Premiere spot ad over CBS from July 10 1944


WCFL spot promotion of The Man Called X from September 16, 1944


Spot ad announcing the station and time change for the NBC Blue Network run September 16, 1944


Announcement of Ge Ge Pearson appearance in The Man Called X season finale from March 17, 1945






Dominion Network spot ad for Pepsodent and A Man Called X from July 4 1946

Pepsodent spot ad from June 18, 1946 Summer run




Spot Ad for the Frigidaire-sponsored CBS program



'Ken Thurston'


'Pegon Zellschmidt'


'The Chief'

 

Air Villains Chased Again By 'Mr. X'

 By JOHN CROSBY

 

   One of the warm weather favorites which bobs up every summer like jellied consomme is a radio program named "The Man Called X" (KQW 8:00 p.m. PDT Sunday) possibly the best thing in the low-brow field of mystery and adventures.  The Man called X, to unmask him right at the outset, is that very British actor, Herbert Marshall, as suave and unruffled a character as you'll find anywhere on the air.

   I'm a little dim on a number of details of this program.  I don't for example, have any idea where he got that name X.  In radio, people get these sobriquets way back at the dawn of history, and I can't be chasing back there all the time to do research.  I don't even know whether X is a private eye or one of J. Edgar Hoover's operatives, but I do know that he never bothers with anything trivial.  Simple murder doesn't interest X.  Mostly there's a kingdom at stake or a million illegal bucks or opium.  Anyway, something big.

 

EXOTIC SETTINGS

 

   The seat of the crimes inevitably is a remote, glamorous area--Shanghai, Rangoon, Singapore, places like that--where the white man's burden is greatly complicated by espionage and skullduggery of one sort or another.  One of the more attractive features of this show is its villains, who under no circumstances would commit the gaucherie of snarling:  "I wanna see ya bleed to death--slow--".  Mr. X's opponents are as suave and well-dressed as he is, know how to order the proper wines, and are, in short, as couth a collection of bad men as ever throttled a millionaire.  In fact, the courtesy of Mr. X and his villains--even more when they're threatening to blow one another's brains out--could be held up as an example of matchless propriety to the very young.

   Besides Mr. X there are a couple of semi-permanent characters--one named Saigon or Paigon or Fagan or something, a minor league crook who usually helps X solve these things, and a girl who holds Mr. X's hand to help him think.  If mystery adventure appeals to you, this is one of the more civilized samples, a distant cousin of Bulldog Drummond.

---

In all fairness to the franchise, the above review was during the 1948 CBS Run. There'd already been three summer seasons and one full season of The Man Called X by July 1948, which is the reason Crosby refers to it as a ''warm weather'' favorite.

The Man Called X First Airs as a 1944 Summer Replacement

The Man Called X began over Radio as a 1944 CBS Summer replacement run for Lux Radio Theatre, comprising a total of eight episodes. The only circulating exemplar from the first run is contained within the AFRS Globe Theatre canon of transcriptions. So, yet again, we are indebted to the incredible output of AFRS and AFRTS transcriptions over the years in preserving some of Radio's rarest exemplars from The Golden Age of Radio. If one compares that circulating episode to the spot ad for the summer run in the sidebar, one sees the program promoted as a comedy-mystery.

The 1944 CBS Summer season finale, Murder, Music and A Blonde Madonna, lends some credence to the way CBS promoted this first run. Starring Herbert Marshall as Ken Thurston, a private operative, with Hans Conried as Egon Zellschmidt in this first incarnation of Ken Thurston's nemesis, and Mary Jane Croft appearing in the role of Ken's love interest, Nancy Bessington, a reporter and Thurston's erstwhile fiance. We can only interpolate from what we've already turned up for this shortest run of The Man Called X, but it would appear that Hans Conried and Mary Jane Croft may have been regular co-stars throughout that first season. One of Radio's most prolific and successful directors, William N. Robson, directed the first season of The Man Called X and though Gordon Jenkins appears to be credited with the music for the first season, Felix Mills is also personally cited by Herbert Marshall with at least one Music Direction credit--the season finale.

In reading the few newspaper listings from this first run, one notices an evolution from purely detective themes, to the espionage themes that dominated the remaining runs of The Man Called X. Those first eight scripts also laid the foundation for the globe-trotting nature of Ken Thurston's adventures. These globe-trotting espionage adventures were by no means unique to Radio in 1944. Bulldog Drummond was the first of the more successful exemplars of Radio espionage and intrigue, running from 1941 to 1954, most often under the lead of the gifted character actor, George Coulouris. The Counterspy series had been well underway since 1942 and ran in one incarnation or another through 1954. 1949 ushered in Dangerous Assignment, a somewhat balder knock-off of The Man Called X premise--minus the sidekick element--which also captured and held America's attention during the post-World War II and Korean Conflict era and running well into 1954 itself.

The Man Called X, Lockheed Sponored, Over NBC Blue

The second run of The Man Called X was altered slightly by virtue of several factors. The most important factor was its move to the NBC Blue Network. Suffering something of a misstart, the first announced broadcast was postponed for a week, from September 9, 1944 to September 16, 1944. This may have been only a regional postponement owing the the reasons cited--so as not to conflict with a major political address. It would also appear that the light comedy aspect of the NBC Blue Network incarnation was beginning to be downplayed as a promotional element. We can find no provenance as yet, but it's been reported elsewhere that this was the first run in which the gifted Russian violinist, conductor and character actor Leon Belasco began to appear as 'Pegon Zellschmidt.'

The burning question at this point in the evolution of The Man Called X seems to be the gradual change in Mr. Zellschmidt's name over the various runs of the canon. Herbert Marshall himself seems confused when addressing Mr. Zellschmidt over the years. A mini-backstory supported in later episodes and runs of The Man Called X hints that Mr. Zellschmidt is often tempted to alter the spelling of his first name in order to promote his various nefarious activities. In this regard he's referred to himself as, variously, Zegon, Egon, Agon, and of course Pegon. One distinct provenance, however, cites his actual name in the title--Episode 10, from August 20, 1946--The Perils of Pegon. The fact that this doesn't necessarily track with Pegon's earliest incarnations in previous seasons, simply requires a little suspension of disbelief.

Yet another mystery throughout the run was the identity of 'The Bureau', the agency from which Ken Thurston takes his assignments. Given the international portfolio of The Bureau it would seem apparent that the agency was an erstwhile component of the United States State Department. The Bureau is administered by The Chief, whose true identity is never fully revealed during the run of The Man Called X. The most distinctive voicing of The Chief during the run was that of great Film, Radio, and Television character actor Will Wright. Will Wright appears as The Chief from at least 1950 through to the end of the franchise.

Another significant, topical framing of the first full season over NBC Blue--as well as the remaining seasons through the end of World War II--were the Nazi themes throughout the overwhelming number of scripts from that era. This was clearly the producers' intent, and seems entirely appropriate for the era, given the overarching espionage drama genre of the series. This series also introduces Pepsodent as a sponsor. Pepsodent would continue to sponsor The Man Called X during the Summer hiatus of The Bob Hope Pepsodent Shows through September of 1946.

Sadly, almost no exemplars of the first four seasons of The Man Called X have entered wide circulation. They almost certainly exist, but only in private or institutional collections. The few that do exist in circulation are predominantly from AFRS-denatured transcriptions.

The Post-War Years of The Man Called X: 1947-1952

The most widely circulating exemplars of The Man Called X are from the 1947-1950 CBS runs and the 1950-1952 NBC runs. But even with both of those resources, which comprise well over 70% of the entire canon of The Man Called X, only 80 of the 164 episodes of those post-World War II runs have entered circulation. Since this is the period of most collectors' and Golden Age Radio fans' exposure to this fine series it bears the most exposition.

When John Crosby (above) cites 'EXOTIC SETTINGS' he's only speaking from the contemporaneous perspective of 1948. By the time The Man Called X had run its course, it had taken its listeners to at least 190, unique and often exotic locations, ranging from Ken Thurston's own back yard in Manhattan to the furthest reaches of planet Earth. He'd been to the Arctic and the Antarctic, to North Korea and Tierra del Fuego, from Maine to Baja California, and from Australia to Alaska. One wonders what Ken Thurston's frequent flyer miles (in Lockheed planes, one supposes) report must have looked like by the end of every year.

But then he didn't always fly, either. Ken Thurston had sailed, flown, driven, hiked, skied, crawled, deep-sea dove, back-packed, ankushed elephants, and utilized just about every human conveyance short of being shot out of a cannon during his 227 globe-trotting adventures. In the final analysis it was the wonder of Radio and William N. Robson and Jack Johnstone's marvelous direction, backed up by some of Radio's finest sound engineers that actually transported tens of millions of radio listeners to these fascinating, exotic locations.

The post-World War II years provided even more grist for the mill in Ken Thurston's never-ending battle against the explosion of black marketeers, nuclear materials thieves, relief organization profiteers, drug smugglers, and scammers preying on G.I.'s. Certainly more than enough material to fill another five years of The Man Called X. And in the process, the program, however limited in its messaging ability, alerted an anxious war-weary world to the inherent dangers of resting on its laurels during the brief peace after war. As we mentioned above, the extraordinary success of The Man Called X--and Bulldog Drummond and Counterspy before it--spawned yet another successful globe-trotting adventure series--Dangerous Assignment (1949).

And yet, in spite of the dour observations of John Crosby above, it's clear that the American public still craved the pure escapism that espionage adventures over Radio continued to provide. These were the waning days of The Golden Age of Radio and its hold on the American public. Like any child with a new toy, the American public was latching onto its latest toy--Television--with even more zeal than it had with Radio when it was the newest novelty.

The extent to which a well produced, directed and performed Radio program could compete with early Television was a direct measure of its ability to retain the last vestiges of the rich imagination that Radio had demanded of its listeners for three decades by that point in broadcasting history. The Man Called X clearly retained that interest--and then some. Owing as much to their natural affection for Herbert Marshall, listener loyalty was also aided by a remarkably gifted production staff through every transition from season to season of the entire canon. The series was also blessed with both loyal and well-heeled sponsors for most of its various runs.

Beginning with Lockheed, then transitioning to Pepsodent, General Motors, Frigidaire and during the waning years, to a combination of Chesterfield Cigarettes, RCA Victor, Anacin and local Ford dealers, the series never seemed to lack for reliable funding for its extensive adventures--from the beginning of the run to its last episodes. Herbert Marshall clearly didn't come cheap, but he also clearly delivered the audience the show's sponsors demanded in return for their funding of the canon.

In the Hooper Reports exemplar below in the Provenances section one can see that by 1945--the show's second year on air--it was more than pulling its own weight. Indeed by 1948, the year John Crosby reviewed the program it was comfortably residing in either 4th or 5th place consistently. Again, this must in large part be attributed its both the high production standards over the years as much as for its widely beloved star. The predominantly West Coast casts over the years comprised some of Radio's finest acting talent, irrespective of geographic location. This was the same pool of talent which, during the 24-karat Golden Years of West Coast Radio were providing a steady stream of extraordinary talent to Suspense, The Adventures of Sam Spade, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, The Whistler, and Escape.

Herbert Marshall confers with Leon Belasco on a Man Called X script

Herbert Marshall appeared in all of The Man Called X adventures of the run with the exception of episodes 33, 34 and 39 of the 1951 Season. Herbert Marshall, then 60, had suffered a pulmonary embolism around his heart during corrective surgery at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital on May 7, 1951. Proving that the series was transcribed, the producers apparently had three episodes already in the can. Once those ran out, Marshall's friends Van Heflin, John Lund, and Joseph Cotten filled in for him in Episode 33--A Man, a Girl, A Plot , Episode 34--Stalin Plus Seven, and Episode 39--The Casbah. Marshall returned to the series for Episode 35, Black Market Grain in India, on June 8, 1951, but reportedly needed to return the the hospital a month later for follow-up. Van Heflin appeared as Jim Kendall in A Man, a Girl, A Plot, John Lund appeared as Bill Pringle in Stalin Plus Seven, and Joseph Cotten appeared as Joe Kendall in The Casbah. There was no explanation or exposition provided to explain the similarity in the names of Jim Kendall and Joe Kendall. It was either a continuity problem or simply an extraordinary coincidence.

The Man Called X over Radio ultimately ended with the final episode of May 27, 1952. The Man Called X returned one more time--over Television. A Frederick Ziv syndicated production, the 1956 Television incarnation starred Barry Sullivan as Ken Thurston.

Now that The Man Called X can be more fully documented, it'll be interesting to see how soon any further exemplars enter wider circulation. It was a fascinating premise, a durable premise, and one of the finest examples of compelling espionage drama to hold an audience into the waning years of Radio drama. This was without question one of the more satisfying research efforts we've undertaken in recent memory. We hope you can enjoy the result.

The July 1, 1945 Hooper Reports results provided by Majestic Radio as a promotional vehicle


Associated Studios transcription label for Checkmate in Tahiti, the 100th scheduled broadcast of The Man Called X