Soap Opera Caper: The Adventures of Sam Spade (February 16, 1951)

“Soap Opera Caper” is an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 16, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Sam Spade is hired by the mysterious Agatha Pilding, a wealthy soap opera writer who fears her husband, Dr. Martin Hawks, is hiding a terrible secret. When Hawks' estranged sister Beth plunges from an eighth-floor window, Hawks flees the hospital claiming amnesia, and Spade must uncover the truth behind a blackmail scheme involving forged documents and an illegal Mexican divorce.

San Francisco, including Hillsborough, the Tortuga Club on Post Street, Bennett and Hatch law offices, Russian Hill, and a hospital.

Characters: Sam Spade, Agatha Pilding, Dr. Martin Hawks, Beth Jardine, Nora Sheldrake, Croc Morton, Jack, Bennett

Listen for: The opening soap opera parody with overwrought romantic dialogue; the running joke about Sam passing Croc Morton's business card without using it; the humorous contrast between the serious mystery and the melodramatic soap opera style woven throughout.

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.