Mailbag! The Adventures of Casanova!

A recent posting brings this Mailbag item from fron close friend Karl Holmberg, Flynn Detective from way back …

A photo Tim posted led me to a minor discovery- the radio log for The Modern Adventures of Casanova. (Don’t remember seeing this before.) It lists 39 shows (titled, briefly described, or blank) but I’m still pretty sure only one was broadcast (and thus survived: Missing Arms of Venus de Milo) as I only found just the one in the radio program listings of the newspaper (NYT) for the time period it was intended (1-3-52 to 1-8-53).

CURIOUSLY, the 5/22/52 Venus episode is what survives and yet a review on 1/9/52 appeared for the program (which would have been timed to the first episode ’s viewing of 1/3/52) “AGING LOTHARIO NOT SO GAY AS RADIO CASANOVA: He Sounds Exactly Like an Errol Flynn REMENIH, ANTON, Chicago Daily Tribune”.

I have provided, below, this so-called radio log:

The Modern Adventures of Casanova is a 1952 radio show starring Errol Flynn. Flynn played a modern day descendent of Casanova who actually works for Interpol.

Episode 1 – premiere – 3 January 1952 – set in Venice Italy

Episode 2 – “The Phony Count” – 10 January 1952 – Casanova saves a woman from a phony count

Episode 3 – “Family Vendetta” – 17 January 1952 – Casanova visits Venice and deals with the Marchetties, enemies of the Casanovas

Episode 4–24 January 1952 – while skiing in Switzerland, Casanova helps play cupid for a younger couple

Episode 5–31 January 1952

Episode 6–7 February 1952

Episode 7–14 February 1952 – Casanova helps on Valentine’s Day

Episode 8–21 February 1952

Episode 9–28 February 1952

Episode 10–6 March 1952

Episode 11–13 March 1952

Episode 12–20 March 1952

Episode 13–27 March 1952 – Casanova tracks down a dope smuggling ring in Paris

Episode 14 – “The Bride of the Rain God” – 3 April 1952 – Casanova investigates a cursed relic from the Mayan civilisation responsible for killing people

Episode 15–10 April 1952 – Casanova investigates a pair of con artists on the French riviera

Episode 16–17 April 1952 – Casanova smashes a gold smuggling syndicate

Episode 17 – “The Black Dowry Pearls” – 24 April 1952 – Casanova goes to Venice to retrieve some pearls from Phillip II

Episode 18–1 May 1952

Episode 19–8 May 1952

Episode 20–15 May 1952 – Casanova goes to Egypt to stop a drug smuggling ring

Episode 21 – “The Missing Arm of Venus de Milo” – 22 May 1952 – Christopher Casanova is sent to Jamaica to recover the missing arm of the Venus de Milo.

Episode 22–29 May 1952

Episode 23–5 June 1952

Episode 24–12 June 1952

Episode 25–19 June 1952

Episode 26–26 June 1952 – Casanova investigates the murder of a beauty in Paris

Episode 27 – first of season two – 2 October 1952

Episode 28 – “The Sumatra Adventure” – 9 October 1952

Episode 29–16 October 1952

Episode 30–23 October 1952

Episode 31 – “The Gold Brick Swindle” – 30 October 1952 – Casanova goes to Karachi

Episode 32–6 November 1952

Episode 33–13 November 1952

Episode 34–20 November 1952

Episode 35 – “The Star of Thessaly” – 27 November 1952 – Casanova guards an old Greek millionaire who is visiting Paris with a diamond

Episode 36–4 December 1952

Episode 37–11 December 1952

Episode 38

Episode 39

Reception

The critic from the Chicago Daily Tribune said that “this swashbuckling mademoiselle chaser reads a script loaded with improbable situations, double entendres and what I suppose is Riviera playboy talk.”

^ Viewers Complain About TV Slight to Favorites; Vaughn Monroe May Do Local Show Ames, Walter. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 03 Jan 1952: 28.

^ Film Stars Feeding At the Radio Table By John Crosby The Washington Post (1923-1954); Jan 16, 1952; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post (1877-1997) pg. B13

^ MUTUAL GETS NEW SHOWS OUT OF RADIO PACT Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) [Chicago, Ill] 22 Dec 1951: c4.

^ AGING LOTHARIO NOT SO GAY AS RADIO CASANOVA: He Sounds Exactly Like an Errol Flynn REMENIH, ANTON. Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) [Chicago, Ill] 09 Jan 1952: a6.

 

Episode log at The Digital Deli

Best, Karl

— David DeWitt