TO OTHER  PAGES: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13

 b a c k

The Saint owed it's debut over Radio to the extraordinary success of the Ellery Queen franchise. Ellery Queen had become so popular over Radio that it priced itself out of a sponsor. Emerson Drug, the maker of Bromo-Seltzer, decided that it would be more economical for them to abandon their Ellery Queen sponsorship over NBC and innaugurate a new series at a much lower cost. And so it was that Emerson Drug, Leslie Charteris, and producer/agent James Saphier brought the package to air over NBC for a three-month run between January and April 1945.

So after 3 weeks the EQ series returned with a new sponsor, a new network,a new evening and a new Nikki (Barbara Terrell)

211* "The Diamond Fence"
             01-24-45 :30:00*
             A AFRS Mystery Playhouse program "The Diamond Fence"
             Sneakpreview at the end of a program exists
             Guest Armchair Detective: Janet Blair (actress)

             A composer who thinks he's a second Gershwin, a once-famous
             radio singer and a notorious "fence" for whom all New York is
             searching figures in the mystery that takes place in a shabby
             rooming house in Greenwich Village.

212* "The Seven Thousand Victims"
             01-31-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: George Givot (actor)

             An American Army transport carrying 7,000 wounded G.I.'s back home,
             runs into a dirty sea and, a bad night. Suddenly the beam of an isolated
             lighthouse blinks off and stays off.

213* "The Lost Card"
             02-07-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Dean F.Willey (railroad executive) 

             A sinister murder mystery shocks passengers in a sleeping car of a
             train speeding from Boston to New York.

214* "The Wine Machine"
             02-14-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Howard W. Blakeslee (science editor)
             Mr.Blakeslee had no trouble solving the case.

215* "The Crime in the Snow"
             02-21-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Ted Husing (radio sports commentator)
             and Tim Cohane (sports editor)

             Nikki Porter,accepts Ellery's invitation to spend a week- end at the ski
             lodge.

216* "The Secret Weapon"
             02-28-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: H.W. (Tex) Roden (mystery writer)

             Story of enemy sabotage in war plant

217* "The Rare Stamp"
             03-07-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Dick Powell (actor)

218* "The Poisoned Slipper"
             03-14-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Earl Wilson (Broadway columnist)

219* "The Sword of Damocles"
             03-21-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Milo Boulton (radio host of "We, the
             People")

             Ellery pits his wits against an invisible killer in this murder mystery and
             both wins and loses.
            An octogenarian art collector suddenly turns from the old masters and
             rare books to something that might appeal to kids - a collection of
             historic weapons and instruments of torture.
             He gets a great kick of it until he finds that someone is using his
             collection of lethal instruments to set death traps for him.

220* "The Red Death"
             03-28-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Jane Wyatt (actress)

221* "The Lucky Sailor"
            04-04-45 :30:00*
            Guest Armchair Detective: F. Beverley Kelley (publicity director for
            Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus)

222* "The Musical Murder"
             04-11-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Anne Fromer (managing editor of Magazine
             Digest)

223* "The Crime that wasn't Possible"
             04-18-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Monroe Wheeler (director of exhibitions of
             Museum of Modern Art in New York, art critic/book designer)

Program of 4-25  Pre-empted by a United Nations special on the San Francisco conference of the U.N. with President's Truman speech in the plenary session. Postponed until 05-16-45 in several regions. 

224* "The Key to the Mystery"
             05-02-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Jo-Carroll Dennison (Miss America of 1943,
             actress)            

225* "The Murdered Moths" 
             05-09-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Jack Gaver (author, United Press columnist)

              A young man just returned from the war an a hoped-for wedding
              - and Nikki would like it to be two weddings. Ellery, however, is more
              interested in the clue of the dead moths.

226* "The Dangerous Race"
             05-16-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Orlo Robertson (sports editor)

227* "The Man in the Pillbox"
             05-23-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Ted R. Gamble (national director, war finance
             division of U.S. treasury department)

228* "The Runaway Husband"
             05-30-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: James Montgomery Flagg (magazine
             illustrator)

229* "The Iron Woman"
             06-06-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Annamary Dickey (Metropolitan Opera Star)

230* "The Corpse of Mr.Entwhistle"
             06-13-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Gladys Swarthout (opera singer)
             Repeat performance guest: Ted R. Gamble (national director, war finance
             division of U.S. treasury department)

This episode marks the beginning of the collaboration with Anthony Boucher

231* "The Absent Automatic"
             06-20-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Colonel Joseph S.Snyder (executive officer
             of Camp Kilmer of New York Port of Debarkation)
             Repeat performance guest: Joan Tetzel (actress)

232* "Mr. One and Mr.Two"
             06-27-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Bennett Cerf (author, publisher)
             Repeat performance guest: Victor Moore (actor)

233* "Nikki's Rich Uncle"
             07-04-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: George Frazier (magazine editor)

234* "The Shipyard Racket"
             07-11-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: George Lait (war correspondent)

235* "The Gentleman Burglar"
              07-18-45 :30:00*
              Guest Armchair Detective: Wendy Barrie (actress)
              Fred Uttal (radio quizmaster)

236* "The Torture Victim"
             07-25-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Julie Gibson (actress)

237* "Nick the Knife"
             08-01-45 :30:00*
             Repeated as  'The Slicer' 04-15-48
             Written by Manfred B.Lee & Anthony Boucher
             This script was penned by Anthony Boucher who later re-worked the
             beginning of this story in an episode of the New Adventures of
             Sherlock Holmes called '(The Strange Case Of )The Murder In Wax'. 
             Bob Steel (producer, director), Don Hancock (announcer)
             Guest Armchair Detective: Gertrude Niesen (Broadway actress from the
             Broadway musical "Follow the Girls" )
             Repeat performance guest: Thomas Lockhart (coast guardsman)
             preserved as Mystery Playhouse (Armed Forces Radio Services)

             In the hair-raising tale Inspector Queen and his winsome secretary Nikki
             Porter set out to track down a mysterious killer who disfigures the faces
             of pretty young girls.

238* "The Clue in C Major"
             08-08-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Evelyn Keyes (actress)

239* "The Time of Death"
             08-15-45 :30:00*
             Guest Armchair Detective: Sally Eilers (actress)