The run
- Network
- NBC
- Years active
- 1940–1950
- Surviving broadcasts
- 27
- Genre
- western
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. played the parts of "special agents of all branches of the federal government, who daily risk their lives to protect the lives of all of us... to guard our welfare and our liberties, they must remain nameless - The Silent Men!" At each episode, Fairbanks checked in with his chief, played by either William Conrad or Herb Butterfield. Regulars included Virginia Gregg, Raymond Burr, Lou Merrill, Lurene Tuttle, Paul Frees and John Dehner. Don Stanley was the announcer. The show was produced and directed by Warren Lewis, who wrote many of the scripts along with Joel Murcott. The series ran on NBC. Digitised by the Old Time Radio Researchers and streamed from the Internet Archive item “TheSilentMen”; these recordings are in the public domain.
Source collection
Internet Archive audio collections
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
0 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 11 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from NaN, in original transmission order.
- 1. Case of the Rubber Gloves · Date unknown
- 2. The Roping of Joe Landis · Date unknown
- 3. The Bogus G.I. · Date unknown
Case of the Rubber Gloves
Date unknown · 28 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Roping of Joe Landis
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Bogus G.I.
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Visas for Sale
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Stolen Arsenal
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Torch
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Green Sedan
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
The Trans-Atlantic Push
Date unknown · 29 min
Broadcast on NBC. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on NBC
NBC in 1940–1950
Other series the network carried while The Silent Men was on the air.
Same seasons
western on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The adult western
Gunsmoke was sold as the first adult western: moral ambiguity, weather, silence. Serialised folk horror and long-form fiction inherited its patience.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Silent Men
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
Chosen by the same editors.
