The Johnson Payroll Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (September 21, 1958)

“The Johnson Payroll Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 21, 1958. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Johnny Dollar travels to California to help recover $100,000 stolen in a New York payroll robbery. An anonymous informant arranges a meeting at Carado Beach, but Johnny arrives to find the man dead with a knife in his ribs. Complicating matters, Johnny encounters the mysterious woman from his cab ride in Los Angeles at a local bar, and a confrontation with another man erupts.

Los Angeles, Carado Beach, and a motel bar in a coastal town, 1958

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Pat McCracken, The informant (dead at pier), A woman from the cab, A man at the bar

Listen for: A botched meeting with a dead informant, a suspicious woman's appearance, and a bar room confrontation that suggests Johnny's investigation is being followed or sabotaged.

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.