Nick Carter, Master Detective

About Nick Carter, Master Detective

Nick Carter, Master Detective is an old time radio mystery show that ran on Mutual from April 11, 1943, to September 25, 1955, and here you can listen to it free online, around the clock, or as a free podcast. Lon Clark plays Nick for the whole twelve-year run, with Charlotte Manson (and Helen Choate before her) as his assistant Patsy Bowen. Every show opens the same way: a loud knock at the door, Patsy asking what's the matter, and a voice answering, "Another case for Nick Carter, Master Detective!"

Nick Carter is far older than radio. He first appeared on September 18, 1886, in Street & Smith's New York Weekly, and went on through dime novels, pulp magazines and an MGM movie trilogy with Walter Pidgeon before Mutual brought him to the air. The radio show kept the pulp flavor, with titles like "Murder in the Crypt" and "The Case of the Tattooed Cobra" and plenty of dramatic organ music, and it built a strong following. Reporter Scubby Wilson and Sergeant Mathison of the police round out the regulars.

The show had notable writers. Walter B. Gibson, who wrote most of The Shadow's pulp novels, became head writer, and Alfred Bester, later a major science fiction writer and winner of the first Hugo Award, got his start in radio here. The announcer, Michael Fitzmaurice, later became radio's Superman, and Bill Johnstone, radio's Shadow, turned up in supporting parts. Most of the run is lost; the episodes here are the ones that survive. It is a good fit for fans of classic whodunits and pulp mysteries.

What you’ll hear

• Lon Clark's rich baritone as Nick Carter, a classic deductive detective in the pulp tradition.
• The famous opening knock at the door, and studio organ music from Hank Sylvern, Lew White and George Wright.
• Patsy Bowen, Nick's assistant, played by Charlotte Manson, and reporter Scubby Wilson (John Kane).
• Pulp-style puzzles with titles to match, from "The Glass Coffin" to "The Case of the Wandering Macaroni."
• Scripts by Walter B. Gibson of The Shadow and science fiction writer Alfred Bester.
• Original commercials from sponsors such as Old Dutch Cleanser.

Where to start

• "The Echo of Death" (1943) and "Murder in the Crypt" (1943) give you the early, wartime show.
• At Christmas, play "Carter's Christmas Adventure," broadcast on Christmas Day 1943.
• Later stories are mostly titled "The Case of..."; try "The Case of the Tattooed Cobra" (1948).
• Listen live any time, or follow the podcast, which adds a new episode every week in broadcast order.

Nick Carter, Master Detective on the radio

Mutual, 1943-1955. With Lon Clark, Charlotte Manson, Leon Janney.

Where the recordings come from

The these recordings here come from the Old Time Radio Researchers' Nick Carter Master Detective Singles set (138 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 Nick Carter, Master Detective 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
• The Adventures of Philip Marlowe
• Christmas on old-time radio

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