# Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Malibu Mystery Matter (EP4875)

An episode of [The Great Detectives of Old Time Radio| Daily Mystery Dramas](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/335549005), 26 Dec 2025, 37 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdrl.fm/997ffb/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/69182318/gd4875.mp3

Today's Mystery:Johnny goes to Malibu to investigate the sinking of a $150,000 yacht. Original Radio Broadcast Date: September 7, 1958 Originated from Hollywood Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Paula Winslowe; Ben Wright; Jack Kruschen; Jack Edwards; Marvin Miller; Joseph Kearn When making your travel plans, remember http://johnnydollarair.com Become one of our Patreon Supporters at https://patreon.greatdetectives.net Thank you to our Patreon Supporter of the Day: Jack, Patreon supporter since November 2019. Take the listener survey at http://survey.greatdetectives.net Give us a call at 208-991-4783 Follow us on Twitter @radiodetectives Join us again tomorrow for another detective drama from the Golden Age of Radio.

## Transcript

[0:28] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
[0:34] Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
[0:38] Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Your Truly
[0:42] Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar. But first I do want to encourage you.
[0:45] Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
[0:49] Speaker 1: favorite podcast software. And remember, as you're making your travel plans,
[0:54] Speaker 1: remember Johnny Dollar air dot com. Johnny Dollar air dot
[0:57] Speaker 1: com is a price line affiliate link, so part of
[0:59] Speaker 1: your purchase price supports the great Detectives of Old Time
[1:03] Speaker 1: Radio at no additional cost to you. So remember when
[1:07] Speaker 1: making your travel plans, check Johnny Dollar Air dot com.
[1:10] Speaker 2: First.
[1:11] Speaker 1: Well, we are now after that lost episode we've been
[1:15] Speaker 1: talking about. The original air date on today's episode is
[1:19] Speaker 1: September seventh, nineteen fifty eight, and the title is the
[1:24] Speaker 1: Malibu Mystery.
[1:25] Speaker 3: Matter from Hollywood. It's time now, Paul.
[1:41] Speaker 4: Yeah, Johnny Dollar, Peter Henley and Western Maritime and Property Insurance.
[1:46] Speaker 3: Holy look, you always started making calls with Florid Amston
[1:49] Speaker 3: Henley across the country, mister dollars to find out that
[1:53] Speaker 3: you're right here in Los Angeles. And that's right. The
[1:55] Speaker 3: Beverly Hill. Not here in Beverly Hill. I've cleared up
[1:58] Speaker 3: the case that brought me here, so as soon as
[2:00] Speaker 3: I have breakfast, if they serve it at this unearthly hour,
[2:03] Speaker 3: I'll pack up my bags and go back to heart Rid.
[2:05] Speaker 3: Please don't Oh, what's up?
[2:07] Speaker 4: I want to where clans is?
[2:08] Speaker 3: A doctor present us with a claim that I think
[2:10] Speaker 3: you want to investigate as long as you're write here. Yeah,
[2:13] Speaker 3: what sort of a claim for the loss of his yacht?
[2:15] Speaker 3: How much of a claim? Between one hundred and fifty
[2:18] Speaker 3: and two dollars? Wow? You know where Mallebo Beach is? Yeah? Sure,
[2:23] Speaker 3: up the coast a few miles used to be a
[2:25] Speaker 3: famous movie colony, that sort of thing. That's the place.
[2:28] Speaker 3: And if you can find some means of transportation, I'll
[2:30] Speaker 3: meet you at the Malibou kid on expensive comments to Hanley,
[2:33] Speaker 3: I can find anything on a claim that could run
[2:37] Speaker 3: to a quarter of a million, I'm sure you won't
[2:39] Speaker 3: be Chinsey, mister. I'll see it's amountable.
[2:41] Speaker 5: Pier Bob Bailey and the Exciting Adventures of the Man
[2:53] Speaker 5: with the Action packed expensing out America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.
[2:57] Speaker 3: Yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
[3:05] Speaker 5: And now act one of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar.
[3:22] Speaker 3: Expense account submitted by Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the
[3:26] Speaker 3: Western Maritime and Property Insurance Company, Los Angeles, California. Following
[3:30] Speaker 3: is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of
[3:33] Speaker 3: the Malible mystery matter. Expense account aud of one two
[3:44] Speaker 3: and a quarter for a fancy breakfast in my room
[3:46] Speaker 3: at the Beverly Hilton. It had them two fifty dollars
[3:49] Speaker 3: deposit it on the best looking rental car I could fine.
[3:52] Speaker 3: I drove out Santa Monica Boulevard at the Coast Highway
[3:54] Speaker 3: and then north along the edge of the Blue Pacific,
[3:56] Speaker 3: some twelve or thirteen miles to Malible for a long
[3:59] Speaker 3: fishing per stuck out into the ocean. Cars were parked
[4:03] Speaker 3: for half a mile on either side of the pier entrance,
[4:05] Speaker 3: and I looked as don't half the population of la
[4:07] Speaker 3: which crowded out on the peer itself thanks to an
[4:10] Speaker 3: ambulance to pull away from the curb and headed south
[4:12] Speaker 3: toward town. I found a parking street. Mister dollars, Yeah,
[4:30] Speaker 3: oh high, Miss Henley, come along out on the pier
[4:36] Speaker 3: all right, what's all the mobs so early? In the morning.
[4:39] Speaker 3: Apparently word of an accident like this gets around quickly.
[4:42] Speaker 3: But kind of an accident, don't you see the Coast
[4:45] Speaker 3: Guard vessels are the circling around. Yeah? Did this boat
[4:49] Speaker 3: you were talking about sync out there? That take us,
[4:51] Speaker 3: mister Dollar one hundred and fifty thousand dollars diesel? Y
[4:54] Speaker 3: on what happened to her? Apparently it just blew up. Survivors,
[4:59] Speaker 3: mister miss is Randolph Meryll, and the steward in Beckham
[5:02] Speaker 3: managed to get him to the launch for you, pretending
[5:05] Speaker 3: you picked up by the Coast Guard. Well, skipper went
[5:08] Speaker 3: down with the young at least no tracer. His daughter
[5:11] Speaker 3: has been founded yet, Captain Rowlands, but few people just
[5:15] Speaker 3: have to get back off of pit.
[5:17] Speaker 6: All.
[5:18] Speaker 3: It's Hanley. I wish is Johnny Taller, a special investigator
[5:21] Speaker 3: for my insurance company. Captain rawlins of the Coast Guard. Dollar.
[5:24] Speaker 3: I can't if you found anything out there, Captain, not
[5:27] Speaker 3: a sign of the titus. Mister Hanley. Yeah, it's mighty
[5:31] Speaker 3: deep water and I'm afraid that, like mister Merrill and
[5:34] Speaker 3: his wife told us, he just blew herself to Smitheren. Yeah,
[5:39] Speaker 3: even from here, I can see some wreckage floating in
[5:41] Speaker 3: and they're all working around the oil slick out there.
[5:44] Speaker 3: So the grapples ought to be able to find something
[5:47] Speaker 3: down below, some traces of a hull or machinery or something.
[5:53] Speaker 3: When did it happen? Oh two two and a half
[5:56] Speaker 3: hours ago one of our craft got out. I throw
[6:00] Speaker 3: it from Santa Monica Harbor, not more than forty minutes
[6:03] Speaker 3: after she went down. How'd you find out about it?
[6:06] Speaker 3: Bong call from somebody living along the beach. Potato stood
[6:11] Speaker 3: out there blowing the whistle and fog going woke him up.
[6:15] Speaker 3: By the time he got out of bed, he said,
[6:18] Speaker 3: it looked like the regular fireworks display about a half
[6:21] Speaker 3: mile off shore. Huh you see where they put a mocker. Boy,
[6:26] Speaker 3: wouldn't the wind and current move? That's slick and whatever
[6:29] Speaker 3: wreckage There is no wind. That's why there's still some
[6:33] Speaker 3: fog out there, and they're allowing for drift. Don't worry
[6:37] Speaker 3: if there's anything left to the data, so those boys
[6:39] Speaker 3: will find it now. I excuse me, would you please?
[6:42] Speaker 3: I gotta keep a check on operations. Yeah, sure, captain,
[6:44] Speaker 3: see you lent out Henley, you say, mister missus marl
[6:48] Speaker 3: are okay? Yes? If the Coast Guard in Santa Monica
[6:51] Speaker 3: through with them. They're probably back at the home in Westward.
[6:54] Speaker 3: I think i'd like to talk to them by all means. Oh,
[6:57] Speaker 3: I don't exactly see any particular reason for investing. We
[7:00] Speaker 3: had a company polace you, mister Dollar, on any claim
[7:02] Speaker 3: over one hundred picks. Yeah, but the claim can't have
[7:04] Speaker 3: been made yet. I don't worry it will be win
[7:07] Speaker 3: a minute. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars yacht. But
[7:10] Speaker 3: you said the claim could go as high as a
[7:13] Speaker 3: quarter million. Yeah, that's because of missus Merrill's jewelry, which
[7:15] Speaker 3: you always took with it. I always had lost too.
[7:18] Speaker 3: I don't know. I haven't yet talked to her. Then
[7:20] Speaker 3: let's do it. Tell but I haven't been for a
[7:22] Speaker 3: friend of mine living up on the hill behind the beach,
[7:25] Speaker 3: who was also awakened and saw the explosion, I wouldn't
[7:28] Speaker 3: have known about it even more soon. Yeah, come on,
[7:30] Speaker 3: let's talk to the Marylands. Pete Hanley had his own car,
[7:39] Speaker 3: so I tailed him to the Meryl home in Westward.
[7:41] Speaker 3: It wasn't a nice but certainly not a fancy section.
[7:44] Speaker 3: I'd have thought a man with one hundred and fifty
[7:45] Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Yacht would live in the study bel Air property.
[7:48] Speaker 3: The Brentwood Hills was every Palisades one of the sections
[7:51] Speaker 3: that displayed a little more well. However, mister Merrill pretty
[7:55] Speaker 3: well explained it, and quite frankly, when I had to
[7:58] Speaker 3: take such a loss in selling out my lastics business,
[8:01] Speaker 3: I decided we'd better at Trench a bit.
[8:03] Speaker 7: And really, mister Dollar, I don't miss that lovely big
[8:05] Speaker 7: place we had in bel Air one bit. After all,
[8:08] Speaker 7: they just the two of us, and we don't do
[8:10] Speaker 7: a lot of entertaining my coffee.
[8:12] Speaker 3: No nos. A matter of fact, Dollar, I was thinking
[8:15] Speaker 3: of selling potatoes for we know, to be frank about it,
[8:18] Speaker 3: for purely economic reasons. Oh wouldn't it have been pretty
[8:22] Speaker 3: high to get your price for a boat like that? Possibly?
[8:26] Speaker 3: Quite frankly, the maintenance on it alone became quite a
[8:28] Speaker 3: burden after I lost my business. But no matter. Now
[8:32] Speaker 3: the insurance will pay for are mister and missus Merrill.
[8:34] Speaker 3: There is one thing that I must find out. Yes,
[8:37] Speaker 3: miss Hammy, this is Merrill jewelry. No, thank Evans, No,
[8:43] Speaker 3: that's safe.
[8:44] Speaker 7: Careful dear the glass top on that table.
[8:47] Speaker 3: Oh sorry, no, you.
[8:48] Speaker 7: See mister Hanley, The jewels were the first thing I
[8:51] Speaker 7: thought of when the engine on the Tatus started making
[8:53] Speaker 7: funny sounds and woke me up.
[8:55] Speaker 3: Well, I'm glad of that. Here they are.
[8:58] Speaker 2: All satan sound the test? Did I keep them in?
[9:02] Speaker 7: I'll look at the Missidalla I beat beautiful, yes.
[9:07] Speaker 3: Very But now suppose you tell me just what happened
[9:10] Speaker 3: out there on the yacht. They said they'd been cruising
[9:16] Speaker 3: peacefully up the coast, all hands on board asleep except
[9:19] Speaker 3: for the skip at the wheel. Then the engine started
[9:22] Speaker 3: making strange sounds, shaking the whole yacht. The marrels and
[9:25] Speaker 3: the crew jumped out of their beds and rushed on deck.
[9:28] Speaker 3: By then, the captain had discovered something wrong with a
[9:30] Speaker 3: fuel system, so he ordered them off from the tender
[9:33] Speaker 3: while he tried to operate the extinguisher system. Then, barely
[9:37] Speaker 3: minutes after they cleared a side, came a series of explosions,
[9:40] Speaker 3: and that was the last they saw the Tatus and
[9:42] Speaker 3: the captain. As for the marrals, they were humbly glad
[9:45] Speaker 3: they'd been lucky enough to escape. Lucky Suddenly sitting there,
[9:50] Speaker 3: I'd be toying with the jewels. I discovered something that. Yeah,
[9:55] Speaker 3: they believed me. This case did need investigation, needed it
[9:59] Speaker 3: back back two of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar in a moment.
[10:18] Speaker 6: And now for another episode in the life of Sergeant
[10:21] Speaker 6: Donald bell Weather.
[10:23] Speaker 2: My husband, Hi, honey, to fix the winds?
[10:36] Speaker 3: Your wife rus a sure dead river? How that? Oh
[10:39] Speaker 3: you fixed him? Good for you, Donald, Thank you right there.
[10:43] Speaker 3: Well that's that now if the rains were prepared for it, huh?
[10:48] Speaker 3: I feel better now, Oh, me too.
[10:50] Speaker 6: A driver has to see the danger if he expects
[10:53] Speaker 6: to avoid it, that's right, and also keeps the back
[10:56] Speaker 6: and side window is clear and rain and snowy weather.
[10:58] Speaker 3: That's right.
[10:59] Speaker 6: Oh, how about the horn?
[11:02] Speaker 3: Lorn?
[11:02] Speaker 6: The horn doesn't work, sergeant.
[11:04] Speaker 3: Aren't you going to fix it?
[11:06] Speaker 6: No?
[11:06] Speaker 3: I don't think so, Frankly, Reba, I hate horns. Whenever
[11:10] Speaker 3: there's a traffic jam, the first thing some guys do
[11:13] Speaker 3: is bother horn, which does absolutely no good. Of course,
[11:16] Speaker 3: not all it does is jar everyone's nerves. No, I
[11:19] Speaker 3: don't think I'll fix the horse.
[11:21] Speaker 6: But now wait a minute.
[11:22] Speaker 3: Done.
[11:23] Speaker 6: Look, Supposing we're driving along and suddenly we see a
[11:25] Speaker 6: youngster on his bicycle headed right out into the street,
[11:28] Speaker 6: founding that horn warn't even possibly avoid.
[11:31] Speaker 2: A tragic accident, Yes, that's true.
[11:34] Speaker 6: Or supposing we're driving on the highway and just as
[11:36] Speaker 6: we're about to pass a car, that car decides to
[11:39] Speaker 6: pull out into our lane and pass the car ahead
[11:41] Speaker 6: of him.
[11:42] Speaker 2: He obviously doesn't see us.
[11:44] Speaker 6: We won't hear a shout, but one little beef on
[11:47] Speaker 6: that horn, and he'll automatically scoop back and avoid a collision.
[11:50] Speaker 3: Raby, you've convinced me, even though it can be a nuisance,
[11:55] Speaker 3: the automobile horn is a necessity.
[11:57] Speaker 6: Then you're repaired immediately, My Donald, that's my dollar.
[12:12] Speaker 5: Now Act two of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar and the
[12:15] Speaker 5: Malavou mystery matters.
[12:23] Speaker 3: Remember when you were a kid and first found out
[12:26] Speaker 3: about how mercury would play a piece of gold make
[12:28] Speaker 3: it look like silver, How you went around putting it
[12:30] Speaker 3: on everything made of gold that you could find. And
[12:33] Speaker 3: remember when you first learned that the diamond put a
[12:35] Speaker 3: scratch on glass, How you went around with your mother's
[12:38] Speaker 3: engagement ring cutting grooves and window panes, glass tabletops and
[12:41] Speaker 3: so on. Okay, sitting there listening to the Marrals tell
[12:45] Speaker 3: about the explosion on their yacht, I toyed with some
[12:47] Speaker 3: of the beautiful jewelry. Missus Merrill had been able to
[12:49] Speaker 3: save jewelry in short for one hundred thousand dollars. Absent mindedly,
[12:55] Speaker 3: I dragged the diamond in one of her rings across
[12:57] Speaker 3: the glass top of the coffee table a couple of times,
[13:00] Speaker 3: then again with pressure, and it did not cut into
[13:04] Speaker 3: the glass. I tried a couple of the other so
[13:07] Speaker 3: called diamonds among her jewels, same results, no result. Those
[13:11] Speaker 3: highly insured jewels were paced. Oh, mister Dollar, looks like
[13:19] Speaker 3: we have the whole story now, Yeah, sure looks that way.
[13:22] Speaker 3: And mister Merrow, whenever you're ready, you just file your
[13:25] Speaker 3: claim and we'll take care of him, all right, Stanley.
[13:28] Speaker 3: And quite frankly, well why kid about it? Now that
[13:32] Speaker 3: I've lost my business, I can well use the money.
[13:34] Speaker 3: Oh and I'm kind of surprised you haven't sold some
[13:38] Speaker 3: of these jewels. Dollar. There is a thing called sentiment,
[13:41] Speaker 3: but even money can't buy.
[13:43] Speaker 7: Of course, mister Dollar, before I part with these jewels, yes,
[13:47] Speaker 7: I'm sure.
[13:48] Speaker 3: Shall we go, Hanley? They don't give perfectly sative side
[14:00] Speaker 3: with a Meryll's account of the wreck? Why go back
[14:02] Speaker 3: to Malibu? Did I? Say, I was perfectly satisfying, Haleen. Look,
[14:07] Speaker 3: wouldn't you feel a lot better if that wreck could
[14:09] Speaker 3: be located, maybe brought up for examination. Yes, but you're
[14:13] Speaker 3: certainly lucky missus. Merrill saved that fortune and Jeury, what jewelry?
[14:17] Speaker 3: What are you talking about? You saw it yourself and
[14:20] Speaker 3: I can it's covered for one hundred thousand dollars that
[14:23] Speaker 3: jewelry that she showed me. What are you getting out dollard? Look,
[14:28] Speaker 3: I take it Merrill's business came a cropper. I'm like, yes,
[14:30] Speaker 3: he simply bit off more than he could chew, you know,
[14:33] Speaker 3: overestimated his market, overexpanded, matter of fact, than thankful these
[14:38] Speaker 3: past couple of years that I didn't prove it's bit
[14:40] Speaker 3: to invest in it. Merroll is quite a promoter, you know,
[14:43] Speaker 3: you mean a crook? Why didn't see that? No, here's
[14:47] Speaker 3: Bella a stake where he used to live, is yeh?
[14:50] Speaker 3: Her jewelry, that sort of thing. It will all impress
[14:53] Speaker 3: the people he got the financi venture. A real fast
[14:56] Speaker 3: guy was somebody else's buck hand, all right, I guess
[14:59] Speaker 3: you could say that about us. So that's why you
[15:01] Speaker 3: wanted me to investigate this. So called accident to a shot. No,
[15:05] Speaker 3: not a torment. I've told what do you mean by
[15:09] Speaker 3: soap call? Hanley? You say a friend of yours actually
[15:12] Speaker 3: saw the explosion. That's how I learned of it, almost
[15:14] Speaker 3: as soon as the Coastguard. But not if you know
[15:17] Speaker 3: the address. That's where we're going. I told you he
[15:19] Speaker 3: lives up on a hill over looking Malibu Beach. On
[15:22] Speaker 3: the first We're going to stop at the Cinamonica Coastguard
[15:24] Speaker 3: station and pick up a charter or two. Why also,
[15:26] Speaker 3: if you know a good surveyor, will take him along
[15:28] Speaker 3: with us? Dog? Yeah, Henny, I've got an idea that
[15:31] Speaker 3: may save your company a lot of money. At the
[15:39] Speaker 3: Coastguard station, we picked up a navigation chart and the
[15:42] Speaker 3: topographical map of the Malibu area. Then we picked up
[15:45] Speaker 3: a surveyor named Buckley, who dragged along one of those
[15:47] Speaker 3: tripods surveying instruments. Then onto the house of Hanley's friend
[15:51] Speaker 3: up at the Malibu Hills, and from him we got
[15:53] Speaker 3: some information to begin to bear out some of my suspicions. Yeah,
[15:57] Speaker 3: that's right, that's right. When I heard the yacht's whistle,
[15:59] Speaker 3: little foghorn, I hopped out of bed and I stood
[16:02] Speaker 3: right here in this doorway to the port. Huh, leaning
[16:05] Speaker 3: against it the way you are right now, mister Duncan. Yeah, yeah,
[16:08] Speaker 3: that's right.
[16:08] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[16:09] Speaker 3: Because it was so dark, was so foggy out there
[16:11] Speaker 3: over the ocean. I was about to go back to bed,
[16:14] Speaker 3: and then boom the boat exploded. Where. Oh, I can
[16:18] Speaker 3: tell you exactly where from here that is? What do
[16:21] Speaker 3: you mean? Well, the flash the flash had made, it
[16:24] Speaker 3: was right square between those two trees. All right, mister Barkley.
[16:29] Speaker 3: Instead up your transit and get a line on that. Yep,
[16:31] Speaker 3: then PLoP the line on this map, right Dollar, Look
[16:35] Speaker 3: you look, can't lee see that? Michael boy with the
[16:37] Speaker 3: coast guide boats are looking for the wreck. Well, the
[16:40] Speaker 3: line mister Dupkin has given us is nowhere in that
[16:42] Speaker 3: Well yeah, mister Duncan. Do you suppose any of your
[16:45] Speaker 3: neighbors heard the noise and get up for a look.
[16:48] Speaker 3: I certainly would think so, then we really have something
[16:51] Speaker 3: to work on. But Dollar, I still don't understand you will,
[16:54] Speaker 3: mister Hanley, you will plenty.
[17:01] Speaker 5: BacT free of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar, in.
[17:03] Speaker 3: A moment, Times have changed, and so has the man.
[17:08] Speaker 3: How often do we hear the phrase ah, those were
[17:11] Speaker 3: the good old days. But were they? Let's look at
[17:15] Speaker 3: the record. During the War of eighteen hundred and twelve,
[17:19] Speaker 3: the man who discharged a missile of destruction had a
[17:22] Speaker 3: pretty simple job. A lighted taper, a fuse, some gunpowder,
[17:27] Speaker 3: a metal ball, then an explosion, and a metal ball
[17:32] Speaker 3: was propelled toward its target located a few hundred yards away.
[17:37] Speaker 3: Now go back in time to the year thirteen hundred
[17:40] Speaker 3: and twenty seven. Again the operation was simple, the taper,
[17:45] Speaker 3: the gunpowder, but this time an enlarged arrow fitted into
[17:49] Speaker 3: a block of metal. A man and mail, a smoky
[17:53] Speaker 3: explosion and the arrow flies a few hundred feet. Now
[17:59] Speaker 3: come up to the seated before a complicated control panel.
[18:03] Speaker 3: Is another man ready to discharge a missile. He, however,
[18:07] Speaker 3: is a far cry from that artillery man of eighteen
[18:10] Speaker 3: twelve or the cannoneer of thirteen twenty seven. This man
[18:14] Speaker 3: is a skilled, tutored technician. He knows his job. He
[18:20] Speaker 3: pushes a button and a sleek, slim pointed missile blasts
[18:24] Speaker 3: its way into the heavens. Its trajectory has been predetermined
[18:28] Speaker 3: by other men with modern day technicological nohow. The missile
[18:33] Speaker 3: lands not a few hundred feet or yards from its
[18:37] Speaker 3: launching site, but three thousand, four thousand, or five thousand
[18:41] Speaker 3: miles away. Quite a difference, isn't it. As times have changed,
[18:48] Speaker 3: so has the man, and now act free of yours, truly,
[18:52] Speaker 3: Johnny Dollar and the Malibu mystery matter. Pete Hanley, the
[19:00] Speaker 3: insurance man and partly of the surveyor, and I continued
[19:03] Speaker 3: our interviews of people living along Malible Beach. You'd seen
[19:05] Speaker 3: the unexplored, yes, sir.
[19:07] Speaker 7: I just rode right up in bed and I could
[19:09] Speaker 7: see straight out my front.
[19:11] Speaker 3: Window, and you saw the actual explosion, Missus Green. I
[19:15] Speaker 3: certainly did rap right out through there. Good, thank you. Okay,
[19:20] Speaker 3: mister Brackley, get a beat on it with your surveying
[19:22] Speaker 3: instrument and plot it on the map. Right, that's right, Yes,
[19:29] Speaker 3: see the flash right the other side of that big
[19:31] Speaker 3: uliander butt up there in the yard. And you were
[19:33] Speaker 3: standing right here, mister Pump exactly, Yes, sir, Why like
[19:37] Speaker 3: lit up the whole scar, Okay, mister Barkley, right, why
[19:40] Speaker 3: even through the fog.
[19:41] Speaker 2: I could see it just friend day, I'll say I did.
[19:46] Speaker 3: Gee.
[19:46] Speaker 2: You see, he was having a little party and I
[19:48] Speaker 2: just got in the kitchen to make.
[19:49] Speaker 6: Some scrambled bay.
[19:50] Speaker 2: Yes, well not just where it have to be an
[19:52] Speaker 2: up all night and having some drinks.
[19:54] Speaker 3: Well, where were you standing?
[19:55] Speaker 2: Whistle started and the fog one.
[19:57] Speaker 6: We came out here right where you're standing on gluey gee,
[20:01] Speaker 6: Me and my friend.
[20:02] Speaker 2: We thought it was the fourth of July all over again.
[20:06] Speaker 3: Yes, sir, so, according to our survey Captain Rawlins, your
[20:16] Speaker 3: boats have been looking in the wrong area for that wreck. Yeah,
[20:19] Speaker 3: misster Dollar. According to this chart that surveyor made, the
[20:22] Speaker 3: tatoes went down right on top of calico rocks. That's
[20:25] Speaker 3: a formation only about thirty feet below the surface. That
[20:28] Speaker 3: means that our divers will have no trouble at all
[20:30] Speaker 3: finding the racks and then go to it. Captain, we'll
[20:32] Speaker 3: be at the Beverly Hilton. Let me know what you find.
[20:33] Speaker 3: We'll do, mister Dollar, wright them three five twenty five
[20:40] Speaker 3: for some lunch. Then we went up to my roman
[20:42] Speaker 3: and a waited. Finally, a couple of hours later came
[20:45] Speaker 3: the call from Captain Rowlands.
[20:47] Speaker 4: Almost Dollar, our divers didn't find a sign of her,
[20:49] Speaker 4: not a sign of the tatus or any part of her.
[20:51] Speaker 4: But yes, Captain, we did find a lot of Well,
[20:55] Speaker 4: we looked like heavy cans when it burst over, like
[20:58] Speaker 4: maybe they'd contained some kind of explosive exactly like that, and.
[21:01] Speaker 3: Some heavy logs and tight chain west into the rucks
[21:04] Speaker 3: like an explosion of driven them in a raft, maybe
[21:07] Speaker 3: a load of with dynamite or something to make the explosion.
[21:09] Speaker 3: Everybody saw exactly. But what I don't understand is the
[21:12] Speaker 3: oil slick we've found, the wreckage floating around. Captain. I
[21:15] Speaker 3: think that oil slick and the flat somewhere planted out there. Look,
[21:19] Speaker 3: check every port of the Mexican coast, large or small
[21:21] Speaker 3: for the tatus. I'll talk to you lady. Come on, Hemmy,
[21:24] Speaker 3: we're going out to see the Merrows. On the way
[21:31] Speaker 3: out to Westwood, I wanted, I was satisfied. I was
[21:33] Speaker 3: sure I knew just how Merrill had pulled his little
[21:36] Speaker 3: fraud little what's little about a few hundred thousand bucks,
[21:40] Speaker 3: But I needed more than that for the sake of
[21:42] Speaker 3: the insurance company who would have to prosecute it. So
[21:45] Speaker 3: when we got there, I decided to try a bluff.
[21:47] Speaker 3: I'm in, mister dollars, it's the Henley. I didn't expect
[21:50] Speaker 3: to see you back here at.
[21:51] Speaker 2: The phone yes, won't you gentlemen sit down?
[21:53] Speaker 3: Merrol, I think you ought to know. The coast guard
[21:58] Speaker 3: finally found something out there, off. Oh yeah, the remains
[22:03] Speaker 3: of your skipper on the Tatus. What that's impossible, Nancy,
[22:08] Speaker 3: also evidence that he'd been murdered, murdered, probably by you, Meryl.
[22:14] Speaker 2: No, he's still alive.
[22:16] Speaker 3: What fancy can you prove it? Yes? Would you rather
[22:19] Speaker 3: have your husband charge with his murder?
[22:21] Speaker 6: No?
[22:23] Speaker 2: He in Mexico with a.
[22:25] Speaker 3: Yacht, Nancy fire, That's what I figured, at some remote
[22:28] Speaker 3: little port on the coast of Mexico, he and the
[22:30] Speaker 3: Tatus Dollar where the yacht can be completely gone over disguise. Meanwhile,
[22:34] Speaker 3: of course, you thought you'd collect the insurance on air
[22:37] Speaker 3: because of the completely phony wreck you almost got away
[22:39] Speaker 3: with thanks to the fog and the doctor Nancy fool,
[22:42] Speaker 3: I could all right, how did you find out dollar?
[22:50] Speaker 3: Your wife's phony jewels? Tip me off that you are
[22:52] Speaker 3: not exactly paragons of virtue. Name of the paste, Hanley
[22:56] Speaker 3: and nothing else. And I'll lay odds they'll sell the
[22:58] Speaker 3: originals that they point and they carefully lose the fakes.
[23:01] Speaker 3: Why didn't they claim to lose them in the wreck?
[23:03] Speaker 3: All that would have been overplaying their hand. Apparently having
[23:06] Speaker 3: saved those jewels made the wreck with all them are legitimate.
[23:09] Speaker 3: But the really clever stunt was dumping oil on the
[23:11] Speaker 3: water and some odd bits of wreckage. You are away from
[23:13] Speaker 3: the spot where they blew off the raft. Yeah, it
[23:16] Speaker 3: almost kept the Coast Guide from finding the cans of
[23:18] Speaker 3: explosives they've used for the little fireworks display. But Meryl,
[23:22] Speaker 3: the only thing around here that's been sunk is you Dollar.
[23:27] Speaker 3: I'll fight you and this this insurance company with every
[23:30] Speaker 3: legal trick in the book. You know something, mister maryl
[23:33] Speaker 3: I don't think you'll get the first base. Yeah, when
[23:41] Speaker 3: a krook tries to pull a fast one on an
[23:43] Speaker 3: honest insurance company. But you'll see what I mean when
[23:46] Speaker 3: the courts get through with Maryland his wife. Expense acount
[23:49] Speaker 3: total including mileage on the Reddle carn A couple of
[23:51] Speaker 3: extra days to Beverly Hilton, one hundred and fifty Yours, Truly,
[23:56] Speaker 3: Johnny Dallas.
[24:14] Speaker 5: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar is starring Bob Bailey, written Nathan
[24:18] Speaker 5: Hollywood and has written, produced and directed by Jack Johnstone.
[24:22] Speaker 5: Heard in our cast were Paula Winslow, Eleanor Ortley, Gene Tatum,
[24:26] Speaker 5: Ben Wright, Harry Bartel will write Laurence Dobkin and Barney
[24:30] Speaker 5: Phillips be shure to join us next week, same time
[24:33] Speaker 5: and station, or another exciting story of yours truly, Johnny Dollar.
[24:38] Speaker 3: This is Roy Rowan speaking your Trulie. Johnny Dollar has
[25:24] Speaker 3: been a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio
[25:27] Speaker 3: and Television Service.
[25:33] Speaker 1: Welcome Back. A good case where Johnny finds the right
[25:37] Speaker 1: person to save the insurance company money, despite the agent
[25:41] Speaker 1: doing the typical thing of trying to tell Johnny there's
[25:45] Speaker 1: no case. And I just do continue to be puzzled
[25:48] Speaker 1: why you would call in this very expensive, top flight
[25:53] Speaker 1: investigator who will charge you a lot of money if
[25:55] Speaker 1: you're not going to trust his judgment. Now, this episode
[26:00] Speaker 1: has an interesting feature and it might be evidence of
[26:03] Speaker 1: the challenges that Johnstone faced in trying to establish continuity.
[26:09] Speaker 1: At the start of the episode, It's mentions that Johnny's
[26:12] Speaker 1: last case was in California and so it was just
[26:16] Speaker 1: hanging around the problem with that is that John Abbott,
[26:20] Speaker 1: who wrote the Who Is Johnny Dollar matter, actually tracked
[26:24] Speaker 1: down the script that aired during that week, and the
[26:29] Speaker 1: episode the Limping liability matter involved Johnny going to New
[26:33] Speaker 1: York in a case involving Smoky. Now, I won't go
[26:38] Speaker 1: into all the plot, but I will say reading Abbott's synopsis,
[26:41] Speaker 1: it sounds like a really good story. In fact, it
[26:43] Speaker 1: might be the best Smoky story that there was, So
[26:47] Speaker 1: it's a shame that it's missing. But at any rate,
[26:50] Speaker 1: that story had Johnny in New York this episode, and
[26:53] Speaker 1: the next star in California. And then we have an
[26:57] Speaker 1: episode that aired on September twenty first, Johnson Payil Matter,
[27:01] Speaker 1: where Pat McCracken calls Johnny and tells him he's been
[27:05] Speaker 1: working too hard and that Johnny needs to take a
[27:08] Speaker 1: vacation to southern California, which makes little sense given that
[27:13] Speaker 1: the last two cases have been in California. It seems
[27:17] Speaker 1: likely to me that the Johnson Payil Matter was either
[27:21] Speaker 1: the episode that would have originally aired on August thirty
[27:25] Speaker 1: first or September seventh, but the order got switched. Now,
[27:30] Speaker 1: I tend to imagine this sort of thing happening if
[27:32] Speaker 1: there's a conflict between the writer and the director, with
[27:36] Speaker 1: there being a deadline to have the script in and
[27:39] Speaker 1: the writer not being able to make it, and the
[27:42] Speaker 1: director having to reach out to another writer. In this case,
[27:46] Speaker 1: Johnstone is the director and he's the one who wrote
[27:49] Speaker 1: all the scripts. So let's go ahead and disregard that theory.
[27:54] Speaker 1: For this particular episode. It may have been a case
[27:58] Speaker 1: of something with the network. Also may have been about
[28:02] Speaker 1: actor availability. But at any rate, it's time now for
[28:06] Speaker 1: listener comments and feedback. And we have a couple comments
[28:11] Speaker 1: regarding the Glacier Ghost matter over on Instagram Brains Benton Rights,
[28:19] Speaker 1: how fond to hear this lost episode? Hope Johnny got
[28:22] Speaker 1: a messive trout on Facebook. Emmett Rights, what a great
[28:26] Speaker 1: Christmas present, Thank you, Adam. And then I've got an email.
[28:31] Speaker 1: Time to get out your crystal ball. You said there
[28:34] Speaker 1: were three recently discovered Johnny Dollar episodes. It may be
[28:38] Speaker 1: wonder do you think if AI were to get the
[28:41] Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar scripts, voices, tone, and all that makes up
[28:46] Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar, that it would be able to recreate all
[28:49] Speaker 1: the lost episodes. Well that's a tough question, certainly, not
[28:54] Speaker 1: with the technology that's available today. In addition, there are
[28:59] Speaker 1: some episodisodes even during the Hollywood era of Johnny Dowler
[29:04] Speaker 1: for which there are no scripts available, and all of
[29:08] Speaker 1: the New York scripts are missing, so unless those were
[29:12] Speaker 1: somehow recovered, it couldn't recreate all the lost episodes. And
[29:18] Speaker 1: then even with those that are in existence, there are
[29:22] Speaker 1: legal challenges because those are held by the Paiey Center
[29:27] Speaker 1: at UCLA after having been relocated from the Thousand Oaks Library,
[29:32] Speaker 1: and are subject to copyright in a different way than
[29:37] Speaker 1: our scrips, and so there would be some legal wrangling
[29:42] Speaker 1: about that, and the Pailey Center wouldn't release anything until
[29:46] Speaker 1: they were sure that it was legally allowed for them
[29:50] Speaker 1: to do so. Now, if AI advances a bet and
[29:55] Speaker 1: all those legal hurdles were cleared, could you recreate lost
[30:01] Speaker 1: Golden age of radio scraps? I suppose. Now you may
[30:06] Speaker 1: be detecting that I'm not the greatest fan of this,
[30:09] Speaker 1: and let me be clear that I'm not some anti
[30:13] Speaker 1: AI person. It has its uses. There are some things
[30:18] Speaker 1: that philosophically, though, I feel, really are human endeavors in pursuits,
[30:25] Speaker 1: and acting tends to be one of those things. Yeah.
[30:29] Speaker 1: I know there's all the rage about AI actors and whatever.
[30:34] Speaker 1: Modern Hollywood can do what it would like, but I
[30:37] Speaker 1: think the strength of the way the Golden Age of
[30:40] Speaker 1: radio worked is in human interaction and human connection, there's
[30:46] Speaker 1: an individual element to it. It's first of all in
[30:50] Speaker 1: the performer and the choices that they make with their performance,
[30:56] Speaker 1: and there are all sorts of choices. On a very
[30:59] Speaker 1: basic level, you might start by choosing what type of
[31:04] Speaker 1: voice you're going to do. There were several performers during
[31:08] Speaker 1: the Golden Age of Radio that had several places they
[31:11] Speaker 1: could go beyond just older, young, or basic stuff like that,
[31:16] Speaker 1: and the words you might emphasize, and the way you
[31:19] Speaker 1: might deliver a line, and in many programs, it's also
[31:25] Speaker 1: a matter of the way the actors relate to each other.
[31:30] Speaker 1: And one thing about the Golden Age of Radio that
[31:33] Speaker 1: is special is just how much so many of these
[31:37] Speaker 1: actors worked with each other. And when you think about
[31:42] Speaker 1: the Hollywood and New York radio communities, they were relatively
[31:48] Speaker 1: small groups of people, with so many folks who did
[31:52] Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of performances together. And it's something that
[31:58] Speaker 1: on that scale we have never seen before, I think,
[32:03] Speaker 1: in history, and we will never see again where you
[32:08] Speaker 1: had this very elite group of maybe fifty to one
[32:14] Speaker 1: hundred actors on each coast that worked together on so
[32:20] Speaker 1: many different programs We're talking thousands and thousands of performances
[32:27] Speaker 1: by so many actors. If we were able to get
[32:30] Speaker 1: accurate totals as opposed to just what survived. Think about
[32:35] Speaker 1: how many programs people like Howard mcneer did or Virginia
[32:40] Speaker 1: greg and there is this really unique human element of
[32:46] Speaker 1: actors playing off of each other and a performance chemistry
[32:51] Speaker 1: between actors, which is such a big part of what
[32:57] Speaker 1: made the Golden age of radio magical. Well, someday, could
[33:01] Speaker 1: you create a machine that could imitate the voice of
[33:06] Speaker 1: Bob Bailey and Virginia Grag and program that machine to
[33:11] Speaker 1: make choices based on whatever machine logic that it might say? Sure,
[33:18] Speaker 1: are you going to produce something that will seamlessly replicate
[33:23] Speaker 1: the experience of listening to the lost episodes? I don't
[33:28] Speaker 1: really think so. I think what you would find if
[33:31] Speaker 1: you were to create something like that from scratch, it
[33:37] Speaker 1: would have kind of an uncanny Valley feel if you
[33:42] Speaker 1: heard the original radio programs for the existing episodes. And
[33:50] Speaker 1: I think a lot of people be like it, you know,
[33:53] Speaker 1: just not quite able to lay their finger on the
[33:58] Speaker 1: exact thing that's missing. But I suspect the human elements,
[34:03] Speaker 1: So I mean, so my answer is, yeah, it could happen,
[34:08] Speaker 1: but it's not going to happen in a way that
[34:09] Speaker 1: be satisfactory for me. I think a far more interesting
[34:13] Speaker 1: use of AI, and that I'm more optimistic and positive about,
[34:19] Speaker 1: is using it for audio editing and clearing up some
[34:24] Speaker 1: of the really junkie sounding episodes out there. S Burdvack,
[34:29] Speaker 1: the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy,
[34:35] Speaker 1: has done some incredible work in this past year to
[34:38] Speaker 1: begin to leverage AI tools to clean up the more
[34:43] Speaker 1: muffled recordings out there, and again, I think that's where
[34:47] Speaker 1: it makes sense to invest the time, energy and resources.
[34:51] Speaker 1: I feel like, maybe it's just me, but I feel
[34:54] Speaker 1: like any efforts along those lines are going to be
[34:59] Speaker 1: a lot of work. It's going to be a long
[35:02] Speaker 1: time coming, and it is probably not going to be
[35:06] Speaker 1: a satisfying result. So that's my take, but I do
[35:09] Speaker 1: appreciate the question. And then we have a comment from
[35:12] Speaker 1: doctor who done it regarding the Donald Bellow Weather sketches.
[35:18] Speaker 1: Donald and Reba need to have some kids. Every time
[35:22] Speaker 1: they are talking, it's always about auto accidents. Well, the
[35:27] Speaker 1: thing is that with those two that if they had
[35:31] Speaker 1: kids the primary motivation would be to have an entire
[35:37] Speaker 1: slew of new safety as you used to talk about,
[35:41] Speaker 1: although maybe that might not be as big a preoccupation
[35:45] Speaker 1: in the late fifties or whenever those particular ads were
[35:49] Speaker 1: aired as it would be today. All right, well, now
[35:54] Speaker 1: it is time to think our Patreon supporter of the day,
[35:58] Speaker 1: and I want to go ahead and think Jack patreonon
[36:00] Speaker 1: supporter since November twenty nineteen, currently supporting the podcast at
[36:05] Speaker 1: the Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents
[36:08] Speaker 1: or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Jack,
[36:11] Speaker 1: and that will do it for today, and that will
[36:13] Speaker 1: do it for this year in terms of new episodes,
[36:17] Speaker 1: at least on this Great Detectives of Old Time Radio feed.
[36:22] Speaker 1: We will have a New Year's Eve episode of the
[36:25] Speaker 1: Amazing World of Radio at Amazing dot Great Detectives dot net,
[36:30] Speaker 1: and we will have new episodes of the Old Time
[36:32] Speaker 1: Radio snack Wagon till January fifth, and so we will
[36:36] Speaker 1: be bringing you encores through Saturday, January tenth. Then on Sunday,
[36:43] Speaker 1: January eleventh, we'll present the premiere of our Tarzan series
[36:49] Speaker 1: on the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio and return
[36:53] Speaker 1: on January twelfth, to your typical great Detectives of Old
[36:58] Speaker 1: Time radio lineup. I want to go ahead and thank
[37:01] Speaker 1: everyone so much for listening during a very challenging year
[37:06] Speaker 1: we've had in twenty twenty five. Appreciate all of your support,
[37:10] Speaker 1: and I wanted to just close by wishing you all
[37:13] Speaker 1: a safe and happy and last New year. But for
[37:17] Speaker 1: now from Boise, Idaho, this is your host, Adam Graham
[37:22] Speaker 1: signing off.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.