Secret Agent K-7 began on the radio in 1932 and made the leap into movies with Special Agent K-7. The original K-7 radio series is lost, but in 1939, a new transcribed syndicated series launched called, Secret Agent K-7 Returns.
Secret Agent K-7 Returns was a series of seventy-eight fifteen minute spy stories. Secret Agent K-7 didn’t take part in most adventures. Rather, he introduced the stories of what other agents did. In early episodes, Secret Agent K-7 offered the stories as cautionary tales as what aggressor powers were doing to undermine piece. K-7’s role in the story was to explain how the preceding story had been a cautionary tale about what spies were doing to undermine world peace. He would also speak out against the dangers that spies posed to peace, and sought to discourage people from becoming involved in espionage with the same fervor as 1980s anti-drug campaigns. In later episodes, K-7 took a more active role, handing out assignments to the three agents who starred in the program and occasionally showing up to help with the capture of a bad guy. Perhaps, my biggest complaint with K-7 is that the voice acting was totally miscast. K-7 was supposed an international man of mystery and intrigue. Yet, the actor sounded more like a kindly high school principal.
Beyond K-7, the series featured three secret agents who rotated: B-9, Z, and M with their assistants Rita Drake, Yvonne Durrell, and Patricia Norwood. While different actors played each role, in reality the three pairings were indistinguishable from each other, with each agent and each assistant be about the same. Of course, there was good reason for this: these were fifteen minute programs. There were quite a few fifteen minute self-contained mystery and adventure shows and they survived by cutting all the fluff and providing pure mystery and adventure.
The producers did a good job of creating a series of informative and exciting episodes in which K-7’s agents have to break up several plans to undermine world peace including sabotage, blackmail, assassination, border violations, and more. The shows are well-paced and exciting. The lady assistants while staying in the background have several shining in the course of the series that require them to be involved in gun play, fighting, and thinking on their feet.
Beyond the entertainment value of the show, it has immense historical interest as well. The show was created against the rise of Hitler and the start of World War II in Europe. The show, like many productions of the time tries to subtly warn America of the danger of Hitler by not naming Germany as the obvious state behind the no good actions, but also having the villain speaking with a German accent. One particularly moving episode had agents dispatched to investigate whether a nation that was beaten in the last war wanted another one. The secret agents spoke to several people who were war weary and wanted peace, but were afraid to speak up.
Secret Agent K-7 ’s focus on peace also was reflect of America war-weariness. Americans had lost 100,000 troops in fighting the first World War and wanted little more than peace and trade. Unfortunately, a much longer, harder war was on its way, and wishes for peace wouldn’t stop it.
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1 Jay Jostyn - Old Time Radio Researchers - 04:21
2 Border Violations - Secret Agent K7 - 14:31
3 Poisonous Gas - Secret Agent K7 - 14:37
4 Information Peddler - Secret Agent K7 - 14:47
5 Narcotics Peddlers - Secret Agent K7 - 14:42
6 Sabotage in Industry - Secret Agent K7 - 15:02
7 Fortified Borders - Secret Agent K7 - 14:46
8 Blood and Steel Society - Secret Agent K7 - 14:43
9 Illegal Use of Radio - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
10 Coast Defense Secrets - Secret Agent K7 - 14:47
11 Suicide Ships - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
12 War Supplies - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
13 Revolution - Secret Agent K7 - 14:54
14 Military Secrets Leaked - Secret Agent K7 - 14:48
15 Undesirable Aliens - Secret Agent K7 - 14:45
16 High Speed Bomber - Secret Agent K7 - 14:34
17 Master Spy - Secret Agent K7 - 14:41
18 Gold Shipments - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
19 Storm Cloud - Secret Agent K7 - 14:39
20 Apparent Civil War - Secret Agent K7 - 14:39
21 Air Defenses - Secret Agent K7 - 14:37
22 Thermite Bombs - Secret Agent K7 - 14:50
23 Fleet Movements - Secret Agent K7 - 14:46
24 Foodstuffs - Secret Agent K7 - 14:46
25 Secret Police - Secret Agent K7 - 14:45
26 Aeroplane Order - Secret Agent K7 - 14:31
27 Innocent Citizens Used - Secret Agent K7 - 14:29
28 Bombing Planes - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
29 Embassy Master Spy - Secret Agent K7 - 14:30
30 Shipyards - Secret Agent K7 - 14:32
31 Colonial Uprising - Secret Agent K7 - 14:33
32 World Crisis - Secret Agent K7 - 14:32
33 Government Overthrow - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
34 Refugees - Secret Agent K7 - 14:30
35 Fraudulent Passports - Secret Agent K7 - 14:34
36 Information for the Premier - Secret Agent K7 - 14:33
37 Secrets Leaked - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
38 Code Book Stolen - Secret Agent K7 - 14:29
39 Carl Frankenburg aka Known Spy - Secret Agent K7 - 14:34
40 Machine Gun Plans aka Inventor Missing - Secret Agent K7 - 14:38
41 Wholesale Murder - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
42 Anti-Aircraft Gun - Secret Agent K7 - 14:28
43 Agent Z Disappears - Secret Agent K7 - 14:30
44 Counterfeiters - Secret Agent K7 - 14:35
45 Vapor Gas - Secret Agent K7 - 14:31
46 Aeroplane Factory - Secret Agent K7 - 14:31
47 Defense Plans - Secret Agent K7 - 14:33
48 Ultimatum - Secret Agent K7 - 14:37
49 City of Intrigue - Secret Agent K7 - 14:34
50 Firing Squad - Secret Agent K7 - 14:37
51 Narcotics Smuggled - Secret Agent K7 - 14:37
52 Aeroplane Plans - Secret Agent K7 - 14:39
53 Delivery of Papers - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
54 Government Overthrow - Secret Agent K7 - 14:43
55 Agent Missing - Secret Agent K7 - 14:43
56 Military Information Stolen - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
57 Oriental Spy (1) - Secret Agent K7 - 14:45
58 Oriental Spy (2) - Secret Agent K7 - 14:41
59 Favor Returned - Secret Agent K7 - 14:38
60 Foreign Agent - Secret Agent K7 - 14:42
61 Letter Box Agent - Secret Agent K7 - 14:38
62 Military and Diplomatic Secrets - Secret Agent K7 - 14:38
63 Blonde Spy - Secret Agent K7 - 14:39
64 Defense Programs - Secret Agent K7 - 14:40
65 Spy Returns - Secret Agent K7 - 14:41
66 Stolen Maps - Secret Agent K7 - 14:42
67 Far East Mission - Secret Agent K7 - 14:42
