Nick Carter, Master Detective - "Nick Carter's Christmas Adventure" (December 25, 1943) - Part 3

Since we were just listening to the old-time radio show "Nick Carter, Master detective," a few words about the character and his origins seem to be in order.

One interesting point is that Nick Carter's debut actually predates that of Sherlock Holmes, by a little over a year (1886 vs. 1887)!

Nick was never as famous as Holmes, but was still pretty famous and spanned a lot of media.

First were his adventures in the newspapery "New York Weekly' followed by "Nick Carter Weekly" as published by Street & Smith through 1915.

By the 1930s, Street & Smith was publishing pulp magazines such as "Doc Savage" and "The Shadow," so Nick Carter was revived with his own title.

Then there was a series of three MGM films from 1939-1940 starring Walter Pidgeon as Nick in an early leading role for him prior to his big breakthroughs in the Oscar-wining Best Pictures "How Green Was My Valley" (1941) and "Mrs. Miniver" (1942).

Then of course was the radio series "Nick Carter, Master Detective" (aka "The Return of Nick Carter") starring Lon Clark as Nick and running on the Mutual Broadcasting System from 1943-1955.

Meanwhile, Nick also appeared in "Shadow Comics" headlined by his Street & Smith and MBS stablemate.

Skip ahead a bit to the James Bond inspired spy craze of the 1960s and we had the emergence of Nick Carter - Killmaster!

This series ran for 261 novels from 1964-1990. Proof you can't keep a good literary property down!

One word of caution: if you want to research this character, make sure you include the word "detective" in your search to avoid boy band drama!

Nick Carter, Master Detective - "Nick Carter's Christmas Adventure" (December 25, 1943) - Part 2

If you got the chance to listen to "Nick Carter's Christmas Adventure," a 1943 episode of the Mutual Broadcasting System radio series, I'm sure you'll spot the similarities to "A Christmas Carol."

The show features a Scroogesque character who hates Christmas. He particularly seems Scroogey when Nick and his assistant Scubby visit him to ask for a charitable donation. They get as warm a welcome as the portly gentlemen in the book!

We need a mystery for Nick to solve, so he determines to find out why Mr. Rasper hates Christmas so much. Then he arranges something of a "Christmas Past" intervention to change his mind. 

Due to this being a holiday episode, the murder and mayhem is toned down from the usual episodes in the series and the "mystery" is mild, but it's still entertaining.

I do find it interesting that nobody on the episode makes any reference to "A Christmas Carol" at all, like, "Wow, that guy's a real Scrooge!" although I'm presuming the book exists within that show's universe.

Speaking of said universe, the show presents Nick Carter as something of a real person, being "impersonated" for radio purposes by star Lon Clark, who interacts with the announcer.

This is similar to "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" radio series (which we heard here), where Dr. Watson interacts with the announcer and introduces the stories as if they actually happened.

The Nick Carter show is entertaining, as the usual episode will have a clue or two that Nick will pick up on to solve the case, which gives the sharp-eared listener a chance as well.

It was popular enough to last from 1943-1955.

As a bonus, here's another, more typical episode, also from 1943:

Good fun!

Next: A look into Nick's origins.

Nick Carter, Master Detective - "Nick Carter's Christmas Adventure" (December 25, 1943) - Part 1

We stay in the old-time radio world to visit another long-standing detective, Nick Carter, and get a bit closer to the story of "A Christmas Carol."

This episode of the "Nick Carter, Master Detective" series from the Mutual Broadcasting System entitled "Nick Carter's Christmas Adventure or the Mystery of the Reluctant Contributor" is not an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" per se, but you'll soon get the idea of how it fits in.

Give it a listen:

Next: Let's discuss!