The Super Sleuth Part 01: The Adventures of Superman (July 22, 1946)

“The Super Sleuth Part 01” is an episode of The Adventures of Superman, the old-time radio show, first broadcast July 22, 1946. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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

What happens

Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet, is visited by Herbert Calkins, a retired Scotland Yard detective who has come from London. Calkins believes Kent is secretly Superman and has come to prove it. Over dinner he explains his reasoning, pointing to the newspaper's many contacts with Superman. Calkins then proposes a test: he claims to be able to show whether Kent is Superman, and Kent agrees to be tested in his office. The episode ends with Calkins preparing a method to determine the truth.

Metropolis, at the Daily Planet offices and a restaurant nearby

Characters: Clark Kent, Herbert Calkins

Listen for: Calkins's explanation of how he reasoned that Clark Kent is Superman, and the test he proposes in Kent's office

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.