The Green Flame: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (March 26, 1949)

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

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What happens

Philip Marlowe is hired by publisher Dodie Whitmer to prove that gossip columnist Max McGrath's article about actor Bradford Colby was truthful, thereby defending her against a libel suit. When Marlowe investigates McGrath's death and tracks down clues involving a mysterious book of green-flame matches, he discovers a complex scheme involving Colby, his ex-wife Sherry Sheldon, and an unexpected conspirator close to Whitmer herself.

Hollywood, California; includes McGrath's house, Sherry Sheldon's bungalow on Cherimoya, the Green Flame nightclub near Malibu, and the Whitmer Building offices.

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Dodie Whitmer, Bradford Colby, Sherry Sheldon, Leonard Fipps, Max McGrath, Larry North

Listen for: The mysterious green-flame matches with penciled numbers; revelations about who ghostwrote McGrath's column; the identity of Colby's secret partner in a scheme to extort money from Dodie Whitmer.

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.