Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The J.P.D. Matter (EP1465)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The J.P.D. Matter (EP1465) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectors of Old Time Radio from Boys to Idaho. This
0:34
is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
0:38
to me Box thirteen Greatdetectives dot Net, follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives,
0:44
and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com Slash Radio
0:49
Detectives. Before we get started, I do want to encourage you to pick
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up my new ebook. All I needed to know I learned from Dragnet,
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and it's not just about Dragnet. In the book, I examined the careers
1:00
and histories of seven great detectives, including Yours Truly Johnny Dollar. He's chapter
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three and you can pick up the e book on Amazon, Orange, smash
1:11
words dot com if you have a eweader other than the Kendle Well. From
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September the fifteenth of nineteen fifty seven, comes today's episode of Yours Truly Johnny
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Dollar. The JPD Matter from Hollywood. It's time now for Johnny Dollar.
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George here, Johnny, Oh, what fantastic character is Floyd's of England insured?
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This time? No? What is that supposed to mean? More?
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Singing mice, wayward cats? How about the counterfeit money problem? Johnny.
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Let me guess, John, if you'll just listen, I got it.
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You're in trouble because you've done a switch. You've insured somebody against living instead
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of the other way around. At it, of course not, I must
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admit. We do have one policy of that sort. Yeah, I knew
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it. However, that is not the one I called you. Okay,
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George, what is we visued a policy? Well, I guess it is
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a little unusual at that I fear the worst, But go on. Well,
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it's on a small brewery over near brewery you mean a beer factory.
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That's right, it's over there at the town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. Oh,
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yeah, I know that country pretty well. Good. We've ensured the
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Dortmund Brewery against possible damage from a nearby construction project. Well, you said
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unusual. What's some unusual about that? Perhaps you'd better come over here and
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let me tell you. Yeah, when you say it that way, I
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guess i'd better. Bob Bailey and the Exciting Adventures of a Man with the
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Action Pact Expense Account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. It's truly Johnny Dollar and
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now act one of yours, truly Johnny Dollar expense account submitted by a special
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investigator Johnny Dollar to Floyd's of England, North American Office, Hartford, Connecticut,
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following as an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the JPD matter
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expense account out A'm one a dollar ten taxi from my apartment at George Reid's
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office, where he promptly dragged me over to a large map tacked at one
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of the walls. Here it is Johnny between the towns of Timaqua and Trackville,
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Pennsylvania, on a little river that's called the Pinxatawny Creek, old Indian
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name I believe, Uh huh. Dortmund Brewery is just about here. Yeah,
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well, okay, I'll run a car in New York and drive over
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there. Oh wait, am I making a couple of train changes. You
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can get most of the way over there by rail. Anything to save the
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company of bucket, that is, why not when that pre wheeling expense account
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of viewers gets into opposite Kay, Okay, what's the face value of the
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policy coverage for the whole plan? Eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars? Wow,
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we So I'll runt a car in New York all right, all right,
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now, as I told you, we've ensured the Dortmund Brewery against possible
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damage from the building of a plant right next to it. What kind of
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a plan competition another brewery? Oh, I see possible malicious damage? Is
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that what they're thinking of? That's what JP seems to be worried about.
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JP, JP, Dortmund owner, manager, president, brewmeister and anything else
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you can think of. Has anything happened yet? No, but I want
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you to go there and be sure that nothing does. Is this JP my
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contact? Yes? Okay, George, I'm on my way. Expense accnt
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itdem two nine thirty five fair inetcint Ato's Hartford to New York. I had
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them three fifty dollars to post on a drive your own car, i'dem four
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fifty cents toll through the Holland Tunnel. I cut straight across the top of
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Jersey, across the Delaware at Phillipsburg, and finally pulled into the little town
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at Tamatway shortly after six pm. It's five six and seven, twelve twenty
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A dinner, a place to rest my worry head, and breakfast. The
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next morning. The Dortmund Brewery sat on the Western Bank of pink Satawny Creek
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about five miles out of town, and looked as though it had been sitting
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there for a thousand years. There was a small affair, and the old
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frame buildings were badly in need of a coat of paint. Just north of
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it rose a towering cliff, and on top of that cliff stood in an
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array of cranes and machines and bulldozers that are used on modern large scale construction
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jobs. I barked my car at the entrance of the office building and was
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greeted at the door by a large, raw boned woman of about fifty,
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with straggly yellow hair and wearing a faded blue cotton dress that looked as though
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it hadn't been ironed in years. How can I can do for you?
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Oh? Why I'm looking for mister J. P. Jorsan? Mister still
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laugh? Isn't flying? Because I'm JT What that's right? Anything wrong with
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it? Well? I, hey, wait a minute. You another of
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those lawyers from that job upon the cliff comes to fancy talk me about that?
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Ivning to worry in the world about what they're doing to No, Oh,
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I got to mind my own business. What do you mean no.
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My name is Dollar, Johnny Dollar. I'm here on behalf of Floyd's of
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England, the insurance company. Well, now that's different. You'll come on
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into my private office, Johnny. Her private office was furnished with a battered
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walnut desks, some ancient filing cabints, and a couple of straight wooden chairs,
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nothing else. Highly the kind of an office you'd expect for the president
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of a company worth eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars. There's nothing fancy about
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it, Johnny, because there's nothing fancy about any part of my brewery.
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But that isn't what counts. We've been here ever since my great great grandfather
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built it up, and all we've cared about was making the finest beer in
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the country, Retsen. And we do make it too, Utchen. Can't
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you hear me out? Yes, Retchen, I want you to bring this
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a dollar, a pitch, a full of my glass. Yes. Well,
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look, I'm afraid I'm not much of a beer who will be when
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you've tasted this. It's the creek that does it, you know, Pink
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Satni Creek, this water for beer in the whole United States. That's what
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makes good beer, you know. Yes, that's why that dirty cluckson kemper
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a bunch of building up on the cliff to get at that water. I
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understand they'll be your competitors. Ah, all their fancy mother and equipment and
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methods can't produce the brew the way I can, a long, slow,
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easy way, with all a good old fashioned apparatus, the old country methods.
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Yes, I see, by Johnny. We make our own barling malls,
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and we grind it the hand, and we come up with a warp
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that's second to none in the world. The old typesparager too, and the
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hopjacks, and I'll find a strain of use there is. Yes, I'm
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sure there's three four months we age before we wreck a drop. Sure we
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take more time and more trouble, but we come up with a better brew,
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better than any modern plant can ever make. What's your problem. They're
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getting ready to blast up on that cliff a whole big chunk of it away,
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and when they do, that whole thing will come crashing down dere thousands
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of tons of rock. Oh, surely some state authority or something to prevent
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that. Oh, they've bamboozled the authorities and your insurance company too. They'll
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say it was an accident, a miscalculation. And when that rock comes crashing
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down here, it'll wreck this old plant of mine. Wen, you do
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have insurance, you remember, it'll wreck on a fine old equipment that can
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never again be replaced because I lano such things anymore. Well, when's all
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this blesting supposed to take place? Who knows? Tonight, tomorraw next week?
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Who knows that soon? Yeah? So, Johnny, if there's anything
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you can do, you'd better do it. Now. What's insurance money if
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I have to lose this for it? Who knows? Maybe she was right
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suspecting her rivals might try a stunt like that to put her out of business.
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But it all seemed a little too far fetched. And yet when I
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think of some of the unscrupulous things that have been done to put down competition,
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maybe she was justified in suspecting this Carlson kemper crowded. Yeah, maybe
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she wants act two of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar In a moment,
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our flag now numbers fifty stars, and behind each star there stands yet another
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flag representing one of the fifty states. Massachusetts state flag, bearing a green
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pine tree, is the descendant of the famous Liberty Tree flag that came out
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of Boston to serve all the original thirteen colonies. It was under the Liberty
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Tree flag that the Sons of Liberty met and planned the Boston Tea Party,
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that our floating batteries on the Delaware River defended Philadelphia, and on the Charles
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River defied house canons. Beneath the trees inscribed the state motto ensu petit placidam
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sub labortate quietum. By the sword, we seek peace, but peace only
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under liberty. These words were originally written by the famous English patriot Algernon Sydney
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about sixteen fifty nine. This was a message intended for King George the Third.
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Unhappily it went unheeded. Massachusetts State Flag, the flag of the sixth
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state to enter the Union, was adopted on March eighteenth, nineteen oh four.
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And now Act two of Yours, Truly, Johnny Dollar and the JPD
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matter, if JP Doortun was right, if there was the least possibility she
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was right in her suspicion that Carlson Kepper would blast thousands of tons of rock
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down on a little planet in order to put her out of business. Well,
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it was only one thing to do. I got back into my car
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and drove by a roundabout way up to the top of the cliff, overlooking
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the Dortmund Brewery. There, in the middle of the vast array of heavy
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construction equipment, giant cranes, truck's, huge cement mixes and so on,
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I found the main construction check and by a stroke of luck, one of
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the partners in the proposed new brewery, mister James Carlson. Ah, that's
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crazy, old ladies being observed, mister Dollar. You really want fruit where
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I think she'd welcome out smashing that antiquated brewery of hers out of existed.
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Is that what you plan to do, mister Carlson, Then you'll be serious
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by blasting a few tons of rock off the face of the clifford of the
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river, or a few thousand tons or a few thousand tons won't do that
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place of HER's a bit of hard, You're sure, of course, I'm
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sure. The only thing I'm not sure of is why she stays in business.
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What do you mean by that? Of course, she can't be making
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any money. Methods she uses were out of date in this country fifty years
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ago. The product's good. Sure, but today you've got snowball. Did
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you know Dollar that out of the goodness of my heart, I offered to
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take that plumbing plant that hers off her hands, or because her location is
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better down next to the water's apart, Oh, Parkley, sure, I
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offered her only half a million for her spot. There's four hundred thousands of
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exactly, But no, Dice just kept bothering us, trying to get out
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a lot of injunctions against our building. There. I assume you have the
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necessary permits for this blasting operator your whole draw looking at me yourself the same
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time, I appreciate the volume of a red tape necessary to do anything.
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Indeed, I suppose that something should go wrong, but quite by accident,
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the top of that cliff should drop down on JP's brewery. Mister Doller,
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it's to obviate any such possibility that I called in one of the foremost blasters
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in the country, who purely incidentally as top man, but one of the
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biggest makers of explosives in the world. You talked to him, mister Daller,
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Maybe I will believe me. I can understand why you might not take
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my word for the safety of the operation. We're about to undertake. But
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certainly you can't question his word. You say about to undertake when I believe
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he's planned the big blowof for the night tonight, Come on, I'll take
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you to it. We found this expert, a mister Sidney Crutchfield and a
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small tidy shack, set out near the edge of the cliff, working over
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a series of complicated diagrams with a busy slide rower in his hand. And
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I must confess he turned out to be one of the most interesting men I've
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ever met. Paul slim and gray haired. He had a quiet, easy,
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yet cominite manner, and that completely belied his hazardous occupation. This was
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the man who had done the dynamiting for some of the biggest jobs in this
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country, and moved mountains and rivers in the construction of huge dams, and
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blasted away for some of our vast highway networks. As you can see by
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the dates on these sheets. I finished planning this blast over two weeks ago,
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but I find that constant checking and rechecking never does any harm. Mister
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Carlson tells me you plan to set off this blast tonight. Yes, actually,
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I shall push the plunger at exactly two o'clock tomorrow morning, if mister
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Carlson is ready. Don't you worry about it, mister Cutchery. We're moving
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the equipment and the shacks away right now, excellent, And at the time
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of the blast, no one is to be here but me. That's what
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your contract says, and that's the way it must be. A safety.
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Mister Crutchfield will call it a fetish of mine, uh huh, And there'll
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be no damage to the brewery plant down below. I'll stake my reputation on
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it. Come, mister Dollar, if you like, I'll show you how
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I've made the sets for this blest. We spent the rest of the day
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inspecting every tunnel shaft and drill hole into which the explosives had been packed and
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fused. And the industry of this man was evident from the word goal.
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By six pm, all the machines and shacks and equipment had been moved back
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from the edge of the cliff that was to be blown off. The place
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was deserted except for mister Cutchfield and mate. And no, you must get
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into your car and leave, mister Dollar. But if there's no danger,
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please, I prefer it this way surely you're not still concerned about the blast
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to be honest about it, No, not one bit, And I wasn't
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at the moments. Yeah, this amazing man simply couldn't do anything wrong.
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I would have staked my life on it. But by the time I'd driven
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the long curving road to the Dortmund Brewery below had found the place not only
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deserted but completely shut down. A funny little hunch began to grow on the
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back of my head. Even the office building was dark as far as I
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could see. With the help of a business card, I slipped a lot
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on the front door, and then I saw the thin speak of light under
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the door of JP's private office. I thought I heard something in there.
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The office was a shambles, a count books and papers scattered all over the
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place, a couple of cartons. The doors of the crusty old files were
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open and for the most part empty. Somebody had been hastily packing and removing
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all the important papers. But why, I'm sorry, Johnny Story, Oh
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and you seemed like such a nice boy, Act three of yours, truly,
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Johnny Dollar. In a moment, anyone who has survived the rigors of
16:02
basic training is familiar with a great variety of milk that is dished out periodically
16:07
in the armed forces, and as frozen milk, concentrated milk, frozen concentrate,
16:14
and good old powdered milk, but sometimes supplying wholesome, fresh real milk
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has been a problem when servicemen have been stationed in out of the way places.
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The United States Air Force came across that problem some time ago in the
16:29
island of Taesayra in the Azores, those Portuguese islands that got an eastern portion
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of the Atlantic Ocean. The air base there was considered powdered milk country for
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a long time. Although cattle have played an important role in the economy of
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the island of Taesayra, the herd was badly in bread and milk production was
16:51
very low. Modern milk processing was not a part of the picture, and
16:56
with the help of Portuguese veterinarians, the men in the United States Air Force
17:00
unit worked out a free breeding service by using a small herd of milk cows
17:06
acquired in England and the cattle there at Tesera improved. Then a complete pasturizing,
17:14
homogenizing, sterilizing, bottling, refrigeration, plant was flown in from the
17:19
United States. As soon as this activity got underway, milk production began to
17:25
climb steadily, and thirsty air force men and civilians were soon buying and drinking
17:30
the new fresh milk. When economy of the island began to rise rapidly,
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the people were happy and grateful. You might say that a little milk of
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human kindness increased understanding on an island of freedom, the right of all men
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everywhere, and now Act three of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar and the
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JPD matter. When I came to it on the office of the Dortmund Brewery,
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my head fella's own had been split wide open. The sansch weight had
18:03
been used on it lay beside me. But why had JP struck me down
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from behind the door where she'd been waiting for me? And why before that
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had she been hastily packing a lot of business papers, bills and so on
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to take away. A couple of them still lay into me where I'd fallen.
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It was several minutes before I found strength enough to roll over and try
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to push myself to my feet. As I did so, two things I
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saw. Two things. One was a bill she'd overlood. In her haste
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to get away, a bill from Frankline Powder Company addressed to her personally,
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a bill for twenty one cases of dynamite and some other explosives. Yeah,
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there was my watch. I'd been out for hours, too many hours for
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According to my watch, it was one fifty two am, exactly eight minutes
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before the tremendous dynamite blast on the cliff Abob was to be set off.
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And suddenly I knew where, somehow, by her plan, those thousands of
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tons of rock wood land and not harmlessly in the river below. And I
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knew why JP had left me here so i'd be crushed by them. Oh
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come on, come on, come on, Oh please please come on.
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Hello Hello, Oh please hello hello operator operator, this is emergency, Yes,
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sir, Hey, look now I'm calling from Dortmund. It's between where
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there's a big construction Carls Jemper, that's the name on the cliff above.
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This is sorry, but those lines were disconnected late this afternoon. What but
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look, surely there's somewhere to operator. I'm sorry, sir, but there's
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no way to ring them. Oh no, oh, I've got to get
19:53
it somehow, get your damn oh no, Peeze, I got it.
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I gotta get it. I had I can't get the hand. No,
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no, I can't. Hey, hey stop stop? Who's that touch Field?
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Stop? Stop? Don't no, God, I thought I told John
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that plunger. I'm so set off that flast. That all what I'm going
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to do right now? Oh yeah, I'm not. No, No,
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I'm sorry, mister Dollar. You have no right to interfere. You don't
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stand there. What I said, put down that gun, you touch that
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plunger and so helped me out pulls take Wait a minute, dollar Dollar,
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what's the matter with you? Oh? What's happened to you? Man?
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Oh? Good, hevens. I guess it was just luck that I was
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still hanging onto that bill for the dynamite that I flown. I guess it
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was luck that made Crutchfield grab it when he tried to keep me from falling,
21:37
made him look at it carefully by the light of his flashlight. But
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it was his good sense that kept him from going ahead and setting off that
21:44
charge. When daylight came, he found the spot on the face of the
21:48
cliff where JP had another charge planted. It was set to go off like
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concussion from the blast. To cut Field have set it would have diverted the
21:56
rock from Crutchfield's blast a smack dab on top of her little beer fa Nobody
22:00
would ever have known who'd really done it, and JP would have collected eight
22:04
hundred and twenty thousand insurance for him. Incidentally, when the police come up
22:10
with her, which wasn't hard, they also found the books she'd taken from
22:12
her office. Yeah, Jpjortfmund was broke. Stoney expense account total, including
22:19
a handful of doctor bills for my aching head and all the incidentals I could
22:23
think of two hundred and four dollars and eighty cents. Yours, truly,
22:29
Johnny Dolla. Our star will return in just a moment. Our flag now
22:45
numbers fifty stars, and behind each star there stands yet another flag representing one
22:49
of the fifty states. The origin of Hawaii state flag has been the subject
22:55
of much debate. It is now believed that it was the work of foreign
22:59
advisors to King Kameya Maya. Legend also has it that it was designed at
23:03
the request of King Kameya Maya by George Beckley, an English sea captain.
23:07
The flag consists of eight horizontal and alternating stripes of white, red, and
23:12
blue, representing the eight major islands in the chain. Also represented is the
23:18
British Union Jack, a reminder of Captain Vancouver, who won his voyage around
23:23
the world in seventeen ninety four, gave King Kamea Maya a British flag and
23:29
the promise of British protection. The Union Jack is also a reminder of Captain
23:33
James Cook, who discovered the Hawaiian Islands in seventeen seventy eight. Hawaii State
23:38
Flag, the flag of the fiftieth state to enter the Union, was adopted
23:42
in eighteen forty five. Now Here is our star to tell you about next
23:47
week's story. Next week the ideal vacation matter. But believe me, it
23:51
turns out to be neither ideal nor a vacation. Join us, won't you?
23:55
Yours truly? Johnny Dollar, yours truly Johnny Dollars, starring Bob Bailey.
24:03
Originates in Hollywood. It is produced and directed by Jack Johnstone, who
24:07
also wrote tonight's story. Heard in our cast were Eleanor Audley, gen Bates,
24:11
g Stanley Jones, Allan Reed, and Austin Greed. Be sure to
24:15
join us next week, same time and station, or another exciting story of
24:18
yours, truly, Johnny Dollar, this is Dan cubberly speaking, this is
24:41
the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, Welcome back as anything to
26:00
comment on. First of all, a female character using initials because she works
26:07
in a traditionally male field is something that Johnny Dollar, I think has done
26:12
quite a bit of. So one of their surprise tropes, it's not so
26:15
much a surprise anymore. Also, when JP was describing her company's beer,
26:22
I felt like I had tuned into a advanced beer commercial. Also, you
26:29
didn't see Jack Johnstone's longtime practice of naming characters in the series after people he
26:37
knew or would actually worked on the series. In this case, Crutchfield was
26:41
the name of one of Johnny Dollar's very best writers, and indeed he penned
26:48
the best Johnny Dollar story ever. In my opinion, The next turn matter,
26:52
the ending, and the whole idea that she had been driven bankrupt by
26:56
continuing to use old an outdated practices really does fit into the spirit of the
27:03
nineteen fifties, which really, when it came to industry and commerce and education,
27:10
was really focused on the idea of progress and the idea here is that
27:15
JP ran her company into the ground because she would not progress, and I
27:19
think that the insurance company definitely got a bargain here, even on Johnny's expense
27:26
account. Though for Johnny's part, I can't help but thinks that he would
27:33
much rather have been dealing with the missing mouse or the talking cat, or
27:37
the counterfeiting that wasn't really counterfeiting stories that he's dealt with in the past.
27:44
But I again appreciate that light touch of continuity. Well, Johnny might have
27:49
probably preferred a lighter storyline, one that he didn't get hit so hard in.
27:55
But one listener would disagree, justin tweets in it say that the newer
28:00
episodes of Johnny Dollar are more needic than serious. CBS really messed up the
28:04
show, but I still love the show. Well, I definitely understand where
28:08
you're coming from, and the show has had a lighter tone since the end
28:14
of the serial era, though this week's episode shows they can mix it up
28:18
a bit. And then I have a comment from Bobby Lee. Actually a
28:23
couple people, Michael and Bobby Lee both appreciated that I brought up the point
28:29
about the rebroadcast of Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, which explains why we're
28:37
hearing about the flag having fifty stars and nineteen fifty oven because these Armed Forces
28:45
Radio and Television Service programs continue to be broadcast much later than the original airdate
28:51
of the show. Bobby Lee says, Adam is very informative. I appreciate
28:56
all the behind the scenes information he gives us and makes me want to buy
29:00
the Johnny Dollar book. And of course that's referencing the books by John Abbott,
29:04
and now there are three of them. The second one covers this whole
29:08
era of Johnny Dollar, with a lot of notes on some of the lost
29:11
episodes, as well as just random facts about some of the things in the
29:18
case, like whether they're talking about an actual place or making something up out
29:26
of whole cloth. I remember, for example, the Lamar matter when I
29:30
read that note from John Abbott's book that he stated that the whole flower that
29:36
they talked about there didn't actually exist, but was just there as a plot
29:41
device. At any rate, I highly recommend them. That will do it
29:45
for today. We will be back tomorrow with Dragnette, and then join us
29:48
again next Friday for another episode of Yours Truly Johnny dollar in the meantime,
29:55
Sender comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter,
30:00
Radio Detactives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook,
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dot Com, Slash Radiodetactives from Boise, Idaho. This is your host,
30:07
Adam Grahamson and Off