The "Who is Johnny Dollar?" Matter
Second Edition Errata Page

Item 1:

I have added some interesting information about Johnny Dollar's Lemon squeezer.

Item 2:

After discovering several movies and TV programs in which Bob Bailey appeared, I have added a "Bob Bailey" page with photos of Bob in action.

Item 3:

In 2014 PBS aired a program on The American Experience called "The Poisoner's Handbook" - a fascinating program on how thousands were poisoned using common household products and the efforts of the NYC Medical Examiner's office to uncover the causes.

The OTR tie-in comes about 2/3 through the program with a discussion of Michael Malloy, alias "Mike the Durable" and "Iron Mike". Michael was killed (in 1933) for insurance money, but it took a great deal of effort to get Mike to succumb. If you listen to the Johnny Dollar program "The Indestructible Mike Matter", the title character Michael Jeremiah Flynn is clearly based on the real Mike Malloy.

Given that Jack Johnstone, the author of "The Indestructible Mike Matter", lived and worked in New York during that time period, it is reasonable to presume that he based his story on fact.

Item 4:

I have added a page dedicated to the first Johnny Dollar - "Charles Russell", with photos from several of his movies.

Item 5:

In the Second Edition, a different index was used. For those who prefer the indexing schema from the first edition, I have recreated it here as well as a PDF version.

Item 6:

The Expense Totals on page 1253 of Volume II are incorrect. The total for Dick Powell is incorrect and a comma is missing in the total for Mandel Kramer. The correct totals are shown below.

Item 7:

In the Canonical Johnny Dollar section, pages 1309-10 there are two episodes erroneously marked as available - The Salt City Matter, Episode 2, and The Lonely Hearts Matter, Episode 4. These episodes are still among the lost. Thanks to Larry Hastings for finding these.

Item 8:

On page 1250, in the note about payment for The Ellen Dear Matter, the figures noted are in 2017 dollars, not 2007 dollars.

Item 9:

On page 1316, the entry for The Leumas Matter should be a "Y".

Item 10

I have added an Interview with WAMU on my interview page.

Item 11

Recycling Redux: Based on a tip from Adam Graham I can add two additional recycled programs, both written by Robert Ryf. The first is the "Dangerous Assignment" program of 08/30/1950 Called "The Guided Missile Plans" which bears a striking resemblance to "The Picture Postcard Matter" aired the week of 10/01/1956.
The second is "The Whistler" program of 01/01/1949 called "The Tell-Tale Brand" which has the same story as "The Killer's Brand" of 08/11/1957.

Item 12

Thanks to Stewart Wright we have yet two more recycled programs:
• The Johnny Dollar episode "The Deadly Doubt Matter" which aired on 01/11/1959 and was written by Robert Stanley (Robert Ryf's pen name) was a reuse of the Michael Shayne script written by Robert Ryf for "The Case Of The Phantom Neighbor" which is generally considered episode # 25 of the syndicated series.
• The Robert Ryf script for The New Adventures of Michael Shayne episode "The Case Of The Left-Handed Fan" was recycled as the 5 Part YTJD program “The Amy Bradshaw Matter”.

Item 13

Thanks to the efforts of Joe Webb and Keith Scott in Australia, TWO MORE programs from the Bob Bailey series have been found:
"The Fire in Paradise Matter" dated 01/26/1958
"The Froward Fisherman Matter" dated 06/01/1958:

Item 14

I have added two new files to this website:
A Canonical list of all Yours Truly Johnny Dollar programs, and
A list of all Missing programs.

Item 15

After a discussion with a fellow researcher about my decision to list programs according to the ACTUAL script name, rather than the generally recognized name, I was gathering some numbers for an upcoming presentation a the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (MANC) in September, 2019 and guess what? I found a title I had overlooked. The 5-part program "The Matter of Reasonable Doubt" which aired 5/28/1956 to 6/1/1956 is actually titled "The Reasonable Doubt Matter" on the script. That means that out of the 823 programs in my database, only 45 do not conform to the syntax of "The {something} Matter", and these are the Charles Russell and early Edmond O'Brien programs.

Item 16

Sad News - In early January the OTR community learned of the death of Stewart Wright, well known as one of the most dedicated and knowledgeable OTR researchers. I knew Stewart - but only as a voice on the phone and as a resource for information about Johnny Dollar, but I never actually met him. In the Second Edition of my book, Stewart's name is referenced many times in Volume II. He was free with information he had collected over the years, and took the time to research information for me on several of his trips to the Thousand Oaks Library. I will miss the 1-2 hour phone calls and the emails containing some new tidbit. RIP Stewart.

Item 17

I have added a new page listing the Announcers (if known) for all YTJD programs.

Item 18

While clearing out messages from my old Hotmail account, I came across messages from the late Bill Brooks and Bill Tracey. All of these messages impart some interesting information about YTJD:

From 2007 in a message from Bill Brooks - "I just got off the phone with Herb Ellis. He immediately confirmed that 1308 Pandora Av. was in fact Jack Johnstone's home address in L.A."

Correction: In June, 2021, Dr. Joe Webb discovered letters written by Jack Johnstone to Joe Hehn. The letterhead for these documents uses the address "1408 Pandora". So the address used in seveal YTJD programs was fictitious, but only by a block.

From Bill Tracey about his dicussions with Jack Johnstone's daughter Bonnie:
- "Bundy" was a nickname Jack had for his wife Anne (Anna?). It came from him describing her as a little bundle. Apparently, she was petite. She did not like the name and stopped it after they were divorced.
- Jack never had a Golden Hawk. I suspect he hung that on characters to type them as "fast" and/or irresponsibly wealthy.
- She laughed about the {Officer} "Conroy" question. It was the maiden name of one of her mother's friends. She knows Jack often used names or versions of names of people he knew; she said she can always tell a script he wrote for that reason. She was amazed to learn he once used his own address in a story -- she had no idea.
- One Sunday Bonnie accompanied her dad to the studio for a YTJD taping. She had heard the program, but this was the first time she had seen Bob Bailey. She said in her mind he was tall with brown hair. She was surprised to see he was short with gray hair.

In an email from Stewart Wright dated 2010 -
"I listened to the Richard Diamond episode "The Simpson Case" 01/18/1952 and the YTJD episode "The Jonathan Bellows Matter" 06/23/1953. Definitely a good example of script reuse.
The Richard Diamond, Private Detective program "The Tom Waxman Bombing Case" aired on June 26, 1949 was reused for "The Shayne Bombing Matter" Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar July 14, 1953."

Item 19

Dr. Joe Webb has located the following formerly "missing" programs on the vintagebroadcast.com site:
"The Rudy Valentine Matter" aired on 12-22-1953
"The Arthur Boldrick Matter" aired on 06-22-1954
"The Sarah Martin Matter" aired on 08-10-1954

Item 20

While searching for the end of the Internet the other day, I ran across a very interesting set of US Navy training films on YouTube. They were made by 20th Century Fox in MCMXLIV (That's 1944 for those who have forgotten their Roman Numerals). If you search for the films "This Is It Reel 1" and "This Is It Reel 2", and if you pay attention, you will see not one, but TWO Johnny Dollars! In this set of films Charles Russell plays Ens. Anderson (who flunked navigation), and Bob Bailey, who plays the pilot of "Red-1". I am sure that there are other OTR actors in this film, but I spotted these two right off!

Item 21

During the Covid-19 stay-at-home situation I have been listening to a lot of OTR. While listening to "The Lineup" I found yet another reused program. The Lineup story "The Wild, Wild Woman Case" (written by E. Jack Neuman) from 10/14/1951 was reused on YTJD as "The Lancing Fraud Matter" on 2/13/1953. No audio file exists for the YTJD story, which (according to the script) features Bob Bailey. The stories differ in some minor details, but the main theme is there.

Item 22

Dr. Joe Webb has forwarded a spot on the Serius XM Facebook page about yet another reused program. The Sam Spade program of 9/12/1948 - "The Lazarus Caper" was used as the basis for "The Earl Chadwick Matter" of 5/23/1950. Both stories were penned in part by Gil Doud.

Item 23

Adam Graham has found yet another recycled program. "The Cuban Jewels Matter" which aired on 9/19/1951 was also done on Richard Diamond, Private Detective as "Eighty Thousand Dollars in Jewels" on 6/14/1950.

Item 24

Adam Graham has found yet another recycled program. "The Birdy Baskerville Matter" which aired twice, once on 11/10/1951 and again on 3/10/1953, was also done on Richard Diamond, Private Detective as "The Rawlins Case" on 1/26/1951.

Item 25

While listening to a Richard Diamond program last night, I discovered yet ANOTHER story with multiple lives. The Richard Diamond story - "The Farmer-Evans Murders Case" - which aired on 8/23/1950 was also aired on 6/9/1951 as the YTJD program "The George Farmer Matter". Both version were written by Blake Edwards.

Item 26

While listening to another Richard Diamond program called "The Bald Head Case", which aired on 9/20/1950, I realized that it was the same as the YTJD program "The Blackmail Matter", which aired on 5/5/1953. Other than the changing of the names and location, the main story line was intact.

Item 27

Dr. Joe Webb has uncovered yet another missing YTJD program - "The Undried Fiddle Back Matter", which aired on 3/30/1954. The entry for this program in the Missing Programs and Canonnical lists have been updated.

Item 28

Adam Graham has found an inconsistency in the story "The Rudy Valentine Matter". Adam was listening to the audio version, which was posted above in 2021. In the story, Johnny is almost rundown by a car while returning to his apartment in Hartford.

When I reviewed the original scripts in the Thousand Oaks Library back in 2005, I realized that both the 12-30-1950 and the 12-22-1953 scripts were, other than differences in the casting, the same story, so I copied the story synopsis to both stories in both editions of the book. In reviewing my original notes (written to reflect the 1950 script), I noted that Johnny was almost hit by a car in New York City, whereas the audio version of the 1953 program says that the incident happened in Hartford.

Given that the scripts have been relocated to California, I will need to figure out who I can contact to do a quick review of the scripts to see if there is a difference. So Watch this spot!

Item 29

Recently Larry Hastings contacted me about the dates for "The Amy Bradshaw Matter" (11/21/55 - 11/25/55), "The Cronin Matter" (originally to follow The Amy Bradsahw Matter) and the "The Henderson Matter" (which was to follow The Cronin Matter) and the source of the "Giant Animal" commericals (which I had presumed were added at a later date - and we KNOW what trouble presuming can get you into!

After Larry showed me the script title pages for The Amy Bradshaw Matter which clearly show the inclusion of paid commericals (probably the only ones that we can substantiate) I had to eat crow (delicious with BBQ sauce and a strong, dark beer) after I realized that I had the same information - and more - which clearly showed that the commercials were added when the show ran!

Unfortunately, this is one of those situations where I did not look at the script pages because I had the information I needed from the audio files. This is also called "not seeing the forest for the trees!" But if there is ever a third edition, I will make sure that the proper attribution is added.

Also, another minor point - on page 468 there is a typo; in the first paragraph of episode 5 is the line "She tells Johnny that she knows who is trying to killer." It should be "She tells Johnny that she knows who is trying to kill her. (I blame Microsoft Word's grammar editor for missing this one!

Item 30

Back in March of this year (2023) I was listening to The Big Broadcast on WAMU-FM when the host Murray Horwitz opened the program with the first three episodes of "The Lansing Fraud". Not "The Lansing Fraud Matter", but just "The Lansing Fraud". I was sure he had made a mistake, but as I listened to the programs - which I have done many times (it is one of my favorite 5-part Johnny Dollars) I suddenly realized that the familiar "Matter" was in deed missing from the story. I was sure that I had heard the "Matter" in the title, and a check of the script title pages show the title as "The Lasning Fraud Matter", but somewhere along the way it was changed.

Item 31

Adam Graham has provided me with 3 new audio files:
  •  That Brewster Boy from 12/29/1941 titled "A Visit from Dottie",
  •  Another episode of Knickerbocker Playhouse from 09-11-1942 titled "Love on a Showstring",
  •  An episode of Mystery is My Hobby called “Murder Can be Pleasant” (The date is uncertain).

These programs and others Adam has found noted in newspaper photos have been added to the Bob Bailey page.

Item 32

While researching an article for the "Radio Recall" journal of the Metropolitan Washington Old Time Radio Club, I discovered the answer to a Johnny Dollar Mystery.

While watching series 3 of the "Peter Gunn" programs on Roku, I found the answer to a Johnny Dollar mystery: a complete story for "The Blind Item Matter" which aired on YTJD on 7/25/51.

When I was researching my book on the Johnny Dollar series in California back in 2005, the file folder for "The Blind Item Matter" was almost empty. There were two half-pages of the script - one page was the case recap (labeled page 42), and the other was the closing credits (labeled page 43A). The rest of the script was missing. On page 42, the Remarks made by Johnny Dollar (Edmond O'Brien) state: "Graham was John Forsyth alright, and he's lying in the morgue beside Belasco. Between them I don't think they'll be able to think of six pallbearers. Keith Tucker was released and Mrs. Ridgeley is being arraigned and will probably get her share for complicity. If you feel charitable some Christmas, just think of how much I saved you."

The Peter Gun episode "Blind Item" fills in the rest of the story. The story line starts with the death of novelist Benton Ridgeley, who had hired Peter Gunn to find out who put a blind item about his wife in the newspaper. (A blind item is defined as a gossip column news story, which gives the details of a story but does not identity the people involved.)

The investigation exposes Mrs. Ridgeley's former husband (using the name John Craven) as the source of the gossip. The goal was to get his wife and Ridgeley's royalties. In the end Craven is dead, an informant named Belasco is dead, and Mrs. Ridgely is under arrest for collusion.

There are some name discrepancies between the two programs, but the names of the major characters are the same. It seems that the name used by the ex-husband (Craven) may have been Graham in the YTJD program, but we will only know for sure if a copy of the program is discovered.