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"Malice Theater of the Air"

     Every year, the Malice Domestic Mystery Convention produces a "radio" drama featuring its "Ghost of Honor."  In May 2002, the honoree was G.K. Chesterton, creator of the priest/detective Father Brown.  Chesterton, who died in 1932, was once quoted as saying he expected -- and hoped -- other writers would employ his character, after his death. So the mystery at Malice was a 1945 radio script called "The Mystified Mind," by Judson Phillips.

     The cast included (above, l-r) Elaine Viets as the suspect Joyce Harris; Meg Chittenden as the ingenue Lisa Conti; Keith Miles as Father Brown; (below, l-r): Martin Myers as the erstwhile thief Flambeau; Parnell Hall as the company president Jim Clayton; and Hal Glatzer as the taciturn clerk Mr. Gregory, and as the "radio" announcer.

  Special thanks go to Carole Anne Nelson, who provided the sound-effects, and also served as Producer of this year's Malice Theater of the Air.

     In 2001, when the Ghost of Honor was Rex Stout, a Malice cast performed a "Nero Wolfe" script from a 1950 broadcast.

     (l-r at the mikes) Hal Glatzer played a thief accused of murder; Parnell Hall played Archie Goodwin.  And in a coup de theatre of nontraditional casting, Jan Burke portrayed Nero Wolfe.

     Jerrilyn Farmer was the vamp Miss Ladd; Matt Witten was NYPD Inspector Cramer; Charles Todd was the suspect Mr. Stark; Carole Ann Nelson provided the sound effects; and Dan Stashower. who produced this radio play for Malice Domestic, was the Announcer.

Recognize the Cover Art?

     For its March 2002 issue, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine obtained the use of the cover art from Too Dead To Swing.  (The stories inside are unrelated to the plot of the audio-play, however.)

    The Audio Publishers Association (APA) presented a prestigious Audie Award to Too Dead To Swing in June 2001, for Achievement and Innovation in Production.

     The industry's top honors, announced at a black-tie gala in Chicago during the annual Book Expo America (BEA), are the only completely juried awards covering audiobooks and spoken word entertainment.

    The Audio Publishers Association is a not-for-profit trade organization consisting of over 200 member companies including publishers, resellers, distributors, and suppliers along with other industries related to the production, promotion, and sale of audiobooks. The mandate of the APA is to deal with the concerns of the industry; assure the ongoing production of high quality products; to initiate research and the distribution of relevant data; and to nurture solid relationships among the consumers, the reseller, and the industry itself.

   AUDIE  THANKS

     "Thomas Edison famously said: 'Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.'  Well," said Hal Glatzer, accepting the Audie Award, "I'll take full credit for the one percent.  But the 99 percent belongs to producer/director Pat Childs; to music director Earl Spielman; to our engineers, Perry Pilagonia at New York Audio, and Nick Archer at Archer Productions; to our editor Ethel Gilkey; to Jon Risdon and the tape duplicators at Tri-Plex; to the Braille labelers at the American Printing House for the Blind; to all of our terrific cast members; and to my associate producer, Kathy Frankovic."

     The next morning, at the Book Expo, Glatzer found it hard to keep from grinning.  The Audie itself (in his hand) is an inscribed glass block with fluted edges.

     At the Audio-Playwrights booth, cast-members' photos surrounded a poster-size blowup of Too Dead To Swing's cover art.  Booksellers and librarians who came to the booth received review copies of the audio-play.

     Writing in the San Francisco Bay Area's largest suburban daily, reporter Leslie Harlib quoted executive producer Hal Glatzer, director Patricia Childs, and actor Simon Jones.

      Click here to read this article.

     And San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News columnist L.A. Chung, wrote about Too Dead To Swing on June 12, 2001.

     Based in the newspaper's San Francisco bureau, Ms. Chung interviewed Hal Glatzer about the production.  Her column ran under the headline "S.F. Writer Aims for Audio Plays to Set Him Apart."

Click here to read this article.