Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

Let's say right from the top that the Readick period of YTJD is the most poorly documented segment of the series. Mr. Abbott has done the most work on this series and sometimes he throws up his hands in frustration over it all.

The show had just moved from Hollywood to New York and while the program was produced without a hitch. It helped that Jack Johnstone was still the scriptwriter, ensuring continuity and likely having lots of conversations with Zirato and Readick. I have no clue if Bailey was ever any part of the conversations, but I suspect not. From what I can tell of the newspapers, the other internal wranglings at CBS had no such continuity. Publicity about the series dried up, and it is very difficult to find any episode information from the papers. The show appears only in radio timetables.

So many of the Readick recordings have been in terrible sound... some have been replaced over the years... and there was such affection for the Bailey performances among collectors that the Readick programs had little attention. The Readick episodes were held in very low regard. His characterization often seems cold and stern. Kramer's performances were different, with a Dollar that was a more refined man, less gritty than Bailey's, but still capable of cynicism and distrust of human nature. Bailey got all the fan attention and research. What made the Readick period more difficult was that no scripts are known to exist. The show moved to New York, so there were no scripts in the KNX archive at Thousand Oaks Library.

Navigating that Readick research vacuum has been difficult, and John was faced with a challenge that many OTR researchers shudder about. He had to listen to the programs! Of course, we listen to programs, and we love them, but as researchers in other disciplines call the process, John had to do a content analysis with greater detail than before. As they say, love had nothing to do with it. The clinical process of documenting every character reference, every nuance in mentioning geographies and events had to be charted. AFRTS recordings had no teasers for next week programs. Some network recordings were incomplete or edited with no commercials, mentions of news events, or mentions of other programs that might have clues. Past research and dates assigned to recordings were often wrong.

John is still not certain about many dates and had to infer what some of them were likely to have been. Back in my time of business research we never had all the data we needed and had to "back into" some numbers and hope for the best. Just the other day I found a clipping from an obscure newspaper reference that may create yet another revision of this period. Of the 29 Readick episodes, 21 exist. John was only able to find 3 scripts.

Today's episode has always circulated as "The Earned Income Matter." John is very confident that Jack Johnstone would have made it "The Urned Income Matter" because of the storyline and his love of puns in titles. He has a very strong case for it. The plotline has nothing to do with "earned income" and lots to do with an urn. Johnstone loved all the in-jokes he could plant, including his home address and names of people he knew. This script was likely written with Bailey in mind as Jackstone was usually three or four weeks ahead of broadcast dates. While the shift to New York was expected for weeks, no one really knew exactly when, and the actual move was short notice. The casting of Readick may have been equally sudden.

This is a mild upgrade, with brighter sound than the copy usually circulating... and this one has the punned name...

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1044
YTJD 1960-12-04 712 The Urned Income Matter [AFRTS] UPGRADE.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Thank you both for your hard work and persistence.

We've been referring to John Abbott's heroic work about YTJD, and there are two web pages that you should bookmark

Updates of the second edition [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Regularly updated list of missing episodes [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

On the updates page, he details episodes that originated in other shows, especially some Blake Edwards Richard Diamond scripts.

John has told me that the second edition would be the last. His work, however, is still going on and is documented in these web pages. Make a point of checking them every few months.

Today's recording is a major upgrade.

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1113
YTJD 1961-08-06 747 The Philadelphia Miss Matter [AFRTS] UPGRADE.mp3
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Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Greybelt, thanks for the update sites!!! My dates weren't matching your upgrades. I checked the list and saw that I have a lot of date updating to do, at least for the Mandel Kramer episodes! Haven't looked at the others.

Today's recording is a nice upgrade.

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1126
YTJD 1961-09-17 753 The Buyer and the Cellar Matter UPGRADE.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

Two shows today... mild upgrades...

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1133
YTJD 1961-10-22 758 The Three for One Matter UPGRADE WROW.mp3

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1135
YTJD 1961-10-29 759 The Bee or Not to Bee Matter UPGRADE-2.mp3

Both files are at WeTransfer [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Two mild upgrades...

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1140
YTJD 1961-11-12 761 The Wrong One Matter UPGRADE-3 WROW.mp3

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1148
YTJD 1961-12-17 766 The Phony Phone Matter [AFRTS] rough open better sound UPGRADE.mp3

Both recordings are at WeTransfer [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Nice upgrade today...

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1167
YTJD 1962-03-04 776 The Top Secret Matter UPGRADE.mp3
The recording is at WeTransfer [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The cast includes Frank Campanella [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
who had a very long career, often playing TV and movie tough guys. His younger brother, Joe Campanella, had a long TV and movie career as well. Many remember brother Joe as Joe Mannix' boss on that series first season. He was let go when they reformulated the series for its second season. This YTJD and a 21st Precinct by Frank seems to be the only golden age appearances of a Campanella brother. Joe did not have a radio role we know of until Hollywood Radio Theater in 1973 and then later roles in CBSRMT and Sears Radio Theater.

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

Today's recording is less noisy and a little more clear. It's still not the best sound, but it's "less bad."

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1200
YTJD 1962-06-17 791 The All Too Easy Matter (poss patched close) UPGRADE-2.mp3
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John notes

* The title on this script is The All Too Easy Matter (or The Too Much Arson Around Matter).
* The cast credits have been edited from this program

Get it? "...too much horsin' around" and "too much arson around"? Yeah, the in-joke meant something funny to somebody at that time. Here we are 60s years later we know Johnstone was a punster with a point and all we can be is amused in a vaccum.

The way the recording seems patched someone was trying to fix something with the original aircheck recording.

This is the next-to-last YTJD ever broadcast, but we have more posts over the next four days as we jump back to 1953...

Abbott 2nd ed, V2 p1230
YTJD 1962-09-23 805 The Deadly Crystal Matter UPGRADE.mp3
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A hat tip to bojim1 who reminded me of the YTJD FOTR recreation from October 1979 posted at the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio site podcast...
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Enjoy!!
(Whose voice is it announcing the cast? Sounds familiar...)

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's recording is a nice network upgrade
Abbott 2nd ed, V1 p355
YTJD 1953-12-01 189 The Monopoly Matter UPGRADE-2.mp3
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The script was re-used from 1951-02-03

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

The next few days are nice-sounding network recordings that "replace" AFRS recordings that have been in lesser sound quality. (Some of us are "completists," of course, a name we embrace proudly, so we keep both versions. We know there are "deletists" out there in OTRdom, and we wish them well, misguided as they may be... just kidding...).

Abbott 2nd ed, V1 p387
YTJD 1954-03-16 204 The Berlin Matter WBBM.mp3
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Flub alert: John Lund twice makes a slip and asks why Paul’s wife has not shown up instead of Sam’s wife.

A "missing" network version that is better than the circulating AFRS version.

Abbott 2nd ed, V1 p389
YTJD 1954-03-23 205 The Piney Corners Matter WBBM.mp3
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This script would be reworked and become the 5-part The Shady Lane Matter in July 1956.

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

This is a missing episode! John Abbott had original details about the story from the Thousand Oaks script collection. He said there were no quirky items in the performance except the item noted below.

Abbott 2nd ed, V1 p391
YTJD 1954-03-30 206 The Undried Fiddle Back Matter WBBM.mp3
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Sound effects artist Bill James is a cry baby... for real... in this episode, on cue... at about 9:45.

World Radio History has a 1951 sound effects book that shows a photo of Bill James at work "milking a cow" on hard copy page 143 (PDF page 157).
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James was well-known for his skill for years before he and others (Tom Hanley and Ray Kemper) reached a notable summit of their craft in Gunsmoke.

John Abbott wondered if the story was accurate about mahogany being used for violin-making. He verified it was and found some very interesting discussions about various woods and their sounds.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art