The Cabin B-13 Radio Program

Background

Cabin B-13 was something of an experiment by CBS--a sustained, prime-time mystery feature penned by one great mystery fiction writer for the entire run. And no ordinary mystery fiction writer, either. John Dickson Carr had already written twenty-three Suspense scripts for CBS' long running mystery thriller production by the time they sought him for Cabin B-13. Indeed, it was Carr's Suspense script from the March 16, 1943 broadcast, Cabin B-13, that persuaded CBS to pursue a possible spin-off from Suspense. It was a brilliant concept, brilliantly executed. NBC had attempted a limited run of Raymond Chandler's Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring MGM's Van Heflin and CBS picked it up a year later. Raymond Chandler again consulted on the scripts for CBS' rendition fo Philip Marlowe. Perhaps CBS was simply hedging its bets. But the hedge worked. CBS' The Adventures of Philip Marlowe ran for two more years, won Gerald Mohr Best Actor of the Year for 1949, and produced competitive Hooper ratings in the bargain.

Cabin B-13 introduces America to John Dickson Carr

Cabin B-13 received great critical reviews while it ran, but it's prime-time placement was more a disadvantage to it than an advantage. It ran head to head with some of 1948's most highly rated competition. The radio noir detective drama had gained a foothold in Radio well before Cabin B-13 began airing. Radio had already heard from Dashiell Hammett and his Thin Man, Sam Spade and The Fat Man by then. Brett Halliday had entertained radio noir fans with his Michael Shayne character, and Jack Webb had been plowing through an array of radio noir characters of his own. Mystery competition abounded throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. Adding to all of that, the Mutual Broadcasting System was already in negotiations with Carr for their Murder By Experts (1949) which would cast Carr, Brett Halliday, and Alfred Hitchcock as alternating hosts for the proposed project.

So it was that the combination of stiff competition and an audience very loyal to that competition made Cabin B-13's chances of running past one season quite daunting. But to both CBS and Carr's credit, the quality of the scripts never suffered. They were superb from start to finish. The background support was also top notch, with John Dietz directing, both Merle Kendrick and Alfredo Antonini alternating the music and atmosphere compositions and gifted Radio, Stage and Film actor Arnold Moss providing exposition for each script.

Arnold Moss was Carr's 'voice' for twenty-one of the scripts and Alan Hewitt voiced Dr. Fabian for three scripts while Moss was filming 1948's The Loves of Carmen. The Dr. Fabian character, ship's physician for the luxury liner, Maurevania, introduced and framed each mystery and provided all of the necessary exposition for each story. Dr. Fabian was the resident of Cabin B-13 aboard the Maurevania. Thankfully Dr. Fabian didn't suffer from triskadecaphobia--the abnormal fear of the number 13--since he seemed quite content with his accomodations aboard the Maurevania for his entire 24-week tour. All the better to comfortably chronicle the often gruesome undertakings of each program.

The plots were brilliant, as one might expect of any J.D. Carr story. Opening with the bellow of the great steamship's foghorns, Arnold Moss' plot teasers were dramatically introduced and the underlying theme music set the perfect tone for a captivating half hour. The Maurevania's role in each script varied from integral to sublime, but its role in transporting the audience all over the world for its characters made for an excellent variety of storylines.

The Radio program Cabin B-13 wasn't quite the end of the line for the franchise. A Suspense episode Cabin B-13 aired on March 29, 1949 for the Television series and Cabin B-13 reappeared several years later in Television's Climax! series, as the episode that aired on June 26, 1958. As of late October 1949, CBS was actively considering Cabin B-13 as a potential candidate for a regular Television series. Just as they'd trotted out Cabin B-13 first over Radio's Suspense, then aired it as a sustaining, 26-week production, so it was that Suspense over Television brought a TV episode of Cabin B-13 to air, followed by CBS considering a Television series for Cabin B-13. In the end, CBS didn't follow through with the Television series, Cabin B-13.

There's no question that Cabin B-13 was a success. Indeed judging by the relatively few programs currently in circulation, it's clear that the remaining programs are very jealously held by their fortunate owners. There's every expectation that a few more programs will trickle out in time. For now the three circulating episodes are wonderfully enjoyable and bode well for any future releasess from this fine production.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances

The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

OTRisms:

With the exception of the Morning Herald, all of the above provenances err to a significant degree on both the number of original scripts for the production and the titles of the scripts. There were never scripts titled The Danger from Stamboul, nor The Dancer from Istanbul. Those are simply more 'OTR' mythology. With the exception of The Morning Herald and The Salt Lake Tribune, none of the above account for Carr's script titled, The Devil Saint.

Each circulating program announced the following script title. Program #26, Sleep of Death announces The Dancer from Stamboul as the following episode, placing Sleep of Death and The Dancer from Stamboul one after the other in the production sequence. The rebroadcast of The Sleep of Death, adds Lee Vines' announcement that it's still 1948, while he also announces that next year "marks the date that Bob Hope moves here" [CBS] on January 2, 1949, 7:00 p.m. EST "with all his crew". Ergo, the Sleep of Death rebroadcast airs the last week of December 1948 with The Dancer from Stamboul as the last program (also a rebroadcast) of the run, Q.E.D.

Program #1, dated 48-07-05 should be titled A Razor in Fleet Street not Bill and Brenda Leslie.

Program #13, dated 48-10-10, is The Dancer from Stamboul, not The Danger from Stamboul or The Dancer from Istanbul.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2010 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]

Cabin B-13 Program Log

Cabin B-13: Supplementary Programs Log

Cabin B-13 Biographies