The Panama Hat: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (October 10, 1948)

“The Panama Hat” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 10, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by Isabelle Gordon to protect her husband Bruce, a photographer who has been receiving threatening unsigned letters and is being watched by a mysterious man in a white Panama hat. When Bruce is kidnapped and a ransom demand is made, Marlowe must uncover the truth behind the abduction and the murder of a man named Skip-a-Martin.

Los Angeles and Malibu, California, including the Fairchild Estate, the Pelican Inn, the Wilshire Gardens bungalows, and Pacific Palisades

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Isabelle Gordon, Bruce Gordon, Uncle Avery Fairchild, Skip-a-Martin, Brock, Carla Winters, Lieutenant Ibarr

Listen for: The revelation of Bruce Gordon's involvement in his own kidnapping scheme, the connection between the white Panama hat and the central mystery, and Marlowe's discovery of the photograph hidden in Bruce's studio

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.