Johnny Dollar Radio 1953 ep171 The Shayne Bombing Matter
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is a radio drama that aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962.
Johnny Dollar was played by eight actors over the show's run:
Dick Powell (Audition show in 1948)
Charles Russell (February 1949 – January 1950)
Edmond O'Brien (February 1950 – September 1952)
John Lund (November 1952 – September 1954)
Gerald Mohr (Audition show in 1955)
Bob Bailey (October 1955 – November 1960)
Bob Readick (December 1960 – June 1961)
Mandel Kramer (June 1961 – September 1962)
The first several seasons imagined protagonist Johnny Dollar as a private investigator drama. In 1955 after a yearlong hiatus, the series came back in its best-known incarnation with Bob Bailey starring in "the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account – America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator." There were 809 episodes (plus two not-for-broadcast auditions) in the 12-year run, and more than 710 still exist today. (Jim Cox's book American Radio Networks: A History cites "886 total performances" which includes repeat performances.
Each case usually started with a phone call from an insurance adjuster, calling on Johnny to investigate an unusual claim: a suspicious death, an attempted fraud, a missing person, or other mysterious circumstances. Each story required Johnny to travel to some distant locale, usually within the United States but sometimes abroad, where he was almost always threatened with personal danger in the course of his investigations.
He would compare notes with the police officials who had first investigated each strange occurrence, and followed every clue until he figured out what actually happened. Johnny's file on each case was usually referenced as a "matter," as in "The Silver Blue Matter" or "The Forbes Matter". Later episodes were more fanciful, with titles like "The Wayward Trout Matter" and "The Price of Fame Matter" (the latter featuring a rare guest-star appearance by Vincent Price as himself; here Price and Dollar team up to retrieve a painting stolen by Price’s insurance agent).
Johnny usually stuck to business but would sometimes engage in romantic dalliances with women he encountered in his travels; later episodes gave Johnny a steady girlfriend, Betty Lewis. Johnny's precious recreational time was usually spent fishing, and it was not uncommon for Johnny's clients to exploit this favorite pastime in convincing him to take on a job near good fishing locations. His past was rarely mentioned, but Dollar in “The Bennett Matter” described himself as a four-year US Marine veteran who then worked as a police officer for a decade before changing careers to insurance investigation.
Each story was recounted in flashback, and every few minutes the action would be interrupted by Johnny listing a line item from his expense account, which served as an effective scene transition. Most of the expense account related to transportation, lodging, and meals, but no incidental expense was too small for Johnny to itemize, as in "Item nine, 10 cents. Aspirin. I needed them."
The monetary amounts weren't always literal: the smallest line item Johnny ever recorded was "two cents: what I felt like" after a professional setback; the largest was "one million dollars" (the way he felt after finding a missing woman and her daughter in a snowbound cabin). The episodes generally finished with Johnny tallying up his expense account and traveling back to Hartford, Connecticut, where he was based. Sometimes Johnny would add a sardonic postscript under "Remarks," detailing the aftermath of the case. ("The Todd Matter," which especially disgusted Johnny, ended abruptly with "Remarks – nil!")
In later seasons the program sometimes referred to itself, with other characters recognizing Dollar's voice from the radio.
-
LIVE
Russell Brand
2 hours agoHOLY SH*T! Biden CAUGHT Wearing MAGA Hat + MASSIVE 9/11 GAFFE - SF451
4,905 watching -
LIVE
Dave Portnoy
3 hours agoThe Unnamed Show With Dave Portnoy, Kirk Minihane, Ryan Whitney - Episode 30
940 watching -
35:20
The Rubin Report
1 hour agoDark Details About the Debate No One Noticed with Co-Host Megyn Kelly
10.8K16 -
LIVE
Benny Johnson
1 hour agoBiden Puts on a MAGA Hat and Shouts ‘Don’t Eat Dogs and Cats!’ | Trump TikTok Trend Goes VIRAL
12,667 watching -
1:17:06
Steven Crowder
3 hours agoAre Haitians Really Eating Pets & Why Taylor Swift Endorsed Kamala Harris | Guest Tayler Hansen
163K304 -
LIVE
Rethinking the Dollar
38 minutes agoRate Cuts To Keep $315T Debt Bubble From Bursting | Morning Check-In
178 watching -
1:39:45
Graham Allen
4 hours agoTaylor Swift Gets YUGE Backlash For Kamala Endorsement + Biden Goes Maga??
53.2K84 -
LIVE
LFA TV
5 hours agoTRUMP SURGING, BIDEN ENDORSING? | LIVE FROM AMERICA 9.12.24 11am EST
6,182 watching -
3:00:30
Matt Kohrs
16 hours agoStocks Are Bouncing! Time To Buy??? || The MK Show
37.6K3 -
29:16
BonginoReport
5 hours agoJoe Biden’s Stunning New Presidential Endorsement (Ep.41) - 09/12/24
68K98