The Key Man: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (June 25, 1949)

“The Key Man” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 25, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Philip Marlowe meets a nervous client at a movie theater who hires him for fifty dollars to ensure safe passage to the airport, claiming a dangerous man named Hippo Kovac is threatening his life. After driving to the client's house to retrieve a suitcase, Marlowe discovers his client Mark Hummel dead in the bedroom, killed by a blow from a crystal ball, with the murder weapon and a mysterious key left at the scene.

Los Angeles, including the Boulevard cinema, Mark Hummel's house on Fountains, and Hippo Link's underground parking garage on Santa Monica Boulevard

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Mark Hummel, Hippo Kovac, Hippo Link, a brown-eyed blonde woman, Poom

Listen for: The murder mystery unfolds as Marlowe investigates the cryptic key found at the crime scene and the connection between the victim, the garage owner Hippo Link, and the dangerous Kovac.

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.