21st Precinct
Drama
Drama
A Salute to the Law.
Discover A Salute to the Law: short detective stories and vintage crime drama from the early years of radio, presented by Heritage Radio Vault. Explore a collection of 13 preserved recordings, including The Female Ogre, Murder on Impulse, Fatal Ace of Spades and The Case of the Avenging Angel. Looking for a continuing case? Listen to The Young Shoplifter, Part 1 before Part 2. The Case of the Avenging Angel and The Avenging Angel Strikes Again are separate recordings, each retained under its own title. Archive note: source filenames carry date labels ranging from 1934 to 1940. These labels help identify the recordings; they are not…
OFFICIAL HERITAGE RADIO VAULT RECORDING
Listen to A Salute to the Law.
Press Play in the official Spreaker player.
Open on Spreaker ↗The player connects to Spreaker, which may use cookies and serve advertising. Audio starts when you press Play. Spreaker privacy
A Salute to the Law: Programme Guide.
A case is easier to follow when someone knows where to begin. A Salute to the Law presents short crime stories associated with Los Angeles investigator Nick Harris, bringing the detective's public persona into early radio storytelling.
Broadcast history.
Radio historian Ryan Ellett traces Harris' broadcasting to KFI in 1923 and describes a programme that continued until 1942. Harris had already presented detective experiences through lectures and newspaper accounts. That wider career is distinct from the much smaller selection of surviving recordings available here.
Cast and creative team.
Nick Harris is the central historical figure associated with the programme. The OTRR research used here establishes his background and broadcasting activity, but does not provide a full supporting cast or scriptwriting team for each surviving recording. Those credits remain unconfirmed rather than being reconstructed from title alone.
Where to begin.
The Case of the Avenging Angel · The Young Shoplifter — Part 1 · The Young Shoplifter — Part 2
These are available HRV recordings. The Young Shoplifter entries are explicitly numbered parts. The two separately titled Avenging Angel recordings are retained as distinct records, not relabelled as an assumed identical or multipart transfer.
An interesting detail.
Harris' programme changed frequency over its long history: Ellett describes weekly broadcasts and twice-weekly appearances during the late 1930s. This helps explain why a handful of surviving recordings cannot be used to infer the size of the original run.
Listening appeal.
Choose a short case when you want a compact crime story. For a title explicitly divided into parts, begin with the first part and continue its matching second. The period presentation is also part of the interest of these early detective recordings.
Collection and date notes.
HRV lists thirteen public recordings. They represent a selection from a much longer broadcasting career, not a complete original run. The programme is also encountered under Nick Harris-related catalogue names. Exact historical dates and individual supporting credits need recording-level confirmation; modern podcast dates describe later publication.
Sources.
Choose your next episode.
13 public recordings in this programme. Catalogue order is not a verified original broadcast chronology.
13 episodes available.
Questions about A Salute to the Law.
Who was Nick Harris?
He was a Los Angeles private investigator who also presented detective stories to the public and on radio.
Do I need to listen to every recording in order?
Choose an individual case, but keep explicitly numbered multipart stories together.
Are all of Harris' broadcasts available here?
No. The thirteen HRV records are a selection from a broadcasting history spanning many years.
