Your Truly, Johnny Dollar

Rating:
Summary: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Review: For those who enjoy old time radio shows, I would highly recommend these tapes, very good listening.

Rating:
Summary: Johnny Dollar gives you your money's worth!
Review: Sherlock Holmes stands as the greatest detective in the history of the medium of print. Lt. Columbo has to be recognized as the greatest detective ever created for TV. Johnny Dollar is the greatest detective ever created for radio. He began his career as a shady free-lance insurance investigator notorious for padding his expense account. Each episode is wrapped around Dollar's filling out his expense voucher. Had he remained a slightly sleazy sleuth, he would deserve the oblivion into which he has sunk. But he didn't and he doesn't. He became a respectable, stand-up kind of a guy, gritty and determined, and tenacious in the pursuit of his assignment. Several actors portrayed Johnny Dollar in the weekly half hour episodes, but Bob Bailey stands head and shoulders above the rest. For a brief period of time during Bailey's stint as Johnny Dollar the show changed formats. It became a five-times-a-week serial with fifteen minute episodes. Monday would see Johnny getting his assignment, and by Friday he'd have the mystery neatly solved (and his expense account filed). This period was the zenith of Johnny Dollar's career. The stories, being longer, gave range for more plot development and better characterization. The makers of the series took full advantage, turning out some of the best radio mysteries I've ever heard. The radio plays in this collection come from that "golden age" of the Johnny Dollar series, and each one is a gem. Radio Spirits has published a Volume 2 to this collection with six more serials. It is as good as the first. Now if they'd just publish a Volume 3.