What happens
Mary Winston, working under the name Candy Porter as a singing hostess at Pete's Cantina in Panama City, is approached by Fontaine, a private detective. Fontaine has come to find her, and Mary, tense and wary, decides to tell him her story. She recounts how a Christmas party a year earlier led her to meet Joe Collins, a smooth-talking gambler, and how a night that began innocently turned dangerous. The story is told as The Whistler, a 1951 episode of the radio mystery series, aired December 23, 1951, with the cast led by Bill Forman as the Whistler.
Panama City, at Pete's Cantina on the outskirts of the city, around Christmas; flashbacks to a Christmas party at the Swank Willchester Hotel and a Brooklyn nightclub, the Golden Lion.
Characters: Mary Winston, Candy Porter, Fontaine, Pete Gardenas, Joe Collins, Vern Shields, Dr. Frank Wilson, Sailor Reynolds
Listen for: Mary's account of her past as Fontaine listens, and the moment her story turns from a party to a tense drive with Joe Collins.
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.