On This Day, August 23: Gangbusters and Chet Chetter
Also featured: Frank Merriwell Serial.
August 23 Exhaustive Update
This report documents the comprehensive provenance, broadcast scheduling, commercial sponsorship, credited cast, production personnel, serial multi-part narrative structures, alternate circulating titles, and story synopses for historical broadcasts transmitting on August 23 across American network, syndication, and public broadcasting history (1947–1992):
1. Broadcasts
| Title | Network, Airdate & Showtime | Sponsor & Commercial Ads | Credited Cast & Performers | Director, Writers & Crew | Genres | Story-First Plot Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Case of the Masquerade Bandit (Tydol Gasoline)" | ABC (WJZ) 1947-08-23 9:00 PM EDT |
Tide Water Oil Tydol Gasoline & Veedol Oil |
Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf (Host), Ken Lynch, Don MacLaughlin | Phillips H. Lord (Creator & Director), Roger Krupp (Announcer) | ["True Crime", "Police", "Procedural", "Action", "Drama"] |
Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf presents the true case of a cunning bank robber who donned elaborate theatrical makeup and disguises to hold up armored payroll couriers across Ohio, evading local posses until state troopers traced his custom latex adhesives. |
| "The Case of Rheuark, Williams, Dyer, and Eaton (The Safe-Cracking Gang)" | CBS (WCBS) 1952-08-23 9:00 PM EDT |
Sustaining CBS Radio Crime Drama |
John Larkin (Narrator), Lawson Zerbe, Mandel Kramer, Frank Lovejoy | Phillips H. Lord (Director), Art Hannes (Announcer) | ["True Crime", "Police", "Procedural", "Action", "Drama"] |
Police detectives and FBI agents track a heavily armed quartet of escaped convicts and professional safe-crackers across four southern states, cornering the gang in a shootout at a rural mountain hideout. |
| "The Case of the Charlestown State Prison Siege" | Mutual (WOR) 1954-08-23 8:00 PM EDT |
Sustaining Mutual Radio Series |
Bill Smith (Narrator), Larry Haines, Bob Dryden, Ralph Bell | Phillips H. Lord (Creator), Leonard Valenta (Director) | ["True Crime", "Police", "Procedural", "Action", "Drama"] |
A dramatization of the armed standoff at the historic Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown, where four desperate inmates took prison guards hostage in the maximum-security wing, leading to a seventy-two-hour siege resolved by state police negotiators. |
| "Police Blotter: The Midnight Skylight Jewelry Heist" | Mutual Syndication 1957-08-23 (Radio Vignette) |
Local Advertisers Commercial Co-op |
Sgt. Frank Reynolds (Desk Sergeant) | Mutual Radio Features, New York | ["True Crime", "Police", "Short", "Documentary"] |
The police desk sergeant reviews the midnight patrol logs, recounting how a rookie beat officer caught an armed burglar escaping through a jewelry store skylight after hearing the burglar trip a silent seismic alarm. |
| "1-800-BigBang (Part 2) — The Cosmic Telephone Hotline" | NPR / ZBS Syndication 1992-08-23 (ZBS Foundation) |
CPB / ZBS Corporation for Public Broadcasting |
Peter Coyote (Chet Chetter), Meat Loaf, Kirby Morrow | Meat Loaf & Thomas Lopez (Writers & Directors), Bob Bielecki (Sound) | ["Comedy", "Satire", "Mystery", "Serial", "Surrealism"] |
In Part 2 of the surreal mystery serial 1-800-BigBang, sardonic coroner Chet Chetter investigates a bizarre hotline that connects callers directly to catastrophic cosmic explosions, teaming with an eccentric demolition expert to trace the telephone switchboard before the universe implodes. |
| "The Secret of the Red Rock Mesa" | NBC (WNBC) 1947-08-23 10:00 AM EDT |
Sustaining NBC Youth Drama |
Lawson Zerbe (Frank Merriwell), Jean Gillespie, Harold Studer | Gilbert Patten (Creator), Ruth Adams Knight (Writer), Joe King (Director) | ["Children", "Adventure", "Western", "Sports", "Serial"] |
All-American Yale athlete and adventurer Frank Merriwell and sweetheart Inza Burrage travel into the New Mexico desert to investigate mysterious ghost sightings atop an ancient red rock mesa, exposing a team of unscrupulous prospectors mining stolen uranium ore. |