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Written by Ned Norris

I’ve been spending some late-night hours with a writer who could make sparks fly without a single stick of dynamite: Les Crutchfield. He started in the mines—chemistry, math, engineering under his belt, working as an explosives consultant and mining foreman—but found his true calling in the glow of the radio dial.

Born January 25, 1916, Les became a stalwart of network radio from the mid-’40s into 1960. He penned some of the finest scripts for Gunsmoke (on radio and later TV), and turned out gems for Romance and Fort Laramie. He also adapted tales for Suspense—radio’s “outstanding theater of thrills”—where top scripts and top stars met their match.

And then there’s Escape, Suspense’s scrappier “sister.” Budget be hanged—under producers like William N. Robson and Norman Macdonnell. Les Crutchfield is credited with writing, and adapting for radio, as many as 52 episodes for Escape, delivering war stories, westerns, horror, and sci‑fi that could stop you in your tracks. They drew from Fitzgerald, Kipling, H.G. Wells, Conrad, and Conan Doyle—and made the results sing.

A couple of Crutchfield standouts:

- The Log of the Evening Star: madness and murder on the high seas, with Jack Webb, Gale Page, Pinto Colvig, and Luis Van Rooten.

- A Shipment of Mute Fate: a deadly snake loose aboard ship—pure, coiled tension.

Les Crutchfield also helped power Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar in the 1955–56 Bob Bailey era—no small feat for “America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator,” a series that ran 14 years and took a final bow as radio’s last great network drama. Les left us too soon on October 6, 1966, at 50—but his words still crackle.

Head on in to RUSC.com right now where you will find featured a selection of the wonderful dramas penned by Les Crutchfield born 110 years ago today!

Happy listening, my friends,

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