Joyce Wallace: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (March 12, 1950)

“Joyce Wallace” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast March 12, 1950. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Actress Joyce Wallace hires private detective Richard Diamond after someone shoots at her through her apartment window. She refuses to involve the police due to custody concerns in her separation from playwright husband Barton Webb. When Diamond investigates, a package of flowers arrives at her theater dressing room containing a snake, terrifying Joyce who has a lifelong phobia of them.

New York City, including Joyce Wallace's apartment, the Strand Theatre dressing room, police precinct, and Barton Webb's apartment

Characters: Richard Diamond, Joyce Wallace, Barton Webb, Lieutenant Levinson, Walt, Sergeant Otis, Pop the doorman

Listen for: The witty banter between Richard Diamond and the police lieutenant at the precinct; Dick Powell's smooth narration of Diamond's observations; the comedic opening with Diamond's absurd detective agency advertisements.

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.