Today I learned that: I Love A Mystery radio show debuted today

Dipping into The Mystery Book of Days for today, I learned that:

16 January 1939
I Love A Mystery - a radio mystery program featuring Doc Long, Reggie York and Jack Packard premieres on the NBC radio network

16 January 1911
I Wake Up Screaming is released on this day. The movie stars Victor Mature, Betty Grable, Carole Landis, and Laird Cregar. It's based on a novel by pulp writer Steve Fisher, which features an inside view of Hollywood, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck forces a change to New York City.


I Love a Mystery cast (l to r): Russell Thorson (who portrayed Jack Packard) watches Athena Lord (as Jerri Booker) and Jim Boles (Doc). In real life, Lord and Boles were married.
I Love A Mystery
As an old-time radio fan, I had heard of I Love a Mystery before and indeed I have a few tapes of it (Bury Your Dead, Arizona). I didn't know that bit about Walter Paterson having committed suicide (which is said in the Wikipedia article about it). I know Tony Randall had played Reggie York - to my regret I later learned that he actually didn't care much for radio acting.
I Love a Mystery was a radio drama series about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure. Distinguished by the high octane scripting of Carlton E. Morse, the program was the polar opposite of Morse's other success, the long-running One Man's Family.

The central characters, Jack Packard, Doc Long and Reggie York, met as mercenary soldiers fighting the Japanese in China. Later, they met again in San Francisco, where they decided to form the A-1 Detective Agency. Their motto was "No job too tough, no adventure too baffling." The agency served as a plot device to involve the trio in a wide variety of stories. These straddled the genres of mystery, adventure and supernatural horror, and the plotlines often took them to exotic locales. Over the years, Jack was played by Michael Raffetto, Russell Thorson, Jay Novello, Jim Bannon and John McIntire. Doc was played by Barton Yarborough and Jim Boles. Reggie was portrayed by Walter Paterson and Tony Randall. The agency's secretary, Jerry Booker, was played by Gloria Blondell. After Paterson committed suicide in 1942, his friend Morse could not bear to recast the role and Reggie was written out of the series. In later shows, Jerry's role was increased, and she replaced Reggie.


I Wake Up Screaming
A film I've never seen but would like to, as I like actor Laird Cregar.
I Wake Up Screaming (originally titled Hot Spot) is a 1941 film noir.[1] It is based on the novel of the same name by Steve Fisher, who co-wrote the screenplay with Dwight Taylor. The film stars Betty Grable, Victor Mature and Carole Landis, and features one of Grables's few dramatic roles.

Plot
A young promoter, Frankie Christopher (Mature), is accused of the murder of Vicky Lynn (Landis), a young actress he "discovered" as a waitress while out with ex-actor Robin Ray and gossip columnist Larry Evans.

Frankie hides out with Vicky's sister Jill (Grable), with whom he is falling in love, but is eventually captured and interrogated by the cops. An obsessive police officer, Cornell, knows that Frankie is innocent but because the evidence is completely incriminating, he tries to put the suspect behind bars anyway. Frankie escapes and eventually finds the murderer's true identity.