The First Letter: Box 13

“The First Letter” is an episode of Box 13, the old-time radio show. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Box 13 free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Dan Holiday, a writer who advertises for adventure, receives a mysterious message at Box 13 at the newspaper office. A woman named Carla Williams calls him to ask for help with a blackmail situation, requesting that he serve as a witness while she makes a final payment to her blackmailer and retrieves incriminating letters. Dan agrees to help and accompanies Carla to the blackmailer's apartment, where they discover the door unlocked and lights on.

A newspaper office, a French restaurant on Lege Street, and a blackmailer's apartment in the city.

Characters: Dan Holiday, Susie, Carla Williams, Bartender

Listen for: The mystery of who the blackmailer is and what secrets Carla has been keeping for five years, plus the danger that may arise when they discover the apartment already occupied.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.