The Lineup
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
The Lineup was a police procedural on CBS radio from 1950 to 1953. The program did not have a true star, but used some of CBS' best actors of the era, notably Bill Johnstone, Wally Maher, Jack Moyles, and many others. The program would start with a police lineup of suspects with questions asked of them so victims could hear their voice and see their demeanor. The viewers of the lineup were told not to pay attention to their answers "because they often lie." Other CBS regulars didn't need a steady character to be in the series every week. They were often different victims, officers, witnesses, criminals, and suspects in each episode. Howard McNear, a familiar voice to listeners as Doc Adams on Gunsmoke , could be heard almost every week as a different hapless criminal in that week's lineup. Those opening minutes set the storyline for that week's drama after the victim identified whether someone in the lineup was their attacker or not, leading to the gritty policework that listeners would hear as the crime was solved. Dragnet set the tone for police procedurals in this period. The Lineup may have been in Dragnet 's shadow in ratings and popularity, but it had fine scripts and direction under Elliott Lewis. It had polished performances of an ensemble cast who worked on so many other series together ( Suspense, Escape, Philip Marlowe, and many others), making The Lineup a worthwhile listen. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.