The Singing Critic: Richard Diamond, Private Detective (November 5, 1949)

“The Singing Critic” is an episode of Richard Diamond, Private Detective, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 5, 1949. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Richard Diamond, Private Detective free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Private detective Richard Diamond finds himself caught between admiring tenants who love his singing and one disgruntled neighbor who despises it. When a mysterious man named Jones hires another detective to silence Diamond, our hero gets trapped in an ice box, then a steam bath, while trying to track down who's behind the scheme.

New York City, including Diamond's apartment building, the fifth precinct police station, a warehouse, and a massage parlor.

Characters: Richard Diamond, Helen Asher, Sergeant Otis, Lieutenant Levinson, Ernest Lumpkin, Pat Kosak, John Jones

Listen for: Diamond's comic banter with Sergeant Otis, his singing (which causes unexpected trouble), and the escalating scheme to silence him involving an ice box and steam room.

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.