Donelli's Protection Racket - Pt 03: The Adventures of Superman (April 19, 1940)

The Adventures of Superman, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Donelli's Protection Racket - Pt 03” is an episode of The Adventures of Superman, the old-time radio show, first broadcast April 19, 1940. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Superman, the alter ego Clark Kent, and Daily Planet editor Perry White pursue racketeer Gyp Denelli after he kidnaps Lois Lane. The episode is part three of the 1940 serial The Adventures of Superman, first aired on April 19, 1940. Kent, angry at the attack on shopkeeper Mrs. Olsen and her son Jimmy, takes a story to the Daily Planet and then races off to Denelli's headquarters. Inside, Superman confronts a henchman who has been on the phone, but the man escapes by diving from a window. Back at the Planet, Denelli threatens the paper by phone, warning that Lois will suffer if anything is printed, and Kent and Jimmy set out to find him in Little Falls.

Metropolis, including the Daily Planet offices, Denelli's headquarters on the outskirts of the city, and a remote cabin above the town of Little Falls

Characters: Superman, Clark Kent, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Gyp Denelli, Mrs. Olsen, Chip

Listen for: Denelli's threatening telephone call to the Daily Planet, and the sound of the cabin fire spreading into the pine forest at the end of the episode

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.