PODCAST · arts

Pat Novak for Hire

by Old Time Radio

Classic old time radio showing starring Jack Webb (1946, 1949) and Ben Morris (1947-48) as Pat Novak, a street wise guy who rents boats and anything else a good man pays a bad one to do. Novak is always getting into scrapes when taking on jobs for hire or occassionally as a favor to a friend. When he does, he goes to see "The Only Honest Guy I Know" an ex-Doctor and a boozer named Jocko Madigan (played by Tudor Owens). Novak's nemesis is Lieutenant Hellman of Homicide (played by Raymond Burr and others) who's constantly trying to get Novak sent to the gas chamber. The show is formulaic, but it's a work of art, with fantastic poetry. From Novak's fantastic similies and brilliant descriptions of the Femme Fatales to Jocko Madigan's philisophical drunekn speeches, and the verbal (and sometimes phyiscal) fisticuffs between Novak and Hellman, Pat Novak for Hire is memorable from start to finish.