November 17, 2025 • 44 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a noteworthy attempt to revive in American radio dramas like Inner Sanctum (1941-1952) and Suspense (1942-1962). Radio dramas were widely considered "dead" 12 years prior to this series. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, or simply Mystery Theater, was created by Inner Sanctum creator Himan Brown and ran on CBS from 1974-1982. The show, much like older radio dramas, was introduced by a host (E.G. Marshall in this program), who steers us through the creaking door to start the episode. Many voices from the golden age of radio were featured, including Richard Widmark, Bret Morrison, Agnes Moorehead and many more. Find more classic, old-time radio series at Theater of the Mind - OTR | Spreaker | Apple | YouTube
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Enjoy all six of our commercial-free internet radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Do you want to discover more of these classic, old-time radio series? Search "Theater of the Mind - OTR" on your favorite platform or visit Theater of the Mind - OTR | Apple | Spreaker | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | iHeart
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Better presents.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Come in.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good Luck is a giddy maid, fickle and restless as
a fawn. She smooths your hair, and then the jade
kisses you quickly and is gone. But Madame bad Luck
scorns all this. She shows no fairness for flitting by
the long and fervent kiss sits by your bed and
brings her knitting. And so you have them, The Luck Sisters,
(00:47):
Good and Bad two ladies who cannot be wooed or courted.
They pick and choose their own time and place. If
only we knew how to capture one and escape the other.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
If only it's wrong, it's indecent.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I agree, it's immoral.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I admit this murder can never be justified for any reason.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That's a fact.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Why how can you agree to it?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
The price is right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Our mystery drama The Luck Sisters was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and stars Fred Gwynn.
It is sponsored in part by Adwick Muder Division. I'll
be back shortly with that one. We have when you
(01:56):
add up the minutes, something less than an hour to
relate our stories, and most of the time it's enough.
We usually attempt to tell a tight and talk little
tale that honors the Aristotlian strictures for the unities of time, place,
and character. However, every now and then we come up
with what can only be called a saga, an epic
(02:18):
that sprawls across a vast and multicolored canvas, rolling, rollicking, swashbuckling,
filled with violence, intrigue, conflict, adventure, and sex. Well, what
you are about to hear may qualify as a saga.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am in the town of Bower.
(02:38):
I in this rocky mountain valley. Bower is hardly more
than a hamlet. It was on its way to becoming
a ghost town when suddenly an enormous vein of gold
was discovered in an abandoned mind. Right now, this little
village has just about been invaded by the news media.
I believe we even outnumber the residents. But those residents
(02:59):
of Bower, the one hundred registered, tax paying and voting
citizens of Bulwer, will each become a millionaire because the
mine itself is owned by the town of Bulwer. Let
us rejoin the press conference outside the store of Mayor
Jefferson McDowell, who is also the town.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Barber, Yes, sir, town's named after Mayor Poindexter Bulwer, who
was adjutant to General Grant. It later came out he
was a speculator in army supplies and stole a million dollars.
That's Major Bulwer, not General Grant, but by that time
he was dead.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Mister mayor.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
What about the mine, it's the old Bulwer mine. Town
grew up all around. It never was worth much, the mine,
I mean, not the town.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, how did the town get possessioned?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, after Major Bulwer died and without issue, I might say,
the town took it over for back taxes.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Mister mayor, What would you say this new discovery means
to the citizens of Bulwer.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, it means once we get her into production, everybody
in Bower's going to become a millionaire.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
How is it discovered that there was gold in the mind.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
She's been abandoned almost one hundred years. Then last week,
little Billy Blackburn, that's Bob and Eunice Blackburn's kid fell
down a shaft. Wasn't hurt, just scared. When they dug
him up, there was all this gold dust.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Do you think this will change the people in this town?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
What kind of a stupid question is that if you
was to have become a millionaire, wouldn't it change you?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Oh, Jeff, where have you been your mate for suffer?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So let's e Jeff, somebody's wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What do you think is wrong?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Maybe it's not true that the mind doesn't belong to
the town.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
We're not going to be rich.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
The mind does belong to the town, and the town
can distribute the revenue from it anyway. It's easy for the.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Jeff, are you trying to tell me?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Maybe it all isn't on the level somehow, maybe there's
no gold.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Nope, car as we know, there's gold engineer come in
from one of those big companies. He said. It might
even rival the comstock load.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Then what's that look on your face, Maria?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I'm I'm scared, scared, scared of what?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Oh oh I see?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Do you really see, Maria?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Well, I think I do. Sure.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Our quiet, lovely, decent little town transformed suddenly into a
what can I call it? A flesh pot filled with
neon lights, the pure fresh air poisoned by smoke and pollution.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Bugo will become a city with.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
All those urban problems delinquency, crime prostitutions are like that.
That's what's bothering you, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
No, no, no, none, that's bothering me.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
It isn't.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Why would I care what happened to Bower?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, it's our home, but.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We won't be living here no longer. We'll be spending
our time in sunny Spain and the Riviera in Florida.
We're gonna have an apartment in New York and a
flat London.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
No, Maria, I'm just saying, when you become a millionaire,
you have a responsibility to maintain a certain standard of living.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Well, I never get to the point I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
To tell you.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Oh, whatever else you may be, one thing you are
not is afraid real.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Maybe maybe I don't know how to tell you.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well, I'll just try.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I guess I'm waiting waiting for what for the other
shoe to drop?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I see what are you expecting?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Something bad?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Bad?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Why? I don't know?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Oh, then then I don't understand.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
No, no, no, no, that's not true. I know, I know,
I think I know.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Jeff, You're starting to scare me. You're the most level
headed person.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
I know. What's bothering you.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Something bad is going to happen.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Why why do you say that?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because it's the history of this town. Bad follows good,
like Nightfallow's Day.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I'm not sure, I am.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, look, go back to the beginning, right, The town
is named after a Civil War heor it later turns
out he's a crook. Bull was supposed to be the
location of a great new gold strike, like Sutter's Mill
or the Klondike turns out to be a false alone.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
All right, but that's all ancient history, rabit.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Let's talk about modern history, then, the history of the
last twenty years. Remember this company was going to open
a plant just outside of town, rejuvenate the economy with
five hundred jobs.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I don't believe they were serious.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
What are you talking about. They already started digging the foundations.
Do you remember what happened? They went broke, That's what happened.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
But still that doesn't prove.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The Air Force was going to put up a base
on Spencer's Plateau.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
That wasn't definite.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
What do you mean it wasn't definite. We were going
to contract for the land.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Jeff.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
You know where the government's concerned.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
You've always got politics But the.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Fact is, one day it was yes and the next
day it was no.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
But what can happen now?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I don't know something something terrible. But you can't fight history.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
But you yourself told me, we know there's gold, millions
of dollars worth, and the engineers said it's high grade
ore and there shouldn't be any real problems getting to it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
What can happen, Maria, Honey, this is bulwark, depend on it.
We're in trouble.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
What kind of trouble?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Good evening, mister Mayor.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Oh, oh, it's use that reporter. How come you haven't
left for the rest of them?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Because I think the real story has yet to happen.
For example, mister Mayor, why do you appear to be
so troubled?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Troubled?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, obviously something's bothering.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You tell me you've been around. You're a college educated man.
Do you believe in fate? Fate is whatever happens, then
you look back at it and say, yes, that was fate.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
This may I'd like to talk to you about the mine,
if I may.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
The mine, oh oh, the mind.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yes, and the sociological impact it'll have on this tiny community.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
If you'll excuse me, I have an important.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Appointment at midnight.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Oh oh, my goodness, then I'm really really late. Good night, sir.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is your special reporter in Bower, and I can report
the town is behaving in a manner close to what
you might expect. There's great happiness here and great expectations.
Mayor Jefferson McDowell, however, seems somewhat different from his fellow townspeople.
He takes long walks at night. Those who know him
say he's suddenly become very serious. Certainly, he appears to
(10:22):
be extremely introspective. It's almost as if he knows something
that is hidden them from everyone else.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Is it true?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
More on the town of Bower on my regular broadcast
this evening.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Jeff, yeah, telling, why aren't you asleep? I'm thinking all
this turning and tossing is keeping me awake. Sorry, Jeff,
can't you explain what's bothering you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I told you it's this, this a pattern of good
and bad that seems to haunt forward.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Well, I guess it's true.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh, I see you're not fighting me anymore.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Surely, and simply in the interest of getting my beauty sleep,
I solved the problem.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
What are you saying?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Dog?
Speaker 5 (11:20):
This will be the craziest thing you ever heard.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Do you believe in luck?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Well, now let's say good luck is a good angel,
so then bad luck.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Would be a bad angel.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Right now, we got two of those angels in this town.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You've really got to explain this.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Well, the Miller sisters, Eunice and Janie.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Eunus Blackburn and Janice Hollingod those two you lost me,
You just lost me.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, all I've.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Been doing is exploring your subject history. Here you have
those twin girls, Janice and Eunice Miller by now.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
They're grown women.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Eunice and Janie study it.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Everything that Eunice does, everything.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
And everybody she's connected with turns out fine. On the
other hand, Janie, wait, as far back as you can remember,
hasn't it been that Eunice brought everybody good luck and
Janie caused nothing but trouble?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
As a matter of fact, Now, before you dig around
for all the evidence, and there's whole volumes of it,
just a couple of simple things. Janice was engaged to
Tom Patterson, who went off.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
To Vietnam and got killed.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Eunice married Bob Blackburn, who put in four years never
got a scratch, got the Congressional Medal.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Of Honor and came back a colonel.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And the mind little Billy Blackburn goes barry picking with
his aunt Janis and falls down that abandoned shaft, just
because he was with Janis.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
But just because he's Eunus's son. He not only comes
out without a scratch.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
But when you.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Strike gold, Okay, review the past twenty years, and now
maybe you know what I mean when I say I'm
waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
All right, all right, but what possible calamity can Janice
bring about?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Now?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It has to follow. It has to remember it was
through Eunice's husband, Bob Blackburn, the Air Force was interested
in building the base. Right, the guy who was the
head of planning came down. He was impressed, he was interested.
The deal was just about to go through. We put
him up for the night in Janie's house. The next day,
(13:31):
somehow everything cooled down.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
Oh still, you can't blame Janice.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It's not time for credit and there's no time for blame.
All we can go by are facts. The same thing
with the factory. There was going to be built here.
It was Janice.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yes, we have no proof, we have facts. Where are
you going out? It's three in the morning.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I know, but I don't have a minute to lose.
I have to save the town, the mine, the gold
of us before it's too late, too late for what. Well,
what are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
We seem to be talking about people who carry luck,
good or bad around with them, superstition, old wives tale.
Before you make your judgment, consider many of the commonplace
things we take for granted today, like telephones, airplanes, not
to mention space flight, were once old wives tales, and
(14:33):
people who spoke about them seriously could.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Be burned or hanged.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I hope you will hang around with burning anticipation for
act touo. Gold Chemically, structurally, it's a simple and relatively
(15:00):
uncomplicated element, and yet it has within it a mysterious
essence that can completely change human nature? Or is that
really true? Can we basically be offered by gold? Or
does gold merely act as the catalyst to speed up
changes that we're always ready and waiting to happen?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Who is it, Janus, It's me Jeff McDowell. What is it, Janie?
I've got to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yes, do you know what time it is?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I know what time it is. Can I can I
come in?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Uh? Janis I I don't know how to say this,
say what? I don't even know how to begin.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Miss Valentine, our fifth grade teacher used to say, begin
at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
The beginning. We go back a long way, you and I, Janie.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
You never should remind a lady of her age, Jeff.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And many things have happened. Oh, it's no use. The
only way to say this is say it right out,
straight out. Yes, I want to tell you.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That you're in love with me? Is that it?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Denis? That's not right.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
You want a divorce, Maria?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
No, are you suggesting that we have an affair, Dennis, Listen,
in a small place like this, how long do you think.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It could be kept a secrets?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
You've got it all wrong. I want to ask you
to leave town.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
No, Jeff, you've got it all wrong.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's not what I came here to talk about. I
came here to ask you to leave town. And it
has nothing to do with me or you. It's for
the good of Buller.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Is that a fact?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Janie? You must leave town before it's too late.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
You ring a.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Bell at three in the morning to tell me to
leave town.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
If it's a joke, I'm not amused.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'll put it this way. Look, three hundred years ago
you would have been burned at the stake.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Your conversation isn't getting more pleasant either.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
You and Eunice, the Miller sisters. What's the history of
the militism.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I must ask you to leave.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Jesf You, Janice, You bring misfortune, tragedy. Eunice has always
brought good things, great things, wonderful things to everyone about it.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
I can't believe I'm sitting here.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Listening to this.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
She brings us good luck. You bring us bad. Maybe
it can be spread like a disease, and you you
could be the carrier.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There's the door, Jefferson McGough, Janie.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
There's no malice in this. I promise you. I'm stating
a fact.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
So am I get out?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Consider Janis, everybody who's ever been associated with you has
In high school, you went out with Freddie.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Price, so did other girls common Janis.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Remember the senior album You and Freddie were voted Romeo
and Juliet. He had a great future as a ballplayer.
The big league scouts were here to see him. But
the day he gave you his pin, he broke his arm.
Now is the end of him?
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And what did I have to do with that?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
It doesn't get any better. Janis the Pattison boy. Remember
you got engaged just before he went to Vietnam. He
was killed and your husband, Joe, he was killed in
a plane crash.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Jeff, I have had a very tragic life. Things have
always gone badly, That's.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
What I'm trying to tell you. And there's a reason
for it.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Are you saying it's my fault?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yes? Oh, you're unaware of it. You're not personally responsible
for it. It's just it's just one of those things.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
And you have come here at three in the morning
to tell me.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That, yes, because we may not have very much time
kind for what the mine. Look. Look, we could sit
here for hours, going all the way back to when
you were a little kid, and we could come up
with hundreds of examples, but well, here we have the mine.
The rediscovery of the mine. It could mean millions, maybe
(19:30):
billions of dollars. So please don't kill it.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Kill it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I don't know how did you kill all those other things.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
But I'm telling you I didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And I'm telling you it's not what you do or
what you did, but what you are?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
What am I?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I could say a jinx, I could say a whitch,
But what does that mean? You've heard of lady luck? Okay,
so there's also lady bad luck. Janie. I'm so scared
something will come up to ruin the mind?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Please please what?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Please leave town?
Speaker 6 (20:15):
As one of the hundred citizens of Bowler, I understand
I own one percent of that mine. Is this a
scheme to steal my shares?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I swear to you, I believe with all my heart
that if you stay here there won't be any money
or shares or anything for anybody. Something will happen to
that mind.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
So I'm to leave town. Yes, Jane, leave town and
go where? Go where? Jeff? This is my home.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
I don't know any other place.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
This is all I have.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Janis, I know how you feel?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
How how do you know?
Speaker 6 (20:56):
How do you know what it feels like to be
a woman who has nothing and nobody, No husband, no kids,
no career. I never even went to college. They sent
Unas south East.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
She was the smart one, the pretty one, Jonas.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
It isn't anybody's fault. It's the way things just happen
to be.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
I guess, and now you want me to give up
the only thing I have in the world.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
My home.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
The answer is no, Jonas.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
This is my home. You can't force me to leave it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Good morning. This is your special reporter in the tiny
town of Bulwer, which has been struck by the golden
lightning of sudden wealth. Let me say at this point
that I seem to feel an unexpected reaction. You would
expect most people to be exhilarated by the prospect of wealth,
and yet most of these townfolks seem sobered by it.
(21:56):
Does this mean that they are highly mature, sensitive to
the response disabilities of great wealth? Or is there something
we don't know? It's dawned on me. It's finally dawned
on me.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
What we're going to be rich?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
It may not happen.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
What do you believe what you were telling me about
the Miller sisters, especially Janie? Well, I don't was it
just talk the conversation or what?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Well?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Maybe I don't know if I believe it or not.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I believe it, Jeff, Jeff, What am I right? Am
I wrong? What do you think?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I wish I knew?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I believe it. I went to see Janie.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
To say, what to do?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
What to ask her to leave? Tom?
Speaker 4 (22:57):
How could you just ask to leave?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That's what she asked me.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
What did you tell her the truth?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
She's entitled to know.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
What did she say?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
She said, no, So now what I don't know?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Yes, yes you do. You know you're going to talk
it over with Jim Delray, Harvey Parkins and Colonel Bob.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And then you're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess I
am going to do that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
But what happens next that I don't know. And I
guess that's the size and shape of it. Colonel Bob,
what do you think of it? What do I think
of it? Dennis? Is your assistant law? You if anybody
(23:53):
at the town's leading, Susan, but you're fa mayor only
because you don't want the job. You're famous or hero? Bob?
What's your opinion? Is this just a bunch of superstitious foolishness?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
You seem to believe it, and from what I gather,
as soon as everybody else in this town.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Oh then folks have been talking to.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Everybody talks to me, Jeff.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I know what I am. I'm a hec, a provincial
I got a high school education. But I never been anywhere,
I never done anything, just just a country boy. You've
been all over the world, not all kinds of interesting
important people. So this thing, this thing, what is the
(24:36):
to it? Anything at all?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
When I was going to engineering school, Jeff, in our
lab courses, we studied the scientific method.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You know what that is. I'm sure it's too complicated
for me. No, no, no, that's what you're wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's very very simple. Has to do with cause and effect.
You follow this, I think so. The classic one they
give is with a dog. Every time, just before you
feed a dog, you ring a bell.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Why would you do that?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Or that? That has to do with the experiment that
the dog hears the bell, he sees the food, he
starts to salivate. You see that makes sense now, Then
after a while, every time the dog even hears the bell,
he begins to salivate. That's what's known as cause and effect.
(25:28):
I got the same thing here, cause and effect. Every
time we get something going in this town, thanks to Janice,
it goes.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Up in smoke. Then you're saying there is something to it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Oh, sure, I knew it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I always knew it. Then why didn't you say something,
say what and who will who to believe me?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I guess the idea was before it's time, But now
now that I see that others have come to the
same conclusion, it's it's time we all got together.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
What would we be getting together for?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You should know, Jeff.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're a mayor of this town. You feel it's your
duty to get something done about it.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I wish I knew what it was. I talked to Janie.
I asked her to leave town. She turned me down.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, truly.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
So where where are we?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You know where we are, Jeff. You may not like
where we are, nobody does, but we are at the
point where we have to do something about Janice.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I admit it. But what I think you know? Jeff?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
I think you know.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And if you're a memo for in good standing of
our audience, I think you know too.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Poor Janice Meller Hollings.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
It is her fate to be a carrier of bad luck.
Such people, when found out throughout history, have suffered for it. Ah,
but you say this was all of the past. Today
we are advanced, sophisticated, civilized. You want to bet Act
three will be here shortly? Sacrifice society is based on
(27:41):
it we.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Give up some of our liberty for the greater good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Our ancestors sacrifice the individual to turn aside the wrath
of the gods and spare the tribe. A general sacrifices
a battalion to save an army for the common good.
The majority usually justify any sacrifice, especially morality. Morality, how weak,
(28:09):
how fragile, how friendless she can sometimes be. You know
what we have to do about janis Jeff's.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
There's just no way we can force her to leave town.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I admit that.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Besides, you've got this newspaper correspondent, Poclora.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I wouldn't worry about him. Nobody will tell him anything.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
But you just admit it. We can't force Jannius to
leave town.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It's right right. Even if she up and left, that
wouldn't do any good. Why not, because she'd still be alive.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Oh there is oh no, but we no, we could never.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right, Jeff, take a little more time. You talk
yourself into it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I did never talk myself and her murder, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Never is a very long time.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I don't think you know me very well, Bob, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Right now, the mayor and the town council of booer.
That's you me, Harvey, Jim. We're receiving bids from mining
companies to develop and exploit the property for us. The
lowest one is for two hundred and fifty million. We
have one hundred citizens, so that's a minimum of two
and one half million each. I know, I know, I
(29:35):
know that's better than that because you and Maria each
get two and a half million, so to yours and I.
Harvey and his wife have three grown sons, so his
family stands to get what a twelve and a half
million dollars. That's what's involved here. I know, I know so,
and you know what you have to do, Jeff. A second,
(29:58):
the idea occurred to you.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
You you how it would have to end.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You've been fighting it, Yes, I've been fighting it. We've
all got to agree. We have all got to agree.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Have you spoken of this to anyone else? Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yes, I have to just about everyone. This thing has
been gathering momentum without you. Now you've got to come
on board. How about the women, Oh yes, they have
to be part of it. I mean you told you
nis who She's the one who convinced me, good evening.
(30:39):
This is your special correspondent in Bulwer, Colorado. This is
the strangest town I've ever seen. The prospect of wealth,
fabulous wealth, has frightened every inhabitant. There will be wealth.
Each of them shall become rich beyond their dreams. I
understand the bidding to exploit the property will go as
high as half a bill million dollars. Ladies and gentlemen
(31:02):
divide that one hundred ways. I have been promised an
interview with a lady who lives in this town later on.
Janice Miller Hollings.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It's wrong, yes, yet it's the will of the majority.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Well, that's not going to help. It's murder and it's wrong.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Yet I know, after we say everything there is to say,
we're we're going to go along with it?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Are we?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yes? We have no choice. It's just too much money,
at least five million dollars for you and me, maybe more,
maybe twice that much.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Ten million dollars. It isn't right, Jess. It isn't right.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
What I mean is it isn't right to tempt human
beings like this.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
It's just too much money.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
It's it's worth Janice Miller's life.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Janice Miller Hollings, do you want to know the truth,
the terrible truth.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I never liked her, all right, all right, you can
say that. I'll say it to whatever it is. We're
starting to justify finding reasons for it.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I realize we have to.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
We want to be able to look at ourselves.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
I'll never be able to again.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
You will, Oh yes, As time goes on, you'll find
reasons to show you did the right thing. We will
be convinced that she was the most evil woman in
the world, and we'll discover facts to prove it. Eventually
we'll all feel like saints for our pardon this, cheerfu.
(32:51):
You know how I always like to study history, Maria, Well,
most of your history is rewritten.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Cheerfully, We're gonna we have blood on our hands.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Nothing like gold to hide the color of blood. Oh yeah,
We'll have a few bad days and then it'll be
all over.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Either miss Miller or is it missus.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Holl's It can be anything you like.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You promised me an interview. Remember did I you whom?
I certainly did. Now I understand you have a twin sister,
and then two of you are as different as night
and there.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
Well, if you know all about me, why do you
wish to interview me.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
None of us really know all about another human being.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Miss Miller, nor should we do.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Strike me as a very sensible person, I'm sure we
could have a most agreeable interview.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
I was warned about big city types like you.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I promise I'll be all business, but.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
I'm not too sure I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, why don't I here take you to dinner this evening?
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Why don't I cook dinner at my house?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I can't think of a single reason against it till
this evening.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Then, yeah, oh oh, hello, Bob.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
The shop would be empty this time of day. How
about a little trim sit right down? You just spoke
to Maria.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, and and there's things like that ancient what do
they call that? Terrible machine? Nobody could stop a juggernaut? Yeah, yeah,
that's what it is. Just rolls over everybody and everything.
You just can't make any argument against it.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So so we're just gonna slightly kill Jannae Smimmer.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
It won't be blithely. Nobody's gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Do we have to even talk about it?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah? Now we do.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
What's there to say?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know, Jeff, I've been barbered in New York London,
Paris out and spent fifty bucks for a haircut. But
none of those characters can touch you.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
What's there to talk about? Now?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
How to do it?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
A hundred citizens in this time? Funny? How we could
get ninety nine to agree to kill one of them?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Why is it funny?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Maybe it is.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Because that's life. You're surprised.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I'm surprised it was so easy. It took a little time.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Jeff, the leading citizens should do it.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, yess up to us pills of the community. I
guess you me Haive and Jim Mayor and the three councilmen.
Well what do we do? You just can't shoot it? Coming?
Good lord, listen to what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
No, no, no, we can't. It has to be an accident, Jeff,
you think you're taking too much off the front there.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
If I thought I was taking too much off the front,
I wouldn't do it, would I? What what kind of
accident is she supposed to have?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Fortunately, her house is just across from the abandoned shaft opening.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Now what do you suggest that we throw it down there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Nothing that crude dynamite.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
There's nothing subtle about dynamite.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
See this company International precious metals. That's bidding for the mine.
They have a truck here. It's got dynamite in it.
It's parked near the shaft that's just across from Janis's house.
It can blow up.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, how do I know?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
An accident? But her place is at least a hundred
feet away. Is there that much dynamite in the truck?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh? Yes, there certainly will be.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And who the four of us will.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Help wire and we'll have an automatic fuse to set
it off.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Huh. And that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
All of our problems are over.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
When do you want to do it?
Speaker 4 (37:07):
We want to.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Do it as soon as it gets.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Dark, about seven o'clock. Mm.
Speaker 7 (37:16):
Be there, Jeff, Yeah, I guess we're all here ready.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That's a lot of dynamite has to do a big job.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Uh, Jeff, you attach these wires. Careful right going on?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Jeff?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
We can't stop now.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
But wait, but nothing now?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
This is it. Start walking less than a minute, it'll be.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
All over, Bob. You sure it'll do the job. I'm
sure you're sure.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Nothing else will be the only house within three hundred yards.
The thing will rattle windows all over town, but all
the damage is gonna be directed poor draft.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Give all the money I'll ever see from that mine
not to have done this down.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
How fast can you run? I estimate we're one hundred
yards away from the dynamite. We've got fifteen seconds. Can
you run one hundred and fifteen seconds? Well, in school,
I can run one hundred and nine maids now here
we go. You got eleven seconds back there, profuse, Hey,
you can now if PA's the point in overtime, we
better hit the ground bar five four, three two one.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
Thank a.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Bob, it didn't go off.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
We're saved. Well, I could have been a couple of seconds.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Thumb.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Ladies and gentlemen. This is your reporter of the town
of Buller, except there is no town of Buler any longer.
It is buried under millions of tons of dirt and rock.
The only survivor is the luckiest woman in the world,
Miss Janice Miller, who is standing beside me. Now, Miss Miller,
what exactly did happen?
Speaker 6 (39:23):
Well, we don't get them often, but when we do
we do. This was an avalanche. As you know, bulwer
Is was in a valley hendon by very steep mountain.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
But what set it off? Miss Miller?
Speaker 6 (39:41):
Well, you and I heard what set it off?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, I should explain. Miss Miller and I
had made a date for her interview to be taped
at dinner, which he kindly offered to prepare for me
at her house. But at the last moment, for some reason,
we decided to drive to a restaurant in Council Fork,
some forty miles away. Why did we decide to do that, Miss.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
Miller, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
We just decided.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
What did set off the avalanche? Miss Miller?
Speaker 6 (40:09):
We were a long way off, but we heard an explosion.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yes, I thought it was thunder.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
If you'd been raised in a mining town, you know
the sound of dynamite.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
But where was the dynamite?
Speaker 6 (40:21):
I noticed a truck outside my house just before we left.
I'm sure there was dynamite in.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
It, But what could have set it off?
Speaker 6 (40:29):
Who knows anything or nothing that's dynamite.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And this explosion triggered the avalanche? Definitely, Ladies and gentlemen,
this is an eerie sight. Here was once a hamlet
of over a hundred human beings, all of them are
outcovered by tons of rock. This disaster struck without warning
with bewildering speed. There was no time to sound an alarm,
(40:55):
no time to make an escape. I suppose all this
debris will be bulldozed away, and this fantastically rich mind
will belong to the soul survivor of Bulwer, Miss Janice Miller.
Miss Miller, you are the luckiest lady in the world.
Fortune's favorite funny.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
I always thought of myself as misfortune's favors. But I
guess if you live long enough, the worm turns, the
road turns, and your luck turns.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Of course, there are the category of stories known as
the getting hoisted by your own petard type, or the
scaffold of Haman kind. You know Haman who built the
scaffold for Mordecai and wound up stepping off it himself.
We love such stories because you can't beat poetic justice,
(41:57):
and they speak for themselves. At the end. They leave
me with nothing to say except that I shall return
in a few moments. We began these ceremonies with a
(42:20):
poem by Heinrich Heiner, which celebrated the ladies who control fortune,
good and bad. And if they are fickle, volatile and unpredictable,
would you have them any other way? Isn't it marvelous
to live in suspense, uncertain of the morrow, not knowing
which of these ladies were knocked on your door, and
(42:42):
enter your room, And do you.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Require a word of caution?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Well, remember, since luck is a lady, treat her like one,
and she will.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Always treat you like a gentleman.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Our cast included fred Gwynn, Briner, Rayburn, Russell Horton and Carrod.
I tell the entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown. And now a preview of our next tale.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Ten grand is certainly cheap enough to save your life
by coming here. You could be signing your own death warrant.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Why, oh, lieutenant, isn't it possible that some people may
be motivated by idealistic considerations?
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Sure, sure, sure, in the movies, in the books, because
that's what we'd like to believe.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
But you and I we can't.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Afford to believe that way. I mean, you're a doctor,
I'm a cop.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We know how people behave when life and death are
on the line.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Still there are those views.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yes, every now and then you run across a saint,
and somehow I don't think that's you, mister Tabell.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
So I'm going to ask you that question again. Why
are you here?
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well, Lieutenant I I have a confession to make. Radio
Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by x Lax. This
is e G. Marshall inviting you to return to our
Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time,
(44:18):
pleasant dreams.
Better presents.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Come in.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good Luck is a giddy maid, fickle and restless as
a fawn. She smooths your hair, and then the jade
kisses you quickly and is gone. But Madame bad Luck
scorns all this. She shows no fairness for flitting by
the long and fervent kiss sits by your bed and
brings her knitting. And so you have them, The Luck Sisters,
(00:47):
Good and Bad two ladies who cannot be wooed or courted.
They pick and choose their own time and place. If
only we knew how to capture one and escape the other.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
If only it's wrong, it's indecent.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I agree, it's immoral.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
I admit this murder can never be justified for any reason.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That's a fact.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Why how can you agree to it?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
The price is right.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Our mystery drama The Luck Sisters was written especially for
the Mystery Theater by Sam Dan and stars Fred Gwynn.
It is sponsored in part by Adwick Muder Division. I'll
be back shortly with that one. We have when you
(01:56):
add up the minutes, something less than an hour to
relate our stories, and most of the time it's enough.
We usually attempt to tell a tight and talk little
tale that honors the Aristotlian strictures for the unities of time, place,
and character. However, every now and then we come up
with what can only be called a saga, an epic
(02:18):
that sprawls across a vast and multicolored canvas, rolling, rollicking, swashbuckling,
filled with violence, intrigue, conflict, adventure, and sex. Well, what
you are about to hear may qualify as a saga.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am in the town of Bower.
(02:38):
I in this rocky mountain valley. Bower is hardly more
than a hamlet. It was on its way to becoming
a ghost town when suddenly an enormous vein of gold
was discovered in an abandoned mind. Right now, this little
village has just about been invaded by the news media.
I believe we even outnumber the residents. But those residents
(02:59):
of Bower, the one hundred registered, tax paying and voting
citizens of Bulwer, will each become a millionaire because the
mine itself is owned by the town of Bulwer. Let
us rejoin the press conference outside the store of Mayor
Jefferson McDowell, who is also the town.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Barber, Yes, sir, town's named after Mayor Poindexter Bulwer, who
was adjutant to General Grant. It later came out he
was a speculator in army supplies and stole a million dollars.
That's Major Bulwer, not General Grant, but by that time
he was dead.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Mister mayor.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
What about the mine, it's the old Bulwer mine. Town
grew up all around. It never was worth much, the mine,
I mean, not the town.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, how did the town get possessioned?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Well, after Major Bulwer died and without issue, I might say,
the town took it over for back taxes.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Mister mayor, What would you say this new discovery means
to the citizens of Bulwer.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, it means once we get her into production, everybody
in Bower's going to become a millionaire.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
How is it discovered that there was gold in the mind.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
She's been abandoned almost one hundred years. Then last week,
little Billy Blackburn, that's Bob and Eunice Blackburn's kid fell
down a shaft. Wasn't hurt, just scared. When they dug
him up, there was all this gold dust.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Do you think this will change the people in this town?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
What kind of a stupid question is that if you
was to have become a millionaire, wouldn't it change you?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Oh, Jeff, where have you been your mate for suffer?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
So let's e Jeff, somebody's wrong.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
What do you think is wrong?
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Maybe it's not true that the mind doesn't belong to
the town.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
We're not going to be rich.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
The mind does belong to the town, and the town
can distribute the revenue from it anyway. It's easy for the.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Jeff, are you trying to tell me?
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Maybe it all isn't on the level somehow, maybe there's
no gold.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Nope, car as we know, there's gold engineer come in
from one of those big companies. He said. It might
even rival the comstock load.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Then what's that look on your face, Maria?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I'm I'm scared, scared, scared of what?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Oh oh I see?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Do you really see, Maria?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Well, I think I do. Sure.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Our quiet, lovely, decent little town transformed suddenly into a
what can I call it? A flesh pot filled with
neon lights, the pure fresh air poisoned by smoke and pollution.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Bugo will become a city with.
Speaker 5 (05:58):
All those urban problems delinquency, crime prostitutions are like that.
That's what's bothering you, isn't it?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
No, no, no, none, that's bothering me.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
It isn't.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Why would I care what happened to Bower?
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, it's our home, but.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
We won't be living here no longer. We'll be spending
our time in sunny Spain and the Riviera in Florida.
We're gonna have an apartment in New York and a
flat London.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Are you crazy?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
No, Maria, I'm just saying, when you become a millionaire,
you have a responsibility to maintain a certain standard of living.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Well, I never get to the point I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
To tell you.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
Oh, whatever else you may be, one thing you are
not is afraid real.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Maybe maybe I don't know how to tell you.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Well, I'll just try.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I guess I'm waiting waiting for what for the other
shoe to drop?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
I see what are you expecting?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Something bad?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Bad?
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Why? I don't know?
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Oh, then then I don't understand.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
No, no, no, no, that's not true. I know, I know,
I think I know.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Jeff, You're starting to scare me. You're the most level
headed person.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
I know. What's bothering you.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Something bad is going to happen.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Why why do you say that?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because it's the history of this town. Bad follows good,
like Nightfallow's Day.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
I'm not sure, I am.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, look, go back to the beginning, right, The town
is named after a Civil War heor it later turns
out he's a crook. Bull was supposed to be the
location of a great new gold strike, like Sutter's Mill
or the Klondike turns out to be a false alone.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
All right, but that's all ancient history, rabit.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Let's talk about modern history, then, the history of the
last twenty years. Remember this company was going to open
a plant just outside of town, rejuvenate the economy with
five hundred jobs.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I don't believe they were serious.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
What are you talking about. They already started digging the foundations.
Do you remember what happened? They went broke, That's what happened.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
But still that doesn't prove.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The Air Force was going to put up a base
on Spencer's Plateau.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
That wasn't definite.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
What do you mean it wasn't definite. We were going
to contract for the land.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Jeff.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
You know where the government's concerned.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
You've always got politics But the.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Fact is, one day it was yes and the next
day it was no.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
But what can happen now?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I don't know something something terrible. But you can't fight history.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
But you yourself told me, we know there's gold, millions
of dollars worth, and the engineers said it's high grade
ore and there shouldn't be any real problems getting to it.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
What can happen, Maria, Honey, this is bulwark, depend on it.
We're in trouble.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
What kind of trouble?
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Good evening, mister Mayor.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Oh, oh, it's use that reporter. How come you haven't
left for the rest of them?
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Because I think the real story has yet to happen.
For example, mister Mayor, why do you appear to be
so troubled?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Troubled?
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Well, obviously something's bothering.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
You tell me you've been around. You're a college educated man.
Do you believe in fate? Fate is whatever happens, then
you look back at it and say, yes, that was fate.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
This may I'd like to talk to you about the mine,
if I may.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
The mine, oh oh, the mind.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yes, and the sociological impact it'll have on this tiny community.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
If you'll excuse me, I have an important.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Appointment at midnight.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Oh oh, my goodness, then I'm really really late. Good night, sir.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Is your special reporter in Bower, and I can report
the town is behaving in a manner close to what
you might expect. There's great happiness here and great expectations.
Mayor Jefferson McDowell, however, seems somewhat different from his fellow townspeople.
He takes long walks at night. Those who know him
say he's suddenly become very serious. Certainly, he appears to
(10:22):
be extremely introspective. It's almost as if he knows something
that is hidden them from everyone else.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Is it true?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
More on the town of Bower on my regular broadcast
this evening.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
Jeff, yeah, telling, why aren't you asleep? I'm thinking all
this turning and tossing is keeping me awake. Sorry, Jeff,
can't you explain what's bothering you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I told you it's this, this a pattern of good
and bad that seems to haunt forward.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Well, I guess it's true.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Oh, I see you're not fighting me anymore.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Surely, and simply in the interest of getting my beauty sleep,
I solved the problem.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
What are you saying?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Dog?
Speaker 5 (11:20):
This will be the craziest thing you ever heard.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Do you believe in luck?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Well, now let's say good luck is a good angel,
so then bad luck.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Would be a bad angel.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
Right now, we got two of those angels in this town.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You've really got to explain this.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Well, the Miller sisters, Eunice and Janie.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Eunus Blackburn and Janice Hollingod those two you lost me,
You just lost me.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, all I've.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Been doing is exploring your subject history. Here you have
those twin girls, Janice and Eunice Miller by now.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
They're grown women.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Eunice and Janie study it.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Everything that Eunice does, everything.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
And everybody she's connected with turns out fine. On the
other hand, Janie, wait, as far back as you can remember,
hasn't it been that Eunice brought everybody good luck and
Janie caused nothing but trouble?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (12:20):
As a matter of fact, Now, before you dig around
for all the evidence, and there's whole volumes of it,
just a couple of simple things. Janice was engaged to
Tom Patterson, who went off.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
To Vietnam and got killed.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Eunice married Bob Blackburn, who put in four years never
got a scratch, got the Congressional Medal.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Of Honor and came back a colonel.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And the mind little Billy Blackburn goes barry picking with
his aunt Janis and falls down that abandoned shaft, just
because he was with Janis.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
But just because he's Eunus's son. He not only comes
out without a scratch.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
But when you.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Strike gold, Okay, review the past twenty years, and now
maybe you know what I mean when I say I'm
waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Speaker 5 (13:06):
All right, all right, but what possible calamity can Janice
bring about?
Speaker 4 (13:10):
Now?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It has to follow. It has to remember it was
through Eunice's husband, Bob Blackburn, the Air Force was interested
in building the base. Right, the guy who was the
head of planning came down. He was impressed, he was interested.
The deal was just about to go through. We put
him up for the night in Janie's house. The next day,
(13:31):
somehow everything cooled down.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
Oh still, you can't blame Janice.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
It's not time for credit and there's no time for blame.
All we can go by are facts. The same thing
with the factory. There was going to be built here.
It was Janice.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Yes, we have no proof, we have facts. Where are
you going out? It's three in the morning.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
I know, but I don't have a minute to lose.
I have to save the town, the mine, the gold
of us before it's too late, too late for what. Well,
what are we talking about?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
We seem to be talking about people who carry luck,
good or bad around with them, superstition, old wives tale.
Before you make your judgment, consider many of the commonplace
things we take for granted today, like telephones, airplanes, not
to mention space flight, were once old wives tales, and
(14:33):
people who spoke about them seriously could.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Be burned or hanged.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
I hope you will hang around with burning anticipation for
act touo. Gold Chemically, structurally, it's a simple and relatively
(15:00):
uncomplicated element, and yet it has within it a mysterious
essence that can completely change human nature? Or is that
really true? Can we basically be offered by gold? Or
does gold merely act as the catalyst to speed up
changes that we're always ready and waiting to happen?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Who is it, Janus, It's me Jeff McDowell. What is it, Janie?
I've got to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Yes, do you know what time it is?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I know what time it is. Can I can I
come in?
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Well?
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Uh? Janis I I don't know how to say this,
say what? I don't even know how to begin.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
Miss Valentine, our fifth grade teacher used to say, begin
at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
The beginning. We go back a long way, you and I, Janie.
Speaker 6 (16:13):
You never should remind a lady of her age, Jeff.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And many things have happened. Oh, it's no use. The
only way to say this is say it right out,
straight out. Yes, I want to tell you.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That you're in love with me? Is that it?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Denis? That's not right.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
You want a divorce, Maria?
Speaker 6 (16:41):
No, are you suggesting that we have an affair, Dennis, Listen,
in a small place like this, how long do you think.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It could be kept a secrets?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
You've got it all wrong. I want to ask you
to leave town.
Speaker 6 (16:56):
No, Jeff, you've got it all wrong.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It's not what I came here to talk about. I
came here to ask you to leave town. And it
has nothing to do with me or you. It's for
the good of Buller.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Is that a fact?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Janie? You must leave town before it's too late.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
You ring a.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
Bell at three in the morning to tell me to
leave town.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
If it's a joke, I'm not amused.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
I'll put it this way. Look, three hundred years ago
you would have been burned at the stake.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Your conversation isn't getting more pleasant either.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
You and Eunice, the Miller sisters. What's the history of
the militism.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
I must ask you to leave.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Jesf You, Janice, You bring misfortune, tragedy. Eunice has always
brought good things, great things, wonderful things to everyone about it.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
I can't believe I'm sitting here.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Listening to this.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
She brings us good luck. You bring us bad. Maybe
it can be spread like a disease, and you you
could be the carrier.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There's the door, Jefferson McGough, Janie.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
There's no malice in this. I promise you. I'm stating
a fact.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
So am I get out?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Consider Janis, everybody who's ever been associated with you has
In high school, you went out with Freddie.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Price, so did other girls common Janis.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Remember the senior album You and Freddie were voted Romeo
and Juliet. He had a great future as a ballplayer.
The big league scouts were here to see him. But
the day he gave you his pin, he broke his arm.
Now is the end of him?
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And what did I have to do with that?
Speaker 3 (18:37):
It doesn't get any better. Janis the Pattison boy. Remember
you got engaged just before he went to Vietnam. He
was killed and your husband, Joe, he was killed in
a plane crash.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Jeff, I have had a very tragic life. Things have
always gone badly, That's.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
What I'm trying to tell you. And there's a reason
for it.
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Are you saying it's my fault?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yes? Oh, you're unaware of it. You're not personally responsible
for it. It's just it's just one of those things.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
And you have come here at three in the morning
to tell me.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
That, yes, because we may not have very much time
kind for what the mine. Look. Look, we could sit
here for hours, going all the way back to when
you were a little kid, and we could come up
with hundreds of examples, but well, here we have the mine.
The rediscovery of the mine. It could mean millions, maybe
(19:30):
billions of dollars. So please don't kill it.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Kill it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I don't know how did you kill all those other things.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
But I'm telling you I didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And I'm telling you it's not what you do or
what you did, but what you are?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
What am I?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I could say a jinx, I could say a whitch,
But what does that mean? You've heard of lady luck? Okay,
so there's also lady bad luck. Janie. I'm so scared
something will come up to ruin the mind?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Please please what?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Please leave town?
Speaker 6 (20:15):
As one of the hundred citizens of Bowler, I understand
I own one percent of that mine. Is this a
scheme to steal my shares?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I swear to you, I believe with all my heart
that if you stay here there won't be any money
or shares or anything for anybody. Something will happen to
that mind.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
So I'm to leave town. Yes, Jane, leave town and
go where? Go where? Jeff? This is my home.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
I don't know any other place.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
This is all I have.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Janis, I know how you feel?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
How how do you know?
Speaker 6 (20:56):
How do you know what it feels like to be
a woman who has nothing and nobody, No husband, no kids,
no career. I never even went to college. They sent
Unas south East.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
She was the smart one, the pretty one, Jonas.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
It isn't anybody's fault. It's the way things just happen
to be.
Speaker 6 (21:12):
I guess, and now you want me to give up
the only thing I have in the world.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
My home.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
The answer is no, Jonas.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
This is my home. You can't force me to leave it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Good morning. This is your special reporter in the tiny
town of Bulwer, which has been struck by the golden
lightning of sudden wealth. Let me say at this point
that I seem to feel an unexpected reaction. You would
expect most people to be exhilarated by the prospect of wealth,
and yet most of these townfolks seem sobered by it.
(21:56):
Does this mean that they are highly mature, sensitive to
the response disabilities of great wealth? Or is there something
we don't know? It's dawned on me. It's finally dawned
on me.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
What we're going to be rich?
Speaker 3 (22:17):
It may not happen.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
What do you believe what you were telling me about
the Miller sisters, especially Janie? Well, I don't was it
just talk the conversation or what?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Well?
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Maybe I don't know if I believe it or not.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I believe it, Jeff, Jeff, What am I right? Am
I wrong? What do you think?
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I wish I knew?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
I believe it. I went to see Janie.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
To say, what to do?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
What to ask her to leave? Tom?
Speaker 4 (22:57):
How could you just ask to leave?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
That's what she asked me.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
What did you tell her the truth?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
She's entitled to know.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
What did she say?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
She said, no, So now what I don't know?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Yes, yes you do. You know you're going to talk
it over with Jim Delray, Harvey Parkins and Colonel Bob.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And then you're yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess I
am going to do that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
But what happens next that I don't know. And I
guess that's the size and shape of it. Colonel Bob,
what do you think of it? What do I think
of it? Dennis? Is your assistant law? You if anybody
(23:53):
at the town's leading, Susan, but you're fa mayor only
because you don't want the job. You're famous or hero? Bob?
What's your opinion? Is this just a bunch of superstitious foolishness?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
You seem to believe it, and from what I gather,
as soon as everybody else in this town.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Oh then folks have been talking to.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Everybody talks to me, Jeff.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
I know what I am. I'm a hec, a provincial
I got a high school education. But I never been anywhere,
I never done anything, just just a country boy. You've
been all over the world, not all kinds of interesting
important people. So this thing, this thing, what is the
(24:36):
to it? Anything at all?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
When I was going to engineering school, Jeff, in our
lab courses, we studied the scientific method.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
You know what that is. I'm sure it's too complicated
for me. No, no, no, that's what you're wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It's very very simple. Has to do with cause and effect.
You follow this, I think so. The classic one they
give is with a dog. Every time, just before you
feed a dog, you ring a bell.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Why would you do that?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Or that? That has to do with the experiment that
the dog hears the bell, he sees the food, he
starts to salivate. You see that makes sense now, Then
after a while, every time the dog even hears the bell,
he begins to salivate. That's what's known as cause and effect.
(25:28):
I got the same thing here, cause and effect. Every
time we get something going in this town, thanks to Janice,
it goes.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Up in smoke. Then you're saying there is something to it.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Oh, sure, I knew it.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I always knew it. Then why didn't you say something,
say what and who will who to believe me?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I guess the idea was before it's time, But now
now that I see that others have come to the
same conclusion, it's it's time we all got together.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
What would we be getting together for?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
You should know, Jeff.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
You're a mayor of this town. You feel it's your
duty to get something done about it.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I wish I knew what it was. I talked to Janie.
I asked her to leave town. She turned me down.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, truly.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
So where where are we?
Speaker 1 (26:30):
You know where we are, Jeff. You may not like
where we are, nobody does, but we are at the
point where we have to do something about Janice.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
I admit it. But what I think you know? Jeff?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
I think you know.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And if you're a memo for in good standing of
our audience, I think you know too.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Poor Janice Meller Hollings.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
It is her fate to be a carrier of bad luck.
Such people, when found out throughout history, have suffered for it. Ah,
but you say this was all of the past. Today
we are advanced, sophisticated, civilized. You want to bet Act
three will be here shortly? Sacrifice society is based on
(27:41):
it we.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Give up some of our liberty for the greater good.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Our ancestors sacrifice the individual to turn aside the wrath
of the gods and spare the tribe. A general sacrifices
a battalion to save an army for the common good.
The majority usually justify any sacrifice, especially morality. Morality, how weak,
(28:09):
how fragile, how friendless she can sometimes be. You know
what we have to do about janis Jeff's.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
There's just no way we can force her to leave town.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I admit that.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Besides, you've got this newspaper correspondent, Poclora.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
I wouldn't worry about him. Nobody will tell him anything.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
But you just admit it. We can't force Jannius to
leave town.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
It's right right. Even if she up and left, that
wouldn't do any good. Why not, because she'd still be alive.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Oh there is oh no, but we no, we could never.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
All right, Jeff, take a little more time. You talk
yourself into it.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I did never talk myself and her murder, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Never is a very long time.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
I don't think you know me very well, Bob, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Right now, the mayor and the town council of booer.
That's you me, Harvey, Jim. We're receiving bids from mining
companies to develop and exploit the property for us. The
lowest one is for two hundred and fifty million. We
have one hundred citizens, so that's a minimum of two
and one half million each. I know, I know, I
(29:35):
know that's better than that because you and Maria each
get two and a half million, so to yours and I.
Harvey and his wife have three grown sons, so his
family stands to get what a twelve and a half
million dollars. That's what's involved here. I know, I know so,
and you know what you have to do, Jeff. A second,
(29:58):
the idea occurred to you.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
You you how it would have to end.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
You've been fighting it, Yes, I've been fighting it. We've
all got to agree. We have all got to agree.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Have you spoken of this to anyone else? Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yes, I have to just about everyone. This thing has
been gathering momentum without you. Now you've got to come
on board. How about the women, Oh yes, they have
to be part of it. I mean you told you
nis who She's the one who convinced me, good evening.
(30:39):
This is your special correspondent in Bulwer, Colorado. This is
the strangest town I've ever seen. The prospect of wealth,
fabulous wealth, has frightened every inhabitant. There will be wealth.
Each of them shall become rich beyond their dreams. I
understand the bidding to exploit the property will go as
high as half a bill million dollars. Ladies and gentlemen
(31:02):
divide that one hundred ways. I have been promised an
interview with a lady who lives in this town later on.
Janice Miller Hollings.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It's wrong, yes, yet it's the will of the majority.
Speaker 4 (31:21):
Well, that's not going to help. It's murder and it's wrong.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Yet I know, after we say everything there is to say,
we're we're going to go along with it?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Are we?
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yes? We have no choice. It's just too much money,
at least five million dollars for you and me, maybe more,
maybe twice that much.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Ten million dollars. It isn't right, Jess. It isn't right.
Speaker 5 (31:51):
What I mean is it isn't right to tempt human
beings like this.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
It's just too much money.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
It's it's worth Janice Miller's life.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Janice Miller Hollings, do you want to know the truth,
the terrible truth.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
I never liked her, all right, all right, you can
say that. I'll say it to whatever it is. We're
starting to justify finding reasons for it.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
I realize we have to.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
We want to be able to look at ourselves.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
I'll never be able to again.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
You will, Oh yes, As time goes on, you'll find
reasons to show you did the right thing. We will
be convinced that she was the most evil woman in
the world, and we'll discover facts to prove it. Eventually
we'll all feel like saints for our pardon this, cheerfu.
(32:51):
You know how I always like to study history, Maria, Well,
most of your history is rewritten.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Cheerfully, We're gonna we have blood on our hands.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
Nothing like gold to hide the color of blood. Oh yeah,
We'll have a few bad days and then it'll be
all over.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Either miss Miller or is it missus.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Holl's It can be anything you like.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You promised me an interview. Remember did I you whom?
I certainly did. Now I understand you have a twin sister,
and then two of you are as different as night
and there.
Speaker 6 (33:36):
Well, if you know all about me, why do you
wish to interview me.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
None of us really know all about another human being.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Miss Miller, nor should we do.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Strike me as a very sensible person, I'm sure we
could have a most agreeable interview.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
I was warned about big city types like you.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I promise I'll be all business, but.
Speaker 6 (33:55):
I'm not too sure I like that.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, why don't I here take you to dinner this evening?
Speaker 6 (34:00):
Why don't I cook dinner at my house?
Speaker 1 (34:02):
I can't think of a single reason against it till
this evening.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Then, yeah, oh oh, hello, Bob.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
The shop would be empty this time of day. How
about a little trim sit right down? You just spoke
to Maria.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, and and there's things like that ancient what do
they call that? Terrible machine? Nobody could stop a juggernaut? Yeah, yeah,
that's what it is. Just rolls over everybody and everything.
You just can't make any argument against it.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So so we're just gonna slightly kill Jannae Smimmer.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
It won't be blithely. Nobody's gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Do we have to even talk about it?
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah? Now we do.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
What's there to say?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
You know, Jeff, I've been barbered in New York London,
Paris out and spent fifty bucks for a haircut. But
none of those characters can touch you.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
What's there to talk about? Now?
Speaker 1 (35:10):
How to do it?
Speaker 3 (35:12):
A hundred citizens in this time? Funny? How we could
get ninety nine to agree to kill one of them?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Why is it funny?
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Maybe it is.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Because that's life. You're surprised.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
I'm surprised it was so easy. It took a little time.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Jeff, the leading citizens should do it.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, yess up to us pills of the community. I
guess you me Haive and Jim Mayor and the three councilmen.
Well what do we do? You just can't shoot it? Coming?
Good lord, listen to what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
No, no, no, we can't. It has to be an accident, Jeff,
you think you're taking too much off the front there.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
If I thought I was taking too much off the front,
I wouldn't do it, would I? What what kind of
accident is she supposed to have?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Fortunately, her house is just across from the abandoned shaft opening.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Now what do you suggest that we throw it down there? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Nothing that crude dynamite.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
There's nothing subtle about dynamite.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
See this company International precious metals. That's bidding for the mine.
They have a truck here. It's got dynamite in it.
It's parked near the shaft that's just across from Janis's house.
It can blow up.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Yeah, how do I know?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
An accident? But her place is at least a hundred
feet away. Is there that much dynamite in the truck?
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh? Yes, there certainly will be.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
And who the four of us will.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Help wire and we'll have an automatic fuse to set
it off.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Huh. And that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
All of our problems are over.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
When do you want to do it?
Speaker 4 (37:07):
We want to.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Do it as soon as it gets.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Dark, about seven o'clock. Mm.
Speaker 7 (37:16):
Be there, Jeff, Yeah, I guess we're all here ready.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
That's a lot of dynamite has to do a big job.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Uh, Jeff, you attach these wires. Careful right going on?
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Jeff?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
We can't stop now.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
But wait, but nothing now?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
This is it. Start walking less than a minute, it'll be.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
All over, Bob. You sure it'll do the job. I'm
sure you're sure.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Nothing else will be the only house within three hundred yards.
The thing will rattle windows all over town, but all
the damage is gonna be directed poor draft.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Give all the money I'll ever see from that mine
not to have done this down.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
How fast can you run? I estimate we're one hundred
yards away from the dynamite. We've got fifteen seconds. Can
you run one hundred and fifteen seconds? Well, in school,
I can run one hundred and nine maids now here
we go. You got eleven seconds back there, profuse, Hey,
you can now if PA's the point in overtime, we
better hit the ground bar five four, three two one.
Speaker 7 (38:32):
Thank a.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Bob, it didn't go off.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
We're saved. Well, I could have been a couple of seconds.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Thumb.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Ladies and gentlemen. This is your reporter of the town
of Buller, except there is no town of Buler any longer.
It is buried under millions of tons of dirt and rock.
The only survivor is the luckiest woman in the world,
Miss Janice Miller, who is standing beside me. Now, Miss Miller,
what exactly did happen?
Speaker 6 (39:23):
Well, we don't get them often, but when we do
we do. This was an avalanche. As you know, bulwer
Is was in a valley hendon by very steep mountain.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
But what set it off? Miss Miller?
Speaker 6 (39:41):
Well, you and I heard what set it off?
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Ladies and gentlemen, I should explain. Miss Miller and I
had made a date for her interview to be taped
at dinner, which he kindly offered to prepare for me
at her house. But at the last moment, for some reason,
we decided to drive to a restaurant in Council Fork,
some forty miles away. Why did we decide to do that, Miss.
Speaker 6 (40:03):
Miller, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
We just decided.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
What did set off the avalanche? Miss Miller?
Speaker 6 (40:09):
We were a long way off, but we heard an explosion.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yes, I thought it was thunder.
Speaker 6 (40:14):
If you'd been raised in a mining town, you know
the sound of dynamite.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
But where was the dynamite?
Speaker 6 (40:21):
I noticed a truck outside my house just before we left.
I'm sure there was dynamite in.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
It, But what could have set it off?
Speaker 6 (40:29):
Who knows anything or nothing that's dynamite.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And this explosion triggered the avalanche? Definitely, Ladies and gentlemen,
this is an eerie sight. Here was once a hamlet
of over a hundred human beings, all of them are
outcovered by tons of rock. This disaster struck without warning
with bewildering speed. There was no time to sound an alarm,
(40:55):
no time to make an escape. I suppose all this
debris will be bulldozed away, and this fantastically rich mind
will belong to the soul survivor of Bulwer, Miss Janice Miller.
Miss Miller, you are the luckiest lady in the world.
Fortune's favorite funny.
Speaker 6 (41:17):
I always thought of myself as misfortune's favors. But I
guess if you live long enough, the worm turns, the
road turns, and your luck turns.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Of course, there are the category of stories known as
the getting hoisted by your own petard type, or the
scaffold of Haman kind. You know Haman who built the
scaffold for Mordecai and wound up stepping off it himself.
We love such stories because you can't beat poetic justice,
(41:57):
and they speak for themselves. At the end. They leave
me with nothing to say except that I shall return
in a few moments. We began these ceremonies with a
(42:20):
poem by Heinrich Heiner, which celebrated the ladies who control fortune,
good and bad. And if they are fickle, volatile and unpredictable,
would you have them any other way? Isn't it marvelous
to live in suspense, uncertain of the morrow, not knowing
which of these ladies were knocked on your door, and
(42:42):
enter your room, And do you.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Require a word of caution?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Well, remember, since luck is a lady, treat her like one,
and she will.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Always treat you like a gentleman.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Our cast included fred Gwynn, Briner, Rayburn, Russell Horton and Carrod.
I tell the entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown. And now a preview of our next tale.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Ten grand is certainly cheap enough to save your life
by coming here. You could be signing your own death warrant.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Why, oh, lieutenant, isn't it possible that some people may
be motivated by idealistic considerations?
Speaker 3 (43:26):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Sure, sure, sure, in the movies, in the books, because
that's what we'd like to believe.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
But you and I we can't.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Afford to believe that way. I mean, you're a doctor,
I'm a cop.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
We know how people behave when life and death are
on the line.
Speaker 4 (43:39):
Still there are those views.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Yes, every now and then you run across a saint,
and somehow I don't think that's you, mister Tabell.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
So I'm going to ask you that question again. Why
are you here?
Speaker 1 (43:56):
Well, Lieutenant I I have a confession to make. Radio
Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by x Lax. This
is e G. Marshall inviting you to return to our
Mystery Theater for another adventure in the macabre. Until next time,
(44:18):
pleasant dreams.
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