The High Collared Cape: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (April 25, 1950)

“The High Collared Cape” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 25, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by prima ballerina Vivian Ordway to find André, a sick and troubled ballet impresario who has disappeared. Marlowe tracks André to an apartment hotel, where he finds the man in a disturbed mental state, muttering dark thoughts about someone named Imogen Wyatt. When Marlowe investigates a car in the building's garage, he discovers evidence that it was recently in an accident and hastily repaired—suggesting André may be involved in something far more sinister than a nervous breakdown.

Los Angeles, including a theater, Vivian Ordway's ballet company, the Winthrop Arms apartment hotel on Havenhurst Drive, and an underground garage.

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Vivian Ordway, André, George Melekov, Imogen Wyatt, Baker, Stanley, Garage attendant

Listen for: The mysterious man in the high-collared cape seen by the garage attendant, and the significance of the freshly replaced headlight on the car.

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.