The Big Story

No story background today. We've been quite lucky with the last few. There are some references to the assistance Bernard Beckwith made in solving the "Emaline Rice" murder. The storyline in the newspapers for the 1952 TV presentation of the story refer to a "missing bride." There is remarkably little reference to today's posted episode in the newspapers other than it was on and featured a story from Colorado, or Denver, or mentioned Beckwith's name. The Denver Post archives prior to 1993 are not online. Stumped!

Just a mere change in spelling and some different key words changed some of the results enough to help track things down!

No detailed information on the show or our reporter can be found. But this is the case...
John Rice kills his wife, and keeps changing the story he tells the police...

I continue to be impressed with the research! Thank you!

Thanks bojim1and greybelt

Best regards

Art

Big Story 51-04-04 (210) Poker Game Ends In Death [William E Doherty, Chicago Sun Times]

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Thanks bojim1

Best regards

Art

"Poker game ends in death"... and a police hunt, and a trial...

Newspaper clipping -- by now, radio was getting less coverage in the listings...

There was not any bylined content from our hero reporter, Bill Doherty. The Chicago Sun-Times archives are not available online, so most of the news clips are from the Chicago Tribune, and they were not about to mention him. Six different Doherty brothers worked as reporters in Chicago, and it led to kidding about it being a "family business." Doherty would later work for the Tribune prior to semi-retirement in California. He wrote a book, Crime Reporter, published in 1964 by Exposition Press; used copies can be found online... this picture of the book is on Amazon where it sells for about $30.

An alumni magazine profiled Doherty in their December 1964 issue after the release of his book

And now the story... a poker game turns into disaster, and it plays out for a couple of years in the papers of Chicago and the surrounding states...

I Can't believe how much background material you are able to come up with.

Great Job !

Best regards

Art

Big Story 51-07-25 (226) Forty Minutes to Meet a Deadline [Cleveland Press, Bus Bergen] UPGRADE

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"Forty minutes to deadline"

It didn't happen exactly as the Big Story adaptation says, but it is authentic

Again, not many news clippings...

Bus Bergen was a legendary Cleveland court reporter, known for the things reporters hang around courts for, knowing the judges, attorneys, the workers, the security details, and anyone else who could shed light on a story. Many of the stories about Bergen talk about his connections and the hard drinking beat he was on. Sometimes the bar around the corner may be a better place to get the inside scoop than in the back rooms of the courthouse.

He did investigative stuff, too. The picture below was part of his health exam before getting admitted into a hospital, undercover, as a patient to pursue a story about corrupt practices.
Details are at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This authentic Big Story seems more like a Mr. Keen episode... a millionaire husband who "plays the field" is accused of poisoning his estranged wife. But because there's a dog involved in the story... and a girlfriend who lies about her age... it has all the elements of a Frank and Anne Hummert series plotline!


The full story was treated in the Feb 25, 1951 NY Daily News. A multi-page PDF of their reporting is at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


The way I was certain that I found the right Bergen story was that the cover page of the script indicated someone in the role of "dog"! And the actor's name is Barker!


The name is not a joke: Brad Barker was an animal imitator. Jack French wrote an article about this interesting class of actors for the Metro Washington OTR Club, and it's an entertaining and informative read.
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Thanks guys

Best regards

Art

Big Story 51-07-25 (226) Forty Minutes to Meet a Deadline [Cleveland Press, Bus Bergen] UPGRADE

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Thanks bojim1

Best regards

Art

Big Story 52-03-19 (260) Reporter Risks Life To Avenge Friends Murder[AlanCopperthwaite HelenaMTIndRec]

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The newspaper clippings for the episode...


No details about Allen Cowperthwaite's career, or bylined stories, other than those mentioned in these clips, were found in the online searches. This Big Story was presented in the TV series in 1955, and a newspaper clip for that show states that it was Cowperthwaite who was able to identify Kilmer's body. It also states that it was his idea to investigate recent crime sprees in the effort to track down the killers.

And now, the real life events that were "authentically fictionalized"...

Thanks guys
Best regards
Art

Big Story 52-10-08 (282) Hot Lead Catches a Cold Blooded Killer [Miami Herald, William H Adams]

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"Hot Lead Catches Cold Blooded Killer"

Unfortunately we have no details about our hero reporter, but we may be seeing his work in un-bylined fashion in the clips below.

Episode newspaper clips...


The body of a vacationing Baltimore pharmacist is found along the Tamiami Trail (US41)... with no clues as to who he is or who did it... or where the murder happened... because the killer thought "traveling companion" meant the body in the trunk...


If you don't know the Tamiami Trail, this is a brief overview [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks guys

Best regards

Art

Big Story 53-02-04 (299) The Biggest Catch [ElkhornWIIndependent, DonaldMorrisey] AFRS#178 FROM DISC

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"The Biggest Catch"

An successful enterprise's executive team attempts to go off-site at a country retreat for a business meeting away from the phones and constant office interruptions. They schedule planning, sales, and administrative reviews, as well as team-building exercises. And then, out of nowhere, they get arrested... for kidnapping for goshsakes!

The newsclippings made hunting down the original events like shooting fish in a barrel... yeah, officer, dat's what the guns were faw... we wuz going to shoot some fish but in a lake dis time...

Muncie loved their reporter, Don Morrissey, who moved there, years after the events of this episode. They still remembered him in Wisconsin and looked forward to the broadcast.

And now the events... about the arrest of one of Al Capone's competitor gangs, run by Roger Touhy. Kidnapping for ransom was a specialty. If the name "Factor" sounds familiar, it was beauty magnate Max Factor's half-brother involved in the story, too!!

There was a movie! What's really funny about it is that Touhy sued 20th Century Fox for defamation of character!

IMDb [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Wikipedia [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Wikipedia about Roger Touhy [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Wikipedia about "Jake the Barber" Factor [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks guys

Best regards
Art

Big Story 54-01-27 (337) Too Terrible to Be Believed [Arthur Mielke, Washington Times-Herald]

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"Too Terrible to be Believed"

There was no information found on the hero reporter.

Here are the episode clippings...

The jargon relates to what are usually referred to as "foster homes" today.

Now the sad reality behind this episode...

Thanks guys
Best regards
Art

"A Search that Saved a Life"

Virginia Marmaduke was a Chicago newspaper legend. Unfortunately the source news event that is the basis of this episode cannot be found. The Chicago Sun-Times digital files for the era do not exist. Because this was probably an exclusive column for the paper, and did not deal with a generic event like a crime, it was not picked up by others.

Here are news clips for the episode...

A press photo of her and her photographer who worked on this story and its happy ending is available at this site [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Part of the small-town innocence of local papers is that there were stories about relatives visiting from out of town, especially if those relatives had some prominence. Note that this clip gives us a clue about a different title for this episode. In the script, the word "kiss" is scratched out and replaced with "search."


Details about Miss Marmaduke and her larger than life presence in Chicago journalism...

A profile of her in retired life

An obituary
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Her papers are at Southern Illinois University; perhaps there is some correspondence there with the show producers?
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I tried to find a local or online or ebook copy of the biography about Virginia Marmaduke, published in 2002, to see if there was a reference to The Big Story episode, but was not able to. If I do get access to a copy and learn something new, I'll post it here.
Portions of the book can be seen in Google Books. It is possible that an entry in the book indicates that the operation discussed in the episode is "patent ductus," a correction of a congenital defect in the heart.
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