The Backstage Murder: Boston Blackie (September 10, 1946)

“The Backstage Murder” is an episode of Boston Blackie, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 10, 1946. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Boston Blackie reluctantly agrees to perform in a Gilbert and Sullivan benefit production at a reopened theater for the Orphans Foundation. During dress rehearsal, a body is discovered in a trunk on stage—Roger Nolton, the theater superintendent—murdered with a knife. Blackie investigates, finding marked playing cards in Nolton's pocket that suggest he may have been involved in a card game with friends.

A reopened theater staging a benefit performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, and backstage areas including the superintendent's apartment and a club.

Characters: Boston Blackie, Mr. Merryweather, Mary Wesley, Roger Nolton, Inspector Lawrence, Mrs. Nolton, Arnold Grimes, Lester Boswell

Listen for: Boston Blackie's comedic reluctance to wear tights for the role of Nanki-Poo, the discovery of the body during rehearsal, and the clue of marked playing cards that points toward a card game gone wrong.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.