JOHNNY DOLLAR The Matter of the Medium Well Done

I enjoy listening to Old Time Radio shows as well as reading the scripts. I've combined those two activities in my videos. The script is scrolling while the video plays. I hope you enjoy it! And I realize that in 2024 some of the terms, idioms, and situations are not the same as they were in the 1950s so I am including a HISTORICAL GLOSSARY here for your convenience. Sometimes Googling things does not get you a past perspective of terms, and this glossary explains the meaning as it was understood when the show was first aired.

HISTORICAL GLOSSARY:

At the beginning of the show Johnny refers to having sent a case of VO to Pat McCrackin as a thanks for referring an investigation to him, and then later when Johnny meets Carol at the cocktail lounge he orders VO over ice. VO is a type of Canadian blend whiskey that still exists today, though the abbreviation VO in 2024 is more widely understood as "Voice Over".

Spiritualism is a recognized form of quasi-religion that began in the mid 1800's. By the time this radio show aired in the mid 1950s it had become a loosely organized set of beliefs with recognized traditions and conventions, acknowledged leaders, and designated meeting halls. Spiritualism included rituals based on communicating with the dead, beliefs in clairvoyance, precognition and extrasensory perception. The social upheaval of the mid to late 1960's, with its rejection of traditional societal construction and mistrust of authority figures, combine with too many scandals by grifter spiritualists like the ones in this story, contributed to the end of organized spiritualist churches. The belief system did not disappear, though, and integrated itself into the New Age movement that began in the late 1970s and early 1980s

When Johnny rents the small apartment at the Bell towers he says, regarding the price, "I don't wanna have to rob Fort Knox." Fort Knox is a military installation in Kentucky that guards the US Bullion Depository, a fortified vault building that contains all of the gold that the US government owns. When this episode aired the US was on the "Gold Standard" which meant that the government only printed as much money as it had in gold reserves. At that time the gold in this vault was equal in value to all the money in circulation in the US. So something would be colossally expensive if the only way to pay for it was to rob Fort Knox.

When Riccardo gives his phone number he says "Sunrise 3-9970". There were no area codes at that time. The area code was built into the first two numbers of the seven digit phone number. Areas had names, like "Sunrise" or "Greenfield". You'd take the first two letters of the name of your area and use the corresponding numbers on the rotary phone dial. For example the number 1 on the dial had ... no letters. I have no idea why. But the number 2 had the letters ABC under it; the number 3 had DEF, the number 4 GHI, and so on through the alphabet, skipping Q and Z for some reason. So Riccardo's actual phone number is 783-9970.

In the fifth installment when they are leaving New York to go to New Jersey to confront Madame Morgana Morgana, Johnny asks Sergeant Singer if they can use a "prowl car". He is referring to a marked police car, painted distinctly in black and white, and recognizable as a police car. (I suppose, because it "prowls" around the city streets?)