The Cloak of Kamehameha: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (May 16, 1950)

“The Cloak of Kamehameha” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 16, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by Pollard Schindler to travel to Hawaii and retrieve a valuable feathered cloak of King Kamehameha from a young woman named Lani Collier, who plans to resell it to a New York millionaire. When Marlowe arrives at the Halimorana Hotel in Honolulu, he discovers that someone else has already checked in using his name, and a mysterious blonde woman claims she just left the real Philip Marlowe at the beach.

Los Angeles and Honolulu, Hawaii; the Halimorana Hotel and its surroundings

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Pollard Schindler, Lani Collier, Leland Dunn, desk clerk at Halimorana Hotel

Listen for: The contrast between the tough private eye and the tropical island setting; the mystery of the impostor Marlowe; the valuable historical Hawaiian artifact at the center of the plot

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.