The Crime Club
Crawford Productions
(publisher),
Melbourne
:
Crawford Productions
,
1953-1954
Z1936679
1953
series - publisher
radio play
crime
detective
A 52-episode radio series, The Crime Club was produced by Dorothy Crawford for Hector Crawford Productions in 1953.
The program profile with which Crawford Productions promoted the program (held in the Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection) sums up the program as follows: 'Each episode will be the true story of a world-famous detective and his most important case'.
In promoting The Crime Club, Crawford Productions consciously positions it in close relation to the highly successful radio serial D.24 (a fore-runner to its television program Homicide), emphasising that D.24's 'extraordinary success' boded well for The Crime Club:
The relationship between The Crime Club, D.24, and the Victoria Police Force is also used to emphasise the salebility of the program:'When first broadcast twelve months ago, "D.24" immediately attracted a large audience. The most recent Survey shows that it has completely out-stripped every other programme on the air. It has more listeners than even the highly-priced Variety and Quiz programmes, and we believe the audience figures are still rising.
While we could not guarantee that "The Crime Club" would achieve the unique position of "D.24", it has many features similar in entertainment value. It has not the advantage of home locale, but it will draw from a much wider choice of material and have a greater degree of contrast in background and types.'
The same inter-relationship also underscores the argument that The Crime Club performs a public service:'"D.24" has had quite dramatic results for the Victoria Police Force in the fields of public relations and recruiting. Hence the fact that the Police Department has twice renewed its contract and has discontinued all other forms of publicity and advertising.
'Having attracted a wide and loyal audience, "The Crime Club" must certainly become an equally successful vehicle for its Sponsor's message.'
'Our recent close assoication with the Victoria Police Force leaves us in no doubt that they are diligent, enthusiastic, well-trained and organized, and badly in need of all the public support possible. "D.24" is doing much towards achieving such support.
'"The Crime Club", which will present the detective in his true light, must certainly make a contribution to this most worthwhile objective.'
The program outline emphasises that in order to ensure that 'All "Crime Club" stories ... will be authentic', they have established a research network between Melbourne, France, and England.
In Melbourne, 'The complete facilities of the Victoria Police Force are, of course, at our service.' In addition, 'We are also in close touch with Dr. Norval R. Morris, Ph.D. (Lond.), LL.M., Secretary of the Department of Criminology and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Melbourne. His advice and guidance on the "Crime does not pay" angle will be most valuable.'
For France, 'we have appointed a "Crime Club" reporter in Paris. He will work in close collaboration with Detective-Inspector Jacques Delarue of the Surete, and will provide stories from France and Europe generally.'
The French Crime Club reporter is not named in the program profile, but their equivalent in England (who 'will cover the detectives of the British Isles') was English detective novelist John Creasey, whose work had already been produced for radio by Dorothy Crawford in the long-running Inspector West serial.
According to the program profile, the detectives covered in the program included:
