Sun 5 Mar 2023
An OLD TIME RADIO Review: YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR “The King’s Necklace Affair†(1953).
Posted by Steve under Old Time Radio , Reviews[17] Comments
YOURS TRULY, JOHNNY DOLLAR. “The King’s Necklace Affair.†CBS, 17 March 1953. John Lund as Johnny Dollar, with Jack Moyles, Howard McNear, Lilian Buyeff, Jack Moyles, Tom Tully. Scriptwriter: Sidney Marshall. Easily found streaming online.
This is the first episode of Johnny Dollar I remember listening to which has had John Lund in the leading role. He played the part for two seasons, from November 1952 to September 1954, followed by Bob Bailey’s long run beginning in October 1955 and ending in November 1960.
For most of the time the show was on the air Johnny Dollar, the man with the “action-packed expense account†was a freelance insurance investigator working out of Hartford CT, but traveling all over the country checking out the validity of false claims and the like.
In “The King’s Necklace Affair,†though, he goes even further, to a small island near Cuba which one man owns in its entirety, complete with a huge mansion and a valuable collection of art objects to go with it. One of these is a necklace worth a small fortune, which he thinks someone is trying to steal. When Johnny gets there, together they open the safe where it should be, only to discover it is only paste.
When the owner is soon thereafter found dead on a balcony, Johnny finds that he really has a case on his hands. Unfortunately, from the perspective of an armchair detective listening at home, there are less than a handful of suspects, one of which is a sexy-voiced young lady (Lillian Buyeff) one suspects lives there for less than wholesome purposes. Not surprisingly the script does not go in that direction very far at all. Nonetheless, in spite of a paucity of suspects, the scriptwriter (Sidney Marshall) manages to pull off a small trick he had up his sleeve all along, and a well-clued one to boot.
John Lund had a strong voice for radio, but not a distinctive one. I am speaking for myself, mind you, but if I were listen to another episode in which he was the star, I’m not sure I would recognize it, and for all of the others in the cast, I would.
March 5th, 2023 at 8:25 pm
Usually an entertaining series, and still fun to listen to.
March 5th, 2023 at 8:35 pm
I often wonder what the secret of its longevity was. With I believe a one year gap along the way, it lasted on CBS from from February 18, 1949 to September 30, 1962, with several different actors playing Johnny Dollar:
Dick Powell (Audition show in 1948)
Charles Russell (February 1949 – January 1950)
Edmond O’Brien (February 1950 – September 1952)
John Lund (November 1952 – September 1954)
Gerald Mohr (Audition show in 1955)
Bob Bailey (October 1955 – November 1960)
Bob Readick (December 1960 – June 1961)
Mandel Kramer (June 1961 – September 1962)
It was always a well-written and well cast show, but how did an otherwise rather ordinary detective show last as long as it did, until CBS pulled the plug on all of its radio dramas?
March 5th, 2023 at 9:34 pm
The young woman with the sexy voice in this episode was Lillian Buyeff. I’ve heard her voice many many times before, but I never saw a photo of her until now:
http://www.eijustus.com/lillian-buyeff.html
She looks exactly like how I pictured her. It doesn’t happen all that often!
March 5th, 2023 at 9:47 pm
Steve,
She was from Michigan, born in Detroit — your part of the world, or not?
March 5th, 2023 at 11:02 pm
Yes and no. I was born and grew up in Cadillac, about 250 miles northwest of Detroit. That was some time ago. I still root for the Tigers, though, for some unfathomable reason.
March 7th, 2023 at 12:46 am
Johnny Dollar is a show I’ve hear many more times than I sustained interest in it. It’s a staple of OTR, and OTR is my choice of listening fare while I work. The snappy patter and fun sound-effects allows me to multi-task and still keep me engaged.
On my first introduction to it, I enjoyed Dollar very much. The show is lively enough. It was very popular and durable in its heyday; generating many fans.
Whenever it randomly pops up, I’m as likely-as-not to give it another listen. I recall there’s upwards of 200-300 shows?
My mild ‘disaffection’ for Johnny Dollar is simply that I’ve heard it too many times; it is overplayed by stations online.
What becomes clear over time is that the Dollar format so rarely varies. It grows predictable. All too often, the plots are underwhelming, trite.
Or, Johnny is saved at the last minute by the ole “I left the receiver off the hook hoping the Operator would catch wise” …”I wouldn’t turn around if I were you” … “Lieutenant, have you heard enough?” gags. Painful.
There were other occasional weak spots in the writing: sometimes Johnny breaks the fourth-wall with unforgivable mugging-for-the-microphone.
When over-repeated listening pounds all this into one’s skull, it is only the lead actor who can help save one’s pleasure; and unfortunately John Lund does not always shine bright enough to do the job.
Now, in every other way, I appreciate John Lund. He wasn’t a big star but he’s in Billy Wilder’s wonderful, “A Foreign Affair” and he holds up his end.
But as Johnny Dollar he pales beside the other of his erstwhile colleagues who also played the lead. He’ not the very worst but he’s so flat in his delivery that (for me) he’s next-to-last-worst.
As sturdy as the show is, voicing Johnny Dollar needs zing and flair to offset the straightforward/ordinariness. I agree there is that quality to the program. Lund just doesn’t rap out lines with O’Brien’s iciness or Russell’s swaggering chortles.
Fans typically rank Bob Bailey #1 –for good reason. But for me Edmond O’Brien and Charles Russell bring the requisite hilarity and grit.
Their outings are earlier in the show’s run and they enjoy support from marvelous touches of gin-joint pianos, tommyguns, opium, foggy waterfronts, racetracks, SuperChief Pullman cars; and yes, even exotic long-distance travel. Singapore, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Haiti, Everglades, Alaska, or old West ghost towns. There were also multi-episode shows which spread a juicy plot over 2-3 installments.
The supporting players too –in Dollar’s first year –were often rich with foreign accents. Hillbillies, cockneys, Frenchies, East Indian.
Towards the shank of the show’s run, supporting players became more routine picks from Radio Row as listed in the above-named episode, “King’s Necklace”.
One standout for me –simply a personal fave as others attest –is sultry Lillian Buyeff. All the radio veterans like Buyeff, were supremely talented in their voice-work; but Buyeff has especial subtlety. Butterscotch delivery whether girl-next-door or femme fatale; but also capable as Mexican senorita.
Oh well. These are my thoughts on Johnny Dollar. When John Lund is in harness I admit I only listen with half-and ear, for the atmosphere.
March 7th, 2023 at 5:14 pm
Thanks for the overview of the entire JOHNNY DOLLAR radio series, Lazy. Nicely done, and it’s good to know we’re pretty much in agreement on both Lund (not a particular favorite of either of us) and the sultry voice of Lillian Buyeff!
March 7th, 2023 at 5:31 pm
Sidney Marshall, who wrote both this episode and quite a few other OTR shows, went on to both write and produce for the movies. Here are his major movie credits in the role of the latter, courtesy of IMDb:
“Sidney was a producer and writer, known for The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964).”
March 7th, 2023 at 5:40 pm
It’s kind of a shame about John Lund. His career I mean. Just not much to write home about. To see him under Wilder, one might assume he had great success ahead of him. In that flick he was suave, witty, handsome, affable. Hit all the right notes. But right at this moment the only other flick I remember him in was …”My Friend Irma Goes West”? And I’m not even sure about that. Poor guy. If only he’d had a sibling like Dana Andrews, he could at least have been another Steve Forrest.
March 7th, 2023 at 11:17 pm
Lund came to Hollywood at the same time and for the same reason Richard Basehart did, both having starred on Broadway in The Hasty Heart. Bsehart went into Repeat Performance in which he played a neurotic in support of Louis Hayward and Joan Leslie. Lund was immediately cast, and signed to a long-term Paramount contract, opposite Olivia De Havilland in To Each His Own, an enormous success for the players and the studio. He stayed warm, if not hot through 1950 when tastes changed. Not just in players, but in their material. He signed with UI after completing his run with Paramount, and made several competent but mediocre pictures, just as Ann Sheridan did after leaving Warners. The only truly big film he had in the fifties was High Society, in which he was excellent but in a tertiary part.
John drifted out of the business in the early sixties. Too bad, but while he did not become Clark Gable, to whom he was compared in Foreign Affair, he was surely not a non-entity.
March 7th, 2023 at 11:29 pm
I neglected to describe his part in To Each His Own
from the simple reason I did and do nto want to spoil the film for those who have not seen it. But John Lund has an emotional debut second to none. I wanted to stand up and cheer but with tears in my eyes.
March 8th, 2023 at 12:14 am
I was hoping you would chime in with just this sort of intel, Cap’n. Thankin’ ye. For me, what Lund did in “Foreign Affair” settles all his debts and erases all his misfires.
It’s an odd instance. I can’t immediately recall any other example where I would defend a player based on one lone outing that happened to shine for me. But by God, I do love that Wilder picture. An all-time fave. And Lund walked away with that movie. As they sometimes say …”he owned it”.
March 8th, 2023 at 2:00 am
Oh –should have mentioned this before. One genuinely fascinating aspect of “Yours Truly”; almost no other show has. Since Johnny itemizes every item he pays for during his manhunts what you hear is an incredible cost-of-living index for whatever year (1940s – 50s) the episode aired. $2 taxicabs to cross town; $6 taxi to the air strip. Airfares under $100. Hotel stays, under $20. Dinner for ‘two bits’. It’s extraordinary. Another hoot is the cunning murder suspects committing grisly, multiple-victim slaughters for a mere …$30,000 in ill-gotten insurance payoffs. $30k!
OOps –I’ll add one more remark to nullify unlucky 13
March 8th, 2023 at 2:12 am
#14
Tom Tully in that cast list above –always wonderful to see him. You remember Tully as the gravel-voiced captain of the unlucky minesweeper in ‘The Caine Mutiny’.
But (unless I’m wildly mistaken) he’s also the grizzled, wheelchair-bound pawnshop manager in ‘Charley Varrick’. Mafia goon Joe Don Baker shoves him across the room when he holds back information: “If you wanna know what I know, get some cash on the counter”
Jack Moyles, we know from “Rocky Jordan”.
Finally, the wonderful Howard McNear –often described as the most beloved player in the Hollywood of that era. He wasn’t always a ‘coot’ or a ‘bumbling town Doctor’ –he was a memorable leading man in at least one big 1930s serial.
March 8th, 2023 at 10:04 am
At the time, Tom Tully to me was always best known as one of the two leads on the TV show THE LINEUP. And Howard McNear as “Doc” on radio’s GUNSMOKE. Voices I will always recognize, even without a face.
March 14th, 2023 at 10:48 pm
Just listened to yet another JD episode. Better than usual. Early in the run, the peppery flavor I admire.
Edmund O’Brien stars. Raymond Burr, the heavy. Parley Bauer, William Conrad, Jean Bates, and Lou Kruger support.
It highlights the difference between different eras in the show.
In this romp, Dollar himself is framed and setup by a complex scheme and has to wriggle out.
In the latter heft of the series run (Bailey, Kramer, Lund etc) the Dollar character is almost never under fire. Never in a sweat. He always has a cool, easy, ‘pat hand’ of it.
In this pot-boiler (the case of Henry J. Unger) it’s much more dynamic.
Dollar is drugged, framed for murder, and only under courtroom cross-interrogation does he finally cotton to the clue which will clear him.
O’Brien vs Burr is an icy antipathy. Talk about dry.
Good stuff.
March 14th, 2023 at 11:09 pm
I found a link almost immediately:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSGcgHVyLas
I’ll listen to this as soon as I have 30 minutes to spare. It sounds like quite a show.