Fool's Gold: The Mercury Theatre on the Air (April 4, 1952)

“Fool's Gold” is an episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 4, 1952. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Harry Lime, an opportunist, plots to hijack a smuggled shipment of gold bound for India. He recruits two rascally associates, Clancy, an Irish pilot, and Sing, a sailor, and plans an elaborate ruse at the airfield in Kuwait to take the gold. Harry is also drawn into a tangle with Flora, a dancer he meets at the town's hotel, whose interest in him complicates his plans. The episode is part of The Mercury Theatre on the Air series, first broadcast on April 4, 1952, with Orson Welles playing Harry Lime.

Beirut, Kuwait, and Goa in the Middle East and India

Characters: Harry Lime, Clancy, Sing, Flora, Solomon

Listen for: Harry's scheme to hijack the gold shipment at the Kuwait airfield, and his encounter with Flora at the hotel

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.