Monday, December 24, 2018

25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas - Day 24: Carmen Kringle and Johnny Dollar (1957)


29/365/3681 (July 10, 2018) - Harris's Antelope Squirrels - Desert Botanical Gardens (Phoenix, Arizona - July 10th and 11th, 2018)

Not a Burro -But in the desert.
 Harris's Antelope Squirrels - Desert Botanical Gardens (Phoenix, Arizona - July 2018)
It's Christmas Eve and I have been mixing it up between new programs featured on this series and some of my all time favorites.  I am going to mix it up in this very entry by going to one of my favorite series and a Christmas episode I had not featured before.  And while you make think I am being stubborn with my choices here - it will all make sense in a bit.  You might here this (and many others) on Sirius/XM, you can listen to Greg Bell's Old time radio channel (#148).  He does a great job of showcasing great holiday themed episodes, especially as we get close to Christmas.

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar started out in 1949 as a basic 30 minute detective series.  Dick Powell did the audition show for Johnny Dollar, but he opted to do the great series Richard Diamond (with many scripts written by a young Blake Edwards).  With Dick Powell turning down the role, CBS went with Charles Russell who played Dollar for the first year.  Many people took the role, but most fans like the episodes voiced by Bob Bailey.  He took over the role at a time when the format changed from a once weekly 30 minute episode to daily 15 minute series.  Most were five day series and allowed the writers and producers to create more in-depth stories.  After this experiment lasted around a year, they went back to the 30 minute format, still with Bob Bailey.  He would star in the series until the moved the production to New York City in November 1960.

While Johnny Dollar is a basic detective program, the gimmick was that it revolved around his expense report.  Johnny Dollar provided the exposition around the expenses incurred during the case.  At first, I could not believe that they had a show featuring an insurance investigator with an expense report.  But it quickly became one of my favorite series.

I have featured Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar a few times before during this series:
On December 22, 1957, the episode featured on this series was the "Carmen Kringle Matter."  Poor Johnny Dollar is resting on vacation when he gets a call from Pat McCracken...never a good sign.  He was in Palm Springs and was fairly close to an easy job.  An old miner wanted to change the beneficiary of his policy from his nephew to Carmen.  Carmen was not a girlfriend, a wife or another significant other.  It was a burro...a mule...a trusty companion.  The town is on edge when the burro goes missing, especially so close to the holidays.  The prospector is named Chris Kringle and he every year, he and his beloved Carmen would deliver gifts to all the miners in the town.  But this year, that is all up in the air because Carmen is missing.  So off he goes to the Mojave Desert and to see the agent who is trying to make the change in the policy to match the old man's wishes.

The recording is OK, but the story is fairly unique.  The script was written by Robert Bainter - the pen name of Bob Bailey (the actor who played Johnny Dollar).  I believe this is his only writing credit in his many years of radio from the 1940s to the early 1960s.  Also included in this story is Howard McNear, Jean Tatum, Junius Matthews and was directed by Jack Johnstone.

Its a fun way to spend Christmas eve.  Best wishes for the holidays!

Carmen Kringle Matter (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) - December 22, 1957

Here are some links to programs relating to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar:
25 More Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2018) & Other Links
Another 25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2017) 
25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2016) 

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2015) & Other Links

25 Days of Old Time Radio Christmas (from 2014)
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