Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Wayward River Matter (EP1675)

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Yours Truly Johnny Dollar: The Wayward River Matter (EP1675) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
• 0:39
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• 0:53
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• 1:42
  Speaker 1: much with their support in that way. And that's over
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: at support dot Greatdetectives dot net. Well, unfortunately there is
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a lost episode between last week's show and this week's.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: This week's program originally aired on June eighth of nineteen five,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and the tonnel is the Wayward River matter again from
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: June eighth, nineteen fifty eight.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Hollywood, it's time no for Johnny Dollar.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Johnny, this is Lee Hawkins Connon Elan Shorts Trust Company.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Way, my old fishing fowl.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: You're still holding down the Ohio branch at the company
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: there in Columbus.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yes, John, I am, but now looking.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: Brother, I never will forget the great fishing you and
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I had over in Darby Creek a couple of years back,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: John and a long about this time every year, the
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: aarage really gets to me.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Hey, if the streams cleared that you had from the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: spring rains.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Oh, quite the contrary.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: As a matter of how a buy a little Raccoon
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: creek down there, Jackson, boy, I remember those big channel
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: cats in the baths.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Johnny, were you listening?
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Oh sure, I'm all ears.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: The big river has gone on a rampage again. Spring floods.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: You mean the Ohio, Yes, and every other river.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Of any size. The rings are still coming down. I
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: see old towns are being washed away by the floodwaters.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Death and destruction all over.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Lee, I didn't mean to sound so well.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: You know, mentioned fishing, and I lose my head.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Look, Johnny, I need you out here. Can you come
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: right away?
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: For sure?
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: You see any fishing we do? Maybe for the buddies of.
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: People Bob Bailey and the exciting adventures of the Man
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: with the Action Pact Expensive Card America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Yes, truly Johnny Dollar, and now act one of yours,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: truly Johnny Dollar. Expense accounts of it and by special
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Investigator Johnny Dollar the Continental Insurance and Trust Company, Columbus,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: Ohio office following us the kount of expenses incurred during
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: my investigation of the Waywood River Meta.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Expense of count out of won forty three dollars and
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: a half.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Transportation to New York in a flag ship to Columbus, Ohio.
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: It was five thirty PM and raining hard when the
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: big orange and plane sat down gently at Port Columbus
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Airport some seven miles out of town. My plan was
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: to go into the Fort Hayes Hotel and call Lee
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Hawkins from there. So after picking up my luggage, I
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: headed for the door in a taxi stand. But Lee,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: it scenes had other ideas. Here, let me help you
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: with your best I'm all right, so I'm just looking
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: for a text a Lee.
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: My car's right out here, Johnny. As soon as we
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: get started, the bitter you know, right through this door. Yeah,
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: well wait, as soon as we get started.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Where where are we going to the.
• 4:41
  Speaker 7: Town of Conter at aout one hundred miles or so south.
• 4:44
  Speaker 7: I'll come on if you want to.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Get throwed, Hey, come on, wait, come up, whatever you say,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: come on, huffins.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Oh brother, true. Why didn't you tell me to bring
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: a ring?
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: Why don't you read the papers?
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: I'm rating like this for long, off and on for
• 5:01
  Speaker 6: three or four weeks, and they have a mean ride
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: ahead of us.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Well, what's in all of valley?
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: Well, the flood's along the Ohio been pretty severe this year, Johnny.
• 5:10
  Speaker 7: I've been somewhat later than usual.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that much. I did read about half.
• 5:14
  Speaker 6: A dozen of the big cities have been taking a
• 5:16
  Speaker 6: real beating in spite of all their preparations for.
• 5:19
  Speaker 7: The big runoff.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: No, that's been through all over the country.
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: So what you don't read about in the headlines, though,
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: is the little places like Cotterett. It's my old hometown, Johnny,
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: and so a lot of policies there, particularly to the
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: local shopkeepers, you know, on their stocks and merchandise.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: So there's been a lot of flood damage and your
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: company's having to pay up a lot of claim.
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: So not yet. So far, the town's been lucky.
• 5:41
  Speaker 6: Most of the recent bad storms have been across the
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: state line up in Pennsylvania or over in West Virginia,
• 5:47
  Speaker 6: the same as true last year and.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: The year before.
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: So the people have gone around Cattareet farmers. Mostly. You
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: haven't gone ahead with their flood control project the.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Way they should have is kind of red right on
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: the Ohio.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: No, it's in a valley north, it's.
• 6:01
  Speaker 6: On the Crooked River, and parts of the town are
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: actually below the river bank. I can see what that means, yeah,
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: I sure can. Most of the year, it's a quiet, lazy.
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: Stream about fifty or sixty beet Wyat.
• 6:14
  Speaker 6: But when the feeder streams up in the hills start
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: pouring water down and ever it overflows half the time,
• 6:19
  Speaker 6: will go with it and swept right down into the Ohio.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: We don't they know enough to prepare for this sort
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: of thing, Johnny.
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: Like I say, they've been lucky so far.
• 6:29
  Speaker 6: This present storm has been bigger and longer than anything
• 6:32
  Speaker 6: they've ever had.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Well, what about the State Flood Control Commission or whatever
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: it's called.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Can't they do anything?
• 6:37
  Speaker 7: Let's face it, wat's.
• 6:39
  Speaker 6: A little bird like cataret when there are one hundred
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: bigger and more important towns in the same fix.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I see what you mean.
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: Before the lines went down, I got a call from Fred.
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: Norlock, one of my biggest counts down there, big hardware firm.
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: Unless the river goes down, he's gonna lose the whole place.
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: That means over one hundred thousand dollars insurance plant.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: But what can I possibly due, Lee.
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: I don't know, Johnny, I just don't know.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: We were heading south on Route twenty three, and by
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: the time we reached Chillicothe, the rain had led up
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: to a prison. By the time we reached Jackson, where
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: we left the main highway, and it led up entirely. But
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I noticed that every little stream we passed was overflowing
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: its banks. Finally, it must have been after midnight. We
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: pulled up on a low hill overlooking the town of Cattarat,
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: and it started to rain again, to rain hard. Below us,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: the crooked river was a terrible, terrifying thing to wash.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Power lines were out, but maybe hundreds of kerosene and
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: gasoline landings, flashlights and lights and cars showed only too
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: plainly the perils, the brown, rushing, raging.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Torrent, the threat of the town. The men stripped to
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: the waist, the banker and the ditch diggers.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Side by side, the farmer and the merchant toiled frantically
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: to reinforce the levee with bags of sandstone, cement, anything
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: they could find. The river laughed hungrily at their feet,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: trying to undermine the embankment as quickly as it was
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: built up.
• 8:07
  Speaker 7: Back.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And then we're others filling the sand.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Bags and bulldozing additional strangle.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: For the levee, hauling frontloads of sand.
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: And rock and gravel, digging, shoveling, filling anything they could do.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: I'd never seen a more dedicated group of people, men, women, children,
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: all working in a common cause, not just for themselves,
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: but for the survival of their neighbors, their town, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: the ugly river was like a thing alive, pawing at them,
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: seeking to destroy them.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Huge shooting, massive debris flew.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: By at express train speed, whirling now and then to
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: strike out at the embanker, fighting to break it down.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Thousands of tongues of wreckage, parts of houses, chicken coops,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: trees and brush, anything that would float. I stood there,
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: appalled and almost overwhelmed by a feeling of utter helplessness.
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: Can't they see that they were up here on this hill,
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: they could see that they're losing ground.
• 8:59
  Speaker 7: Johnny. The river's liezing faster than they can build.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Up a levee. Yah, the looks that way. What come
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: matter with you guys? You see they need help down there.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Anybody doesn't help body shot.
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: He's right, Johnny. We ought to go down there and
• 9:10
  Speaker 7: help for whatever it's worth.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: Way in one section where they're all working, it's right
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: about the cut in the Perry Street.
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: If the levee goes there, it'll sweep the whole section.
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: Down the valley into the Ohio River.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Lockily, look crack there behind us. The reason why the
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: water is planning up? Don't you see that old railroad bridge,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: the trees, the mud, the ruffle, it's pile up against it.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: That railroad trestle has.
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: Become a regular dam Think you're right, or of that
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: degree planning up there.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: The stronger it gets, and.
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: The higher it gets too, with the water mounting up
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: behind it. That way the levee over Perry Street will
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: go in no matter of a minute.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Right, But break that damn somehow and the water will
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: get through down the crooked river into the Ohio.
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: Yeah, break that damn and it'll save Yes.
• 9:53
  Speaker 6: But how Johnny how?
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 9:56
  Speaker 8: How Act two of yours?
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Truly Johnny Dollar in a moment.
• 10:11
  Speaker 9: And now for another episode in the life of Sergeant
• 10:14
  Speaker 9: Donald bell Weather my husband.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Three. But when are you going to serve dinner?
• 10:26
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: In a few minutes, dear, Okay, I'll see you landa.
• 10:29
  Speaker 9: Wait a minute, Donald, I want you to hear my speech.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: You mean, the safety speech for the PTA meeting. Oh,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: come on, do I have to do?
• 10:37
  Speaker 9: You want dinner? Blackmailer?
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Okay? Where do you want me to sit on the sofa?
• 10:41
  Speaker 9: No? No, no, in the dining room. I've got to
• 10:43
  Speaker 9: practice projecting.
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: My voice projecting your boy, are you kidding?
• 10:50
  Speaker 9: Oh? That's fine, okay. Now, after the President introduces me,
• 10:54
  Speaker 9: I'll say, Madam, cher lady, parent visitors accord into the
• 11:00
  Speaker 9: National Safety Council. Last year in the United States, four thousand,
• 11:04
  Speaker 9: four hundred and fifty youngsters under fifteen years were killed
• 11:08
  Speaker 9: in traffic accidents.
• 11:09
  Speaker 7: How many?
• 11:09
  Speaker 9: Oh, please, Donald, don't interrupt.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Four thousand, four hundred and fifty.
• 11:13
  Speaker 9: Oh, that's an awful lot, Yes, dear, it is well.
• 11:16
  Speaker 9: Then I go on to say, ladies and gentlemen, how
• 11:20
  Speaker 9: can we help prevent traffic accidents from killing and maiming
• 11:24
  Speaker 9: our youngsters. We must remember that children will act like children. Therefore,
• 11:29
  Speaker 9: when we drive by schools, playgrounds, and the neighborhoods where
• 11:32
  Speaker 9: children are playing, we must act like mature adults and
• 11:36
  Speaker 9: be on the sharp lookout for that sudden ball bouncing
• 11:39
  Speaker 9: across the street with a little child running after.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: That's very good, honey.
• 11:43
  Speaker 9: As soon as children are old enough to understand, it
• 11:46
  Speaker 9: is up to us, the parent, to instill in their
• 11:49
  Speaker 9: minds the dangers of playing near traffic. Children must be
• 11:53
  Speaker 9: taught to obey all safety rules and safety patrols, to
• 11:56
  Speaker 9: board and alight from the school bus without horse play.
• 12:00
  Speaker 9: And above all, we adopt should obey all safety rules
• 12:06
  Speaker 9: because children mimic their parents.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Honey, you act and talk just like a professional figure.
• 12:12
  Speaker 9: Well thanks, you.
• 12:13
  Speaker 7: Know you're really good.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I'm proud of you.
• 12:15
  Speaker 9: Oh that's my Donald, that's my dog.
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: Now Act two of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar and the
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: wayward River matter.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: From our vantage point on the hill above the little
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: town of Kierret, we could see why the crooked river
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: was rising so fast, threatening to engulf the top.
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: You're right, Johnny, we debree against the old railroad. Pressel
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: has made a.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: Dam, and somehow we've got to break that dam.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Leap.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Any stores down there, any of them carry dynamite? Yeah,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: down there on Perry Spreeak Norlock Supply.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Company, and come on on nor Lock.
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: One of my biggest clients. If the leven breaks, his
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: face will take the front of the club there you
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: see down there? Yes, men putting sandbag.
• 13:20
  Speaker 8: You're on it.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: They won't mean a thing if the levee goes. Why
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: doesn't he send those men back on up to the
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: River's there's where they.
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: Could do some foot Oh my, Johnny, he's the only
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: man in town looking after his personal property, The only
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: one's selfish enough to say, listen, he's also.
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: The man who's always opposed doing something about this river.
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: Maybe at brad Lee, we've got to get down there
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: and get some dynamite. The groups we passed, still vainly
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: trying to chick up holes in the levee, all but
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: spat on.
• 13:50
  Speaker 8: Us as we passed.
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: Because we weren't working with them, trying to save their
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: town to the raging crooked river, or so they thought.
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: Finally we slogged our way to the Norlock Supply Company,
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: Unfair Street, Norse still load dives.
• 14:04
  Speaker 7: Didn't get on around my place. The leavey goes and
• 14:06
  Speaker 7: logging down here more sandbag, more your crazy mister nor Lock.
• 14:10
  Speaker 7: You're wasting your time, Sister Harkins. Why that levee goes.
• 14:14
  Speaker 7: Nothing will save this place of yours.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: He's right, nor Luck. Get him in on up to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: the levee where they'll do some good.
• 14:20
  Speaker 7: God. Then you've made the insurance of my place and
• 14:22
  Speaker 7: slept away.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: It won't be if we save the town. We need dynamite.
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: Who are you well, this is Johnny Dollard in church investigator.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: What are you doing here? Look?
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Look, there's no time to stand around and talk we
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: need dynamite.
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: A lot of it ook park op the wreckage from
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: up the river.
• 14:36
  Speaker 6: It's jammed against the old railroad trestle south of town
• 14:39
  Speaker 6: and has made a regular damn.
• 14:40
  Speaker 7: That's what's backing up the water. O. No, I've seen
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: you're gonna.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Blow that up. That's right now. Where's the dynamite?
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: An if it had gone on that pressure with a
• 14:48
  Speaker 7: pressure of the river again into he's crazy. Any part
• 14:50
  Speaker 7: of that goes, you'll go where that he'll be killed.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: He's raking, he's suicide to go up there.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: Come on, let's have the dynamite, and you men get
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: up a five where you can help. Now you wait,
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: well that truck all the bags you can, but get
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: up there fast my place?
• 15:03
  Speaker 7: Hell, what about myr Locke?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Where's that dynamite?
• 15:06
  Speaker 9: I won't give it to you.
• 15:07
  Speaker 6: Old listen, mister norm refuse if he's who got you
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: to go out on that railroad dribs.
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: But if we don't, the whole town will go. And
• 15:14
  Speaker 7: I'll tell you why the dollar are you threatening to
• 15:18
  Speaker 7: shoot me?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: But not away?
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Johnny Witch handlessly you're a crazy door with that gun
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: away all right, No, lock.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: It's up to you.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: What do you mean, unless you give us the dynamite,
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: I'll blast the lock off this place of yours and
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: get it myself.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Well, oh right, all right in here, I'll tell you
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: you're mad.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Oh was no lock mad, a victim of the panic
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: that all too often seizes a man when the going
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: gets tough.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: But he did give us the dynamite.
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: Then, with two of us work, when Lee Hawkins and
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: I trudged through the mud and the night, loaded with cases.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Of dynamite back to the old Railroad Trust.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: And when we got there, I wondered if maybe nor
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Locke wasn't right with all, if it wouldn't be suicide
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: to go out on them.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: The pile up of debris against it was shuge.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: The back of it, the deadly brown water swirled and
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Eddie throwing telegraph poles, railroad ties, huge trees pounding against it,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: battering at the old framework of the trustle if only.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: They'd strike hard enough.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: To break it down, break the dam, perhaps they would.
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: By that time the town of Cataret would be lost. Yeah,
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: somebody had to do this job, and it looked like
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: I'd elected myself. I'm not quite clear on what happened
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: during that next twenty or thirty minutes. They seemed like
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: thirty years of nightmare. I edged my way out on
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: that riggedy framework, a fuse case of dynomide under my arm.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: It was dark, and I had to feel my way
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: along over planks and boards and trees that the force
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: of the water had thrown up on the trustle. The
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: wires leading back to the plunger that would set off
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: the charge would catch and drag, But I knew I
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: had to reach the very long span to make the
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: explosive do its work. And all the while the old
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: bridge creaked and groaned and shook from the impact of
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: the wreckage being thrown against it by the angry water.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: But then finally the job was done, and I felt
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: my way back to the bank.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Hurry, Tony, hurry, eh, yeah, I'm coming down. Everything ready here,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: don't you see the levy of buck.
• 17:31
  Speaker 7: It's going to go back over the town. There's a cat.
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: The water's rushing down.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, Lee, the plunger already already? All right? Then lie down, quick,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: get down.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: Here's you go, Act three of yours. Truly, Johnny Dollar
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: in a moment, do you know who.
• 18:15
  Speaker 10: Said, my political ideal is democracy. Everyone should be respected
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: as an individual, but no one idolized. I am convinced
• 18:24
  Speaker 10: that degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence
• 18:29
  Speaker 10: inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proved that illustrious tyrants
• 18:35
  Speaker 10: are succeeded by scoundrels. Those words were written by the
• 18:39
  Speaker 10: great scientist Albert Einstein. Einstein saw the weaknesses of a
• 18:44
  Speaker 10: government in which too much power was centered in too
• 18:47
  Speaker 10: few people, a government based upon violence. Einstein saw the
• 18:52
  Speaker 10: danger of elevating a person to so high a level
• 18:55
  Speaker 10: that he might seize power to which he was not entitled.
• 18:58
  Speaker 10: Such a situation is not in the American tradition. Remember
• 19:03
  Speaker 10: the words of Albert Einstein. They are part of your
• 19:06
  Speaker 10: American heritage. Degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence.
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: Now Act three of yours, truly, Johnny Dollar and the
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: Wayward River matter.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: The charge of dynamite on the old railroad bridge had
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: broken the dam that the angry river had thrown up against.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: It had released the little town from the threat of
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: being washed down the valley into the Ohio River. The
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: men and women and children spent from having struggled against
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: the raging water throughout the night and all the day before,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: went quietly back to their homes and farms to rest
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: and sleep, And nature defeated and gave up.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: The rain stopped, and the skies clearing.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Even the charging yellow waters of the Crooked River seemed
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: to diminish, and a sort of frustration.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: What damage had been done to the town? Could wait
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: now until the people were arresting and refreshed.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: As Lee Hawkins and I plodded wearily over to the village,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: and I noticed that the streets were deserted. Yeah, even
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: as the long gray fingers of dawn reached up into
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: the sky. The town exhausted and slept, unmindful of the
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: rooster in someone's backyard who sought to rouse him. Nor
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: did we rouse the innkeeper, but picked a couple of
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: rooms and settled down to arrest our weary walks.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: But I couldn't sleep.
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: Somewhere in the back of my brain, a little worry
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: began to form to peck away at me. In all
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: of Canterreat the night before, there'd been one man, and
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: one man only, who had ignored the common.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Good to look after his own selfish interests. I went
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: into Lee's roaming awakening.
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: Oh oh, Johnny later, so did I cannot go back
• 21:05
  Speaker 7: to sleep?
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: Now?
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Come on, just a couple of questions, Lee, listen to me,
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: Oh I sleep over one hundred thousand insurance?
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: You said.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: A hundred and.
• 21:17
  Speaker 7: I don't know.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Well, if you asked me, that's too much for a
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: business of any kind in the town. This size much
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: too much.
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: So maybe I gave him a break on his evaluation. Yeah,
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: you know, to help sign up some of the other merchants.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: But one hundred thousand of insurance money would give him
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: enough to live on the rest of his life.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Look, why don't you go back to bed, Johnny Lee?
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: He knew about that damn at the railroad pressol and
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: so far as I could see, he was the only one.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Who did well.
• 21:43
  Speaker 7: Everybody else was so busy at the levee.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: But did he try to do anything about it. No, Instead,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: he went through the motions of trying to protect his property.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: But he knew that if that levee broke, nothing would safe.
• 21:53
  Speaker 7: All right, all right, chalk it up to panic.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: Panic.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: He fought to keep us from getting that dynamite, the
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: one thing I could save the town. He kept those
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: workmen away from where they might have done some good
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: at the levee. He alone wanted that levee to break.
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: But good heavens, Johnny, you're right, you must be.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm right. I'm going out and look for mister
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Fred Norlock.
• 22:16
  Speaker 7: But there is no soul out there, everybody.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's what I want to find out.
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: I found Fred nor Loach alone up on the inner bank,
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: the river side of the levee or anyone down below
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: couldn't see him, and he was working with a shovel
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: of crowbar. Beside him was a pile of dynamite. I'd
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: given him that idea. All right, nor Lock laid down
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: that shovel all the river. Didn't do it the way
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: you planned last night?
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: Did it?
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Maybe not?
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: Because if you but you're not going to stop me now.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: And I'll put that thing down now.
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: I'll kill you dollar if you come any closer, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: nobody will know, because there's nobody around for your buddy
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: in the river.
• 23:01
  Speaker 7: Nobody will ever know.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, set up a small charge enough to breach the levee.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That's right, it's already, and you can't stop.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: And the river will crash through, destroy that feeling business
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: of yours down there. Take with it the homes in
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: the valley, the livestock, maybe even the people.
• 23:14
  Speaker 7: Keep your hand awver in that pocket?
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: So what you or me? Huh? And if I go,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: the town goes too.
• 23:20
  Speaker 7: Yes, but if I can outdraw, pistol is aimed at
• 23:23
  Speaker 7: your chest.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Now you walk straight ahead to the edge of the river. Wa.
• 23:35
  Speaker 7: No, no, yes.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: M Rlanck's body was never recovered. He'd lived alone. He
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: died alone, a crooked man in the crooked river. Nor
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: was he mourn in the little town he tried to destroy.
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: Expense account total including transportation.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Back to hayfrid one dollars even Yours truly, Johnny.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: Dollar, Yours truly, Johnny Dollar, is starrying. Bob Bailey orig
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: dates in Hollywood and is produced and directed by Jack Johnstone,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: who also wrote today's stories. Heard in our cast were
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: Chet str Frank Gerstel, Bob Bruce, and Parley Bear. Special
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: sound patterns by Tom Henley and Bill James. Be sure
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: to join us next week, same time and stations, or
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: another exciting story of Yours truly, Johnny Dollars.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: This is Roy Rowan speaking Yours truly.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: Johnny Dollar has been a presentation of the United States
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: Armed Forces Radio and Television service.
• 28:14
  Speaker 11: This is Andrew Ryans with OTR Westerns dot com, where
• 28:17
  Speaker 11: we stream live old time radio Westerns twenty four hours
• 28:21
  Speaker 11: a day, seven days a week with a special twist.
• 28:24
  Speaker 11: You select the tracks that get to be played. We've
• 28:27
  Speaker 11: got a thousand different episodes from shows like Gunsmoke, Tales
• 28:31
  Speaker 11: of the Texas Rangers, Escape, Genautry, and many more. Come
• 28:35
  Speaker 11: check us out at OTR Westerns dot com slash live. Again,
• 28:39
  Speaker 11: that's OTR Westerns dot com slash Live. You're listening to
• 28:44
  Speaker 11: the great detectives of Old time Radio with Adam Graham.
• 28:47
  Speaker 11: And now let's get back into the show.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Welcome back. Well, obviously a very topical show at the time,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and there's a lot I really love about it. There's
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: a personal reason while I like the episode, which I'll
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: talk about in a minute, but let me just go
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: ahead and put the personal reason aside and just say
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: that this is an incredible episode. It's very exciting and different,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and I think for two thirds of it I was
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: kind of like, Okay, this is great, but what's Johnny
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Dahler doing here? What's he got to do? And then
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: it is revealed it's really shows how Jack Johnstone said, Okay,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: we're not dealing with We're dealing with somebody who does
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: fill that job as a detective, but his job is
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: more than that. He's an insurance investigator. Despite the fact
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: that you know, in this case, the justification for getting
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: him out there was pretty thin, but thank goodness that
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: he was there, saves the town and captures the bad guy.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: And there's this whole sort of moral undertone to the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: story that really does work about the type of neighbor
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and the type of people we should be rallying to
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: help one another in times of need and trial, and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: this just very poetic death for the villain and the piece.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: I thought it was.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: Incredibly well done, some fairly good sound design that they
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: managed to work in here. Like I said, this would
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: be probably one of my top Johnny Dollar episode since
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: they've gone to the half hour formats. Really truly enjoyed
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: it just on just a pure fan level, now kind
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: of for the personal level. What I liked about this
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: one is this episode features Port Columbus International Airport. It's
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a special place to me for a lot of reasons.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: It was my first ever flaunt unless you count amusement
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: park rids and most people now. But more than that,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: it was the first to play that I met my
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: wife in person. We had been corresponding via the internet,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and so I flew out to her home in Columbus
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to meet her for the first time there back in
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: August of two thousand and one, and so it was
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: just a treat to hear this reference in the radio program.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Of course, I should say my wife is from that area,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: spent the first twenty years of her life there, So yeah,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: it was It's no Johnny Dollar episodes set in Boise
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: or Callispell, where I spent so much of my life,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: but to have this set in Columbus, that was just
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: it's just really nice to hear about a place where
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you live, particularly if you don't live in Los Angeles,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Chicago or New York, because there are plenty of radio
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: shows set in those cities. Well, now we turn to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: some listener comments and feedback. Brian says, been a loyal
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: listener for a few years, really enjoy and love the shows.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Then, James says, a great show, Adam,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and we also have a comment from Jen who runs
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: in regarding Johnny Dollar. He was my first intro to
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: old time radio and still my favorite. Now I'm addicted
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: to detective stories as well as other genres. Well, thanks
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: so much, Jen, appreciate you commenting, and that will do
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: it for today. We will be back tomorrow with Dragnet
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and then join us back here next Friday for another
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. In the meantime, sendra
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net. Oops, all,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: before we go, I should mention the episode that was
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: missing was the Froward or Froward Fisherman?
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Matter?
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: All right? Facebook, Facebook dot com, Slash Radio Detectives, follow
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Radio Detectives. But from Boise, Idaho,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: this is your host, Adam Graham signing off