Firesign sources #5 / The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (1 of 2) "The Red Wind"

Today we’re finally flipping over to the second side of How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All. Though the first side of How Can You Be is as far out as anything Firesign ever did, the flip side was much more conventional, a parody of old radio detectives called “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger (Third Eye).” Foregoing (for the time being) the A-side’s multitrack studio wizardry, Firesign chose to track “Nick Danger” entirely live, relearning the techniques of the programs shows that had broadcast from Columbia Square before it was converted to a recording studio.In this photo of the session (in Columbia Square’s Studio B), you can see each Firesign member assigned a vintage RCA ribbon mike, with Phil Proctor also using the studio’s “walking board” to create the sound of Nick Danger’s (Phil Austin’s) footsteps.The detective procedural was such a dominant radio genre that Firesign had dozens of programs to draw on. In interviews, I’ve seen Phil Austin name the shows Sam Spade and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar as models (the latter broadcast from CBS Columbia Square from 1949 to 1962). But I think that the most direct source for “Nick Danger” is clearly The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, in which Gerald Mohr portrayed Raymond Chandler’s famous detective in 114 episodes that broadcast from Columbia Square between 1948 and 1951. In Mohr’s first episode, an adaptation of Chandler’s story “The Red Wind,” you can hear what inspired one of Nick Danger’s — I mean Regnad Kcin’s — most famous gags (1:15 of Philip Marlowe, 1:25 of “Nick Danger”). I’ll talk a bit more about how Firesign drew on the program’s sensibility and narrative style in tomorrow’s post.Thanks for reading Giant Slide 19 Holes Underground Parking! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jeremybraddock.substack.com