The Bee or Not to Bee Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (October 29, 1961)

“The Bee or Not to Bee Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 29, 1961. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is given a case by Pat Fuller at Universal Adjustment Bureau involving a couple running a fake injury scam at hotels across the country. The pair registers at hotels, stages a fall or slip, and demands cash settlements while threatening lawsuits. After hitting thirteen hotels in four months, Johnny receives a photograph of the suspects and a list of target cities, and begins to formulate a theory about their next move based on a curious pattern.

Universal Adjustment Bureau office in Hartford, Connecticut, with the investigation spanning multiple hotels across the United States

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Pat Fuller, Pat McCracken

Listen for: The detailed description of the hotel injury scam racket and Johnny's realization that the fake address the couple uses—21st Street and Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia—is actually the location of Easton Penitentiary

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.