So each year I like to feature a “superhero” episode and here in our sixth season, I was running out of ideas. That’s when I threw it out to listeners for recommendations. It was narrowed down to three choices, and everyone got to vote on Patreon, which is how Dick Tracy came into my life. I was aware of the character, but that was the extent of it. I never saw the Warren Beatty film from 1990. I remember the images from it were weird. The characters distorted looking. Perhaps I thought a bit too comical at the time, so Dick never crossed my path. But now that I’ve been in the Dick Tracy world, at least the radio version of it, I can see why these characters are so much fun.
Even as everyone voted, I was warned how there were very few full Dick Tracy stories left from OTR. A lot of the 15 minute serials that carried on for weeks (much like Buck Rogers) didn’t have endings because those last episodes were missing. I had managed with Buck, so I thought I’d figure something out. Then I found this lone 30 minute episode from after the era of the serials, and I have to say, Vitamin was the draw for me in this episode. I know it would seem logical to have Madison replace Vitamin and then become the sidekick to Dick Tracy, but Vitamin was too much fun. So in Madison stepped for Tracy.
I’m here to say I am prepared to write an entire new series around the adventures of Madison and Vitamin. Having a vast theater background, I loved exploring his stage roots. He was larger than life (as many of the Dick Tracy characters are) but I wanted to create something more. I started down the path of Vitamin being a legend in his own mind. That he was really a failed actor, forced into horrible knock-off versions of shows that close the after one performance. This became a fun challenge for me. I needed to focus on plays that would’ve been timely to when the show aired, so early 1940s, but still be titles people would recognize today. The Shakespeare was easy, but “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Of Mice and Men” and the Tennessee Williams plays were more of a risk for jokes. I had to craft the jokes to be funny even if the listener never went through the English-lit curriculum I did back in the 1980s.
But there was also Snowflake. She is the angel of this episode. A devoted wife to Vitamin who supports him through all of his bad performances and don’t we all want someone in our lives who finds success even in our failures? The opposite, of course, is Gravel Gertie. With that name she really embodied the tough-as-nails gritty old woman. An early “Granny” from “The Beverly Hillbillies.” I found 1940’s comics of all of these characters, which really helped solidify their voices in my head. Which then, I must say, were embodied so well by this cast!
Then there was the bad guys. With a name like “Doom,” you really expect a major villain. But perhaps it was more that he, himself, was “doomed” to fail? Who doesn’t want a megalomaniac businessmen willing to, ya know, kill to get more wealth to be taken down? And then Hotfoot, the fire starter. In the 1940’s, “Hot foot” was a practical joke. Where you’d literally light a match attached to someone’s shoe and run off as it burned down. So the victim wouldn’t realize it until the flame reached their foot. Woo! You 1940’s scamps! “Gimmick” at the time often referred to a trick someone might use to cheat at gambling. Two definitely unsavory people!
So, honestly, Dick Tracy himself wasn’t nearly as interesting as his supporting cast. I did bring him in at the end because the script did call for a physical battle with the bad guys that neither Madison nor Vitamin were in any condition to carry out. And he’s still the show’s idol. The flawless crusader of justice. Although I was a bit confused listening to the other surviving episodes. Is he a police detective in a city? This episode had him at police headquarters at his own desk. But then why is he called to the Canadian Yukon or Washington D.C. to solve crimes? Oh… it’s a kid’s show. Why not?
-Chrisi (aka Madison)
