Give Envelope to John St John: Pat Novak, for Hire (May 21, 1949)

“Give Envelope to John St John” is an episode of Pat Novak, for Hire, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 21, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When an elderly man is hit by a car on the San Francisco waterfront, he presses Pat Novak to deliver a sealed envelope to someone named John St. John before dying. Novak pockets the $300 he's given and sets out to find this mysterious John St. John, but the search leads him through a tangled web of murder, beautiful women, and a shadowy organization that will stop at nothing to get that letter back.

San Francisco waterfront and various locations around the city, including a rooming house on Hates Street, Bellcrest Sanitarium near San Carlos, and a beach at Seal Rock.

Characters: Pat Novak, Jocko Madigan, Lee Norton, Helman, Sidney Bronson, Dr. Emil Schonig

Listen for: Novak's wry narration and sharp banter with the femme fatales and his sidekick Jocko; the smoky dialogue of a classic hard-boiled detective yarn set on the waterfront.

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.