The Cuban Jewel Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (September 19, 1951)

“The Cuban Jewel Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 19, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is sent to Cuba to locate stolen jewels worth $800,000 before a suspect named William Carnes—currently in jail awaiting extradition—can be questioned by police. Dollar must find where Carnes hid the jewels before the suspect is taken into custody for a federal crime and refuses to talk.

Cuba, primarily Havana; also a jail and a cantina called Cantina Elgio

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Roger Stern, William Carnes, Maria, The fat man with the knife, The bartender

Listen for: A tense confrontation as Dollar tracks down Carnes and discovers the stolen jewels hidden in a bed post, only to have the tables turned when an armed assailant appears.

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.