The Underwood Matter: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (February 27, 1953)

“The Underwood Matter” is an episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 27, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Insurance investigator Johnny Dollar arrives in Rexford to investigate the death of policyholder Ray Underwood, who fell from a fourth-story hotel window. The coroner's jury rules it an accident, but Johnny learns that Underwood and his young wife Alice were in the midst of divorce proceedings and that Underwood had recently attempted to change his insurance beneficiary.

Rexford (location of the Pioneer Hotel and city hall) and Hartford, Connecticut (insurance company office)

Characters: Johnny Dollar, Red Egan, Alice Underwood, Ray Underwood, Sergeant Hanen, desk clerk, bellhop, chamberman

Listen for: The coroner's inquest testimony about Underwood's fall from the hotel window, Alice Underwood's account of her final meeting with her husband, and details about the divorce proceedings and attempted beneficiary change.

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.