May 2, 2025 • 29 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 eighteen,
(00:31):
Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the director of Radio City Playhouse,
Harry W. Junkins, to tell you something of tonight's play.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you, Bob One, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
In response to your many hundreds of letters asking to
hear him again, we're very happy to welcome mister John
Larkin back to Radio City Playhouse. Two weeks ago he
played the part of Lloyd Bruckner in The Door and
gave a performance which drew rave notices from all over
the country. Tonight, mister Larkin appears in a similar type
of play, but in a diametrically opposite type of role,
(01:03):
the role of a writer, an intellectual who is a
little cynical, a little disillusioned, and highly indignant at society
over the conviction of a twenty year old boy from murder.
The script is called five Extra Newses and was written
by Charles Lee Hutchings, a writer new to Radio City
Playhouse and from whom we hope to receive more plays
(01:24):
in the very near future. We like this particular script
because it is both entertaining and socially significant, a combination
of ingredients, which few writers achieve. Here then is John
Larkin as the writer in five extra newses by Charles
Lee Hutchings Attraction eighteen on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Nice jail you got here, Warden?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
All these cells empty? Yeah, maybe you got an answer
to the housing shortage. Look.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I don't like reporters, and I don't think that was funny.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm not a reporter. I write for magazine and I
don't particularly care what you think.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
This kid's done a murder and he's gonna hang in
the morning, and you come nosing around like a dog.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Stick to your job, Warden. You know I got permission
from way up top where I wouldn't be here tonight.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
All the kids in this cell here, Hi, Jake, it's
the writing guy I.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Was telling you about.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
What's the type?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Nah, you don't have to talk to this guy if
you don't want to see That's what the boss told me.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
He said, you don't have to hold it, Bob, hold it. Look, kid,
here's the setup. I went to a lot of trouble
to get the okay to see you. I want to
get in that cell and talk to you a few minutes.
I'm gonna write a story. For a magazine.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Was he here before?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
No, No, I'm not a newspaper reporter. I just want
to talk to you for a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Now, you don't have to you don't have to even
talk to him if I.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Wait a minute. Look, kid, I got permission from the
top guy to come and see you tonight. I'll just
come in there and you can well, you can watch
me write my story. Did you ever see anybody write
a story? Won't do any harm, might do some good
for somebody.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I don't know. I guess it'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I mean, you don't have the kid open the door
and let me. And you heard the kids say it's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Don't go in for space. Not enough room in here
to swing a cat. I'll sit on the edge of
this cot and get going.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
What's what?
Speaker 6 (03:48):
What you got in a black bag? You're a doctor?
Who are you? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Take it easy now, that's not a black bag. That's
my typewriter in a black case. Hey see, it opens up,
that's up on its own legs like this. I've set
that baby up on the deck of a battleship and
then a tent in Holland and Berlin and Tokyo.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
I never seen no typewriter like that. Was you at
the war?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah? Yeah, war correspondent fought the Battle of the Space Bar.
What were you doing while the war was on? Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Moving around? They said. I wasn't old enough to get
in the air force. Hey, you heard anything about but me?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
What do you mean?
Speaker 6 (04:26):
You know what I mean? Yesterday they told me.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
He said, No, Oh, you mean about your sentence. I
heard that No, was final tomorrow morning. What's the time
now it's about ten thirty. Now, let's get going.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
What's the time? I asked you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Twenty five minutes to eleven, and that's right by radio. Now. Look,
I'm here to write a story. I can watch if
you like. Tonight, I am sitting on the edge of
(05:08):
a prison cot in the cell of a condemned murderer.
Between him and the rope which will break his neck
and choke the breath from his throat are nine hours
of tortured darkness. Soon, the collective hand of society will
(05:28):
reach out and pull the lever that will spring the
trap and send his feet kicking in mid air in
the death struggle. Perhaps the collective conscience of society will
permit itself a slight qualm. As I write, the murderer
watches me. He is nothing more than a big, bone hulking,
(05:51):
somewhat dull kid who continually trembles, And he will die
in the first light of the morning. I shall write
them about the court which should have fried him. It
is a purely imaginary court, a court that exists only
(06:11):
in this article that I write. But it is a
special court, a very special court.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
This is a special court, a most unusual court, sitting
tonight in judgment on the ordinary people, you and you,
and you.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Who lead what might be called a blame his life.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
But now you see a new American law is being past,
which reads, in part quote, whereas the state decrees that
no one lacking twenty one full years age can now
alone be held responsible for any murder. It is ordered
that a minimum of six shall then be hanged if
one such youth is condemned to die.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Now that's the law.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
And suddenly we find that such a youth, coming under
the requirements of the Act, is to be hanged tomorrow morning.
And so this court's been called to quickly find the
necessary five the five additional newses which you wait along
with the one society's decreed for the young murderer acting
for the state in this emergency, A young man or
(07:38):
writing fellow, I believe, will now address the.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Court ur honor. There is little time. The crack of
dawns are deadline, and there seems to be a wealth
of candidates for those five extra mooses. Your officers are
rounding up some prospects. Now I must request a brief
recess while I investigate a few and gather evidence to
find the next Which do most rightfully? You belong in
those five.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Extra belong in those five extra nuss?
Speaker 7 (08:19):
What time is it's about?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It's exactly twenty one minutes to eleven.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
What's all that stuff you're putting down there?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That's what we call a lead on my story. It's
about an imaginary court that doesn't really exist in that Look, kid,
you don't need to be afraid of me. I can't
do any harm or any good.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
I'm not scared of you or anybody. What time is it? Look? Here,
you why don't you go away?
Speaker 8 (08:47):
Here?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
You?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Look kid? Take it easy. Now tell me about where
you went to school, things like that?
Speaker 6 (08:55):
What four?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh, never mind?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
What for?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
How do you get along with the.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Teacher is okay, except for old lady pastness.
Speaker 9 (09:04):
She put me out of class one day, hoson through
and nothing, she just jumps me.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Then, the first person we shall call in this imaginary
court of mind, this very special court, is the teacher
of this boy who is to hang tomorrow a the
(09:36):
You're the teacher of the boy who is to hang tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (09:40):
What if I was?
Speaker 10 (09:41):
Is any reason to haul a president in the public court?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
We'll see if your indignant neck will fit into one
of our five news.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Will our write prosecutor state the facts. You didn't like
this boy. You put him out of class one day.
That day I think was chapter one in this particular story.
Speaker 10 (10:01):
Did six? He was a bad one?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Bad?
Speaker 10 (10:05):
I well remember him here bother little girls. If you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Fare is the details, and get on. You tossed him up?
What then?
Speaker 10 (10:17):
I don't have time at trifle with his type? Do
you know what happens when one apple in the basket
is not good?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It isn't headline news? Now then, as inspector of this
human fruit, how did you dispose of this bad apple?
Which I think was only slightly bruised? About that time?
Speaker 10 (10:33):
I sent him to the principle and got on with
the lessons. I remember I wrote a note. It said
I will not have this youth fat in my class.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He is a potential murderer. Did you write that? I
know he could not, but he was just a boy
the honor. We waste time, I think with her, this
teacher is no better and no worse than others. And
it's true she has no time to spend on battered fruit.
(11:05):
Let's have the principle. I am the principal, and I
consider it an imposition to be summoned intercourse. I have
more important.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Let's share what the prosecution thinks. We've got to find
sun necks for these five newses.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
How then did you dispose of this unworthy apple cast
out from the perfect company? You mean, this fellow that
they're going to hang? Now, let's have no nonsense. I
simply strapped him sound adding yet another brules or driving
deeper the same blemish. And what then?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
I sent him home?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I gave him a sharp note to show his parents. Look,
do you know I have six hundred pupils in my school,
and there's no time for nonsense with just one. He
tore that note to pieces and wandered to a racetrack,
where an older fellow told him how to beat this
little rap. I did my duty to my pupil and
helped the boy to graduate to murder. Your honor, I
(12:03):
would say, we have but sympathy for this, and all
for work. And under bestowed official who sees his simple beauty,
he has no time. He says, it happens all that
through his minor punishments, justly and sternly meet it out
for minor crimes. He did set the rigid pattern for
the larger crime, and so as he must share the
(12:25):
larger punishment. I find it so. In that enclosure, we
have set five places for five people. Those to fill
the five.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Additional news is now decreed by our new law. You, sir,
the principle, may take your place in the first of these,
and may God give you full marks and pass you on.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So we hang the principle. How many were there in
your family?
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Me, Tom and Harry, and Isabelle and Sarah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Were you afraid of your father?
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Nah?
Speaker 9 (13:09):
I wasn't afraid of him or anybody else. He used
to come home stinking on Saturday nights. We'd all run
out and hide in the dump behind our house.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Did he ever catch you?
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Yeah? Mostly he'd go back in the house and pass out.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Has your father been to see you here?
Speaker 6 (13:24):
Hah hah. I ain't seen him since the cops ran
him out of town.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And so to this imaginary court about which I write,
we will summon this youth's parents, his mother and his father.
Let them be heard in this strange and special court. First,
we'll call upon the mother. Quiet, you are the mother
(14:03):
of this youth.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yes, there you're.
Speaker 11 (14:06):
An He was one of mine. I've always done my best,
but Jake was too much for me. I looked him
all right, proper, but Jake had never bore. He'd stand
and kind of shiver as I whack him with a strap.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He never was no good.
Speaker 11 (14:35):
But once he stood up to his paw and he
was kicking little Sarah I I I kind of liked
the way he he heed that rock and hit his paw.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Rana were wasting time with his poor travesy of motherhood.
That's the moment when this woman's hands were needed to
caress with tenderness and loving care. They were filled with
scouring wolves and busy with the corridors in someone else's
house and when her understanding might have torn away dark fears,
permitting her poor brood to see the light, her mind
(15:10):
was occupied with pennies dropping in the jar to pay
the rent and buy the jug, the liquid equalizer that
made her just as good as anyone. Take it away
and send her home, Bring us the father and the peace.
Then they do something.
Speaker 12 (15:26):
Then, I ain't been in trouble now for years. He
ain't got not on me. See I want.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
About I'd jake in the papers. I was three hundred
miles away from here. I can prove it all. If
your small confession for a court which has more time,
there are four nooses left to fill. One morning comes
so very soon, four nooses.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
He what is this?
Speaker 12 (15:55):
I ain't never done, no waste in some receiving. You
can string up a guy for that.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Now.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Look, I know my rights.
Speaker 12 (16:03):
I'm white told the angels not killing you.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
You can't mix mean any mode, red.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
By some quaint caprice of nature. You are in it.
It seems to me that we can save some time
here by nominating for a noose. This bright eyed dodging rodent,
to whom fatherhood was but an odious consequence of turning
in his bed one wretched knight.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
He hangs, remove him to the place mark number two,
and may God finds something where.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Your soul should be.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
What are you putting down all that stuff for? About
extra noosis?
Speaker 6 (16:49):
He wrote something about my father. He ain't even here, skipper.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It's just a magazine article about a court that doesn't
even exist. So you went to industrial school and you
worked as an exercise boy at the track. Did you
ever get into court, that is before before? Now?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Nah? They didn't catch me, but once that was just
a juvenile court. All I had to do was report.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Say where did you learn how to use a gun?
Speaker 6 (17:16):
What do you mean? Say? What are you trying to do? Anyway?
I don't have to even talk to you, like the
warden said.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Hey, okay, I just wondered if he used to practice
on a rock or a bottle or something.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Nah.
Speaker 9 (17:27):
I never even fired a gun before in my life.
I never even seen a real gun before.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
When you fired that first shot, did it seem to
make a lot more noise than you'd seen in the movies.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah? Yeah it did, and it sort of jumped in
my hand.
Speaker 9 (17:47):
I'd never seen that neither. And there was a funny
burning smell. Hey, what you're getting at huh. I don't
have to tell you. I don't even have to cut.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Up, sit down, or even smelled powder. And so we'll
call upon a social worker in my imaginary court. You, sir,
(18:25):
are a social worker. Let us hear from you.
Speaker 13 (18:29):
I do my work, and that's all I know. These
theorists who build up pedestals for petty crooks. They talk
and talk of recreation centers and flower boarded playgrounds where
there is no sin, and boys will all be boys
or captains of the local nine. I think if they
would step outside and see their precious little heroes happily
(18:49):
engage in gouging eyes or picking locks, then they might.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Do some good.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
And further all on, my little man, and we'll explain
you are a candidate for our next news, and we
will see.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
How well you fit it. Let's have the evidence. The
facts are playing your honor, that this embittered civil servant
is employed in juvenile affairs, and thus he specializes in
the task of bending the twig so that the three
shall grow up fine and straight. I feel that he's
not to blame. It's just that he has not the time,
(19:22):
the wit, nor the weight for such a monumental task.
Take him away. Let's have words with his superior, his legislator.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
You call on me.
Speaker 8 (19:34):
I represent the people and can say without the fear
of contradiction, that I do my duty by those pine
upstanding souls who vote for me. O, what is this
a farse.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And mockery in the name of justice?
Speaker 8 (19:47):
A court without a prisoner, a trial which brings out
honest people from their beds.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
A politician, We've no time for speeches. Our job is
finning news, is not extracting votes. You figure in this
piece by having hired such little men as these, who
juggled juvenile delinquents and fill out the.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Necessary forms, give us the facts. They are all directed
at this man, who was elected by the people who
speak up for the rights of all the families in
the very district from which our youth in waiting sprung.
I nominate him for a noose, your honor, for he
did nothing when the need for action screamed out loud
(20:26):
from every dirty hovel and dead end. He voted thousands
for a waterway and kept his eyes uplifted as he
cried for all to see how well he carried out
his solemn pledges won by little What What is.
Speaker 8 (20:40):
This arrant nonsense? Didn't I applaud the move to build
more parks and carry out my promises? Why I even
voted for a grant to beautify the waterfront? And if
our appointed courts cantled their start, a buck.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Is swiftly, deftly passed along without more time. I'll state
sufficient reason why this man should rate a noose. He
sees the value of transplanting shrubs and trees to where
they'll get more chance. What shuts his eyes and leaves
a human being to twist and struggle, and perhaps to
rock among the garbage in which fell the sea.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
We have no time to belabor our decisions in this court.
You take place three and wait until we have the
other two. You, the politician, are elected next the man.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Who hatched the murder plot, the one who gave the
lesson on the guns. Ah, look, your honor, I'm a
movie producer, but radio magazines are all the same guns
murder plots. What else? I'm sick to death of amateurs
who make a couple of bucks a day and yet
can tell me how to run my business. How I
make pictures forced our pictures that you see by making
(21:49):
up your mind that you will pay to go into
the show. I don't drag you in this time. You've
gone too far, m maybe not quite far enough. Your
picture showed the youth that he could scare a big
man with a little gun.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
And did you see the picture to my friends?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And did you see the criminal at last waiting, waiting
with fear for his reward in jail? And so again
crime did not pay what pictures pay. And Bogart lived again,
and Robinson and Ladd again next week will swagger with
their rods and set a million youthful trigger fingers twitching.
Sure you showed the criminal and irons, but in full
(22:27):
grease painting, with lights picking the romantic sweat beads on
his brow. I'll show you a murderer in a cell
and send you creeping out with crawling flesh. His drooping
mouth wouldn't take well. He whimples, and then he throws
out on the floor. Oh you can't show that now. Now, look,
I've got to get away. We're shooting at each minute.
Speaker 11 (22:47):
Costs a foe.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Stay here and I'll support the lead In this particular piece.
You got a young man started up to where the
gun went off. Then He was on his own, no lines,
no lights, no pattern. Now you direct him to the end.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Number four now has an eck, And so we move
along and hope the critics will approve your closing sequence.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There is but one noose left to fill. Who is
this candidate, your honor. He's an average citizen and far
removed from any part of crime or sin. Heh you're
done right, and I'll have you know. I'd pay my
taxes and plenty those. We put an office own enough,
why throw out and put some others in. We found
him in his slippers by the fire, listening to the radio,
(23:33):
and his hand was on the knob so that he
could turn it down and air his views in no
uncertain term.
Speaker 13 (23:38):
You're done right. I'm not a politician. If I were,
you'd see some action. You can bet it's crime wave. Now,
don't spare the rod.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It's good old fashioned discipline.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
We need the lash and things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You're somewhat in coherent, like the headlines, but you study
firstily to gain your meager knowledge of your time. Do
you know I assisted in the murder for which a
youth will hang tomorrow morning. All I know is that
we need protection, that the honest may sleep safe within
their home. Perhaps there's been too much of this sound sleeping.
(24:11):
Perhaps you'd better stay awake and take a look, because,
my friend, you figure in this murder. If I may
make a joke right up to your neck. Now, first
we'll have the Institute of Learning, a man you hired
to educate the boy his school principal. I trapped him soundly,
and I sent him home. I have no time. I
(24:34):
have too many pupils. I did my duty and I
threw him up. And here all, citizen, your chosen speaker,
who carries out your business, makes your laws, your legislator.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Oh, enough of this. I have no time for trifling.
You know my stand on crime. I'm against it. Still
no time, mister, citizens. These men you hire are burden
down with matters of great importance. Who is then to
turn a hand to helping this fellow He was tossing
in that giant stream which flows by your front door.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Now look at it here.
Speaker 13 (25:05):
I know you're angled, but I wonder if you've heard
about the outfits which go round doing things to help
the poor.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
We've all seen in the plot of that brave, slim
trickle of human kindness which drips so gallantly into an arid,
deserted in humanity.
Speaker 13 (25:19):
Wait a minute, where's the kid's father. He's the one
I always say that crime begins at home. Now you
take my two boys.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
We know them well. They shine and glow and grow up,
all surrounded by the fences which you built to keep
them safe from nasty things like crime. Here is the father.
Speaker 12 (25:37):
I ain't been in trouble now for years. Jake shot
this guy. I was even here in my wrath.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
So there, you, citizen. That's how you got another son.
Not one so bright or well behaved as those two
you have mentioned, but one abandoned, one kicked out, bruised
and battered, one not quite so well endowed in the beginning.
He is a son of yours, not by an act
of father but or love, but by a greater principal
(26:05):
example some two thousand years ago. He is your son,
your honor. The time is getting on. I say that
this citizen should sit the final news that's file. I
do agree.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Since he does cries so long and lustily for the
rewards which do arise from membership and our fair state,
then he must help to.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Put the bill.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
With this citizen the fifth and final, hey you and
your time's up, come on out, okay, Warden.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Well let's all kid tell and pick this typewriter. And
then and how you fix the smokes?
Speaker 6 (26:56):
I do smoke? Are you gonna do anything about but me?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
No, nothing I can do.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
How about how about all that stuff you put down?
Was that just just a story?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, just a story. That's why.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
Hey you, yes, you have just heard.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Radio City Playhouse attracts in eighteen five Extra Noises, written
by Charles Lee Hutsings and directed by Harry W. Duncan.
John Lockin starred as the writer. Others in the cast
were Paul Nugent, Jack Lloyd, Adelaide Klein, mart Lawrence, Eugene
Francis and Joe Halgerson. The music was composed and conducted
(28:18):
by doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for
the National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
McDonough.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
This is Harry Juncan again. Next week The Heritage of
Wimpole Street.
Speaker 14 (28:52):
The story of what happened when the son of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning returned to England after his mother's death in Italy.
It's a warm and beguiling story and we're sure you'll
enjoy it be with us next week for the Heritage
of Wimpole Street Attraction nineteen on Radio City
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Playhouse, Robert Warren speaking, This is NBC, the national broadcasting
(29:36):
company
The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction eighteen,
(00:31):
Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the director of Radio City Playhouse,
Harry W. Junkins, to tell you something of tonight's play.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Thank you, Bob One, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
In response to your many hundreds of letters asking to
hear him again, we're very happy to welcome mister John
Larkin back to Radio City Playhouse. Two weeks ago he
played the part of Lloyd Bruckner in The Door and
gave a performance which drew rave notices from all over
the country. Tonight, mister Larkin appears in a similar type
of play, but in a diametrically opposite type of role,
(01:03):
the role of a writer, an intellectual who is a
little cynical, a little disillusioned, and highly indignant at society
over the conviction of a twenty year old boy from murder.
The script is called five Extra Newses and was written
by Charles Lee Hutchings, a writer new to Radio City
Playhouse and from whom we hope to receive more plays
(01:24):
in the very near future. We like this particular script
because it is both entertaining and socially significant, a combination
of ingredients, which few writers achieve. Here then is John
Larkin as the writer in five extra newses by Charles
Lee Hutchings Attraction eighteen on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Nice jail you got here, Warden?
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
All these cells empty? Yeah, maybe you got an answer
to the housing shortage. Look.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
I don't like reporters, and I don't think that was funny.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm not a reporter. I write for magazine and I
don't particularly care what you think.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
This kid's done a murder and he's gonna hang in
the morning, and you come nosing around like a dog.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Stick to your job, Warden. You know I got permission
from way up top where I wouldn't be here tonight.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
All the kids in this cell here, Hi, Jake, it's
the writing guy I.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Was telling you about.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
What's the type?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Nah, you don't have to talk to this guy if
you don't want to see That's what the boss told me.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
He said, you don't have to hold it, Bob, hold it. Look, kid,
here's the setup. I went to a lot of trouble
to get the okay to see you. I want to
get in that cell and talk to you a few minutes.
I'm gonna write a story. For a magazine.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
Was he here before?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
No, No, I'm not a newspaper reporter. I just want
to talk to you for a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
Now, you don't have to you don't have to even
talk to him if I.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Wait a minute. Look, kid, I got permission from the
top guy to come and see you tonight. I'll just
come in there and you can well, you can watch
me write my story. Did you ever see anybody write
a story? Won't do any harm, might do some good
for somebody.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I don't know. I guess it'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
I mean, you don't have the kid open the door
and let me. And you heard the kids say it's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Don't go in for space. Not enough room in here
to swing a cat. I'll sit on the edge of
this cot and get going.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
What's what?
Speaker 6 (03:48):
What you got in a black bag? You're a doctor?
Who are you? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Take it easy now, that's not a black bag. That's
my typewriter in a black case. Hey see, it opens up,
that's up on its own legs like this. I've set
that baby up on the deck of a battleship and
then a tent in Holland and Berlin and Tokyo.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
I never seen no typewriter like that. Was you at
the war?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah? Yeah, war correspondent fought the Battle of the Space Bar.
What were you doing while the war was on? Oh?
Speaker 6 (04:18):
Moving around? They said. I wasn't old enough to get
in the air force. Hey, you heard anything about but me?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
What do you mean?
Speaker 6 (04:26):
You know what I mean? Yesterday they told me.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
He said, No, Oh, you mean about your sentence. I
heard that No, was final tomorrow morning. What's the time
now it's about ten thirty. Now, let's get going.
Speaker 6 (04:41):
What's the time? I asked you.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Twenty five minutes to eleven, and that's right by radio. Now. Look,
I'm here to write a story. I can watch if
you like. Tonight, I am sitting on the edge of
(05:08):
a prison cot in the cell of a condemned murderer.
Between him and the rope which will break his neck
and choke the breath from his throat are nine hours
of tortured darkness. Soon, the collective hand of society will
(05:28):
reach out and pull the lever that will spring the
trap and send his feet kicking in mid air in
the death struggle. Perhaps the collective conscience of society will
permit itself a slight qualm. As I write, the murderer
watches me. He is nothing more than a big, bone hulking,
(05:51):
somewhat dull kid who continually trembles, And he will die
in the first light of the morning. I shall write
them about the court which should have fried him. It
is a purely imaginary court, a court that exists only
(06:11):
in this article that I write. But it is a
special court, a very special court.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
This is a special court, a most unusual court, sitting
tonight in judgment on the ordinary people, you and you,
and you.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Who lead what might be called a blame his life.
Speaker 5 (06:50):
But now you see a new American law is being past,
which reads, in part quote, whereas the state decrees that
no one lacking twenty one full years age can now
alone be held responsible for any murder. It is ordered
that a minimum of six shall then be hanged if
one such youth is condemned to die.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Now that's the law.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
And suddenly we find that such a youth, coming under
the requirements of the Act, is to be hanged tomorrow morning.
And so this court's been called to quickly find the
necessary five the five additional newses which you wait along
with the one society's decreed for the young murderer acting
for the state in this emergency, A young man or
(07:38):
writing fellow, I believe, will now address the.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Court ur honor. There is little time. The crack of
dawns are deadline, and there seems to be a wealth
of candidates for those five extra mooses. Your officers are
rounding up some prospects. Now I must request a brief
recess while I investigate a few and gather evidence to
find the next Which do most rightfully? You belong in
those five.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Extra belong in those five extra nuss?
Speaker 7 (08:19):
What time is it's about?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It's exactly twenty one minutes to eleven.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
What's all that stuff you're putting down there?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
That's what we call a lead on my story. It's
about an imaginary court that doesn't really exist in that Look, kid,
you don't need to be afraid of me. I can't
do any harm or any good.
Speaker 6 (08:40):
I'm not scared of you or anybody. What time is it? Look? Here,
you why don't you go away?
Speaker 8 (08:47):
Here?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
You?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Look kid? Take it easy. Now tell me about where
you went to school, things like that?
Speaker 6 (08:55):
What four?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh, never mind?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
What for?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
How do you get along with the.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
Teacher is okay, except for old lady pastness.
Speaker 9 (09:04):
She put me out of class one day, hoson through
and nothing, she just jumps me.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Then, the first person we shall call in this imaginary
court of mind, this very special court, is the teacher
of this boy who is to hang tomorrow a the
(09:36):
You're the teacher of the boy who is to hang tomorrow?
Speaker 6 (09:40):
What if I was?
Speaker 10 (09:41):
Is any reason to haul a president in the public court?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
We don't know yet.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
We'll see if your indignant neck will fit into one
of our five news.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Will our write prosecutor state the facts. You didn't like
this boy. You put him out of class one day.
That day I think was chapter one in this particular story.
Speaker 10 (10:01):
Did six? He was a bad one?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Bad?
Speaker 10 (10:05):
I well remember him here bother little girls. If you
know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Fare is the details, and get on. You tossed him up?
What then?
Speaker 10 (10:17):
I don't have time at trifle with his type? Do
you know what happens when one apple in the basket
is not good?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
It isn't headline news? Now then, as inspector of this
human fruit, how did you dispose of this bad apple?
Which I think was only slightly bruised? About that time?
Speaker 10 (10:33):
I sent him to the principle and got on with
the lessons. I remember I wrote a note. It said
I will not have this youth fat in my class.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He is a potential murderer. Did you write that? I
know he could not, but he was just a boy
the honor. We waste time, I think with her, this
teacher is no better and no worse than others. And
it's true she has no time to spend on battered fruit.
(11:05):
Let's have the principle. I am the principal, and I
consider it an imposition to be summoned intercourse. I have
more important.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Let's share what the prosecution thinks. We've got to find
sun necks for these five newses.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
How then did you dispose of this unworthy apple cast
out from the perfect company? You mean, this fellow that
they're going to hang? Now, let's have no nonsense. I
simply strapped him sound adding yet another brules or driving
deeper the same blemish. And what then?
Speaker 6 (11:40):
I sent him home?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I gave him a sharp note to show his parents. Look,
do you know I have six hundred pupils in my school,
and there's no time for nonsense with just one. He
tore that note to pieces and wandered to a racetrack,
where an older fellow told him how to beat this
little rap. I did my duty to my pupil and
helped the boy to graduate to murder. Your honor, I
(12:03):
would say, we have but sympathy for this, and all
for work. And under bestowed official who sees his simple beauty,
he has no time. He says, it happens all that
through his minor punishments, justly and sternly meet it out
for minor crimes. He did set the rigid pattern for
the larger crime, and so as he must share the
(12:25):
larger punishment. I find it so. In that enclosure, we
have set five places for five people. Those to fill
the five.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Additional news is now decreed by our new law. You, sir,
the principle, may take your place in the first of these,
and may God give you full marks and pass you on.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So we hang the principle. How many were there in
your family?
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Me, Tom and Harry, and Isabelle and Sarah.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Were you afraid of your father?
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Nah?
Speaker 9 (13:09):
I wasn't afraid of him or anybody else. He used
to come home stinking on Saturday nights. We'd all run
out and hide in the dump behind our house.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Did he ever catch you?
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Yeah? Mostly he'd go back in the house and pass out.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Has your father been to see you here?
Speaker 6 (13:24):
Hah hah. I ain't seen him since the cops ran
him out of town.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And so to this imaginary court about which I write,
we will summon this youth's parents, his mother and his father.
Let them be heard in this strange and special court. First,
we'll call upon the mother. Quiet, you are the mother
(14:03):
of this youth.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yes, there you're.
Speaker 11 (14:06):
An He was one of mine. I've always done my best,
but Jake was too much for me. I looked him
all right, proper, but Jake had never bore. He'd stand
and kind of shiver as I whack him with a strap.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
He never was no good.
Speaker 11 (14:35):
But once he stood up to his paw and he
was kicking little Sarah I I I kind of liked
the way he he heed that rock and hit his paw.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Rana were wasting time with his poor travesy of motherhood.
That's the moment when this woman's hands were needed to
caress with tenderness and loving care. They were filled with
scouring wolves and busy with the corridors in someone else's
house and when her understanding might have torn away dark fears,
permitting her poor brood to see the light, her mind
(15:10):
was occupied with pennies dropping in the jar to pay
the rent and buy the jug, the liquid equalizer that
made her just as good as anyone. Take it away
and send her home, Bring us the father and the peace.
Then they do something.
Speaker 12 (15:26):
Then, I ain't been in trouble now for years. He
ain't got not on me. See I want.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
About I'd jake in the papers. I was three hundred
miles away from here. I can prove it all. If
your small confession for a court which has more time,
there are four nooses left to fill. One morning comes
so very soon, four nooses.
Speaker 6 (15:53):
He what is this?
Speaker 12 (15:55):
I ain't never done, no waste in some receiving. You
can string up a guy for that.
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Now.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
Look, I know my rights.
Speaker 12 (16:03):
I'm white told the angels not killing you.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
You can't mix mean any mode, red.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
By some quaint caprice of nature. You are in it.
It seems to me that we can save some time
here by nominating for a noose. This bright eyed dodging rodent,
to whom fatherhood was but an odious consequence of turning
in his bed one wretched knight.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
He hangs, remove him to the place mark number two,
and may God finds something where.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Your soul should be.
Speaker 9 (16:45):
What are you putting down all that stuff for? About
extra noosis?
Speaker 6 (16:49):
He wrote something about my father. He ain't even here, skipper.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
It's just a magazine article about a court that doesn't
even exist. So you went to industrial school and you
worked as an exercise boy at the track. Did you
ever get into court, that is before before? Now?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Nah? They didn't catch me, but once that was just
a juvenile court. All I had to do was report.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Say where did you learn how to use a gun?
Speaker 6 (17:16):
What do you mean? Say? What are you trying to do? Anyway?
I don't have to even talk to you, like the
warden said.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Hey, okay, I just wondered if he used to practice
on a rock or a bottle or something.
Speaker 6 (17:26):
Nah.
Speaker 9 (17:27):
I never even fired a gun before in my life.
I never even seen a real gun before.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
When you fired that first shot, did it seem to
make a lot more noise than you'd seen in the movies.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah? Yeah it did, and it sort of jumped in
my hand.
Speaker 9 (17:47):
I'd never seen that neither. And there was a funny
burning smell. Hey, what you're getting at huh. I don't
have to tell you. I don't even have to cut.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Up, sit down, or even smelled powder. And so we'll
call upon a social worker in my imaginary court. You, sir,
(18:25):
are a social worker. Let us hear from you.
Speaker 13 (18:29):
I do my work, and that's all I know. These
theorists who build up pedestals for petty crooks. They talk
and talk of recreation centers and flower boarded playgrounds where
there is no sin, and boys will all be boys
or captains of the local nine. I think if they
would step outside and see their precious little heroes happily
(18:49):
engage in gouging eyes or picking locks, then they might.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Do some good.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
And further all on, my little man, and we'll explain
you are a candidate for our next news, and we
will see.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
How well you fit it. Let's have the evidence. The
facts are playing your honor, that this embittered civil servant
is employed in juvenile affairs, and thus he specializes in
the task of bending the twig so that the three
shall grow up fine and straight. I feel that he's
not to blame. It's just that he has not the time,
(19:22):
the wit, nor the weight for such a monumental task.
Take him away. Let's have words with his superior, his legislator.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
You call on me.
Speaker 8 (19:34):
I represent the people and can say without the fear
of contradiction, that I do my duty by those pine
upstanding souls who vote for me. O, what is this
a farse.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
And mockery in the name of justice?
Speaker 8 (19:47):
A court without a prisoner, a trial which brings out
honest people from their beds.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
A politician, We've no time for speeches. Our job is
finning news, is not extracting votes. You figure in this
piece by having hired such little men as these, who
juggled juvenile delinquents and fill out the.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Necessary forms, give us the facts. They are all directed
at this man, who was elected by the people who
speak up for the rights of all the families in
the very district from which our youth in waiting sprung.
I nominate him for a noose, your honor, for he
did nothing when the need for action screamed out loud
(20:26):
from every dirty hovel and dead end. He voted thousands
for a waterway and kept his eyes uplifted as he
cried for all to see how well he carried out
his solemn pledges won by little What What is.
Speaker 8 (20:40):
This arrant nonsense? Didn't I applaud the move to build
more parks and carry out my promises? Why I even
voted for a grant to beautify the waterfront? And if
our appointed courts cantled their start, a buck.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Is swiftly, deftly passed along without more time. I'll state
sufficient reason why this man should rate a noose. He
sees the value of transplanting shrubs and trees to where
they'll get more chance. What shuts his eyes and leaves
a human being to twist and struggle, and perhaps to
rock among the garbage in which fell the sea.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
We have no time to belabor our decisions in this court.
You take place three and wait until we have the
other two. You, the politician, are elected next the man.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Who hatched the murder plot, the one who gave the
lesson on the guns. Ah, look, your honor, I'm a
movie producer, but radio magazines are all the same guns
murder plots. What else? I'm sick to death of amateurs
who make a couple of bucks a day and yet
can tell me how to run my business. How I
make pictures forced our pictures that you see by making
(21:49):
up your mind that you will pay to go into
the show. I don't drag you in this time. You've
gone too far, m maybe not quite far enough. Your
picture showed the youth that he could scare a big
man with a little gun.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
And did you see the picture to my friends?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And did you see the criminal at last waiting, waiting
with fear for his reward in jail? And so again
crime did not pay what pictures pay. And Bogart lived again,
and Robinson and Ladd again next week will swagger with
their rods and set a million youthful trigger fingers twitching.
Sure you showed the criminal and irons, but in full
(22:27):
grease painting, with lights picking the romantic sweat beads on
his brow. I'll show you a murderer in a cell
and send you creeping out with crawling flesh. His drooping
mouth wouldn't take well. He whimples, and then he throws
out on the floor. Oh you can't show that now. Now, look,
I've got to get away. We're shooting at each minute.
Speaker 11 (22:47):
Costs a foe.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Stay here and I'll support the lead In this particular piece.
You got a young man started up to where the
gun went off. Then He was on his own, no lines,
no lights, no pattern. Now you direct him to the end.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Number four now has an eck, And so we move
along and hope the critics will approve your closing sequence.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There is but one noose left to fill. Who is
this candidate, your honor. He's an average citizen and far
removed from any part of crime or sin. Heh you're
done right, and I'll have you know. I'd pay my
taxes and plenty those. We put an office own enough,
why throw out and put some others in. We found
him in his slippers by the fire, listening to the radio,
(23:33):
and his hand was on the knob so that he
could turn it down and air his views in no
uncertain term.
Speaker 13 (23:38):
You're done right. I'm not a politician. If I were,
you'd see some action. You can bet it's crime wave. Now,
don't spare the rod.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
It's good old fashioned discipline.
Speaker 6 (23:50):
We need the lash and things like that.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
You're somewhat in coherent, like the headlines, but you study
firstily to gain your meager knowledge of your time. Do
you know I assisted in the murder for which a
youth will hang tomorrow morning. All I know is that
we need protection, that the honest may sleep safe within
their home. Perhaps there's been too much of this sound sleeping.
(24:11):
Perhaps you'd better stay awake and take a look, because,
my friend, you figure in this murder. If I may
make a joke right up to your neck. Now, first
we'll have the Institute of Learning, a man you hired
to educate the boy his school principal. I trapped him soundly,
and I sent him home. I have no time. I
(24:34):
have too many pupils. I did my duty and I
threw him up. And here all, citizen, your chosen speaker,
who carries out your business, makes your laws, your legislator.
Speaker 8 (24:44):
Oh, enough of this. I have no time for trifling.
You know my stand on crime. I'm against it. Still
no time, mister, citizens. These men you hire are burden
down with matters of great importance. Who is then to
turn a hand to helping this fellow He was tossing
in that giant stream which flows by your front door.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Now look at it here.
Speaker 13 (25:05):
I know you're angled, but I wonder if you've heard
about the outfits which go round doing things to help
the poor.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
We've all seen in the plot of that brave, slim
trickle of human kindness which drips so gallantly into an arid,
deserted in humanity.
Speaker 13 (25:19):
Wait a minute, where's the kid's father. He's the one
I always say that crime begins at home. Now you
take my two boys.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
We know them well. They shine and glow and grow up,
all surrounded by the fences which you built to keep
them safe from nasty things like crime. Here is the father.
Speaker 12 (25:37):
I ain't been in trouble now for years. Jake shot
this guy. I was even here in my wrath.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
So there, you, citizen. That's how you got another son.
Not one so bright or well behaved as those two
you have mentioned, but one abandoned, one kicked out, bruised
and battered, one not quite so well endowed in the beginning.
He is a son of yours, not by an act
of father but or love, but by a greater principal
(26:05):
example some two thousand years ago. He is your son,
your honor. The time is getting on. I say that
this citizen should sit the final news that's file. I
do agree.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Since he does cries so long and lustily for the
rewards which do arise from membership and our fair state,
then he must help to.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
Put the bill.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
With this citizen the fifth and final, hey you and
your time's up, come on out, okay, Warden.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Well let's all kid tell and pick this typewriter. And
then and how you fix the smokes?
Speaker 6 (26:56):
I do smoke? Are you gonna do anything about but me?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
No, nothing I can do.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
How about how about all that stuff you put down?
Was that just just a story?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, just a story. That's why.
Speaker 7 (27:23):
Hey you, yes, you have just heard.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Radio City Playhouse attracts in eighteen five Extra Noises, written
by Charles Lee Hutsings and directed by Harry W. Duncan.
John Lockin starred as the writer. Others in the cast
were Paul Nugent, Jack Lloyd, Adelaide Klein, mart Lawrence, Eugene
Francis and Joe Halgerson. The music was composed and conducted
(28:18):
by doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for
the National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 4 (28:24):
McDonough.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
This is Harry Juncan again. Next week The Heritage of
Wimpole Street.
Speaker 14 (28:52):
The story of what happened when the son of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning returned to England after his mother's death in Italy.
It's a warm and beguiling story and we're sure you'll
enjoy it be with us next week for the Heritage
of Wimpole Street Attraction nineteen on Radio City
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Playhouse, Robert Warren speaking, This is NBC, the national broadcasting
(29:36):
company
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