Episode 672 - Double Duty Detectives: Dick Powell (Rogue's Gallery, Richard Diamond, & Johnny Dollar)
Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)
Jack Mooney
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2026
⏱️ 155 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our salute to actors who played multiple radio detectives continues with Dick Powell, who transformed himself from a comedic crooner to a hard-boiled hero on the big screen. We'll hear him as two private Dicks - Richard Rogue from Rogue's Gallery and as Richard Diamond, Private Detective. He's Rogue in "The Triangle Murder Case" (originally aired on Mutual on February 21, 1946) and "The Corpse I Didn't Kill" (originally aired on Mutual on June 13, 1946). Then he's Diamond in episodes known as "The Mary Bellman Case" (originally aired on NBC on June 28, 1950) and "The Mike Burton Case" (originally aired on NBC on July 5, 1950) . Plus, we'll hear him as a third radio sleuth in the 1948 audition recording for Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Get this and get it straight. |
| 0:02.1 | Crime is a sucker's road. |
| 0:03.9 | And those who travel |
| 0:04.6 | it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave. |
| 0:12.3 | The story you were about to hear is true. |
| 0:15.2 | Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. |
| 0:18.6 | The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective. |
| 0:21.7 | The Adventures of the Saint, |
| 0:23.4 | starring Vincent Price. |
| 0:25.5 | Bob Bailey, in the exciting adventures |
| 0:27.7 | of the man with the action-packed expense account. |
| 0:30.6 | America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator... |
| 0:33.4 | Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. |
| 1:03.4 | ... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Hello and welcome to Down These Mean Streets and more old-time radio detectives and crime solvers. |
| 1:13.5 | All this month were spotlighting actors who played multiple detectives on the air, and our star today is Dick Powell, who successfully reinvented himself as a tough, hard-boiled hero after spending his early years in |
| 1:20.0 | Hollywood as a romantic crooner. Powell's big career turn came when he starred as Philip |
| 1:26.5 | Marlow in Murder My Sweet, an adaptation |
| 1:30.0 | of Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely, and he followed it up with several noir dramas, |
| 1:37.0 | including Pitfall, Johnny O'clock, and Cry Danger. |
| 1:40.8 | He's also in a favorite of mine, a Civil War crime drama called The Tall Target, where he plays a policeman assigned to guard Abraham Lincoln on the train to his inauguration. |
| 1:53.0 | Powell's new image resulted in opportunities on radio, and the first of his detective shows was Rogue's Gallery, which originated as a summer |
| 2:02.4 | replacement series for the Fitch Bandwagon Variety Show. Like that program, Rogue's Gallery was |
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