The Laughing Matter - Ep 1

From Hollywood it's time now for Johnny dollar Oh hi Ed I heard you were trying to reach me For where? In Sanada, it's a port on the west coast of Mexico. Yeah, I know and I know I've been there. What do you?

I've seen a show. Oh, he is a killer So what do I do go out there and scream it up for him? Go out there and keep him alive. Someone's threatened to murder him. One of his audience, maybe?

No. Hey, you really do like his show. We are carrying a half million dollars worth of insurance on that boy. Tonight and every weekday night, Bob Bailey and the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator...

Yours truly... Johnny Dollar. From special investigator Johnny Dollar, to the Home Office Union State's casually company, Hartford Connecticut. The following is an accounting of expenditure during my investigation of the laughing matter. Item 1, 221.50 cents.

Transportation by scheduled airline to San Diego, Inc. and charter plane for a flight 80 miles south into Mexico. To Ensenada. Item 2, a dollar 90, taxi from the plowed ground airstrip to the Carara marble foyer of the Plush Balboa Beach Hotel.

The contrast was typical. Ensenada is two towns, really. The tourist town is a glittering belt of pseudo-swank resorts around the south end of the bay. Bold-headed men in flowery sport shirts and fat women in shorts loaded down with cameras, souvenirs and U.S. dollars.

The loafing town. And next to it, the rows of warehouses and docks, the fishing fleets and freezer plants, narrow dirt streets and slums. Soft-eyed Mexicans and the gentle liquid sound of Spanish. Native town, the working town.