Fran Striker - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Buffalo, New York, Striker attended Lafayette High School and the University of Buffalo where he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity. He dropped out of college, first serving a brief stint in New York City with an amateur theatrical company. Returning to Buffalo, he joined the staff of radio station WEBR (now WDCZ), working as an announcer. In 1929, he moved to WTAM in Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as announcer, continuity writer, and wrote his first radio drama script, a biography of Stephen Foster. Lured back to WEBR as station manager, Striker wrote material ranging from skits to half-hour mysteries and Western scripts.

Striker soon drifted to freelancing, creating and writing his own series and selling them to stations across the United States. He began a long association with station owner George W. Trendle and radio station WXYZ in Detroit, which was trying to make a name for itself as a producer of radio drama, creating and writing the early series Thrills of the Secret Service, Dr. Fang and Warner Lester, Manhunter (which introduced Mike Axford, later a supporting character on The Green Hornet).