Mr. Chameleon

Show Information based on John Dunning's book "On The Air"

Detective melodrama.. (1948-1952).

Mr. Chameleon was painfully contrived, employing dramatic clichés seldom heard after sundown. But its creator, Frank Hummert, was a master of soap opera, utilizing in his dramatic shows the obvious devices of simplistic dialogue, heavy exposition, and constant repetition of names, so that there was never a doubt as to the speaker's identity.

Chameleon operated out of "Central Police Headquarters." A case was sometimes said to be "famous" the moment Chameleon was assigned to it. Following the pattern set by that other prime-time Hummert stalwart, Mr. Keen, Chameleon had a big, dumb sidekick, Dave Arnold, whose function was to ask obvious questions and be suitably perplexed until the boss revealed an outcome already deduced by much of the listening audience. About halfway through the play, Chameleon would disappear, returning in disguise. The disguises were at all times recognized by the listener, and probably would have been even had Hummert not intended it thus. In The Perfect Maid Murder Case, one of only two shows available on tape, even the killer saw through the disguise at once. The show had a Hummert sound, from the music to the sponsor (Bayer Aspirin, one of Hummert's best clients).

CAST:

Karl Swenson as Mr. Chameleon, "the man of many faces," the "famous and dreaded detective" who often used a disguise to track down a killer.

Frank Butler as his sidekick, Detective Dave Arnold.

New York actors in support.

ANNOUNCERS: Roger Krupp, Howard Claney.

ORCHESTRA: Victor Arden.

PRODUCERS: Frank and Anne Hummert.

DIRECTOR: Richard Leonard.

WRITER: Marie Baumer.

THEME: Masquerade.

BROADCAST HISTORY:

July 14, 1948-Aug. 7,1953, CBS. 30m, Wednesdays at 8, 1948-51;

Sundays at 5:30, 1951-52;

Thursdays at 9, most of 1952;

Fridays at 9, 1952-53.

Off the air mid-Jan. to mid-March, 1953.

Returned Fridays at 8:30.

Bayer Aspirin, 1948-51; General Foods and Wrigley's Gum, 1952.