The Blue Madonna Matter (1): Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (February 22, 1959)

“The Blue Madonna Matter (1)” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 22, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar receives a call from a mysterious Parisian character named Chagri about a valuable painting called the Blue Madonna. Dollar bets his boss that the painting currently hanging in the Gavin Galleries in Philadelphia is not genuine, and travels there with art expert Foster Harmon to investigate the suspicious transaction.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; a luxury hotel and an art gallery on Walnut Street, with flashbacks to Paris

Characters: Johnny Dollar, George Reed, Chagri (Demarsak), Foster Harmon, Kingsley Holland, Arnold Gavin

Listen for: Johnny Dollar's skepticism about the painting's authenticity, Kingsley Holland's nervous offer to sell the Blue Madonna directly and cheaply, and the mounting evidence that a switch may have been made.

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.