Broadway Is My Beat CBS · November 15, 1952

Bimb 52 11 15 (139) The Kenny Purdue Murder Case

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# The Kenny Purdue Murder Case

Picture this: a November night in 1952, the rain hammering against tenement windows in Hell's Kitchen, and Detective Larry Shane finds himself standing over the corpse of Kenny Purdue, a two-bit song plugger with dreams bigger than his talent and debts deeper than his pockets. What begins as a routine homicide investigation spirals into the shadowy underbelly of Broadway's music publishing racket, where crooked producers, jealous performers, and desperate songwriters all had reason to want Kenny dead. As Shane peels back the layers of this murder, listeners will find themselves navigating smoke-filled nightclubs, backstage dressing rooms, and the kind of New York streets where a wrong word could get you killed. The tension crackles throughout this episode—you can almost hear the squeal of car tires and the bitter edge in Shane's voice as he closes in on the killer.

*Broadway Is My Beat* struck a perfect balance that made CBS's crime dramas legendary: it married the glamorous, glittering mythology of Broadway with the gritty reality of Manhattan's criminal underworld. Airing in the post-war era when New York's theater district was both booming and dangerous, the show captured something authentically New York—the collision of art and corruption, dreams and desperation. Detective Shane wasn't a superhero; he was a weary, intelligent cop navigating a world where show business and organized crime intertwined like vines. The writing was sharp, the performances were stellar, and the sound design transported you directly to the Great White Way and its darker corners.

Don't miss this masterfully crafted mystery. Tune in to *The Kenny Purdue Murder Case* and experience classic radio at its finest.