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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Mean Streets Podcasts

Presenting the best detectives from the Golden Age of Radio. Each week, we'll bring you an episode starring one of Old Time Radio's greatest detectives and the story behind the show. Join us for adventures of Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Johnny Dollar, and many more.
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Top 10 Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 585 - Between the Rock and a Hard Place (Gang Busters & Pat Novak For Hire)
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06/30/24 • 95 min

Welcome to the Rock! Alcatraz - America's most notorious prison - is the subject of this weeks' show. First, Gang Busters presents a dramatic recreation of the most violent escape attempt in its history in "The Battle of Alcatraz" (originally aired on ABC on May 11, 1946). Then, it's a double feature of Pat Novak For Hire when the gumshoe is caught in a pair of Alcatraz escapes and the hunt for the escapees (episodes known as "Joe Feldman and Father Leahy" - originally aired on ABC on April 2, 1949, and "The Only Way to Make Friends is to Die" - originally aired on ABC on June 18, 1949).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 604 - Hypnotized for Homicide (Boston Blackie, Crime Club, Chandu the Magician, & Let George Do It)
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11/10/24 • 123 min

Our heroes this week encounter hypnosis and meet those who have fallen under its spell and who have used it to try and conceal their crimes. First, Boston Blackie suspects a woman's murder confession was driven by hypnosis rather than guilt. Then, a woman is hypnotized to help solve a murder in "Cupid Can Be Deadly" from Crime Club (originally aired on Mutual on October 16, 1947). In "The Voice of Darkness," Chandu the Magician investigates a bombing where the eyewitness was hypnotized into losing her memory (originally aired on Mutual on April 14, 1949). And finally, Bob Bailey stars as George Valentine in "Eleven O'Clock" from Let George Do It, where a woman's recent odd behavior may be tied to the experiments of a psychology professor (originally aired on Mutual on July 17, 1950).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 405 – Dollar Store (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar)

Episode 405 – Dollar Store (Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

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10/04/20 • 80 min

Sixty-five years ago, Bob Bailey stepped into the role of "America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator" and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar relaunched as a nightly serialized series. Those five-part stories rank among the best radio dramas of the era, and Bailey's performance as the ace detective is a big reason for the success of the series. We'll hear him in the complete five-part adventure "The Lorko Diamonds Matter" (originally aired on CBS between November 7th and November 11th, 1955).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 613 - Cooper’s Town (Crime Club, Whitehall 1212, & Quiet Please)

Episode 613 - Cooper’s Town (Crime Club, Whitehall 1212, & Quiet Please)

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01/26/25 • 124 min

In honor of his January 26th birthday, we're saluting one of radio's most innovative writers and directors - Wyllis Cooper. Cooper's probably best known for his work in the world of horror as creator of Lights Out and Quiet Please but he also brought us Whitehall 1212 - a series that dramatized cases from the files of Scotland Yard. We'll hear "The Topaz Flower," an episode Cooper wrote for Crime Club (originally aired on Mutual on April 24, 1947), two episodes of Whitehall 1212 - "The Blitz Murder Case" (originally aired on NBC on November 18, 1951) and "The Heathrow Affair" (originally aired on NBC on December 23, 1951), and "It's Later Than You Think" from Quiet Please (originally aired on Mutual on August 2, 1948).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 616 - The Envelope Please… (Rex Saunders, Johnny Dollar, Bold Venture, & Sherlock Holmes)
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03/02/25 • 113 min

It's a wonderful night for Oscar! The Academy Awards will be handed out this evening, so in celebration of Hollywood's biggest night, here are four old time radio mysteries - each starring an actor who took home a golden statuette. Edmond O'Brien (Best Supporting Actor for The Barefoot Contessa) is Johnny Dollar in "The George Farmer Matter" (originally aired on CBS on June 9, 1951). Rex Harrison (Best Actor for My Fair Lady) stars as a debonair detective in "A Trip to the Death House" from The Private Files of Rex Saunders (originally aired on NBC on June 13, 1951). Humphrey Bogart (Best Actor for The African Queen) and Lauren Bacall (nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Mirror Has Two Faces) star in "Senor Rufio's Legacy of Death," a syndicated episode of Bold Venture. Finally John Gielgud (Best Supporting Actor for Arthur) and Ralph Richardson (a two-time Best Supporting Actor nominee) are Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in "The Golden Pince-Nez" (originally aired on NBC on April 3, 1955).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 617 - All In on Adventure (Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, Nero Wolfe, & Dragnet)
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03/09/25 • 124 min

Place your bets with these old time radio mysteries involving gamblers and the (sometimes) crooked games they play. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find murder among the roulette tables of a French casino in "The Case of the Double Zero," starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (originally aired on Mutual on November 19, 1945). Philip Marlowe tries to find a friend's stolen IOU but stumbles across a corpse during the search in "The Promise to Pay" (originally aired on CBS on May 14, 1949), and Nero Wolfe is hired to find out who dealt a deadly hand during a poker game in "The Case of the Killer Cards" (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1951). Finally, Sgt. Joe Friday hunts for the man who's impersonating a cop to extort money from gamblers in "The Big Shakedown" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on May 22, 1952).

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All the world’s a stage, but as our radio detectives discover this week the theatre offers no respite from mysteries to solve. Each of our stories involves the theatre, with crimes taking place onstage, backstage, and sometimes in the aisles. First, as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce investigate when an actor takes his role as a murderer a bit too seriously in “The Case of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber” (originally aired on Mutual on January 28, 1946). Super sleuth Philo Vance is called in when an actress is threatened and her understudy is killed in the syndicated mystery “The Backstage Murder Case.” The Saint tries to prevent a play’s climactic murder scene from being played for real. Vincent Price stars in “Simon Takes a Curtain Call” (originally aired on NBC on January 14, 1951). Frank Sinatra has to solve a drama critic’s murder - a crime that was committed during intermission of a new play - in “Murder on the Aisle” from Rocky Fortune (originally aired on NBC on November 24, 1953). Finally, Bob Bailey stars as Johnny Dollar in “The Heatherstone Players Matter” (AFRS rebroadcast from July 14, 1957), where a hated ham actor meets his maker and Johnny has to find out whodunnit.

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 605 - Kid Stuff (Box 13, Philip Marlowe, & Johnny Dollar)

Episode 605 - Kid Stuff (Box 13, Philip Marlowe, & Johnny Dollar)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

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11/17/24 • 131 min

It's not just adults who need a good detective. Our heroes this week come to the aid of kids in trouble. First, Dan Holiday helps a boy find a lost astronomer in "Archimedes and the Roman" from Box 13. Next, Philip Marlowe is hired to find the missing uncle of a newsboy in "The Kid on the Corner" (originally aired on CBS on December 3, 1949). Finally, Johnny Dollar believes the life of a teenage girl is in danger when she stands to inherit a fortune in the five-part mystery "The Matter of Reasonable Doubt" (originally aired on CBS between May 28 and June 1, 1956).

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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 473 - Black and White and Read All Over (Casey, Crime Photographer, Night Beat, & Big Story)
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02/06/22 • 97 min

We're going to press with three heroic journalists from the radio era. First, we'll hear Casey, Crime Photographer mentor a rising star in "The Camera Bug" (originally aired on CBS on October 16, 1947). Then, Frank Lovejoy is Chicago columnist Randy Stone in Night Beat where he investigates the case of "The Juvenile Gangster" (originally aired on NBC on June 26, 1950). Finally, a real-life journalist and his efforts to clear an innocent man of murder are the subject of "Pillars of Society" on The Big Story (originally aired on NBC on May 5, 1948).
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Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) - Episode 612 - Hot Ice (Boston Blackie, Richard Diamond, Dragnet, & Johnny Dollar)
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01/19/25 • 126 min

Ice is in the air - and on the ground - as many parts of the country contend with winter weather, but in this week's show our heroes contend with a different kind of ice...and it's because that ice has gone missing. Detectives hunt down stolen diamonds in these four radio mysteries, beginning with Richard Kollmar as Boston Blackie in a syndicated episode where diamonds are stolen right from under his own nose. Next, Richard Diamond, Private Detective is blamed when several thousand dollars of stones are pilfered from the police commissioner (originally aired on NBC on November 12, 1949). Then, Sgt. Joe Friday is on the case when a diamond salesman is robbed of his merchandise in "The Big Impression" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on August 7, 1952). And finally, John Lund stars as Johnny Dollar as he searches for a stolen yellow diamond in "The Uncut Canary Matter" (AFRS rebroadcast from February 16, 1954).

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FAQ

How many episodes does Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) have?

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) currently has 741 episodes available.

What topics does Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) cover?

The podcast is about Radio, Mystery, Old, Podcasts, Time, Arts, Tv & Film and Performing Arts.

What is the most popular episode on Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)?

The episode title 'Episode 612 - Hot Ice (Boston Blackie, Richard Diamond, Dragnet, & Johnny Dollar)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)?

The average episode length on Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) is 83 minutes.

How often are episodes of Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) released?

Episodes of Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)?

The first episode of Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives) was released on Apr 28, 2013.

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