Insomnia Caper Afrs: The Adventures of Sam Spade (October 24, 1948)

“Insomnia Caper Afrs” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast October 24, 1948. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade can't sleep and becomes an unwilling witness to a lovers' quarrel across an alley when a young woman named Doreen appears at his door asking for help. She claims to fear her boyfriend Dan McCrae, a merchant sailor, but Spade finds himself drawn into a far more dangerous situation involving a dead man, naval intrigue, and a hidden drug smuggling operation concealed in miniature ship models.

San Francisco, including Spade's apartment, a ship in the harbor, and various locations around the city.

Characters: Sam Spade, Lieutenant Tandy, Doreen DuBois, Dan McCrae, Frank Shepherd, Sven, Mrs. Brownrig, Miss Corrine

Listen for: A clever puzzle involving a specially crafted belt buckle that serves as a key to a hidden compartment, and the revelation that one of the victims was a federal narcotics agent working undercover.

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.