The Big Step: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (February 28, 1950)

“The Big Step” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 28, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

When Betty Chanter, a waitress, asks private investigator Philip Marlowe to help find her friend Shirley Vitello, she explains that Shirley became frightened after reading something in the newspaper and vanished. Marlowe investigates, discovering that Shirley—a chemist's assistant—took a gun and booked a flight to New York under an assumed name. A newspaper clipping about a man hit by a taxi who confessed to a crime before losing consciousness suggests the connection to Shirley's sudden disappearance.

Los Angeles, including Veteran Avenue where Shirley lives, Dr. Softman's laboratory on Melrose, Gilbert's studio in Benedict Canyon, and a shoe repair shop where Marlowe begins his investigation.

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Betty Chanter, Shirley Vitello, Dr. Abraham Softman, Gilbert Vitello

Listen for: Marlowe's matter-of-fact narration and the revelation of the mysterious newspaper clipping about a man's deathbed confession that triggers Shirley's flight.

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.