''Front Page Detective'' is an American crime drama series which aired on the

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...

on Fridays at 9:30 p.m. ET from July 6, 1951, to September 19, 1952, and in October and November 1953. The program was then in

broadcast syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

for several years thereafter.Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (1979). ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946-Present''. Ballantine Books. . P. 213.

Synopsis

''Front Page Detective'' stars

Edmund Lowe Edmund Sherbourne Lowe (March 3, 1890 – April 21, 1971) was an American actor. His formative experience began in vaudeville and silent film. Biography Lowe's childhood home was at 314 North 1st Street, San Jose. He attended Santa Clara Coll ...

as David Chase, a newspaper columnist who helps police solve especially difficult mysteries. The title derived from a popular true-crime

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

of the same name, and stories were based on material from the magazine. Other cast members were

Frank Jenks Frank Jenks (November 4, 1902 – May 13, 1962) was an American actor and vaudevillian. Biography Early years Jenks was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and his mother gave him a trombone when he was 9 years old. By his late teens he was playing ...

as Lieutenant Rodney, Paula Drew as Sharon Richards, and George Pembroke as Lieutenant Andrews.

Production

Jerry Fairbanks Gerald Bertram Fairbanks (November 1, 1904, San Francisco - June 21, 1995, Santa Barbara, California) was a producer and director in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry. Biography Fairbanks survived the 1906 San Francisco earthq ...

was the producer and distributor, and Arnold Wester was the director.

Gene Levitt Eugene Levitt (May 28, 1920 – November 15, 1999) was an American television writer, producer and director. Life and career Levitt was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Charles and Teresa Levitt. He had an older sister, Betty Ruth. His mot ...

and Robert Mitcher were the writers. Episodes were filmed in Los Angeles on sound stages, with stock film used for exterior shots.

Episode status

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a nonpro ...

has 17 episodes of this series.

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

and TV4U also have one episode each. Unlike many other programs which aired on DuMont, the series was produced on film by an outside production company. A few episodes are available on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and online, usually as part of early TV compilations.

Critical response

The trade publication ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' described one episode of ''Front Page Detective'' as "a dull affair, which the actors seemed to realize and refuse to help." The review called the actors' performances "unimaginative" and said that work behind the cameras "was slipshod and oftentimes embarrassing." A review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' of the series's initial episode found that its drama paled in comparison to that of the

Kefauver Commission Carey Estes Kefauver ( ; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the U.S. Senate from 1949 until ...

hearings that were then being televised. The reviewer suggested that the killer was fairly obvious and described the episode as "too cut and dried". A review in the trade publication ''

'' panned the June 27, 1952, episode, describing it as "a dull affair which the actors seemed to realize and refuse to help". The review also noted "slipshod and oftimes embarrassing" off-camera operations.

Bibliography

*David Weinstein, ''The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television'' (Philadelphia:

Temple University Press Temple University Press is a university press founded in 1969 that is part of Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). It is one of thirteen publishers to participate in the Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach ...

, 2004) *Alex McNeil, ''Total Television'', Fourth edition (New York:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 1980) *Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, ''The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows'', Third edition (New York:

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

, 1964)

References

External links

*
DuMont historical website
DuMont Television Network original programming Black-and-white American television shows 1951 American television series debuts 1953 American television series endings 1950s American crime drama television series American English-language television shows Television series about journalism {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub