Brrrrrring! Johnny Dollar.

The Hardy Boys came into my life when I was nine years old, thanks to my older sister, and that got me started on my life long love of mysteries. But you already knew that [or guessed that!]. Still, there was one other influence: old time radio mysteries. It was at that very same time that my aunt, who visited with us for extended months, got me listening to the radio at night (we didn't have a TV). And the show that really had me hooked was called, "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar."

Johnny Dollar had been on the radio since 1949, but by the mid fifties, when I began listening, it was a 15 minute nightly serial that carried through the week. Every night it began with the ringing of a telephone, followed by the hero who would answer by saying his name.

Dollar was a free-lance insurance investigator who managed to get into a large variety of cases, including a great deal of dangerous situations. When I think about it, the 15 minute episode ended with a cliffhanger, just as did the chapters in the Hardy Boys series.

Well, I was thrilled to hear an audio of this old show again. A little searching prompted by my listening to the Mystery Play I-Radio on iTunes led me to a website called Old Time Radio Network that contains thousands of free audio episodes of old radio shows... including Johnny Dollar.

AWESOME!!