Your's Truly Johnny Dollar - Murder Aint Minor (08-07-49)

Your's 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.

THIS EPISODE:

August 7, 1949. CBS network. "The Investigation Of Bonnie Goodwin," or "Murder Ain't Minor". Sustaining. Johnny takes a case on behalf of "King Hart," (not an insurance company!) to try to find his missing girl. Paul Dubov, Martha Wentworth, Lou Krugman, Charles Russell, Georgia Ellis, Jeanne Bates, Lawrence Dobkin, Roy Rowan (announcer), Leith Stevens (composer, conductor), Gordon T. Hughes (director), Paul Dudley (writer), Gil Doud (witer). 29:36.