John Larkin (radio and Television Actor) - Radio Career and Perry Mason

Radio Career and Perry Mason

A native of the San Francisco Bay city of Oakland, Larkin developed a distinctively resonant voice perfectly suited to radio, the prime entertainment venue in American homes of the Depression 1930s. By the latter part of the decade, when he was in his mid-twenties, Larkin had worked for a number of stations, including KCKN and WHB in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, where he was an announcer and, later, in Chicago, where he became known for his versatility in performing announcing and hosting duties in addition to acting in front of the microphone for numerous scripted shows, including Vic and Sade, one of network radio's most popular programs of the 1930s, and the one for which he received his first major credit as a radio actor. Following military service in World War II, he established himself in the capital city of network radio, New York and, having become one of the medium's top dramatic voices, was offered, in 1947, the title role in CBS Radio Network's three-and-a-half-year-old afternoon crime serial, Perry Mason which, as was the case with all radio daytime dramas, consisted of an 11-minute script, broadcast Monday through Friday in a 15-minute time slot, including commercials, promos and credits.

A renowned criminal lawyer, Perry Mason was a fictional character created by attorney Erle Stanley Gardner who, starting in 1933, became one of America's best-selling mystery writers. Almost immediately following his first appearance in book form, Mason was adapted to the big screen with three actors portraying him in six films produced by Warner Bros. between 1934 and 1937. The radio show premiered during the middle of the war, in October 1943. While primarily concerned with crime, detection and legal procedure, it was still structured in the manner of a soap opera, with omnipresent organ music, laundry-product commercials from its sponsor, television's largest advertiser, Procter & Gamble, and its 2:15 time slot, sandwiched between two "standard" soap dramas. A number of actors voiced Mason during the show's early years, with Bartlett Robinson, Santos Ortega and Donald Briggs, each performing for several months. Shortly before John Larkin took over the role in May 1947, Irving Vendig, who became the program's new head writer seven months earlier, reinvigorated Mason's personality and brought the show, which to Erle Stanley Gardner's dissatisfaction had become less and less distinguishable from Procter & Gamble's domestic soaps, back to its courtroom theatrics, suspense and crime detection roots.

Larkin's familiar authoritative voice had soon come to symbolize the Perry Mason radio persona and he remained with the role for eight-and-a-half years until the program's conclusion in December 1955. During the show's run, he also continued to perform in radio's primetime dramas, such as the May 30, 1948 Ford Theater adaptation of the novel and film, Laura, in which he voiced police lieutenant McPherson, who falls in love with the portrait of the title character. By the mid-1950s, however, most of radio's entertainment and information programming had already transferred to the new medium of television, with the process reaching its completion in the early 1960s.