The Black Radio an episode of Cloak and Dagger radio show

Please enjoy The Black Radio a great episode of the legendaryCloak and Dagger radio show - A Classic Old Time radio Show - OTR

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Are you willing to undertake a dangerousmission behind the enemy lines knowing you may
never return alive. What you havejust heard is the question asked during a
war to agents of the OSS.Ordinary citizens who do this question answered yes.

(00:24):
This is club and dagger, blackwarfare, espionage, international intrigue.

(00:47):
These are the weapons of the OSS. Today's story, the Black Radio,
concerns an OSS agent who broadcast alive propaganda from behind the enemy lines,
and is suggested by actual incidents recordedin the Washington files of the Office of
Strategic Services, a story that cannow be told. It was one of

(01:11):
those quiet days. The sun wassplashing in through the windows, and I
was marking time until lunch in thecafeteria and a day I had with a
regular secretary. There were just thetwo of us in the big gadget room
of the OSS in Washington, justme and Hank Martin. Then all of

(01:32):
a sudden, Hank grabbed my arm. Mark it down. Air rate okay,
okay, well big idea. Ohboy, I wish I had a
camera. Just then, Prother,did you look scare right? What was
that thing? Just thrown aways?Bass? Just a little noise maker.
Great if you get in a tightspot. You want to start a riding,

(01:52):
all right, Look, let's startfrom the beginning. Now. How
does it work? Well? Likeyou see, it's not very big,
just about the size of a lemon, easy to slipping in your pocket.
All you do is pull out thecap and throw it. When it explodes,
paw. We call it the heavyLamar. Major longhand I have a

(02:15):
job for you. When our armyhas crossed the Rhine into Germany, the
Fribourg will become a strategic city.The less resistance we get from the people
when we make that advance, theless lives will be lost. Up to
date, we have no report ofany underground or partisan movement there. And

(02:35):
Oss wants me to go in therewith a black radio and soften them up.
Is that it's right? Cut inon the Nazi local stations, broadcast
the information we want and to getanother of our agents infiltrated that area over
three months ago to get acquainted withthe city and locate suitable hiding places for
the radio. Of course, itwill have to be moved every time we
use it. That's right now.We haven't heard from our agents since you

(03:00):
was sent in. We didn't wanther to run the risk of trying to
contact God. But did you sayshe girl? That's right. Have you
any objection to working with a woman? Oh? No, sir, I
mean no, s m. Hername was We'll see you, colonel said.

(03:23):
I wondered if she was anything likethe redhead this We'll see you.
Nobody had heard from her for months. Maybe she'd been caught. Maybe the
Nazis had twisted out of her thereason she'd been sent to Fribar. Maybe
maybe I'd have a reception committee ofGerman sweeping for me. It gave me

(03:44):
something to think about on the planefinding over the Black forest in Germany a
few weeks later. Here's your hondablepoints straight ahead, straight ahead, and
straight down? You mean running?Ready, ready, go, good luck.
I tossed the radio. Why first? Then I jumped after it.
No matter how many times I jumped, it was always the first time.
A feeling of falling, sick,feeling like a dream. I came to

(04:10):
it with a chalk, a sharppain across my thighs from the pull of
the strap and the crack of thechute. Then are all around me.
I looked down on the black forestthat was blacker than ever at oh four
hundred four o'clock in the morning.There were no Germans waiting, but no

(04:35):
little sea of youth. There wasnothing but a foreign country, and up
above the plane faded away. Thenit was gone, and I was alone.
The radio had floated to earth aboutfifty feet away. I checked if

(04:58):
nature it was alright. I buriedmy parachute and wondered what to do next.
There was a milk wagon coming downthe road. I could hear the
milk hand swaying with the movement ofthe curt I could see a shadowy figure
holding the rings. I dragged theradio behind the clump of bushes, and
then I waited for the wagon topass. For a moment, I didn't

(05:24):
recognize the song, and then allof a sudden, the words wrote themselves
in my head. Come away withme was seal in my married old smooth
No seal, No seal. I'msorry. I wasn't Major Lane, a

(05:45):
duraman soldier. I know stuff totalk. I couldn't break away without being
impolite. Just as long as yougot here, howry Ma, John,
let's go get I was. Iwas so glad to see anyone in my
life, But I I didn't quiteexpect to lead. Uh, the milkman.
What did you think I'd be like? Now? Oh, I I
come, come? Maybe. Well, I had no idea, no doubt.

(06:09):
You pictured a slim, young thingwh would interest you intrigue. I've
been either slim nor young for longerthan I'd like to remember. Tell me
what did you do before the worlds? You know, taught history in grade
school. Now I'm helping to makeit. It's a good feeling until you
consider the possibility of getting caught.We've got to make sure we don't get

(06:30):
caught. There is always that possibility. Major accept it, and it's much
easier to take it if it comes. Yeah, who is it? Yeah?
Come in, well what do youwant? Sure? Maybe across the

(06:54):
hall, I'm surely to make youracquaintance. Scruba. I just you,
Helana. You know my name.I see it's a it's a whole old
widower alone in this world, withvery few interests outside of the future of
the fatherland. It is I makeit by business to know everyone in this
roomy house, do you? Andyou are right in Friburg only a few

(07:18):
days ago. Nine, that's right. You have a medical discharge from the
army. You are wounded at Anzio. Is there anything about me you don't
know? Do not take offense myfriend. I asked the landlady about you.
It was she who told me yourinformation is right. He grouper.
I was wounded. I spent twomonths in the hospital. Yeah, and

(07:40):
I'd like to be left alone.Yeah, you are bitter. Yeah,
specifically life will not be easy.But you must mix with people, make
friends. Don't keep too much toyourself. I wrote with me this bottle
of schnarks and too small class.Could you not join me? Well,

(08:05):
uh yeah, to the future,Helena. Well I'll drink that. There
was something about the old wind bagwho rented the room next door to me
on the third floor that I didn'tlike. I couldn't put my finger on
it. Maybe it was the wayhis eyes, like Patton leather buckings,

(08:28):
kept darting around the room. Hey, good schnaps name, Helena. Uh
yeah, very good. Not Eacwho used to get before the war.
Of course, I'm not complaining.It's such a little sacrifice to make for
the right. Yes, of course. Yes, what are you planning to
do here in fried War? Well, I have my craft card as a

(08:52):
union motion picture projection. I workedin the film house in Berlin before the
war and was hoping to find aposition here. Mmmm, you've had no
success yet, No, no,but yet the motion picture house not from
the mining university. Have you triedthere? Well, no, I haven't
do do do do? Do?Try it till the manager. Yes,

(09:13):
Schmidt, but you are a friendof mine. He's always complaining to me
about being short of head. Thatalso is just a little sacrifice to make
for the right, of course,of course. Uh, I'll go there
tomorrow. Oh uh, tell mewhat is your business? The group?
I Oh, I am a clerk, a clerk in the administration building of

(09:39):
Gestapo headquarters. Motions. I maynot have li liked the order went back,
but I took his lead anyway.I went to the movie house near
the university and got myself a jobthere. On the day ship, I
cannot the hours until the Thursday,when i'd meet Lucille at the deserted carbone

(10:03):
we'd agreed on. On Wednesday,I was in the projection of them,
running a half hour news reading,most of which was a curse of particular,
making a speech in Berlin and pullingat the mouth. I looked down
over their heads at the audience.Wondered if all of them were as enthusiastic
about the fure as they pretended tobe. Wondered how much it would take

(10:26):
to push them into starting their ownunderground. Wondered how many of them would
be listening to their lady or thenext month next name. I can pre
tell you, I'll I can pretendyou don't have tomorrow afternoon off tomorrow afternoon,
but I don't understandings Ashame Coup.I will want to you tomorrow night

(10:50):
and stay. But tomorrow night it'simpossible, I mean longer. You have
to go drop here for ask youto take the night shift this one.
That's emi need for arguments. Ohbut you see, it's what you do
that important that we can all pepostponednine Schmidt, that's so important. I'll
be here the next night. Attwenty minutes past ten, the feature film

(11:15):
went off. I'd set the machine. The newsreel would run by itself for
half an hour, no more.I didn't get any much time before the
reel would run out, just ahalf hour to get to the car barn
broadcast to get back. Now,let's sit and see you seven hundred and
thirty kilocycles, but I can't seemto get reception. Ah, this is

(11:39):
hark starts on signing until tomorrow morningI get there. We go to the
Finnish cost. Don't turn off yourradios, people of Fribourg. This is
for you. I am your voiceof freedom, bringing you news as it
actually exists, not as the propagandaministry would like you to believe. That's

(12:03):
good, wonderful. It wasn't fiftysons of Friborg who died at the Anzio
beach had but five hundred. Youmothers, wives, sweethearts, who have
not heard from your men. Youthink the males are slow? Is that
why you haven't received letters? Yourmen will never write again. They were

(12:24):
killed at Antio. Women, theyare taking your men away. What do
you have for compensation? You haveno food, your cold. One of
the political leaders want to sacrifice everythingbut themselves. Haven't you sacrificed enough?

(12:48):
Market Fleet's all right, and nowuntil another time soon, this is the
voice of freedom. Good Night.I will not say Hyle Hitler. I
say instead God be with you,the first of many, God be rep

(13:09):
used. Both we dismantled the radio. I left at it into the back
of the low wag and ran asfast as I could back to the theater
and slid in through the side door. And then I heard it, Hey,
long, go long? Where areyou slid well? I am what

(13:31):
business happy to leave the protection ofduring the usual of the fure. I
only hope your talents is toure?Oh are you got top up? In
the middle of his speak, well, where we are? Where was I?
I was in the washroom. Iwas just going up to see if
you're boy asleep. I will alwaysgo pick my team picking up? When?
When? When did this happen?Happened? Just a minute the corner,
dearly, it's the one that youcouldn't hear all the disturbance from the

(13:52):
bustroom. As am affair. Yeah, I ran up the stairs to the
injection of God must have been withme that first night. If the machine
had broken down five minutes earlier,Schmidt would have known I'd left the theater.

(14:22):
The next week and the next andthe next we were on the area.
We moved the radio to a desertedwarehouse, to a cave in the
black forest, to a barn onthe outskirts of town. As a voice
of freedom, I told the peopleof Fryborg, you are fighting a lost
cause. The losses of the Luchwalkerseventy five percent higher than reported resistance in

(14:48):
all German occupied territory is growing stronger. People in the city look the same.
We're as respectful as ever to theNazi soldiers that walked the streets.
None of them showed, by somuch as a look or a word,
that they ever heard those broadcasts.And then I received my first indication.

(15:13):
I saw you through the window ofthe coffee shop. Here, Lana,
May I join you at your tableif you'd like, I would so.
Have you been listening to your radio? Lady, I er have no radio.
If you get one, then Iadvise you not to listen to Raich
Statuneka a day oh, because theGestapo will arrest any one caught listening to

(15:35):
the man who calls himself the Voiceof Freedom. Oh what is he talk
about? This voice of freedom?Of nonsense? Of course, a lied
propagand and nonsense. You sure youhave never heard him? I told you
her Grewber, I have no radio. Course, I forgot hum. Why

(15:56):
is it, Langa? I havethe feeling I've seen you somewhere before.
It was ridiculous to suppose that hehad ever seen it before. But he
told me one thing. The peoplewere listening, and the estoppo was looking
for me. Mark, with thiscoup of your SPS, I'd better broadcast

(16:26):
tonight. No no, no,I'll be all right, people of Fribourg.
This is your voice of freedom.I want to tell you, my
friends, how step by step Hitlerhas developed his program. Step by step
he has carried it off successfully.First he took our men and destroyed them.

(16:47):
And now Hitler is destroying our citiesand our factories. Allied bombings will
destroy all Germany. Our men arealready dead in one hundred battlefields. This
is the yours greatest achievement for Germany. He's accomplishing it all in less than
twelve short years. Twelve short yearsof Hitler writes success be addemming the radio.

(17:11):
Mark, you'd better sign off.This is the voice of freedom saying
good night. I will not sayHi, Hitler, I say instead,
God be with you. I'm afraidthey may be closing ill herescal it's the
first time they've champed our broadcast.We'll have to move fast this panel radio
and get out of here. Lessthan five minutes later we'd left the facement

(17:38):
at the schoolhouse near the cathedral.That's quiet in the streets, too quiet,
as if the city were holding itsbreath, waiting for something to happen.
Good Night until Friday. You knowthe places. Let me take the
radio. So hold back to yourroom, because under your arm, what

(17:59):
foolish will sel you always take therisk of being cart orated. I have
the milk wagon to hide it inthe barn, to bury it. You'd
better not stand it any longer.Good Night again, and take care of
that car. I started to walkquickly in the opposite direction. If German
triangulation had found the general location ofthe radio, the neighborhood would be swarming

(18:22):
with Gestapo any minute. The headlightsof the official car came out of nowhere
around the corner and blinded me.Stay where you are, started to run.
I got into a doorway, upthe stairs to the roof, across
the roof, downsastairs again back intothe street. Somehow I'd shaken him.

(18:47):
I was free of them, soI had to find somewhere to go,
somewhere to hide. The movie housewhere I worked was close by. I
went in through the side door,punch down in the seat anonymous in the
darkness. I was one of hundredsof people watching the track, and then

(19:10):
when something happened in the film,the soundtrack would sound. You people,
listen to me, there will beno more field for Nashti feel and you
take your identification of a way manand this one, fire a p from
man and receive telling into the theaterto the side that a man who fed

(19:34):
for put to me by the disupper. You will find the exit run by
one and row by law, withno fucking right man to the last.
There will be no Maybe my forgedidentification would pass special easily, but the
man would chasing me had a generalidea of my height and waist. I

(19:55):
couldn't take the chance. I putmy hand in my pocket forout a round
disc about the size of a lemon. The noise maker oss called the heavy
lamar. I eked out the catand the throat. I started a riot,
all right. The soldiers putting allthe time. They practically walked over

(20:17):
them, and they rushed to getout, and I walked out too,
swapped along in the tide of panic. Wouldn't talk. You're the group just

(20:37):
on your way through work. Isee, I will walk with you partway.
Well, if you'd like. Tonight, when you get home from your
work, listen to your adio.I told you I have no radio.
I do keep forgetting job. Can'tyou listen to mind? Then there's to
be an important announcement at seven o'clockannouncer about what I learned about it this

(20:59):
morning at the Administration building round work. Yes, there has to be a
hanging in the square at noon tomorrow. And a light spy was caught with
the radio. What did you say, spy? She was pitched last night
driving a mind? Can you imagineyou look? Are you haven't been well?
A cold? I haven't caught theman yet, the one who calls
himself the voice of Freedom, butI have no doubt they will. So

(21:22):
they're offering a large reward. Arethey cold? Here to night? When
you return from work. It remindedme to give you some of my cough
medicine. It's very oh, Iturn off here. People say I didn't

(21:44):
stop buying for the Coft Madison.After work, I locked myself in my
room and stayed up on our knyeslooking out of the window. But the
ice blue stars that hung over Germany, and I tried to think of something
to do to help you. Seebefore noon the next day I went to
the square, but I still didn'thave the answer. Isn't it frightening?

(22:08):
Helenah? The way an execution?Beto? Are the people like flies?
To honey? Is a fascination?Do you think of seeing someone else supper?
You tell me the Grover? Youshould know you're here? I so
I am, But then so areyou? Womm Have you anything to say

(22:30):
before you die? People frightened?Remember what you heard on your radius?
Remember what the voice of freedom toldyou. It's not the truth. The
truth you'll need to have to tryingyou why it's the clover. I did
not stay. I can't stuck withyou. It happened quickly. It was

(22:59):
all over that I hadn't done athing to stop it. Yes, who
is it? Only? I here? Groover? Go away? Will you
please go away? I don't wantto talk to anyone. You're my friend

(23:23):
about the hanging this afternoon? No? Oh, I I just don't feel
well. Now. Don't torment yourselfthis way. There was nothing you could
do to prevent it. She didnot expect it. What are you talking
about? Trust me? You haveno one else to trust. I guess
not. What is going to checkand cross check every man's papers, every

(23:47):
man in Fribruary. Are you sureyou can stand a thorough investigation? Lena?
But you're crazy? Are you accusingme? Are the voice of freedom?
I suspected it for a long time. I was never sure. I
was afraid to step forward. SoonNow I listen to me. I know
you don't like me. I havenot liked to myself for years, afraid

(24:10):
of my own shadow, afraid tothink, afraid, afraid, but no
longer her grover looking. I ama discharged soldier from Weermach. I have
made your face look familiar. Itwas not your face, but it was
something about you, your voice.I thought I recognized it, and then
I started to think, think,I who have been afraid to think for

(24:36):
years? You came to Fible,but at the same time the broadcast began.
You were you were too ignorant ofwhat was going on. And then
yesterday you coughed as he had,and I was almost sure then and now
to day. I watched your facewhen she was hanged, and then I
knew he crossed me. You haveno one else. He was right I

(25:06):
had no one else and I hadto get out of friedwork. Gruber offered
to drive me across the bridge thatnight. From there, it would be
only a few miles to the borderof France. With his official pass from
CASTAPO headquarters, Gruber would be ableto get past the guard. I got
into the trunk of the car.It was open just enough to let me
breathe. I still didn't know whetherto trust him. There was a pretty

(25:32):
big price on my head. Thecar slowed down and he reached the bridge.
Let me see your identification. Whatyou are? What is your business
outside of Fibrook? Official business forthe administration. Hey, this looks all
right. I have orders to searchall cars. Well you can see that

(25:53):
it's nothing in market. Please willyou'll hurry? I'm this is official business
for one moment, one moment,not so last. What's in your trunk?
The trunk? Well, go seefor yourself. I have an American
spy. I'm smumbling him across theboard. Don't be imputing, do understand.
I'm sorry. I was just havingmy little joke, and I don't

(26:17):
like jokes. You work as aclerk for the administration or your heads failed?
You think you're hymna. All right, pass, all right, pass

(26:41):
quiki quiki, get out here.I want to apologize for the things I
thought when he told the guard,which she did. It was the only
thing I could think of at themoment that would prevent him from searching the
trunk. Well, goodbye, yes, and thank you, thank you.
Spread No wait, look, don'tfeel the woman died for nothing. She

(27:03):
did not you, and she havegiven us the courage to look at ourselves
in the mirror. We will continueto talk in whispers. Yeah that after
you have gone, there will bemany of us who will no longer thinking
whispers. Yes, Well, goodbye, good by Major Mark lag And

(27:33):
made his way back to Allied lines. When Friedburg was taken over some months
later, it offered little resistance thanksto the strong underground that had been encouraged
by the Black Radio US. Onceagain, the report of another OSS agent
closed us with the words mission accomplished. Listen again next week for another true

(27:55):
adventure from the files of the OSSon o'clock and Dagger. Heard in today's
Cloak and Dagger Adventure as Mark wasLarry Haynes, Lucille Lillie Darvass and Gruber

(28:15):
Barry Kroger. Others were Raymond EdwardJohnson, Arnold Moss, Stefan Schnabel,
Bob Weill, and Jerry Jerry.Script was written by Winifred Wolf and Jack
Gordon. Music was under the directionof John Guard, sound effects by Chet
Hill, Dick Gillespie and R.Cooper. Today's Oisas Adventure was based on
the book Cloak and Dagger by CoryFord and Alistair McMain. This program was

(28:37):
produced by Lewis G. Cowen andAlfred Hollander under the direction and supervision of
Sherman Marx. Three Times Mean GoodTimes on NBC. There's mystery and music
Tonight on NBC. The mystery isSam Spade's latest Case, in which the
romantic private Eye solves the caper oftoo many clients. The music is the
NBC Symphony Summer Concert with Antol Draftyas guest conductor, and the American Album

(29:00):
of Familiar Music, one of radio'sbest loved musical programs, which returns to
the air tonight. Three Times MeanGood Times on NBC. Mm hmmm.