You Bet Your Life
Transferred from the Internet Archive item “you-bet-your-life-1952-02-20-160-secret-word-heart”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.
The run
- Network
- CBS
- Years active
- 1950–1953
- Surviving broadcasts
- 186
- Genre
- detective
With the smash success of Dragnet , many networks and producers began to play follow the leader. On NBC, Dragnet was followed up with Tales of the Texas Rangers which dramatized real life tales from the Texas Rangers. CBS countered with The Line Up , later 21st Precinct followed by Nightwatch .
1952 · 51951 · 51950 · 2
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Clean transfer · 17 of 45Listenable · 27 of 45Rough but complete · 1 of 45
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: OTRR_Line_Up_Singles
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 4 years on the air, with 1 year where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
JFMAMJJASOND
1950
1951
1952
1953
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1950, in original transmission order.
- 1. The Line Up The Anita Cameron Case (audition) · 27 May 1950
- 2. Candy Store Killing · 16 Nov 1950
- 3. The Line Up The Mad Bomber ( George Hunter & The Time Bomb) · 11 Jan 1951
- 01
The Line Up The Anita Cameron Case (audition)
27 May 1950 · 32 min
Broadcast 27 May 1950. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 02
Candy Store Killing
16 Nov 1950 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 16 November 1950. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 03
The Line Up The Mad Bomber ( George Hunter & The Time Bomb)
11 Jan 1951 · 29 min
Broadcast 11 January 1951. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 04
The Line Up The Silver Swan Case
22 Feb 1951 · 29 min
Broadcast 22 February 1951. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.
- 05
Lewis Black Again
26 Jun 1951 · 24 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 06
The Jolted Justice Job Case
1 Nov 1951 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 1 November 1951. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
- 07
Line Up 1951-12-27 Old Women Found Strangled
27 Dec 1951 · 29 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 27 December 1951. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
The Big Boy's Brutish Back-Bending Case
29 Apr 1952 · 22 min
Originally broadcast on CBS, 29 April 1952. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.
Same night on the air
1 Oct 1952
Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 1 Oct 1952.
I Was a Communist for the FBI
Originally broadcast on Syndicated, 1 October 1952. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on CBS
CBS in 1950–1953
Other series the network carried while The Line Up was on the air.
Same seasons
detective on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The private eye at the microphone
First-person narration, a case that walks in the door, and a city that talks back. Marlowe, Sam Spade and Johnny Dollar turned detection into a listening form.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of The Line Up
Modern series carrying this form forward.
If you liked this
More to explore
Chosen by the same editors.
