Podcast Summary: Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Episode 634 – Crimesolving on Campus

Date: August 17, 2025
Host: Mean Streets Podcasts
Featured Shows: Michael Shayne, Box Thirteen, Richard Diamond, The Saint

Overview

This week, the “Down These Mean Streets” podcast takes listeners back to campus—literally and figuratively—as it presents four classic radio mysteries set in the halls of academia. In the spirit of back-to-school season, the episode gathers four legendary radio detectives—Michael Shayne, Dan Holiday (Box Thirteen), Richard Diamond, and Simon Templar (The Saint)—as they untangle crime, cover-ups, and campus intrigue at colleges. The host provides rich background on each show and performer, immersing listeners in the atmosphere of Golden Age radio and the world of campus-based mystery.

Episode Structure & Segments

[00:56] Introduction & Context

• The host shares a personal back-to-school anecdote and introduces the theme: campus crime-solving.
• Each featured radio show and detective is introduced with context, highlighting their unique styles, sidekicks, and actors.

Featured Cases:

• Michael Shayne: "Return to Huxley College" (Mutual, Nov 5, 1946)
• Box Thirteen: "The Professor and the Puzzle"
• Richard Diamond: "The Martin White Case" (NBC, Jan 22, 1950)
• The Saint: "Simon Carries the Ivy" (NBC, Apr 1, 1951)

Notable Quote:

“Since we’re in back-to-school mode at my house, I’ve picked four radio mysteries where our sleuths are headed to campus themselves...” – Host, [00:56]

[08:16] Michael Shayne in "Return to Huxley College"

Starring: Wally Mayer (Michael Shayne), Cathy Lewis (Phyllis Knight)

Plot:

• Shane and assistant Phyllis Knight visit her alma mater, Huxley College, at the Dean’s request.
• The case: A peeping Tom incident has escalated into murder among the sorority girls.

Key Discussion Points

• The contrast between Wally Mayer’s more collegial Shane and the later “tough-guy” incarnations.
• Campus setting as a character—shady sorority rows, fraternity rivalries, and college bureaucracy.
• The partnership dynamic: Phyllis Knight as an equal, witty, and resourceful collaborator.

Important Moments

• [11:21] Discovery of murder:

  “At the sorority. One of the girls has been murdered... dead about half an hour, a very neat job of strangling.” – Professor Brill

• [16:41] Turning point: Football laces used for strangulation become an essential clue.

• [30:52] Resolution:

  “Well, Officer, you’d better clamp the bracelets on Mr. Quincy Baldwin. Huxley’s most brilliant student is coming, too. Yeah, yeah.” – Shane, [31:03]
  Quincy confesses to “an experiment in psychology—experiment in murder, you mean.”

Tone & Notable Quotes

• Witty banter and classic radio detective patter.
• Playful rivalry:

  “Research, honey, research. It looks to me like this particular seat of learning has got quite a spread, baby, know what I mean?” – Shane

• Philosophical wrap-up:

  “Colleges give me an inferiority complex... That stuff about thermal diffusion and kinetic... What do you call them? Ah, that’s no place for a dick.” – Shane, [33:00]

[34:15] Box Thirteen: "The Professor and the Puzzle"

Starring: Alan Ladd (Dan Holiday)

Plot:

• Dan Holiday visits friend Bob Lanham at Riddell College, drawn by a cryptic plea for help.
• A suicide turns out to be murder, entangled with stolen diamonds, blackmail, and a love triangle.

Key Insights

• Academic setting adds layers to the mystery: faculty intrigues, student romances, and small-town suspicion.
• Holiday’s outsider perspective: not a detective, but always pulled into trouble.

Important Segments

• [46:05] Bob is jailed, accused of killing his romantic rival Ed Macklin; the case hinges on weak circumstantial evidence.

• [51:21] Holiday faces a gunman who forces him to burn crucial evidence:

  “Now light a fire in that grate and step on it.”
  “Oh, we’re going to toast marshmallows, aren’t we?” – Holiday

• [56:03] Villains’ conspiracy revealed through eavesdropping:
  “I kill him with his own gun while the machines in that shop were running. Nobody heard the shot. Suicide.”

• [57:28] Full explanation and confessions: illicit diamond cutting, blackmail, and Holiday wraps up the case.

Memorable Quote

"Trouble has a bad habit of popping up." – Dan Holiday, [39:57]

[61:00] Richard Diamond, Private Detective: "The Martin White Case"

Starring: Dick Powell (Richard Diamond)

Plot:

• A college student and war vet, Martin White, believes he’s seen a presumed-dead former army comrade—now on his own campus.
• Diamond risks his own safety to uncover the truth.

Key Segments

• [63:41] Martin’s wartime recollections set the tone of paranoia and unresolved trauma:

  “He was big and nasty. But up on the line, he went to pieces...he’d have gone over the hill shore.” – Martin

• [68:09] Attempted hit-and-run, hinting at the danger on campus.

• [71:32] Gathering clues: obtaining Blackwell (the alias) student file, setting the trap for confrontation.

• [79:09] Diamond prepares to act as night watchman, drawing out the murderer.

• [83:27] The pool showdown:

  "Now, I gotta do this fast. This is it."
  Diamond narrowly escapes death, subdues the criminal in a suspenseful aquatic fight.

Notable Quotes

• Quipping through danger:

  “But a young guy comes in with a real problem and old hard-headed Diamond gets a fast softening of the skull.” – Diamond, [68:14]

• On closing the case:

  “Once the guy kills, he’ll do it again to beat the rap.” – Diamond

[90:11] The Saint: "Simon Carries the Ivy"

Starring: Vincent Price (Simon Templar)

Plot:

• Templar is summoned by his old fraternity brother Buzz Barnhart to investigate poison pen threats targeting men interested in Barnhart’s daughter Angela.
• The campus is gripped by fear after a professor is killed, entwined with forbidden romance and psychological unraveling.

Key Drama Points

• Old school ties and nostalgia clash with modern dangers:

  "There is no higher duty than the duty we all owe our alma mater...She needs you, Buzz. For university, for fraternity. The grip." – Buzz, [93:01]

• Investigation into the professor’s death and the biting satiric view of academic bureaucracy.
• Templar’s conversations reflect on generational change, the pressures of postwar college life, and the darkness lurking under the campus surface.
• The mystery climaxes as the author of the threats—Angela’s own father, lost in his own faded glory and delusion—reveals himself.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• [113:46] Revelation:

  “The person who wrote this wrote the poison pen notes. A very sick person, Angie. A person unable to face reality. Someone living in the past still in that golden moment which was never afterward equaled.” – Templar

• The tragic final confrontation on the press box:

  “Now it’s a hundred feet straight down. Let’s see how young you look lying on the concrete, Templar!” – Buzz

• Aftermath and reflection:

  “There are times to look the other way.” – Dean, [116:04]
  “Proves what I’ve always said. Can’t beat a college education.” – Dean
  “And above all, keep a sound grip on reality.” – Dean

Notable Themes & Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | Key Theme / Event | |------------------------|-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------| | Introduction & Theme | 00:56 | Back-to-school; campus-set mysteries | | Michael Shayne | 08:16 | Peeping Tom to murder case; collegiate banter; solution ([31:07]) | | Box Thirteen | 34:15 | Academic intrigue, suicide/murder, diamond smuggling ([56:57]) | | Richard Diamond | 61:00 | PTSD, mistaken identities, dangerous impostors ([83:27]) | | The Saint | 90:11 | Fraternity loyalty, generational drama, poison pen reveal ([113:46])|

Conclusion:

Tone:
Respectful, nostalgic, witty, and suspenseful. Each segment balances campus nostalgia with a sharp awareness of human frailty, institutional pressures, and the perennial dangers lurking even in ivory towers.

For New Listeners:
This episode is ideal for anyone new to old time radio mysteries or returning fans who appreciate collegiate settings, strong character work, and classic whodunit structures with social commentary.

Selected Memorable Quotes

• “At least I can say I’ve been through a college.” – Michael Shayne, [24:52]
• “Trouble has a bad habit of popping up.” – Dan Holiday, [39:57]
• “He’s got the same rotten eyes. That didn’t change. And that nasty smile...In a dark room, I’d know him.” – Martin White, [67:18]
• “There is no higher duty than the duty we all owe our alma mater...The grip.” – Buzz Barnhart, [93:01]
• “Colleges give me an inferiority complex...” – Michael Shayne, [33:00]

Listen-Guide Tip

For those searching for a particular style, note:

• Michael Shayne: Fast talk, wit, banter (“hardboiled with a heart”)
• Box Thirteen: Philosophical, methodical, danger finds the reluctant detective
• Richard Diamond: Jokes and jazz under pressure, lighter side of noir
• The Saint: Satirical, intellectual, with Vincent Price’s charm

Each story stands alone, but together, the episode underscores how campus life, with its power struggles, ambitions, and personal dramas, is perfect ground for mystery and moral inquiry—even in the golden age of radio.

End of Summary