Fri, Jan 15, 1960
Stuart and Jeff's old friend Art Moomey hires Stuart to look into a commercial property, the Switchburg Hotel, he is thinking about buying. He asks Stuart instead of a real estate agent since the hotel is located in Switchburg, a virtual ghost town in the old silver mining region of the Nevada desert about four hundred miles away from Las Vegas. There are no such regular services such as a real estate office in Switchburg let alone a mayor, and Art is unable to find out anything about the hotel on his own. It appeals to the eccentric side of him, he who plans to fix it up if it is worth buying only to sell it to someone even more eccentric than him for a profit. Stopping off in Las Vegas on his way, Stuart ends up having company, at least to Kingsley, fifty miles outside Switchburg, in the form of casino cocktail waitress Nan Polly with who he made a personal connection. In Switchburg, he finds that he seems to be getting some sort of runaround in that the few old timers he meets point him in one direction, only to be pointed back in the opposite direction by the next person to who he speaks. He also finds that the few men he has met in town all carry sidearms for whatever reason. A young couple, Clyde and Dorothy Amboy, have recently moved to town, Clyde, who opened a service station despite there already being one in town that has little business, suspicious of any man who talks to Dorothy, and Dorothy who runs the diner, also that does little business and charges high prices because of the expensive overhead of needing to ship everything into town. And although no one seems to have a key to the hotel with its owner George Silverdale's whereabouts unknown despite he promptly paying his property taxes every year, Clyde reports that he has seen lights on the second floor of the hotel at night. Those lights may provide some answers as to the mysteries of the town and why Stuart has been getting the runaround.
Fri, Apr 15, 1960
Stuart takes the case of legendary bigger-than-life actress/dancer/singer Crystal Dart, she initially making a name for herself in the post-war era as the star of the Folies Bergère in Paris. She wants him to accompany her to a cabin at Lake Arrowhead that was owned by her estranged husband, Swiss national ski instructor and aspiring not too good actor Kurt Weibel, before they married, after which, in his poor financial state, she assumed the mortgage. She wants him evicted from the cabin where he is living - she having legal papers to dispossess him - before she begins divorce proceedings. She wants Stuart along more for protection than anything. Also accompanying them will be her biographer, Ken Dexter, so that Ken and Crystal won't lose any of their work time. Ken not only makes it clear to Stuart in private that he does not want to go, but for undisclosed reasons does not want him to get involved. Stuart also further learns directly from the horse's mouth that Janice Dexter, Ken's wife, believes Crystal has some evil hold over her husband, Janice who wants Crystal out of their lives so that Ken can work on what was supposed to be his first novel after spending his career thus far solely on biographies. Upon arrival at the cabin, Stuart gets a slightly different perspective of the marriage from Kurt. Due to a snowstorm and the only road being blocked, those at the cabin are temporarily cut off from the rest of the world, they who not only include Stuart, Crystal, Ken and Kurt, but out of circumstance Janice and Marie Lang, Kurt's longtime companion who he left when he met and married Crystal. There is an explosive atmosphere in the cabin in their confinement, Stuart who has to find out what is truly going on with this collective in sifting through what is the truth and what are lies among all the stories before something tragic happens.
Fri, Apr 22, 1960
Jeff is hired by a wealthy middle-aged man who wants his missing young wife found. The client refuses to believe she has left him for a younger man but Jeff thinks otherwise. With Roscoe's help, she is quickly spotted but, before her husband can be contacted, a new situation has developed - she is being held for ransom.
Fri, May 20, 1960
Jeff goes to capture a thief sneaking back via a remote corner of the Islands. PI Jeff poses as a wandering gigolo, signing on as a guitar-strumming lounge act to attract lonely women to a struggling resort. Cricket Blake chirps along with him, but the new competition brings out the worst in a scheming philanderer and a torch-bearing local police chief.
Fri, May 27, 1960
Man-eating cat stalks the Sierras, making Stu's inquiry about a friend's daughter a low priority with frazzled mountain residents. Stu's old buddy suspects his daughter is rebelling against his strict single-parenting by getting mixed-up with shady characters. A mild-mannered geology professor boarding at the buddy's house, packing heat on his wilderness sabbatical makes Stu wary too.
Top-rated
Fri, Jun 3, 1960
Stripper Jingle Bells, key witness in a mob trial, is kidnapped to keep her from testifying. Jeff spots her being held in an apartment, then identifies her when he finds one of her trademark "jingle bell" earrings on the sidewalk. Jeff pursues when the kidnapper moves her to a mountain ranch off Route 66.
Top-rated
Fri, Sep 16, 1960
Jeff sees enticing wanted robber Vetta Nygood, tails her to a remote mountain hideout, but her accomplices nab him. The ice-cold gang leader Hammett panics, so he ties & gags Jeff up in the abandoned house's attic. Then the 3 robbers flee after divvying up the loot, before the 4th thug, the menacing Deek arrives to claim his cut. Who gets to Jeff first: a chummy rattlesnake, the cops or the vengeful Deek ?
Fri, Oct 7, 1960
Just before Stu sings lead in a mob trial, a toy manufacturer moves into 77 Sunset Strip, with no furniture but lots of ammo and suspicious visitors, especially a sinister couple who rub everybody the wrong way. Roscoe knows the head of the assassins, who hires Roscoe to courier a secret toy design from San Diego.
Fri, Oct 14, 1960
Astrologer predicts murder will strike the same film fest again, once more claiming someone close to super-agent Shelly Blair. Bailey & Spencer have no trouble mobilizing all their young male ops to protect Shelly's 4 starlet clients (MM, Lotus Lee, Sprite Simpson, Helga Haller), while Roscoe draws an ex-silent film diva, and Suzanne shields an ego-maniacal French heartthrob.
Fri, Oct 21, 1960
A duplicitous blonde swipes $500,000 from her employer/fiancé, after he hired Jeff Spencer to accompany her and a satchel of negotiable bonds from San Francisco to L.A. She gives Jeff the slip, along with another, much younger fiancé. When Jeff suspects she's fled to Acapulco, fiancé number II joins the chase.
Fri, Oct 28, 1960
Crooner, who's finally cracked the big screen, is suspected of rubbing out scandal sheet publisher Ransome, for threatening to expose the singer's rap sheet. Bailey & Spencer's new gumshoe Rex Randolph sets out to nab the killer, to prove the golden throat's innocence. High on Rex's checklist of suspects is comic Chick Little, who may be another of Ransome's blackmail pigeons.
Fri, Nov 4, 1960
Is Stu moonlighting as a Mafia hit man or could he just be an exact double for Sandy the Executioner? Kefauver's G-Men summon ex-CIA spook Stu Bailey inside the Beltway, to find out before New York's Silk Cipriano has his contract fulfilled on rival narcotics dealer California Baldy Mike Hannigan, sparking a bi-coastal gang war.
Fri, Nov 18, 1960
The funeral of a revered old Western star gets surreal when his huge statue is stolen. The embarrassed Hollywood cemetery hires Rex Randolph to get the statue back, but gets way more they expect. Rex's investigation uncovers sex, lies, blackmail, decaying nitrate film, and murder suspects galore.
Fri, Nov 25, 1960
While in England, Jeff is asked by his light-fingered friend, Benny, to help him find who hired him for a job in Liverpool. Unknown to Benny he stole a radioactive isotope. He was not warned of the danger of coming in contact with it. They only have two weeks to find who did this to Benny before he dies from the radiation poisoning.
Fri, Dec 2, 1960
Manet the magician schemes to pay off his gambling debts by reuniting his assistant with her wealthy parents, back in California. To verify that the beautiful young woman's really the daughter who disappeared in World War II Europe, the parents hire Stu Bailey to fly to Antwerp to investigate.
Fri, Dec 9, 1960
Newlywed Adam Gallante disappears, then someone keeps trying to kill his naive bride Alice. Bloodhounds Spencer and Kookie find out that the meek-looking Gallante, a traveling women's clothing salesman, had paramours all over, including Sheila Storm, seer Karma Onyx, and Peaches Schultz.