“Detec-a-tives Black and Blue, Good Men Tried and True”
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with shows like Car 54, Where Are You?. It dates all the way back to
1932, when Los Angeles radio station KHJ first aired Adventures of Detectives
Black and Blue.
The syndicated show followed the exploits of Jim
Black and his partner, Frank Blue. Black and Blue began as shipping clerks from
Duluth with daydreams of bringing down bad guys. Of course, neither had any law
enforcement knowledge. But all that was remedied when they decided to take a
correspondence course to earn their “Detectives degree.”
As you may
imagine, hilarity ensued.
Even with their official degrees, born sleuths
these two weren’t. The radio schtick focused on their bumbling and botching, but
each episode ended happily, as they captured criminals in comical
capers.
The show lasted for two years, thanks to sponsors Iodent
toothpaste and Folger’s coffee. Each sponsor released brass Detectives Black and
Blue badges in the show’s inaugural year. Iodent also released a fabric
double-billed detective’s cap (checkered and printed with Iodent and the radio
show title on the front bill).
ill Conselman
created an eccentric stepchild with dark, short-cropped hair and wide set eyes
in Ella. Her stepmother and stepsisters are, of course, evil (Lotta and Prissy
Pill). And readers tend to empathize with the sprightly heroine
immediately.<br><br>She became so popular that in just one year, producer John
McCormick and director Alfred E. Green, decided to bring her story to the big
screen. <br><br>The quirky and incomparable Colleen Moore was cast in the
role--perhaps for her impeccable comic timing and quite possibly for her
bankability (In 1926, Moore was voted America’s number one box office attraction
in a poll of motion picture theatre owners).<br><br>But what made this
Cinderella so different than the ones before her and the ones who followed?
First, she isn’t beautiful--and yet, she wins a contest judging beauty. She is
clumsy, awkward and flawed, yet she wins her ”Prince Charming” (a local ice
delivery man named Waite Lifter--who turns out to be a famous college foo