The Pearling Matter - Ep 1: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (June 18, 1956)

“The Pearling Matter - Ep 1” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 18, 1956. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar is called by Mr. Scottman, vice president of Eastern Liability and Trust, to investigate the circumstances surrounding a newspaper report that financier David Pirling was killed in a boating accident in Florida. Though the story was published nationwide and affected stock prices, Pirling was actually safe in his hotel at the time. Dollar travels to Key West to determine whether the false report was deliberately engineered to manipulate the stock market for profit.

Key West, Florida and Hartford, Connecticut in 1956. The investigation centers around a fishing boat landing where a yacht caught fire.

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Mr. Scottman, David Pirling, Payton, Gracie Edwards, The Skipper

Listen for: The details of how reporter Gracie Edwards came to file an unverified story about Pirling's death, and why she was conveniently present at the boat landing when the explosion occurred.

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.