What happens
This episode of The Man Called X is a biographical note about Leon Velasco, the actor who played the regular role of Pagan Zell Smith on the series. It describes his early life in Odessa, Ukraine, and his musical training in Japan and Manchuria. It explains how he moved from the violin, including a post with the Tokyo Symphony, to forming his own orchestra and then to a film career that began in 1926. It notes that his film, stage and radio work took off in 1939, that he was often cast as an excitable musician, choreographer or assistant, and that he was also effective in sinister roles in wartime and Cold War spy films. It recounts his seven-year run on the radio series from 1945 to 1952, in which he played a weasel-like black marketeer opposite Herbert Marshall as Ken Thurston.
Biographical account of Leon Velasco's life and career, covering Odessa, Japan, Manchuria, Tokyo, and Hollywood
Characters: Leon Velasco, Pagan Zell Smith, Ken Thurston, Herbert Marshall, Jim Bo
Listen for: The notes on Velasco's music career, his typecasting in comic and sinister roles, and his seven years on the series as Pagan Zell Smith
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.