Blackstone, the Magic Detective
Blackstone, the Magic Detective was a fifteen-minute series broadcast Sunday afternoons on the Mutual Broadcasting System from October 1948 to April 1949.
The run
- Network
- ABC
- Years active
- 1946–1949
- Surviving broadcasts
- 30
- Genre
- noir
Pat Novak, for Hire , is an old-time radio detective drama series which originally aired from 1946-1948, and revived in 1949. It started as a West Coast regional produced program at KGO in San Francisco. This regional version originally starred Jack Webb in the title role, with scripts by his roommate Richard L.
1949 · 91947 · 21946 · 1
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 22 of 24Rough but complete · 2 of 24
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: OTRR_Pat_Novak_Singles
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
8 dated broadcasts across 4 years on the air, with 1 year where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1946
1947
1948
1949
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1946, in original transmission order.
- 1. John St. John · 13 Oct 1946
- 2. Johnny Brown Gambling Ring · 3 Aug 1947
- 3. Lydia Reynolds Case · 23 Nov 1947
- 01
John St. John
13 Oct 1946 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 13 October 1946. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 02
Johnny Brown Gambling Ring
3 Aug 1947 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 3 August 1947. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 03
Lydia Reynolds Case
23 Nov 1947 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 23 November 1947. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 04
Jack of Clubs
20 Feb 1949 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 20 February 1949. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 05
Don't Tell Hilda
27 Feb 1949 · 28 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 27 February 1949. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 06
Rubin Callaway's Pictures
13 Mar 1949 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 13 March 1949. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 07
Joe Candono - Blackmail Pictures
27 Mar 1949 · 31 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 27 March 1949. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 08
Sam Tolliver
9 Apr 1949 · 30 min
Originally broadcast on ABC, 9 April 1949. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Same night on the air
20 Feb 1949
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 20 Feb 1949.
Box 13
Broadcast on Mutual. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
You Are There
Broadcast on Syndicated. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
NBC University Theater
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on ABC
ABC in 1946–1949
Other series the network carried while Pat Novak, For Hire was on the air.
Same seasons
noir 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 Pat Novak, For Hire
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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