Yours Truly, Robert Bainter Bailey

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was one of the longest-running drama series on radio. Running from 1948 to 1962, it is regarded as one of the greatest in radio history. Dick Powell starred in the 1948 audition show but left the role for other projects, including his famous "Richard Diamond" radio series. The series went through several leads, among the more notable were Edmond O'Brien (1950-52) and John Lund (1952-54). Radio regular, Gerald Mohr, had the lead for the 1955 audition show, but Bob Bailey (above) settled into the title role for nearly 500 episodes, and his tenure is considered the best of the series. 

Bob Bailey (1913-1983) was exceptionally good, making Dollar more sensitive and thoughtful in addition to capturing realism with his voice inflections. Imperative without any visuals. He made the character his own and it separated him from the melodramatic radio detective, like the aforementioned Gerald Mohr. Tough and streetwise but not overly cynical, he was a 4-year Marine veteran, a police officer for a decade then changing careers to insurance investigation for the Universal Adjustment Bureau, Hartford, Connecticut. Dollar usually stuck to business, but the occasional romance would arise when getting too emotionally involved in the case. Episodes often included his girlfriend Betty Lewis, played suberbly by the sultry voice of the versatile Virginia Gregg. 

During the Bailey years, the announcer opened each episode with, "The man with the action-packed expense account, America’s fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar." Each episode began with a phone call from an insurance executive asking him to work on an unusual claim. Upon hearing the assignment, Dollar could occasionally get a little irate with his superior. It might require him to journey across the US or sometimes overseas. Each case’s title was referred to as a "matter" as in, "The Forbes Matter." The show featured a stock company of supporting actors, including Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, Mary Jane Croft, Lawrence Dobkin, Stacy Harris, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Betty Lou Gerson, Barney Phillips, and others. 

Fishing was Dollar’s first recreational choice. On numerous episodes a client might use fishing as bait, convincing him to take on a job because of the excellent nearby fishing locations. He had a streak of impatience, and would occasionally not fully listen to a witness and rush off on a tangent before realizing his mistake. As the story progressed, Dollar would mention each expense item, and provide the audience with his remarks about the current case when filling out his expense account. There were no incidental expenses too small for Dollar to itemize, such as buying a 10-cent bottle of Aspirin with a sardonic comment, “I needed them." The series title is Dollar's salutation at the end of his written report, closing the case and episode.

Note: In 1960, CBS Radio shut down production on the west coast and moved its radio drama unit to New York. Bob Bailey, unwilling to relocate, gave up the role. The last Johnny Dollar, Mandel Kramer, remains a close second in popularity to Bailey. 

From Spectre to Phantom

 

On this date in 1962, the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation delivered the first F-110A Spectre to the United States Air Force. The F-110A was intended to continue the "Century Series" but under pressure from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, the USAF and US Navy aircraft designation systems were combined into a single scheme resulting in the F-1 to F-11. President Kennedy requested Congressional approval for the procurement of Navy F4H-1 derivatives for the Air Force under the designation F-110. The USAF F-110A and US Navy F4H-1 became F-4C and F-4B respectively. 

Above, Sanford N. McDonnell hands over the keys to the first F-110A Spectre to Colonel Gordon Graham and Colonel George Laven, USAF, at the McDonnell plant at St. Louis, Missouri.

Reel Character Series

 

Frank Lovejoy (1912-1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television, best known for his supporting roles as the “everyman” caught up in challenging circumstances. He was one actor not needing to change his last name just to stand out from the Hollywood crowd. Whether in military uniform, as a detective, or common laborer, he handled a variety of roles with near-flawless performances, from tough cop to sensitive husband. Lovejoy had the voice of someone who spent the day in the stands yelling for his NFL playoff team and has not yet recovered. A smokey, nasal sound like few others, it lent intrigue to his radio characters or the narrator for his radio crime show, Night Beat. Somewhat surprisingly, the 1950s was his only full decade of work, starting out that decade with a strong leading role in the chilling, Try and Get Me! aka The Sound of Fury, as a struggling out-of-work family man spiraling into a life of crime with an arrogant instigator, Lloyd Bridges. In 1951, he had the title role and narrator for I Was a Communist for the FBI, going undercover to expose Communism. He was notable as a supporting player in The Hitch-hiker, the classic film noir of 1953. He crammed down a lot of scripts in 1955, his busiest year, with seven films and seven television appearances. Oddly or not, the nearest I can figure he had a total of fifty-five acting roles as well. Though he completed three more films in the late Fifties, he spent the balance of his career in television. Had he lived longer, he might have provided some interesting characters well into his seventies. 

The Pride Of St. Louis

 

On this day in 1962, St. Louis Cardinals great and Hall of Famer Stan Musial broke Honus Wagner's National League hit record with 3,431. Musial would finish his career with a .331 batting average with 3,630 hits, 475 home runs, and 1,951 RBIs. One amazing feat the "leftie" accomplished was that he had the same amount of hits at home as he did on the road, 1,815. "Stan the Man" played all 22 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals making baseball card collecting of the era meaningful. He was named an All-Star 24 times, including twice in 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962 when the All-Star game was played twice, at the beginning of the season and at the traditional time halfway through the season. The St. Louis Cardinals retired Musial’s number 6-jersey in 1963, after his retirement.

How to Fly An Oxcart

 

On this day in 1962, at a non-existent location in the Mojave Desert of Nevada, Lockheed Chief Test Pilot Louis Schalk, Jr., was scheduled to take the first Oxcart for a high-speed taxi test on the specially constructed 8,000' runway. However, he had received secret instructions from designer Kelly Johnson to take the craft airborne. Schalk roared down the runway, lifted off and flew at about twenty feet for two miles. The super-secret aircraft---code name Article 121---was oscillating badly so he set it down straight ahead on the dry lake bed and disappeared into a cloud of dust. Johnson feared the worst but Schalk taxied back to the runway. The malfunction was fixed with no further complications on subsequent flights.

This was the actual first flight of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Top Secret A-12 reconnaissance aircraft. The official first flight would come several days later. Built by Lockheed’s “Skunk Works,” the new airplane wasn’t state of the art, it was well beyond state of the art. Thirteen A-12s were built for the CIA which evolved into the more widely known two-place SR-71A “Blackbird” reconnaissance aircraft.