The Great Torino: Box 13

“The Great Torino” 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 receives a desperate letter through Box 13 from a woman named Maria, who asks him to pick up a theater ticket at the Tivoli. At a charity show, he discovers Maria is the assistant to the Great Torino, a magician performing a dangerous illusion involving a loaded rifle aimed at her. Holiday is selected as part of the committee to mark bullets and verify the rifle, and after Torino miraculously fires at Maria without harming her, Maria slips Holiday a note asking to meet him.

The Tivoli Theater in the city, and surrounding locations including a coffee shop three blocks away. A charity event featuring various acts including singers, dancers, and the Great Torino's magic show.

Characters: Dan Holiday, Maria, The Great Torino, Susie, Committee members (G, K.R., H)

Listen for: The impossible rifle illusion and why Maria is so frightened of the Great Torino despite working with him. The mystery of how Torino performed the trick when the bullets were marked by audience members.

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.