Re-thinking Broadway is My Beat

Back in February, I did a review of Broadway is My Beat.

This is a show I did not really like then and haven't really since I was 10 years old, when I first started listening to OTR during the 1970's revival.

Until last week, I really hadn't listened to it at all since I did the review; I figured this just "isn't the show for me."

But a funny thing happened as I started listening to it again last week.  And you know what?  I don't hate it anymore.  While it's not my favorite show, it's so different that it's hard not to enjoy it a little.

It's done so well.  The writing, while very different from anything out there, lends itself to the slightest hint of noir.  I actually feel the show would be much more enjoyable without (what I feel) are the silly, needless soliloquies but avoiding them would be like avoiding Ransom Sherman on the Fibber McGee and Molly show; it may not be the best part but it's part of the show.

The show's nowhere in my Top 50 at the moment but after almost two weeks of listening, I'm wondering why I disliked the show so much.

I'll keep you informed.

Your comments about the show are welcomed.



©Jimbo 2010/2011

Newspaper Promo Dump [#04] with very, very rare Larry Thor!

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Elliott and Cathy Lewis

Review: Broadway is My Beat

Larry Thor

There are two shows in old-time radio that seem to have their own genre; one is Dragnet with it's unempathetic, quick speech patterns where everything seems cold and matter-of-fact and the other is Broadway is My Beat, which employs a rather poetic tinge to murder on the streets of New York City.

The style was created by Elliott Lewis, one of those radio Midas men who always seem to do the right thing in radio. The writers were Morton S. Fine and David Friedkin, both who later wrote hundreds of scripts for successful television shows.

The star of the show is usually Larry Thor (although the first 'Danny Clover' character was actually played by Anthony Ross, but I've never heard any episode with him in the lead.)

The show might start off with a soliloquy like this:

At 10 o'clock of a bright December morning the Broadway music shops open their loud speakers and Broadway wears a scrubbed face, a new haircut and a flashing smile arranged to look appealing and innocent because Broadway is on it's way to con Santa Claus. You get a look at yourelf in a mirror decked with holly and you know you're doing the same thing. So you drop a coin in the box and it feels good inside. And on 46th street, you see patrolman Meshorkovz ad-libbing his way through the crowd. He's got a hand tight on a little guy with gentle and tired blue eyes...

There'll most-likely be a murder soon after and another meandering soliloquy or two. There might be a message about anti-Semintism or juvenile delinquency or drug abuse thrown in as well.

The show is one of the most unique out there. I imagine in the late 1940's and early 1950's it was amazingly different. The formula is all there - I expect good things - but in the end, I just don't care for it. I find that Broadway is my Beat is a strange enigma of radio that I am simply not fond of. It's not the characters or the setting but it's the direction and the scripts that I can't seem to enjoy. You'd think with the team of Lewis, Fine and Friedkin, there would be nothing to dislike.

The show is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just not my cup of tea. I'd probably give it 3 stars out of 5 - but I rarely, if ever, listen to it.