On January 9, 1952
Chicago Daily Tribune TV and Radio Reporter, Tony Remenih, opined:
Casanova “sounds exactly like Errol Flynn.”
“[T]his swashbuckling mademoiselle chaser reads a script loaded with improbable situations, double entendres and what I suppose is Riviera playboy talk.”
…
With a stimulating tour of Port Antonio and bamboo raft adventure on the Rio Grand!
List of Alleged Episodes:
SEASON ONE
Episode 1 – Premiere – 3 January 1952 – set in Venice Italy
Episode 2 – “The Phony Count” – 10 January 1952 – Casanova saves a woman from a phony count
Episode 3 – “Family Vendetta” – 17 January 1952 – Casanova visits Venice and deals with the Marchetties, enemies of the Casanovas
Episode 4–24 January 1952 – while skiing in Switzerland, Casanova helps play cupid for a younger couple
Episode 5–31 January 1952
Episode 6–7 February 1952
Episode 7–14 February 1952 – Casanova helps on Valentine’s Day
Episode 8–21 February 1952
Episode 9–28 February 1952
Episode 10–6 March 1952
Episode 11–13 March 1952
Episode 12–20 March 1952
Episode 13–27 March 1952 – Casanova tracks down a dope smuggling ring in Paris
Episode 14 – “The Bride of the Rain God” – 3 April 1952 – Casanova investigates a cursed relic from the Mayan civilisation responsible for killing people
Episode 15–10 April 1952 – Casanova investigates a pair of con artists on the French riviera
Episode 16–17 April 1952 – Casanova smashes a gold smuggling syndicate
Episode 17 – “The Black Dowry Pearls” – 24 April 1952 – Casanova goes to Venice to retrieve some pearls from Phillip II
Episode 18–1 May 1952
Episode 19–8 May 1952
Episode 20–15 May 1952 – Casanova goes to Egypt to stop a drug smuggling ring
Episode 21 – “The Missing Arm of Venus de Milo” – 22 May 1952 – Christopher Casanova is sent to Jamaica to recover the missing arm of the Venus de Milo.
Episode 22–29 May 1952
Episode 23–5 June 1952
Episode 24–12 June 1952
Episode 25–19 June 1952
Episode 26–26 June 1952 – Casanova investigates the murder of a beauty in Paris
SEASON TWO:
Episode 27 – first of season two – 2 October 1952
Episode 28 – “The Sumatra Adventure” – 9 October 1952
Episode 29–16 October 1952
Episode 30–23 October 1952
Episode 31 – “The Gold Brick Swindle” – 30 October 1952 – Casanova goes to Karachi
Episode 32–6 November 1952
Episode 33–13 November 1952
Episode 34–20 November 1952
Episode 35 – “The Star of Thessaly” – 27 November 1952 – Casanova guards an old Greek millionaire who is visiting Paris with a diamond
Episode 36–4 December 1952
Episode 37–11 December 1952
Episode 38
Episode 39
— Tim
Ralph Schiller
January 9, 2021 at 6:42 pm
Thank-you Tim for another gem! Please help us out here. You detail most of the series’ episodes by title if available, 39 of them which sounds right for a syndicated radio series in the dying days of the golden age of broadcasting. So far, all that has been located is a single episode, the first or the pilot named above. The series is very similar to Vincent Price’s radio series “The Saint” or Orson Welles’ radio series “The Many Lives Of Harry Lime (AKA The Third Man”. Has anyone found any further episodes of Flynn’s “Modern Adventures Of Casanova”? I suspect the series began and ended with the pilot but I hope that I am wrong here as more adventures found would be treasures.
Gentleman Tim
January 9, 2021 at 7:22 pm
Thank you very much, Ralph. “The Missing Arm of Venus de Milo”, which can be heard in the link above, is the only one I’ve ever heard. It is said to have been Episode 21, on May 22, 1952. And I believe recall seeing contemporary newspaper ads for various shows in the series. So, I suppose, but don’t know, that there must have been more than just a pilot – UNLESS perhaps Episode 21 was the same show as the pilot?
Karl
January 9, 2021 at 9:30 pm
Ahoy Tim and Ralph!
It was only recently that this whole list of (intended?) programs came to light on the internet.
As I recall, someone also found MANY of these other (heretofore unknown) episodes as actual radio program listings in a newspaper located in the south…
Further, I just now found 3 listings in The Wisconsin State Journal, 2 in the Washington Post, and 5 in the New York Times even!
In the past, I have poked around in old radio archives looking for them to no avail. I welcome any in this ever changing world of “just on the verge” of being re-discovered to please find… (and no, I don’t mean those “missing” emails!)
In a bit of irony, John Barrymore (Errol’s own real life hero and fellow Casanova), at one time, made the observation which might be an applicable insight here- that the folly in thinking that by finding this ONE SURVIVING PROGRAM would somehow lead to the rest:
“When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.”
Ralph Schiller
January 10, 2021 at 2:12 am
Karl and Tim, thanks for your inputs. Here is another enigma surrounding our Errol Flynn. One thing about these syndicated adventure radio shows is they always close wit a short mention and/or teaser of next week’s episode frequently citing it by its title. Not in this Venus de Milo episode.
Gentleman Tim
January 12, 2021 at 6:35 pm
What a clever pick-up, Ralph!! That’s in the league of Basil during his days as Holmes!
[img]https://sherlockholmestv.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/basilrathsherlock900.jpg[/img]
Gentleman Tim
January 12, 2021 at 6:32 pm
Thank you for that JB quote, Karl! What a character he was! Like Jack, America’s sweetheart also apparently had a very disarming sense of humor. ….Mary punched way above her weight class …though she may have been wrong about talkies!
[img]http://thequotes.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Mary-Pickford-Quotes-3.jpg[/img]
Karl
January 13, 2021 at 1:51 am
This quote of Mary Pickford’s may seem just a bit odd at first glance… after the chuckle.
She was, of course, speaking to what she BELIEVED to be was REAL acting – not just as seen in a player donning a costume or situating themselves amidst some scenery- she was talking about the ART of body language and facial expressions. And even more subtly- what could be seen in the eyes.
As more silents have come to be visually cleaned up, restored, and especially~ the projection speed (remember hand cranking was the order of the day) brought into better “focus”… all lends itself to a better appreciation of this more subtle point (also by Pickford):
“It would have been more logical if silent movies had grown out of the talkies instead of the other way round.”
So, next time you have a chance catch a silent- TCM airs them on Sunday nights and you probably won’t be needing any lipst…
Gentleman Tim
January 13, 2021 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for explaining that, Karl. What an extraordinarily bright person she was!
David DeWitt
January 14, 2021 at 5:34 pm
We have Marble Arms on this blog and I attempted to clean up the audio at one point. I think this is the one I tried to make a little better. Still a rough beginning.