NIGHT BEAT

Once the listener gets beyond the name Randy Stone—  
not exactly the best ever invented by radio producers—  
Night Beat is a well-written drama with a touching amount of compassion 
for the shifty characters that Stone meets during the night shift. 
In addition to Frank Lovejoy, a thoughtful-looking actor who is no stranger 
to westerns fans, there is a catchy theme song, 
and just as addicting is the way Stone punctuates his narration 
at the end of each episode, yelling for the...  "Copy boy!" 


THE DEATH OF RILEY 
Chicago - Thursday, May 15, 1952 
Kathleen Hite's first episode was her best, if you're listening 
for the literate.  It's got the lines, the characters, and points made. 
There's mood, meaning, mystery.  And grit, and noir, and tragedy. 
The owner of 'a small plastics manufacturing plant on the south side' 
is deeding it to his employees, but none of the beneficiaries is thrilled. 
He has a rotten exterior, and his wary workers suspect 
that when it comes to motives, there is an ulterior in his interior. 
As reporter Randy Stone puts it, "I went to bed at dawn still wondering 
who was giving who the business." 
Feeling cheated of a ready-made human interest story, 
Stone leaves nothing unturned 
and finds that the truth is not as easy to understand, much less write. 
Hite zings some zippy lines: 
A mediocre cook asks, "You want another egg?" 
"Not till Easter," Randy retorts. 
Listen also for the nifty description of the collective waking 
of an apartment building. 
Copy boy! 


THE OLD ITCH 
Chicago - Thursday, July 3, 1952 
"The Old Itch" is as good as any of the romances Hite wrote for Romance, 
and as heartbreaking. 
International ace roving reporter Kit Gaynor, 
possessed and propelled by perpetual motion, 
meets and zeroes in with her heart on Randy Stone 
and fancies him as the hangar, hearth, and home 
that will finally shelter and stabilize her. Of course, 
just as he starts to share in the dream, 
she feels the winds again and takes off. 
For those of us who have known 
the feeling of having 'a jet by the rudder,' 
Hite has the perfect line: 
"I didn't understand [her] departure any more than I'd understood her arrival." 
The only balm for us who can truly sympathize with the two 
and simper and sob at her flight and his plight, 
is to dismiss the drama and come down to earth: 
off the air, Joan Banks (Kit Gaynor) and Frank Lovejoy (Randy Stone) 
had already been married for about a dozen rosy years, 
and would remain together till his death (and possibly beyond). 
Copy boy! 




May 13, 2006



Copyright © 2006-2012 E. A. Villafranca, Jr.  
All Rights Reserved