December 19, 2025 • 36 mins
Today's Mystery:Johnny is called to a small desert town where an old prospector is determined to change his life insurance beneficiary...to his burrow.
Original Radio Broadcast Date: December 22, 1956
Originating from Hollywood
Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Herb Vigran; Howard McNear; Jeanne Tatum; Junius Matthews; Lawrence Dobkin; Forrest Lewis; Jack Kruschen; Richard Crenna; Bill James
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:
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.
Original Radio Broadcast Date: December 22, 1956
Originating from Hollywood
Starring: Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar; Herb Vigran; Howard McNear; Jeanne Tatum; Junius Matthews; Lawrence Dobkin; Forrest Lewis; Jack Kruschen; Richard Crenna; Bill James
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:
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of yours truly
Johnny Dollar. But first I do want to encourage you.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
(00:50):
favorite podcast software. And remember, as you're making your travel
plans for twenty twenty six to check out Johnny Dollar
Air doc. John Eadollar Air dot Com is our pross
line affiliate link, so if you make your purchase through there,
part of your purchase prices goes to support the Great
Detectives of Old Time Radio at no additional cost to you.
(01:14):
Remember to check john Eydollar Air dot com first. But
now from December twenty second, nineteen fifty seven, here is
the Carmen Kringle Matter.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Johnny Doller dot McCracken, Johnny, how's the.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Weather in bomb Spring?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
A blonde and a MCKINNI just melted past my pool
side window. Goodbye.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Now, No, don't hang up, Johnny. This job just a
few miles north of where you. I will take maybe
a day to clear it up.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And you said that last Christmas. Matt and I got
tramped in a budget this season. I'm soak in the sun.
Happy New Year, John boy.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
We have a bonus list in this office. Your name
could be on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Uh there where I am Huh.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's a ghost down named Gatigo. No bron second named
Kringle is breathing his life.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I thought all prospectors never died.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
He wants to change the beneficiary and a fifty downs
now policy. But a nephew, Net Kringle threatened suit and
we let him. So you contact our agent Jean Craig
and Barstow.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That was a new beneficiary, Carmen Kringle, Carmon a burrow,
A burrow.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, if I don't hear from you, Johnny Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bob Bailey and the Exciting Adventures of the Man with
the Action Tactic Spens the cous America's fabulous free Lance
Insurance Investigator. It's truly Johnny Dollar now Act one. No,
You're truly Johnny Dollars. Expense account submented by a special investigator,
(03:04):
Johnny Dollar. There's a home office Universal Adjustment Bureau, Hartford, Canadians.
Following is the account of expenses encourage during my investigation
of the Carmen Kringle matter expense account on a one
a dollar forty telegram to Jean Craig, and Barstall was
telling him where and when to meet me. I had
him two fifty dollars even a while sterner for his
(03:25):
chartered plane and the ghost down at Calico. The guys,
there's something about physic country that's good for the soul.
And in spite of the heir bumps, I got a
panoramic view of the great More Hobby that tipped my
breath away. The sun's setting rays hit the weird mineral
traders of the Calico range and turned them into a
patchwork of beauty. Night comes quickly in this country, and
(03:46):
I turned a well when a Christmas freet cluster of
blinking lights appeared under a wing. By way of answer,
he went the plane into a glide and set us
down on a spoolers with a dry like.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
This, Johnny, you want me to wait around with your
friend Joseph.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It seems pretty funny accompany, I asked you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Coyote, don't stand too long or freeze is a spot. Okay,
good luck, call me when you want to be picked up.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I walked down plane until I was swallowed by the dark.
Then suddenly I got that feeling in the air on
the back of my neck, and I wasn't a longer.
The moon was up en up, and they got shadows
and silhouetted in a circle around me was a strained
collection of figures. One of the pack moves towards me,
and for a crazy second, I thought I bumped at
(04:42):
the Santa Clauses raindeer. Then a car without life brushing
at me. The headlights slammed on and I got a
glimpse of a donkey herd scattering into the knife. All right, mister,
walk toward me, slow with your hand. Fine, I've learned
never to wark in with a Winchester ninety fourth. Or
(05:04):
I followed orders. I sparted the weaving headlamps of another
car approaching him. Played it was the agent Jean Craig
Whost Enough, Sonny, I can pop the rappers off a
sideline at sixty yards, don't you make most sudden moves?
It was maybe sixty with gray sideburns and a frosty
go see a Marshall fads into his mother jackets.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
All right now, mister, all right, that's the dollar I'm
first to.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Meet him earlier, I'm off the Sorry, mister Dollar, I'm
Jean Craig. I shouldn't get here until I grew Doc
Stanger up to Chris. He's got another step back, Marshall. Uh,
some darned fool let down a rail on his parral,
and Chris Kringle holds her God loose.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
You don't give it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Chuck for most of them, mosep Carmen now he's precking
because she's running wild. Almost had him tracked down, and
this year fella showed up. If you voucher him and Jean,
you are Johnny Dollar, aren't you well frozen in fact? Centaly,
Come on, I'll drive you into Calico. Chris Ado, have
his Carmen back in the corrella for the moon pool.
(06:03):
And Gene, you know, tell the old shower door and
stay alive. Would you we need him around here? Sorry
about mistaking un Dollar.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Geene Craig with a.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Jay knew her way around. She was strictly business and
killed me in the fast on the old prospected was
the odd name and his desire to change the beneficiary
of his policy. Everybody calls him Chris because every year
he loads up his bugs with Cays and Saisens for
the miners and their families.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Back in the hill.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The kids really think he is Santa Claus.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I'm afraid it will be a very.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Merry one for this year.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But what makes everyone so sure Chris Kringle is giving
him the ghost doax? Spangler says there's nothing exactly wrong
with him.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well, I just giving up.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What's with a Scrooge character?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
The nephew next king?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Those teams?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
All right?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Then with him Willie Dagastino, he doesn't talking for ned.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Do you think he was going to inherit the money?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, maybe he's expecting to. You know, you're making a
good chase for Carmen. Canna Burrow be a beneficiary, Johnny.
Chris can leave it to a three mans at schooner
if he wants, providing a trust to set up. Could
the people of Kalico be that trust if they promise
to take.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Care of Carmen?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah? I guess so.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Why that's the way, Chris Watson? That way, they'll always
be a.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Fishiness in calis what happens when Carmen goes to Donkey Heavens?
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Or is it?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Burrows has never die They'll always be borrows in Calico, Johnny,
and one of them could always be named Carmen act too.
If yours truly Johnny Dollar in a moment black too,
(07:56):
If yours truly Johnny Dollar and the Carmen Kringle matter, Well,
here we are, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Calico once the richest silver city in the West.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It was unbelievable, like seeing a page from the past.
Well they or nuts, same creator of not Verry Farm
in Western historians had bought the old ghost town's battered
remnints and restored it to the way it must have
appeared in the wild and fever days of the silver loads.
I can think out signs Nail, the weathered bat and boards,
the total of a flourishing and colorful past Joe Saloon,
(08:43):
the Last Chance Hyena House, Hotel, Lane's Recantile, the Calico Prince.
High on a hill at the edge of town, people
were gathered at the entrance to a cave that was
illuminated by hundreds of minor slamps. And he gets you huh,
(09:03):
almost like it was planned the other hurt things for
the Christmas Eve pageant. Maybe you should spend Christmas Eve?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Hit is Johnny?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
You don't have other plans. I have a day with
a steam hated swimming pool. Come on, let's meet the
old man. Expense account at him three one hundred bucks
for a quarter perfume, or I'll make scarf anything to
wipe the hurt look off of Jean Craig's face. She
(09:32):
led me up the steps to the rickety port. You,
Chris Kringles, wouldn't check. A tall figure carrying a black
bag stepped toward us out of the shadows.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, I'm glad she Will you gut me back to town? Why?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Certainly? Doc?
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Oh, this is mister Dollar.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Hi, s Chris? Is he still our arms and it
couldn't shave?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And sitting out here waiting for you. You haven't seen
the patience a medical man.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Who's a duty and all that.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
But I'm too old.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Talk back to a gun.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
They wouldn't let you in tire.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, I'm not a medical plan.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Suppose please be careful, Johnny.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
I told your star boats tayway and leave the old man.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Well, if I little Genie the policy pictures.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Who are you, mister Biddy Degasino.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
This is Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He's in the insurance company to see about changing the police.
Who are you talking, Adam, give us some terrorist directions
back to barstove? Have you know policy changing at this
late date. Mister ned Kringle is very bereaved at the
imminence of his uncle's demid just family admitted this, said
Alice and most your long, folks, I don't leave. The
(10:35):
young man was great, your foot is in the door, mister.
I don't like your.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Foot, and I don't like you.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
His hand moved to his shoulder holster. But Jean was
standing right beside me. It was Doc with suddenly shouldered
past Agasino and fled up the stairs. That gave him
my chance. I kicked the door wide, threw him off balance.
I shoved Genie aside, and that was a mistake, because
a million Christmas tree lights blazed up in my skull,
(11:13):
and slowly the tree lights faded away, and I saw
a Genie fussing over me and looking worried. A young,
nice looking fellow was seated next to a marbletown table.
Zegastina leaned against the stone fireplace and dangled his gun,
smiling like he had a sack deck. He's all right,
dark lasty cutch, but no fracture. I know how I'll
(11:34):
pull my budget dog the old man, how is he
no better, no worse?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Just lying up there staring to see you.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I want to see Crid.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I had a right to ned.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I'm an old Sam.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Wooly wouldn't be okay if Jean just want to let
them die and faces past Carrod, who season holy? These
people have no I get a hero boy in a speak,
shove off.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Go on, come on, Johnny, help me doe.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
How's he gonna feel that sharing blood money with a
foodlo Your uncle paid for that policy with a pick
and a shovel. It took a lot of years, a
lot of sweat, and he's had your name on that
policy ever since you were f oh Man Kringle never
saw paid during his life. Maddy had to give him
money to live on, paid the pems and his policy.
(12:21):
Chris was always tapping the kid, claiming he had a
new find. He was gonna mind a million, oh Man, die,
tell him, man, tell him how the old phoney was
always taking the bars. Makeingle, Santa Claus, of the money
you give him, will he haven't you got a hold
of the money.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I know it's been waiting a long time.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
For this me Lily di Agasino.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
That's who.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
True man? Yeah, I thought my uncle would make a
strike someday.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I honestly thought he'd strike it rich.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I know he tried.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
He did strike it rich ned.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
When he dies, every man, woman and child in this
town will morn him.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
You'll live in their hearts.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
How do people remember about you, mister Dagostino.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
All right, I'll get get out and stay off the part.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Really just rifle and make a hole.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And you're barely big enough.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
To pass up bullax beam through, so you just drop
that gun.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I don't know what the shouting is about, but you're.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Jilly carrying side arms.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You're threatening violence, mister Dagostino, And ain't nobody does that
in Calaco as long as I'm the marshall.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Now you better get that all that.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
I love you too.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Let gladys here there. Well, I'll Chris, uh, doc can
tell the old buzzard that I got his Carmen back
in the corral. Jingle bells and all.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, nice work.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I what hold you?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Mister?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Okay, okay, all right, let's go and let.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
The square just have a round. Uh almost stay here, willing,
I want to be here when Chris, Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
That way, no food around at the wheel.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That's smart kid, that med see as the funeral.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And I.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
I'll go up now.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You will run for Marshall, You too, Jenny, Oh yeah, sure,
I take a nice stock on my head.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Day.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
You both better come up to Chris wants to say something.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
I forget on this coral.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Come on, Zegastino must have had another gun in his car,
one of the bullets that's on the market intended well,
I boy, wasn't taking any chances that common Kringle would
inherit fifty thousand dollars. We found the borough lying on
(14:59):
her side quite dead. Jingle bells and all Act three
of yours, truly Johnny Dollar in a moment, Oh, Act
three of yours, truly Johnny Dollar, and the Carmen Kringle
matters Marshall, Johnny, how couldn't have been so cruel? Carmen dead?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Not right?
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I figured Deckestino might be mean enough to try kill him.
Chris is pet bauro. We can't tell him about it
with kill him for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You'll have to know the truth.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Gee, you'll have to decide about the world and truth
is always the best and easy this time? Easy huh yeah,
I'll just take these bells off miss, poor little fella,
and I'll put him to belong. Carmon what Carmon Mody
over here now?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Or you pulled a switch he put these bells on
another book. I didn't trust that easy character, and I
was right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And nice girl, carlis now you folks going up to
see you, old Chris. I'll keep an eye on this
year fifty thousand dollars jacket.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
That's the way it's going to be, ain't.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It, Johnny, Yes, sir, that's the way it's going to be.
But I was wrong. The only pulling little old man
in the forepost of bed with his white whiskers resting
on the quilt changed his mind again. Even after hearing
about how the Marshall safe common, I wasn't.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Even gonna scratch nig's lean love for that insurance was done.
I tried to shake that guy is stina seeking. He's
taking hooks off a neck. If he's not my common,
he's gonna get the money.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I was scared for a while that I just might
have to up and dive square and up his game
and debts.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, I'm sorry, Chris.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I'll work my fingers for off paying every ting I know,
but I'll pay him.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Back with interest.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I want you around, James G.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Chris lifts the lid on that foot locker. The such
milling bags. Man, they're pretty heavy, but you look strong
for sure, heavy enough. I got him with silver. It
gets better than children over the Yeah, as you get.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Recognize that, man, maybe you'd better have a good sleep. Chris,
is here a plain old brown Yes, it's uranium. Guy.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
The last back assay that nine hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
To come, and I got a mountain of a staked
out in both our names dead.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
If you got it, If you and Genie checked with
a barscill bank, you find the days extend credit.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
On the strength of that essay you reckon, you can spend.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Two days buying in the presences. We will disappoint the
folks who expense a count at of four sixty eight dollars.
Even telephone calls to five principal cities where I thought
Willie Degastino might be remembered. The police department had a
(18:35):
long list of reasons why they remembered Willie. That was
my Christmas present to them expense count aut of five,
another fifty truck rant on a hall of presents we
brought for Ned to give away come Christmas morning. And
then it was Christmas Eve. We sat on the Kringle's
(18:56):
porch and watched the procession up to the Maggie mind,
the flickering lights from the miners lamps reflecting on the
faces of the happy children. Oh, Chris was bundled up
in blanket, his little eyes twinkling, chuckling to himself like
he knew all the answers to the universe.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Jane was there to him tend and nice, isn't it Johnny.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Kind of nice? Marshall ed Nola was one of the
wise men in the procession. I recognized the Sidebury and
Duc Spangler couldn't hide his height. Oh he wore an
awful beer. Ned Kringle led the borough that carried the
blessed mother. Yeah, you guessed it. The borough was common Cranle.
(19:41):
Extent account total including return to Palm Springs and incidental
two hundred and twenty nine dollars and seventy five cents.
But forget it, pat, This is the best holiday I
ever had, and I was only cold at the start
from all of us to all of you. May this
be your very yes Christmas. Yep, you're silly, junny up.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Welcome back. A really good, sweet Christmas script with some
nice heartwarming touches that doesn't get too far away from
being true to the spirit of Johnny Dollar. It's not
the nickt Sher Matter, but it's a good, solid story,
really impressive because it unfolded in around twenty minutes of storytime.
(21:42):
I also understand why it'd rank higher in terms of
most enjoyable Christmas is for Johnny, as during the nixt
sher matter, he was shot at and nearly died in
a snow storm and had to kill a man in
self defense. So only getting knocked out and having a
minor concussion makes this a Christmas win. If there was
(22:06):
one complaint I had, it was the idea of her
being hurt by Johnny not expressing interest in spending the holiday.
I hate to point this out, but she was trying
to pick up a stranger in a friendly, not creepy way.
But you still can't reasonably get upset if this stranger
(22:27):
goes ahead and says no.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's worth noting that the name of the writer of
the script was Robert Bainter, and that's actually a pen
name for Bob Bailey, with Bainter being his middle name
after his godmother early acting legend Fae Bainter. This was
something done during the Golden Age of radio because there
(22:51):
were rules about paying the same person for both writing
and acting. And you see something very similar are when
Betsy Drake wrote an episode of Mister and Missus Blanding's
she used a pen name for the same reason. Now,
this may have been the last script that Bob Bailey wrote,
(23:15):
but it wasn't the first. Bailey had sat out on
a writing career no later than nineteen fifty three, though
he may have started writing earlier. There are thirteen scripts
of Let George Do It where the writer is credited
as Lloyd London in nineteen fifty one, in nineteen fifty two, Okay,
(23:38):
Lloyd's of London. Given that's an obvious pseudonym and the
industry rules I just mentioned, and that Bailey would eventually
get the writing bug, it seems likely that Bailey first
tried writing on his own series, and that would make
sense budget wise because in nineteen fifty one and two
(24:00):
fifty two radio budgets were starting to contract, and so
the sponsors could have probably paid Bailey less to write
the script than they would have a normal professional writer,
particularly since he was also earning a salary as the star.
I can't prove it, but I would be very shocked
if someone else had been Lloyd London. Bailey had actually
(24:22):
quit Let George Do It in the fall of nineteen
fifty three to pursue a writing career. Now, as he
told Zuma Palmer of the Los Angeles Evening Citizen, he
was under no illusion that he was a great writer.
He viewed writing as a bridge to get to direct
motion picture or film. Perhaps he decided to take this
(24:44):
direction in his career after Let George Do It TV
series was shelved. The moment the production team saw him,
he may have concluded that television was the future and
that the way the industry worked, he'd never make it
in front of the camera. And certainly there are quite
a few examples of people who worked in radio and
then went into writing, directing, or producing behind the camera.
(25:08):
Examples include Sheldon Lennard, Tony Barrett, as well as his
predecessor as Johnny Doller, William Charles Russell William Conrad, who
was rejected as the on screen Matt Dillon produced and
directed throughout the late nineteen fifties into the sixties. It
(25:29):
just didn't end up working out for Bailey. He had
a promising start. You might even say he made a
splash and there's a pun it's coming up. He and
co writer Hugh King sold one, perhaps two stories for
movies to RKO. They also co wrote an episode of
(25:51):
the Ford Television Theater, which was a backdoor pilot for
a legal comedy series called The Legal Beagles. Unfortunately now
they're worked out. When it came to the stories that
were sold to RKO, one of them became the film Underwater.
And in fact, I found a news report that Bailey
(26:13):
took a vacation to Hawaii for his fortieth birthday in
June of nineteen fifty three, and it's likely he was
mixing a little business with pleasure, as Hawaii would be
one of the locations that the film was shot at.
But the film was a troubled production. A lot of
(26:33):
it can come back to the fact that Howard Hughes
was involved and he owned RKO at the time. It
was massively expensive to shoot and it took a very
long time, and there was all sorts of drama surrounding
the picture, including the fact that Howard Hughes was kind
(26:55):
of creepy towards Jane Russell. Film had a big premiere,
of course, as Howard Hughes was involved, he had it underwater,
but the film is not well remembered. It was in
fact in the book The Hollywood Hall of Shame The
Most Expensive Flops by Harry and Michael Medvet. This had
(27:19):
very little to do with Bailey and Hugh King, his
co writer, as they just wrote the story, but the
production did not go well. As for a potential second film,
in the interview that he gave to Zuma Palmer, he
(27:40):
stated that they had sold a story called Below the Timberline,
and this was never made. And given the fact that
RKO fell in the late nineteen fifties, it seems probable
that they bought the story but just never developed it.
As for the Lee Hicles, I've seen the episode of
(28:02):
the Ford Television Theater. It's not awful, but it's not
good either. It's about a husband and wife attorney team
who get a continuance in a legal case so that
they can have a second honeymoon. However, a demand for
justice up ends their plans. Now, it had two good
(28:25):
actors in the leads, in Richard Dinning and Lorraine Day.
It's the tope of series that could have worked. If
someone saw the potential and worked to smooth out the
rough edges, it really could have made it. But it's
not some cosmic injustice that it didn't. Bailey's writing career
(28:46):
stoleed out a bit. It was during these couple of
years between fifty three or fifty four and fifty five
he did quite a few radio guest appearances. He also
did some movie parts, and he actually they hadn't done
much of either of those during his time when he
was playing George Valentine on Let George Do It, and
(29:08):
the state of his writing career may have been why
he was available to do Johnny Dollar two years after
stepping aside on his last program. Now, after he landed
Johnny Dollar, he still continued to write. He co wrote
some episodes of Fury, which is the horse version of
Lassie or the horse version of Flipper, however you'd like
(29:31):
to look at it. He also co wrote a large
number of episodes of the syndicated series Hawkeye and the
Last of the Mohicans. He also stated in the Zuma
Palmer interview that he'd written episodes for a series called
The Phantom Pirate. However, I can't find any evidence of
(29:53):
that series actually being produced, though there was a pilot
for the series earlier in the nineteen fifties, and I
believe I found some whisperings of a revival on the
late fifties. Likely Bailey and King sold scripts or sold
storylines four series that just ended up not being produced.
(30:14):
None of this would get Bailey close to being behind
the camera. The last script he wrote that was produced
was a March nineteen fifty eight episode of Fury, though
given TV production timelines, it's likely that this episode was
written after that. Bailey may have made a practical decision,
(30:35):
or he may just have lost the mood to write,
which to him might have been fatal for him pursuing
this sort of career. Bailey described himself as someone who
liked to write when he had a compulsion, whether it
was early in the morning, or he might get started
at ten o'clock and pull an all nighter and stay
(30:55):
up till four am. And I think from the zoom
upon or peace in particularly with someone who oosed creativity.
He built and sold an early American furniture he painted,
and had even talked to a gallery owner about doing
some showings. He often read about a type of dish
(31:16):
and would spontaneously go home, take over the kitchen and
try to cook it. Babe Lee told Palmer, if I
would concentrate on one field, I would probably go further.
But being creative in several I feel enriches my life.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
All right.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Well, listener comments and feedback now, and we start on
YouTube with a couple of comments regarding the two face matter,
kind of in the same vein. Listener comments, this has
to be the earliest depiction of an Amish community used
as a plot device that I've ever heard. An Unseen
(31:54):
Happiness says, this sounds like someone was trying to describe
or explain the Amish without having met any Amish people.
I definitely feel like the show was maybe a little
bit evocative of the Amish. Yet the series didn't describe
them as particularly religious or tied to any ethnic group,
(32:19):
which may have reflected a sensitivity they've shown in other
areas to going after minority religious or ethnic groups. Instead,
the episode treats them as just a group of eccentrics,
which can make it seem a bit shallow, particularly if
you catch what Johnstone might have been going for. And
(32:41):
then Harrison comments regarding the wayward Killer matter, gotta hate
it when you toss yourself out a second floor last
window to throw off the cops, only to make yourself
look even guiltier. Thanks so much, appreciate the comment, Harrison.
Now now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of
(33:02):
the day, and I want to thank Debbie, Patreon supporter
since October twenty fifteen, currently supporting the podcast at the
Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or
more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Debbie,
and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
(33:23):
And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
to lock the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark
the notification bell all those great things that help YouTube
channels to grow. Please note that today we do have
an episode Christmas episode on the Amazing World of Radio
at Amazing Great Detectives dot net. We'll be back next
(33:47):
Friday with another episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Tomorrow
we turn things over to the great adventurers of Old
time Radio with an encore presentation from the war. We
will be back on Sunday with a special episode where.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
You ashamed of your friendship with a private detective? Or
do you consider my features more acceptable when buried beneath
the depths of a snowy beer?
Speaker 7 (34:14):
Oh, my dear homes, do take me seriously. I'm not joking.
I assure your.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
Cause not a cause?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You?
Speaker 6 (34:19):
You want me to attend your party in disguise? Why
I'm giving you some very valuable.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
Presents diamond and onyx cuff links in platinum and ruby earrings,
and then such like. And I've wrapped each of the
presents in banknotes.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Jure, where aren't these presents now in a.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Sack in charge of my butler. I am going to
dress up a Santa Clause and give him out myself
until I got the warning letter. That's why I've come
to you.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Warning letter.
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Eh, yes, I received it by this evening's post. Listen
to this, my dear lord whittickumb, Your generosity with Christmas
presents borders on ostentation.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
We do not approve either.
Speaker 7 (34:58):
We receive five thousand pounds in sovereigns at post rest
Ont Box three seven nine by six o'clock on Christmas Eve,
or I'm afraid to Christmas party will be conspicuous by
its absence of presence.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
You see that note wig, will you he is here?
Thanks m H. Clean paper from a penny notebook. Writing
is obviously disguised it Why, George, Yes, whitting Comb, I
accept the case. I'll come with you to your party
at once, and furthermore, I shall follow your suggestion regarding
the disguise rested as Santa Claus, I shall be less
(35:32):
likely to attract suspicion and delighted homes. But what made
you decide so suddenly? This writing, my dear fellow, is writing.
It's in a false hand. I'd know that characteristic m
in my dear Whittickum. I've seen it too often at
the beginning of a signature.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
If you'll be with us, then in the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter Radio Detectors, and check us out
on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. Sign and off.
Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you this week's episode of yours truly
Johnny Dollar. But first I do want to encourage you.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
(00:50):
favorite podcast software. And remember, as you're making your travel
plans for twenty twenty six to check out Johnny Dollar
Air doc. John Eadollar Air dot Com is our pross
line affiliate link, so if you make your purchase through there,
part of your purchase prices goes to support the Great
Detectives of Old Time Radio at no additional cost to you.
(01:14):
Remember to check john Eydollar Air dot com first. But
now from December twenty second, nineteen fifty seven, here is
the Carmen Kringle Matter.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Johnny Doller dot McCracken, Johnny, how's the.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Weather in bomb Spring?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
A blonde and a MCKINNI just melted past my pool
side window. Goodbye.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Now, No, don't hang up, Johnny. This job just a
few miles north of where you. I will take maybe
a day to clear it up.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And you said that last Christmas. Matt and I got
tramped in a budget this season. I'm soak in the sun.
Happy New Year, John boy.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
We have a bonus list in this office. Your name
could be on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Uh there where I am Huh.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It's a ghost down named Gatigo. No bron second named
Kringle is breathing his life.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
I thought all prospectors never died.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
He wants to change the beneficiary and a fifty downs
now policy. But a nephew, Net Kringle threatened suit and
we let him. So you contact our agent Jean Craig
and Barstow.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That was a new beneficiary, Carmen Kringle, Carmon a burrow,
A burrow.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah, if I don't hear from you, Johnny Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Bob Bailey and the Exciting Adventures of the Man with
the Action Tactic Spens the cous America's fabulous free Lance
Insurance Investigator. It's truly Johnny Dollar now Act one. No,
You're truly Johnny Dollars. Expense account submented by a special investigator,
(03:04):
Johnny Dollar. There's a home office Universal Adjustment Bureau, Hartford, Canadians.
Following is the account of expenses encourage during my investigation
of the Carmen Kringle matter expense account on a one
a dollar forty telegram to Jean Craig, and Barstall was
telling him where and when to meet me. I had
him two fifty dollars even a while sterner for his
(03:25):
chartered plane and the ghost down at Calico. The guys,
there's something about physic country that's good for the soul.
And in spite of the heir bumps, I got a
panoramic view of the great More Hobby that tipped my
breath away. The sun's setting rays hit the weird mineral
traders of the Calico range and turned them into a
patchwork of beauty. Night comes quickly in this country, and
(03:46):
I turned a well when a Christmas freet cluster of
blinking lights appeared under a wing. By way of answer,
he went the plane into a glide and set us
down on a spoolers with a dry like.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
This, Johnny, you want me to wait around with your
friend Joseph.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
I thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
It seems pretty funny accompany, I asked you, Oh.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Coyote, don't stand too long or freeze is a spot. Okay,
good luck, call me when you want to be picked up.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I walked down plane until I was swallowed by the dark.
Then suddenly I got that feeling in the air on
the back of my neck, and I wasn't a longer.
The moon was up en up, and they got shadows
and silhouetted in a circle around me was a strained
collection of figures. One of the pack moves towards me,
and for a crazy second, I thought I bumped at
(04:42):
the Santa Clauses raindeer. Then a car without life brushing
at me. The headlights slammed on and I got a
glimpse of a donkey herd scattering into the knife. All right, mister,
walk toward me, slow with your hand. Fine, I've learned
never to wark in with a Winchester ninety fourth. Or
(05:04):
I followed orders. I sparted the weaving headlamps of another
car approaching him. Played it was the agent Jean Craig
Whost Enough, Sonny, I can pop the rappers off a
sideline at sixty yards, don't you make most sudden moves?
It was maybe sixty with gray sideburns and a frosty
go see a Marshall fads into his mother jackets.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
All right now, mister, all right, that's the dollar I'm
first to.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Meet him earlier, I'm off the Sorry, mister Dollar, I'm
Jean Craig. I shouldn't get here until I grew Doc
Stanger up to Chris. He's got another step back, Marshall. Uh,
some darned fool let down a rail on his parral,
and Chris Kringle holds her God loose.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
You don't give it.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Chuck for most of them, mosep Carmen now he's precking
because she's running wild. Almost had him tracked down, and
this year fella showed up. If you voucher him and Jean,
you are Johnny Dollar, aren't you well frozen in fact? Centaly,
Come on, I'll drive you into Calico. Chris Ado, have
his Carmen back in the corrella for the moon pool.
(06:03):
And Gene, you know, tell the old shower door and
stay alive. Would you we need him around here? Sorry
about mistaking un Dollar.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
Geene Craig with a.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Jay knew her way around. She was strictly business and
killed me in the fast on the old prospected was
the odd name and his desire to change the beneficiary
of his policy. Everybody calls him Chris because every year
he loads up his bugs with Cays and Saisens for
the miners and their families.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Back in the hill.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
The kids really think he is Santa Claus.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
I'm afraid it will be a very.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Merry one for this year.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
But what makes everyone so sure Chris Kringle is giving
him the ghost doax? Spangler says there's nothing exactly wrong
with him.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Well, I just giving up.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
What's with a Scrooge character?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
The nephew next king?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Those teams?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
All right?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Then with him Willie Dagastino, he doesn't talking for ned.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
Do you think he was going to inherit the money?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, maybe he's expecting to. You know, you're making a
good chase for Carmen. Canna Burrow be a beneficiary, Johnny.
Chris can leave it to a three mans at schooner
if he wants, providing a trust to set up. Could
the people of Kalico be that trust if they promise
to take.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Care of Carmen?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah? I guess so.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Why that's the way, Chris Watson? That way, they'll always
be a.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Fishiness in calis what happens when Carmen goes to Donkey Heavens?
Speaker 6 (07:33):
Or is it?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Burrows has never die They'll always be borrows in Calico, Johnny,
and one of them could always be named Carmen act too.
If yours truly Johnny Dollar in a moment black too,
(07:56):
If yours truly Johnny Dollar and the Carmen Kringle matter, Well,
here we are, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Calico once the richest silver city in the West.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
It was unbelievable, like seeing a page from the past.
Well they or nuts, same creator of not Verry Farm
in Western historians had bought the old ghost town's battered
remnints and restored it to the way it must have
appeared in the wild and fever days of the silver loads.
I can think out signs Nail, the weathered bat and boards,
the total of a flourishing and colorful past Joe Saloon,
(08:43):
the Last Chance Hyena House, Hotel, Lane's Recantile, the Calico Prince.
High on a hill at the edge of town, people
were gathered at the entrance to a cave that was
illuminated by hundreds of minor slamps. And he gets you huh,
(09:03):
almost like it was planned the other hurt things for
the Christmas Eve pageant. Maybe you should spend Christmas Eve?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Hit is Johnny?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
You don't have other plans. I have a day with
a steam hated swimming pool. Come on, let's meet the
old man. Expense account at him three one hundred bucks
for a quarter perfume, or I'll make scarf anything to
wipe the hurt look off of Jean Craig's face. She
(09:32):
led me up the steps to the rickety port. You,
Chris Kringles, wouldn't check. A tall figure carrying a black
bag stepped toward us out of the shadows.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
Yeah, I'm glad she Will you gut me back to town? Why?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Certainly? Doc?
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Oh, this is mister Dollar.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Hi, s Chris? Is he still our arms and it
couldn't shave?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And sitting out here waiting for you. You haven't seen
the patience a medical man.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Who's a duty and all that.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
But I'm too old.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Talk back to a gun.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
They wouldn't let you in tire.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, I'm not a medical plan.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Suppose please be careful, Johnny.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
I told your star boats tayway and leave the old man.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Well, if I little Genie the policy pictures.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Who are you, mister Biddy Degasino.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
This is Johnny Dollar.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
He's in the insurance company to see about changing the police.
Who are you talking, Adam, give us some terrorist directions
back to barstove? Have you know policy changing at this
late date. Mister ned Kringle is very bereaved at the
imminence of his uncle's demid just family admitted this, said
Alice and most your long, folks, I don't leave. The
(10:35):
young man was great, your foot is in the door, mister.
I don't like your.
Speaker 5 (10:43):
Foot, and I don't like you.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
His hand moved to his shoulder holster. But Jean was
standing right beside me. It was Doc with suddenly shouldered
past Agasino and fled up the stairs. That gave him
my chance. I kicked the door wide, threw him off balance.
I shoved Genie aside, and that was a mistake, because
a million Christmas tree lights blazed up in my skull,
(11:13):
and slowly the tree lights faded away, and I saw
a Genie fussing over me and looking worried. A young,
nice looking fellow was seated next to a marbletown table.
Zegastina leaned against the stone fireplace and dangled his gun,
smiling like he had a sack deck. He's all right,
dark lasty cutch, but no fracture. I know how I'll
(11:34):
pull my budget dog the old man, how is he
no better, no worse?
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Just lying up there staring to see you.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I want to see Crid.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I had a right to ned.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I'm an old Sam.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Wooly wouldn't be okay if Jean just want to let
them die and faces past Carrod, who season holy? These
people have no I get a hero boy in a speak,
shove off.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Go on, come on, Johnny, help me doe.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
How's he gonna feel that sharing blood money with a
foodlo Your uncle paid for that policy with a pick
and a shovel. It took a lot of years, a
lot of sweat, and he's had your name on that
policy ever since you were f oh Man Kringle never
saw paid during his life. Maddy had to give him
money to live on, paid the pems and his policy.
(12:21):
Chris was always tapping the kid, claiming he had a
new find. He was gonna mind a million, oh Man, die,
tell him, man, tell him how the old phoney was
always taking the bars. Makeingle, Santa Claus, of the money
you give him, will he haven't you got a hold
of the money.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I know it's been waiting a long time.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
For this me Lily di Agasino.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
That's who.
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (12:44):
True man? Yeah, I thought my uncle would make a
strike someday.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
I honestly thought he'd strike it rich.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I know he tried.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
He did strike it rich ned.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
When he dies, every man, woman and child in this
town will morn him.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
You'll live in their hearts.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
How do people remember about you, mister Dagostino.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
All right, I'll get get out and stay off the part.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Really just rifle and make a hole.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And you're barely big enough.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
To pass up bullax beam through, so you just drop
that gun.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I don't know what the shouting is about, but you're.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Jilly carrying side arms.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
You're threatening violence, mister Dagostino, And ain't nobody does that
in Calaco as long as I'm the marshall.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
Now you better get that all that.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
I love you too.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Let gladys here there. Well, I'll Chris, uh, doc can
tell the old buzzard that I got his Carmen back
in the corral. Jingle bells and all.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, nice work.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
I what hold you?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Mister?
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Okay, okay, all right, let's go and let.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
The square just have a round. Uh almost stay here, willing,
I want to be here when Chris, Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
That way, no food around at the wheel.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
That's smart kid, that med see as the funeral.
Speaker 6 (14:09):
And I.
Speaker 5 (14:14):
I'll go up now.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
You will run for Marshall, You too, Jenny, Oh yeah, sure,
I take a nice stock on my head.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Day.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
You both better come up to Chris wants to say something.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
I forget on this coral.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Come on, Zegastino must have had another gun in his car,
one of the bullets that's on the market intended well,
I boy, wasn't taking any chances that common Kringle would
inherit fifty thousand dollars. We found the borough lying on
(14:59):
her side quite dead. Jingle bells and all Act three
of yours, truly Johnny Dollar in a moment, Oh, Act
three of yours, truly Johnny Dollar, and the Carmen Kringle
matters Marshall, Johnny, how couldn't have been so cruel? Carmen dead?
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Not right?
Speaker 7 (15:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I figured Deckestino might be mean enough to try kill him.
Chris is pet bauro. We can't tell him about it
with kill him for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You'll have to know the truth.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Gee, you'll have to decide about the world and truth
is always the best and easy this time? Easy huh yeah,
I'll just take these bells off miss, poor little fella,
and I'll put him to belong. Carmon what Carmon Mody
over here now?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Or you pulled a switch he put these bells on
another book. I didn't trust that easy character, and I
was right.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And nice girl, carlis now you folks going up to
see you, old Chris. I'll keep an eye on this
year fifty thousand dollars jacket.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
That's the way it's going to be, ain't.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It, Johnny, Yes, sir, that's the way it's going to be.
But I was wrong. The only pulling little old man
in the forepost of bed with his white whiskers resting
on the quilt changed his mind again. Even after hearing
about how the Marshall safe common, I wasn't.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Even gonna scratch nig's lean love for that insurance was done.
I tried to shake that guy is stina seeking. He's
taking hooks off a neck. If he's not my common,
he's gonna get the money.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
I was scared for a while that I just might
have to up and dive square and up his game
and debts.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, I'm sorry, Chris.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
I'll work my fingers for off paying every ting I know,
but I'll pay him.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Back with interest.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I want you around, James G.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Chris lifts the lid on that foot locker. The such
milling bags. Man, they're pretty heavy, but you look strong
for sure, heavy enough. I got him with silver. It
gets better than children over the Yeah, as you get.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Recognize that, man, maybe you'd better have a good sleep. Chris,
is here a plain old brown Yes, it's uranium. Guy.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
The last back assay that nine hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
To come, and I got a mountain of a staked
out in both our names dead.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Chris.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
If you got it, If you and Genie checked with
a barscill bank, you find the days extend credit.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
On the strength of that essay you reckon, you can spend.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Two days buying in the presences. We will disappoint the
folks who expense a count at of four sixty eight dollars.
Even telephone calls to five principal cities where I thought
Willie Degastino might be remembered. The police department had a
(18:35):
long list of reasons why they remembered Willie. That was
my Christmas present to them expense count aut of five,
another fifty truck rant on a hall of presents we
brought for Ned to give away come Christmas morning. And
then it was Christmas Eve. We sat on the Kringle's
(18:56):
porch and watched the procession up to the Maggie mind,
the flickering lights from the miners lamps reflecting on the
faces of the happy children. Oh, Chris was bundled up
in blanket, his little eyes twinkling, chuckling to himself like
he knew all the answers to the universe.
Speaker 6 (19:13):
Jane was there to him tend and nice, isn't it Johnny.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Kind of nice? Marshall ed Nola was one of the
wise men in the procession. I recognized the Sidebury and
Duc Spangler couldn't hide his height. Oh he wore an
awful beer. Ned Kringle led the borough that carried the
blessed mother. Yeah, you guessed it. The borough was common Cranle.
(19:41):
Extent account total including return to Palm Springs and incidental
two hundred and twenty nine dollars and seventy five cents.
But forget it, pat, This is the best holiday I
ever had, and I was only cold at the start
from all of us to all of you. May this
be your very yes Christmas. Yep, you're silly, junny up.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Welcome back. A really good, sweet Christmas script with some
nice heartwarming touches that doesn't get too far away from
being true to the spirit of Johnny Dollar. It's not
the nickt Sher Matter, but it's a good, solid story,
really impressive because it unfolded in around twenty minutes of storytime.
(21:42):
I also understand why it'd rank higher in terms of
most enjoyable Christmas is for Johnny, as during the nixt
sher matter, he was shot at and nearly died in
a snow storm and had to kill a man in
self defense. So only getting knocked out and having a
minor concussion makes this a Christmas win. If there was
(22:06):
one complaint I had, it was the idea of her
being hurt by Johnny not expressing interest in spending the holiday.
I hate to point this out, but she was trying
to pick up a stranger in a friendly, not creepy way.
But you still can't reasonably get upset if this stranger
(22:27):
goes ahead and says no.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's worth noting that the name of the writer of
the script was Robert Bainter, and that's actually a pen
name for Bob Bailey, with Bainter being his middle name
after his godmother early acting legend Fae Bainter. This was
something done during the Golden Age of radio because there
(22:51):
were rules about paying the same person for both writing
and acting. And you see something very similar are when
Betsy Drake wrote an episode of Mister and Missus Blanding's
she used a pen name for the same reason. Now,
this may have been the last script that Bob Bailey wrote,
(23:15):
but it wasn't the first. Bailey had sat out on
a writing career no later than nineteen fifty three, though
he may have started writing earlier. There are thirteen scripts
of Let George Do It where the writer is credited
as Lloyd London in nineteen fifty one, in nineteen fifty two, Okay,
(23:38):
Lloyd's of London. Given that's an obvious pseudonym and the
industry rules I just mentioned, and that Bailey would eventually
get the writing bug, it seems likely that Bailey first
tried writing on his own series, and that would make
sense budget wise because in nineteen fifty one and two
(24:00):
fifty two radio budgets were starting to contract, and so
the sponsors could have probably paid Bailey less to write
the script than they would have a normal professional writer,
particularly since he was also earning a salary as the star.
I can't prove it, but I would be very shocked
if someone else had been Lloyd London. Bailey had actually
(24:22):
quit Let George Do It in the fall of nineteen
fifty three to pursue a writing career. Now, as he
told Zuma Palmer of the Los Angeles Evening Citizen, he
was under no illusion that he was a great writer.
He viewed writing as a bridge to get to direct
motion picture or film. Perhaps he decided to take this
(24:44):
direction in his career after Let George Do It TV
series was shelved. The moment the production team saw him,
he may have concluded that television was the future and
that the way the industry worked, he'd never make it
in front of the camera. And certainly there are quite
a few examples of people who worked in radio and
then went into writing, directing, or producing behind the camera.
(25:08):
Examples include Sheldon Lennard, Tony Barrett, as well as his
predecessor as Johnny Doller, William Charles Russell William Conrad, who
was rejected as the on screen Matt Dillon produced and
directed throughout the late nineteen fifties into the sixties. It
(25:29):
just didn't end up working out for Bailey. He had
a promising start. You might even say he made a
splash and there's a pun it's coming up. He and
co writer Hugh King sold one, perhaps two stories for
movies to RKO. They also co wrote an episode of
(25:51):
the Ford Television Theater, which was a backdoor pilot for
a legal comedy series called The Legal Beagles. Unfortunately now
they're worked out. When it came to the stories that
were sold to RKO, one of them became the film Underwater.
And in fact, I found a news report that Bailey
(26:13):
took a vacation to Hawaii for his fortieth birthday in
June of nineteen fifty three, and it's likely he was
mixing a little business with pleasure, as Hawaii would be
one of the locations that the film was shot at.
But the film was a troubled production. A lot of
(26:33):
it can come back to the fact that Howard Hughes
was involved and he owned RKO at the time. It
was massively expensive to shoot and it took a very
long time, and there was all sorts of drama surrounding
the picture, including the fact that Howard Hughes was kind
(26:55):
of creepy towards Jane Russell. Film had a big premiere,
of course, as Howard Hughes was involved, he had it underwater,
but the film is not well remembered. It was in
fact in the book The Hollywood Hall of Shame The
Most Expensive Flops by Harry and Michael Medvet. This had
(27:19):
very little to do with Bailey and Hugh King, his
co writer, as they just wrote the story, but the
production did not go well. As for a potential second film,
in the interview that he gave to Zuma Palmer, he
(27:40):
stated that they had sold a story called Below the Timberline,
and this was never made. And given the fact that
RKO fell in the late nineteen fifties, it seems probable
that they bought the story but just never developed it.
As for the Lee Hicles, I've seen the episode of
(28:02):
the Ford Television Theater. It's not awful, but it's not
good either. It's about a husband and wife attorney team
who get a continuance in a legal case so that
they can have a second honeymoon. However, a demand for
justice up ends their plans. Now, it had two good
(28:25):
actors in the leads, in Richard Dinning and Lorraine Day.
It's the tope of series that could have worked. If
someone saw the potential and worked to smooth out the
rough edges, it really could have made it. But it's
not some cosmic injustice that it didn't. Bailey's writing career
(28:46):
stoleed out a bit. It was during these couple of
years between fifty three or fifty four and fifty five
he did quite a few radio guest appearances. He also
did some movie parts, and he actually they hadn't done
much of either of those during his time when he
was playing George Valentine on Let George Do It, and
(29:08):
the state of his writing career may have been why
he was available to do Johnny Dollar two years after
stepping aside on his last program. Now, after he landed
Johnny Dollar, he still continued to write. He co wrote
some episodes of Fury, which is the horse version of
Lassie or the horse version of Flipper, however you'd like
(29:31):
to look at it. He also co wrote a large
number of episodes of the syndicated series Hawkeye and the
Last of the Mohicans. He also stated in the Zuma
Palmer interview that he'd written episodes for a series called
The Phantom Pirate. However, I can't find any evidence of
(29:53):
that series actually being produced, though there was a pilot
for the series earlier in the nineteen fifties, and I
believe I found some whisperings of a revival on the
late fifties. Likely Bailey and King sold scripts or sold
storylines four series that just ended up not being produced.
(30:14):
None of this would get Bailey close to being behind
the camera. The last script he wrote that was produced
was a March nineteen fifty eight episode of Fury, though
given TV production timelines, it's likely that this episode was
written after that. Bailey may have made a practical decision,
(30:35):
or he may just have lost the mood to write,
which to him might have been fatal for him pursuing
this sort of career. Bailey described himself as someone who
liked to write when he had a compulsion, whether it
was early in the morning, or he might get started
at ten o'clock and pull an all nighter and stay
(30:55):
up till four am. And I think from the zoom
upon or peace in particularly with someone who oosed creativity.
He built and sold an early American furniture he painted,
and had even talked to a gallery owner about doing
some showings. He often read about a type of dish
(31:16):
and would spontaneously go home, take over the kitchen and
try to cook it. Babe Lee told Palmer, if I
would concentrate on one field, I would probably go further.
But being creative in several I feel enriches my life.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
All right.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Well, listener comments and feedback now, and we start on
YouTube with a couple of comments regarding the two face matter,
kind of in the same vein. Listener comments, this has
to be the earliest depiction of an Amish community used
as a plot device that I've ever heard. An Unseen
(31:54):
Happiness says, this sounds like someone was trying to describe
or explain the Amish without having met any Amish people.
I definitely feel like the show was maybe a little
bit evocative of the Amish. Yet the series didn't describe
them as particularly religious or tied to any ethnic group,
(32:19):
which may have reflected a sensitivity they've shown in other
areas to going after minority religious or ethnic groups. Instead,
the episode treats them as just a group of eccentrics,
which can make it seem a bit shallow, particularly if
you catch what Johnstone might have been going for. And
(32:41):
then Harrison comments regarding the wayward Killer matter, gotta hate
it when you toss yourself out a second floor last
window to throw off the cops, only to make yourself
look even guiltier. Thanks so much, appreciate the comment, Harrison.
Now now it's time to thank our Patreon supporter of
(33:02):
the day, and I want to thank Debbie, Patreon supporter
since October twenty fifteen, currently supporting the podcast at the
Detective Sergeant level of seven dollars and fourteen cents or
more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Debbie,
and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software.
(33:23):
And if you're enjoying the podcast on YouTube, be sure
to lock the video, subscribe to the channel, and mark
the notification bell all those great things that help YouTube
channels to grow. Please note that today we do have
an episode Christmas episode on the Amazing World of Radio
at Amazing Great Detectives dot net. We'll be back next
(33:47):
Friday with another episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Tomorrow
we turn things over to the great adventurers of Old
time Radio with an encore presentation from the war. We
will be back on Sunday with a special episode where.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
You ashamed of your friendship with a private detective? Or
do you consider my features more acceptable when buried beneath
the depths of a snowy beer?
Speaker 7 (34:14):
Oh, my dear homes, do take me seriously. I'm not joking.
I assure your.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
Cause not a cause?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You?
Speaker 6 (34:19):
You want me to attend your party in disguise? Why
I'm giving you some very valuable.
Speaker 7 (34:24):
Presents diamond and onyx cuff links in platinum and ruby earrings,
and then such like. And I've wrapped each of the
presents in banknotes.
Speaker 6 (34:32):
Jure, where aren't these presents now in a.
Speaker 7 (34:35):
Sack in charge of my butler. I am going to
dress up a Santa Clause and give him out myself
until I got the warning letter. That's why I've come
to you.
Speaker 6 (34:45):
Warning letter.
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Eh, yes, I received it by this evening's post. Listen
to this, my dear lord whittickumb, Your generosity with Christmas
presents borders on ostentation.
Speaker 6 (34:56):
We do not approve either.
Speaker 7 (34:58):
We receive five thousand pounds in sovereigns at post rest
Ont Box three seven nine by six o'clock on Christmas Eve,
or I'm afraid to Christmas party will be conspicuous by
its absence of presence.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
You see that note wig, will you he is here?
Thanks m H. Clean paper from a penny notebook. Writing
is obviously disguised it Why, George, Yes, whitting Comb, I
accept the case. I'll come with you to your party
at once, and furthermore, I shall follow your suggestion regarding
the disguise rested as Santa Claus, I shall be less
(35:32):
likely to attract suspicion and delighted homes. But what made
you decide so suddenly? This writing, my dear fellow, is writing.
It's in a false hand. I'd know that characteristic m
in my dear Whittickum. I've seen it too often at
the beginning of a signature.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
If you'll be with us, then in the meantime, send
your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter Radio Detectors, and check us out
on Instagram, Instagram, dot com, slash Great detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. Sign and off.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.