The Birds on the Wing: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (November 26, 1949)

“The Birds on the Wing” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 26, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Philip Marlowe is hired by Miss Pembroke, guardian of her wealthy but irresponsible nephew Page Pembroke, to investigate trouble he has gotten into in Oxnard, California. Page has lost five million dollars, and Miss Pembroke stands to lose her lucrative job managing his estate if he disappears or is institutionalized. Marlowe travels to Oxnard where a county fair is being held and begins searching for Page among the midway attractions.

A Hollywood bar, then Oxnard, California, at a county fairgrounds and midway during a county fair.

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Miss Pembroke, Page Pembroke, Kingston, Taffy, Mitch Maynard

Listen for: Discussion of a dangerous parachute act where people jump from a biplane, and questions about someone named Kingston's activities late at night near parachute equipment.

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.