In Iran, the old-time US radio detective ‘Johnny Dollar’ returns to the airwaves

Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — While tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran, there’s at least one American that state radio in Tehran invites on the air each week for its millions of listeners. It’s just that he’s a fictional insurance fraud detective who’s been on the case since 1949.

“Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar,” a radio program created by CBS that later found a devoted listenership in Iran for a Farsi-language version under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1960s, has returned to Iranian radio.

It’s not clear why exactly the network controlled by hard-liners have decided to bring back “the man with the action-packed expense account,” but his reappearance harkens back to an era when Iran and the U.S. enjoyed incredibly close relations.

And the newly produced episodes introduce younger generations to a character that many older Iranians still have a decades-old fondness for, their ears perking up with show’s signature start with three gunshots and Johnny Dollar answering a ringing phone with its title.

“It is amazing, it reminds me of the ‘60s and ’70s, when I listened to the episodes with my parents through a vacuum tube radio,” said Masoud Kouchaki, 73. “We did not have any worries except for guessing how Johnny Dollar would find the murderer.”

The original CBS radio show ran from 1949 until 1962 and focused on the cases of Johnny Dollar, an investigator from Hartford, Connecticut. The serial relied on the investigator’s expenses account entries — like “$10 deposit on the car I rented” or “one dollar, one drink for me” — to propel the story forward as Dollar interviewed witnesses and suspects in the transatlantic accent common to detective stories of the era.

“CBS steadfastly resisted moving it to television when television was peeling off lots of radio programing, lots of radio content, lots of radio actors,” said John F. Barber, a professor in the digital technology and culture program at Washington State University Vancouver and expert on “Johnny Dollar” and other radio dramas of the era.

“They took a gamble that radio drama would continue to attract audiences. … It does come at the end of the golden age of radio, before television became the primary entertainment source in America.”

For Iranians, state radio first went on the air in 1940, part of the efforts by then-ruler Reza Shah to rapidly modernize the country. His son, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, took over in 1941, and for several decades radio remained the key media consumed in his growing country, with the number of stations few and all state-controlled.

Iran’s version of “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” dropped the expense account format but kept the noir-light vibe, dramatic music and U.S. location. Instead, the shows would end with Iranian state radio inviting the public to write in to explain what clue gave away the guilty party, with those getting it right having a chance to win a prize.

Mostafa Nasiri, a 76-year-old retired engineer, remembered winning a watch as a teenager in 1966 for answering correctly.

“It was a precious gift,” he wistfully recounted. “I got it from the office of the radio broadcaster, and I was publicly honored in the school for that. Some years later I sold it for some $70.”

After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the country’s state radio and television broadcaster soon found itself controlled by hard-line adherents to the country’s Shiite theocracy. Any program celebrating America found itself removed after the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis saw relations collapse. Tehran will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the takeover this November.

In recent years, pirated Hollywood blockbusters have found their way on air in Iran’s state-controlled channels. However, hard-liners remain suspicious of Western shows, dismissing them as a “cultural invasion” targeting Iran’s people. But many homes have illegal satellite dishes allowing them to watch channels abroad, while the internet and virtual private networks help Iranians circumvent censorship.

That interest in the outside world likely would extend to a hard-boiled American investigator as well.

“You’ve got some guy he’s out there, you know, buying drinks, taking cabs, doing all this wonderful stuff,” said John C. Abbott, who wrote a three-volume history of the U.S. “Johnny Dollar” series. “Maybe it was an escape.”

Despite that, Johnny Dollar seems to have passed the test, though the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcast hasn’t explained its reasoning for allowing it on air on its Radio Namayesh channel. Ayoub Aghakhani, the director of the newly produced episodes, told state TV that he decided to make the episodes based on available Farsi translations to “attract more audiences” to radio broadcasts.

People have “heard about (Johnny Dollar) from either their father or grandfather,” Aghakhani reportedly said. “I learned that 20-, 30-year-old students are familiar with the opening phrase.”

So far, state radio has broadcast nine episodes and plans to air 17 more. State radio officials did not respond to The Associated Press’ questions about the show, nor did CBS in New York.

Among the young, there’s a collective shrug at Johnny Dollar’s rebirth as many remain focused on their mobile phones.

“It is a shame that a radio station of the Islamic Republic is broadcasting an American show,” said Hamid Mohseni, a 29-year-old taxi driver. “I will call the radio station to ask them to stop the unpleasant program.”

But for those old enough to remember him, they’re glad he’s back on the case.

“It is beautiful to listen to the stories that revive many memories,” said Mehri Bagheri, a 68-year-old homemaker. “Then I went to one of my friends’ homes to listen to the show and have a good time.”

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.