Shanghai Is a Verb: Have Gun, Will Travel (April 3, 1960)

“Shanghai Is a Verb” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 3, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Paladin's young servant Hey Boy disappears after a quarrel with Miss Wong, who works at the Carlton Hotel. Concerned for the boy's safety, Paladin searches Chinatown, consulting the powerful Chung Wu who directs him toward the Barbary Coast. With the help of Harry the hack, Paladin begins combing the rough waterfront district to find the troubled youth.

San Francisco, 1875. The Carlton Hotel, Chinatown, and the Barbary Coast waterfront district.

Characters: Paladin, Hey Boy, Miss Wong, Chung Wu, Harry the hack

Listen for: Paladin's careful navigation of Chinatown's power structures and his resourceful use of local connections to track down the missing boy in the dangerous Barbary Coast.

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.