Calling All Detectives

Calling All Detectives was a detective show with a twist. The show featured a short crime story narrated in the first person by private detective Jerry Browning. Paul Barnes, "the man of a thousand voices," portrayed Browning and all the other characters in the show. The show, which was sponsored by the Sealy Mattress Company, was broadcast live from 1945 til 1950.

The twist was a live, on-the-air telephone quiz. In the earliest version, A random number from the telephone book would be dialed and the person who answered the phone would be asked to participate in "The Sealy Mystery Quiz." Unfortunately, too often the person at the other end of the call was listening to something else, so listeners were later asked to send in their phone numbers to participate in the quiz.

When the show was later syndicated, the commercials and phone calls were edited out of the broadcasts. Some of the episodes in this collection include them; some do not.

For more information, see the Old Time Radio Catalog.