The Frank Dayton Murder Case: Broadway Is My Beat (April 11, 1953)

“The Frank Dayton Murder Case” is an episode of Broadway Is My Beat, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 11, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Detective Danny Clover investigates the murder of real estate businessman Frank Dayton, who is found stabbed in his library. The investigation leads to Susan Blaine, a seventeen-year-old girl whom Dayton had taken interest in, and her troubled mother, who becomes the focus of suspicion after revealing her violent protective obsession over her daughter.

Broadway and the surrounding areas of New York City in April, including a tenement building on West 19th and 10th Avenue, a girls' school uptown, and various other locations across the city.

Characters: Detective Danny Clover, Frank Dayton, Mr. Reed (Dayton's secretary), Cecily Vance (Dayton's fiancée), Susan Blaine, Mrs. Blaine (Susan's mother), Jimmy Lomack, Miss Mildred (school administrator)

Listen for: The atmospheric opening and closing narration about Broadway's character; the exploration of how Dayton's attention to young Susan Blaine creates tension and conflict; Mrs. Blaine's disturbing obsession with controlling her daughter's life and relationships.

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.