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 thirty one.
(00:27):
Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the director of Radio City Playhouse,
Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Duncan thank you, Bob. Friends.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
It is once again our privilege to welcome a very
talented actor to his first appearance on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Our start to night is David Gothard, a young man
who has.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Been a member of that very limited circle of top
notch radio actors for some eight years. Here is David
Gothard as Babe Sherman in Wardrobe Trunk Attraction thirty one
on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
If I do only not answered when she knocked at
the door, If.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
I only kept quiet, she'd have gone away. She'd have
thought I was out and gone away. I was what
they call working Paris. In a big city, it's pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
To pick up money without attracting too much attention.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Ponies, gambling, little blackmailing, married women who don't like their
husbands to know what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All right, so I'm a heel. The fact remains that
nothing would have happened if I just kept quiet when
she knocked at the door. Raise Germaine.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Her name was the tiniest girl I ever saw. She
was like a little bird, fragile delegate. I spotted her
selling some guy a gold cigarette case.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And one of the best jewelry stores, not lu de
la Pay.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
When I try, I can make quite an impression. Race
wasn't any different from the rest. The build up took
a month, taking the lunch every day, calling for every night, ignoring.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The stuff and the showcases as though.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
It didn't exist.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
I had to tear my eyes away from it, pretend
I wasn't interested, and looked down at her.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
On the day it happened, we'd had lunch together.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I took her back to the store and she insisted
on showing me some pearls. She insisted, as though I
didn't know exactly what I was after.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
You must look at these so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
It's not as beautiful as you look at that beautiful.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Like the street lights even there is.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The fuck how much? Just tell me and I'll buy
them for you.
Speaker 7 (03:06):
I think for the moment, in your money.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
It's seventy five thousand dollars to wear around your neck.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Try them on, Oh, I think I should not. Come on,
Let's see how they look on you turn around.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
I'll fast.
Speaker 9 (03:25):
Oh wait a.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Minute, I think the class was broken up.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
You better put them away.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
Yes, you go now as you tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You see me tonight, positively about it? About it? Love me,
DearS or not? Could go?
Speaker 9 (03:46):
I must get to work, okay.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Honey, see you tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'd deliberately let the pearls gop to the floor.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And then stoop to pick them up. There was a
sense to make the switch.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
The ones you put back in the case weren't worth
more than one hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I left the shop like I was on air. That
was it. I'd done it. I would never have to
see her again. I had to take it on.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
The American Statesman, sailing from Sherburg the next day, had won.
That night, I went to a movie alone, a good
solid American movie, Lamma Turning. I'd had enough for frenchmomen.
I came home and slept just fine. I had to
be up at seven. The boat train left at eight.
(04:32):
The packing didn't take long, and I was so glad
to be getting out of Paris that I should like.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Singing side west side what I feel like singing At
seven fifteen in the morning. Things have to be just
and Bridge has fallen down.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
That's the way they were at seven fifteen in the morning.
As far as mister Sherman, we'll speak English.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm too.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Oh, I've just one piece of wardrobe, frunt.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
You'll be ready in ten minutes if you come up.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
All right, thanks, let's see shirt eyes.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
I'm where sucks.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's everything, all right, all right? I told you ten minutes.
Can't you tell the time?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
That's when I shouldn't defence at the blue.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I should have known that it wasn't the porter.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
He couldn't have gotten upstairs in thirty seconds, but I
didn't think.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I never dreamed. All right, I'm coming trace. I told
you not to come here. I told you your seat.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Of course, I'm safe.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
I imagine a sort of things that you're killed with
a text.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I read left sid for.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
All of them all a coming.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Forth today to look.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I told you not to come here. Go down to
the corner and way to the coffee. I'll meet you
and we'll have breakfast. Everything's fine to race.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There's no a.
Speaker 10 (06:10):
Fuck you you mean to keep your voice downing away?
Speaker 5 (06:14):
You're leaving.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Today's just going to the thing off.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
I can shut up, will you?
Speaker 9 (06:19):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I will not shut up. I will not shut up.
You gonna do this, all right? Come in and come in,
but keep your voice this you're this filth man. I
love like this.
Speaker 9 (06:34):
These you can and do this.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Look look to RaSE, look here, you take my hand. Now,
stop crying and listen. That's the matter to race.
Speaker 8 (06:45):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Well, don't stand there staring at these. I can see
them making from your suck at the fou. That's just
just a little present for my mother. Let me see.
Don't get excited, let me see.
Speaker 9 (06:57):
Will you keep quiet?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Even give me don't get excited. Did a present for you.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
To stop when you dropped them yesterday?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
You saw you sto keep your voice down.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I'll right, you asked for it. You're a dumb little French. Damon,
you're duller than a paras.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
You The build up was strictly professional. The dinners are
dancing the gough strictly for business. I got the pearls
and I switched another string.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And unless you keep quiet, I'll think you did it.
Speaker 9 (07:26):
You see sing thin.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We were both in a white heat of rage and
hate and fear. I was scared stiff with the noise
she was making.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
I put my hand over a mouth she got away
and made for the door.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I grabbed her and she started to scream again. Then
I heard the porter outside the door, and.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I grabbed her around the throat.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
All of a sudden, she went limp, dead, limp, like
a Roman candle bursting in my face.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
That thought hit me that she was dead. She told
me that her heart was the hand. I didn't mean
the strangle.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I didn't hold her more than ten seconds.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Nobody strangles that fast her her heart just after she
just died on me like that.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
People.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Though I knew it was useless, I tried to bring
her too.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I tried with everything in me to make her live again,
to race to ray, God Holmighty, What have I done
to me?
Speaker 9 (08:27):
Who is it?
Speaker 11 (08:28):
Monsieur the mercy pray?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
What messieurs?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's not pat yet? Come back in ten minutes, me,
su mess rain it is already seventh down. Ten minutes.
I miss you yelling at me, and I'm ready. I'll
call you. Yeah, I miss you, but allie you and
miss your training.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
What can I do?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
What can I do?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I can't believe her here they'll find her ten minutes
after I'm gone. The train takes five hours to Sherberg
that can stop me with a telegram that takes twenty minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
What do I do?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
And then, looking at the trunk, I knew i'd have
to take her with me. Once we got to see,
I'd throw her overboard. Like all wardrobe trunks, one side
was entirely opened for suits. The other was a scramble
of little holes and drawers.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Wasn't a particularly well made drunk.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
I pulled out all the drawers, ripped out the thin
lappetitions undrow.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Both sides were wide open. Just a metal shell remained.
She was very tiny, and when I was through, nothing
was left out.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I got back every nail, every board, every flattened drawer,
and then I got a chat, porter, porter.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
How.
Speaker 12 (09:54):
I'm coming.
Speaker 11 (09:55):
I'm coming, you miss your tide nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But twenty minutes before I get this thing goes right
in the taxi with me.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
I understand no, miss what I don't understand me?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You say them pussy it's too big. In the taxi,
I said, double fair, triple fair. But in the taxi,
I'll get going. We got it into the taxi.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I was sweating and panting, almost sick.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
That taxi driver would never forget me, never if they
asked him afterwards about a guy with a trunk. He'd
be able to draw them a picture. The same thing
happened at the station, an argument that it was too
big to go to the train department with me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Finally I got my way and they put the prumkin
with me.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
I sat down as if the seat were magnetized, just slumped,
sick with relief and well, just sick.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Then I saw his name E. B. Fowler on his luggage.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
He was sitting across from me, reading a paper, and
I knew it was a cop, an American cop.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I knew what I could feel it since and I
ached with it.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
I tried to figure out whether he was SITTY or federal,
maybe an assignment in Paris.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It hadn't worked out.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
When he spoke, I knew he was a cop. I
knew he had me spotted the moment he said, were
you working Paris?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
By?
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Were you work in Paris? But I'll revined it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We have to get sociable.
Speaker 11 (11:41):
I was just wondering the fuss you made getting that
trunk on the train.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
What's in it? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The Eiffel Power?
Speaker 8 (11:50):
Okay, what's your name?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
What are you? An income tax? Blank?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No?
Speaker 8 (11:54):
No, I tell.
Speaker 11 (11:55):
Fortune, go on, hey yours. The first night out you'll
drum up a little games of friendly little games for nickels.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
And dimes, just to make it interesting.
Speaker 11 (12:07):
And the night before we dark, you'll make a killing.
Drop it, drop it, Okay, I'm only fool.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Oh, be careful, I'll die laughing.
Speaker 11 (12:14):
No, you won't, kid, you won't die laughing.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Sherbourn showed about one o'clock.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I was out in the vestibule with a prunk ten
minutes before the frames started to slow down. It ran
right out onto a double decker pier broadside of the boat.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I thank god for American.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Ships, an American stewards who spoke English, and it started again.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
The trunk was too big for the cabin.
Speaker 10 (12:47):
They said, I'm sorry, sir, but we don't allow heavy
luggage in the cabin.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I've got to have it in my cabin. I'm sorry, sir,
but it's too large. It's the only piece of luckies
I've got.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Surely I can have it with me for a day
or so, just like get of unpack phaps.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
You could open it here so remove the things you
need for the trip, and then you got to go
in my cabin.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What cabin are you in, sir? Forty two as well?
Let's say cabin for Tuesday. You're sharing it with somebody.
Speaker 13 (13:10):
I'm afraid of thing that size would be annoying.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And the gentleman with the.
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Gentleman watched the trunk and the cabin with him.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Let him have.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Listen, power, Why don't you mind your own business?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It is my business. What do you mean I'm in
forty two way myself.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
I don't need much room. Let him have the trunk. Steward,
very well, sir, your letters, sherman, and have lots of
time to get to know each other.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Sitting in that cabin.
Speaker 8 (13:35):
All the way home, I knew what had happened.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Powler had been standing behind me.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I knew by the way the Steward's opposition flattened like
ice cream under a blow torch that followed fist his
beads behind my back.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
He sized me up his off color. Now he was
bating me, bading me the way they'll bait him. Guy
on the other side of the fence. Not sure, just
suspicious and hoping for the worst. I had to get
out of that cabin. They just had to change me.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I couldn't cross the Atlantic with powers sleeping across. From here,
I'd go nut.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I hurried on board and made for the person's office.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
There was a lineup that finally I made it. You're welcome, madam.
I hope you have a nice crossing. Thank you very much.
Speaker 11 (14:21):
You've been very kind.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Yes, sir, any of your fair cabins, I think so,
since I find I'm sharing mine and i'd prefer to
be alone.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And I think that can be arranged. What cabin you
win now? Forty two eight? Is that? Sherman? That's right.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
I'm sorry, mister Sherman.
Speaker 13 (14:40):
I'm afraid there's nothing available at the moment, but if
anything comes up, I'll give you a first choice.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Powler had beat me to it. He'd forceeen this move.
He'd faced his badge and told them to leave things
as they were.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
But he couldn't know what was in that punk.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
He couldn't he was playing a hunch. He knew I
was nervously was playing a hunch. I paced the deck
until it began to get dark. It was hot July wherever.
I couldn't leave from the trunk any longer. It was
a small cabin.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I had to get rid of her that night.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Finally, after I had had four straight scotches in the bar,
I went down to cabin forty two eights. Well, I
was wondering when you'd show up the idea window shuts
stand off. Can't be that, Chilian July.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Why are the end of the ventilation?
Speaker 11 (15:37):
What do you mean you were a fresh air fiend,
especially just like a.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Little breeze that's at Why, oh why shouldn't I I
don't know.
Speaker 10 (15:45):
Go ahead, open the window, taste hanks. Not much breeze yet, enough.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
Enough of what?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What's fighting? You followed?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Nothing at all?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I can type down what makes you srow ed? I'm
not edgy. You just get on my nerves, that's all.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
There's something on them already.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I'll look here for.
Speaker 8 (16:08):
Let's not get excited. Let's go down and have dinner.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
I got up off the bunk, took off my shirt
and threw it over the trunk. But I took a
long time washing my hands and face. I watched him
every minute. I can see every movie. He made him
a mirror above the wash basin. He took a bottle
of liquid shoe polish out of his bag, unscrewed the top, laid.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The bottle on the trunk.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Then he started to clean a pair of blue suede shoes.
I saw him deliberately upset the bottle all over my shirt.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I saw it. You did that on purpose. I saw you.
I saw you deliberately knock it over.
Speaker 11 (16:51):
I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to be glad to
pay for your shirt?
Speaker 8 (16:55):
What's it worth? Five dollars?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Ten dollars? You say you let the lonely one of yours.
Speaker 11 (16:59):
I mean to say, you having another shirt and that
young bungalow you're carrying.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Listen to my Mark Lousey or something. What are you
hounding me for?
Speaker 8 (17:06):
I'm not hounding you. I'm just curious.
Speaker 11 (17:08):
Never saw a man so concerned about a trunk. Every
time anybody touches it or moves it, you scream like
a stuck monkey.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
That makes me curious. I don't like being curious.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Oh you don't, No, I don't not.
Speaker 11 (17:22):
Come on, open it up, get a fresh shirt, Come
on down and we'll have some dinner nuts.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'll have my dinner sent in.
Speaker 8 (17:28):
Okay, shareman, have it your way. There's no hurry.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You got eight days.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
He finished dressing and went down to dinner alone. I
locked the cabin door, and gritting my teeth, I opened
the trunk.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I didn't look.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I just grabbed for shirts, underwear, ties, pajamas. Then I
heard Fowler coming back. I'd fallen for it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He'd walked on the pass it away and then come back.
I couldn't get it shut again.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It wasn't her, it was all the wood and stuff
I piled him.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I tugged down. It would and shut.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Oh dear, naked, shut, baked shut, please beat it shut
a locker.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And then I saw it.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
My hair brushed between the edges of the bottom.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I grabbed that. It shoved it back in.
Speaker 9 (18:35):
And it closed.
Speaker 10 (18:39):
I didn't know the door was locked. I did before
I even tried the handle. And I forgot my Pathe yeah,
that's right, clean shirts. I see you opened it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
What's my trunk?
Speaker 8 (18:54):
Way? You carry dope?
Speaker 9 (18:55):
How you are crazy?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
You're absolutely crazy?
Speaker 8 (18:58):
Jewelry perfew?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What do you try and find out?
Speaker 8 (19:01):
I'll find out?
Speaker 9 (19:02):
All right.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
Now that you got a clean shirt, you're still going
to eat in here alone.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I went down to the dining room, but I didn't
sit with him. I ate, but I couldn't taste anything.
I didn't even know what I was eating.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
After dinner, I went back to the cabin and flung
myself down on the bunk, fully dressed. Sheer nervous prostration
made me sleep. When I woke, the luminous hands on
my watch said three o'clock. A thin shaft of light
from the transrom above the door made the room a
little lighter than pitch dark. I could hear Fowler in
(19:49):
the opposite bunk. His breathing was regular in out. I
listened for an hour.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I listened.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
There's an art in pretending to be asleep. Nobody can
do it for a whole hour. His breathing never varied,
not by a catch or a gurgle.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I had to get her out of that trunk.
Speaker 8 (20:09):
I had to.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Either I did it tonight or it was finished. I
made up my mind to try it.
Speaker 9 (20:15):
I edged out of the bunk slowly.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
I didn't make a sound. I got the key from
my pocket, got the key into the lock. I turned,
I twisted.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
It wouldn't open.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Oh, dear, dear heaven naked open.
Speaker 9 (20:33):
And it turned with hardly a sound.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It turned, and Fowler went on breathing, breathing.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Then I went at the snaps.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
They were on springs, and they sounded like fire cracked
as exploding.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Every noise. I died before, waiting for his breathing to stop,
waiting for.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Him to sit up, to pull a gun, to flash
his badge.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
I covered the clasps with my hands to Finally I
got them all open, and I started tucking it.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I never heard some noise.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
To me, it sounded like an explosion, definitely, but followed
I went on breathing him out, hinch by inch. I
forced it open, slowly.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Silently, m.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
M h.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
I hadn't wakened, and I'd gotten it open.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
It took me fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
But I'd done it.
Speaker 6 (21:34):
I lifted her out. She was like a doll, like
a beautiful sleeping doll. I got through the door. I
stood with her in my arms a passageway. I stood there, sweating, shaking, terrified,
(21:56):
and then I heard someone coming.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Someone was coming along the passageway.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I pressed back into the recessed doorway, holding her in
my arms, and the footsteps came nearer and nearer and nearer.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
Wonderful, you mean Gerald, see you in the morning, now,
don't after you've be coming.
Speaker 9 (22:15):
Thirty They hadn't seen me. They hadn't seen me.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
I tiptoed along the passage. I climbed the flight of
stairs at the end without making a sound. At the top,
I had to open a heavy sliding door.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
In an instant, I was out on the deserted deck.
I made for the stern of the boat.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
I hadn't gone fifty yards until I heard his footsteps
behind me. I knew it was fouled. He'd catch up
with me in a matter of seconds. He'd see me,
see her, see everything. I knew i'd have to face him.
So I put her down on a deck chair and
threw a blanket over it, and then I turned the
face foul.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
All right, sherman, here's my badge, FBI.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I'd like to talk to you.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
What about What did you take out of that truck?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Wouldn't you like to know?
Speaker 8 (23:21):
An easy thing to speak to? The captain? Have it search?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
All right? Go ahead, have it searched. I have your
search too. Go ahead, Come along, like the devil I will.
I'm staying here, coming with me. I'm not I luck, Sherman.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
I got a gun. I'm a federal agent. I'm ordering
you to come with me.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And if you put up a fight, I'll slug you.
I'll be a good.
Speaker 8 (23:38):
Who's there? Who the dame and the deck chair?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (23:46):
Oh, I got a hill working with you.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I don't know who she is.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
Well, let's go over and introduce herselves.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I hit him with everything I had. He spun like
a top. I hit him again and he s pumped
over the rail. Then I grabbed his feet and heaved.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
I didn't take a second but go back for her.
I held her out over the black water, then let go.
Then my whole ship blew up under me.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Please, madam, control yourself.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Quiet, everybody quiet, but tell me exactly what you did.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well.
Speaker 7 (24:37):
I see sar Of and I danced until after three.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I went to my cabin.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
I was getting ready for bed when I heard two
men fighting on deck. I put on a robin and
at the door of my cabin I heard.
Speaker 8 (24:49):
This scream, this terrible scream.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
I went up on deck and I saw him hold
this man out over the water and let go. When
the man fell, the blank came loose. The wind blew
it back under the deck. It landed right at my feet,
and I found the bedge. He met at an FBI man.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
He's a murderer. Tell your matter, all right, Sherman, start talking.
Speaker 9 (25:18):
So I.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Told him.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
I told them everything.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
I confessed about the pearls, about Terrace, about the trunk,
about Fowler, everything.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
It was after I'd made the confession.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
That the purser told me they took me down to
a little.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Room in the whole room with a big, heavy door
on it. And that's when the purser let me.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
No, Sherman, you crooks are all alike.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You think you're smart, but you're not. Your dumb layoff
off Sherman, you got a shock coming to you, a
big shock. What do you mean?
Speaker 13 (26:03):
If you hadn't fought with follow, you'd have gotten away
with it. Could have been no scream, no badge, no fight.
You could have dropped her overboard. You wouldn't have had
to wrap her in a blanket.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You could have just just dropped. Are you crazy? How
was there in the cabin with this FBI guy? And
he knew I had to get rid of him some way,
didn't I know?
Speaker 9 (26:23):
You didn't?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
What are you talking about? Fifteen minutes more and we'd
have gotten rid of Fowler for you. He'd be down
here and you'd be up in forty two way alone?
What are you trying to say to me?
Speaker 13 (26:37):
We got a wire from the New York City Police
instructing us to arrest Follloer for impersonating an FBI agent
and blackmailing people on ships. What Fowler with a fake
Sherman a crook? So you see, Fowler's murder could have
been avoided, and the girls, well, the girls would probably
(26:58):
never have been discovered.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
All you have just heard Wardrobe Trunk by William Irish.
(27:25):
The story was adapted for radio by Harry W. Jenkin,
who also directed the production. David Gothard starred as Babe Sherman.
Jordy Santas played Power. Other players included INGA. Adams, Bill Lipton,
and Ernest Graves. The music was composed and conducted by
doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for the
(27:48):
National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
McDonough.
Speaker 12 (28:18):
This is Harry Jonkan again next week on Radio City Playhouse.
One of the most exciting stories we have ever presented,
the story of a vague and indescribable evil that ruins
the lives of three very fine people. Be with us
next week for Treasure Trove Attraction thirty two. Next week
(28:38):
on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Good night everybody, Robert Warren speaking. This is NBC, the
(29:10):
National Broadcasting Company
Speaker 2 (29:15):
H
The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction thirty one.
(00:27):
Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the director of Radio City Playhouse,
Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Duncan thank you, Bob. Friends.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
It is once again our privilege to welcome a very
talented actor to his first appearance on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Our start to night is David Gothard, a young man
who has.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Been a member of that very limited circle of top
notch radio actors for some eight years. Here is David
Gothard as Babe Sherman in Wardrobe Trunk Attraction thirty one
on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
If I do only not answered when she knocked at
the door, If.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
I only kept quiet, she'd have gone away. She'd have
thought I was out and gone away. I was what
they call working Paris. In a big city, it's pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
To pick up money without attracting too much attention.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
Ponies, gambling, little blackmailing, married women who don't like their
husbands to know what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
All right, so I'm a heel. The fact remains that
nothing would have happened if I just kept quiet when
she knocked at the door. Raise Germaine.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Her name was the tiniest girl I ever saw. She
was like a little bird, fragile delegate. I spotted her
selling some guy a gold cigarette case.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And one of the best jewelry stores, not lu de
la Pay.
Speaker 5 (02:08):
When I try, I can make quite an impression. Race
wasn't any different from the rest. The build up took
a month, taking the lunch every day, calling for every night, ignoring.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
The stuff and the showcases as though.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
It didn't exist.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
I had to tear my eyes away from it, pretend
I wasn't interested, and looked down at her.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
On the day it happened, we'd had lunch together.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
I took her back to the store and she insisted
on showing me some pearls. She insisted, as though I
didn't know exactly what I was after.
Speaker 7 (02:47):
You must look at these so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
It's not as beautiful as you look at that beautiful.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
Like the street lights even there is.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The fuck how much? Just tell me and I'll buy
them for you.
Speaker 7 (03:06):
I think for the moment, in your money.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
It's seventy five thousand dollars to wear around your neck.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Try them on, Oh, I think I should not. Come on,
Let's see how they look on you turn around.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
I'll fast.
Speaker 9 (03:25):
Oh wait a.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Minute, I think the class was broken up.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
You better put them away.
Speaker 7 (03:34):
Yes, you go now as you tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
You see me tonight, positively about it? About it? Love me,
DearS or not? Could go?
Speaker 9 (03:46):
I must get to work, okay.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Honey, see you tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'd deliberately let the pearls gop to the floor.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
And then stoop to pick them up. There was a
sense to make the switch.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
The ones you put back in the case weren't worth
more than one hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I left the shop like I was on air. That
was it. I'd done it. I would never have to
see her again. I had to take it on.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
The American Statesman, sailing from Sherburg the next day, had won.
That night, I went to a movie alone, a good
solid American movie, Lamma Turning. I'd had enough for frenchmomen.
I came home and slept just fine. I had to
be up at seven. The boat train left at eight.
(04:32):
The packing didn't take long, and I was so glad
to be getting out of Paris that I should like.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Singing side west side what I feel like singing At
seven fifteen in the morning. Things have to be just
and Bridge has fallen down.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
That's the way they were at seven fifteen in the morning.
As far as mister Sherman, we'll speak English.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I'm too.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Oh, I've just one piece of wardrobe, frunt.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
You'll be ready in ten minutes if you come up.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
All right, thanks, let's see shirt eyes.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
I'm where sucks.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's everything, all right, all right? I told you ten minutes.
Can't you tell the time?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
That's when I shouldn't defence at the blue.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I should have known that it wasn't the porter.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
He couldn't have gotten upstairs in thirty seconds, but I
didn't think.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I never dreamed. All right, I'm coming trace. I told
you not to come here. I told you your seat.
Speaker 6 (05:50):
Of course, I'm safe.
Speaker 7 (05:51):
I imagine a sort of things that you're killed with
a text.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I read left sid for.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
All of them all a coming.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Forth today to look.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
I told you not to come here. Go down to
the corner and way to the coffee. I'll meet you
and we'll have breakfast. Everything's fine to race.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There's no a.
Speaker 10 (06:10):
Fuck you you mean to keep your voice downing away?
Speaker 5 (06:14):
You're leaving.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
Today's just going to the thing off.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
I can shut up, will you?
Speaker 9 (06:19):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I will not shut up. I will not shut up.
You gonna do this, all right? Come in and come in,
but keep your voice this you're this filth man. I
love like this.
Speaker 9 (06:34):
These you can and do this.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
Look look to RaSE, look here, you take my hand. Now,
stop crying and listen. That's the matter to race.
Speaker 8 (06:45):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Well, don't stand there staring at these. I can see
them making from your suck at the fou. That's just
just a little present for my mother. Let me see.
Don't get excited, let me see.
Speaker 9 (06:57):
Will you keep quiet?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Even give me don't get excited. Did a present for you.
Speaker 7 (07:03):
To stop when you dropped them yesterday?
Speaker 5 (07:07):
You saw you sto keep your voice down.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I'll right, you asked for it. You're a dumb little French. Damon,
you're duller than a paras.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
You The build up was strictly professional. The dinners are
dancing the gough strictly for business. I got the pearls
and I switched another string.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
And unless you keep quiet, I'll think you did it.
Speaker 9 (07:26):
You see sing thin.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
We were both in a white heat of rage and
hate and fear. I was scared stiff with the noise
she was making.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
I put my hand over a mouth she got away
and made for the door.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I grabbed her and she started to scream again. Then
I heard the porter outside the door, and.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I grabbed her around the throat.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
All of a sudden, she went limp, dead, limp, like
a Roman candle bursting in my face.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
That thought hit me that she was dead. She told
me that her heart was the hand. I didn't mean
the strangle.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I didn't hold her more than ten seconds.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Nobody strangles that fast her her heart just after she
just died on me like that.
Speaker 6 (08:14):
People.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Though I knew it was useless, I tried to bring
her too.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
I tried with everything in me to make her live again,
to race to ray, God Holmighty, What have I done
to me?
Speaker 9 (08:27):
Who is it?
Speaker 11 (08:28):
Monsieur the mercy pray?
Speaker 8 (08:31):
What messieurs?
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's not pat yet? Come back in ten minutes, me,
su mess rain it is already seventh down. Ten minutes.
I miss you yelling at me, and I'm ready. I'll
call you. Yeah, I miss you, but allie you and
miss your training.
Speaker 6 (08:45):
What can I do?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
What can I do?
Speaker 5 (08:47):
I can't believe her here they'll find her ten minutes
after I'm gone. The train takes five hours to Sherberg
that can stop me with a telegram that takes twenty minutes?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
What do I do?
Speaker 5 (09:03):
And then, looking at the trunk, I knew i'd have
to take her with me. Once we got to see,
I'd throw her overboard. Like all wardrobe trunks, one side
was entirely opened for suits. The other was a scramble
of little holes and drawers.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Wasn't a particularly well made drunk.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
I pulled out all the drawers, ripped out the thin
lappetitions undrow.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Both sides were wide open. Just a metal shell remained.
She was very tiny, and when I was through, nothing
was left out.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I got back every nail, every board, every flattened drawer,
and then I got a chat, porter, porter.
Speaker 8 (09:52):
How.
Speaker 12 (09:54):
I'm coming.
Speaker 11 (09:55):
I'm coming, you miss your tide nineties.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But twenty minutes before I get this thing goes right
in the taxi with me.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
I understand no, miss what I don't understand me?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
You say them pussy it's too big. In the taxi,
I said, double fair, triple fair. But in the taxi,
I'll get going. We got it into the taxi.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I was sweating and panting, almost sick.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
That taxi driver would never forget me, never if they
asked him afterwards about a guy with a trunk. He'd
be able to draw them a picture. The same thing
happened at the station, an argument that it was too
big to go to the train department with me.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Finally I got my way and they put the prumkin
with me.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
I sat down as if the seat were magnetized, just slumped,
sick with relief and well, just sick.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Then I saw his name E. B. Fowler on his luggage.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
He was sitting across from me, reading a paper, and
I knew it was a cop, an American cop.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
I knew what I could feel it since and I
ached with it.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
I tried to figure out whether he was SITTY or federal,
maybe an assignment in Paris.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
It hadn't worked out.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
When he spoke, I knew he was a cop. I
knew he had me spotted the moment he said, were
you working Paris?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
By?
Speaker 8 (11:34):
Were you work in Paris? But I'll revined it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We have to get sociable.
Speaker 11 (11:41):
I was just wondering the fuss you made getting that
trunk on the train.
Speaker 8 (11:46):
What's in it? Anyway?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The Eiffel Power?
Speaker 8 (11:50):
Okay, what's your name?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
What are you? An income tax? Blank?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No?
Speaker 8 (11:54):
No, I tell.
Speaker 11 (11:55):
Fortune, go on, hey yours. The first night out you'll
drum up a little games of friendly little games for nickels.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
And dimes, just to make it interesting.
Speaker 11 (12:07):
And the night before we dark, you'll make a killing.
Drop it, drop it, Okay, I'm only fool.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Oh, be careful, I'll die laughing.
Speaker 11 (12:14):
No, you won't, kid, you won't die laughing.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Sherbourn showed about one o'clock.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I was out in the vestibule with a prunk ten
minutes before the frames started to slow down. It ran
right out onto a double decker pier broadside of the boat.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I thank god for American.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Ships, an American stewards who spoke English, and it started again.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
The trunk was too big for the cabin.
Speaker 10 (12:47):
They said, I'm sorry, sir, but we don't allow heavy
luggage in the cabin.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I've got to have it in my cabin. I'm sorry, sir,
but it's too large. It's the only piece of luckies
I've got.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
Surely I can have it with me for a day
or so, just like get of unpack phaps.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
You could open it here so remove the things you
need for the trip, and then you got to go
in my cabin.
Speaker 8 (13:02):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
What cabin are you in, sir? Forty two as well?
Let's say cabin for Tuesday. You're sharing it with somebody.
Speaker 13 (13:10):
I'm afraid of thing that size would be annoying.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And the gentleman with the.
Speaker 11 (13:13):
Gentleman watched the trunk and the cabin with him.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Let him have.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Listen, power, Why don't you mind your own business?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It is my business. What do you mean I'm in
forty two way myself.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
I don't need much room. Let him have the trunk. Steward,
very well, sir, your letters, sherman, and have lots of
time to get to know each other.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Sitting in that cabin.
Speaker 8 (13:35):
All the way home, I knew what had happened.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Powler had been standing behind me.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
I knew by the way the Steward's opposition flattened like
ice cream under a blow torch that followed fist his
beads behind my back.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
He sized me up his off color. Now he was
bating me, bading me the way they'll bait him. Guy
on the other side of the fence. Not sure, just
suspicious and hoping for the worst. I had to get
out of that cabin. They just had to change me.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I couldn't cross the Atlantic with powers sleeping across. From here,
I'd go nut.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
I hurried on board and made for the person's office.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
There was a lineup that finally I made it. You're welcome, madam.
I hope you have a nice crossing. Thank you very much.
Speaker 11 (14:21):
You've been very kind.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
Yes, sir, any of your fair cabins, I think so,
since I find I'm sharing mine and i'd prefer to
be alone.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And I think that can be arranged. What cabin you
win now? Forty two eight? Is that? Sherman? That's right.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
I'm sorry, mister Sherman.
Speaker 13 (14:40):
I'm afraid there's nothing available at the moment, but if
anything comes up, I'll give you a first choice.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Powler had beat me to it. He'd forceeen this move.
He'd faced his badge and told them to leave things
as they were.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
But he couldn't know what was in that punk.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
He couldn't he was playing a hunch. He knew I
was nervously was playing a hunch. I paced the deck
until it began to get dark. It was hot July wherever.
I couldn't leave from the trunk any longer. It was
a small cabin.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I had to get rid of her that night.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Finally, after I had had four straight scotches in the bar,
I went down to cabin forty two eights. Well, I
was wondering when you'd show up the idea window shuts
stand off. Can't be that, Chilian July.
Speaker 8 (15:35):
Why are the end of the ventilation?
Speaker 11 (15:37):
What do you mean you were a fresh air fiend,
especially just like a.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Little breeze that's at Why, oh why shouldn't I I
don't know.
Speaker 10 (15:45):
Go ahead, open the window, taste hanks. Not much breeze yet, enough.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
Enough of what?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
What's fighting? You followed?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Nothing at all?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I can type down what makes you srow ed? I'm
not edgy. You just get on my nerves, that's all.
Speaker 8 (16:05):
There's something on them already.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I'll look here for.
Speaker 8 (16:08):
Let's not get excited. Let's go down and have dinner.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
I got up off the bunk, took off my shirt
and threw it over the trunk. But I took a
long time washing my hands and face. I watched him
every minute. I can see every movie. He made him
a mirror above the wash basin. He took a bottle
of liquid shoe polish out of his bag, unscrewed the top, laid.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The bottle on the trunk.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Then he started to clean a pair of blue suede shoes.
I saw him deliberately upset the bottle all over my shirt.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
I saw it. You did that on purpose. I saw you.
I saw you deliberately knock it over.
Speaker 11 (16:51):
I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to be glad to
pay for your shirt?
Speaker 8 (16:55):
What's it worth? Five dollars?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Ten dollars? You say you let the lonely one of yours.
Speaker 11 (16:59):
I mean to say, you having another shirt and that
young bungalow you're carrying.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Listen to my Mark Lousey or something. What are you
hounding me for?
Speaker 8 (17:06):
I'm not hounding you. I'm just curious.
Speaker 11 (17:08):
Never saw a man so concerned about a trunk. Every
time anybody touches it or moves it, you scream like
a stuck monkey.
Speaker 8 (17:16):
That makes me curious. I don't like being curious.
Speaker 6 (17:19):
Oh you don't, No, I don't not.
Speaker 11 (17:22):
Come on, open it up, get a fresh shirt, Come
on down and we'll have some dinner nuts.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I'll have my dinner sent in.
Speaker 8 (17:28):
Okay, shareman, have it your way. There's no hurry.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You got eight days.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
He finished dressing and went down to dinner alone. I
locked the cabin door, and gritting my teeth, I opened
the trunk.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I didn't look.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I just grabbed for shirts, underwear, ties, pajamas. Then I
heard Fowler coming back. I'd fallen for it.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
He'd walked on the pass it away and then come back.
I couldn't get it shut again.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
It wasn't her, it was all the wood and stuff
I piled him.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I tugged down. It would and shut.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Oh dear, naked, shut, baked shut, please beat it shut
a locker.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
And then I saw it.
Speaker 6 (18:27):
My hair brushed between the edges of the bottom.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
I grabbed that. It shoved it back in.
Speaker 9 (18:35):
And it closed.
Speaker 10 (18:39):
I didn't know the door was locked. I did before
I even tried the handle. And I forgot my Pathe yeah,
that's right, clean shirts. I see you opened it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
What's my trunk?
Speaker 8 (18:54):
Way? You carry dope?
Speaker 9 (18:55):
How you are crazy?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
You're absolutely crazy?
Speaker 8 (18:58):
Jewelry perfew?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
What do you try and find out?
Speaker 8 (19:01):
I'll find out?
Speaker 9 (19:02):
All right.
Speaker 11 (19:03):
Now that you got a clean shirt, you're still going
to eat in here alone.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I went down to the dining room, but I didn't
sit with him. I ate, but I couldn't taste anything.
I didn't even know what I was eating.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
After dinner, I went back to the cabin and flung
myself down on the bunk, fully dressed. Sheer nervous prostration
made me sleep. When I woke, the luminous hands on
my watch said three o'clock. A thin shaft of light
from the transrom above the door made the room a
little lighter than pitch dark. I could hear Fowler in
(19:49):
the opposite bunk. His breathing was regular in out. I
listened for an hour.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
I listened.
Speaker 6 (20:00):
There's an art in pretending to be asleep. Nobody can
do it for a whole hour. His breathing never varied,
not by a catch or a gurgle.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I had to get her out of that trunk.
Speaker 8 (20:09):
I had to.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
Either I did it tonight or it was finished. I
made up my mind to try it.
Speaker 9 (20:15):
I edged out of the bunk slowly.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
I didn't make a sound. I got the key from
my pocket, got the key into the lock. I turned,
I twisted.
Speaker 9 (20:27):
It wouldn't open.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Oh, dear, dear heaven naked open.
Speaker 9 (20:33):
And it turned with hardly a sound.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
It turned, and Fowler went on breathing, breathing.
Speaker 6 (20:44):
Then I went at the snaps.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
They were on springs, and they sounded like fire cracked
as exploding.
Speaker 6 (20:50):
Every noise. I died before, waiting for his breathing to stop,
waiting for.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Him to sit up, to pull a gun, to flash
his badge.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
I covered the clasps with my hands to Finally I
got them all open, and I started tucking it.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I never heard some noise.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
To me, it sounded like an explosion, definitely, but followed
I went on breathing him out, hinch by inch. I
forced it open, slowly.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
Silently, m.
Speaker 8 (21:21):
M h.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
I hadn't wakened, and I'd gotten it open.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
It took me fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
But I'd done it.
Speaker 6 (21:34):
I lifted her out. She was like a doll, like
a beautiful sleeping doll. I got through the door. I
stood with her in my arms a passageway. I stood there, sweating, shaking, terrified,
(21:56):
and then I heard someone coming.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Someone was coming along the passageway.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I pressed back into the recessed doorway, holding her in
my arms, and the footsteps came nearer and nearer and nearer.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
Wonderful, you mean Gerald, see you in the morning, now,
don't after you've be coming.
Speaker 9 (22:15):
Thirty They hadn't seen me. They hadn't seen me.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
I tiptoed along the passage. I climbed the flight of
stairs at the end without making a sound. At the top,
I had to open a heavy sliding door.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
In an instant, I was out on the deserted deck.
I made for the stern of the boat.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
I hadn't gone fifty yards until I heard his footsteps
behind me. I knew it was fouled. He'd catch up
with me in a matter of seconds. He'd see me,
see her, see everything. I knew i'd have to face him.
So I put her down on a deck chair and
threw a blanket over it, and then I turned the
face foul.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
All right, sherman, here's my badge, FBI.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I'd like to talk to you.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
What about What did you take out of that truck?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Wouldn't you like to know?
Speaker 8 (23:21):
An easy thing to speak to? The captain? Have it search?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
All right? Go ahead, have it searched. I have your
search too. Go ahead, Come along, like the devil I will.
I'm staying here, coming with me. I'm not I luck, Sherman.
Speaker 8 (23:30):
I got a gun. I'm a federal agent. I'm ordering
you to come with me.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And if you put up a fight, I'll slug you.
I'll be a good.
Speaker 8 (23:38):
Who's there? Who the dame and the deck chair?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (23:46):
Oh, I got a hill working with you.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
I don't know who she is.
Speaker 11 (23:49):
Well, let's go over and introduce herselves.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
I hit him with everything I had. He spun like
a top. I hit him again and he s pumped
over the rail. Then I grabbed his feet and heaved.
Speaker 11 (24:04):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
I didn't take a second but go back for her.
I held her out over the black water, then let go.
Then my whole ship blew up under me.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Please, madam, control yourself.
Speaker 5 (24:33):
Quiet, everybody quiet, but tell me exactly what you did.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Well.
Speaker 7 (24:37):
I see sar Of and I danced until after three.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I went to my cabin.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
I was getting ready for bed when I heard two
men fighting on deck. I put on a robin and
at the door of my cabin I heard.
Speaker 8 (24:49):
This scream, this terrible scream.
Speaker 7 (24:52):
I went up on deck and I saw him hold
this man out over the water and let go. When
the man fell, the blank came loose. The wind blew
it back under the deck. It landed right at my feet,
and I found the bedge. He met at an FBI man.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
He's a murderer. Tell your matter, all right, Sherman, start talking.
Speaker 9 (25:18):
So I.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Told him.
Speaker 6 (25:23):
I told them everything.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
I confessed about the pearls, about Terrace, about the trunk,
about Fowler, everything.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
It was after I'd made the confession.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
That the purser told me they took me down to
a little.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Room in the whole room with a big, heavy door
on it. And that's when the purser let me.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
No, Sherman, you crooks are all alike.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
You think you're smart, but you're not. Your dumb layoff
off Sherman, you got a shock coming to you, a
big shock. What do you mean?
Speaker 13 (26:03):
If you hadn't fought with follow, you'd have gotten away
with it. Could have been no scream, no badge, no fight.
You could have dropped her overboard. You wouldn't have had
to wrap her in a blanket.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
You could have just just dropped. Are you crazy? How
was there in the cabin with this FBI guy? And
he knew I had to get rid of him some way,
didn't I know?
Speaker 9 (26:23):
You didn't?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
What are you talking about? Fifteen minutes more and we'd
have gotten rid of Fowler for you. He'd be down
here and you'd be up in forty two way alone?
What are you trying to say to me?
Speaker 13 (26:37):
We got a wire from the New York City Police
instructing us to arrest Follloer for impersonating an FBI agent
and blackmailing people on ships. What Fowler with a fake
Sherman a crook? So you see, Fowler's murder could have
been avoided, and the girls, well, the girls would probably
(26:58):
never have been discovered.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
All you have just heard Wardrobe Trunk by William Irish.
(27:25):
The story was adapted for radio by Harry W. Jenkin,
who also directed the production. David Gothard starred as Babe Sherman.
Jordy Santas played Power. Other players included INGA. Adams, Bill Lipton,
and Ernest Graves. The music was composed and conducted by
doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for the
(27:48):
National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
McDonough.
Speaker 12 (28:18):
This is Harry Jonkan again next week on Radio City Playhouse.
One of the most exciting stories we have ever presented,
the story of a vague and indescribable evil that ruins
the lives of three very fine people. Be with us
next week for Treasure Trove Attraction thirty two. Next week
(28:38):
on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Good night everybody, Robert Warren speaking. This is NBC, the
(29:10):
National Broadcasting Company
Speaker 2 (29:15):
H
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