The Kranesburg Matter - Ep 1-A (according to script): Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (August 27, 1956)

“The Kranesburg Matter - Ep 1-A (according to script)” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 27, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Cranesburg to recover a stolen pearl necklace worth $20,000 belonging to socialite Melva Crane. A small-time thief named Smiley Prell claims to have the necklace and offers to make a deal, but his nervous behavior and evasiveness suggest something more complicated is at work. As Dollar meets the local Tri-State agent J.D. Bartlett and encounters the mysterious Finney Crane, he discovers troubling inconsistencies that make him question whether Prell is telling the truth.

Cranesburg, at the Green Lion Inn roadhouse and the Tri-State Guarantee Company office

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Smiley Prell, J.D. Bartlett, Melva Crane, Finney Crane, Dean Sellers

Listen for: Smiley Prell's cryptic references to someone on the inside of the Crane house, Finney Crane's suspicious behavior and sudden wealth, and J.D. Bartlett's cynical observations about Melva Crane's character and the family's financial troubles

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.