As we come up toward Halloween, it seems time to do a few more Radio Greats post. This episode is not Halloween-themed, but it does deal with something that has come to be associated with the holiday -- mummy curses. With Johnny Dollar you know it's going to be no-nonsense -- but that doesn't mean there won't be mystery and suspense!
Dollar is asked by Inter-Allied Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, to look into a matter that does not, to his surprise, involve any actual insurance claim. But a nice fee is a nice fee, and so he finds himself suddenly dealing with an heir to millions who is passionate about Egyptology and his trustee who disapproves; the heir is funding an expedition to uncover the tomb of Pharaoh Kamashek, which will be one of the great archeological finds of the century. But where there is a buried Pharaoh, there are always rumors of a curse....
Dollar's expense account includes:
Item 6, $9.80 train to New York, quick lunch, cab to bank to pick up traveler's checks for trip to Egypt
Item 11, $1305.00 round trip air fare to Egypt
Item 13, $82.00 phone calls to authorities and people associated with the Kamashek expedition
for a grand total of $985.00! (Not a typo.)
Two people die, Dollar never gets closer to Egypt than Paris, and we learn that money can make nice people do very bad things.
You can listen to "The Curse of Kamashek Matter", from September 1956 at the Internet Archive (41-45), or at Old Time Radio Fan, and in YouTube format from Waynes Old Time Radio Page. You can probably find it elsewhere, as well; it seems to be a popular one, and deservedly, I think.
