The Hard Way Out: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (November 28, 1948)

“The Hard Way Out” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 28, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by factory president August Quig to find general manager Frank Emery, who has embezzled $60,000 and disappeared. Marlowe meets Emery's beautiful wife Sheila and discovers the couple has been living far beyond Emery's stated salary, with an expensive car, a sailboat, and a beach cottage. As Marlowe investigates, he encounters Keith Slater, the wayward son of Quig's late partner, lurking near the Emery house.

Los Angeles, including a factory building, the Golden Crown cocktail lounge on Santa Monica Boulevard, the Emery home in Brentwood, and the beach near Santa Monica

Characters: Philip Marlowe, August Quig, Frank Emery, Sheila Emery, Keith Slater

Listen for: The mystery of how Frank Emery afforded his lavish lifestyle on $175 a week, and what connection Keith Slater has to Emery's disappearance

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.