The Big Story
Feature Assignment
Audition
von
This audition program, originally titled “Special Assignment” and later renamed “Feature Assignment,” dramatizes the case of Joseph Majczek and Ted Marcinkiewicz, two men wrongly imprisoned after a Chicago police officer was shot during a 1932 speakeasy holdup. The story follows the investigation that helped expose their wrongful convictions, including the efforts of Chicago Times reporters James McGuire and Jack McPhaul.
The audition was designed to show potential sponsors how a real news story could be shaped into a radio program. Its account includes more detail about the actual events than the later episodes of The Big Story. The script was subsequently edited and used for the series episode “The Man Without a Name.”
The case also became the basis for the 1948 film Call Northside 777, in which Jimmy Stewart played a character blending aspects of McGuire and McPhaul. This dramatic presentation brings together crime reporting, a contested investigation, and the human cost of a wrongful conviction.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.