ll hear

• William Gargan's relaxed Barrie Craig, a Madison Avenue private eye who works alone.
• New York radio actors such as Santos Ortega, Elspeth Eric, Parker Fennelly and Arnold Moss in the early shows.
• Hollywood players such as Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Virginia Gregg, Olan Soule and Larry Dobkin after the 1954 move west.
• Don Pardo, later the voice of Saturday Night Live, as announcer.
• Playful episode titles in the 1950s private-eye style, such as "Dead Bull in a China Shop."
• Commercials from sponsors such as Pontiac, Bromo-Seltzer and Tums.

Where to start

• Begin with "Death and the Purple Cow" (1951) or "Microfilm in the Fishtank" (1951) from the first New York season.
• "Tough Guy" (1954) is the first show from Hollywood, and "Ghosts Don't Die in Bed" (1954) features Betty Lou Gerson.
• "Never Murder a Mummy" (1955) comes from the last months of the run.
• Listen live any time, or follow the podcast, which adds a new episode every week in broadcast order.

Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator on the radio

NBC Radio, 1951-1955. With William Gargan, Elspeth Eric, Arnold Moss, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Betty Lou Gerson.

Where the recordings come from

The these recordings here come from the Old Time Radio Researchers' Barrie Craig Singles set (59 episodes), hosted by the Internet Archive. Our thanks to the Old Time Radio Researchers, the volunteers who found, dated and assembled the set, and to the Archive and the collectors whose uploads it rests on. The sound is our remaster of those files (rumble, hiss and hum cleaned out, levelled to steady broadcast loudness); the recordings themselves are theirs. About our sources.

Every Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator episode: the full list, with air dates and stories

More to listen to

• Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
• Let George Do It
• Boston Blackie
• Broadway Is My Beat
• Nick Carter, Master Detective

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