Old Time Radio Detective — Philip Marlowe: "The King in Yellow" (1947) | Full Episode

Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles private eye came to radio in the summer of 1947 with Van Heflin in the trench coat — half an hour of blackmail, bad money, and a detective who narrates his own trouble. "The King in Yellow" (8 July 1947) starts with a 2 a.m. trumpet solo in a hotel corridor: King Leopardi, the famous bandleader in room 815, is playing for the whole eighth floor, and throwing him out costs a house detective his job. That is the easy part of the night. A body turns up across town, then another, and the trail runs back through the hotel to an old killing everyone agreed to forget. This broadcast is the only one that puts both radio Marlowes in the same studio — Heflin plays the detective, and Gerald Mohr, who would take over the role on CBS the following year, plays the King. 🎧 Hundreds more classic radio shows free at https://www.vintageradioshows.com 📱 Listen anywhere with the Vintage Radio app for iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vintage-radio/id455577974