Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.

The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize.

Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account.

America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.

Yours truly, Johnny Deller. the Hello and welcome to down these mean streets and more ace crime solvers from the

golden age of radio and today we're celebrating from the Golden Age of Radio.

And today we're celebrating an anniversary.

This month marks the 65th anniversary of Bob Bailey's debut

as America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar.

Bailey's arrival brought with it the revamp of the series into a nightly serial.

And those two developments have turned yours truly Johnny Dollar

into one of the best detective shows of its era.

When Bailey stepped into the role, Johnny Dollar had

been off the air for over a year. The series premiered in 1949 with Charles Russell first playing Dollar as a

glib happy-go-lucky character a guy who wasn't above fudging the numbers on

his expense account to land himself a bigger payday.

Russell left in 1950 and was succeeded by Edmund O'Brien, who brought a tougher, more hard-boiled edge to dollar. In 1952, John Lund took over the lead role and played the character

very much in the mold set by O'Brien. The series was solid radio detective fair, but not in the same league as say Sam

Spade, Richard Diamond, or the Gerald Moore Run of Philip Marlow. But in the fall of 1955, producer director Jack Johnstone took the reins of the

series and reinvented it as a serial that played out in 15-minute chapters every weeknight.

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