Jim Drake’s Entertainment Blog: Chasing the man with the black bag

In my travels last week I picked up a cassette labeled “Bulldog Drummond.” (Note to the young people: a cassette is a primitive form of recorded music).

So what do bulldogs have to do with bullshots? Since we published our last Kaleidoscope on the current production of “Bullshot Crummond,” the newsroom has been littered with various bound newspaper volumes because the 2013 story had information from 1978 and 2002. When I glanced at the 2002 story, I learned that the Bullshot Crummond character was based on the Bulldog Drummond character from a 1930s detective film series.

What the 2013, 2002 and 1978 stories haven’t mentioned so far is that Bulldog Drummond was also an old-time radio show for the Mutual Broadcasting Network in the 1940s.

And last week I found a tape of the episode “The Case of the Atomic Murders,” (aka “The Claim Check Murders.”) The tape was made by the Radiola Record company in 1975.

My thrift-store find prompted me to learn more, so I did some internet searching. Happily, listening to these past radio episodes is just a few clicks away.

I also learned, from snooping around (pardon the pun), that detective Drummond has been mentioned as a fore-runner to today’s James Bond character.

So, if you don’t have any of these old tapes lying around, and you’d like to get an earful of Capt. Drummond chasing the mysterious man with the black bag, you can, courtesy of the following websites:

http://archive.org/details/Bulldog_Drummond

http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-shows/bulldog-drummond

http://www.otrcat.com/bulldog-drummond-p-1145.html

So gather around the internet, tune in, and give a listen to what happened on the airwaves, way back when.

And if you’re lucky enough to still have a few tapes lying around, and a tape player, I know your nostalgic feeling will increase by leaps and bounds.