In the Beginning… from the New York Times, February 18, 1949
CBS announces a new mystery-adventure show for the half-hour beginning at 10:30 tonight (February 18, 1949). It replaces the Percy Faith-Jane Froman program which was concluded last Friday when Coca-Cola failed to renew its sponsorship.
The new program is entitled “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar,” with Charles Russell in the title role. It tells the story of a private insurance investigator.
The program, originating in Hollywood, is supervised by Harry Ackerman, produced by Richard Sanville and written by Gil Doud and Paul Dudley. Music is under the direction of Mark Wax-now. Who is Johnny Dollar – contributed by Stewart Wright For over 12 years (1949 – 1962, including a one-year hiatus in 1954-55), the series recounted the cases of Johnny Dollar,
“the insurance investigator with the action-packed expense account.” Johnny was an accomplished ‘padder’ of his expense account. The name of the show derives from the fact he closed each show by totaling up his expense account and signing it ” End of report…Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.” Terry Salomonson in his authoritative “A Radio Broadcast Log of The Drama Program Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar” notes that the original working title Was Yours Truly, Lloyd London. Salomonson writes, “Lloyd London was scratched out of the body of the (Dick Powell audition) script and Johnny Dollar was written in. Thus the show was re-titled on this script and the main character was renamed. Why this was done was unclear, possibly to prevent a legal run-in with Lloyd’s of London Insurance Company.” Although based in Hartford, Connecticut, the insurance capital of the world, freelancer Johnny managed to get around quite a bit, his adventures taking him all over the world.
Link: Yours, Truly Johnny Dollar-WikiPedia