The run
- Network
- CBS Don Lee
- Years active
- 1933–1939
- Surviving broadcasts
- 344
- Genre
- detective
Calling All Cars aired from 29 Nov 1933 until 8 Sep 1939 and originated on the West coast over the Columbia Broadcasting System. The show was sponsored by the Rio Grande Oil Company which was a part of the Sinclair Oil Corporation.
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 7 years on the air. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1933, in original transmission order.
- 1. ep002 Burma White Case · 6 Dec 1933
- 2. July Fourth In a Radio Car · 4 Jul 1934
- 3. Highlights of 1934 · 1 Jan 1935
- 01
ep002 Burma White Case
6 Dec 1933 · 28 min
Broadcast 6 December 1933. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 02
July Fourth In a Radio Car
4 Jul 1934 · 30 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 03
Highlights of 1934
1 Jan 1935 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 04
The Human Claw
16 Jul 1935 · 30 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 05
Knives on the Barbary Coast
5 Feb 1936 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 06
Calling All Cars 36-08-20 ep143 Body, Body Who's Got the Body
20 Aug 1936 · 30 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 07
Banker Bandit
24 Feb 1937 · 30 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
- 08
Tobaccoville Road
7 Sep 1937 · 29 min
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “OTRR_Calling_All_Cars_Singles”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
Same seasons
detective on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The private eye at the microphone
First-person narration, a case that walks in the door, and a city that talks back. Marlowe, Sam Spade and Johnny Dollar turned detection into a listening form.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Calling All Cars
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
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