Classic Comedy of Old Time Radio · Ronald Ecklebarger

New Year Special 2026 - Casey, Crime Photographer: “Hot New Year’s Party”

·30 min·2 clips

Casey pressures a crook to reveal a kidnapping location by invoking a life-saving favor.

New Year, Ethelbert. Ron Ecclebarger opens with one last New Year's pick for 2026, then owns up to the detour: this Casey, Crime Photographer episode is more detective story than straight comedy. The shift happens fast. A 1948 script takes over, with Tony Marvin, Anchor Hawking, Lancaster, Ohio, and a Leap Year gag about one extra Thursday. The sponsor does not wait politely offstage. Anchor Hawking's glassware talk slips right into the crime plot, the way old radio could make product copy and danger share the same room. Casey needs a better angle. Logan wants Skinny Jake and his mob squeezed for information, but Casey says force has already failed, so he keeps his plan to himself. Annie pushes him. Casey warns that a police shadow could ruin their chance of finding Professor Wendell alive, and that gives the scene its little jolt. Then the tavern name hits. Nick Morrow's place, owned by Jake Schultz, is where Casey may be recognized by the same mob he has to outsmart. Miss Williams worries out loud. Her safe and sane 1948 resolution gets a neat wink from the script, since Casey is plainly walking the other way. Then comes the jadeite. Cups, saucers, dinner plates, soup plates, bowls, and platters cut into the suspense with bright household confidence and Fire King pride. That is the fun of it. The case keeps moving, but the broadcast keeps showing its sponsor-era bones. By the end, resolutions have cracked, Casey's risk seems to work, Miss Williams gets her Happy New Year, and Ron calls it a nice detective-type change of pace. Jay Leno's closing line about average weight turns New Year's guilt into a quick last laugh.

As heard by us

A New Year's detective story with sponsor banter and a clean finish.

Classic Comedy of Old Time Radio opens its New Year's slot with Casey, Crime Photographer and a January 1, 1948 episode titled Hot New Year's Party.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a New Year's special where a 1948 Crime Photographer case turns festive before it turns deadly.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Classic Comedy of Old Time Radio