Rubin Callaway's Pictures: Pat Novak, for Hire (March 13, 1949)

“Rubin Callaway's Pictures” is an episode of Pat Novak, for Hire, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 13, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Pat Novak pulls a dying man named Ruben Callaway out of the bay. Callaway directs him to find a woman named Alma Biggs at the Empire Club and retrieve a key to a bus station locker containing photographs. When Novak investigates, he discovers the pictures are of an Oakland fire and becomes entangled in a dangerous plot involving murder, deception, and a mysterious figure named Turk.

San Francisco waterfront and city streets, including the bay, Empire Club gambling joint, bus station, hotels, and photography studio

Characters: Pat Novak, Ruben Callaway, Alma Biggs, Inspector Helman, Jocko Matigan, George Leggett, Turk Spaniel

Listen for: Jack Webb's distinctive narrative delivery and the complex web of double-crosses involving the Oakland fire photographs; the climactic confrontation in Callaway's studio between Alma Biggs and Turk Spaniel

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.