Red Star Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (January 12, 1951)

“Red Star Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast January 12, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to The Adventures of Sam Spade free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Sam Spade is hired as a bodyguard for distinguished foreign correspondent Cyrus Manning, who plans to expose the shipment of war materials to Communist China at a lecture. When the lights go out during the event, Manning is shot dead on stage. Spade must unravel the mystery surrounding Manning's death, his secret wife, her shipping magnate father, and the shadowy figures involved in the illegal arms trade.

San Francisco, including the Central Municipal Auditorium, Manning's hotel room, the Maritime district, a waterfront bar, and a ship in the harbor

Characters: Sam Spade, Effie, Lieutenant Kelsey, Cyrus Manning, Dick Davis, Faye Kearney Manning, Captain Kearney, Porky Grout

Listen for: The mystery of who assassinated Cyrus Manning and why, the secret operation shipping war materials to China, the tragic love story between Manning and Faye Kearney, and the identity of the man with the red star tattoo

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.