''Radio Patrol'' is a police

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

carried in newspapers from August 7, 1933 to December 16, 1950 in the dailies, with a

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies. The first US newspap ...

that ran from November 25, 1934 to October 20, 1946. It was created by artist Charles Schmidt and writer Eddie Sullivan, who both worked for the ''

Boston American The ''Boston American'' was a daily tabloid newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from March 21, 1904 until September 30, 1961. The newspaper was part of William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August ...

''. Sullivan was a newspaper reporter who specialized in crime reporting. Because of the popularity of ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...

'',

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

wanted a strip in his

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editori ...

to compete. The strip, which started in 1933 in the ''Boston Record'', was originally called ''Pinkerton, Jr.'', since the main character was a boy named Pinky. (Dick Tracy also had a boy as a key character at the time.) The new strip was popular with Boston readers and the main character shortly became Sergeant Pat, while Pinky grew older quite rapidly. Sergeant Pat was a composite of many of the real-life

Boston Police Department The Boston Police Department (BPD), dating back to 1854, holds the primary responsibility for law enforcement and investigation within the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest municipal police department in the United States. Th ...

officers Sullivan knew personally. When the strip was picked up by King Features Syndicate in 1934, it was retitled ''Radio Patrol''.''Famous Artists & Writers'', King Features Syndicate, 1949.
The central characters were Sergeant Pat, his partner Sam and policewoman Molly Day. Later retitled ''Sgt. Pat of Radio Patrol'', the strip is notable for its serious tone, with little evidence of the fantastic or supernatural. The realistic bent even included accurate geography in its depictions of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

countryside. Whenever artist Charlie Schmidt bought a new car, it was drawn into the strip as Sergeant Pat's new cruiser. One day Schmidt was at his dentist's office. The dentist wanted to know how come he wasn't one of the characters in the popular strip. Schmidt replied, "Because I already have one fat guy in it."

Walter Howey Walter Crawford Howey (January 16, 1882 in Fort Dodge, Iowa – March 21, 1954 in Boston) was a Hearst newspaper editor and the model for Walter Burns, the scheming, ruthless managing editor in Hecht and MacArthur's play ''The Front Page''. Ea ...

, the editor who assigned Schmidt and Sullivan to create the comic strip, was a personal friend of Hearst, and in ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...

'' Howey's was fictionalized as Jed Leland (

Joseph Cotten Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and '' Sab ...

). As with other strips of the period, ''Radio Patrol'' was adapted into different media, including a 1930s radio show. The 12-chapter Universal Pictures movie serial, '' Radio Patrol'' (1937), starring

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

as Pat, was directed by Ford Beebe and Clifford Smith. In June 2010, ''Radio Patrol'' was added to King Features'

DailyINK DailyINK was an online service created by King Features Syndicate to email many classic and current comic strips directly to subscribers for an annual fee of $19.99. King Features described it as "the all-inclusive subscription service for the true ...

email service, which was later transitioned to ComicsKingdom.com.

References

External links

IMDb: ''Radio Patrol'' serial
{{King Features Syndicate Comics American comic strips American radio dramas 1933 comics debuts Crime comics Comics about police officers 1950 comics endings 1937 radio programme debuts 1937 radio dramas Comics adapted into radio series American comics adapted into films