Episode 425 – Change for a Dollar (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2021
⏱️ 95 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Seventy-two years ago this month, "the man with the action-packed expense account" made his two-fisted radio debut. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ran until 1962 and helped to bring down the curtain on the golden age of radio. We'll hear three radio adventures of "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator," each starring a different actor as Dollar. First, Charles Russell stars in "Murder is a Merry-Go-Round" (originally aired on CBS on March 11, 1949). Then, John Lund is Dollar in "The Marigold Matter" (originally aired on CBS on January 23, 1953). Finally, Mandel Kramer plays Johnny in "The Three for One Matter" (originally aired on CBS on October 22, 1961).
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 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. |
| 0:07.0 | The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. |
| 0:18.0 | The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective. |
| 0:22.0 | The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize |
| 0:25.4 | Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account |
| 0:30.6 | America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. |
| 0:33.0 | Yours truly, Johnny Deller. And the Hello and welcome to down these mean streets and more super sleuths from the |
| 1:00.3 | golden age of radio. Today we're itemizing our expense accounts with yours truly |
| 1:07.1 | Johnny Dollar. 72 years ago this month, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator kicked off his radio career. |
| 1:17.0 | Six actors played Johnny Dollar over the course of the series from 1949 until 1962, |
| 1:24.8 | eight if you count a pair of audition shows |
| 1:27.2 | starring Dick Powell and Gerald Moore. |
| 1:30.6 | Now most old time radio fans, myself included, consider Bob Bailey to be the best Johnny |
| 1:37.9 | Dollar. Of course he had the benefit of starring in the series when it had been revamped into a |
| 1:44.4 | nightly 15-minute serial. That meant the writers and director had 75 minutes of |
| 1:51.6 | radio time to play with versus the typical 30. |
| 1:55.7 | And they could craft complex richer stories |
| 1:59.6 | than the type you would find in a regular radio detective series. But I think Johnny Dollar is |
| 2:05.1 | consistently good from beginning to end and each of the other men who |
| 2:09.9 | starred in the series, Charles Russell, Edmund O'Brien, John Lund, Bob Reddick, and Mandel Kramer |
| 2:17.0 | brought their own strengths to the part. |
| 2:20.2 | This week, in honor of his radio anniversary |
... |
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