Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-08-29
Crime Soothes
The Treasury
Collectors
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK.
Crime does pay--for the people
who prove 1t doesn't.
Take your favorite radio mystery
program--the one with the screams
in the night, the stab in the back.
the poison pool, the six assorted
murders, and the hooking villain
who is always tracked to earth a
scant two minutes before the COM
mercial.
The villain may get it in the neck
but he gets in the pocketbook,
too. And the radio detective who
delivers those sermons on the
meager profits in crime is likely to
think 1t over in q Park avenue
penthouse.
Les Damon could tell you about
that. His sophisticated sibilants as
the unperturbed Thin Man" who
fattens on the dirty deeds of the
underworld net him 20,000 a year.
Damon doubles in dashboard weep
ers that flood the daytime air. and
his total take, says his press agent,
Is $50, 900 a year.
Damon is proof enough that the
art of crime detection, practiced in
II network shows a week has be-
come big business. But other rob-
Der chasers are said to do almost as
well. Jay Jostyn, as MIR. District
Attorney" always gets his man and
from $4,000 to $4,000 year for
that and other achievements.
Disproof in Pay Checks.
Raymond Edward Johnson, the
voice behind the squeaking door in
the sinner Sanctum," is believed to
be in the same class--as are Claudia
Morgan, the Mrs. Thin Man, and
Santos Ortega, whose deep voice as
Nero Wolfe descends right to the
pits of crime. Ted De Corsia, who
specializes in both dumb cops Gas
Sergt. Velie in "Ellery Queen") and
villains, is another whose pay check
disproves all they teach in reform
school.
1t takes time to prove that crime
doesn't pay-and SO the manufac-
turers of pills for pale people and
other peppers-up of the body basic
hand over huge sums to the major
networks for the opportunity. Radio
time for a half-hour chill program
runs up to $4,000. For Is minutes
on lis stations, the powers behind
Crime Doctor" provide $4,000
medication for CHS every week.
Costs depend on the number of sta
tons involved, but networks can
usually count on at least $1,000
every time radio dick goes on the
air.
Proof by Checkups.
The majority of ''whodunits"
prove highly successful in Turing
palpitating listeners to the loud
speakers. The Cooperative An
alysis of Broadcasting, which tele-
phones listeners in key cities to
find out who is listening to what,
says that two-thirds as many people
who tune in to the top air shows
like Bob Hope and Fibber MCGEE
are on hand when MIR. District At
torney" goes a-hunting.
In an average listening month,
"Ellery Queen" the Thin Man"
and Mr.. and Mrs. North" nab the
evildoers through Is of every 100
radio sets where they can be heard.
The most popular shows are lucky
to break 80.
What makes good mystery show
in radio is good mystery in itself.
Producers say there's no set pat
tern guaranteed to tingle the pub
lie spine. Some programs are built
around basic characteristic Sher-
lock Holmes. Bulldog Drummond
and the old dime thriller king, Nick
Carter-who catches week after
week are enough to fill Sing Sing
in year. In other shows, like
Suspense" and Timer Sanctum, /"
there's different set of goodies and
paddles every week.
Whatever the style of program,
however, two things are always con-
slant. Whether the vile deed is
done by Ratchet or a poison pei
let, virtue-and the income tax COL
lector-always triumph in the end.