The Parrots Bed: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe (August 4, 1950)

“The Parrots Bed” is an episode of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, the old-time radio show, first broadcast August 4, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Private investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by a woman named Daphne McGregor to find a hard-drinking sailor named Lash Lauterbach before a ship departs at four in the morning. McGregor reveals the real stakes: Lauterbach knows the location of a valuable map to a bed of black pearls hidden on Parrot Island, and a rival sailor named Rupert Semble is also after him.

San Pedro, California, including the Pirate's Cove bar, a hotel, and the docks at night

Characters: Philip Marlowe, Daphne McGregor, Lash Lauterbach, Rupert Semble, Ted Peterson

Listen for: Marlowe narrowing down leads on Lauterbach's whereabouts while dodging a knife-wielding assailant and learning the true value of finding the mysterious sailor.

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.