Radio crime busters, 1930 to 1949, Childhood memoir, by Phyllis Ellis

During the winters of the late 1930s and 40s, after-school radio programs and their attendant clubs were a bit hit.


The Dick Tracy comic strip and club was one such interest of my brother and me and our friends.


On certain boxes of breakfast cereals, offers were made to send away for various items we heard Dick Tracy, his fellow detectives and his girlfriend, Tess Truehart, use in the course of their crime-fighting. We could send away for a Dick Tracy gold metal ring with a secret compartment to hold coded messages, a code book, an imaginary two-way radio wrist watch and other things all for a certain number of box tops from that cereal.


After sending off the required coupons, the wait seemed interminable for the package and we checked the mailbox every day until its arrival.


From our secret headquarters deep in the bowels of our parents’ basement (and using all the acquired equipment) we solved all the crimes and sent the “bad guys” to jail.