December 16, 2024 • 29 mins
The Old Time Christmas Radio Channel from REL-MAR McConnell Media Company is a delightful auditory journey back to the golden age of radio, where the spirit of the holiday season comes to life through classic broadcasts. This channel features a treasure trove of family-friendly shows that harken back to yesteryear, offering a charming mix of nostalgia and heartwarming tales perfect for listeners of all ages. Listeners can enjoy timeless Christmas favorites that include festive stories, and comedic sketches from beloved classic radio programs. Each broadcast is carefully curated to evoke the magic of Christmas, transporting audiences to a simpler time filled with joy, laughter, and the warmth of family gatherings. Waith a rich library of vintage audio from iconic shows, the Old Time Christmas Radio Channel creates an enchanting backdrop for holiday celebrations. Whether you’re decorating the Christmas tree, wrapping gifts, or enjoying a warm beverage by the fire, this channel provides the perfect soundtrack to make your holiday season even more special. Tune in and let the delightful narratives and jingling tunes rekindle cherished memories and create new traditions for generations to come. For more Old Time Radio and other great programming from REL-MAR McConell Media Company visit www.xzbn.net. Merry Christmas Everyone from REL-MAR McConnell Media Company – www.rel-mar.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now, screen actor Frank Lovejoy comes to the NBC microphone
as reporter Randy Stone on Nightbeat. But first, let me
tell you about some of our other mystery features heard
on this station of the NBC Radio Network. This Sunday,
The Falcon brings you mystery, adventure and intrigue as he
investigates the case of the Helping Hand. Later Sunday, make
a date to hear Lloyd Nolan as he brings you
(00:24):
thrill packed listening as Martin Kaine Private Eye. And every
Monday evening you're invited to tune to this NBC station
for Dangerous Assignment starring Brian don Levy. Now there's adventure
with Frank Lovejoy starring on Nightbeat on NBC NBC Presents
Transcribed Frank Lovejoy in.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Nine Beat, Hi, this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Is Randy Stone. I cover the night beat for the
Chicago Star. Christmas Eve, jingle bells, silent night, buzz of holly.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah. They say there's a warmth about Christmas.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It spreads out like a fan and touches everyone the
holiday spirit it's called. But right at the moment, I'm
thinking of one character who was nearly left out on
the coll last Christmas None other than yours, truly me myself,
Randy Stone.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
It started out like any other Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
An exchange of gifts, a few drinks, some off key caroling,
everybody killing time until the going home nods from the boss.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Everybody that is, but me. No, I wasn't going home.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Because as far back as I can remember, Christmas has
been another work day for Stone. I waited around for
the noisy holiday gang to leave so I could settle
down to work, and then Sam Bullock, the Big Boss,
sent for me, and I walked across to his office.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Oh come in, Randy, come in.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Oh yeah, Boss, sit down, Randy.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh, such politeness can mean only one thing.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I'm fired.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
This is even more embarrassing, Randy. I'm going to give
you a little something in the way.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Of a present.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I'll come back when you're sober.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
When's the last time you had Christmas off?
Speaker 5 (02:28):
My boy?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I can't remember. Why?
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Well are you're having this one off? Five days of
it to spend with your family?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Oh? What family? Boss? You know better than that. What'll
I do with myself? Oh?
Speaker 6 (02:38):
The man who knows as many people as you do,
It'll be the best thing in.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
The world for you.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Hey, Yeah, yeah, it might really be something. Say I
could call Alex Stevens. He's been bothering me for eight
years to spend Christmas with his family. Sure, maybe Alice
over and classified.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Ah, you know I'm beginning to like the idea.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Okay, well you'd better beat it before this noble impulse
of mine evaporation.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Well you hang on to it. I'm leaving now, and Randy, yeah, h,
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Do you right back at your chief? And thanks for
the break. The reveler isn't gone now. And the office
was empty except for one man, old Ed Collins, sat
watching the teletype machines. He looked up when he saw him, thought,
you'd gone, Randy, Now what are you looking at? A
(03:26):
smug about?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
My boss gave me five days off.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
Well what are you going to do? Go home?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Home is a bachelor apartment on Seventh Avenue, Noel Collins.
I'm gonna call my old pall Alex Stephens in Decatur
and tell him to meet the morning train.
Speaker 7 (03:38):
Good idea.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Long distance.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I want to call it Decatur, the Stephens Residents, Alex Stevens, Indicatur.
Oh wait, phone's ringing, all right, good good? Oh this
little floor Alec eight years he's been after me. Must
have an all made sister in law or something.
Speaker 7 (04:03):
Care had to marry me off once when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Should have answered by now, Oh what's that operator? Oh no, no,
no use ringing anymore. He must have gone out of
town for the holidays.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
Going out of town man, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I guess I'll let to settle for female companies.
Speaker 8 (04:26):
Uh uh hm, not home either.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Wow, that was a schooling idea. I don't know why
I went for it, fawning people the last minute, like.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
This guy with the friends you have? Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Sure, sure, sure the friends I have millions of 'e
until I go looking for one.
Speaker 9 (04:55):
Oh, there's a Christmas card for you on my desk.
Keep forgetting to give it to you.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I'll get it later.
Speaker 9 (05:00):
My folks only lived forty miles out. Boy, would they
be glad to have you.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Spend a few days with them?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I could call now, I'd forget it. What's a guy
like me want with a holiday on Christmas? I'm shoving
off ed.
Speaker 7 (05:12):
How about that envelope on my desk later?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Looks like I might be back to play a little
peanockle with you, And I'm all all I got to
do is fa, I make it all right? Sayway and
I have.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
Each over time. Merry Christmas?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, yeah, Merry Christmas. I didn't want to make any
more calls in front of Collins, so I headed for
the nearest phone booth.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, I made another three four calls. No dice.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Randy Stone, a guy who couldn't walk a downtown block
without saying hello to half a dozen people, couldn't find
one lousy bum would be his friend. Tonight Christmas Eve.
I went back to the office, hoping some big story.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Had broken so that I could put myself to work.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
Nothing to come in and not a thing even the
thuds a home in right?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Anybody phone me?
Speaker 7 (06:02):
No, here's that letter I was telling you about.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
What's that money?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
It's a fifty cent piece?
Speaker 7 (06:11):
What do you want your autograph?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It just says God bless you, mister Stone, Signed Katherine mLOY.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I don't know any Catherine mLOY.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Hey, this is all the earmarks of an office guy,
and a pretty poor one at that.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
It's half a buck.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, it'll buy a drink. Hey, Randy, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about going out
to my folks place.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Oh thank you ed no, no, thank you, my ma,
she I said no Ah, ed no, no thank you.
Outside it was snowing, light and fluffy, like it had
been specially ordered for the occasion, and the people went
about their business, humming and singing.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Little snatches of song.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You know all what fun it is to ride and
the one horse open sleigh. Yeah, there was warmth and
good feeling everywhere, but my mood was more than a
match for it, and I was beginning to feel sorry
for myself, like an unwanted cat. I took my mood
out to get it drowned at Bobby's Bar.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Ready, how about you boy?
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Iw a you?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
What's with this place? It's like I'm warped. I haven't
you heard it's Christmas?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, I've heard.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
When you put a dime in that thing, get something snappy, okay?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
Hey yeah, hey.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
You're lonely?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Ready give me a whiskey selling. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
That's the way it is with me too. I don't
need nobody, nobody needs me. It's all right. I guess
only two or three times a year.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You wish it was different.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
You don't when it hitch me?
Speaker 6 (07:51):
Christmas Easter May seventeenth, that's the date, my mother died.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
But Christmas and Easter was a big time and I
hush it away. Eleven kids.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Look, why don't you write a book away?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Like this was something known to you? To me, it's
like it's every Christmas.
Speaker 10 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
The important thing is don't be alone?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
How much do I owe you?
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Thirty cents?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Here?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
You know when you try and fight it, you gotta lose.
H Randy, are you going into a new business?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What do you mean? Well?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I thought maybe you might have gone into manufacturing, manufacturing
what coins?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
But brother, if you are, you've got a lot to learn.
This is about the funniest half a buck I ever saw.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Tony Yeah, given me.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, that was somebody's idea of a gang some halfway.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
In the office.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Much of a joke, I'll tell you, missus malloy, huh,
I'll fix those guys.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
You're going, yeah, well, what's your hurry? You're gonna leave
me here alone? Are you wait? If somebody else comes in?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
How long? Bob?
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Well, you gotta.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Stick around so we can talk.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Right, you're wasting it on.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Me, okay, Rannie, but wrong what I said. Don't be
by yourself.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Whatever you do, don't get to be alone.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I stopped at the corner drug store and bought a
couple of magazines and went to my apartment, ready to
spend a quiet holiday.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Seven o'clock.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Great, nice, long evening ahead of me, lots of time
to hate the world and feel sorry for myself. I
poured myself a quick drink, and then somebody rang my doorbell.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah just a minute, huh.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
A ten eleven year old kid stood in the doorway
looking up at me. His face was clean, but his
clothes were patched and ragged. He wore a red pull
over sweater at least five sizes too big for his
skinny friend.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
All John, Wow, what do you want?
Speaker 11 (09:38):
Don't you remember me?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I remember ten thousand on you? What do you want
to hand out?
Speaker 11 (09:43):
I'm Jerry mlloy, Remember missus mlloy.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Who sent you up here? Whose idea was it? McFarland's
the office wise guy, mat me motherson, Well, you go
back and tell your mother not to send phony coins
through the mails, And if your mother happens to be McFarland,
tell him that I said.
Speaker 11 (10:01):
For me to give you this letter. I'm to wait
for your answer.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Look, kid, take your letter and beat it. Enough is enough?
She said, maybe will you take the letter? Now, come on,
what are you waiting for?
Speaker 11 (10:12):
I'll leave it with you.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
No, here, here's two bits for you. I'll go tell
McFarland the joke is over, and I beat it before
I get mad.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Mother said to wish you a mate, beat it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I no, sooner slammed the door shut when I began
feeling like a heel, and I opened the door, half
hoping i'd find him standing there.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
But he was gone.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
But resting on the mat in front of my door
was the quarter i'd given him. I picked it up,
and I stood there with a coin burning my fingers.
I know I wouldn't feel quite clean again until i'd
found that kid and made it right with him. Somehow
(10:58):
I had to get to the kid, but out the
logical starting point seemed to be the newspaper office. I
put my coat on, I was about to leave when
a sharp knock sounded on my door. I opened the
door and a policeman came in. Mister Stone, Oh, yeah,
come in, thanks, I'm a Lieutenant Saunders. Know anything about this?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Well? This envelopes addressed to me? Where did you get it?
Do you recognize it? A kid came in here about
fifteen minutes ago and wanted to give it to me.
You sure this is the same letter.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Well, the writing's the same as another letter I got
at the office. Why what happened? And the boy who
brought you this letter? What's his name?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I don't know. He said it was Malloy, but I
don't think it is.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Give me a description, he said, Oh, ten eleven years old,
oh ninety five pounds, light brown hair, wearing a faded
red sweater, patched trousers.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
What's this all about?
Speaker 12 (11:53):
Hit by a car? Driver picked him up and took
him away. Hit How bad? Nobody knows. Woman who saw
it from a window thinks the kid was dead.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
The car got away.
Speaker 12 (12:03):
Yeah, she didn't see the license number. When we got there,
we found this letter on.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
The street and the the the kid may be dead.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
It looks like it said his name was Malloy.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Huh, yeah, that's what he said. Can I see that letter?
Maybe there's something in it? Sure? What's it saying? It's
kind of hard to read. Looks like some kid wrote
it near mister Stone.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We're hoping that you'll come up to have Christmas dinner
with us. I've told Jerry not to leave till he
brings back your answers, saying is it's signed missus Catherine mLOY?
I don't know what, Katherine mLOY?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
And maybe they mistook you for somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I thought it was part of an office gag, and
I still think. So let me go back there and check.
I'll call you later. Oh where do you.
Speaker 12 (12:51):
Work, mister Stone? Chicago Star? Oh you're a Randy Stone?
Well look, if you get any information, phone it into
the precinct.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Hi, ready, what's the matter with you? Look like you'd
been run over by a street car.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Well that's how I feel, Colins. You gotta help me
if I can't sure what is it now? First of all,
tell me did anybody in the office plant a phony
coin and an envelope and send it to me in.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
A Christmas card?
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Not that I know of who'd pull a crazy stunt
like that.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
I don't know. I gotta find out about that kid. Well,
he came to my apartment with a message, and on
his way home he was.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Hit by a card. A driver picked him up and
took him away, and the cops think that.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He was dead.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
And you don't know the kid?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
No, he said his name was Jerry molloy. He said
it like it should have meant something to me, but
it doesn't. I've never seen him before.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Maybe it's someone you're forgotten. A guy meets a lot
of people in this business.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, there could be. I want you to do something
for me.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ed What check with as many of the boys you
can reach it home, find out if they know anything
about the kid, and then phone the police and see
if they found If you want me, I'll be in
the library.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
There was something that makes me shudder, but I'm gonna
do it anyway.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I'm gonna dig back through all my stories for the
past year and see if I can find a Missus malloy.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
Maybe you didn't use her name.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, I'll see what I can find. You get busy
on that phone. Collins left me alone and I went
to work. It's funny how inane some of the stuff
you write scenes after it's been buried. Only three of
the bits offered any idea of who Missus Malloy might be.
(14:35):
One about a woman who'd refused to leave a cat
in a burning house, another about a middle aged lady bookie,
and the last about a woman and her family who
were being evicted from a slum apartment for lack of
rent money. The story was about the bystanders and how
they dug into their pockets and raised forty bucks so
the woman could get back into her place.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
How you doing, well, I'm not sure, but I think
I've got something.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
I called a boy. They don't know anything about the
kid or the letter.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You phoned the police? Yep, Well they.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
Want you down to headquartered me what for? To identify
the kid? They think they found him dead, not much
chance to live?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Where is he?
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Straight hospital?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It's a pleasant shore for Christmas Eve, isn't it dandy?
But then I guess they want me to go and
see his mother and say, guess what I brought you
for Christmas?
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Na part of it, Randy, It wasn't your fault.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I phoned headquarters and they set a radio car to
get me from there. We went to State Hospital. Lieutenant
Saunders was there waiting for me. A nurse led us
down along the hallway.
Speaker 12 (15:42):
Severe concussions and possible internal injuries. The doc said, doesn't
think he'll live.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
In here. This is the boy, Come on Stone, take
a look, all right? All right?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Well is that him?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
No, now that isn't Jerry Molloy.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
For a minute I felt a sense of relief, But
I know I was kidding myself. Sooner or later Jerry's
body would be found, and until then and after then
I'd feel the guilt to be mine. You see, by
now I knew the kid was on the level. He'd
been sent to me with a message offering me a
home for Christmas, and then my blind stupidity, I sent
(16:32):
him away. Nice guy, this Randy Stone.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
The cops dropped me off at the paper and told
me to keep in touch.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Well, now it's not him, what are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
I'm gonna find missus.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
Molloy got fifty cent coin. That's what makes it interesting.
Why money in a Christmas card and a phony coin
at that?
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Well maybe she didn't know it was full, all.
Speaker 9 (16:56):
Right, then she didn't know it was phony. But why
was she sending you money? You lending the stuff out
at fifteen percent?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Hey wait a minute, you got something there. Maybe she
did owe me some money. That woman that was tossed
out on the street, forty bucks we raised for her.
She took my name and said she'd send me my
five bucks back.
Speaker 7 (17:16):
Can you remember where she lived?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Was on the south side? I remember the building. Yeah,
I can find her Collins. I can find that kid's
poor mother.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Well, isn't that what you wanted?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I don't know. You know what I really want. I'd
like to start this whole evening over again. Think you
could arrange.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
It for me.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I suppose I could have let the police handle it,
but I'd developed a burning need to tell her myself.
I hopped into a cab and went scouting for the
building she'd lived in. I hoped I wouldn't find it,
and yet I knew I wouldn't stop until I did.
I found it all right, right where it had always been,
pressed between the ugliness of two warehouses. I hung around
(18:02):
outside for ten minutes before I could find the courage
to go and face the apartment six she'd lived in.
I stood in front of it and listened to the
muffled sounds of a radio playing dance music inside.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Well, Hello, Hello, May I come in. I've got to
talk to her.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
I'd like very much to have you come in, but
my husband, he's a bouncer in the night cloud.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Maybe some other time, Look, missus malloy, I've got to
talk to you.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
What about Christmas?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Eve?
Speaker 11 (18:31):
Go away?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (18:33):
What missus did you say?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
I was Malloy Captaine Molloy.
Speaker 10 (18:37):
Ah, I'm not Missus Malloy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I never was never well made.
Speaker 10 (18:41):
My day's Missus Maddie Carol Maddy.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Eh.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
You know the more I look at you, the why
I wish I was your Missus Malloy.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
But I'm not.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
I'm really not.
Speaker 10 (18:51):
How do you like that?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Well? I like it, got more than you'll ever know it.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know where I can find her? She lived in
this apartment of four or five months ago.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Never heard.
Speaker 10 (19:01):
Maybe if you asked the caretaker, he'll know.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Thank you, thank you, I'll do that. I was glad
this woman wasn't Jerry's mother. I'd built a picture of
Missus Malloy that didn't give. With a slightly tipsy frump
staring at me out of hazy eyes, I call him
a caretaker. Yes, Missus Malloy lived here, but she'd moved
(19:25):
a couple of months ago, and he didn't know where
to He told me to try Koslov's grocery store. The
storekeeper there was a living city directory.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Mister Nan, what can I do for you?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I'm looking for a Missus Molloy, who used to live
in the Elkin apartments.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I was wondering if you know where she'd move to.
Speaker 12 (19:48):
Molloy huh, oh, yes, I remember her, but I don't
know where she moved to.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
A good woman didn't owe me a penny.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
When she lived. I've got to find her.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
She was working steady. Where she moved wages every week
makes difference. You think some of her neighbors and know
where she moved to.
Speaker 12 (20:06):
Oh, they do a big turnover in some of those places,
but with wages coming in regular, I think I know
how you can find her.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
How It's a pattern people follow.
Speaker 12 (20:15):
When things can't be worse than they live in places
like the Elkin apartment, But when they're working and a
little money is coming in, they move up a notch.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
That's the way it works. Where is this notch? This
step up? It's a gambler.
Speaker 12 (20:30):
But if I was you, I'd try Blake Avenue, somewhere
around twentieth.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
That's the way it.
Speaker 12 (20:36):
Goes, from Elkin to Blake, sometimes back to Elkin, sometimes not.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Sometimes three hours can be an eternity. It was ten o'clock, now,
three hours since Secured had knocked on my door. The
streets were full of happy, smiling people, and the snowmen
made everything look like a Christmas display window in one
of the big stores. I'd have given ten years salary
to be like the people rushing into the stores for
the last minute presence for rand Agatha. I went into
(21:11):
the stores, all right, but to ask them if they
knew where I could find a dead kid's mother. Took
me about fifteen calls to locate her. A druggist gave
me her address fourteen sixty one Berkel Street, Apartment nine.
Before going there, I called the office. Hello, I'll add
(21:34):
anybody phone.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
I guess they haven't found him yet.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Well, how about the mother, missus malloy. Do you think
she'd have called the police by now?
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Yeah, you'd think so.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well maybe she didn't phone because she thought the kid
was in good hands. Well, I've located her, and now
comes the pleasant part of the job telling her about it.
How will I start? Merry Christmas, missus malloy? And a
happy new year made? The new year can bring you off?
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Why you're going off the deepbedd like this right now?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I know, I know it wasn't my fault. I was
just an innocent bystander. So long, I made another call
police headquarters. They had nothing new on it. The kid
had turned up. They said he'd be pretty dead.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
But he'd turn up.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I told him I was going to see the kid's mother,
that i'd located her. Lieutenant Saunders thought that that would
be a swell idea. I walked down the street to
Missus Mallay's apartment house and I stood there a minute.
From where I was standing, I could see the sign
on top of the Chicago Star building. Missus Malloy lived
only three blocks from my smug little tower. From Star
(22:46):
to empty apartment, to Molloy and back to the Star.
But that's the way it looked geographically as well as symbolically.
Another twenty minutes wouldn't matter much, I thought, So I
walked a couple of blocks it took me to get
back to Bobby's bar and grill.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Hi, Ranny. You're not making the rounds of the bars,
are you?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
No?
Speaker 13 (23:10):
No?
Speaker 11 (23:11):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Make it a double bourbon water, double bourbon, yeah, double?
Not much trade the money?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Ah, letter that come, Randy? Why is it hitting you
so hard?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They scratch a little of the ven air off, and
what do you find a sentimental slab.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
What's bad about that?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Well, then you find that you can't do things that
have gotta be done, like what what need's being done
in that? Like telling a woman that her young son
is dead and that I had a lot to do
with it.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
You're kidding, I'm not. How do you go about a
job like that? How did it happen? Does it matter?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
No?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You think whisky will help? Close the place up?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Bob and come with me. You don't have to say anything,
Just stand there with no. No, it's a one man job. Huh,
as far as I'm concerned, Well, maybe you're right. I'll
see you there. Yeah, see here. I climbed up the
(24:18):
creaky old stairs. It was no better than a tenement house.
Only one thing distinguished it from a slum, and that
was a cool, clean smell. The walls were torn and
the woodwork was scarred and marred, but it was clean.
I know it's crazy, but I got a lot of
courage out of that feeling of cleanliness. I stood in
(24:38):
front of Apartment nine listening. Then I knocked on the door.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Who is it.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
It's me, Randy Stone.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
There's the Stone. How welcome you are?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Come in? Thank you?
Speaker 10 (24:52):
I'll close the door to the children's room. They are
only falling asleep, and if they hear us, they'll.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Be sure you Sunday.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
She walked away to close the door, and I wondered
how I'd ever come to forget Missus Mulloy. Her face
was overflowing with a deep spiritual beauty that lighted up
the whole room.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
She came back and sat down there.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
I'm so happy you hadn't forgotten me, mister Stone. I
was afraid you might have. Then, when I was able
to make a small payment on that loan, I thought
I would ask you to come to see us. God
will never let me forget what you did for us
that night, mister Stone.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Missus Mulloy, I uh, I don't.
Speaker 10 (25:33):
Mean to embarrass you, Lily, I don't. But I knew,
if you possibly could, you would share some part of
Christmas with us. I knew that the old and shabby
furniture would make no difference to you this humble home.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Christmas began in a humble home.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yes, that's what I told Jerry, Missus Mulloy about Jerry.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
Say what what is it, mister Stone?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Well, not Jerry not being hume.
Speaker 10 (26:02):
I I I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
The bedroom door opened and a boy walked out. I
caught my breath and held it. It was Jerry. Jerry.
Speaker 11 (26:14):
Oh, mister storm, Jerry malloy, go back to bed.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
This name. No, please let him stay. Jerry. I heard
that you were hurt.
Speaker 11 (26:23):
Oh that I just shook up a little. The man
drove me along, Jerry.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
You didn't tell me about that, Jerry, when you knocked
on my all about it.
Speaker 13 (26:35):
About the way you made me come into your room
and have some fruit and tandy, and how glad you
were when you read that letter.
Speaker 10 (26:40):
Well, that's right. And he told me how you said
you would get down to our house tomorrow night if
it was the last thing you ever did.
Speaker 11 (26:47):
That's what you said, was my mister Stone?
Speaker 10 (26:50):
Uh I uh, I tell you, mister Stone. This boy
of mine is uncanny. Do you know what he told me?
He said he shouldn't be surprised if you came down
to visit us tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Did you say that, son?
Speaker 10 (27:03):
Didn't your son? Yes, tell me your exact words, Jerry,
go on this The Stone is no stranger, say it, Jerry.
Speaker 13 (27:12):
I said I wouldn't be surprised if he even comes
to see us tonight. He needs to step bad for Christmas.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
And those three little rooms on the edge of the
city's slums. I learned that human beings can find happiness
and don't listen to what you're a banker tells you.
It's a thing of the spirit.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Out of the pocket.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
In that shabby little apartment with a cracked linoleum and
the threadbare sofa, I learned the magic of the words
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Copy Boy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Nightbeat, starring Frank Lovejoy, is produced and directed by Warren Lewis,
edited by Larry Marcus to Night's story was written by
Warren Lewis and lu Rousov, with music by Robert Armbrister.
Featured in tonight's cast were Kate McKennis, sammyag Ralph Moody,
Jan r Van, Bill Conrad and Gail Bonnie, Don Wriggles
speaking our star, Frank Lovejoy and all of us on
Nightbeat wish you a very Merry Christmas. Three Chimes Mean
(28:35):
Good Times on NBC Saturday Morning, Here Mind Your Manners,
and later the Somerset marm Radio Theater starring Peggy Ann Garner.
This is NBC the National broadcasting company,
Now, screen actor Frank Lovejoy comes to the NBC microphone
as reporter Randy Stone on Nightbeat. But first, let me
tell you about some of our other mystery features heard
on this station of the NBC Radio Network. This Sunday,
The Falcon brings you mystery, adventure and intrigue as he
investigates the case of the Helping Hand. Later Sunday, make
a date to hear Lloyd Nolan as he brings you
(00:24):
thrill packed listening as Martin Kaine Private Eye. And every
Monday evening you're invited to tune to this NBC station
for Dangerous Assignment starring Brian don Levy. Now there's adventure
with Frank Lovejoy starring on Nightbeat on NBC NBC Presents
Transcribed Frank Lovejoy in.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Nine Beat, Hi, this.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Is Randy Stone. I cover the night beat for the
Chicago Star. Christmas Eve, jingle bells, silent night, buzz of holly.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah. They say there's a warmth about Christmas.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
It spreads out like a fan and touches everyone the
holiday spirit it's called. But right at the moment, I'm
thinking of one character who was nearly left out on
the coll last Christmas None other than yours, truly me myself,
Randy Stone.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
It started out like any other Christmas Eve.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
An exchange of gifts, a few drinks, some off key caroling,
everybody killing time until the going home nods from the boss.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Everybody that is, but me. No, I wasn't going home.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Because as far back as I can remember, Christmas has
been another work day for Stone. I waited around for
the noisy holiday gang to leave so I could settle
down to work, and then Sam Bullock, the Big Boss,
sent for me, and I walked across to his office.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
Oh come in, Randy, come in.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Oh yeah, Boss, sit down, Randy.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Oh, such politeness can mean only one thing.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I'm fired.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
This is even more embarrassing, Randy. I'm going to give
you a little something in the way.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Of a present.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I'll come back when you're sober.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
When's the last time you had Christmas off?
Speaker 5 (02:28):
My boy?
Speaker 4 (02:29):
I can't remember. Why?
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Well are you're having this one off? Five days of
it to spend with your family?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Oh? What family? Boss? You know better than that. What'll
I do with myself? Oh?
Speaker 6 (02:38):
The man who knows as many people as you do,
It'll be the best thing in.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
The world for you.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Hey, Yeah, yeah, it might really be something. Say I
could call Alex Stevens. He's been bothering me for eight
years to spend Christmas with his family. Sure, maybe Alice
over and classified.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Ah, you know I'm beginning to like the idea.
Speaker 6 (02:55):
Okay, well you'd better beat it before this noble impulse
of mine evaporation.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Well you hang on to it. I'm leaving now, and Randy, yeah, h,
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Do you right back at your chief? And thanks for
the break. The reveler isn't gone now. And the office
was empty except for one man, old Ed Collins, sat
watching the teletype machines. He looked up when he saw him, thought,
you'd gone, Randy, Now what are you looking at? A
(03:26):
smug about?
Speaker 4 (03:27):
My boss gave me five days off.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
Well what are you going to do? Go home?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Home is a bachelor apartment on Seventh Avenue, Noel Collins.
I'm gonna call my old pall Alex Stephens in Decatur
and tell him to meet the morning train.
Speaker 7 (03:38):
Good idea.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Long distance.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
I want to call it Decatur, the Stephens Residents, Alex Stevens, Indicatur.
Oh wait, phone's ringing, all right, good good? Oh this
little floor Alec eight years he's been after me. Must
have an all made sister in law or something.
Speaker 7 (04:03):
Care had to marry me off once when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Should have answered by now, Oh what's that operator? Oh no, no,
no use ringing anymore. He must have gone out of
town for the holidays.
Speaker 7 (04:16):
Going out of town man, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I guess I'll let to settle for female companies.
Speaker 8 (04:26):
Uh uh hm, not home either.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Wow, that was a schooling idea. I don't know why
I went for it, fawning people the last minute, like.
Speaker 7 (04:49):
This guy with the friends you have? Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Sure, sure, sure the friends I have millions of 'e
until I go looking for one.
Speaker 9 (04:55):
Oh, there's a Christmas card for you on my desk.
Keep forgetting to give it to you.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I'll get it later.
Speaker 9 (05:00):
My folks only lived forty miles out. Boy, would they
be glad to have you.
Speaker 7 (05:04):
Spend a few days with them?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I could call now, I'd forget it. What's a guy
like me want with a holiday on Christmas? I'm shoving
off ed.
Speaker 7 (05:12):
How about that envelope on my desk later?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Looks like I might be back to play a little
peanockle with you, And I'm all all I got to
do is fa, I make it all right? Sayway and
I have.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
Each over time. Merry Christmas?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, yeah, Merry Christmas. I didn't want to make any
more calls in front of Collins, so I headed for
the nearest phone booth.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Well, I made another three four calls. No dice.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Randy Stone, a guy who couldn't walk a downtown block
without saying hello to half a dozen people, couldn't find
one lousy bum would be his friend. Tonight Christmas Eve.
I went back to the office, hoping some big story.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Had broken so that I could put myself to work.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
Nothing to come in and not a thing even the
thuds a home in right?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Anybody phone me?
Speaker 7 (06:02):
No, here's that letter I was telling you about.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
What's that money?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
It's a fifty cent piece?
Speaker 7 (06:11):
What do you want your autograph?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It just says God bless you, mister Stone, Signed Katherine mLOY.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
I don't know any Catherine mLOY.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Hey, this is all the earmarks of an office guy,
and a pretty poor one at that.
Speaker 7 (06:26):
It's half a buck.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, it'll buy a drink. Hey, Randy, Yeah.
Speaker 9 (06:31):
I thought maybe you'd changed your mind about going out
to my folks place.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Oh thank you ed no, no, thank you, my ma,
she I said no Ah, ed no, no thank you.
Outside it was snowing, light and fluffy, like it had
been specially ordered for the occasion, and the people went
about their business, humming and singing.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Little snatches of song.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You know all what fun it is to ride and
the one horse open sleigh. Yeah, there was warmth and
good feeling everywhere, but my mood was more than a
match for it, and I was beginning to feel sorry
for myself, like an unwanted cat. I took my mood
out to get it drowned at Bobby's Bar.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Ready, how about you boy?
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Iw a you?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
What's with this place? It's like I'm warped. I haven't
you heard it's Christmas?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, I've heard.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
When you put a dime in that thing, get something snappy, okay?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
Hey yeah, hey.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
You're lonely?
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Ready give me a whiskey selling. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
That's the way it is with me too. I don't
need nobody, nobody needs me. It's all right. I guess
only two or three times a year.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
You wish it was different.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
You don't when it hitch me?
Speaker 6 (07:51):
Christmas Easter May seventeenth, that's the date, my mother died.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
But Christmas and Easter was a big time and I
hush it away. Eleven kids.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Look, why don't you write a book away?
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Like this was something known to you? To me, it's
like it's every Christmas.
Speaker 10 (08:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
The important thing is don't be alone?
Speaker 4 (08:06):
How much do I owe you?
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Thirty cents?
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Here?
Speaker 5 (08:09):
You know when you try and fight it, you gotta lose.
H Randy, are you going into a new business?
Speaker 4 (08:16):
What do you mean? Well?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I thought maybe you might have gone into manufacturing, manufacturing
what coins?
Speaker 5 (08:22):
But brother, if you are, you've got a lot to learn.
This is about the funniest half a buck I ever saw.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Tony Yeah, given me.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, that was somebody's idea of a gang some halfway.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
In the office.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Much of a joke, I'll tell you, missus malloy, huh,
I'll fix those guys.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
You're going, yeah, well, what's your hurry? You're gonna leave
me here alone? Are you wait? If somebody else comes in?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
How long? Bob?
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Well, you gotta.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Stick around so we can talk.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
Right, you're wasting it on.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Me, okay, Rannie, but wrong what I said. Don't be
by yourself.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
Whatever you do, don't get to be alone.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I stopped at the corner drug store and bought a
couple of magazines and went to my apartment, ready to
spend a quiet holiday.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Seven o'clock.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Great, nice, long evening ahead of me, lots of time
to hate the world and feel sorry for myself. I
poured myself a quick drink, and then somebody rang my doorbell.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah just a minute, huh.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
A ten eleven year old kid stood in the doorway
looking up at me. His face was clean, but his
clothes were patched and ragged. He wore a red pull
over sweater at least five sizes too big for his
skinny friend.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
All John, Wow, what do you want?
Speaker 11 (09:38):
Don't you remember me?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
I remember ten thousand on you? What do you want
to hand out?
Speaker 11 (09:43):
I'm Jerry mlloy, Remember missus mlloy.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Who sent you up here? Whose idea was it? McFarland's
the office wise guy, mat me motherson, Well, you go
back and tell your mother not to send phony coins
through the mails, And if your mother happens to be McFarland,
tell him that I said.
Speaker 11 (10:01):
For me to give you this letter. I'm to wait
for your answer.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Look, kid, take your letter and beat it. Enough is enough?
She said, maybe will you take the letter? Now, come on,
what are you waiting for?
Speaker 11 (10:12):
I'll leave it with you.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
No, here, here's two bits for you. I'll go tell
McFarland the joke is over, and I beat it before
I get mad.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Mother said to wish you a mate, beat it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I no, sooner slammed the door shut when I began
feeling like a heel, and I opened the door, half
hoping i'd find him standing there.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
But he was gone.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
But resting on the mat in front of my door
was the quarter i'd given him. I picked it up,
and I stood there with a coin burning my fingers.
I know I wouldn't feel quite clean again until i'd
found that kid and made it right with him. Somehow
(10:58):
I had to get to the kid, but out the
logical starting point seemed to be the newspaper office. I
put my coat on, I was about to leave when
a sharp knock sounded on my door. I opened the
door and a policeman came in. Mister Stone, Oh, yeah,
come in, thanks, I'm a Lieutenant Saunders. Know anything about this?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Well? This envelopes addressed to me? Where did you get it?
Do you recognize it? A kid came in here about
fifteen minutes ago and wanted to give it to me.
You sure this is the same letter.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Well, the writing's the same as another letter I got
at the office. Why what happened? And the boy who
brought you this letter? What's his name?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I don't know. He said it was Malloy, but I
don't think it is.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Give me a description, he said, Oh, ten eleven years old,
oh ninety five pounds, light brown hair, wearing a faded
red sweater, patched trousers.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
What's this all about?
Speaker 12 (11:53):
Hit by a car? Driver picked him up and took
him away. Hit How bad? Nobody knows. Woman who saw
it from a window thinks the kid was dead.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
The car got away.
Speaker 12 (12:03):
Yeah, she didn't see the license number. When we got there,
we found this letter on.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
The street and the the the kid may be dead.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
It looks like it said his name was Malloy.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
Huh, yeah, that's what he said. Can I see that letter?
Maybe there's something in it? Sure? What's it saying? It's
kind of hard to read. Looks like some kid wrote
it near mister Stone.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
We're hoping that you'll come up to have Christmas dinner
with us. I've told Jerry not to leave till he
brings back your answers, saying is it's signed missus Catherine mLOY?
I don't know what, Katherine mLOY?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
And maybe they mistook you for somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I thought it was part of an office gag, and
I still think. So let me go back there and check.
I'll call you later. Oh where do you.
Speaker 12 (12:51):
Work, mister Stone? Chicago Star? Oh you're a Randy Stone?
Well look, if you get any information, phone it into
the precinct.
Speaker 7 (13:08):
Hi, ready, what's the matter with you? Look like you'd
been run over by a street car.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Well that's how I feel, Colins. You gotta help me
if I can't sure what is it now? First of all,
tell me did anybody in the office plant a phony
coin and an envelope and send it to me in.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
A Christmas card?
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Not that I know of who'd pull a crazy stunt
like that.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
I don't know. I gotta find out about that kid. Well,
he came to my apartment with a message, and on
his way home he was.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Hit by a card. A driver picked him up and
took him away, and the cops think that.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
He was dead.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
And you don't know the kid?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
No, he said his name was Jerry molloy. He said
it like it should have meant something to me, but
it doesn't. I've never seen him before.
Speaker 9 (13:48):
Maybe it's someone you're forgotten. A guy meets a lot
of people in this business.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Yeah, there could be. I want you to do something
for me.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Ed What check with as many of the boys you
can reach it home, find out if they know anything
about the kid, and then phone the police and see
if they found If you want me, I'll be in
the library.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
What are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
There was something that makes me shudder, but I'm gonna
do it anyway.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
What's that?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I'm gonna dig back through all my stories for the
past year and see if I can find a Missus malloy.
Speaker 7 (14:12):
Maybe you didn't use her name.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, I'll see what I can find. You get busy
on that phone. Collins left me alone and I went
to work. It's funny how inane some of the stuff
you write scenes after it's been buried. Only three of
the bits offered any idea of who Missus Malloy might be.
(14:35):
One about a woman who'd refused to leave a cat
in a burning house, another about a middle aged lady bookie,
and the last about a woman and her family who
were being evicted from a slum apartment for lack of
rent money. The story was about the bystanders and how
they dug into their pockets and raised forty bucks so
the woman could get back into her place.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
How you doing, well, I'm not sure, but I think
I've got something.
Speaker 7 (14:59):
I called a boy. They don't know anything about the
kid or the letter.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You phoned the police? Yep, Well they.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
Want you down to headquartered me what for? To identify
the kid? They think they found him dead, not much
chance to live?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Where is he?
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Straight hospital?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
It's a pleasant shore for Christmas Eve, isn't it dandy?
But then I guess they want me to go and
see his mother and say, guess what I brought you
for Christmas?
Speaker 7 (15:21):
Na part of it, Randy, It wasn't your fault.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I phoned headquarters and they set a radio car to
get me from there. We went to State Hospital. Lieutenant
Saunders was there waiting for me. A nurse led us
down along the hallway.
Speaker 12 (15:42):
Severe concussions and possible internal injuries. The doc said, doesn't
think he'll live.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
In here. This is the boy, Come on Stone, take
a look, all right? All right?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Well is that him?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
No, now that isn't Jerry Molloy.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
For a minute I felt a sense of relief, But
I know I was kidding myself. Sooner or later Jerry's
body would be found, and until then and after then
I'd feel the guilt to be mine. You see, by
now I knew the kid was on the level. He'd
been sent to me with a message offering me a
home for Christmas, and then my blind stupidity, I sent
(16:32):
him away. Nice guy, this Randy Stone.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
The cops dropped me off at the paper and told
me to keep in touch.
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Well, now it's not him, what are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
I'm gonna find missus.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
Molloy got fifty cent coin. That's what makes it interesting.
Why money in a Christmas card and a phony coin
at that?
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Well maybe she didn't know it was full, all.
Speaker 9 (16:56):
Right, then she didn't know it was phony. But why
was she sending you money? You lending the stuff out
at fifteen percent?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Hey wait a minute, you got something there. Maybe she
did owe me some money. That woman that was tossed
out on the street, forty bucks we raised for her.
She took my name and said she'd send me my
five bucks back.
Speaker 7 (17:16):
Can you remember where she lived?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Was on the south side? I remember the building. Yeah,
I can find her Collins. I can find that kid's
poor mother.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
Well, isn't that what you wanted?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I don't know. You know what I really want. I'd
like to start this whole evening over again. Think you
could arrange.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
It for me.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I suppose I could have let the police handle it,
but I'd developed a burning need to tell her myself.
I hopped into a cab and went scouting for the
building she'd lived in. I hoped I wouldn't find it,
and yet I knew I wouldn't stop until I did.
I found it all right, right where it had always been,
pressed between the ugliness of two warehouses. I hung around
(18:02):
outside for ten minutes before I could find the courage
to go and face the apartment six she'd lived in.
I stood in front of it and listened to the
muffled sounds of a radio playing dance music inside.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Well, Hello, Hello, May I come in. I've got to
talk to her.
Speaker 10 (18:22):
I'd like very much to have you come in, but
my husband, he's a bouncer in the night cloud.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Maybe some other time, Look, missus malloy, I've got to
talk to you.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
What about Christmas?
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Eve?
Speaker 11 (18:31):
Go away?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (18:33):
What missus did you say?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
I was Malloy Captaine Molloy.
Speaker 10 (18:37):
Ah, I'm not Missus Malloy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I never was never well made.
Speaker 10 (18:41):
My day's Missus Maddie Carol Maddy.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Eh.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
You know the more I look at you, the why
I wish I was your Missus Malloy.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
But I'm not.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
I'm really not.
Speaker 10 (18:51):
How do you like that?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Well? I like it, got more than you'll ever know it.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
You know where I can find her? She lived in
this apartment of four or five months ago.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Never heard.
Speaker 10 (19:01):
Maybe if you asked the caretaker, he'll know.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Thank you, thank you, I'll do that. I was glad
this woman wasn't Jerry's mother. I'd built a picture of
Missus Malloy that didn't give. With a slightly tipsy frump
staring at me out of hazy eyes, I call him
a caretaker. Yes, Missus Malloy lived here, but she'd moved
(19:25):
a couple of months ago, and he didn't know where
to He told me to try Koslov's grocery store. The
storekeeper there was a living city directory.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
Mister Nan, what can I do for you?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
I'm looking for a Missus Molloy, who used to live
in the Elkin apartments.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I was wondering if you know where she'd move to.
Speaker 12 (19:48):
Molloy huh, oh, yes, I remember her, but I don't
know where she moved to.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
A good woman didn't owe me a penny.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
When she lived. I've got to find her.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
She was working steady. Where she moved wages every week
makes difference. You think some of her neighbors and know
where she moved to.
Speaker 12 (20:06):
Oh, they do a big turnover in some of those places,
but with wages coming in regular, I think I know
how you can find her.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
How It's a pattern people follow.
Speaker 12 (20:15):
When things can't be worse than they live in places
like the Elkin apartment, But when they're working and a
little money is coming in, they move up a notch.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
That's the way it works. Where is this notch? This
step up? It's a gambler.
Speaker 12 (20:30):
But if I was you, I'd try Blake Avenue, somewhere
around twentieth.
Speaker 7 (20:36):
That's the way it.
Speaker 12 (20:36):
Goes, from Elkin to Blake, sometimes back to Elkin, sometimes not.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Sometimes three hours can be an eternity. It was ten o'clock, now,
three hours since Secured had knocked on my door. The
streets were full of happy, smiling people, and the snowmen
made everything look like a Christmas display window in one
of the big stores. I'd have given ten years salary
to be like the people rushing into the stores for
the last minute presence for rand Agatha. I went into
(21:11):
the stores, all right, but to ask them if they
knew where I could find a dead kid's mother. Took
me about fifteen calls to locate her. A druggist gave
me her address fourteen sixty one Berkel Street, Apartment nine.
Before going there, I called the office. Hello, I'll add
(21:34):
anybody phone.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
I guess they haven't found him yet.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Well, how about the mother, missus malloy. Do you think
she'd have called the police by now?
Speaker 7 (21:41):
Yeah, you'd think so.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Well maybe she didn't phone because she thought the kid
was in good hands. Well, I've located her, and now
comes the pleasant part of the job telling her about it.
How will I start? Merry Christmas, missus malloy? And a
happy new year made? The new year can bring you off?
Speaker 7 (22:00):
Why you're going off the deepbedd like this right now?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I know, I know it wasn't my fault. I was
just an innocent bystander. So long, I made another call
police headquarters. They had nothing new on it. The kid
had turned up. They said he'd be pretty dead.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
But he'd turn up.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
I told him I was going to see the kid's mother,
that i'd located her. Lieutenant Saunders thought that that would
be a swell idea. I walked down the street to
Missus Mallay's apartment house and I stood there a minute.
From where I was standing, I could see the sign
on top of the Chicago Star building. Missus Malloy lived
only three blocks from my smug little tower. From Star
(22:46):
to empty apartment, to Molloy and back to the Star.
But that's the way it looked geographically as well as symbolically.
Another twenty minutes wouldn't matter much, I thought, So I
walked a couple of blocks it took me to get
back to Bobby's bar and grill.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Hi, Ranny. You're not making the rounds of the bars,
are you?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
No?
Speaker 13 (23:10):
No?
Speaker 11 (23:11):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (23:11):
Make it a double bourbon water, double bourbon, yeah, double?
Not much trade the money?
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Ah, letter that come, Randy? Why is it hitting you
so hard?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They scratch a little of the ven air off, and
what do you find a sentimental slab.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
What's bad about that?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Well, then you find that you can't do things that
have gotta be done, like what what need's being done
in that? Like telling a woman that her young son
is dead and that I had a lot to do
with it.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
You're kidding, I'm not. How do you go about a
job like that? How did it happen? Does it matter?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
No?
Speaker 4 (23:54):
You think whisky will help? Close the place up?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Bob and come with me. You don't have to say anything,
Just stand there with no. No, it's a one man job. Huh,
as far as I'm concerned, Well, maybe you're right. I'll
see you there. Yeah, see here. I climbed up the
(24:18):
creaky old stairs. It was no better than a tenement house.
Only one thing distinguished it from a slum, and that
was a cool, clean smell. The walls were torn and
the woodwork was scarred and marred, but it was clean.
I know it's crazy, but I got a lot of
courage out of that feeling of cleanliness. I stood in
(24:38):
front of Apartment nine listening. Then I knocked on the door.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Who is it.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
It's me, Randy Stone.
Speaker 10 (24:47):
There's the Stone. How welcome you are?
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Come in? Thank you?
Speaker 10 (24:52):
I'll close the door to the children's room. They are
only falling asleep, and if they hear us, they'll.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Be sure you Sunday.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
She walked away to close the door, and I wondered
how I'd ever come to forget Missus Mulloy. Her face
was overflowing with a deep spiritual beauty that lighted up
the whole room.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
She came back and sat down there.
Speaker 10 (25:15):
I'm so happy you hadn't forgotten me, mister Stone. I
was afraid you might have. Then, when I was able
to make a small payment on that loan, I thought
I would ask you to come to see us. God
will never let me forget what you did for us
that night, mister Stone.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Missus Mulloy, I uh, I don't.
Speaker 10 (25:33):
Mean to embarrass you, Lily, I don't. But I knew,
if you possibly could, you would share some part of
Christmas with us. I knew that the old and shabby
furniture would make no difference to you this humble home.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Christmas began in a humble home.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Yes, that's what I told Jerry, Missus Mulloy about Jerry.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
Say what what is it, mister Stone?
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Well, not Jerry not being hume.
Speaker 10 (26:02):
I I I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
The bedroom door opened and a boy walked out. I
caught my breath and held it. It was Jerry. Jerry.
Speaker 11 (26:14):
Oh, mister storm, Jerry malloy, go back to bed.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
This name. No, please let him stay. Jerry. I heard
that you were hurt.
Speaker 11 (26:23):
Oh that I just shook up a little. The man
drove me along, Jerry.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
You didn't tell me about that, Jerry, when you knocked
on my all about it.
Speaker 13 (26:35):
About the way you made me come into your room
and have some fruit and tandy, and how glad you
were when you read that letter.
Speaker 10 (26:40):
Well, that's right. And he told me how you said
you would get down to our house tomorrow night if
it was the last thing you ever did.
Speaker 11 (26:47):
That's what you said, was my mister Stone?
Speaker 10 (26:50):
Uh I uh, I tell you, mister Stone. This boy
of mine is uncanny. Do you know what he told me?
He said he shouldn't be surprised if you came down
to visit us tonight.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
Did you say that, son?
Speaker 10 (27:03):
Didn't your son? Yes, tell me your exact words, Jerry,
go on this The Stone is no stranger, say it, Jerry.
Speaker 13 (27:12):
I said I wouldn't be surprised if he even comes
to see us tonight. He needs to step bad for Christmas.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
And those three little rooms on the edge of the
city's slums. I learned that human beings can find happiness
and don't listen to what you're a banker tells you.
It's a thing of the spirit.
Speaker 4 (27:44):
Out of the pocket.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
In that shabby little apartment with a cracked linoleum and
the threadbare sofa, I learned the magic of the words
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Copy Boy.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Nightbeat, starring Frank Lovejoy, is produced and directed by Warren Lewis,
edited by Larry Marcus to Night's story was written by
Warren Lewis and lu Rousov, with music by Robert Armbrister.
Featured in tonight's cast were Kate McKennis, sammyag Ralph Moody,
Jan r Van, Bill Conrad and Gail Bonnie, Don Wriggles
speaking our star, Frank Lovejoy and all of us on
Nightbeat wish you a very Merry Christmas. Three Chimes Mean
(28:35):
Good Times on NBC Saturday Morning, Here Mind Your Manners,
and later the Somerset marm Radio Theater starring Peggy Ann Garner.
This is NBC the National broadcasting company,
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