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Radio Archives Newsletter
July 17, 2026
1 new Dan Fowler G-Man Audiobook, 2 new eBooks, and 4 featured products from Radio Archives this week!
All new and featured products are discounted the first week.
Featured: previously released
"Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission for the United States, knowing in advance you may never return alive?"
Cloak and Dagger was an NBC radio series, a foreign intrigue adventure adapted from the book Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of the O.S.S. by Corey Ford and Alistair McBain.
Cloak and Dagger was the story of the wartime activities of the OSS — the Office of Strategic Services — “this country's first all-out effort in black warfare...dropping undercover operators behind enemy lines, organizing local partisans to blow bridges and dynamite tunnels, operating the best spy systems of Europe and Asia.” It was a tense half hour of patriots and traitors, of love affairs doomed by war, of triumph, tragedy, and failure. The stories did not always end with the lovers embraced and the mad-dog Germans reeling in defeat; the hero-agent, in accomplishing his mission, sometimes gave up his life.
Stories on Cloak and Dagger "came right out of Washington files" of the Office of Strategic Services. A 1950 newspaper article commented, "The stories dramatized each week are true, and yet as fantastic as any fiction writer might be able to dream up.”
A syndicated transcription show produced by the Louis G. Cowan agency, Cloak and Dagger was broadcast from May 7 to October 22, 1950.
The cast included New York actors Raymond Edward Johnson, Joseph Julian, Berry Kroeger, Everett Sloane, Jackson Beck and many more. Scriptwriter Wyllis Cooper directed the series with research support provided by Percy Hoskins, British journalist, crime reporter and author. The show was directed by Sherman Marks. Announcers were Robert Warren, Karl Weber, and host Corey Ford.
The Office of Strategic Services—the progenitor of our Central Intelligence Agency—was one of American History's most colorful and compelling World War II intelligence gathering efforts. It was also, quite understandably, one of our most secret undertakings.
Here is the complete content of this 10 hour collection of Cloak and Dagger fully restored by Radio Archives.
Featured: previously released
Volume 5
"Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar", billed as the adventures of "America's action packed insurance investigator", debuted on CBS radio on February 11, 1949, featuring Charles Russell in the title role. It was typical radio fare for the time - basically just another slam-bang half-hour detective series - and, though consistently well written and acted, the series was never really unique or substantial enough to capture a large and enthusiastic audience. Over the next few years, several actors were assigned the title role - including Edmond O'Brien and John Lund - but, though the show was, at one point, sponsored by Wrigley's Gum, the network often simply carried it as a sustaining feature -- a creative time-filler for the enjoyment of a radio audience that was rapidly migrating to television.
In the fall of 1955, however, some surprising things happened to "Johnny Dollar". In a stroke of casting genius, long-time radio veteran Bob Bailey, fresh from the Mutual network detective series "Let George Do It," took over the title role. Director Jack Johnstone and writers John Dawson, Robert Ryf, and Les Crutchfield joined the production team. And, at the same time, CBS began experimenting with some of its longest-running radio series by offering them as quarter hour, five-a-week "strip" shows, running Monday through Friday. The result was a shot in the arm for "Johnny Dollar" - and a surprisingly fresh beginning for a show in a medium that was rapidly turning away from drama. It was obvious that actor Bob Bailey was born to play the role, bringing to his portrayal a realistic depth and likeability that had been lacking in earlier versions of the show. The newly expanded format gave the writers a chance to craft characters and develop the depth of the stories without the need to wrap up every loose end after 24 brief minutes of dialogue. And the subtle cliffhanging nature of the stories made radio's dwindling listening audience want to tune in day after day - something that, by 1955, was seldom happening with any shows outside the realm of the daily soap operas.
This collection features eight five-part and one nine-part story first aired in the summer and fall of 1956. As you listen to Dollar as he painstakingly pursues each case to its conclusion, note the extensive research that has obviously gone into each script; the action always takes place in real locations, complete with real street names, and landmarks are frequently noted throughout the shows. Local stations that broadcast "Johnny Dollar" are often mentioned, as well as the actual names of their personnel -- an interesting and amusing way to sustain interest in the show among network radio affiliates that might (or might not) be willing to carry it at all. The sound patterns, the musical scores, and the realistic dialog paint such a true audio picture that you can't help being swept, chapter by chapter, into the adventure. And the performers, including such radio veterans as Virginia Gregg, Lawrence Dobkin, Eleanor Audley, Lurene Tuttle, Harry Bartell, Sam Edwards, Joseph Kearns, Marvin Miller, William Conrad, Jeanette Nolan, and Richard Crenna, demonstrate their diverse talents in a series of realistic and textured characterizations.
For long-time fans of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar," these multi-part adventures constitute the absolute pinnacle of the series' run -- and, in this fifth collection, Radio Archives is pleased to bring you another ten weeks of these engrossing programs in excellent digital sound.
The Insurance Murders
by C.K.M. Scanlon
Read by Milton Bagby
Crime held the United States in a deadly stranglehold…until the F.B.I. fought back! Handpicked by J. Edgar Hoover, one agent took on the underworld head on, two fisted and guns blazing-Dan Fowler, G-Man!
A mysterious octopus of crime envelops America in its slimy tentacles-and only Dan Fowler, ace of the F.B.I., can break its deadly clutch! Murder, arson, barratry and sabotage are the weapons in a diabolical campaign of death! Behind the grim portals of the Unicorn Club a king of organized crime holds sinister court!
J. Edgar Hoover understood that his position as leader of the F.B.I. had many levels. Both famous and infamous for his handling of various kinds of cases as well his attempts to gain power in various ways, Hoover knew that the F.B.I. was not only a law enforcement agency, but also an entity that required a good public relations manager, a job he himself took on whole heartedly.
In the early 1930s, Hoover was highly aware the American public, still in the grip of the Depression, was desperately seeking heroes and had various mediums by which to find them. He also understood that the F.B.I. needed to be seen as heroes, both as an organization and as individuals, to both ensure cooperation from all parts of the country as well as to strike fear, if possible, into the growing criminal populace. Hoover himself led the charge to turn the F.B.I. into the real life superheroes as far as the American public was concerned.
Hoover made several in roads into American entertainment. While radio, film, and even comic projects met with limited success, leading Hoover to also explore the popular fiction market of the day, pulp magazines. While in 1936 there would be four Pulps focused on the Bureau, the first of these was, according to most experts, carefully managed by Hoover, some even saying he based the lead on himself, or perhaps Melvin Purvis. Regardless of the inspiration, Pulp’s greatest F.B.I. agent took 1935 by storm in the pages of G-Men magazine.
Milton Bagby breathes life into the F.B.I.’s most relentless and skilled manhunter, Dan Fowler G-Man in the thrilling tale The Insurance Murders! Originally published in the February 1939 issue of G-Men!
5 hours - MP3 regular price $9.99
Featured: previously released
Race Horses of Death
by Robert Wallace
Forged in war, The Phantom Detective wages a one-man battle on crime! Solving impossible mysteries and delivering his own justice, he is the underworld’s masked nightmare!
The Phantom Detective hurtles down the stretch when masked killers nose out the Law — battling to keep the forces of crime from taking first, place or show!
In 1939, Lawrence Donovan added a cast member to The Phantom Detective stories. Chip Dorlan was initially a carbon copy of other teenaged sidekicks of the era, someone who was there to help sometimes, but also someone else to be saved. Donovan, however, brought an interesting twist with Chip in later stories. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Chip enlists in the Army. Working in intelligence, he is continually mentioned in the stories and even returns for a few tales when the war is over. Although possibly not unique, it was not common for anyone to age in Pulp stories significantly or go through such a striking change as Chip does in the Phantom Detective canon, all a credit to Donovan’s skill and influence on the series.
Donovan also gave his stories a bit more of a hard-boiled edge, added a bit more danger to the tales. Although he didn’t alter the formula significantly, Donovan’s contributions to The Phantom Detective seem more mature and the stakes which the characters face feel more real. This in part is due likely to Donovan’s career as a journalist, but also to the fact that at the time he was writing The Phantom Detective, he was well over fifty years old and had lived a life that many would only find in a Pulp magazine. The Phantom Detective had always been written as a street level character, more human and realistic than his Hero Pulp peers. Lawrence Donovan definitely added to that with his own writing style and experience.
Race Horses of Death was originally published in the October 1941 issue of The Phantom Detective Magazine and is read with pulse pounding intensity by award winning voice actor Milton Bagby.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
Dan Fowler: G-Man! With a jaw like iron, flinty eyes that unflinchingly cut to the hardest criminal's quaking heart, Dan Fowler gave no quarter and asked for none. Son of a sherrif killed in action, ex-lawyer from the Middle West, Dan Fowler joined the F.B.I. as an ace operative for the Department of Justice. He was one of the valiant army of G-Men who battled the underworld and fought the strangle-hold of crime from the throat of humanity. In October of 1935, a new magazine appeared on newsstands: G-Men, featuring the adventures of Dan Fowler. The magazine changed its name to G-Men Detective in early 1940, but the stories continued the blood-bathed saga of the F.B.I.'s finest, Dan Fowler. After an amazing 112 Dan Fowler novels, the magazine closed with the Winter 1953 issue. G-Men returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
 New eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
As the magazine title promised, each issue of this pulp contained two complete and unedited detective novels. Fiction House publishers, through their Real Adventures Publishing imprint, bought up the reprint rights to detective books that had already seen publication in hardback book form, a practice which allowed them to obtain the previously-printed books much cheaper. Radio's famous "Mr. and Mrs. North" detective series began as a series of print books, six of which appeared in the Two Complete Detective Books magazine. The first of Two Complete Detective Books was released in the Winter 1939 issue. Two complete books for a quarter was quite a bargain, and the magazine was popular with customers. It lasted for 76 issue, and printed the final magazine in its run with the Spring 1954 issue. Two Complete Detective Books returns in vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Featured eBook
Total Pulp Experience. These exciting pulp adventures have been beautifully reformatted for easy reading as an eBook and features every story, every editorial, and every column of the original pulp magazine.
From 1934 to 1939 America thrilled to the adventures of Secret Agent X — the "man of a thousand faces" — as he battled futuristic weapons and mad scientists. The true identity of Secret Agent X was never revealed. He used his mastery of disguise to work undercover for the U.S. government. With his aide, newspaper reporter Betty Dale, and his secretive government handler K-9, he battled weird and fantastical threats to America for forty-one amazing issues. Secret Agent X returns in these vintage pulp tales, reissued for today’s readers in electronic format.
Radio Archives Pulp Classics line of eBooks are of the highest quality and feature the great Pulp Fiction stories of the 1930s-1950s. All eBooks produced by Radio Archives are available in ePub and Mobi formats for the ultimate in compatibility. If you have a Kindle, the Mobi version is what you want. New Kindle's use ePub. If you have an iPad/iPhone, Android, or Nook, then the ePub version is what you want.
Comments From Our Customers!
Richard McLeod writes:
Great music, great script, great radio actors, it just can't get any better for story telling than is the case with "Cloak and Dagger". Real stories unheard until the book Cloak and Dagger was written. And all in crystal clarity as restored by the excellent staff at Radio Archives. Listening to vintage radio isn't any better than what is the case with any of the radio shows restored by the Radio Archives staff. Highy Recommended!!
If you'd like to share a comment with us or if you have a question or a suggestion send an email to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!
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The Radio Archives Newsletter is emailed every Friday morning. The products in this newsletter are just a small fraction of what you'll find waiting for you at RadioArchives.com. Whether it's the sparkling audio fidelity of our classic radio collections, or the excitement of our pulp audiobooks and pulp eBooks, you'll find 2,647 intriguing products at RadioArchives.com.
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