Dixie Gillian: Pat Novak, for Hire (November 24, 1946)

“Dixie Gillian” is an episode of Pat Novak, for Hire, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 24, 1946. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private investigator Pat Novak is hired by Lee Underwood to frighten a man named Dixie Gillian into leaving town by using an empty gun as a prop. When Novak confronts Gillian in his office, a struggle ensues and Gillian is killed, but the bullet doesn't match Novak's supposedly empty gun. Freed when ballistics evidence fails to hold him, Novak must uncover who really pulled the trigger and what Gillian was protecting.

San Francisco waterfront and surrounding areas, including a nightclub on Bay Shore Highway and various downtown locations in the 1940s.

Characters: Pat Novak, Lee Underwood, Dixie Gillian, Inspector Helman, Jocko

Listen for: A classic hard-boiled detective mystery with clever dialogue and plot twists; the gritty atmosphere of San Francisco's underworld; Novak's cynical observations about his line of work.

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.