Broadway Is My Beat

The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection

NOTE : Broadway is My Beat is also known as "Broadway's My Beat." The main scriptwriters for the series, Morton Fine and David Friedkin, used this title on their submitted scripts. CBS was not consistent in their publicity or the labels on the transcription discs. They used both names. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) used the "is" title on most all of their disc labels. Newspaper timetables are very inconsistent and both will appear, as are ads placed by the stations broadcasting the series. In the 1974 reference by John Dunning, Tune in Yesterday , the title uses "is." Most collectors have used the "is" title over the years, including Joe Hehn, but some did change when the Fine & Friedkin scripts became available to some researchers. Many collectors believe that Broadway is My Beat was the best police procedural on radio. Dragnet focused on the officers, and had a much different style. The Line-Up was similar in this regard. Broadway , on the other hand, spent a lot of time on the tragedy of the crime and the people it affected. While the detection and solution was important, there was a deeper reality to the interactions of the lead character, Lt. Danny Clover, played by Larry Thor, and the victims. The stories were not always satisfied by the capture of a perpetrator because the harm of the crimes were still being felt. The program had occasional lighter moments in the police station, supplied by Sgt. Gino Tartaglia (Charles Calvert) or Sgt. Muggavan (Jack Kruschen), but this series tended to serious drama in most of the broadcast. The program is known for its carefully crafted opening monologue that describes New York City, mainly in the Times Square area, the change of season, the crush of people in the day and evening, and the emptiness of night. An example is cited in Dunning's On the Air reference book: "The still of August nighttime is beyond the crest new, has broken, begun its downsurge, and in the empty avenue there are trailings of phosphorescence and tricklings of stillness... time before dawn." It is obvious from such language that producer Elliott Lewis, who grew up in New York City, wanted to differentiate the series as headier, more sophisticated, yet still deal with the darkness that crime and tragedy bring. Somehow, Fine and Friedkin would compose new opening monologues that seemed more striking than the prior one. The program was moderately popular in its time and was not a big ratings-grabber. Over the years, its reputation among veteran radio recording collectors has grown considerably, and is a favorite in this genre. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Joe Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection is comprised of many recordings and documents. The latter include scripts, program documentation, catalogs of fellow collectors, and old time radio fanzines of the period. These documents are being scanned into Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Chapters