Dur­ing the 1930’s and 1940’s, Ray­mond Chan­dler gave life to the detec­tive Philip Mar­lowe, per­haps the most mem­o­rable char­ac­ter of the hard­boiled crime fic­tion tra­di­tion. Mar­lowe took cen­ter stage in Chan­dler’s influ­en­tial nov­els, The Big Sleep and The Long Good­bye. And, before too long, he start­ed appear­ing in adap­ta­tions for radio and cin­e­ma. Humphrey Bog­a­rt played Mar­lowe in 1946, and Elliot Gould tack­led the char­ac­ter in 1973. Mean­while, The Adven­tures of Philip Mar­lowe took to the radio air­waves in the sum­mer of 1947.

The ini­tial episodes did­n’t quite gel and NBC quick­ly yanked the show. But, a year lat­er, CBS revived the radio pro­duc­tion with new writ­ers and actors, and, by 1949, the show had the largest radio audi­ence in the US. Thanks to the Inter­net Archive, The Adven­tures of Philip Mar­lowe can now be accessed online for free. Find them on the IA site, or stream them below. We’ve also embed­ded of YouTube playlist of 72 episodes above. Each episode runs about 25 min­utes. Find them added to our col­lec­tion, 1,000 Free Audio Books: Down­load Great Books for Free.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Hear Ray Bradbury’s Beloved Sci-Fi Sto­ries as Clas­sic Radio Dra­mas

Stream 61 Hours of Orson Welles’ Clas­sic 1930s Radio Plays:War of the Worlds, Heart of Dark­ness & More

Hear 90+ Episodes of Sus­pense, the Icon­ic Gold­en Age Radio Show Launched by Alfred Hitch­cock