YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR

For over twelve years, from 1949 through 1962 (including a one year hiatus in 1954-1955), this series recounted the cases "the man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar". Johnny was an accomplished 'padder' of his expense account. The name of the show derives from the fact that he closed each show by totaling his expense account, and signing it "End of report... Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar".

Terry Salomonson in his authoritative "A Radio Broadcast Log of the Drama Program Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar", notes that the original working title was "Yours Truly, Lloyd London". Salomonson writes "Lloyd London was scratched out of the body of (the Dick Powell) audition script and Johnny Dollar was written in. Thus the show was re-titled on this script and the main character was renamed. Why this was done was unclear – possibly to prevent a legal run-in with Lloyd’s of London Insurance Company." Although based in Hartford, Connecticut, the insurance capital of the world, freelancer Johnny Dollar managed to get around quite a bit – his adventures taking him all over the world.

There were some unusual devices used in the show that help set it apart from other shows. There was no partner, assistant, or secretary for Johnny. The character closest to a continuing role was that of Pat McCracken of the Universal Adjustment Bureau, who assigned Johnny many of his cases. Another atypical aspect gave the show additional credibility – frequently, characters on the show would mention that they had heard about Johnny’s cases on the radio. Johnny often used his time when filling out his expense accounts to give the audience background information or to express his thoughts about the current case.

No fewer than eight actors played Johnny Dollar. Dick Powell, of Rogue’s Gallery fame, cut the original audition tape, but chose to do Richard Diamond, Private Detective instead. Gerald Mohr, of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe fame, auditioned in 1955, prior to Bob Bailey getting the title role. Through the first three actors to play Johnny Dollar (Charles Russell, Edmond O'Brien, and John Lund), there was little to distinguish the series from many other radio detective series. Dollar was just another hard-boiled detective in a medium that was overloaded with the stereotype. Charles Russell, the first to play the role, would throw silver dollars to bellboys and waiters. Luckily, this trite gimmick did not survive long.

On October 3, 1955, after a hiatus of over a year, the show came back with a vengeance. A new production team, including director/writer Jack Johnstone, a new star, Bob Bailey, from the radio series Let George Do It, and a new format would set the series apart from its competitors. Johnny's cases were now a continuing serial, five days a week, for fifteen minutes each evening. With 75 minutes of airtime, minus commercials and openings and closings, there was sufficient time to develop good storylines and interesting characters.

During this time, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar attracted some of the best writers in Hollywood, including Jack Johnstone, E. Jack Neuman (using the pen name John Dawson), Robert Ryf, and Les Crutchfield. Bob Bailey also wrote a script while he was playing Johnny Dollar. He used the pen name Robert Bainter (Bainter was his middle name) as the scriptwriter for "The Carmen Kringle Matter", which was aired on Saturday, December 21, 1957 on the West Coast, and on the following day for the rest of the country.

Bob Bailey, generally thought of as the most popular of the Johnny Dollars, brought a new interpretation to the character – tough, but not hard-boiled; streetwise, but not overly cynical, Bailey's Dollar was smart and gritty when he had to be. But Bailey's Johnny Dollar was also human. His character would get emotionally involved in a number of his cases. He had a streak of impatience, and would occasionally not fully listen to a witness and rush off on a tangent before realizing his mistake.

The weekday serialized episodes are generally acknowledged as some of the finest radio detective shows ever produced. There were fifty six multi-part shows in all: fifty four five-part shows, one six-part show, and one nine-part show. The serialized episodes continued until November 2, 1956 when the series again reverted to a once a week, thirty minute format. Bob Bailey continued in the lead, until "The Empty Threat Matter" of November 27, 1960, when the Hollywood run ended.

The guest stars and supporting casts were always first rate, attracting the best radio actors in both Los Angeles and New York. Pat McCracken was played by several actors – most frequently, by Larry Dobkin. Particularly noteworthy was the work of Virginia Gregg, who played many roles, including Johnny's girlfriend Betty Lewis. Harry Bartell was also a frequent guest, who did many of the Spanish dialect roles when Johnny went to a Latin American country. Other frequent guest performers were Parley Baer, Tony Barrett, John Dehner, Don Diamond, Sam Edwards, Herb Ellis, Frank Gerstle, Stacy Harris, Jack Kruschen, Forrest Lewis, Howard McNear, Marvin Miller, Jeanette Nolan, Vic Perrin, Barney Phillips, Jean Tatum, Russell Thomson, Ben Wright, and Will Wright. Vincent Price co-starred as himself in "The Price of Fame Matter" and went to Europe with Johnny on the case.

In December 1960, the show moved to New York. Robert Readick started the New York run as Dollar, but only lasted a short while. Jack Johnstone continued to write for the show and submitted scripts from California. Johnstone wrote about 350 Johnny Dollar scripts under his own name and his pen names Sam Dawson and Jonathan Bundy. Johnstone wrote the last episodes of both Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense. He used the Bundy pen name when writing the last Suspense episode, "Devilstone".

And so, an era passed. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was the last continuing detective series of the Golden Age of Radio. Mandel Kramer was the last Johnny Dollar, and a close second in popularity to Bailey, when the final episode, "The Tip-Off Matter", was aired on September 30, 1962.

Material for this description was prepared by Stewart Wright.

From the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group. See "Note" Section below for more information on the OTRR.

This audio is part of the collection: Old Time Radio
It also belongs to collection: Radio Programs

Artist/Composer: Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Keywords: OTRR; Old Time Radio Researchers Group; Old Time Radio; OTRR Single Episodes; Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar; Yours Truly Johnny Dollar; Yours Truely, Johnny Dollar; Yours Truely Johnny Dollar; OTRR - 2006-11

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Notes

OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHER'S GROUP

This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

If you are interested in preserving old time radio, you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Yahoo.


This is the Single Episode Page. The Certified Set includes extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Certified Set. This page is provided in case you want to sample the shows.

Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.


Relax, listen, and enjoy!

---

OTRR Definitions:

OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that is Certified Accurate indicates that all the episodes are properly identified and labeled but that the series does not contain all known extant episodes.

OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that is Certified Complete is the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implies that all the files in the series are Certified Accurate but also indicates that the series is as complete as possible – it includes all extant episodes.

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 993,962 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: MrsLamontCranston - - April 20, 2013
Subject: Ring......Johnny Dollar
One of my favorite Detectives from OTR: "the man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar".

Reviewer: dafreeman - - December 31, 2012
Subject: the best ever
i grew up with the majority of the radio shows that the "youngters" are enjoying now. i ate lunch during "young dr. malone" and dinner with "the lone ranger." by far, YTJD is the best!

when it went off the air in "62, i was in junior high school, and plus, the beatles were the cat's meow! ANYWAY, my favorite YTJD is "cui bono" from 2/13/56 and "indestructible mike" from 6/4/56. these two shows were in the 15 format or 5 shows a week on the average.

i have 7 mp3s of YTJD and dick powell is indeed doing his audition for the fist johnny dollar. i am glad he went on to do richard diamond private detective and rogue's gallery. this way, we got to listen to bob bailey at his best. i listen to them all, expecially philo vance (my #2 guy) but wne i want to just put my feet up and my earphones on, YTJD is the man.

Reviewer: Bix12 - - November 3, 2012
Subject: Who Knew?
The premise for this program might seem a bit preposterous to some-a world traveling freelance insurance investigator named Dollar who not only solves the tough cases but pads his expense account along the way. But believe it or not, this is a great show! Superb production standard, great writing, and an excellent cast...especially the 5 + part shows. One of the best!

Reviewer: Max Reiner - - August 13, 2012
Subject: Had to Dig for My Favorites
Looks like you do have them all here. I'd like to share with others two of my favorites: #530 Ghost to Ghost, which has an all-star cast, including Bob Bruce, who was the narrator for some Disney cartoons. Some unusual MUTEL music bridge cues, too. And also #472 Blooming Blossom with Howard McNear as an eccentric collector. He was "Doc" on radio's Gunsmoke, which was the BEST Gunsmoke.

I'd like to hear from other old time radio lovers.

Reviewer: jesse100 - - May 3, 2012
Subject: One of my favorites
Along with Gunsmoke this is one of my favorite OTR shows. Because there are so many episodes there will be shows that are not that great but overall, week in and week out it was as good as there was. Bob Bailey was the best for sure.

Reviewer: olhobbler - - March 19, 2012
Subject: Life of Bob Bailey
I have read what's out there on the internet/wikipedia about Bob Bailey. Anybody know anything about him..if his daugher wrote a book?, or interviews with him...I mean, during his run, he must of given interviews, he was a top tier radio star. I would love to see the Johnny Dollar pilot that didnt sell.

Reviewer: CalvinMoore - - January 10, 2012
Subject: Dick Powell
I love Bob Bailey as Johnny Dollar as much as the next person, but Dick Powell did an audition at the beginning of the series, and I thought he was a very good Dollar. The first three Dollars lacked wit and humor and Mandel Kramer was pretty much Bob Bailey lite. For my taste, only Bob Bailey and Dick Powell could fill the shoes of Johnny Dollar.

Yours Truly,

Reviewer: mommydan - - January 10, 2012
Subject: Bob Bailey IS Johnny Dollar
I love Johnny Dollar. When I first heard the premise, a detective show based around an insurance man's expense account, I thought it would be melodramatice and corny. It is not! And, for the record, Bob Bailey was the absolute best Johnny Dollar. Very believable and real.

Reviewer: XMinusOne - - September 12, 2010
Subject: How to download?
Simply right click on the "size" button and "save as" to your computer.

That said, this is one of the better OTR series produced. I'm personally not a fan of the serial version because you have to open multiple files to listen to a single show, but they're well written.

Reviewer: zenoooo - - September 7, 2010
Subject: Download
Where is the download button?????????

Reviewer: AcworthAL - - May 25, 2010
Subject: The Johnny Dollar Matter
Anyone who loves Radio Detectives will love YTJD. The Bob Bailey era is the best especially when it went weekly with 15 minute episodes. Do yourself a favor next road trip play some of these shows you will be so engaged. It is pretty much top 5 of OTR (Gunsmoke, Dragnet, YTJD, Jack Benny and Gildersleeve)

Reviewer: jeffzkrazie - - August 29, 2009
Subject: #1
This show wasn't revived and last until the end of the Golden Era of Radio for nothing! Seriously! Personally my favorite Private detective show along with Broadway is my Beat.

Reviewer: drflavio309 - - March 29, 2009
Subject: oh yeah!
I fell inlove with these shows a few years ago and love them!! great drama, and good radio, I only wish I would of been around to hear these on the radio. it must of been great fun!!! love them I have over 780 shows in my computer. and Ilove them all been collecting these for years...
the dr.

Reviewer: manumoka - - December 24, 2008
Subject: A great surprise
I was born too late to listen to these on the air, but this collection is a real revelation, and a real treat.

The early ones are slightly more formulaeic (hardened gumshoe style), but are so well done, and move so fast, and with such force and humor, that they are just as enjoyable as the later shows (considered the high point of radio).

An enjoyable collection of intrigue, comedy, and fantasy-detective work.

Reviewer: LeGrande - - May 23, 2008
Subject: Any JD is a good JD
The synopsis does such a good job of presenting and describing the series that you should just listen and enjoy. The multipart series are a treat, and they, alone with the 30 minute standalone episodes, are not just great radio, they're also good drama, period.