Calculator: The Whistler (November 23, 1952)

The Whistler, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“Calculator” is an episode of The Whistler, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 23, 1952. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

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What happens

Glenn Tillman, a chemist at the Malecine Chemical Company, watches a fire break out at the plant where his partner Max Lindner works. Max is pulled from the building alive, but Glenn quickly begins to plan around a set of valuable blueprints for an electrical gyro that the two men developed together. Glenn retrieves the blueprints from his apartment, then becomes entangled with Johanna Drexler, a woman interested in buying the invention. The transcript breaks off before the story reaches its conclusion.

San Francisco, around the Malecine Chemical Company plant, a hotel, and an apartment

Characters: Glenn Tillman, Max Lindner, Johanna Drexler

Listen for: Glenn's growing scheme to get rid of Max and secure the blueprints

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.