“I Love The CRUSADE!”, Signed, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

“The Man With the Action Packed Expense Account.”

Mandeville, LA – The CRUSADE Channel will begin airing the hundreds upon hundreds of available episodes, spanning 13 years of “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” a radio classic detective serial featuring private insurance investigator Johnny Dollar! Each episode begins with a phone call from insurance executives, asking Johnny to work on an unusual claim. This would then require Dollar to go on a journey across the United States, or sometimes on other countries.

Johnny was voiced by Charles Russell, who had the part for a year. Edmond O’Brien took the role next and was followed by John Lund.

When Bob Bailey took over the part in 1955, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar exploded in popularity. Bailey took the character into new territory and it seemed to listeners that Bailey actually was Johnny Dollar!

Yours Truly Johnny Dollar was on the radio from January 1948 to September 1962, the final days of the radio drama. Over the 14 years that Johnny Dollar was on the air, eight actors played the role. There were 811 episodes of the show with over 725 still available. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was so familiar to CBS Radio’s listeners that the network’s resident comedians, Bob and Ray, occasionally satirized it. Their version, “Ace Willoughby, International Detective,” followed the Johnny Dollar format of exotic locales, continental officials, cool villains, and tense confrontations, with Ray Goulding doing a letter-perfect imitation of Bob Bailey’s delivery. In the comedy version, however, the detective usually gave up on the case after being beaten up incessantly.

ACTORS WHO PLAYED JOHNNY DOLLAR

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)