With over a decade on-air, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was one of the longest-running detective series on radio. It aired on CBS Radio for 15 minutes from 1948 to 1962, making it among the last series broadcast on air as the listeners' interest on radio started to wane during the 1960s.
Johnny Dollar, the series lead character, was an insurance investigator. Each episode began with a phone call from insurance executives, asking him to work on an unusual claim. This would then require Dollar to go on a journey across the United States, or sometimes on other countries. Each case he handled was referred to as a "matter," some instances of which were "The Forbes Matter," "The Silver Blue Matter," and "The Price of Fame Matter." Such titles and format were used throughout the series' run.
From a total of 811 episodes produced by the show, only 720 are still existing. It was the last radio program on what was known as the Golden Age of Radio.
The CDs begin with the 1948 audition programs, following through until the series end in 1962. Always broadcast by CBS. Johnny Dollar was "a freelance insurance investigator with the action-packed expense account.” Dollar worked for the Universal Adjustment Bureau, and his expense account allowed him to travel the world to recover goods for his company. The format of the program followed Dollar, as he dictated his expense account like this, “expense account, item one,” and he would go on to listing his travel expenses, etc., etc. until he finished the report saying, “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.” Click here to read more about Yours Truly Johnny Dollar
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Please enjoy these 728 old time radio episodes:
Air Date | Title | Synopsis | Rating |
---|---|---|---|
12.24.1949 | how i played santa claus and almost got left holding the bag |
+ What do you do when the bad guy is really Santa Claus? Ho, ho! | |
02.03.1950 | death takes a working day |
+ A murdered man has been killed by a gun fired from a long distance, but the powder burns show that... | |
02.10.1950 | the ss malay trader ship |
+ Johnny signs on as a sailor to prevent an insurance fraud on a ship full of rubber. | |
02.17.1950 | the grave diggers spades |
+ Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnel Trump in North Dakota are threatening to committ suicide. "How the gravedig... | |
02.24.1950 | the archeologist |
+ Bruce Lambert, an archeologist ("Who never should have left his tomb") has disappeared in Egypt. ... | |
03.03.1950 | bodyguard to the late robert w perry | ||
03.07.1950 | how i got a wildcat oil operation by the tail or the youthful millionaire |
+ The show has moved from Fridays to Tuesdays. Alec Jefferson, a youthful millionaire, has disappear... | |
03.14.1950 | the eighty five little minks |
+ A Boston department store heist and a murdered night watchman starts Johnny on the trail of a saf... | |
03.21.1950 | the man who wrote himself to death rehearsal |
+ No music cues are heard on this recording. A crazed writer tries to get himself killed to collect ... | |
03.21.1950 | the collegio diamond matter | ||
03.28.1950 | the village scene matter | ||
04.04.1950 | the story of the big red schoolhouse |
+ A school burns in Nebraska, due to inflammable corruption. Big Jim Madden and his boys look guilty... | |
04.11.1950 | the dead first helpers |
+ Johnny goes to work in a Pittsburgh steel mill to solve a series of seniority murders. A good stor... | |
04.18.1950 | the story of the ten oh eight rehearsal |
+ No music cues. Johnny investigates a strange railroad heist...a $247 barrel of jeweler's rouge! P... | |
04.25.1950 | the pearl carrasa matter |
+ Johnny gets beat up by Las Vegas narcotics crooks while trying to pay a beneficiary $5000. The pr... | |
05.02.1950 | the abel tackitt matter rehearsal |
+ Johnny is off to Borneo to find a man insured for $700,000. No music cues are heard, indicating a ... | |
05.09.1950 | the harold trandem matter |
+ A wealthy man is murdered right in front of Johnny after a threat on his life. The program was po... | |
05.16.1950 | the sidney rykoff matter rehearsal |
+ No music cues, which indicated unedited tape or a rehearsal recording. A prize fighter is kidnappe... | |
05.23.1950 | the earl chadwick matter |
+ Johnny flies to Bermuda to find out if a dead man really is. The recording was possibly made May 1... | |
05.30.1950 | the port au prince matter |
+ This program uses the same script (December 17, 1949). Johnny travels to the Caribbean to keep a ... | |
06.15.1950 | the arrowcraft matter |
+ Sponsored by: Wrigley's Chewing Gum. A series of yacht sinkings has led to eleven deaths...and the... | |
06.22.1950 | the london matter |
+Sponsored by: Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum. Johnny is hired to locate a shipment of narcotics th... | |
06.29.1950 | barbara james matter |
+Sponsored by: Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum. Mrs. Martin James has disappeared from her Denver ma... | |
07.06.1950 | the bello horizonte railroad matter |
+Sponsored by: Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum. There have been strange "accidents" on a Brazilian r... | |
07.13.1950 | the calgary matter |
+Sponsored by: Wrigley's Gum. Johnny tries to track down the gang who has stolen $300,000. Someone's... |
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