S1E1: The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill
June 4, 2026 · 50 min
Why listen
A sharp 77-year-old landlady unravels a decade-old murder plot after her dying boarder confesses.
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In this episode
- A classic CBS radio drama from the 1970s brought back for new listeners
- A mystery driven by an older woman who refuses to be underestimated
- Commentary on the episode that puts it in context
- A story that mixes cold-blooded crime with quiet domestic tension
About this episode
Welcome to If You Please, Himan Brown’s Radio Mystery Theater. On this series we are offering rebroadcasts of a select group of programs created by this legendary producer for CBS between 1974 and 1982. Brown reimagined radio drama for contemporary times. Our new series offers some of these exciting works again, and includes comments by John Slavney about each episode.
This week: The Old Ones Are Hard to Kill
Ada Canby is 77 years old, sharp as a tack, and nobody's fool. So when her boarder, Mr. Paulson, confesses on his deathbed that he killed a man for money a decade ago, she’s determined to uncover who ordered the hit. Soon, she figures out the players and the plot, and she plans to go to the police with the new information — although she still sets aside time to care for her new boarder, Stuart Winfield, who's dealing with an increasingly severe case of pneumonia... or something like it.
About If You Please, Himan Brown’s Radio Mystery Theater
Radio producer Himan Brown created over 10,000 programs in his lifetime, with a vigor and intensity that kept him going for a century. His life and prodigious output are celebrated in the podcast series Audio Maverick.
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