Old Time Radio Shows

Old Time Radio Blog EP 1 http://oldtimeradiopage.com

Ep #1

"Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar"

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Johnny Dollar was an insurance investigator working freelance for any insurance company willing to pay his "Action Packed Expense Account" and a percentage of any goods found for the company.

Johnny was as good as any Private Detective and could take care of himself when the going got ruff. And it always did.

When there was a diamond hist or a valuable piece of art stolen or just some insurance fraud, Johnny received a phone call from Universal Adjustment Bureau and he was on the job. The calls usually came from Pat McCracken and was sometimes only to be a body Guard for an insured client that had been threatened. Or at least that was how it started but usually wound up with a murder.

Johnny was a master at padding his expense account. He was a comfirmed bachelor as this was all his crazy life would allow, he said. There were a list of characters in the show with Johnny. Betty Lewis was his wanting to marry girlfriend. There was the cop Randy Singer, and his stoolie friend Smokey Sulivan who was an arsonist.

Each week a new show played with a new case testing Johnny's abilities. Johnny always was his own narrator for each show. As he told what was happening it included something he added to his expense account.

The show started with Johnny saying "Expense account item #1" a $1.50 cab ride or something like that. The show always ended with Johnny totaling his expense account and he signed it" Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

There were 6 different stars as Johnny dollar:
Charles Russell
Edmund O'Brien took over in 1950
John Lund in 1952
Bob Bailey in 1955
Bob Readick in 1960
Mandel Krammer in 1961

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For the Russell shows the director was Richard Sanville and written by Paul Dudley and Gil Doud. The O'Brien and Lund shows were directed by Jaime Del Valle and written by Jack Neuman, John M. Hayes, and Blake Edwards.

When Bob Bailey took over as Dollar the show went from 30 min once a week to a 15 min show Monday thru Friday. In 1956 the show returned to 30 min. Bailey was by far the best Dollar followed by Mandel Kramer. For the Bailey shows Jack Johnstone was the director/producer. Virginia Gregg was in most of the Bailey shows as different characters.

There were a number of guest actors in the Dollar shows. Names like John Dehner later to be Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards and many more.

The first show aired 2/18/1949 and the last show was 9/30/1962. Johnny Dollar was one of the last great Old Time Radio Show on the air as OTR pretty much ended in the early 1960s.

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