Rocky Jordan was a radio series about an American restaurateur in
Cairo who each week became involved in some kind of mystery or adventure.
The show was broadcast on CBS from October 31st 1948 to September
10th 1950. and then again from June 27th 1951 to August 22nd 1951.
The character of Rocky Jordan had been introduced to listeners in
a similar show called A Man Named Jordan that was broadcast in 1945
but set in Istanbul rather than Cairo.
Cast
The two lead roles were those of Rocky Jordan and Captain Sam Sabaaya
of the Cairo Police. For most of the show's history Jordan was played
by veteran radio actor Jack Moyles, but he was replaced by a movie
star, George Raft, for the brief 1951 run. Jay Novello played Sabaaya
throughout the entire series. Other roles were played by members
of Hollywood's Radio Row, and the announcer was Larry Thor.
Characters
Rocky Jordan
Rocky Jordan (Jack Moyles/George Raft) is the proprietor of the
Café Tambourine located, according to the announcer, "not
far from the Mosque Sultan Hassan," though he is originally
from St. Louis.
As an American restaurateur in a North African country, Jordan is
somewhat similar to the Rick Blaine character in the film Casablanca,
though the Café Tambourine is apparently a much less salubrious
venue than Rick's Bar. The announcer describes it as being "Crowded
with forgotten men, and alive with the babble of many languages".
Each episode sees Jordan confronted with a "crime, a mystery,
a beautiful woman, or a combination of the three".
Precisely why Jordan is in Egypt is left deliberately vague, though
he apparently has enemies in St. Louis so can't go back home.
Sam Sabaaya
Sam Sabaaya (Jay Novello) is the police captain who apprehends the
criminals at the end of each adventure. Sabaaya is portrayed as
a diligent and competent policeman, usually as Jordan's friend and
ally but sometimes as his foil. He is an Egyptian Muslim,[3] is
married, and has four children.
Other characters
Two further characters appear in some but not all episodes, Chris
and Sergeant Greco. Chris is the bartender at the Café Tambourine,
while Greco is one of Sabaaya's underlings. Greco has a particular
dislike of Jordan, and invariably tries to make his life difficult,
often by arresting him as the chief suspect in whatever crime Jordan
is trying to solve. He's also ambitious and eager for promotion.
Style
A deliberately Eastern feel was created by careful use of music
and sound effects, and the writers Larry Roman and Gomer Cool took
care that the characters used the names of real streets in Cairo.
Much of the information the writers used for this came from a book
called the Pocket Guide to Egypt that the US Army had produced for
servicemen sent there during the War. The Oriental-sounding music
composed for the show by Richard Aurandt is considered to be of
exceptional quality.
All of our Old Time Radio Programs are in MP3 format. You
can play them on your computer, you can transfer them to MP3
players (like the IPod), but, by and large, you cannot play
them on stereos, walkmen, or car radios.
The sound quality of Old Time Radio Programs can vary greatly.
Some episodes are excellent, others you have to turn up the
volume a little and ignore the static. All of the episodes can
be listened to and enjoyed. You can listen to our free samples
to get a feel for how the programs sound.
You can purchase these episodes on CD or you can
download them.
To purchase on CD:
To download:
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You save money on the cost of the episodes and you don't
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After you pay you will be returned to our site to a page
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To open a zip file you need software to "unzip"
it. Your computer may already have unzip software, if this
is the case, just click on the file and your software will
automatically open up and you can unzip the files. If your
computer doesn't have an unzip program, you can get one from
the internet. The most popular is probably winzip (www.winzip.com),
however, we use Zip Wizard by Coffeecup Software because its
pretty good, easy to use, and free. (http://www.coffeecup.com/zip-wizard/)
The files are large - it will take you a few minutes to
download each file. Each zip file is around 40MBs. A full
CD worth of episodes takes about 14 large files. if you are
on a dial-up connection, we highly recommend you buy a CD.
You will receive an e-mail receipt from Paypal, and we will
send you an additional e-mail with the links.
Buy on CD: $4.50
Download only $3.50
Rocky Jordan 42 episodes
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481107 Count Me Out.Mp3
481121 Man In The Morgue.Mp3
481205 Strangers Three.Mp3
481212 Ace High Straight.Mp3
490116 Case Of The Sleepy Camel.Mp3
490306 The Two O'clock Man.Mp3
490320 Passport For Vivi.Mp3
490327 Everything Shipshape.Mp3
490403 Portrait Of Rocky.Mp3
490424 Consignment For Naples.Mp3
490501 Fall Guy.Mp3
490508 Lady In Disguise.Mp3
490522 Make Up Man.Mp3
490529 Desert Betrayal.Mp3
490605 Man Thay All Loved.Mp3
490612 Man From Damascas.Mp3
490619 The Big Ditch.Mp3
490703 The Map Of Murder.Mp3
490717 The Race.Mp3
490724 The Coward Of Mutakahn.Mp3
490731 Bar Lache.Mp3
490807 Gold Fever.Mp3
490814 Cairo Vendetta.Mp3
490821 The Gum Queen.Mp3
490904 A Stranger To The Desert.Mp3
490911 Adventure With Andrea.Mp3
490918 The Nile Runs High.Mp3
490925 Momento From Adelaide.Mp3
491002 Pattern For Revenge.Mp3
491009 The Man With No Name.Mp3
491016 Quest For Traneeneh.Mp3
491023 Dierite Bowl.Mp3
491106 Black Ball.Mp3
491113 Strange Death Of Van Dorn.Mp3
500106 Smoke Screen.Mp3
500115 The Loomis Affair.Mp3
500205 Return Of Toni.Mp3
500212 Madame Dulock's Daughter.Mp3
500416 Adventure In Zaqaziq.Mp3
500604 Word Of A Bishop, The.Mp3
500910 Trail Of The Assassin.Mp3
550825 The Song Of Moses (part 1) Rehersal.Mp3