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Lux Radio Theatre - Alias Jimmy Valentine

April 12, 2026·57 min·5 clips

Jimmy Valentine uses sandpaper on his fingers to open a locked vault and rescue a suffocating child.

The broadcast starts in Hollywood. A formal announcer names Monday, November 9th, brings in the theater audience and the listeners at home, and makes the room feel bigger than it is. Lux gets its moment too. The sponsor copy fusses over studio wardrobes and gentle flakes, treating fabric care like it belongs next to the star billing. Then DeMille takes over. He leads into the play through O'Henry's darkest chapter, giving the story a sober literary doorway before the action picks up. Jimmy Valentine is at the Farmer's National Bank. Red shows up with the old trade on his tongue, sure that a bank job means a vault waiting to be opened. Jimmy pushes back. He says he works there and nothing more, then admits he has changed his mind. Red hears romance right away. When Jimmy says girl instead of dame, Red takes it as proof, risk, and a soft spot all at once. Marriage lands like bad news. Their talk has that sharp period snap, funny on the surface and worried underneath, as affection threatens to wreck criminal judgment. Doyle's shadow is never far off. Red reminds Jimmy that the lawman would follow him anywhere over the Springfield job if bracelets were waiting. Jimmy has an alibi. He has spent three months on it and calls it a beauty, though Red doubts it will matter if Doyle digs up the old record. DeMille closes by shifting from romance and pursuit to the American Red Cross, families, disasters, and one last goodnight from Hollywood.

As heard by us

A polished Lux Radio Theater crime drama about a man trying to stay straight while his past keeps calling.

Alias Jimmy Valentine plays like a polished Lux Radio Theater crime drama, with Pat O'Brien, Madge Evans, Alan Jenkins, and William Frawley carried in the kind of Hollywood ceremony that gives the whole thing a formal shine. Cecil B. DeMille frames O.

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Why you'd press play

You get a former safecracker who says he is staying straight while old contacts keep pressing him.

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