Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to suspense, crime and horror stories from the golden age of radio. I'm Eric.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: I'm Tim.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yours Truly Johnny Dollar debuted on CBS February 11, 1949. Described as America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar narrated each story in the form of an action packed expense account.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Many actors portrayed Johnny Dollar over the program's 12 year run. The very first, Dick Powell recorded the show's initial audition episode, but turned down the role in favor of the lead in Richard Diamond. Charles Russell originated the role on air and portrayed the character until Edmund O'Brien took over on February 3, 1950. Subsequently, Dollar would be played by John Lund.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: CBS canceled the series in 1954, only to revive it again in 1955 with a new man in the lead, Bob Bailey, best known for his portrayal of George Valentine in the comedy turned detective series Let George do it. In 1960, CBS moved production of Yours Truly Johnny$, along with a significantly scaled back version of Suspense from Hollywood to New York. Bailey bowed out, preferring to stay in California. He was replaced by Bob Redick and later by Mandel Kramer. The final episode of yours truly Johnny Dollar, the Tip Off Matter, aired September 30, 1962, followed immediately by the final broadcast of Suspense.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: This episode, the Little man who Wasn't All There, featured Charles Russell by coincidence or design. Ten years later, Bob Bailey starred in an episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar entitled the Little man who Was there matter in 1959.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: But for now, let's listen to the Little man who Wasn't All There from Yours Truly Johnny dollar, first broadcast Oct. 29, 1949.
[00:02:24] Speaker C: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You're alone and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker, listen to the music and listen to the voices.
[00:02:40] Speaker D: If you're looking for murder, I know a guy who can get it for you wholesale.
[00:02:49] Speaker E: This is another in the adventures of America's fabulous free freelance insurance investigator Johnny Dollar, starring Charles Russell. At Insurance Investigation, Johnny Dollar is only an expert at making out his expense account. He's an absolute genius.
[00:03:14] Speaker D: Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to West Coast Underwriters, San Francisco Branch. Attention Bradford L. Coats, General Manager. The following is an accounting of my expenditures during my investigation of the little man who Wasn't all there, or in most cases, there at all.
Or the unpaid premium payoff expense account item1.3 cents postage due on your airmail special delivery letter containing said assignment. I can just hear you dictating it.
[00:03:55] Speaker F: Take a letter to Johnny Duller. You'll find his address in the files. Dear sir. Better make that dear dollar. Enclosed fine copies of letters received by us from one Mr. James Yarbo. Period. This man's wife was insured with our company until recently. One day before her death, her period of grace and an unpaid premium ran out. We cancelled her policy in the amount of $20,000. Her husband, Yabo, first made every effort to collect, then threatened us. Since then, we've received the enclosed series of letters intimating, without confessing, that he's had a hand in the accidental death of at least 12 of our policyholders to date. The police have been working on it, but are getting nowhere. If you are available, please come immediately. Yours very truly.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So.
[00:04:40] Speaker D: Expense accounts, item two, $176.87. Airfare, Hartford to San Francisco. Item three, 540. Cab fare, airport to your office.
[00:04:53] Speaker F: Dollar. Glad you got him. You've no idea what a mess.
[00:04:57] Speaker D: Okay, Mr. Coates, okay. Don't get excited. We'll nail this guy before you run out of policyholders.
[00:05:02] Speaker F: Well, the dozen he's apparently done away with already, of course, this darn near quarter of a million. You've got to move fast. $. The man is a homicidal maniac.
[00:05:09] Speaker D: Yeah, but a smart one, though. He's put just enough in those letters he sent you to let you know that he's working on a grand scale revenge against your company. But he leaves out just enough so the law can't lock him up.
[00:05:20] Speaker F: He's had perfect alibis in every case.
[00:05:23] Speaker D: Look, Mr. Coates, tell me, have all these deaths been local right around here?
[00:05:27] Speaker F: No, they've been all over California.
[00:05:29] Speaker D: Mm. One other thing. The method from this list you gave me, Mr. Yarbo, seems to have a preference for killing people through the noisy and gory method of fake automobile accidents.
[00:05:39] Speaker F: Yes, very true. But what about this last one? Airplane crash. That was a $30,000 loss to us.
Just think, our poor, innocent policyholder flying around. And then his engine quit, thanks to a man he's never even seen.
[00:05:54] Speaker D: Tell me, Mr. Coates, just how difficult would it be to get a list of your California policyholders? Names and addresses?
[00:06:00] Speaker F: You know why, that would take days. But goodness gracious, man, you can't hope to keep an eye on them all. Beside the minute you went off the job, he'd struck again.
[00:06:08] Speaker D: That's a preposterous time.
Look, I don't want the list. I was just wondering how Yarbo got it. Oh, now, so far you've given me nothing to go on. I'd like you to add two things to that. Yarbo's home address and a $50,000 life insurance policy made out to me.
[00:06:26] Speaker F: What on earth's that for?
[00:06:27] Speaker D: Well, look, in the first place, if we're going fishing for Mr. Yarbo, I might as well be the worm. In the second place, if I should get gobbled up in the line of duty, that $50,000 life insurance would make several attractive young ladies of my acquaintance very happy. Not, mind you, as happy as I can make them by remaining alive.
Expense account, item 4. $30 rental of limousine, complete with chauffeur. I figured if I was riding the trouble, I was riding in style. So I started on a house to house survey, you might say. Knocking at death's door.
[00:07:16] Speaker G: Yes, what is it? The police?
[00:07:18] Speaker D: Oh, I'm sorry to bother you, Mrs. Cianelli, but I'm from the insurance company. Oh, yes, it'll only take a moment. One question about your son, poor Angelo.
[00:07:29] Speaker G: What do you want to know about my poor son? He drive away in his automobile, that's all.
I never see him in life again.
[00:07:38] Speaker D: Yes, I, I, I know. Tell me, Mrs. Chanel, did you ever hear your son mention a man named Yarbo?
[00:07:45] Speaker G: Yarbo?
[00:07:46] Speaker D: Yeah, Yarbo.
[00:07:51] Speaker G: Now please, please leave me. There was so much sadness in my house.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Yes?
[00:08:12] Speaker D: Mr. Dykes?
[00:08:13] Speaker H: Yes?
[00:08:14] Speaker D: I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm from the insurance company about your son's plane crash.
[00:08:18] Speaker F: Oh, I thought all those details had been taken care of.
[00:08:21] Speaker D: But just one thing, Mr. Deitch. Did your son ever mention a man named Yarbo?
[00:08:27] Speaker F: Yarbo?
[00:08:27] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:28] Speaker F: That's an unusual name. I'm sure if he had, I would have remembered.
[00:08:32] Speaker D: Okay, sir, I'm sorry to bother you and thanks.
[00:08:48] Speaker F: Yes, sir, may I help you?
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Yes, I'd like to have a word with Mrs. Weatherly. I'm from the insurance company.
[00:08:53] Speaker F: Well, sir, Mrs. Weatherly has been indisposed, not receiving visitors.
[00:08:58] Speaker G: What is it, Brian?
[00:08:59] Speaker D: How do you do, Mrs. Weatherly? My name is Johnny Dollar.
[00:09:02] Speaker G: Oh, dear, dear. You may go, Brian. Oh, I'm ashamed to let you see me in this condition, Mr. Darfur. Just ashamed. But you understand.
[00:09:12] Speaker D: I do indeed.
[00:09:14] Speaker G: It was bad enough. The accident, I mean. But the scandal. Oh, I'll never be able to hold my head up again?
[00:09:23] Speaker D: Yes. No.
[00:09:24] Speaker G: If Harvey had to get himself in an offmobile accident, why, oh, why, I ask you, did he have to have that awful Mrs. Barclay in the car?
[00:09:34] Speaker D: Oh, yes, yes, it was very unthoughtful of him. Mrs. Weatherly, would you mind answering one question?
[00:09:40] Speaker G: Well, if I can.
[00:09:41] Speaker D: Did your husband ever mention a man named Yarbo?
[00:09:44] Speaker H: Well, no.
[00:09:45] Speaker G: No, he never mentioned the man named Yarbo, but neither did he ever mention Mrs. Barkley.
[00:09:56] Speaker D: I tried a half a dozen of the other beneficiaries Left behind by Mr. Yarbo's list of victims. All I got out of it was a very watery afternoon. The tears were falling like monsoon time in Burma. But of information I got none. This brought me right smack up to a point. I didn't want to have to reach the point of contacting Mr. Yarbo in person.
At 8:30 that night, I took a plan on Yarbo's house on Lombard Street. At 11:30 I saw the lights go out, as did Yarbo. He was a little guy, stooped over like he was looking for cigarette butts on the sidewalk, needing a haircut and true to type, wearing a long black overcoat. But worst of all was the little satchel he was carrying. Items like this always set off a chain reaction in my imagination and I could just see him on his way to atomizing the Oakland Bay Bridge, thus causing the biggest automobile accident in history.
I very cleverly forced my way into the house by breaking a first floor window. Reaching in and opening same, the Cyclops eye of my flashlight started picking up information on the subject of Mr. Yarbo. Immediately, the room I had entered looked like the hobby lobby of an English bobby. A crime museum if I ever saw one. On one wall, a gun case. On another, a crime library. And scattered around the room a grisly collection ranging from blood stained hatchets to shrunken heads. But the most surprising criminal curio of all stood right behind me.
Mr. Yarbo, complete with little black bags.
[00:11:39] Speaker H: Well, well. I must say, the current second story man dresses well. But I must also say you, my man, must have the old masters of the art turning in their graves. For you, young man, are a heavy fingered bungler. Here, let us have a better look at you.
Now, that flashlight. I'll feel better after you've dropped it.
[00:11:59] Speaker D: Hey, what am I doing? You're not even pointing a gun at me.
[00:12:02] Speaker H: Don't feel too comfortable. You are well covered from many points. A step from you in any direction may detonate any number of explosive devices.
[00:12:10] Speaker D: Why not to pick this joint to burgle? I feel like a city councilman playing a call in the White House. You seem more the kind of a guy I should be working for instead of on. What's your racket?
[00:12:20] Speaker H: Racket? You were in a racket? My little friend, my pastime is a science. Yes.
I take it you are impressed with my collection.
[00:12:31] Speaker D: Who wouldn't be?
[00:12:32] Speaker H: Well, if you're interested, come here.
[00:12:37] Speaker D: About those booby traps.
[00:12:41] Speaker H: Oh, yes.
Note well the design, the rug, the large roses. Avoid stepping on them for the time being.
[00:12:49] Speaker D: Oh, great. And I was in here, stumbling around the dark.
[00:12:52] Speaker H: May your good luck continue. But look. Look here in this case, the small vial on the right that was purloined for me to order from the famous Black Museum in Scotland Yard. That little vial once rested in the case of the fabulous murderer Dr. Crippen. On there beside it, that lock of hair that is from the head of the second victim of the noted Neil Cream. And up there, look up there, the hangman's noose over the mantle. From that one swung the body of the notorious Western bad woman, Fanny Turner.
[00:13:19] Speaker D: Oh. How's chances for running this place for Halloween?
[00:13:22] Speaker H: Well, well, all right then. Since you no longer seem interested in playing the part of a bungling burglar, then I assume that I am also free to discontinue my pose as a victim of your disguise, Mr. Johnny Dollar.
[00:13:36] Speaker D: Oh. Ah. Looks like the chips are down and I'm the fish.
[00:13:40] Speaker H: Yes, and there are a lot of other fish in your sea, Mr. Dollar. Poison eels. That's which you are. The lot of you parasites. Gambling on death and then not paid when you lose.
[00:13:50] Speaker D: Listen, Mr. Yarbo, you're placing a big hunk of blame where it doesn't belong. You're confused about things.
[00:13:55] Speaker H: Confused?
[00:13:56] Speaker D: Yes. When your wife's insurance premium was overdue, you were allowed a 30 day period of grace. And when that went by, the policy was cancelled. Now that's not the insurance company's fault. It was your fault.
[00:14:05] Speaker H: But it wasn't. I gave her the money. She spent it on herself. I didn't made it up. I told them so. After she died, I told them, but they wouldn't listen. I'll show you. I'll show you.
[00:14:19] Speaker D: The Arbo looked like he was headed to show me the chopping end of an axe laying on top of a small table. I hit him just as he hit the table.
As he hit the floor, I noticed what I was standing on. One of those big red roses in the Carpet. It hadn't exploded yet. But that was one flower I wasn't standing around waiting to see bloom.
It took a lot of nerve picking up a telephone in that room. But I finally got a good hold on my nerves. And a fair hold on an imitation of Yarbo's voice. Took one deep breath and picked up the phone.
Yes?
[00:15:00] Speaker G: Hello, James. This is Martha. I'm at the office. I have good news. Two more. Mr. And Mrs. Granville Morse. Killed tonight on the Great highway two miles south of Seal Rock. 8:45 tonight. Ran into a post. Both killed. Insured for a total of 80,000. I gotta go now. Goodbye, James.
[00:15:21] Speaker D: Well, congratulations, brother Yarbo. Two more at 8:45 tonight. And who's your new alibi?
Me.
[00:15:48] Speaker E: In just a moment. We've returned to the second act of Johnny Dollar. But first, did you ever think of and as a comedy word, Maybe not. But you'll get a full demonstration on CBS this Wednesday night. There'll be Groucho Marx and his guest on that hilarious quiz, you bet your life. For it's the guests who sometimes floor Groucho with their wisecracks. There'll be Bing Crosby in his regular Wednesday night CBS show. And his special guest, Bob Hope. There'll be George Burns and Gracie Allen and Bill Goodwin and. And becomes more filled with comedy when you tell I learn that Lum and Abner will have their premiere as Wednesday night regulars on most of these same CBS stations. Yes, this fall you hear them all on C and B and S.
Now, with our star, Charles Russell. We return to the second act of yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
[00:16:52] Speaker D: Yarbo might have been lying unconscious on the floor, but in that setting I was still afraid of him. I'd have looked the place over with a fine tooth comb. Only having none, I used my hands. I put the pat test to Yarbo's pockets for a gun he was unloaded. Then turned my attention to the little black bag he'd been carrying. When I saw him leave the house. And which he still had with him when he returned. I hoped it wasn't booby trapped. Opened it and discovered that it was a trap. The type my kind of booby stepped into. Inside the bag was a small radio receiver tuned to something I looked for and found in the room. A small radio transmitter of the type formally used in army tanks. Through this, Yarbo had heard me enter his little museum of murder. And had returned to catch me in the act of prowling the premises. About then I caught him in the act of coming To.
Well, welcome home, Yarbo. Time to get up.
I just had a long chat on the phone with Martha. She thought I was you.
[00:17:52] Speaker H: You think you're very clever, don't you? Martha knows my voice. If she talked to you at all, she didn't tell you anything. Of that I am sure. So save your breath. There is no use your telling me she gave you any information.
[00:18:05] Speaker D: Oh, no, you got me wrong, pal. I only told you Martha called to let you know. I know there is a Martha. I figured it might make you nervous, and nervous men are easy to beat.
[00:18:14] Speaker H: Other nervous men may be easy to beat dollar but not James Yarbo. The police have tried, and they couldn't prove a thing against me. Now may I have your permission to get up?
[00:18:25] Speaker D: Yeah. Maybe the police haven't been able to get anything on you, but I have something. Attempted murder. The hatchet you went for.
[00:18:35] Speaker H: The pitiful mistake of a pitifully suspicious mind. $I wasn't reaching for that hatchet on the table. I was trying to show you something in the table drawer. There it is. Spilled out on the floor. My wife's insurance policy. The one your unscrupulous, thieving superiors refused to pay the vampires.
[00:18:58] Speaker D: Here.
[00:18:59] Speaker H: Look at it. All in order, Much of it in fine print. Fine. Just fine.
[00:19:07] Speaker D: Okay, Yarbo, that did it. Come on ahead of me.
[00:19:11] Speaker H: Where are we going?
[00:19:12] Speaker D: Find some place to lock you up. I was hired to stop you. And until I do, I'm at least going to try and slow you down.
[00:19:17] Speaker H: Now move.
[00:19:22] Speaker D: Linen closet. No room here. Come on.
Bathroom. No window. Yeah, this will do. Go on. Get in there.
[00:19:35] Speaker H: No, no, no, no, no. Not in here. Anywhere but in here.
[00:19:37] Speaker D: It's a good place. You may get thirsty.
[00:19:39] Speaker H: No, no, no. This is where my wife died. Not in here.
[00:19:41] Speaker D: No.
Which on the surface may seem to have been a move on the cruel side. But Yarbo was a man obviously off his rocker, and I needed him more nervous than I already had. Him too nervous to attempt killing any more people.
Expense account. Item five. A nickel phone call. Downtown office. State police, Mr. And Mrs. Granville Morse had indeed crashed to their death on the great highway south of seal rock at 8. 45. Which made the lady with the early telephone news flash. Martha. A gal with whom I wanted an early date.
Come on, come on. Answer the phone.
Hello? Hello? Hello.
[00:20:34] Speaker H: What is it?
[00:20:35] Speaker D: Hello? Mr. Coates, this is Dollar.
[00:20:37] Speaker F: Oh, yes. Dollar. What do you want?
[00:20:39] Speaker D: Well, first I want to tell you that you just lost two more policyholders. List price 80,000.
[00:20:44] Speaker F: Oh, good Lord.
[00:20:45] Speaker E: This is Terrible.
[00:20:46] Speaker D: Who?
[00:20:46] Speaker H: How? What?
[00:20:47] Speaker D: Never mind that. I've also got something else on the good side. I need your help tonight.
[00:20:51] Speaker F: Of course. Anything. What can I do?
[00:20:54] Speaker D: Meet me at your office. You and I are going to go looking for a dame named Martha.
[00:20:59] Speaker F: Martha? Martha who?
[00:21:00] Speaker D: I don't know, but I hope she works for you.
[00:21:03] Speaker F: I'll be there in a half hour.
[00:21:04] Speaker D: Make that 20 minutes and you'll be 10 minutes closer to happy days.
The office personnel records of the west coast underwriters turned up not one, but three employees named Martha, which gave me three choices as to who had been supplying Yarbo with a list of west coast policy insurance policyholders. Finding the exact Martha was even easier. On the phone, she had told me that she was calling from the office. And the night elevator operator's in and out book showed the signature of one Martha Kinsey. And I just couldn't, couldn't wait to hear her report.
[00:21:47] Speaker G: Who is it?
[00:21:48] Speaker D: I've got a message for Mr. Yarbo.
[00:21:50] Speaker H: Oh, just a minute.
[00:21:55] Speaker G: Message from James.
[00:21:57] Speaker D: Oh, what does he want? Well, what he really wants is to get out of the bathroom. That's where I've got him locked up.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Who are you?
[00:22:04] Speaker D: You ought to know who I am. I assume you're the one that told Yarbo he could be expecting a call from an insurance investigator named Dollar. Well, that's me.
[00:22:13] Speaker G: Well, I don't care. James told me girls give out lists of names all the time, sell them for mailing lists. $0.10 apiece may not be ethical, but it's not against the law. James told me, and I believe. James. Oh, he's the smartest man I ever knew.
[00:22:27] Speaker D: He may be the smartest, but he's right in line to be numbered among the deadest. One of these fine mornings, the state is going to give him a cyanide egg for breakfast.
[00:22:34] Speaker G: What do you mean?
[00:22:35] Speaker D: You should know. Murder, execution, gas chamber.
[00:22:39] Speaker G: Well, you can't prove a thing. James told me so, and he knows he's smart.
[00:22:44] Speaker D: I hope he's not smart enough to pick a lock with a bath mat. Now, come on. Sit down. You and I are going to have a nice, long talk.
[00:22:50] Speaker G: We are not. I won't say a thing. I don't have to. Unless you have a warrant, an indictment and a court reporter. James told me so.
[00:22:58] Speaker D: Yeah, I know he's smart. But no matter what he told you, you're gonna tell me a few things. Oh, no, I'm not. Oh, yes, you are.
[00:23:05] Speaker G: Oh, no, I'm not.
[00:23:06] Speaker D: Oh, yes, you are.
So I was wrong. Martha didn't tell me anything. But her stubborn attitude did. She was in love with Mr. Yarbo. A stupid middle aged woman having her last fl at romance. Doing her best to keep her last chance alive in the person of the man who had made her his partner in crime.
As crazy as it was, this grotesque pair of lovebirds created the only real emotion in the case to date and switched my thoughts from the widely scattered deaths which had brought me into the case and over to the single death of Yarbo's wife.
Enclosed find a transcript of statement made to me at 2 o'clock in the morning by the doctor who signed Mrs. Yarbo's death certificate.
[00:23:54] Speaker F: Cause of death, cerebral hemorrhage. Result of severe fracture of skull region medulla oblongata. Contributing factors, Woman bathing in bathtub at home. Slipped and fell striking head on shower spigot. Khan is finding death due to misadventure accidental.
[00:24:10] Speaker D: It took the doctor two minutes to get around to making that statement. I figured it would take Martha at least 30 minutes to get her hair out of her curlers and make herself presentable enough to risk being seen on the street. That left me 28 minutes to get back to Yarbo's house before she did. And I didn't need half that long.
In a cab on my way over, I took inventory. One to date Yarbo's alibis Covering him on all the so called revenge murders had been perfect. Too perfect. Second, when I first faced Yarbo, he screamed about his wife's death. Not in the light of having lost his lady love, but in the light of having lost her insurance money. Just as my third and most important conclusion came upon me. The taxi came to our destination and I had to go to work.
Once inside the little horror house on Lombard Street, I got set for a long search. But it turned out to be a short one. And it proved two things. Yarbo was not only a murderer, he was as crazy as he'd acted. And having kept the evidence around.
Okay, Yarbo, come on out.
[00:25:18] Speaker H: Well, I hope you have enjoyed your waste of time, Mr. Dalla, as I've enjoyed my chance for meditation. You saw Martha, I suppose?
[00:25:26] Speaker D: Yes, I saw Martha. Bless her silent little soul.
[00:25:29] Speaker H: Yes, I was sure of Martha. She believes in me.
[00:25:33] Speaker D: You can say that again. Come on out here, Mr. Dalla.
[00:25:37] Speaker H: I suppose you are aware that this is the second time tonight you have been guilty of breaking and entering. I am, however, willing to forgive that should you come to your senses and decide to go back to Hartford and leave me alone.
Mind treading on the roses in the rug, Mr. Dollar?
[00:25:59] Speaker D: Sorry, Yarbo. I fell for that gag earlier tonight.
[00:26:02] Speaker H: People who smile at that joke give me the last laugh.
[00:26:05] Speaker D: Now look, Yarbo, I know exactly what you've been up to and I know why you've done it. But your little war of nerves has got to stop.
[00:26:10] Speaker H: It will never stop. No one can prove anything against me.
[00:26:13] Speaker D: I can. I can prove that you haven't done a thing to bring about those accidental deaths you've been taking credit for. Martha sat down that insurance office and notified you every time there's been an accidental death of a policyholder in this part of the country. Then you've written the company your little letters and gotten your little kicks out of it. Right, Mitchell?
[00:26:29] Speaker H: I lie. Lie.
[00:26:30] Speaker D: This is a switch. A guy yelling that loud that he's guilty.
[00:26:33] Speaker H: You will have to prove it. You will have to prove it.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: Don't worry, chum. I'm not going to waste a breath proving murders that you didn't commit. But, brother, I'm really going to go to town on the one that you did.
Your wife.
[00:26:44] Speaker H: Mr. Yarbo, that is the most ridiculous statement you have yet made. Young man, look around you. Take note. I have profited by all the mistakes made by the original owners of these bloody super souvenirs from Dr. Krippen on down.
You see in me the living composite of them all, and I intend to stay that way alive.
[00:27:10] Speaker D: I'm afraid you will. But it's gonna be inside an upholstered room.
And this is what will put you there.
Yeah. Mr. Yarbo, you carried your little hobby of crime souvenirs too far when you saved this hunk of pipe and the faucet with which you clubbed your wife to death.
[00:27:25] Speaker H: She slipped and fell. She was in the tub.
[00:27:27] Speaker D: I'm sure the police microscopes can give you a strong argument. 1. Now, come on, and let's make it easy on each other, shall we?
[00:27:34] Speaker H: No. No, I didn't do it. I. I didn't do it.
[00:27:37] Speaker D: Let go. Let go.
[00:27:38] Speaker G: Me.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: You. You have to prove it.
[00:27:41] Speaker G: What's he doing?
[00:27:42] Speaker H: Help me, Martha. Help me hit him with something.
[00:27:48] Speaker D: I'd have bet on myself against the two of them if I didn't have to fight while playing hopscotch over those roses in the carpet, about which I still wasn't quite sure it was touch and go. Martha would try to touch the back of my head with something and I'd.
[00:28:00] Speaker H: Go, do something, Martha.
[00:28:02] Speaker D: Do something.
[00:28:03] Speaker G: I'll fix him. I'll fix him.
[00:28:05] Speaker D: Something Martha tried to do was pick up a heavy based urn and aim it at me. She missed.
It started to roll across the rosy carpet. When Yarbo saw where it was headed, he wrenched himself loose and dove the carpet. I dove the other way. He got there, just.
I didn't have to look twice to know he was dead. Fate had called James Yarbo up on his own carpet. When Martha threw that urn at me, it had rolled straight for the only rose in the rug that had been booby trapped.
Which only goes to prove that sometimes a rose by any other name can be anything but sweet.
Expense account. Item 6, a $.40 three month subscription. Love Life magazine. Sent to accessory to murder, Martha Kinsey Tehachapi State Prison. I figured three months was about all she had. The judges and juries in California being rather efficient that way.
Expense account. Item seven, six bucks. Dinner and diving for pearls in a barrel of blue points at Fisherman's Wharf. Diving for pearl's earring, which she lost while bending over the barrel trying to see what oysters look like.
Item 8, $176.87 Airfare, San Francisco to Hartford.
Expense account total $942.08, not including defense lawyer fees. If you decide to sue me for not being able to add correctly, sign yours truly, Johnny Dull.
[00:30:14] Speaker E: Yours truly, Johnny Dollar is produced and directed by Gordon T. Hughes and stars Charles Russell. Script by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd. Featured in the cast were Jay Novello, Martha Wentworth, Paul Dubove, Gigi Pearson and Larry Dobkins. The special music is written and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Be sure to be with us at this same time next week when another unusual expense account is handed in by.
[00:30:46] Speaker D: Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: That was the little man who wasn't all there. From yours truly, Johnny Dollar here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. I'm Eric.
[00:31:05] Speaker D: I'm Tim.
[00:31:05] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: That was Tim's pick.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: I did.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Tim brought that to the table. Why did you bring that?
[00:31:13] Speaker B: So our. Our podcast can also be found on YouTube. We're a little behind on the episodes there, starting like about six months behind, but it's on YouTube and one of our commenters has been championing that we listen to some of these other actors who played Johnny Dollars, the earlier ones.
And so I decided this is probably gonna be the first of a few Johnny Dollars I bring featuring Lund and the other actors. Who am I missing here? Russell and Lunde and O'Brien.
[00:31:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yes. Edmund O'Brien just to make sure that we get the full Johnny Dollar picture.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: That sounds fun.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: And then you picked one?
[00:31:51] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Why this particular episode and this particular actor?
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Because it's awesome.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Well, this particular actor. Cause he was the first. Aside from Dick Powell. Dick Powell, Yes.
[00:32:04] Speaker C: But he was just the one episode, the pilot.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Then it was not even a broadcast.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: So who's this?
[00:32:09] Speaker B: This is Russell. This is Russell.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. So I'll make sure I get it straight. He's a lot of $.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: And so I looked at like what episodes does he have? That's an episode title. It looks funny. Grabbed it, listened to it, like, that's the one I'm bringing.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: No reason to say no to this.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: So the comment tour on YouTube is correct in the sense that in the history of this podcast, when we first did yours truly Johnny Dollar, we did one of those Five Heart episodes that ran with Bob Bailey. And I had never listened to one, not any iteration of Johnny Dollar and I didn't get it. I was like, this is weird, I don't understand. He's an insurance guy. And as time has passed and as a lot of our listeners know, especially in the last year, I have fallen in love with yours truly, Johnny Dollard. But all I've been listening to Bob Bailey, Bob Bailey episodes and only the five part series. I have not been listening to any of the 30 minute versions or any of these others. I've never heard another person be Johnny Dollar. And I've listened a lot in the last year. I mean a lot. Like every night, I'm telling you, every night I've fallen asleep, you have a problem. Well, and here's the deal, here's the beauty of it. I don't make it through the whole episode. So, you know, do it again because just pray and I get to, I.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: Don'T know, one episode of Giant.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: I don't know how any of them end.
None of them.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: The suspense is killing him.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: They are really well written, really well acted, just phenomenal pieces of radio.
So listening to this other actor, a new intro, a new style, a different everything. It's all different. I had to, okay, really open your mind, right? Don't compare it to all the other stuff. Just take it for what it is. And it's certainly a lot different than what it became. There are some things.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: This is closer in tone to the pilot we listen to. To. With Powell.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Yeah, with Dick Powell. There are things in here you can tell that are very good. And there's also things in this episode that I don't care for. But I will say this to our YouTube commenter. I think O'Brien does a great job in this.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Russell.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Russell, whoever the guy is, that's not Bob Bailey.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Not Bob Bailey.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: The not Bob Bailey guy.
[00:34:41] Speaker C: Non Bob.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Non Bob is really good.
[00:34:44] Speaker C: Is it just me? Are there moments in here where Charles Russell sounds a lot like Jimmy Stewart?
Did that pop to you at all or is that just me?
[00:34:53] Speaker B: I checked and double checked to make sure. Is this the right actor? Cause it sounds so familiar and I don't know that I've heard Russell in anything else.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: I didn't have that reaction.
[00:35:02] Speaker B: I went into this thinking like, so this is sort of like the thing of the shadow of people sort of knew John Stone and then like, but you gotta hear Orson Welles. It's different and darker and grittier and it's this. And you could still love John Stone, but you don't really know the whole picture. So that was vaguely the model. But I was trying to talk myself down of like it's not necessarily going to be like just darker and grittier and weirder. And then I listened like, it's darker and grittier and weirder. It's a lot like the shadow thing.
[00:35:29] Speaker C: Yes, I can see that. Here's what I love about it is I think it's successfully comic in the places it wants to be comic, yet it still sustains a great mystery, really fun characters. And Russell gives a really grounded performance as the sort of long suffering detective straight man to all these weirdos and crackpots and murderers that he has to encounter. And Bob Bailey did that as well in a totally different way. But I really appreciated how many different tones and genres almost that it was straddling that final twist in which he's claiming to have murdered people who just died.
I did not see that coming and I thought that was great.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: He has no investment in people being dead. He just wants people to think that he killed them so that they can scare them. It's weird and makes sense.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And I can identify with the moral outrage over your own clerical error.
Well, of course I was gonna pay the mortgage within the 30 days you allow. But how could you not know that? I got distracted.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:45] Speaker C: How could you not know my wife didn't submit this? Probably because I murdered her too soon before she could actually make the payment. Ironically.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: I really enjoyed the tone of the setup. Is very what we're kind of used to for Johnny Dollar of a little bit of that audition series with Powell of I'm going to abuse this Expense account greatly. And also just I'm sort of quipping and bantering with my insurance guy until. And then it switches straddling genres, as you said. And then I break into this guy's house and he's got weird crime stuff everywhere and his carpet is allegedly booby trapped.
And this is where we're in crackpot weird.
[00:37:26] Speaker C: And then it's like 1960s Batman villain.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
That's a really good way to put that. Some issues I had with it were the Martha and the. The criminal.
[00:37:38] Speaker C: Like, as in, you did not like the.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: I didn't like the actors.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: The character tone broke too hard for them. Yeah, yeah.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Too big, too comical.
She was especially difficult and they are.
[00:37:52] Speaker C: Like, I loved her.
But to me it was so clearly a choice to cast these people as lunatics and to be bigger than life. And I think if their crimes weren't so dark, the stakes would vanish for.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Me in that last melee too, he's like, hit him.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, Save me, Martha.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: This might be a place where it's to our advantage. I'm sorry, I'm gesturing. Joshua and I too have not been listening to a lot Bob Bailey lately. To not have that context that this seems so different to.
[00:38:26] Speaker C: I love those Bob Bailey serials, but I'm always excited by a radio series that runs for a long time and, and really to discover that, oh, it's not just one great radio series, it's three to four different great radio series within this umbrella of the radio.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: But they're all different. You can't go into it going, oh yeah, with the Shadow you can. There is a thread there that stays constant. And even though you're switching actors playing the Shadow. And yes, the tone shifts over time with that, but you can still hang on. I think with Johnny Dollar that there's some wide sweeping change and differentials.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: It's not something I would have predicted.
[00:39:05] Speaker C: Here's one thing I really enjoyed from a contemporary point of view about the character of Martha and particularly the way the actor performed her. Is that usually an old time radio of this era, if it's like a woman who's in on it, she's either stupid and been taken advantage of, is out for money, or is like an evil sexpot. This was not gendered. It was just, oh, Martha's another weird character.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:39:36] Speaker C: So I think I had a vicarious thrill. Like what that actor must have had to be like, oh, I just get to come up with some totally weird individual character that's not based on my genitalia.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: I do A lot of characters based on my genitalia. I hope that's not bad.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: That's my entire career.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Going into this. Not knowing what to expect. I felt like the description of his apartment before he got back was what helped me transition into. We're in a new world here.
[00:40:14] Speaker C: The little mini black museum that Garbo had set up.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: And there's also some grounding because I recognized one of them but then looked them up like all the serial killers mentioned were legitimate serial killers.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Hey, you're on an FBI watch list now.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Congratulations.
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Right?
[00:40:32] Speaker C: You know, from like the 19th century. So I'm on the 19th century FBI watch list.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: That'd be the Bureau of Investigations. Before they were the FBI.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: Now you're on it for being a nerd. You're on nerdwatch.
[00:40:46] Speaker A: The B O I. Yeah. Boi Boi.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: I loved when he goes to interview the widow, who's Italian.
Or maybe it's a mother. I can't remember what the relationship is.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: A mother.
[00:41:02] Speaker C: And there's just like. She clearly lives in an Italian neighborhood because there's all this ambient, like singing in the streets, people yelling in Italian accents.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. I'm trying to find something to add to this conversation.
The deus ex machina of the rolling of the thing hitting the exact rose on the carpet that blew them up.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Chekhov's landmine.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: Chekhov's landmine, yeah. And the fact that he had one in his house. I don't know, it all seemed ridiculous to me. And the part you like about, oh, he wasn't actually killing these people. He was just taking credit for it. I went, oh, I was disappointed by that. I wanted him to be a mastermind that was getting his revenge that way. And I don't know, you calling him Batman villains is how I. It was really a great way to describe my. I like the guy playing him, whatever his name is.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Russell Charles Russell.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Russell O'Brien.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: This is only going to get worse for us.
Dick Bailey in the Bob Bailey ones. I feel like Johnny Dollar is the biggest personality, typically.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: And the Bob Bailey ones have a lot of comedy in them. Yes, Particularly the half hour ones. Of course, the serials are the most dramatic, but there are also some comic ones. Have you listened to the serial where he has to guard a tiny dog?
[00:42:32] Speaker A: No.
[00:42:33] Speaker C: Very comic. And then takes a more dramatic twist, but yes. So it's not unheard of to have broadly comic Bob Bailey episodes.
[00:42:43] Speaker A: Yeah. But the plot lines of those serials, those five part serials are really good, really well thought out pieces of writing. They're small novels.
[00:42:53] Speaker C: I agree with you. You're not going to get any argument from me about those serials. I love them. I just love this too.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I like parts of this.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Cool, because you're going to get some more old ones.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: Good, because that's the only way I'm going to listen to him is being forced to.
[00:43:09] Speaker C: But I enjoy again that the fact that this broad absurdist humor in places is tempered by a certain dark humor. Like when he sends a three month subscription to Love Life magazine to Martha because that's all the time she'll have because the judges and juries are so efficient in California.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:30] Speaker C: I'm like, anyway, back to my date who lost her pearl earring in a bucket of oysters.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: That was a weird sentence earlier that I didn't understand that there'd be a bunch of ladies would be really happy that there's a $50,000. But not that I'm not great alive too, or whatever he was saying.
[00:43:50] Speaker C: I need to make sure I brag of my sexual prowess. This insurance guy.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: That's exactly how that came off. Hey, by the way, no one asked, but I'm really good.
[00:43:59] Speaker C: I totally agree. I just love every critic.
There was no need for that.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: Right? Okay, that's funny.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: $50,000 policy that I'd like to divide among eight ladies.
Please don't tell any of them who the other seven are.
[00:44:18] Speaker C: And that seemed like a throwback to the type of womanizing humor in the pilot with Dick Powell or Dick Pow.
[00:44:27] Speaker D: Dick Pow.
[00:44:28] Speaker C: Speaking of the 60s Batman. That was like a series of onomatopoeias that they used in fights. Dick Pow.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: If Dick came up on the screen, I don't want to see the fight.
[00:44:46] Speaker C: Move that sentence quickly.
[00:44:48] Speaker A: I don't want to see the fight move that accompanied it.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: And I just thought there were a lot of just clever fun lines. I mean, some of them were strained. It was a little quantity over quality. But some were, I thought, really strong. I hope he isn't smart enough to pick a lock with a bathmat.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Right. That I will give you.
[00:45:09] Speaker C: And when he finds out her name is Martha Kinsey and I just couldn't wait to hear her report. Nothing like a Kinsey Report joke.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that stands a test.
[00:45:19] Speaker C: Speaking of Dick Pow.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: Kinsey, what other thoughts do we have?
[00:45:28] Speaker C: Have you ever had Dick Powell at a Chinese restaurant?
Delicious.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Cash.
[00:45:37] Speaker C: I'm just trying to match the tone of this radio episode.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: So smart knows everything. He told me.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: Vote.
[00:45:47] Speaker C: I really liked it. I want to listen to more Dick Powell of Dick Powell.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: You said something that he's going to appear in the mirror behind you if.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: You say his name three times.
[00:46:00] Speaker C: I want to listen to more of these early Johnny Dollars. This was a blast. I found it darkly funny. Obviously I've said that what impressed me most is that the mystery was still solid. It contained, I thought, a really great concept and a great twist for me. So it wasn't just jokes that kept me captivated. It was the actual plot. And there will clearly be an argument. But I would put this on a list of Johnny Dollars that would be a to perform. I want to hear Shannon play Martha.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: All right. That I'll give you.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: Well, Joshua wisely went before me this time because like what he said that. Yes, Joshua said the stuff I want to say basically exactly. What I agree with you is this is like discovering a new series that is also Johnny Dollard. And I love them both.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: I will agree to perform this if we get to do Iron Curtain Express on stage.
[00:47:00] Speaker C: Wow. We're back to negotiating.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: Negotiating. It was fine. I didn't hate it by any means and I thought a lot. It was just fine. And I am not sure it stands the test of time. I think you said it earlier. You did say it earlier and I think you're absolutely right. Too much Johnny Dollar of the five part series in my life to compare it to. And I love them so much. They're so good that like, yeah, that's an early version of that. I'd like this better.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: And also I'm curious to listen more to know if this was an outlier or this is the general.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: So I think it was just fine.
[00:47:41] Speaker C: We should do Edmund O'Brien next.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: Sounds good. Tim, tell him stuff.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Sort of evolution chart, I think forward giant dollar standing upright.
[00:47:51] Speaker C: Eric really wants to get out of this episode.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: I don't think you heard me. I said tell him stuff.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: Well, I got lots of stuff to tell you.
Among them, Please go visit ghoulishdelights.com that's the home of this podcast. You can hear a lot of other episodes here. You can leave comments, vote in polls, let us know what you think. You can also find all kinds of buttons to push and links to follow.
[00:48:13] Speaker C: Oh, the patrons push our buttons sometimes.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Made it sound like one of the buttons you push become a Patreon.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: Made it sound like a Fisher Price baby toy.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: Well, baby toy, what sound does the podcaster make?
[00:48:30] Speaker D: Me.
[00:48:33] Speaker C: Yes, go to patreon.com themorals and support this thing, whatever it is, this endeavor, this podcast. We really greatly appreciate it because it's not like we're gonna get together and talk about old time radio without some sort of financial reward attached to it. Come on. You've spoiled us. So yes, please help us out.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: Blame the patrons.
[00:48:58] Speaker H: Sure.
[00:49:02] Speaker C: No, they've pampered us.
Aw, thank you. Peel me a grape Patreon.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: Oh, that's terrible approach.
[00:49:10] Speaker C: Hang on, I'm bad at this. Give me money so I can get better.
Go to patreon.com nomor the podcaster says.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Classic hey, the mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Theater Company does live on stage recreations of classic old time radio shows and a lot of our own original work. Come and see us performing live. Find out where we're performing, what we're performing and how to get tickets by going to ghoulishdelights.com and we're performing somewhere all the time every month. If you can't come see us live, we do record them and the audio of those performances are available to our Patreons. So that is another perk for that. But please come see us if you can. We'd love to see you. What's coming up next?
[00:50:03] Speaker C: Next we will be doing another patron request and we will be listening to the thing in cabin 105 from beyond midnight. Until then, Dick Powder.
