The Adventures of Sam Spade

About The Adventures of Sam Spade

The Adventures of Sam Spade is the old time radio detective show based on Dashiell Hammett's private eye from The Maltese Falcon, and here you can listen to it free online, around the clock, or as a free podcast. It began on ABC on July 12, 1946, moved to CBS that fall and then to NBC, and ran until April 27, 1951. Howard Duff plays Spade and Lurene Tuttle plays his devoted secretary, Effie Perrine. In 1947 the Mystery Writers of America gave it the Edgar Award for best radio drama.

Radio's Spade is played with far more tongue in cheek than the novel or the Bogart film. Every episode is a report: Sam dictates the case to Effie, the story plays out in flashback, and each report ends with his license number, 137596. He asks new clients how much money they have on them, rides the streetcar for a dime because he doesn't like cabs, and keeps a bottle in his desk drawer; listen for the clink of glasses. He greets Effie with "Me, sweetheart" and signs off with "Goodnight, sweetheart."

William Spier, the producer of Suspense, produced and directed, and much of the fun comes from Effie's loyal, hopeless efforts to reform her boss. The show was mostly done live, and Duff and Tuttle sometimes broke each other up on the air. In 1950 Duff was named in the blacklisting pamphlet Red Channels and lost the role; NBC got tens of thousands of protest letters, and Steve Dunne played Sam for the last season. Fans of witty, fast-talking detective stories will feel at home.

What you’ll hear

• Howard Duff's casual, wisecracking Sam Spade, the delivery that won him the part over about 100 other actors.
• Lurene Tuttle, "the First Lady of Radio," as Effie, and in many other female roles besides.
• Cases named as "capers," each told as a dictated report in flashback.
• The Wildroot Cream-Oil commercials, sung by a barbershop quartet: "It's Wildroot Cream-Oil, Charlie."
• "Goodnight, Sweetheart" as the closing theme.
• Guest players such as William Conrad, Jack Webb, Hans Conried, Bea Benaderet, Elliott Lewis and Jeanette Nolan.

Where to start

• Start with "Sam and the Psyche" (1946), from the first summer on ABC, with Peter Lorre as a guest.
• For the CBS years, when the show was among radio's most popular, try "The Bail Bond Caper" (1948) or "The Dry Martini Caper" (1948).
• Hear how it ended with "The Hail and Farewell Caper" (1951), the very last show, with Steve Dunne as Sam.
• Listen live any time, or follow the podcast, which adds a new episode every week in broadcast order.

The Adventures of Sam Spade on the radio

ABC, CBS and NBC Radio, 1946-1951. With Howard Duff, Lurene Tuttle, William Spier, Stephen Dunne, Jerry Hausner, Dashiell Hammett.

Where the recordings come from

The these recordings here come from the Old Time Radio Researchers' Sam Spade Singles set (66 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 The Adventures of Sam Spade 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
• Thanksgiving on old-time radio

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