This 1948-1949 mystery series concerned the adventures of Dan Holiday, a retired journalist who had turned to writing novels. He got story ideas from the responses to his newspaper ad, "Adventure wanted: will go anywhere, do anything- Box 13." He would generally get more than he bargained for. Film star Alan Ladd portrayed Holiday, with Sylvia Picker as his malaprop spouting secretary Suzy.
113.5
A woman tells Holiday that she wishes him to assist her in locating her brother in the city, but the real reason for the search turns out to be far different.
A Book of Poems
Holiday receives an anthology of Sir Walter Scott poems which leads him to the bizarre circumstances behind a ten year old arson case.
Actor's Alibi
A radio actress contacts Holiday because she believes someone wants to kill her. But the most likely suspect is with Holiday when she is shot.
Archimedes and the Roman
A kid contacts Holiday to find out why a person from a nearby observatory hasn’t come down to town at his usual time. What seems like a simple task winds up being far more serious.
The Better Man
A rich eccentric pits Holiday against three others, one of whom is a killer, in a contest to locate a stash of $100,000 through a series of cryptic clues.
The Biter Bitten
A herpetologist contacts Holiday to help him locate an escaped cobra, but the account Holiday is given seems kind of screwy.
Blackmail is Murder
Holiday is contacted by an old lady who has found a dead body in her hotel room. Seeming to have read too many mystery stories, she has the notion that they can solve it rather than call the police.
The Clay Pigeon
Holiday is set up for an appointment with a psychic who is convinced that Dan knows all about an incident that he's actually clueless about.
Damsel in Distress
Holiday receives a letter from a finishing school girl who claims to have been receiving threatening letters written with magazine clippings.
Dan and the Wonderful Lamp
Holiday is sent an invitation to a charity auction and is the recipient of a cheap lamp which is inexplicably desired by some unsavory types.
Daytime Nightmare
While meeting a responder to his ad at lunch, Holiday is drugged and wakes up to find himself in a rest home with the face of a dead man.
The Dead Man Walks
A woman asks Holiday to find her recently paroled father. Holiday locates the man's corpse in a pawn shop shortly before being knocked out, but later learns that he had reported to his parole officer afterwards.
Death is No Joke
Holiday is contacted by a friend who is concerned about a series of increasingly vicious practical jokes that have occurred since a long lost cousin returned to claim the entirety of an inheritance.
Delinquent's Dilemma
Design for Danger
The girlfriend of a man convicted for a robbery he didn't commit contacts Holiday because she's worried that, now that he's out of jail, he'll try to kill the people who got him framed.
Diamond in the Sky
A jewelry company representative takes Holiday to Paris to deliver a high-value diamond back to the U.S. while any potential jewel thieves follow him. But some unexpected twists pop up.
Double Mothers
Double Right Cross
Holiday goes to a boxing match where the heavy favorite has an unusually poor performance, leading many to believe that the fight was fixed.
Double Trouble
Holiday goes to another city to meet someone who wrote to him only to find that person murdered and himself considered the primary suspect.
The Dowager and Dan Holiday
A wealthy recluse enlists Holiday’s assistance to discourage her grandson’s fiancée who she considers to be nothing more than a fortune hunter in a most unusual way.
Extra, Extra
Holiday helps out a newsboy whose father has been arrested for robbing a jewelry store due to the fact that some of the loot was found in his apartment.
Find Me, Find Death
Holiday receives a letter which states that he has four days to figure out who sent it before he gets killed.
The First Letter
Flash of Light
A visiting small-town kid contacts Holiday to help him find out what happened to him in the past couple of days during which he was knocked out.
The Great Torino
Holiday is contacted by a stage magician’s assistant who claims that her boss is planning to use their Catching a Bullet in the Teeth routine to kill her so that it can be passed off as an accident.
Hare and Hounds
An out-of-town letter for Holiday is stolen before he has a chance to open it. When he goes to meet the sender after receiving a letter requesting that he return the contents of the envelope, he ends up being framed for murder.
The Haunted Artist
Holiday is contacted by an artist who is concerned about finding a quarry added to his painting in a style different from his even though the locks to his studio weren't tampered with.
Hot Box
Holiday receives some money and a note telling him to use it to purchase a teakwood box at an auction which several other parties have an interest in obtaining.
House of Darkness
Holiday is contacted by a blind man who has found a strange message written in Braille in the margin of a library book.
Hunt and Peck
A man on death row asks Holiday to find out who committed the murder he's been found guilty of before his execution occurs in two days.
Insurance Fraud
Killer at Large
A rich eccentric's offer of $50,000 for Holiday to kill him gets Holiday mixed up in all sorts of sordid underworld doings.
Last Will and Nursery Rhyme
Holiday visits a friend who has inherited his uncle's house but none of the money he allegedly had. The only hint of its whereabouts comes from a cryptic clause in the will.
Look Pleasant, Please
A woman contacts Holiday to have her picture taken with him. The next day, it on the front of the society page with an article announcing his engagement to an heiress.
Review: At its best, Box 13 plots are full of twists and turns, and this is the most twisted of the lot.- Webmaster
Mexican Maze
Holiday goes to Mexico City at the request of a man who claims he fears for his life, but circumstances turn out to be far more twisted.
Much Too Lucky
Holiday is contacted by a legal bookie to investigate what’s behind a series of large bets on long shots that always win.
One of These Four
The Perfect Crime
A criminology professor tells Holiday that he’ll commit the perfect murder. What at first seems to be a joke in bad taste turns out to be more serious.
The Philanthropist
The Professor and the Puzzle
Holiday is contacted by a friend who teaches at a backwater college to help figure out why his fiancée, following the alleged suicide of her uncle, breaks off the engagement without explanation. Further digging reveals that the situation is far more sinister then initially thought.
Round Robin
A letter telling Holiday to register at a hotel under an assumed name gets him mixed up in a bizarre blackmail scheme. Final episode.
The Sad Night
Holiday is the recipient of a schoolchild's copy book of which he learns that there are some people who are willing to kill to get their hands on it.
Sealed Instructions
Shanghaied
Holiday receives a letter instructing him to arrive at a certain ship and ends up getting knocked on the head with a blackjack and out to sea.
Short Assignment
A detective gets Holiday to stand in for him on a job where he keeps an eye on his client’s neurotic nephew who may commit suicide as his father did, with circumstances becoming screwy almost immediately.
Speed to Burn
A woman asks Holiday to infiltrate an organized car theft racket with paranoid security and get her brother out of it.
Suicide or Murder
A woman contacts Holiday to prove that the death of her reporter son in a brawl at a cheap bar was premeditated murder rather than an accident.
Tempest in a Casserole
The Greek owner of a restaurant asks Holiday to help him against the increasingly bizarre attempts to close him down.
Three to Die
A contractor whose company is working on a tunnel construction project wants Holiday to find out who is behind an epidemic of accidents that are causing costly delays.
See also The Sandhog Murders (The Shadow).
The Treasure of Hang Lee
Holiday is instructed to go to a certain Chinese curio shop and purchase a jade piece displayed there, little realizing that that he's getting mixed up in a ten year old murder.
Triple Cross