Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar aired on CBS Radio from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962, featuring private investigator Johnny Dollar investigating unusual insurance claims involving suspicious deaths, possible frauds, missing persons, or other mysterious circumstances. Each episode was related in flashbacks during a report to the insurance company and carefully notated various business expenses the Johnny incurred. Investigating insurance claims is a risky business, and Johnny often ended up in personal danger.
Johnny Dollar was first portrayed by Charles Russell (Dick Powell had the role in the pilot back when the show had been provisionally called Yours Truly, Lloyd London [producers quickly changed the title, fearing legal backlash from Lloyd's of London], but opted to go with Richard Diamond, Private Detective instead). Edmond O'Brien was the second to play the character, from February 1950 to September 1952. O'Brien -- who would be 101 years old today [Happy Birthday!] -- already had a strong film career with such movies as The Killers, White Heat, and D.O.A., and would go to later films as Shield for Murder, The Barefoot Contessa(winning both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor), and Seven Days in May (winning a Golden Globe and gaining an Academy Award nomination); from 1951, O'Brien regularly appeared in television anthology series and other programs, including starring roles in Johnny Midnight, Sam Benedict, and The Long, Hot Summer.
In "Death Takes a Working Day," O'Brien's first outing as Johnny Dollar, our hero investigates the murder of policy holder Loyal B. Martin, who had been shot in the back twice. The suspects: Martin's young wife who married him for the honey, his long-serving housekeeper whose romance with Martin had been shunted aside when he married another, his pecunious brother who may been in love with Martin's wife, and the private detective who was Martin's bodyguard and who may also be in love with the beguiling Mrs. Martin. In the end, Johnny Dollar submits an expense account totaling $823.
Produce and direct by Jaime del Valle, written by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd, and featuring the voice talents of Irene Tedrow, Walter Burke, Ted de Cosia, John Boehner, Gene Bates, and Ed Begley.
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5yyk6VXR8&list=PLneoVXdPCzrfDyffrXvlgykS4WVzvv4pa
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