The Pete Kelly's Blues Radio Program

Our orginal Pete Kelly's Blues MP3
Cover Art

Ray Heindorf's annotated "Pete Kelly's
Blues" theme music for the1955 feature
film, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

June 26, 1951 article on the search for
a cornet for Pete Kelly's Blues



Jack Webb as Pete Kelly, holding his prized, 1920s Cornet.



Pete Kelly's Blues review of
July 10, 1951


Pete Kelly's Blues Spot Ad from July 25 1951



Radio and TV Mirror feature of
November 1951 indicates Jack Webb's
inspirations for Pete Kelly's Blues.
Caption reads -- 'It pays to collect! His
collection of old jazz records and a
1920 cornet resulted in the airing
of Pete Kelly's Blues.

Background

While only thirteen Pete Kelly's Blues programs ever aired, its popularity and historical significance far outweigh the length of its run. Pete Kelly's Blues was a favorite project of creators Jack Webb and Richard L. Breen. A short-lived, summer replacement program for NBC, Jack Webb would go on to help develop and star in the feature film Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) and an eventual Television version of Pete Kelly's Blues (1959) for his Mark VII, Limited production company. Both the radio program and film met critical success, but the television program jumped the shark after one season.

A life-long Jazz fan, Jack Webb eventually compiled a collection of over 6,000 classic Jazz albums. Indeed, Webb's first wife was Julie London, a prominent female Jazz vocalist. Jack Webb's first gig in Radio was as a disc jockey playing late night Jazz over the San Francisco area airwaves.

The San Francisco connection was a fertile one for Jack Webb. He based both his 1946 crime drama Pat Novak. . . for Hire, and his 1947 crime drama Johnny Madero, Pier 23 in the San Francisco area. One of his first dramatic breaks in Radio was with the San Francisco-based couple Monte Masters and Natalie Park in Monte's Spotlight Playhouse (1946). Webb followed up Johnny Madero and Pat Novak. . . for Hire with Jeff Regan, Investigator (1948), and ABC's 1949 revival of Pat Novak, for Hire, much in the same radio noir genre. Indeed, Webb appeared several times as a recurring character in The New Adventures of Michael Shayne (1947), again much the same radio noir genre.

Webb's association and friendship with William Conrad, Raymond Burr, Wilms Herbert, the Masters, Wally Maher, Herb Butterfield, Tudor Owen and other young West Coast-based radio performers would provide him with a ready pool of talent for his projects to come. By the time Webb was ready for the Pete Kelly's Blues project, his 1949 Dragnet radio series was gaining popularity and critical acclaim nationwide. Webb threw all of his talent and interest into Pete Kelly's Blues, going so far as to launch a nationwide search for just the right period cornet for the project. Indeed, the Pete Kelly's Blues radio concept of combining at least two live Jazz numbers into the format of a period crime drama made headlines throughout the entertainment sections of the nation's newspapers.

From the July 3rd, 1951 edition of the Canton Repository:

Though 'Pete Kelly's Blues debuted on a Wednesday--and held its Wednesday night slot over most outlets, a few outlets aired the program on Saturdays.

Jack Webb was a life-long perfectionist. His Pete Kelly's Blues project was no exception. Webb obtained the talents of the finest jazz performers available to assemble his "Big 7" Jazz Band for the series. Brothers Ray and Moe Schneider joined famed cornetist Dick Cathcart, Nick Fatool, Matty Matlock and Bill Newman to form the core of the group. Their performances during each of the thirteen episodes of the radio program were as eagerly anticipated as the drama itself.

It didn't hurt that Webb had often life-long relationships with these performers. Dick Cathcart, especially was a close friend of Webb's, going onto a long career with Lawrence Welk after Pete Kelly's Blues, and marrying Peggy Lennon, of The Lennon Sisters. And Meredith Howards, appearing as Maggie Jackson, the Blues vocalist in the series was a classmate of Jack Webb when they attended Belmot High School together. The camaraderie shows thoughout all seven circulating productions--the two circulating rehearsals, especially.

You get something of a feel for Jack Webb's directorial technique as well from his direction of The Big 7 on air--tough, demanding perfection in every performance. That was Webb's hallmark, both in front of and behind the mike. Webb was equally demanding of himself. A great deal of each of the circulating scripts of Pete Kelly's Blues is exposition, delivered as only Jack Webb can deliver it.

From the August 19th 1951 edition of the Canton Repository:

"_PETE KELLY'S BLUES," the saga of a trumpet player in what a press release
    describes as "the roaring '20's" may be a harbinger of the future of radio.  That is, it combines tough gangster talk with music--two old standbys that have survived the inroads of television better than the comedians, the quiz shows and the rest of them.
     Pete Kelly, played by the soft-spoken and engaging actor Jack Webb, who also plays Sergeant Friday in "Dragnet," is, strictly speaking, not a trumpet player but a cornetist in a speakeasy.  A very tough speakeasy.  What with the shootings and the gang plottings and especially the dolls that hang around, he hasn't much time left over for cornet blowing.  The little horn-playing you do hear, though, tootled by Dick Cathcart is very, very good.
     I just wish there were more of it.  But I can understand Mr. Kelly's problem.  The last time I looked into his speakeasy it and the surrounding landscape were littered with four corpses--three of them murdered and one a suicide.  I didn't realize the 1920's maintained such a sustained roar as all that.  Caught in the middle of all this gunfire, Kelly had to keep hopping to keep from having all these murders pinned on him.  The way things were gling, as he remarked grimly, the cops would eventually prove that he shot McKinley.
     THAT'S THE WAY life is for horn players, at least on the radio.  A man just wants to make sweet music to the accompaniment of that specialized prose which has been built up around jazz.  ("Punch a little more.  You're dragging."--"I know.  I'm not with it.")  Then the blond comes in, all by herself.  Trouble, as they say on these things, in spades.  Pete Kelly never gets into trouble in diamonds or any of the minor suites, just the top one.  If you ask me about this particular misadventure, I would say he was in trouble in no trump and that he should have finessed a cople of thse blond queens out of dummy, ruffing a gangster or two on the way.  But nobody asked me.
     The blonds who swarm all over horn players are a race apart--harder than icecubes and brimful of elaborate prose.  "Let's blow town.  We'll have breakfast at midnight and throw gin bottles at the sunrise."  That's a splendid example of the imagery on "Pete Kelly's Blues"--nocturnal and alcoholic and very hardboiled.  "He was deader than a bottle of booze at an Irish wake."  That's the way they talk, these blonds.  Set 'em up again, bartender.  I'll have Scotch and metaphor and go easy on the metaphor.
     GUNFIRE, METAPHOR and horn playing.  It's quite a formula all right, so long as they keep figures of speech in line.  ("If I find you got a thumb in this pie, I'll break your wagon" is one sentence I've been working on for some time.  Never did straighten it out.)
     At that, I like the stuff better than the prose on "The Private Files of Rex Saunders," another NBC enterprise (9:30 p.m. E.S.T. Wednesdays) which stars Rex Harrison.  Just why Mr. Harrison, a very fine actor, is mixed up in such a stale, dull operation is beyond me.  Perhaps he needs the money.

As you can read from the contemporaneous newspaper reviews on this page, Pete Kelly's Blues was more than just a novelty summer series for the reviewers. They knew this was something new in Radio, and you can feel the excitement about this series in every article written about it. Contrary to the nonsense you'll find in the Wikipedia articles about the Pete Kelly's Blues was a highly influential program for its time.

Indeed, Jazz was making little mainstream headway in Radio during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The appearance of a program like Pete Kelly's Blues, very much in the mainstream and from a very mainstream network, set a new standard of acceptability for Jazz over Radio. And it opened doors for even more mainstream Jazz programs to air during the remainder of The Golden Age of Radio.

Pete Kelly's Blues remains a fascinating mixture of the back-story of Jack Webb's entire life. It's set in the speakeasy '20s, the same era into which Webb was born. Its ground-breaking crime drama/variety format was completely new in Radio. And it's gritty, realistic Roaring 20s crime situations were a predictor of Webb's future impact on the crime drama format over Radio.

From the January 2nd 1954 edition of The Billboard:

As more information surfaces about Pete Kelly's Blues, it becomes even more collectable. Hopefully we'll soon see a complete run of Pete Kelly's Blues from 417 Cherry Street, Kansas City, so as to better evaluate the entire 13-week run.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

All above cited provenances are in error to one degree or another. The most helpful provenances were newspaper listings.

Pete Kelly's Blues, although having received a great deal of press at the time, was very poorly documented in local newspapers with respect to the actual programs that aired. But it's also very clear that virtually all information regarding its episode sequencing or program names were simply made up out of whole cloth for the last 58 years of documenting and archiving its run sequence.

In researching the newspapers from the period, we could turn up only eight solid sketchy references to synopses of its thirteen-program run--and yes, THIRTEEN, not twelve; fourteen, counting the NBC-ordered audition. Fortunately those five references have helped us nail down the five corresponding episodes they refer to. Given the ambiguity of all previous attempts at naming these 13 episodes, we've also begun identifying the music selections employed by both Pete Kelly's Big 7 and Maggie Jackson (Meredith Howard). Our findings follow, in chronological order:

The alleged 51-02-13 Audition of Veda Brand: We could find no information whatsoever substantiating either the date or title of this audition. Its existence remains purely anecdotal. While we have every reason to believe that NBC would have required an audition for Pete Kelly's Blues, given its innovative format, we can find no reference to it. But also note below the March 4th 19 Bridgeport Sunday Post reference to NBC Auditioning Pete Kelly's Blues in that timeframe. [UPDATE: We're becoming increasingly convinced that the circulating Gus Trudeau Rehearsal is actually the audition for Pete Kelly's Blues. See our discussion below for more.]

51-07-04, Program #1: We can prove that the first episode aired over NBC from 19 different newspapers we consulted. But no reference is made in any of them as to the content of this first program, nor the musical numbers to be performed by The Big 7. It remains Unknown for the present.

51-07-11, Program #2, Veda Brand: For years, the AFRTS transcribed Little Jake program occupied the Program #2 position, but we can now determine from contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the plot that Veda Brand was the second program of the run. We've also indicated the two music selections by The Big 7 and Maggie Jackson's solo for the episode. We can go either way with this episode. The 'otr community' seems to want to accept the clearly 'doctored' circulating exemplar of Veda Brand with the announcement of the premiere of Meredith Willson's new program in the close. If they wish to insist that the circulating doctored recording is Episode No. 2, we're willing to go along with that. That way we have eight exemplars instead of seven.

51-07-18, Program #3, The Stockbroker's Daughter: The title, while admittedly anecdotal, is derived directly from the contemporaneous radio listing description for Program #3. We have no exemplar of this episode with which to either confirm or dispute this provisional title.

51-07-25, Program #4, Little Jake: Although the anecdotal title for this program has apparently always been Little Jake, the underlying plot of the program is accurately described in contemporaneous newspaper descriptions as involving some 'hot letters' or gangland papers that are being sought by competing gangland interests. They've been given to Pete Kelly to hold without opening them. Little Jake, the young altar boy accidently killed before the break was, though tragic, only incidental to the underlying plot. There appears to be a growing movement to retitle the Little Jake episode, 'Hot Letters.' While probably still not the title of the original script [if there even was one] Hot Letters is probably the better title for this episode. We would add, however, that we understand the AFRS/AFRTS repository's exemplar of this program is annotated 'Little Jake.'

51-08-01 through 51-08-15, Programs #5 and #7 remain Unknown for the present. We found no contemporaneous descriptions for these programs, nor any exemplar recordings of these programs.

[UPDATE] 51-08-08, Program #6 remains ambiguous for the present. A contemporaneous promo at the end of the Pete Kelly broadcast from 51-08-08 cites an episode of The Falcon, to follow, and a 9:30 airing of the first At Home with Meredith Willson program, an impromptu replacement for The Private Files of Rex Saunders. And indeed, the contemporaneous listings for that timeslot mention the Meredith Willson program replacing Rex Saunders on 51-08-08. We can reasonably surmise that whatever script was to have aired on 51-08-08 was replaced at the last minute. It appears that it was a rebroadcast of the "Veda Brand" program that aired. If it weren't for those two announcements, the order of the two circulating Veda Brand exemplars could never be resolved--despite the underhanded efforts of some of the hobby's most morally challenged vendors. We can understand the confusion, since most circulating exemplars of the rebroadcast of Episode 6 have been altered to eliminate the closing announcement of the debut of the At Home with Meredith Willson program. They simply cut and paste--or cut and splice--the NBC Chimes immediately after the announcement of the availability of the music from the program. Those fortunate enough to possess an intact exemplar can quite easily tell how the bogus circulating episodes were altered.

It appears, for the forseeable future at any rate, that there remain two diametrically opposed movements in the Vintage Radio Collecting hobby: 1.) commercial otr dealers, groups, and book sellers enriching themselves at their clients' unfortunate historical ignorance, and 2.) historical preservationists revealing and defending the rich--and accurate--history of the Golden Age of Radio and its legacy. The nonsense and 'otr lore and hearsay' long associated with Pete Kelly's Blues is a perfect example of the current dichotomy. [Thanks again to Ben Kibler for helping nail down the run sequence for the series]

51-08-21, Program #8R, Gus Trudeau: The existence of this rehearsal has been a point of controversy for some time. Given that the alleged 51-02-13 Audition for Pete Kelly's Blues has yet to surface, it's quite possible that rather than a rehearsal, this program is in fact the audition for Pete Kelly's Blues. What remains indisputable are the distinct differences between this program and its production rendition:

• The scripts are different: The expositional reference at the beginning of the program refers to a piano player named Augie. The broadcast script refers to the Big 7's regular piano player named Rosie.
• In what we refer to as the production, as-broadcast version, the script is set on New Year's Eve, with Pete returning to the stage before being taken aside by Eddie Newman, to play a few bars of Auld Lang Syne at midnight. Revelers in the background are heard saying 'goodbye 1921, hello, 1922.' The audtion [or rehearsal] doesn't set the backdrop of the script on New Year's Eve, nor does Pete return to the stage before being taken aside by Eddie Newman.
• The actors are different: though uncredited, the actor portraying Augie the piano player is Roy Glenn, and the actor portraying Newman is William Conrad.
• The musical selections differ: The Big 7 play "Jazz Me" and "The Blues in B-flat" in the audition [rehearsal] and "Auld Lang Syne", "Sensation" and "The Blues in B-flat" in the as-broadcast version.

[UPDATE] 51-08-22, Program #8, Gus Trudeau: As indicated above, there are several material differences between the program we cite as the Program #8 Rehearsal for Gus Trudeau, but we reserve the belief that the above referenced recording may very well be the original audition for Pete Kelly's Blues. In any event, the plot for this program is referenced in contemporaneous newspaper descriptions of this program. Our belief that the episode we currently refer to as Program #8, Rehearsal for Gus Trudeau is actually the audition for the series is based on the following train of logic:

• Rosie the Piano Player, had been well established by Program #8. Why then, if the rendition we've been referrring to was a rehearsal for Program #8 would the writers and Webb have changed the name of the already well established piano player from Rosie to Augie? It makes no sense
• What makes more sense is that Program #8, Rehearsal for Gus Trudeau is actually the long believed surviving audition for Pete Kelly's Blues. There'd have been no continuity reason to change a--by then--well established member of the Big 7's name from Rosie to Augie for a rehearsal. But for an audition--fully six months prior to the script for Program #8--it would have made far more sense.
• We're calling the non-broadcast rendition of Gus Trudeau an audtion until proven otherwise.

51-08-29, Program #9, The Young Girl and The Mug: The previously circulating title for this episode is anecdotal, as it's derived from the description of the program aired this day in contemporaneous newspaper listings. We have no exemplar of this episode with which to either confirm or dispute this provisional title. The actual title appears to be "The Veda Brand Story', as confirmed by NBC production script.

51-09-05, Program #10, Zelda: Though also anecdotal, this circulating title is appropriate. Key to the identification of the sequence and chronology of this program is an important provenance immediately following the credits: NBC announces the return of The Great Gildersleeve later that night as part of NBC's Silver Jubilee celebration. The Great Gildersleeve returned to the air after its summer break on September 5, 1951, so the provenance for this dating of Zelda is well supported, as is its program sequencing.
[Update} -- The Canton Repository of 51-09-05 cites "A Little Hole In The Wall" as the probable title for Expisode #10.

51-09-12, Program #11, Dr. Jonathan Budd and The Dutchman: This title is an almost verbatim description of the program that aired this date in contemporaneous newspaper listings. Some confusion has arisen over the years between this episode and Gus Trudeau, since both refer to a 'Dutchman". In Gus Trudeau it's 'Dutch Courtney' and in this script it's simply, 'The Dutchman'. It's quite possible that both references over the five-script arc refer to the same gangland figure. Be that as it may, this script and the Gus Trudeau script are clearly different scripts. Another point of ambiguation over the years has the program in this sequence anecdotally named 'The Senator'. And in fact this program does make reference to 'The Senator', simply as a throwaway line. 'Red' refers to Dr. Budd as 'The Senator' as slang for a well dressed, well heeled patron, when talking to Pete Kelly. The observation has no further import in the script.

51-09-19, Program #12, June Gould: This title is also anecdotal, but well supported. Its description in contemporaneous newspaper listings supports both its plot and title.

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Pete Kelly's Blues Program Log

The Big 7 plays "Till We Meet Again" and "Singin' The Blues"

Maggie Jackson sings "He Needs Me"

Pete Kelly's Blues Supplemental Recordings Log

Pete Kelly's Blues AFRTS Program Log

Pete Kelly's Blues Biographies

1951-1959 Dragnet
1956-1957 Noah's Ark
1959 The D.A.'s Man
1959 Pete Kelly's Blues
1962-1963 General Electric 'TRUE'
1967-1970 Dragnet
1968-1975 Adam-12
1971-1972 The D.A.
1971-1972 O'Hara, U.S. Treasury
1972-1979 Emergency!
1972-1974 Hec Ramsey
1973 Escape
1973-1974 Chase
1974 Sierra
1975 Mobile One
1978-1979 Project UFO

August 16, 1951 Article on Jack Webb's Work Ethic

He was considered for the Television role of Matt Dillon when the series was brought to the small screen in 1955, but increasing obesity led to the casting of James Arness instead. As it turned out, relatively few of the other cast members were cast in the TV version.

Other radio programs to which Conrad contributed his talents included The Whistler, Strange Wills, The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Johnny Madero, Pier 23, The New Adventures of Michael Shayne, Ellery Queen, The Adventures of Sam Spade, Jeff Regan, Investigator, Let George Do It, Pat Novak for Hire, Escape!, Suspense and The Damon Runyon Theater. One particularly memorable radio role was his breathtaking performance in "Leinengen Vs. The Ants" first heard in the January 14, 1948 broadcast of Escape!, and in a later rendition in the August 25, 1957 Suspense broadcast of "Leinengen Vs. The Ants." Conrad, of course was also memorable as the 'voice' of Escape!.

Conrad's long association with Jack Webb produced some of radio noir's most memorable moments as well. Conrad was heard in every Jack Webb production he ever mounted, and the chemistry between the two of them is one of radio's greatest pairings. From Johnny Madero, Pier 23, to Dragnet--and beyond, the verbal interplay between Conrad and Webb always made for fascinating radio--and Film.

Conrad's possessed an amazing gift for creating bone-chilling Radio characterizations of a seemingly endless array of toughs, gangsters, hard-boiled cops, corporate magnates, and hundreds of other commanding, self-assured, scoundrels and heroes alike. Those roles created a Radio following for him rarely equalled in Radio History. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.

Among Conrad's various film roles, where he was usually cast as threatening figures, perhaps his most notable role was his first credited one, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in the 1946 film The Killers. He also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number and Joan of Arc (1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954). And again, his characterizations of tough guys, aided by his amazing deep baritone and chillingly authoritative presence made for some of Film Noir's most enduring depictions.

Conrad moved to television in the 1960s, first guest-starring in NBC's science fiction series The Man and the Challenge. Conrad guest-starred--and directed-episodes of ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors! (1962). Indeed, both Conrad and the legendary Sam Peckinpah directed episodes of NBC's Klondike (1960–1961). He returned to voice work, most notably as narrator of The Fugitive (1963–1967) and as the director of Brainstorm (1965).

Conrad is as fondly remembered for his voice work in Animation. He narrated the animated Rocky and Bullwinkle series from 1959–64 (as "Bill Conrad"), and later performed the role of Denethor in the animated Television version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King (1980).

The 1970s brought him further small-screen success with leading roles in Cannon (1971-1976), Nero Wolfe (1981) and Jake and The Fat Man (1987-1990). Conrad was also the on-camera spokesman for First Alert fire prevention products for many years, as well as Hai Karate men's cologne.

Conrad's credits as a director include episodes of The Rifleman, Bat Masterson, Route 66, Have Gun, Will Travel, and 77 Sunset Strip, among others, and feature films such as Two on a Guillotine.

Conrad had one son, Christopher, with his first wife, Susie. When Susie died after thirty years of marriage, Conrad married Tippy Stringer Huntley, a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park and widow of famed former NBC newscaster Chet Huntley.

Conrad died from congestive heart failure on February 11, 1994, in Los Angeles, California. He is interred at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in the Lincoln Terrace.

     HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 6 (INS) -- It's a far cry from being an actor-producer of police and crime shows to putting out one of the top blues programs on radio (despite its newness) but Jack Webb made the step.
     Jack, as radio fans will know, is responsible for the series "Dragnet," which has featured true crime cases from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department.  But recently Webb came up with a brand new program called "Pete Kelly's Blues."
     Jack signed a chap by the name of Dick Cathcart as "Pete Kelly" to blow the 1920-era cornet passages which provide the background of the Kansas City speakeasy which is the locale of the new show.
     The strange thing about Dick is that he's never considered himself a Jazz or Dixieland musician.  In fact, he had never heard a Beiderbecke record until Webb played some for him.  Yet most musicians would swear that Cathcart must have been bred and raised in the hangouts of New Orleans.
     Dick was born in Michigan City, Ind., in November, 1924.  Four years later he was tooting his first instrument, a clarinet.  Apparently he showed a good deal of talent, for at the age of five Dick conducted the Elston High School Orchestra in a special program.
     When Dick was thirteen years old he switched to the trumpet and cornet and a short while later he earned his first money as a musician--playing a local dance with the Bloomington High School Orchestra in Michigan City.
     In 1946 after a stint in uniform Dick's genuine professional career began.  He joined Ray McKinley's first band and toured for about four months.  Then he was with Alvino Rey for nine months.  Following this he joined Bob Crosby and then moved on to play in radio studio orchestras.  For the next two years Dick worked at MGM studios, playing for film backgrounds.  About a year ago he obtained a job with Ben Pollack's Dixieland Band and played at the Beverly Tavern, a jazz hangout in L.A.  It was then that Jack Webb, who had been listening to scores of cornetists seeking the right man for the embryonic radio show, heard the now thoroughly experienced Dick Cathcart.
     As Webb tells it, he heard this cornet, then he closed his eyes and swore he was listening to a reincarnated Beiderbecke.  When the band broke for a smoke, Webb walked to the stand and offered him the job of being the music of "Pete Kelly" while he, Webb, would be the voice.
     Capitol records thought enough of the performance that Cathcart, Webb, et al was signed to put on record the music played on the radio series.  Now the first disc is out, pairing "Louisians" and "Funny Man."  Maggie Jackson, another Webb "Discovery," sings a bluesy vocal of the latter air.  We think you'll like the new "Dixie" sensaton.