Episode 31 - Diamond in the Rough (Johnny Dollar & Richard Diamond)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2013
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're saluting Dick Powell for his birthday with an hour of radio mystery starring this crooner turned hardboiled star. First, Powell stars as "the man with the action packed expense account" in the 1948 audition show for Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Then, we'll hear him as Richard Diamond, Private Detective in "Photographer's Card," originally aired on NBC on March 26, 1950.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best of detectives from the Golden Age of radio. It's a birthday party today on down these mean streets as we salute Dick Powell, born on November 14th, |
| 0:35.8 | 1904. The actor began his career as a singer in 1930s Warner Brothers |
| 0:41.0 | musicals but switched gears with an acclaimed turn as Philip Marlow in |
| 0:46.2 | 1944's Murder My Sweet. |
| 0:49.3 | Powell had to fight to shed his image as a light-hearted crooner, he auditioned for double indemnity for the |
| 0:55.1 | role that eventually went to Fred McMurray. |
| 0:58.2 | After the success of Murder My Sweet, Powell Sauta Radio Detective Gig. He briefly played Richard Rogue on Rogue's Gallery, |
| 1:06.2 | but he was looking for something that was different from the sea of radio mysteries. |
| 1:10.3 | In late 1948 he was offered two detective shows, and we'll hear him in episodes of both today. |
| 1:18.0 | First up, is yours truly Johnny Dollar, and while Powell never played America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator in a weekly series, |
| 1:28.0 | he starred his dollar in the show's audition program, much like a pilot episode of a TV series today, an audition show was used |
| 1:36.6 | to sell a potential series to a network. |
| 1:39.5 | The episode we're about to hear, Milford Brooks III, sets up the framework of the series and lays out |
| 1:45.7 | the premise. Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar travels the world, investigating suspicious |
| 1:51.1 | claims for his insurance company clients. |
| 1:54.4 | The show would prove to be a hit with radio audiences, lasting all the way up until 1962, |
| 2:00.6 | with eight different actors playing Dollar over the run. |
| 2:03.0 | Recorded in December 1948, this script is by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd. |
| 2:10.0 | Featured in the supporting cast are Joseph Kearns, Betty Lou Gerson, and William Conrad. Oh, The Columbia Broadcasting System presents a thrilling new adventure series starring Dick Powell. I'm an insurance investigator my name is Johnny Dollar what you heard me Johnny Dollar and I can pat an expense account with the best of them. |
| 3:03.0 | Yep, I'm a freelance insurance investigator, and I live in Hartford, Connecticut. |
| 3:12.0 | At least that's where I pay rent. |
| 3:15.1 | My work cheese to it that I really live anywhere, except at home. If you're interested in buying |
... |
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