Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
to me Bocks thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Follow us on Twitter at
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favorite podcast software. Now, with Thanksgiving coming up this week, I did
want to highlight a couple episodes on other podcasts that we're doing over on the
Old Time Radio snack Wagon. We've got our Thanksgiving appetizers posted at Snackwagon dot
net and coming tomorrow to the Amazing World of Radio at Amazing dot Great Detectives
dot net we have our annual Thanksgiving special, so check that out over at
Amazing dot Great Detectives dot net. Well, now it is time to begin
this week's Yours truly Johnny Dollar Cereal. Now, as always, we will
be playing episodes one and two for you today and episodes three through five on
Friday. If you're minded to listen to all five episodes together, then pause
the podcast, come back to it on Friday, and then you can just
listen to all five parts at the same time. But now, from July
ninth and tenth, nineteen fifty six, here is the Shady Lane Manner,
Episodes one and two from Hollywood. It's time now for Johnny Dollar, Pete
Carlson, Johnny Star muchuer, Oh, Hi have Pete? How's the family
great? The lucky dogs are at Cape Cod for the summer while I toil
and Fred what's fretting you at the moment? Letter Johnny, Listen, if
you're wanting to know who murdered ellen Bate, you pay no mind to that
person or person's unknown. You just look real close to home, Look real
close to home. The postmark Shady Lane, Vermont, and the signature,
I suppose is that famous old name. That's right, anonymous. Ellen Bate
was killed there a month ago. We shot to death. We carried a
ten thousand dollar policy owner and the beneficiary, Ben Bates, her husband.
He's got a farm about four miles out of Shady Lane. What's the status
of the investigation? Stay on, mate, Johnny. The coroner's jury brought
in an open verdict and there's been nothing turned up since we were just on
the point of paying off the policy. Now, all right, Pete,
I'll fret for you if I can find Shady Lane on the map tonight and
every weekday night. Bob Bailey and the Transcribed Adventures of the Man with the
Action Packed expensingout America's Fabulous Freelance Insurance Investigator, Yours Truley Johnny Dollar, from
Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to the home office Star Mutual Insurance Company, Hartford,
Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditures during my investigation of the Shady
Lane matter. Itam one thirty six dollars and seventy cents transportation and incidentals.
Hartford to Shady Lane. A quiet little town of around a thousand population,
drowsy streets lined with white frame home, picket fences and flower bedded yards.
A town with a well chosen name, built under the protecting shade of venerable
elms and spreading maples. A country crossroads town with one of everything, one
in, one restaurant, one garage, one general store, one barber shop,
and one constable, a gaunt and a lantern jeored, leather faced man
of middle age named Jed Bramler. Yeah, it's a fact, mister Doller
lived here all my life. First time I've ever seen it this hot.
It's fore more right for this time of year. At least. Weather's changing.
World two, everything's changing except human nature that too. Maybe take this
killing, don't rightly know how to go about dealing with it? Well,
maybe we can figure out something between us. That's the bullet that killed him.
Yeah, that's the one. It's an odd size and shape, hand
poured. Say it's hand poured. It's for an old fashioned squirrel rifle,
smooth bore, single shot. I see, and I reckon. That's about
all I can give you in the way of facts or clues. I guess
you call them. Oh, facts will do all right. Hellen Bates was
a fine woman, had a hard life. She was married, no children,
She was alive. Now she's dead. Cause of death, a bullet
and the heart. Them's all facts, mister dollar. How did it happen?
Don't rightly know? Want no witnesses. Could have been an accident,
even what do you mean an accident? Were one of them hunters from the
city them through here, regular confounded idiots shoot at anything that moves, Well,
surely not a human being sitting in her own living room. They might
have never can tell crazy as they are shot a gold belonged to Het Wilmer
last fall, caught him with it tied on their bumper. Said it was
a mountain sheet. Yes, yes, might have done it unintentional, then
got scared and run out. Yes, possibly, except for one of those
facts, which fact this bullet. Hunters from the city don't use old fashioned
squirrel rifles, mister Bramler, m Well, I said it could have been
an accident. Who didn't say it was? I reckon somebody meant to kill
her? Oh, I don't think there's much dot of that. There ain't
wi sill was might not feel so dang worthless? Then what do you mean
Ellen Bates was a fine woman. Hate to think of somebody killing her and
getting clean away with it, And let's make sure they don't get away with
it. Got nothing to go on, mister Dollar, Not one lonesome thing.
What about a possible motive? Haven't turned up a single one. Did
she have any enemies? Everybody that knew her loved her? What about this
bullet? Did you have a ballistic check maiden? Yeah, send it clear
to New York. They come up with anything. Six page report. Yeah,
she's got it here somewhere. You can look at it if you want
to know. No, no need too. What was their conclusion, same
as mine? Fired from an old fashioned squirrel rifle. Now anybody around here
might own a gun like that. Yeah, but now anybody in the township
must be three four hundred of them rifles around keepsakes handed down family souvenirs.
And that's one dead. Then couldn't be much dead. It's like I told
you, ain't no clues at all, at least none to speak of.
Woman without an enemy in the world, sitting in front of her window,
shot fired from outside the house. Woman's dead. Them the facts and all
the facts. No, not quite all, eh, But you mean people
persons are factional and their relations with other persons are facts, facts that we
can check on. Already told you, mister Dolla. Ellen Bate didn't have
no enemies. The person who killed her wasn't exactly a friend known enemies,
I mean, but she had contacts and relations with other persons, and one
of them, known or unknown, was her enemy. Maybe an accidental enemy
with a motive in the capacity for murder. What you mean by accidental Maybe
missus Bates saw something from that window of hers something that made her dangerous to
someone else. Maybe she didn't even know she'd made an enemy. Yeah,
that might be. Or maybe it's just a matter of her death benefiting somebody
who otherwise wouldn't be her enemy. Mm hmmm. It thought of that course,
but it don't lead nowhere. It might. I've got a letter here,
mister Bramler. I wish you'd take a look at it, all right.
It arrived yesterday at the home office of my client in Hartford. It
was mailed here in Shady Lane, cool and close to whom looked real close
to whom. Not signed, eh No, not signed. Any idea who
might have sent it? Yeah, somebody with a lot of vinegar in their
blood, don't know. It's a fact, wouldn't count too much on it.
Five of you, what do you mean? Well, like you just
said, a matter of her death benefiting somebody. So with that insurance policy
like tears, the person that had benefited most would be her husband, Ben
Bates. Forget him? Why, Like you said, motive and capacity.
Even if money was motive enough for Ben, he just hadn't got the capacity
for murder. Forget him. Is Ben Bates a good friend of yours,
mister bramlery since we were boys together. I see maybe you only think you
see, I ain't making allowances for him. Just know him, that's all.
Maybe i'd better meet him, all right, farms just out of town
ways. I'll drive you out there if you want. Oh, i'd appreciate
that. Only one thing. You've got an expense count of some kind,
isn't you sure that's right? Why? Well, we're not exactly a poor
folks up here, but we ain't rich neither. And the township is kind
of trugal with their money. I see going to have to charge it for
the car expense, if it's alright with you? Oh, sure that sounds
fine. Yeah, well, then maybe we could make a couple of other
calls on the way, would you want to see? Well, mostly i'd
like to talk to the corner here, and you already have. Uh well,
i'm the coroner, mister dollar. Well are we ready? Expense account
item too? Three dollars even transportation and constable jet Bramley's car from Shady Lane
to the Ben Bates farm. It was a pleasant trip summertime on a country
road, winding among the farms, climbing lazily over the ridges, the heavy
pungent scent of flax and clover, the hum of bees. But I couldn't
completely enjoy it. I kept wondering how much real help I could expect from
a constable who'd already made up his mind that the top suspect wasn't capable of
murder, A constable who was also coroner and for all I knew county attorney
and district judge, a constable who might even be just natal thought might even
be a murderer. Now this is a prene farm, Ben Bates's placed.
He is the next one about a quarter mile. I see that's Martin Prene
there outside of the road, working on that fence. Matchwhell passed the time
of day with him. I reckon where the Prine's and the baits good friends?
Yeah, real close afternoon jab Martin township must be getting lex at Ugo
gallivant and around on pleasure trips being paid for Martin facial business. This here's
mister Darney Dollar from down round Hartford. Martin Preeney, mister Dollar, I
do that's quite a job you're doing that, mister Preeney. Well, the
rock wall do just fine if you stack them real careful, so they lock
together. What's pretty difficult. Takes a knack, no doubt about that,
and work and time. But if it's dug in below the frost line,
rock wall will last a lifetime. And that's what I believe in, mister
Dollar, planning ahead and building right, that's a good philosophy. And then
too, the rock wall is a site cheaper that Benson. And right there
is his real reason, mister Dollar. A man that wastes a substance,
the fool and a sinner. I believe in Pruden. It's your only virtue,
Martin Fiddlesticks. We got callers. Sarah, come on out here.
Ain't staying Martin. Just passing just a minute, Martin, just what's so
called official business? You owned? Jet murder of Ellen Bates. Mister Dollar
here is an insurance investigator. He's come to look into it. I see.
Well it's a terrible tragedy, mister Dollar. Sad thing for the whole
township, especially for Sarah and me. Yes, I imagine. So they've
been good neighbors, fine people, folks about to be proud to know.
So I understand couldn't help Feln sorry for him, just didn't seem to get
ahead inspite of Ben being a good hard worker, and then this on top
of all the other trouble. You there, what do you mean by trouble?
Afternoon, gentlemen, come here, Sarah wants to meet a friend of
Jed's. Mister Johnny Dolla, my wife, Sarah. Mister Dollar comes from
hating. Then he's here for he works for an insurance company. He's given
Jed the hand with this Ellen Bates thing. Oh yes, I see,
Well, don't let me interrupt. Ah, I'm just tell him, mister
Dolla, what good neighbors the Baits have always been. A body couldn't ask
for a better friend than Ellen Bates. Mister Preeney, you said something about
all the other trouble later, I was referring to Ellen's illness way after that
operation last year. She was pertinently an indig you might say. Ben had
to wait on the hand and foot, along with Doom for the house and
running the fire. A lot of time you spent taking care of her,
now, Sah, not half as much time as he spent hanging around that
girl. What girl is that? Missus prey? Why that little flipper digy?
But that works up? I'm sorry Martin. But it's true, and
you know it, mister Dolla. I'm afraid my wife had just repeating gossip
she's heard. And Bait's a fine young man. Any story to the contrary,
I had a rumors, nothing more. Well, sometimes the best way
to stop an idle rumor is to check into it. If you'd care to
tell me who I know the girl, mister Dolla, her name is Millie
Wales. He's a waitress at the Shady Lane Cafe. I'd like to talk
to her. You can when we get back to town where folks reckon.
We'd better be getting on. And mister Dolla, Ellen Bates was a fine
woman. Whoever it was killed her. I hope you get him. I
believe we will. Oh and by the way, missus Springey, the company
was very grateful for your letter. My letter, I mean, how did
you know it? No? I was just guessing. Nice to have met
both of you. See you again, Johnny Dollar. Ready, would you
call the Hartford mister Dollars Nanks operator? Go ahead, Hartford? Hello,
Giant, Yeah, Pete a big fan expense account and you still reverse the
call? I had to. I'm phoning from a crossroad store. Look,
I need a quick factor to in connection with the Ellen Bates murder. That
ten thousand dollars policy on Ellen's life? When was it written? Pete?
Around four years ago. I'll get the exact date if you want to hang
on. No, No, that's close enough. I was hoping it was
only a year or two. Back knocks a pet theory in the head.
No, but it doesn't help. But any hey, is there also a
policy on the life of Ben Bates? Yeah, same amount, taking out
the same time, right after they were married. A nice round zero.
What do the local authorities thinks? The only local authority in Shady Lane is
sitting outside in the car right now, and he thinks the same as I
do, which is what we're both stumped. I'll be talking to you from
special Investigator Johnny Dollar, location Shady Lane, Vermont to the home office Star
Mutual Insurance Company, Hartford, Connecticut. Assignment. The Shady Lane matter expense
account continued. It had him four to seven cents a copy of the Shady
Lane Weekly Crier, the paper that prints the folksy news. According to the
Masthead, maybe it would help because the whole case seemed to have a foxy
flavor. A young farm wife named Ellen Bates, a semi invalid without a
known enemy in the township, had been shot to death a month before the
killer. Unidentified motive, unknown physical evidence, non existent, leads none.
I rejoined Constable Jed Bramler in the car and glanced over the paper as we
drove on to the base farm. I began to realize that folks here on
that the Baits case was probably going to be tougher than an old boots.
We'll leave the car here at the road and walk up through the draw.
I'll show you how it happened. All right, good, the shirt doesn't
look like very good farmland, tain't. Ben's got a few good acres north
of the house, but most of it's like this. Won't grow much of
anything except in rocks. Takes a lot of scratch in to make it go
over a place like this. Yeah, yeah, I mentioned. And it
would be even tougher if you had to take care of an invalid wife at
the same time. I reckon could watch yourself on that barb wire, mister
Dollar, all right, heck, there's easier ways to get into the house.
But I figured you'd like to see how the killer got away. And
this is it you think? Huh he fired the shot from cover and then
oh she did all right, whichever and then he or she ran back down
this draw here and got away. Yeah, must have been seen otherwise,
But here in the draw a person would be out of sight from both houses,
either the Baits place or the preenies over on the other side. I'll
buy that one, all right. This brush is thick enough to hide or
herd a channel. Yeah. Once the killer got to the road back where
we left, the car might have gone any place. That's the trouble.
This case is too full of mites. Tried to pick up a trail in
here, even brought in dogs, but they didn't turn up nothing. Dogs
is mostly overrated anyhow, So I've heard Yeah, let's see now how to
be right about here? Some ah ah, yes, there we are over
that way. Uh huh yeah, yeah, I see the stake you put
up to market place. Nope, because need to put it up. It's
a survey marker. But it's just about where I calculate the shot was fired.
Drum uh right about what was the survey for mister Bremler Highway Department.
They was figuring to build a new turnpike through here last year fell through.
Though how come the whys of a public bureau ain't for mere man to know,
mister Dolla. They finally picked someplace else a few months ago, came
too, might have made this land worth something to be in another one of
those mites. Now, look through the bushes there, just to the left
of that big maple. That's the corner, the parlor corner of the Bates
house. And Ellen was sitting right there in that big front window when it
happened. Ben has put the glass back in since, well, it wouldn't
have been too difficult. A shot from here in old fashioned squirrel rifles is
mighty accurate, and nearly everybody in the township has one, that's about it.
That's not a matter of finding a needle in a straw stack. It's
finding one special straw in a strawstack. Mighty hard chore, I'd say,
so would I. So there she sat, an easy to market, alone
at her own front window. Well not exactly alone, mister Dollah. Alone
at the window, yes, but missus Preeney was in the room with her
at the time. The woman who wrote the anonymous letter accusing Ben Bates,
I didn't know that, didn't seem to have no burying. She just happened
to be there, brought over a cake or something from next door. She
was always doing things like that for Ellen. Uh huh. But missus Preeney
didn't see who fired the shot. She just heard the window glass crash and
saw Ellen come half out of her chair and then fall on the floor,
an invalid, helpless sitting there at a window. Now, what the devil
could a woman like that do to make somebody hate her enough to kill her?
Dollar? If I could answer that, I would have somebody locked up
by now if anybody did hate her? Of course, meaning maybe hate wasn't
the reason. Got a better one. Oh, I'm just supposing, eh,
and quite a bit of that. Hey, tell me something, mister
Bramler. This waitress at the Shady Lane Cafe, the one missus Preeney made
the insinuations about it. Millie Wells? Yeah, Millie Wells? Is she
pretty? Rare? Hard? Say? Tastes differ? I reckon though most
anybody'd call her pretty? Though? Well, what about that gossip missus Preney
was spouting? Is it just a romer? I was Ben seeing Millie before
his wife was murdered hard nuts. Here ain't a very big town, you
know what I mean? Did he go out of his way to see her?
Stopped in the cafe there once in a while, a cup of coffee,
piece of pie, doing all the cooking at home like he was?
He got a mite tired of it? I reckon? What about now?
Is he still singer each most of his evening meals? There is that all
that amounts to? Well, Folks generally agree that there's some interest building up
since his wife's dead. What about his wife? Did she have any chance
at all of getting well? Nope, not, according to the doctors.
I see, mister dollar, you are bocking up that same wrong tree again.
Oh it kind of adds up figures. Lie Sometimes pretty girl, young
and alive, interested, maybe an invalid wife, run down farm, a
ten thousand dollars insurance policy, all tacked true enough, He wouldn't be the
first man I went wrong with a setup like that. Ah not, ben
I told you before. Murder just ain't in his nature. Oh come on,
let's walk on up to the house and talk to him. Woman And
one other thing, that anonymous letter, missus Preeney sent us, And why
would she go out of a way to get Ben Bates in trouble. I'd
say I thought she was a friend of the Bates, of missus Bates.
Yes, Ellen, But for some reason she never has seemed to like Ben
very much. I don't know why she's done it, mister Dollar, but
I sure wouldn't put no stock in what she said. It's just her nature,
that's all it is. It was late afternoon, long shadows were beginning
to stretch out over the flinty ground, almost the same time of day that
Ellen Bates was killed her husband. I was beginning to believe, and yet
Constable Jed Bramler swore by Ben, his longtime friend, human ties, human
emotions, just plain folks, and a case that was growing messier and more
vague by the eye. How much sign of life? Well, Ben's in
and out, you never know. Sounds like somebody coming around the house.
Must have been working out in the barn. Always plenty to do on a
flint rock farm. You've come looking from it, Constable, how are you,
grod eight? He said, how are you? I'm fine. I'm
just fine. Ben around. I've been working our back fixed and spread it.
Yeah, let fine, Grode, He's Ben here Ben. No,
No, Miss Ben's not here. No where he is. No, he's
not here. Any idea when he'll be back. No, no, he
didn't say you can go in, and said, though, if you want
constable, maybe we will. Grody, this is mister Dollar, Grody Huwkins.
How I'm fine. I'm just fine. Grody does our jobs for Ben.
Some of the other farmers too. Oh, I see were you working
here the day missus Bates was killed? Well, that's a lie. I
won't even near here that day. And anybody that says I was a liar,
I was crow over on the other side of town. We'll go inside
and wait. Mister Dollar, all right, see you. Grody kind of
gets excited when he figures he's being cued something. Yeah, he seems scared
of you. Has he been in trouble before, Teddy? Stuff like shooting
game out of season? Is he a good shot? Dead shot? Never
miss his In fact, we waited in the parlor for a while. The
room where Ellen Bates had died. Her picture was still over the mantel,
a clear eyed, sober woman much younger than I'd imagined. The sun gradually
set, and the light on the picture grew dim but Ben didn't come back.
We gave up finally and drove back to town. I left Bramler at
his office and walked down the street to the Shady Lane Cafe to eat dinner.
I'll be right when you, sir, No hurry, you'll be cooler
if you sit there by the window. Oh all fine, thanks. There
were half a dozen tables in the place, all empty. I was the
only customer. The girl was pretty and friendly and fitted the description of Milly
Wells. That roast is awfully good this evening. I think you'll like it
all right, you've made a sale. You're a stranger in town, aren't
you. Yeah. Yeah, I'm investigating the murder of Ellen Bates. I
see, are you by any chance, Milly Wells? Yes? Then I
guess you're the person i'm looking for. You worked very fast. I thought
it would take longer. Mm hmmm. Oh. I knew you'd find out,
of course, sooner or later. But I was hoping Ben and I
would have a little time together first. I see we were fools to expect
it, though. Once you've been tagged, you don't have a chance.
Did Alan Bates have a chance? I didn't give her the slightest cause to
worry. I didn't let Ben know once how I felt, not until after
she'd been killed. That was very considerate of you. And I know he
didn't give me one thought as long as she was alive. It's not in
his nature, so I've heard. Doesn't it mean anything at all when a
person has been acquitted? Quit acquitted of? What? Of murder? What
else? Isn't that what? Oh? I thought you knew. I thought
that's what you. I guess Maybe you'd better tell me about it, Millie.
Now here's our star to tell you about Tomorrow's intriguing episode of this week's
story. Tomorrow, A sudden twist and a cool threat, a strange revelation,
and the lies come thick and fast. Join us, won't you?
Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Yours Truly Johnny Dollar is starring Bob Bailey, is
transcribed in Hollywood, written by Less Crutchfield. It is produced and directed by
Jack Jemstone. Be sure to join us tomorrow night at same time and station
for the next exciting episode of Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. Roy Rowan speaking,
Welcome back. So far, it's a good start to the serial. Johnny
is definitely a stranger and a strange land, but very keen as he figured
out who sent the letter in the first episode. Now, I will say
that his suspicion that Jeb Bramler might have been involved in the murder seems a
bit out of left field. I will see if that pays off on fry.
Well. Now we turn the listener comments and feedback and we go over
to Great Detectives dot net and people who leave comments there from time to time,
and Eli writes there, thanks for this fascinating episode of the Irving Gonzala
series. Too bad it had to be jumbled with all the extrainous material about
the insurance investigator and that murder's doctor hope to hear much more about the taco
stand. And of course that's on the long shot matter. And that's an
interesting point. I did not think that the Irving Gonzales scene went too long,
and I kind of understand why writers do that, because even if they
are just one seen characters, who can run into a problem if all of
your one seen characters are just completely functional, because then the conversations can be
a bit at Dole and wrote, and there are some characters where they just
need to be that way, but you don't want them all to be that
way. But sometimes when you're a writer, you can forget who the main
character is and you can be just so interested in having this really interesting guy,
particularly if you've been writing a lot of characters who are more functional.
You're like, oh, this person is really interesting. Well, we got
to spend some time here, and you can go too far to the point
the audience is like, the story, are we going to get back to
that at some point. I don't think that Tony Barrett went too far with
Irving Gonzalez, but obviously some people might differ. Then over on Instagram doc
rights great five part episodes, the characters and plauts can be more fully developed.
Bob Bailey is definitely the best. Johnny doll Er keep up the great
work at him. And then on Spotify, Jeff says, I'm going to
say I think that it was well written, and Vicky says this is very
similar to a Dragnet episode. I'm not certain what Dragnet episode Vicky's referring to.
Specifically, there have been a couple of episodes of Dragnet dealing with mistaken
identification, probably in the nineteen fifties. The best one was The Big False
Make, but I think it definitely has a more realistic style. But I
think Dragnet brought to so many crime programs. Jeff had another suggestion. He
emailed in love your podcast and listened to it every day on my way to
work. Something you said after the long shot matter eluded got me thinking that
could so easily have been a great episode of The rock Profiles. Of course,
it would have been yet another episodes where Rockford's firebird gets wrecked. Looking
forward to getting my am transmitter done so I can also listen on my nineteen
forty one Emerson Radio because after all, real radio's glow in the dark.
Well, Jeah, that sounds like a great project, And I agree.
This really could have easily been turned into a Rockford Files episode a few modifications,
and of course, you know, updating the setting a little bit so
that it fits into the world of the nineteen seventies. So I could totally
say this episode starting with a lawyer friend of Jim Rockford dragging into the jail
to meet the con man who's been accused of murder. As far as I
know, I don't think Tony Barrett recycled any of his radio scripts or early
television scripts, and sadly he passed away relatively early in the Rockford Files run.
He died in nineteen seventy four at the age of fifty eight. I
agree this would have been a very good episode to redo for television. And
then we turned to Apple podcast for reviews. And while we haven't played well,
we did play the neural Wolf Sunday en Corse last month. We got
this review on the old time radio neural Wolf feed and listener writes, my
grandkids, ages five and eight, love this and we listen over and over
again. Now that's what I love to hear. Then we also have a
review from Vic Gord on Apple Podcast in Canada. I've noticed there's a piggyback
episode behind episode four two three. Oh, this is not the first one.
The last cast is the Restless Ones. Hope there's an explanation or maybe
your feed is forced to do this great show, Adam. I enjoy every
workshift helps pass the time. Well, thank you so much, appreciate the
comment. Now I've gotten some questions on this. Some people have even suggested
that it's an infomercial, and I'm not even sure they make those anymore.
But it is is it's a podcast discovery system called padroll, and it's being
adopted by a lot of different people within the podcast industry and various major services.
And what it is is that essentially podcast pay for a chance to get
their podcasts discovered by listeners to other podcasts. Now, if you don't like
a podcast that appears, just feel free to press the stop button and delete
the episode. And that's that. I will say that I have a degree
of control over what podcasts actually will show up, and I reject a lot
more than I will allow in. I'm pretty selective. If you've got any
episod rated explicit, you are not going on my part role. And then
I look for controversial topics or annoying sound or intros. There are a lot
of things that podcasts can get to not be included. It all includes some
episodes and reject others. So that's what that is, nothing to worry about.
But thank you so much for the review. And now we go over
to YouTube where a listener had a thought regarding the laughing matter. And I've
read at least three books based on the early days of the late night talk
show hosts like Steve Allen, Jack Parr, and Johnny Carson, and this
episode gets it correct about how everyone around seemed to hate them. Well,
thanks for the comment. I did not actually view Lovable Charlie as a late
night host because there were no reference to guess. It was all kind of
vague as to what exactly the type of comedy was. Now, I do
think that it's possible that Les Crutchfield, who wrote that particular story, had
talked to people who didn't like a specific comic or working with a comic.
Might it have been a late night comic but inspired the story It might have
been, But I think that they would want to be very very careful not
to give anything away in that regard, and certainly when it comes to the
laughing matter, it doesn't give anything away because it's really vague as to what
type of program it is. Like. At times, it sounds like that
this might be a sitcom with one character being considered the signature star. But
that whole Desert Island scene that ended up in tragedy in episode four that sounded
more like sketch comedy. I don't know that a TV sitcom in nineteen fifty
six would have that type of scene on it, and particularly if you were
changing it back and forth. So it's really vegas to what type of comedy
it was. And I think that's intentional because you don't want anyone be able
to say, oh, they were talking about this or that specific comedian.
I was doing some research and found one potential inspiration for the show being in
Mexico, and that was that for Duffy's tavern ed Gardner actually moved the production
to Puerto Rico so that he wouldn't have to pay taxes. It was a
move that was derided at home a bit. Obviously Puerto Rico is not Mexico.
Oh, but that might have been something that served as a basis for
cultural backdrop of having a comedy show filmed outside the United States. And then
we have a comment from Boomer who writes, Johnny Dollar is always a safe
bet for good entertainment. Definitely agree with that. Well, now it is
time to think. Our Patreon supporter of the day. Thank you to Magda,
Patreon supporter since June of twenty eighteen, currently supporting the program at the
rookie level of two dollars or more per month. Thank you so much for
your support. And that will do it for today. If you are enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software, and be sure
to rate and review the podcast wherever you download it from. We'll be back
on Friday with the conclusion of the Shady Lane Matter, but join us back
here tomorrow for day the interious Assignment. Where anyone come through here the last
minute or so? No? No one? Why? There are other offices
facing the patio the guarden, mister Mitchell, that's mister Harveson's, mister Walker's.
Okay, we'll check them in a minute. Something else I want to
look at first. Come on, let's go back inside. You've been going
out of the office long, miss Borland, ten minutes or so. Mister
Gainsley sent me down to the fireroom. I see, And when you looked
in, Johnny, he was alone, right, he was packing away at
the typewriter. Mister Gainsley, Was it my typewriter? Yeah? Look,
there's a piece of paper still in it. That's what I'm interested in.
Let's see what what is it? Mister Mitchell. Brother, here's what mister
Gainsley typed out one sentence. What did he write? It reads? Mary
had a little Lamb. Hope you'll be with us then. In the meantime,
do send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow
us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us out on Instagram, Instagram,
com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
Adam Graham's signing off.