The Fatted Calf: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (September 24, 1949)

“The Fatted Calf” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast September 24, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by Junius Poppy, creator of the Peter Pageant comic strip, to investigate his assistant Sid Kagan's wife Louise. Louise recently spent a week in San Francisco and has been evasive about her activities, standing Poppy up for a meeting after being frightened by a rough-looking man. Marlowe agrees to meet Louise in Poppy's place at a nightclub to learn what she's hiding.

Los Angeles, including Studio City, the San Fernando Valley, and a nightclub called the Talisman, during a rainstorm

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Junius Poppy, Louise Kagan, Sid Kagan, Bert Flack, Maynard Roper

Listen for: The distinctive voice of Gerald Moore as Marlowe, and the hard-boiled atmosphere of this Raymond Chandler adaptation with its cynical detective narration

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.