May 2, 2025 • 28 mins
An anthology series presenting original radio plays, showcasing a variety of genres and storytelling styles. Each episode offers a unique narrative experience.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction nine.
(00:29):
Radio City Playhouse proudly presents Betrayal, another story by Ernest Cannoy,
author of Ground four Window and Whistle Daughter Whistle. IRV
is played by Bernard Grant and the production is directed
by Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jenkin.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Here is Radio City Playhouse Attraction nine.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Betrayal.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Streets look a lot different at four in the morning
than they do in the daylight. I mean it's quiet
and you can see the old papers and the orange
peel in the gutter.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I checked it off my beat about four. I got
rid of the blue straight jacket.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
If the precinct was heading for that nice slumpy bed
in my room. When I turned off of one hundred
and seventeenth Street, I spotted.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
This kid sitting on a curve, blinging it against the
street lamp. I guess I look funny in City's or else.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
He didn't hear me come up because he jumped about
three feet.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
What do you want?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Nothing? What are you doing here?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Mine of my own business?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh yes, kid, ain't you where do you live?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I forget?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Ain't it kind of laid out for you?
Speaker 4 (01:44):
I got all night?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I haven't now quit horsing around? Where do you live?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why don't you chase yourself around? Block and hall of fire?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Get up out of there? Blo, But I said, get up, hey,
let go My.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I'm your big crumb. Why don't you pick on some
of your own sign?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Come on now, kid, you better get home.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
What's it to you?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Look, you don't want to get into trouble.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Go ahead, call a cop. Only there was Take me
downtown and show me in the children's shelter. That don't
bother me?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
None, No, the whole story, don't you huh? Never mind? Well,
how long do you expect to sit together?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Look, mister, why don't you leave me alone? I didn't
do you nothing?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, you just can't sit there.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Come on, ain't let go? Where are you taking it?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Look?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If I'm gonna argue with a pine size humphry boguard,
I'm gonna do it over some breakfast.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Another old black, No sugar, Charlie, grow on black?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well kid, how about it? How about what you Where
do you live? What's your name? Ship? Ship? You carry one?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Yeah? You can look it's snapshot.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Hey, that's quite a front sticker.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
It's legal. The blades and ain't under four inches I measured.
That's why they call me ships see, because of the
night I got my name on the handle on the
other side.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
How about the rest of it? Shive?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
What I forget that too?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
One black girl? Hey, Charlie, you ever seen this kid before? Men?
He's done something.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
He's got lots you look, you look kid, shive. I
got to turn you in so they take care of
you down at the Children's Shellers.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I wouldn't tell him not to need it?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
All right?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Look, I'm crazy, but I'll make a bogge with you.
If I put you up tonight. Will you go home tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, it's that of the Children's Shellers. You'll be there
for a couple of days.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
At least you wouldn't pull nothing, would your mister?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh, I'll give you Charlie here as a reference.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Well, okay, it's a deep thanks.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Come on, wait, miss what now?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
How about a piece of that pie before we don't?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Okay? Hey, Charlie, two apple pies? I love more? Okay?
Inside she this ain't bad.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
You live alone?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Solitary confinement?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Hey, what's the matter?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
You got a real life box in the corner.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's empty so relaxed. Yeah, you take the couch, okay
by me? Boy, Hey, get off of there with your feet, madam.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
My shoes wouldn't hurt nothing.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
That couch may have panties on a kid, but it
don't need no foot lights to come on.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Off with the shoes. Go okay, not the other one. Hey,
when's the last time you watched your feet?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
We went swimming last week down at a hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Street, all in a week ago.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Well, we unscrewed a hydrant last night. Should have seen
it look like Niagara falls or something. I didn't take
my shoes off.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, bat, they look like they grew there.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Boy, I am tired.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
How about breaking down ship? What were you one on
dawn patrol down there?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's my own man. If I don't get home by
Tenny slammed from me with his belt. Figure, it's better
to stay away.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It wouldn't have cut of you to get in before it. Then,
huh that.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Early gangs just start. Some of the guys don't go
home all night.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And what keeps him that busy? Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You know, all sorts of stuff depends. Last night, we
were supposed to have a war the panthers. That's us
against the gang from the Bronx. We would have licked
them home. He got beat Nah, some lame brain cop
showed up blowing his brains out on a whistle. By
the time we quit running, we couldn't find him again.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Spoil the fun. Mah, sure we.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Had it all figured. Guys up on the roof with
light bulbs, air guns everything. We would have murdered him.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And suppose somebody gets hurt, so they get hurt.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Shorty had four stitches last week.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
He's a leader a Bronx gang. Get him.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, Shorty was walking along. See when he sees his
kid from the Bronx all alone. It's a little kid,
so Shorty jumps. Only then Bronx rats are hiding around
the corner, and they're all over Shorty. That's a kind
of dirty fighters.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
They are fil feet.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They would have coughed Shorty up good. Only a cop
came along and chased him. How was the first time
he was ever glad to see flat foot?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You don't like flat feet?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Your kidding? I never seen a cop yet who wasn't
yellow clear down on the sidewalk. Uh huh, all the
time breaking up stickball and never let anybody have any fun.
A bunch of cross eyed crumbs. I wouldn't trust a
cop as far as I could throw a hippopotamus. Honey,
how what are you doing sticking up for him?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Why shouldn't I.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
You think a guy like you would want to steal
clean at the cops? What don't have to worry about me?
I won't say nothing.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I seen it when we come in the room.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
See what?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well, figure nobody wants to get chummy with the cops
when he packs a rod in his coat pocket?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A rot? You?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
What's the matter with you?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You thought I was the kill me a ship?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Take a good look in.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The closet, Oh, smoked one suit blue surge, complete with
brass buttons and bad commonly known as New York's finest, surely.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Finds how I'm staying with a cop will take me apart.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I won't tell him. If you don't, he'll kill me.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
That's what it'll be. Murder.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Well, the kid finally scared himself to sleep. I guess
he kind of felt like the lamb that laid down
with the lion. Oh, I get plenty of tie.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
At the teching a taxpayers for eight hours, so It
didn't take me long to fall asleep.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I was dreaming the sidewalks made out of foam rubber
w A shaft of light in the window hit my eye.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I woke up just in time. Where you're going? Kid out?
All right? Kid? Put it back? Huh the watch? Put
it back?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
What do you mean mine? It's in your pocket? Do
you put it back to or take your pants apart?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I wasn't going nowhere, would it?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah? I stepping out in the hall to see what
time it is.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, the life's better out there.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Oh kid, you've got enough brass to coat a four
post of bed. Hand it over.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
I was gonna bring it back here. It's a cheap watch.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Anyway, I'm sorry. Next time I'll have it gold plated.
What'd you want to do that for? Anyway? I want
to take you in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I just wanted to show it to Shorty and the
rest of the guys. None of the pants ever swiped.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The cops watched before they're slipping.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Might have brought it back, like I said, just wanted
to shoulder on Gee. I wouldn't swipe nothing from you.
You've been okay for a cop.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Shive left the watch and beat it out the door
like someone was chasing him. Look, he's in a closet.
To see if he lifted the badge off my spare blouse.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
For a souvenir. Everything seemed to be there. So I
went back to bed that night. Before I went out
on the beat, I.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Stopped by the desk man, Sergeant Gold. He's kind of
a stubby guy with gray hair. He looks like he
might have pulled in Henry Hudson Sailors for disturbing the piece.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Another day, another dollar, What do you mean day? All right, night,
that's the money you got trouble shore.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All the time. But then the crap came up on alley.
It's pulling drunk out of the doorway before he freeze
his stiff. You can have the eight of four.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I did when it was four hours longer.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, I know he was in a force when they
wore stand up collars.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
What's eating?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
You had nothing? Maybe that kid I picked up last night.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Kid? He didn't bring in no kid.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I put him on my couch for the night. He'd
make a clam of conversational what's his name?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
He calls himself ship because he carries one big enough
to slice steak off another.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Wait a minute, is he a small kid? It looks
like an underdone weasel with long hair.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
In his eyes, said an alley cat. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Well, his old man gets hauled in here about once
a month on a drunken disorderly named Zoo Walter Walters
or something.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I could look it up.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
The kid comes down to pay his fine.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Figures Well, so long.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
I gotta go out and protect the taxpayers.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I checked out and started wearing my arches down on
the contree not much doing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Pulled an old lady out from under a cab and
shift her off the Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Hospital broke up a fight Broadway, and about eleven o'clock
I turned down.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Hundred twentieth Street.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
There was a bunch of kids sitting on a stoop,
and I spotted Ship on.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The top step and started over.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I just wanted to find out if he get home
all right, but somebody let out a yell.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
As far as active say, they melted into the ground.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
About half an hour later, I was passing that little
alley next to the First National Bank.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Hey, what the devil, it's me Ship. What do you want?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I wanted to explain about before I thought.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
You might be sure or something about what.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
About me calling chicky on you and run?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I figured it was you. What was that the Panthers
general's staff sort of you sure look guilty or something?
What was that?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Nothing? I was afraid he was coming over to talk
to him.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Well, went away with the pleasure of this too.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I only wanted you shouldn't get sore. I don't have
to get funny.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
About it, all right, all right, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, I gotta get going again. You wanna walk with me? Yeah? Nah,
I can't the Panthers they.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Wouldn't trust me none if they saw us. You understand.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That doesn't mean I don't want to, Okay, shift, So
you're around surer Earth? Where'd you pick that up?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I've seen it on the back of your watch.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Oh, it got to be kind of a hambit.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Shi would wait in the alley and walk a couple
of blocks with me. Only the kid was careful never
to get seen under a street light. He was still
afraid of being caughtrating with the enemy.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's something.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Once we was talking baseball or something, and ship must
have forgot because we came around the corner on the
Broadway and across the street.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The whole Panthers general headquarters were spread over the stoopa
thirty four to twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They must have spoiled it because the first thing I know,
Ship was holding on to my arm, holding me to I.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Didn't do nothing your from your friends.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I wasn't even touching him, but he broke away from
me like as if I had a death rip on.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He waited for me outside the precinct station that night. Hey, hey,
a ha, who did need to escape on it?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I didn't mean nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Did it go over big with the Panthers or nothing.
There's nothing I like that in being called a crumb,
unless it's a brass monkey.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That ain't nothing practically a couple.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Take it easy, will you. I only said that because
the Panthers seen me like yelling chilli ovirus.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, well that.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
The whole thing track, youngry Yeah sure, well come on,
what's the matter your right late again?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
The old man's on another bad figure. I ain't gonna
walk in and have him think I'm a snake?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Is he working not?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
And all?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
We ain't had nothing to eat in the house for
a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, how about you? I do?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Okay? You know all snitching stuff off the grocery store.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Hey, you better let me catch your lift than anything.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
I wouldn't turn me in, would you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I'm serious, shif if you need money, you come to me.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
See, I don't do it no more. I've been going
up to my auntsy and when she cooks like a cement.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Message, you stay at your aunt. See. I don't like
that sticky finger stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Take it easier. I didn't take nothing, big betimes, I
don't have to take that from you. What well, I
mean we're just friends or something. See, and you start
handing me big time at a vice. It spoils everything.
Like he was a teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Relatively okay if you want it that way.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And besides, just because I figure one copy in't so bad,
it don't mean arrested, no good.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Lowdown crumps sounded like a communicate from the panthers.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Surely made me a lieutenant.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Uh huh, a commissioned officer. Huh, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
They only got to me and Burnie.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Okay, Lieutenant, here's Charlie's place, unless you've got scruples against
eating with the enlisted men.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
That's the way it was.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The kids sort of tolerated me like I was his
personal exception to the general rule about cops.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
After that, I couldn't get nothing off.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Him about what he did in a daytime. I mean,
I guess he went to his aunts for meals. I
never asked him once. I tried to talk him out
of the Panthers.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Why don't you go diving a shore. I think I'm
one of them milk fed petunias that runs home to
mama after school. Look, I don't ask you to quit
the cops, you lay off the panthers.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
After that, the kid was even more careto in case
perish forbid, anybody should see him with me. Once I
offered to take him to the Polo Grounds when the
Dodgers were in.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Do you mean it for the double header?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Sure, I'm a hot spot.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I sneaked in last year to this stadium.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
There's a place around, but the not anymore. They fenced
that one in on a dirty crumb money man. They
got a quaint idea you should pay to get.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
In, not men.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, I figured, well you want to go, sure, Okay, I'll.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Pick you up at the eighth Avenue Subway one hundred
and sixteenth Street. Ah, Well, what are you shaking your
head for.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Look, suppose I meet you up there on top.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Of the block.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Okay, okay, farve bear for me to damage your social
standing the top of Coogan's bluff it is. I'll be
wearing a white carnation in my buttonoll just whistle twice
and give the password. Then, for a while I didn't
see the kid. I got to looking for him in
(16:04):
doorways down alleys. I even checked the children's shelter downtown
and the juvenile court. I didn't hear anything about them
until one night when I came in off my hitch
to sign out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Was pouring down sheets of rain. I was sweating under
the heavy raincoat and hood.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I just got it off and started to stretch when
Sergeant Gold called me over.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Hey, are you from here on minute?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Will you sure? Sargeant? Hey, how did you get a
desk job at a night like this?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Did you hear? We had a warehouse cracked one hundred
and thirty fifth Street. Yeah, Karen spotted him and got
himself shot in the leg.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Hey, that's how is he?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Alley's in Lincoln Hospital?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Liby?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
All right?
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Telling what I called you over for? They found this
in the warehouse alley, A knife. Uh, got writing on
the handle.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Of Yeah, yeah, I see. You want me to bring
him in.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Figured you'd know where to find him.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Anything else, I don't mind.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
I mean I could send somebody else.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
That's all right, sergeant, I'll bring the kid in.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I stood outside the station, watching the rain, driving against
the green lights.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I didn't know where to find a crazy little jerk.
Wasn't anybody much on the streets.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
A couple of cabs come by once in a while,
somebody under an umbrella.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I went over to the house where the kid lived.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The landlady was scared, trembling when she saw me outside,
and she let me in the room.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
With a passkey.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The kid's old man was lying across a cot cald
it and a dead fish with a whiskey smell strong
enough to walk on.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I poked it with my night stick.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
He just mudded, Hey, come on, come to yes, stiff,
come on, sit up.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It was was the idea.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I'll now stay high.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Hey, what is this?
Speaker 4 (18:02):
You'll come? What do you want you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Where's the kid?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
The kid? The kid? What kid? For crying out loud?
Your kids? Shift him? I I don't go and stay
up there.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Come on, quit shaking me with you where he sold you?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I don't know what do you want him for?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Never mind, he's surprised. That kid's no good? No respect
for his father. See all the kids are no good.
You don't know where he was a generation? No good
in trouble or beat the ears off and no good. Yeah,
I'll tear him apart. No respect for his fun. You're
sure you don't know where he is.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I don't know, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Care if he never shows up.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Pain in the next go on, let me alone.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I want to sleep, see fit.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I told the landy had to call the station if
he showed up. It was beginning to show daylight. When
I got back on the street, I called into Sergeant Golden.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Went home. My feet hurt more than usual night, I
guess I felt pretty rotten. I just about made it
up to the stairs in my room and opened the door. Huh,
how did you get in here?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
That lock wouldn't stop a camp fire girl?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What did you come here for?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I just ain't seen you for a while at all.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, yeah, I'll bet are you ben? Why don't you
cut it out?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
What's a madic? Can a guy ask how you bench?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
She? If I saw your knife tonight, that one with
your name on the handle.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You did, that's funny. I lost it a week ago.
Hat's right, it dropped right out of my pod.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
They found that knife in a warehouse sally Ship, right
next to where a cop got shot.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I lost this plain stick for that's it.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I cut it out. It was the panthers, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
They got pretty big, decided to quit stitching bananas off
a fruit stands, graduated to a warehouse.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Jop, didn't they listeners?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I didn't want to go see. But I was a lieutenant.
They would have said I was. I didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Go see who had the gun? Who did a shoot?
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, you don't know.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Remember you told me to come to your own. I
was in trouble, you remember, That's why I come. Or
if I only got one friend anywhere, that's why I
come to you. I gotta get out of townel before
they find out. I gotta have some money. I'll pay
you back on a side. Well, I'll get a job somewhere.
Lots of places hire kids.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Oh, gun Ship, you can't let me that.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Don't want your ir Like I always said, if I needed.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It, you shouldn't come here, shift.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
I couldn't have gone home, IRV you old man would
have beat me up in an empty bottle, and my
aunt Milo would have just prayed at me. I knew
you'd help me.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Ir if you got you, you shouldn't have come.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
You're gonna give me the doe? Ain't you? Ain't your erv?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I'm gonna take you in shift. No, I got to Besides,
if I don't, somebody else. Will you see that, don't you? Kid?
It's the only way shift Let go, my arm, I
got to it. I should have known, listened to the shift.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Let go.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I said you'd low down snare good for nothing cop.
I should have known your cheap crumbing, no good double crossing.
What kind of a friend come to him for help
and ride away? He squeals, what are they gonna make
it for this? An inspector or something?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'm done with you.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Let me tell you I won't make the same mistake again.
There ain't no cup living a point rotting right down
through how but they make your commissioner or something?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You shut up and listen. I should listen. Maybe you
think I like pulling you in for the juvenile court.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Supposed to be a friend.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Sure, a friend. What do you think my job is?
You think I get paid for nothing. I'm supposed to
see that nobody gets hurt in miby, I'm supposed to
pull people out of fights and make sure nobody gets
mugged in the alleys. I gotta see that nobody cleans
out of store when nobody's looking.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
You're breaking my heart.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Do you think it's easy being a cup? It's a
job like anything else, and ain't such a good pain
when it's that?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
What?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Kid, It's the only job I got and I gotta
do it right. Maybe it's crazy, but that's the way
I work.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I had maybe a thousand dollars no shift.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
No, you come a lot closer and making me forget
the job than the cheap it with a roller dough.
But I wouldn't do different if you were in my
own kid, brother, you gotta go in. Can't you understand
that cop?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
That's all? Once a cop, always a.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Low down here and that gang.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Next time the Panthers pull a job, maybe somebody will
shoot straighter. There'll be a first degree charge, and by
that time maybe you'll be old enough so you can
get up in a regular court.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
What the devil kind of life is that? Can't you understand?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Understand? I understand all right. I thought there was one
decent cop, a guy who'd stick by a friend. But
I was a sucker. See I was wrong. I hope
that flat foot had got shot died. I hope he dies,
and I wish he was you.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I went down a couple of days later to see
the kid at the children's shelter. He was out playing
basketball with a slower kids in for everything from truan
see the arm robbery you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Getn't to see the social work.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And she talked to me a long time about ship
only she called him Burton. Then they brought the kid
into the office and left me alone with him. He
just stood there a long time without saying anything, and
finally he got curious, Well, what.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Do you want?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I just come to see how you were.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I'm fine, Just standy so you can go.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They caught Shorty and the rest of the pants. Most
of them are in the center street chairs.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So look, kid, do you need anything? I mean a
toothbrush or something? They treat you all right.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, I guess so, not a question.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Look, the social worker told me you'd be up before
Judge Carroll. Now that's the lady judge. I'll have to
be there to see so between us, baby, it'll be
all right. Don't do me no faith, What do you
want to be so tough? Sometimes you get me so mad?
I could. He's sure you don't need anything? Okay, then goodbye? Shake? No, okay?
(24:08):
So long?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Oh yeah, look, I'm kidding me on. He told me.
I mean, were they gonna send me? They gonna keep
me there all the time?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Oh no, not too long? I guess this.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Kid said they throw away the casey. He told me
to beat the years off you all the time? Would
they do then?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
They can.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
He've been up before, he told me. He told me, huh,
I don't want to stay there all the timer.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Oh hey, take it easy. It ain't that bad. I've
seen it up there.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
I wouldn't tell nobody else. I'm scared her. What are
they gonna do to me?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
You'll be okay, s if you'll be okay?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah? Yeah, I guess so, I guess I can take it.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I got to go, kid, Yeah, yeah you can.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I mean, if you want, you can write me a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh sure, sure. Ship will make a lot of plans
for later, I mean.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
After Yeah, I know, only don't give the police station
for a return address. No, I wouldn't want the other
guys to know. I was getting letters from a cop.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Well, that's how it is. Ship is upstate at the
state school.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
He writes to me about once a month, grubby tough letters,
and I send him stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
The other day Sergeant Gold called me over to the
desk at the station.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Hey, yeah, I got a check here for you.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
A check.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
It's a reward from the insurance company. But catching a
warehouse thief.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Oh, one hundred bucks? One hundred bucks.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Don't you want it?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You know what I feel like? Such judas, that's what Jesis.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
You're going to catch it?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No? Oh yeah, yeah, I'll keep it. I'll keep it
for shift.
Speaker 8 (26:39):
One hundred bucks is one hundred bucks, even if it
is blood money.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You'll have just her Betrayal as written by Ernest Knoy
and directed by Harry W.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
The part of HERV was played by Bernard Grant. Shiv
was Edwin Bruce aged twelve. Other players included Arthur Q.
Bryan and Alan Stephenson. The music was composed and conducted
by doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for
the National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
McDonough.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Next week the Story of Michael and Margaret, the story
of their dreams and their love, entitled King of the
Moon by Joseph Schule. We warmly invite you to join
us next Monday for a traction ten King of the
Moon on Radio City Playhouse, Robert Warren speaking, This is NBC,
(28:26):
the National Broadcasting Company.
The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction nine.
(00:29):
Radio City Playhouse proudly presents Betrayal, another story by Ernest Cannoy,
author of Ground four Window and Whistle Daughter Whistle. IRV
is played by Bernard Grant and the production is directed
by Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jenkin.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Here is Radio City Playhouse Attraction nine.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Betrayal.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Streets look a lot different at four in the morning
than they do in the daylight. I mean it's quiet
and you can see the old papers and the orange
peel in the gutter.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I checked it off my beat about four. I got
rid of the blue straight jacket.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
If the precinct was heading for that nice slumpy bed
in my room. When I turned off of one hundred
and seventeenth Street, I spotted.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
This kid sitting on a curve, blinging it against the
street lamp. I guess I look funny in City's or else.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
He didn't hear me come up because he jumped about
three feet.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
What do you want?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Nothing? What are you doing here?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Mine of my own business?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Oh yes, kid, ain't you where do you live?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I forget?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Ain't it kind of laid out for you?
Speaker 4 (01:44):
I got all night?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I haven't now quit horsing around? Where do you live?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Why don't you chase yourself around? Block and hall of fire?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Get up out of there? Blo, But I said, get up, hey,
let go My.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I'm your big crumb. Why don't you pick on some
of your own sign?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Come on now, kid, you better get home.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
What's it to you?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Look, you don't want to get into trouble.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Go ahead, call a cop. Only there was Take me
downtown and show me in the children's shelter. That don't
bother me?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
None, No, the whole story, don't you huh? Never mind? Well,
how long do you expect to sit together?
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Look, mister, why don't you leave me alone? I didn't
do you nothing?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well, you just can't sit there.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Come on, ain't let go? Where are you taking it?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Look?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
If I'm gonna argue with a pine size humphry boguard,
I'm gonna do it over some breakfast.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm hungry.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Another old black, No sugar, Charlie, grow on black?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Well kid, how about it? How about what you Where
do you live? What's your name? Ship? Ship? You carry one?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Yeah? You can look it's snapshot.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Hey, that's quite a front sticker.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
It's legal. The blades and ain't under four inches I measured.
That's why they call me ships see, because of the
night I got my name on the handle on the
other side.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
How about the rest of it? Shive?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
What I forget that too?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
One black girl? Hey, Charlie, you ever seen this kid before? Men?
He's done something.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
He's got lots you look, you look kid, shive. I
got to turn you in so they take care of
you down at the Children's Shellers.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I wouldn't tell him not to need it?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
All right?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Look, I'm crazy, but I'll make a bogge with you.
If I put you up tonight. Will you go home tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Well, it's that of the Children's Shellers. You'll be there
for a couple of days.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
At least you wouldn't pull nothing, would your mister?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh, I'll give you Charlie here as a reference.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Well, okay, it's a deep thanks.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Come on, wait, miss what now?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
How about a piece of that pie before we don't?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Okay? Hey, Charlie, two apple pies? I love more? Okay?
Inside she this ain't bad.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
You live alone?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Solitary confinement?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Hey, what's the matter?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
You got a real life box in the corner.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
It's empty so relaxed. Yeah, you take the couch, okay
by me? Boy, Hey, get off of there with your feet, madam.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
My shoes wouldn't hurt nothing.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
That couch may have panties on a kid, but it
don't need no foot lights to come on.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Off with the shoes. Go okay, not the other one. Hey,
when's the last time you watched your feet?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
We went swimming last week down at a hundred.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Street, all in a week ago.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Well, we unscrewed a hydrant last night. Should have seen
it look like Niagara falls or something. I didn't take
my shoes off.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, bat, they look like they grew there.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Boy, I am tired.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
How about breaking down ship? What were you one on
dawn patrol down there?
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's my own man. If I don't get home by
Tenny slammed from me with his belt. Figure, it's better
to stay away.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It wouldn't have cut of you to get in before it. Then,
huh that.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Early gangs just start. Some of the guys don't go
home all night.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And what keeps him that busy? Ah?
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You know, all sorts of stuff depends. Last night, we
were supposed to have a war the panthers. That's us
against the gang from the Bronx. We would have licked
them home. He got beat Nah, some lame brain cop
showed up blowing his brains out on a whistle. By
the time we quit running, we couldn't find him again.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Spoil the fun. Mah, sure we.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Had it all figured. Guys up on the roof with
light bulbs, air guns everything. We would have murdered him.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And suppose somebody gets hurt, so they get hurt.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Shorty had four stitches last week.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
He's a leader a Bronx gang. Get him.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, Shorty was walking along. See when he sees his
kid from the Bronx all alone. It's a little kid,
so Shorty jumps. Only then Bronx rats are hiding around
the corner, and they're all over Shorty. That's a kind
of dirty fighters.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
They are fil feet.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
They would have coughed Shorty up good. Only a cop
came along and chased him. How was the first time
he was ever glad to see flat foot?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
You don't like flat feet?
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Your kidding? I never seen a cop yet who wasn't
yellow clear down on the sidewalk. Uh huh, all the
time breaking up stickball and never let anybody have any fun.
A bunch of cross eyed crumbs. I wouldn't trust a
cop as far as I could throw a hippopotamus. Honey,
how what are you doing sticking up for him?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Why shouldn't I.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
You think a guy like you would want to steal
clean at the cops? What don't have to worry about me?
I won't say nothing.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
What are you talking about?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
I seen it when we come in the room.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
See what?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well, figure nobody wants to get chummy with the cops
when he packs a rod in his coat pocket?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A rot? You?
Speaker 4 (06:53):
What's the matter with you?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You thought I was the kill me a ship?
Speaker 4 (06:58):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Take a good look in.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The closet, Oh, smoked one suit blue surge, complete with
brass buttons and bad commonly known as New York's finest, surely.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Finds how I'm staying with a cop will take me apart.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I won't tell him. If you don't, he'll kill me.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
That's what it'll be. Murder.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Well, the kid finally scared himself to sleep. I guess
he kind of felt like the lamb that laid down
with the lion. Oh, I get plenty of tie.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
At the teching a taxpayers for eight hours, so It
didn't take me long to fall asleep.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I was dreaming the sidewalks made out of foam rubber
w A shaft of light in the window hit my eye.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I woke up just in time. Where you're going? Kid out?
All right? Kid? Put it back? Huh the watch? Put
it back?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
What do you mean mine? It's in your pocket? Do
you put it back to or take your pants apart?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
I wasn't going nowhere, would it?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah? I stepping out in the hall to see what
time it is.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, the life's better out there.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Oh kid, you've got enough brass to coat a four
post of bed. Hand it over.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
I was gonna bring it back here. It's a cheap watch.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Anyway, I'm sorry. Next time I'll have it gold plated.
What'd you want to do that for? Anyway? I want
to take you in.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I just wanted to show it to Shorty and the
rest of the guys. None of the pants ever swiped.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The cops watched before they're slipping.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Might have brought it back, like I said, just wanted
to shoulder on Gee. I wouldn't swipe nothing from you.
You've been okay for a cop.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Shive left the watch and beat it out the door
like someone was chasing him. Look, he's in a closet.
To see if he lifted the badge off my spare blouse.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
For a souvenir. Everything seemed to be there. So I
went back to bed that night. Before I went out
on the beat, I.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Stopped by the desk man, Sergeant Gold. He's kind of
a stubby guy with gray hair. He looks like he
might have pulled in Henry Hudson Sailors for disturbing the piece.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Another day, another dollar, What do you mean day? All right, night,
that's the money you got trouble shore.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
All the time. But then the crap came up on alley.
It's pulling drunk out of the doorway before he freeze
his stiff. You can have the eight of four.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I did when it was four hours longer.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, I know he was in a force when they
wore stand up collars.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
What's eating?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
You had nothing? Maybe that kid I picked up last night.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
Kid? He didn't bring in no kid.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I put him on my couch for the night. He'd
make a clam of conversational what's his name?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
He calls himself ship because he carries one big enough
to slice steak off another.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Wait a minute, is he a small kid? It looks
like an underdone weasel with long hair.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
In his eyes, said an alley cat. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Well, his old man gets hauled in here about once
a month on a drunken disorderly named Zoo Walter Walters
or something.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I could look it up.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
The kid comes down to pay his fine.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Figures Well, so long.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
I gotta go out and protect the taxpayers.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
I checked out and started wearing my arches down on
the contree not much doing.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Pulled an old lady out from under a cab and
shift her off the Lincoln.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Hospital broke up a fight Broadway, and about eleven o'clock
I turned down.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Hundred twentieth Street.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
There was a bunch of kids sitting on a stoop,
and I spotted Ship on.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The top step and started over.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I just wanted to find out if he get home
all right, but somebody let out a yell.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
As far as active say, they melted into the ground.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
About half an hour later, I was passing that little
alley next to the First National Bank.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Hey, what the devil, it's me Ship. What do you want?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
I wanted to explain about before I thought.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
You might be sure or something about what.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
About me calling chicky on you and run?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I figured it was you. What was that the Panthers
general's staff sort of you sure look guilty or something?
What was that?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Nothing? I was afraid he was coming over to talk
to him.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Well, went away with the pleasure of this too.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
I only wanted you shouldn't get sore. I don't have
to get funny.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
About it, all right, all right, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
That's okay.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, I gotta get going again. You wanna walk with me? Yeah? Nah,
I can't the Panthers they.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Wouldn't trust me none if they saw us. You understand.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
That doesn't mean I don't want to, Okay, shift, So
you're around surer Earth? Where'd you pick that up?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
I've seen it on the back of your watch.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
Oh, it got to be kind of a hambit.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Shi would wait in the alley and walk a couple
of blocks with me. Only the kid was careful never
to get seen under a street light. He was still
afraid of being caughtrating with the enemy.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It's something.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Once we was talking baseball or something, and ship must
have forgot because we came around the corner on the
Broadway and across the street.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
The whole Panthers general headquarters were spread over the stoopa
thirty four to twenty seven.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They must have spoiled it because the first thing I know,
Ship was holding on to my arm, holding me to I.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Didn't do nothing your from your friends.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I wasn't even touching him, but he broke away from
me like as if I had a death rip on.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He waited for me outside the precinct station that night. Hey, hey,
a ha, who did need to escape on it?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
I didn't mean nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Did it go over big with the Panthers or nothing.
There's nothing I like that in being called a crumb,
unless it's a brass monkey.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
That ain't nothing practically a couple.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Take it easy, will you. I only said that because
the Panthers seen me like yelling chilli ovirus.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, well that.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
The whole thing track, youngry Yeah sure, well come on,
what's the matter your right late again?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
The old man's on another bad figure. I ain't gonna
walk in and have him think I'm a snake?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Is he working not?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
And all?
Speaker 4 (13:27):
We ain't had nothing to eat in the house for
a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, how about you? I do?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Okay? You know all snitching stuff off the grocery store.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Hey, you better let me catch your lift than anything.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
I wouldn't turn me in, would you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
I'm serious, shif if you need money, you come to me.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
See, I don't do it no more. I've been going
up to my auntsy and when she cooks like a cement.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Message, you stay at your aunt. See. I don't like
that sticky finger stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Take it easier. I didn't take nothing, big betimes, I
don't have to take that from you. What well, I
mean we're just friends or something. See, and you start
handing me big time at a vice. It spoils everything.
Like he was a teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Relatively okay if you want it that way.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
And besides, just because I figure one copy in't so bad,
it don't mean arrested, no good.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Lowdown crumps sounded like a communicate from the panthers.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Surely made me a lieutenant.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Uh huh, a commissioned officer. Huh, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
They only got to me and Burnie.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Okay, Lieutenant, here's Charlie's place, unless you've got scruples against
eating with the enlisted men.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
That's the way it was.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
The kids sort of tolerated me like I was his
personal exception to the general rule about cops.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
After that, I couldn't get nothing off.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Him about what he did in a daytime. I mean,
I guess he went to his aunts for meals. I
never asked him once. I tried to talk him out
of the Panthers.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
Why don't you go diving a shore. I think I'm
one of them milk fed petunias that runs home to
mama after school. Look, I don't ask you to quit
the cops, you lay off the panthers.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
So I did.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
After that, the kid was even more careto in case
perish forbid, anybody should see him with me. Once I
offered to take him to the Polo Grounds when the
Dodgers were in.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Do you mean it for the double header?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Sure, I'm a hot spot.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I sneaked in last year to this stadium.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
There's a place around, but the not anymore. They fenced
that one in on a dirty crumb money man. They
got a quaint idea you should pay to get.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
In, not men.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Yeah, I figured, well you want to go, sure, Okay, I'll.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Pick you up at the eighth Avenue Subway one hundred
and sixteenth Street. Ah, Well, what are you shaking your
head for.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
Look, suppose I meet you up there on top.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Of the block.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Okay, okay, farve bear for me to damage your social
standing the top of Coogan's bluff it is. I'll be
wearing a white carnation in my buttonoll just whistle twice
and give the password. Then, for a while I didn't
see the kid. I got to looking for him in
(16:04):
doorways down alleys. I even checked the children's shelter downtown
and the juvenile court. I didn't hear anything about them
until one night when I came in off my hitch
to sign out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Was pouring down sheets of rain. I was sweating under
the heavy raincoat and hood.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I just got it off and started to stretch when
Sergeant Gold called me over.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
Hey, are you from here on minute?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Will you sure? Sargeant? Hey, how did you get a
desk job at a night like this?
Speaker 5 (16:29):
Did you hear? We had a warehouse cracked one hundred
and thirty fifth Street. Yeah, Karen spotted him and got
himself shot in the leg.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Hey, that's how is he?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Alley's in Lincoln Hospital?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Liby?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
All right?
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Telling what I called you over for? They found this
in the warehouse alley, A knife. Uh, got writing on
the handle.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Of Yeah, yeah, I see. You want me to bring
him in.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Figured you'd know where to find him.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Anything else, I don't mind.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
I mean I could send somebody else.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
That's all right, sergeant, I'll bring the kid in.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
I stood outside the station, watching the rain, driving against
the green lights.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I didn't know where to find a crazy little jerk.
Wasn't anybody much on the streets.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
A couple of cabs come by once in a while,
somebody under an umbrella.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I went over to the house where the kid lived.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
The landlady was scared, trembling when she saw me outside,
and she let me in the room.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
With a passkey.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The kid's old man was lying across a cot cald
it and a dead fish with a whiskey smell strong
enough to walk on.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I poked it with my night stick.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
He just mudded, Hey, come on, come to yes, stiff,
come on, sit up.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It was was the idea.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I'll now stay high.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Hey, what is this?
Speaker 4 (18:02):
You'll come? What do you want you?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Where's the kid?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
The kid? The kid? What kid? For crying out loud?
Your kids? Shift him? I I don't go and stay
up there.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
Come on, quit shaking me with you where he sold you?
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I don't know what do you want him for?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Never mind, he's surprised. That kid's no good? No respect
for his father. See all the kids are no good.
You don't know where he was a generation? No good
in trouble or beat the ears off and no good. Yeah,
I'll tear him apart. No respect for his fun. You're
sure you don't know where he is.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
I don't know, and I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Care if he never shows up.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
Pain in the next go on, let me alone.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I want to sleep, see fit.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
I told the landy had to call the station if
he showed up. It was beginning to show daylight. When
I got back on the street, I called into Sergeant Golden.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Went home. My feet hurt more than usual night, I
guess I felt pretty rotten. I just about made it
up to the stairs in my room and opened the door. Huh,
how did you get in here?
Speaker 4 (19:19):
That lock wouldn't stop a camp fire girl?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
What did you come here for?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
I just ain't seen you for a while at all.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, yeah, I'll bet are you ben? Why don't you
cut it out?
Speaker 4 (19:29):
What's a madic? Can a guy ask how you bench?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
She? If I saw your knife tonight, that one with
your name on the handle.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
You did, that's funny. I lost it a week ago.
Hat's right, it dropped right out of my pod.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
They found that knife in a warehouse sally Ship, right
next to where a cop got shot.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I lost this plain stick for that's it.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I cut it out. It was the panthers, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
They got pretty big, decided to quit stitching bananas off
a fruit stands, graduated to a warehouse.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Jop, didn't they listeners?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I didn't want to go see. But I was a lieutenant.
They would have said I was. I didn't want to.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Go see who had the gun? Who did a shoot?
Speaker 4 (20:06):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, you don't know.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Remember you told me to come to your own. I
was in trouble, you remember, That's why I come. Or
if I only got one friend anywhere, that's why I
come to you. I gotta get out of townel before
they find out. I gotta have some money. I'll pay
you back on a side. Well, I'll get a job somewhere.
Lots of places hire kids.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Oh, gun Ship, you can't let me that.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Don't want your ir Like I always said, if I needed.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
It, you shouldn't come here, shift.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
I couldn't have gone home, IRV you old man would
have beat me up in an empty bottle, and my
aunt Milo would have just prayed at me. I knew
you'd help me.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Ir if you got you, you shouldn't have come.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
You're gonna give me the doe? Ain't you? Ain't your erv?
Speaker 2 (20:43):
I'm gonna take you in shift. No, I got to Besides,
if I don't, somebody else. Will you see that, don't you? Kid?
It's the only way shift Let go, my arm, I
got to it. I should have known, listened to the shift.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Let go.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I said you'd low down snare good for nothing cop.
I should have known your cheap crumbing, no good double crossing.
What kind of a friend come to him for help
and ride away? He squeals, what are they gonna make
it for this? An inspector or something?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'm done with you.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Let me tell you I won't make the same mistake again.
There ain't no cup living a point rotting right down
through how but they make your commissioner or something?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
You shut up and listen. I should listen. Maybe you
think I like pulling you in for the juvenile court.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Supposed to be a friend.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Sure, a friend. What do you think my job is?
You think I get paid for nothing. I'm supposed to
see that nobody gets hurt in miby, I'm supposed to
pull people out of fights and make sure nobody gets
mugged in the alleys. I gotta see that nobody cleans
out of store when nobody's looking.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
You're breaking my heart.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Do you think it's easy being a cup? It's a
job like anything else, and ain't such a good pain
when it's that?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
What?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Kid, It's the only job I got and I gotta
do it right. Maybe it's crazy, but that's the way
I work.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
I had maybe a thousand dollars no shift.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
No, you come a lot closer and making me forget
the job than the cheap it with a roller dough.
But I wouldn't do different if you were in my
own kid, brother, you gotta go in. Can't you understand
that cop?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
That's all? Once a cop, always a.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Low down here and that gang.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Next time the Panthers pull a job, maybe somebody will
shoot straighter. There'll be a first degree charge, and by
that time maybe you'll be old enough so you can
get up in a regular court.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
What the devil kind of life is that? Can't you understand?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Understand? I understand all right. I thought there was one
decent cop, a guy who'd stick by a friend. But
I was a sucker. See I was wrong. I hope
that flat foot had got shot died. I hope he dies,
and I wish he was you.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
I went down a couple of days later to see
the kid at the children's shelter. He was out playing
basketball with a slower kids in for everything from truan
see the arm robbery you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Getn't to see the social work.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
And she talked to me a long time about ship
only she called him Burton. Then they brought the kid
into the office and left me alone with him. He
just stood there a long time without saying anything, and
finally he got curious, Well, what.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Do you want?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I just come to see how you were.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I'm fine, Just standy so you can go.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They caught Shorty and the rest of the pants. Most
of them are in the center street chairs.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So look, kid, do you need anything? I mean a
toothbrush or something? They treat you all right.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, I guess so, not a question.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Look, the social worker told me you'd be up before
Judge Carroll. Now that's the lady judge. I'll have to
be there to see so between us, baby, it'll be
all right. Don't do me no faith, What do you
want to be so tough? Sometimes you get me so mad?
I could. He's sure you don't need anything? Okay, then goodbye? Shake? No, okay?
(24:08):
So long?
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Oh yeah, look, I'm kidding me on. He told me.
I mean, were they gonna send me? They gonna keep
me there all the time?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Oh no, not too long? I guess this.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
Kid said they throw away the casey. He told me
to beat the years off you all the time? Would
they do then?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
They can.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
He've been up before, he told me. He told me, huh,
I don't want to stay there all the timer.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Oh hey, take it easy. It ain't that bad. I've
seen it up there.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
I wouldn't tell nobody else. I'm scared her. What are
they gonna do to me?
Speaker 2 (24:47):
You'll be okay, s if you'll be okay?
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Yeah? Yeah, I guess so, I guess I can take it.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I got to go, kid, Yeah, yeah you can.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I mean, if you want, you can write me a letter.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh sure, sure. Ship will make a lot of plans
for later, I mean.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
After Yeah, I know, only don't give the police station
for a return address. No, I wouldn't want the other
guys to know. I was getting letters from a cop.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Well, that's how it is. Ship is upstate at the
state school.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
He writes to me about once a month, grubby tough letters,
and I send him stuff.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
The other day Sergeant Gold called me over to the
desk at the station.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
Hey, yeah, I got a check here for you.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
A check.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
It's a reward from the insurance company. But catching a
warehouse thief.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Oh, one hundred bucks? One hundred bucks.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Don't you want it?
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You know what I feel like? Such judas, that's what Jesis.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
You're going to catch it?
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No? Oh yeah, yeah, I'll keep it. I'll keep it
for shift.
Speaker 8 (26:39):
One hundred bucks is one hundred bucks, even if it
is blood money.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
You'll have just her Betrayal as written by Ernest Knoy
and directed by Harry W.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Jenkins.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
The part of HERV was played by Bernard Grant. Shiv
was Edwin Bruce aged twelve. Other players included Arthur Q.
Bryan and Alan Stephenson. The music was composed and conducted
by doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for
the National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
McDonough.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Next week the Story of Michael and Margaret, the story
of their dreams and their love, entitled King of the
Moon by Joseph Schule. We warmly invite you to join
us next Monday for a traction ten King of the
Moon on Radio City Playhouse, Robert Warren speaking, This is NBC,
(28:26):
the National Broadcasting Company.
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