Martin Kane, Private Eye
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Martin Kane, Private Eye was a 1949-52 radio series, sponsored by U.S. Tobacco. William Gargan starred as the New York City private detective Martin Kane on the Mutual Broadcasting System series broadcast Sundays at 4:30pm from August 7, 1949, to June 24, 1951.
When the crime drama moved to NBC radio on July 1, 1951, Lloyd Nolan took over the title role until mid-1952. Lee Tracy portrayed Kane for the remainder of the radio series, ending December 21, 1952.
William Gargan, Lloyd Nolan and Lee Tracy played Martin Kane, Private Eye on live television. Backup cast changed as the main character changed but the all important tobacconist remained the same. It ran on NBC-TV from September 1, 1949 until June 17, 1954. Sponsored by the United States Tobacco Company, far too much time was spent blatantly advertising their products with even a fair part of the show situated in a tobacconist extolling the virtues of four different pipe tobaccos as well as Sano and other cigarettes. Though good story-wise, the show obviously had a very tiny budget which allowed for few props, few people and even showed lumpy backgrounds outside windows in what should have been a smooth photo of a city scene. Happy McMann was played by Walter Kinsella, Captain Leonard by Walter Greaza, Captain Evans by Loring Smith, Captain Burke by Frank M Thomas, King Calder as Lieutenant Gray, Sgt Ross by Nicholas Saunders and Sgt Strong by Michael Garrett. Happy McCann was the name of the tobacconist and was first up in the credits after Martin Kane which shows you the importance placed on tobacco in this series. The shows were written mainly by Harry Kane but also by Lawrence Young, music by Charles Paul, produced and directed by Frank Burns. At the start and finish of the show, Kane was shown in shadow lighting his pipe. Six episodes of this show have been released in the "Best of TV Detectives" box set.
Mark Stevens had the title role in the 1953 filmed series, The New Adventures of Martin Kane.
Gargan returned to the role in 1958 with a syndicated series, The Return of Martin Kane, filmed in Europe for United Artists.
The radio-TV series had a 1950 tie-in comic book, Martin Kane, Private Eye, published by Fox and illustrated by Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and Martin Rosenthal. The series was satirized in Mad 5 (June-July 1953) as "Kane Keen, Private Eye," illustrated by Jack Davis.
The show was sponsored by United States Tobacco Company to promote Sano Cigarettes and other tobacco products. The show would have Martin review the case with the storekeeper, and one of them would work in a plug, often belaboured, for the brand.
According to Jay Hickeron's "Ultimate Guide" book, the television scripts were cleverly written so the audio portion of the drama could be used as a radio broadcast from 1949 to 1952. Only 29 radio broadcasts are known to exist.
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[edit] Cultural references
In episode 2 of the "Topsy Turvy World" sequence of The Bullwinkle Show (which aired on NBC), Rocky and Bullwinkle are being escorted out of the town library by a gun-wielding man in a black fedora. Rocky wonders aloud whether the unknown man is from another TV show, leading Bullwinkle to confront him. "Say, fella, the Martin Kane show was dropped this year, you know?"
16 mm reels of the television series is occasionally screened at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Maryland. The episodes screened are not titles available on commercial DVDs.
