The Red Trunk Riddle: Wild Bill Hickok (November 25, 1951)

Wild Bill Hickok, old-time radio on Stupid Potato

“The Red Trunk Riddle” is an episode of Wild Bill Hickok, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 25, 1951. Listen free on Stupid Potato: no sign-up, no app.

Play Wild Bill Hickok free: the episodes out so far, or subscribe in any podcast app.

What happens

Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy Jingles arrive in Slim Chance, Texas, where Theodosia Prittikin is staging a production of Hamlet at the opera house. Achilles Montmorency, the troupe's director, is at odds with outlaw Lou Tracy, who wants the show stopped. Masked bandits raid the stage in search of a large red trunk holding the company's costumes. The Wild Bill Hickok radio series, starring Guy Madison and Andy Devine, first aired on November 25, 1951, and this episode is set against a town where lawlessness and culture collide.

Slim Chance, Texas, in the 1870s frontier, centered on the town's opera house and nearby streets

Characters: Wild Bill Hickok, Jingles, Theodosia Prittikin, Achilles Montmorency, Lou Tracy, Moose Moran

Listen for: Pay attention to the red trunk and what the outlaws keep searching for inside it, and to how Hickok sets a trap for Lou Tracy.

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.