Let George Do It 1948 08 23 (102) The Corpse That Took A Powder

# Let George Do It - "The Corpse That Took A Powder"

When a stiff vanishes from a locked apartment in the dead of night, private detective George Valentine finds himself tangled in the kind of case that keeps a man awake until dawn—if he's lucky enough to survive it. This August evening's installment plunges listeners into a mystery wrapped in more contradictions than a two-bit grifter's alibi: a corpse that was definitely, absolutely there... and then simply wasn't. As George prowls through shadowed hallways and back-alley dives, following a trail that grows colder with each passing minute, the stakes escalate from solving a simple disappearance to staying alive long enough to ask the right questions. The atmosphere is thick with paranoia and misdirection—a perfect specimen of the hard-boiled detective drama that defined postwar radio.

*Let George Do It* occupied a unique niche in the golden age of radio mystery programming. Running from 1946 to 1954 on the Mutual network, the show featured Bob Bailey as George Valentine, delivering snappy one-liners and wisecracks with the world-weary charm of a man who'd seen every con in the book. Unlike the big-budget spectaculars sponsored by major corporations, *Let George Do It* maintained an independent, scrappy authenticity—the scripts had teeth, the performances crackled with energy, and the stories embraced the noir sensibilities that were capturing American imaginations in post-WWII entertainment. This particular episode, from August 1948, represents the show at its peak, when listeners could depend on George to untangle impossible cases with equal parts cunning and lucky breaks.

Tune in tonight and discover why audiences in 1948 tuned in faithfully each week. When a corpse can simply vanish, George Valentine is the only man with the guts—and the brains—to find out where it went and why someone wanted it gone. Let George do it.