The James Forbes Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (July 28, 1953)

“The James Forbes Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 28, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is hired to look into the death of wealthy James Forbes, who fell from a 110-foot cliff during his nightly walk along the ocean shore. The police believe it was an accident, but Dollar begins to uncover suspicious details about Mrs. Forbes's activities and mysterious telephone calls that suggest the circumstances of his death may not be as straightforward as they appear.

A Forbes mansion on the northeastern shore, the Fifth Precinct Police Station, and the cliffs along the ocean in what appears to be the New York area.

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Roger Stern, Lieutenant Arthur Parkhill, Mrs. Forbes, The butler

Listen for: The developing investigation into Mrs. Forbes's potential affair and secret activities, which may provide a motive for the death; the butler's reluctant revelations about suspicious phone calls and false trips to town.

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.