November 1, 2024 • 28 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The National Broadcasting Company presents the adventures of Sam Spade Detective.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sam Stage Etative Agency.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Me Sweetheart, dam A man named five Dollars Frankie call
up and said he's putting two dollars in your name
on a sure thing at some track or other.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Well, that's nice to hear.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I don't think it is at all. You know, I
don't approve of your gambling.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Sake, Effie, you do some things I disapprove of. But
do I snipe as you well know?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
But's about it? And besides, I didn't place the bet.
It was placed for me.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I don't care. It's the principle of the thing I
don't like.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I suppose I put it this way, Fee, that two
dollars bet on a sure thing was more than just
a money bet. It was a gamble on the inherent
goodness of the human soul.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Oh Samn, you're just trying to confuse me, I.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Am, but I'll straighten everything out to your satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I trust.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
When I appear at the office with a highly.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Stylized and rather charming saga of horse players and the
world they live in, what else but the sure Thing?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Kaper NBC.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
William Spear Radio is outstanding.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Producer, director of mystery and crime drama. Brings you the
greatest private detective of them all in the Adventures of
Sam Spade.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yes, and I hope you always are at the wages
I pay you. I'm glad you brought that up stairs
when I pay them.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I don't want to start an argument, but I do
need some new clothes.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You want me to put up a good front, don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I will rephrase my answer.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yes, well, Effie, if you can hold warp and looks
together for a few weeks, I have a feeling we'll
be rolling in dough, driving big cars and wear and.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Make oh you mean that all cojecture.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Enough of your sneering, man, you hear me out, weigh
the evidence, and maybe you'll feel different.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I doubt it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
No good comes to playing the horses dates fill it
in two five dollars Frank a care of five dollar
Fran What did that? I don't think he has one
f as I get it. He was born just before
a gold Cup handicap Pimlico, and they didn't have time
to give him last name and place a bet too,
so they chose the bet.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Oh sand, that's awful. What do you mean awful?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
At horse paid eighteen to one, well well to get
on two five dollars Frankie, care of Patterson's Smoke Shop,
Myrtle Street, City, from Samuel Sucker Spade, San Francisco, license
number one three seven five nine six, subject the sure
thing Caper Dear, five dollars Frankie for you to be
seen at the r of one pm post time anywhere
(02:33):
but at the track is truly a veritable, unbelievable occurrence.
So in my door pivoted open Monday it said R
and a short gent with thirty six shoulders and a
forty four long flaid coke came in My eyes told
me it was you, but my mind screamed no.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I checked your.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Wide brim pork pires zuke gabardine slacks swayed and alligator
winged fifth shoes, and it's still repeated, you, you.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
You, Sammy, look as if you have just lamp the ghosts.
It is I five dollars, frankly, But.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
At this hour, Frankie, what is it? You're watch broken?
Did you lose your way? Your sleepwalking?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
What?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
No, Sam, I am in complete possession of my faculties.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Good and I came here with the full knowledge of
my intellect.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I even see through the crystal of my timepiece that
it is one o'clock, the hour from which.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
They break from the barrier.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Right, But I have not been drinking and as far sleepwalking.
That is strictly for gents with unhappy marathal relationships.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right, Frankie, I'm forced to agree with you that
you're standing in front of me instead of the five
dollar window. Now what's the dope.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Well, ordinarily I do not resort to hiring a strong
arm to consummate my business dealings, naturally, there being a
full supply of such muscles lying around the back room
of Patterson Smoke Shot loose.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
But when the.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Job calls for both packed and muscle, I am forced
to roam far abroad in sights of the same. You
mean you have a job for me, a real, honest
to seabiscit job that'll pay money. Well, with the ordinary shamus,
I might try to offer a little paduct chatty you know, yes,
you Sammy.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
With you, I will tender coin of the realm good.
I will pay you, of course, in five dollar bills,
as is my wont in advance ten twenty thirty, twenty fifty,
ten times five figures. Now do you veritably consider yourself.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
In my employees?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I am veritably in the race.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Frankly, good Now, Sammy, leave it to be understood by
both parties that I am not powered you off on.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Any sour deals.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
A rather curious situation has arisen, and I will explain
it to you candidly.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
As they say. It's Citan novels, which I have not
read well.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Most novels lose so much in the translation true truth.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, my narrative begins yesterday, to be exact, yesterday. There
heels impose into the back room of Patterson smoke Shop
a Jim whose face was once as familiar to.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Me as my own by name, said Jen.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
They call him a gentle Joe Higgins, gentle Joel, Yeah,
a horse trainer by profession, which in our civilized society
stands second only for jockey's an.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Important granted, granted, no argument.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Well, I say to gentle Joe, it is in some time,
gentle Joe, since I see you round and about, And
he says, I have gave up the old life for
the new, as I no longer am welcome at the
track since a certain embarrassing incident five years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
What incident was that, Frankie?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
A horse doping job, the illegal type, all which depresses
me to relate, So I will not ethics. Yeah, well,
gentle Joe looks a little voice for the wear, his
clothing being littlely shabby. Oh, I figure a touch, and
I am preparing a story that will ring tears from.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
A tax collector.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Even But what gentle Joe does not mention the word touch. Instead,
he announces he has a sure thing. Sammy, you know
how those words do to a horse.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Plan It's like throwing a bailor catnip to a lion.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Oh, my arter is open to let the blood through faster.
My nerves give off loud ringing noises, and my mind
is already computing.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Well, before I can stop.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Myself, I have pressed five hundred rocks in gentle Joe's hand,
begging him to place them on the same short thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I'd have done the same thing under the circumstance, of course.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Or gentle Joe says it will take at least fifteen.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Hundred rocks to pull off the dealer.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
He further advises me that the horse in question is
due to retain twenty rocks to one.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So you gave him the other times well.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Not having it in my jeans at the time. I
cut two other business and professional friends in on the grave, Dinosaur,
Tharelli and Bones mot five bills a pitch, and then
gentle Joe rushes out of Patterson's.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And has never been heard from again.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
A sad tale.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Do you think he just stole the money? Sad?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Gentle Joe Higgins is a horse player, not a common
sneak bee.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I'm sorry, sorry, but did he leave time?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
He did not, or the advice of certain informers. I
tracked this gentle Joe to a ramble shack or rooming
house on Client Street two forty one to be sad Am,
and there the trail gets very cold, very.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Cold and deep.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He's made his move.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
No, no, but he had a landlady who would not
let me in. Oh she is a frightening poison to behold.
She is indeed half wild captain, half witch. I'll deal
with her and tell gentle Joe that I am not
an overly suspicious prison, but also relate to him my position.
Dinosaur Paurellian, bones Molten are two such gents, as it
(07:19):
is wise not to cross rough back fence. Gossip has
it they are the Undertaker's best friend. Indeed, it is
also rumored they are behind their quota for the month. Well,
oh when Sam at Bay Meadows, Yeah, a bad cod
nothing going today.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
In preparation for my meeting with this redoubtable landlady, I
ran through my repertoire of low mean faces in front
of the mirror, leaving smoking holes in the glass, and
then I stamped out, heading for the rooming house on
Clark Street two forty one. The big exact Minock was
answered by, well, it was even worse when you told
me she was gumming a Sam sent What.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Do you stand in there for? You're shaking my geraniums?
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
No, well, sir Peacocks seacock, curly, I ain't that old
day madam? Perchance? Do you house in this quaint colonial inn?
The fine old gentleman called gentle Joe Higgins, You the lark. No,
I'm in business for myself, you see this?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Oh. One thing I hate worsion lore is drivate detectives.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Can't trust them. Nope, she never have any money, look,
never want to pay anything, always want coping for nothing,
you suirly, no.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Good lot of pocket pickers who should all be boiled
and all and throwed in a piel or snarling one moment, madam, madam,
look at this fool well, I's kind of crinkling and
like to hear. I thought you would you wouldn't mind
having a matters to pull that green paper curly. It
is a pleasure, itstinkly to be able to present it
(08:58):
to such a charming, witty and gay woman. I guess
as yourself.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Now come in, come in right?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Aye? Yes, Now where did you say, gentle Joe could
be located?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Getting door the left?
Speaker 6 (09:10):
Thank you kindly go knock somewhere.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yes, your timing, madam, and I should add defarge was
a little sadistic. Now give me my five back.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You ain't heard my proposition.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I've heard enough, madam, you have acted in a very
hateful manner.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Another five.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I'll let you wait in your room.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Madam, you are a dresdend no matter what anybody says.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Tell the towra wave you locks.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Don't have a ball.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Once in general Joe's room, I closed the door, thus
separating myself from that skid Rowe Bankhead. While I was waiting,
I kased the room spartan, the bed, the chair, addresser,
a racing form, some worn closed, various mementos and pictures
of his better days at the track. I was studying
an print of equapoise when gentle Joe turned up.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
She was a great stretcher and it wasn't she eh? Yes,
indeed a violent one by one and nip and hardly
damp at the end.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't don't cup set.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
That's the spade. Fanny. Fanny told me that you were
a detective waiting.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
For Oh she's a swell chit.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, Fanny's impetuous, but a good sort.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It keeps the right people out and lets the wrong
ones in. Fine judge of characters.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Oh you're generous, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm about to have a cup of tea. Will you
join me?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Be delighted.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'll just take the water out of the tap.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It's enough.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, hell, gentle Joe, I'm I'm here on a rather
painful mission.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
How you didn't go to the tea?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Uh five dollars? Frankly, he thinks you caged them out
of fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Dollars and now for the water.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And the two tough friends of his are looking for
your scout.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, there we are. Now we'll just let that steep
a while and we'll have us a pickups.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Do you hear anything I said?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Of course, every word. I know why you're here. Those
men are worried about their money.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
But the next time you see.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Them, you tell them not the word.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, he said this sure thing of yours was going
to return twenty to one odds. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Oh it will, it will all.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of that, maybe even many times more. Yeah, yes, it's
a sure thing.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
You mean the race hasn't been run off yet.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, there we are. Now I think the tea should
be ready.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
Well, now this is yours, thank.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You, and this is mine. Ah ahdajeeling flowering pico. There's
no finer tea as an almond flavor. Yeah, it's peculiar
to the region, especially pronounced in last year's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Crops Well show we get back to business.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, now you tell those gentlemen that they have no
need to fit about their money. It'll be returned to
them many times over, many many times over. Are you
feeling all right, mister Spain? Groggy they'll look back on
this investment with considerable pleasure and pride, and some day
they'll be able to say.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Too stupid, Sam.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Nobody had to give me a salivattest.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
To guess what happened.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
That nice, sweet, gentle old man had doped me right
up to the ears. I tried to stand up, at
my legs were like two wet pieces of spaghetti.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And I went down.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Gentle Joe went right on talking and smiling until everything
was nothing. When I came to, Joe was gone, and
so was my faith and horse people Fanny. It made
herself scarce too, and I stumbled alone out into the
daylight for resuscitation. It took walking, coffee, whiskey, and a bowl.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Of raspberries to bring me around.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I eventually found a safe haven in my own office,
Sam Spade, Detective Agency, Mister Hangover seek.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, missus Spade, this is general Joe.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
What listen? Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
How upset you must be over my little deception. Lit this.
It was out to a good purpose, mister Space. You see,
I had to get out of there in a hurry
with the minimum of distress.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I seem to remember you were huttle out of the
racing game for doping a few three year olds.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well that's what some official circle stuff. But mister Spate,
I want to apologize to you and tell you that
I will be able to explain everything to you. Are
satisfact for it? No, no matter? Stay wait hello, hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Somebody put the phone back on the hook.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So I hung up and dial a friend at the
telephone exchange.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
She quickly paced the number. The call came from the
Sunset stables out.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Near Bay Meadows.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I dialed back, but nobody answered, so I beat it
out there.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It was dark and the only person I could rouse
was a young stable boy.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
My name's Spade.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
A guy named General Joe was calling me from hearing something.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Happened for him, General Joe Higgins, that's what I said.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Oh I haven't seen him in two or three years.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Look don't give me that he called from here?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Now where is he?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
All? Love?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Beete the way before?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I screamed for the CODs. All right, I'll look myself.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I say, you can't know, but I did.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
There were two phones inside the stables, both hanging on posts.
The second one had the number of the Phon owned
company had given me, and although someone had tried to
cover it up with sawdust on the floor under the phone,
where three tea bags and somebody had done a lot
of bleeding, looked like Gentle Joel's parley had run out.
(14:17):
You are listening to the weekly adventure of radio's most
famous detective, Damn Spade. Three chimes mean good Times on NBC.
(14:40):
There's Music and Mystery on NBC every Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
For Music Tomorrow, your.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Hit Parade brings you the top tunes in the land,
as selected by you and presented by Raymond Scott's orchestras
Nukie Lanson and Eileen Wilson. For Mystery Tomorrow, Herbert Marshall
stars as the Man called at In all the strange
and far off places of the world, wherever there is intrigue,
danger and romance, there you will find the man called in.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Hear him tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And now back to the sure Thing Caper Tonight's adventure
with Sam Spade. I called the stable boy and questioned
them about the blood under the phone, and about what
could have happened to General Joe Higgins.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He just wouldn't talk, and he was too small to
beat up, So I went looking for the stable manager.
He lived in a small white house behind the exercise ring.
He wasn't too happy at being awakened, but when I
explained things, he came down to the stable with me.
I Canada sent a missus Spade. General Joe Higgins hasn't
been around here for at least.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Two years with the boys.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Told me, you see, for doping a horse once, he
can't come near a track or a stable. We let
him hang around here the racing Commission and find us. Well,
he called from here and something happened to him. A
number the phone company gave me matches up with one
of your phones with a lot of blood on the
floor too. Here we are, now which phone?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That one?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
All right, let's look at it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is the phone and here is that Wait a minute,
come in here.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Now, tell mister kemp here.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
What was on the floor when I came in?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Nothing?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Nothing, but I tell you.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
There was blood?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
They Oh, no, honest, nothing, mister Spade.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
This boy has been with me for five years.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He's perfectly reliable.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So am I or what do you think happened?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I think somebody used this old man for a punching bag.
Maybe you'd better go home and sleep on it, mister Spade.
We'll talk about it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Don't humor may make this ched talk, mister Kemp. This
guy's tappy, Danny.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Are you certain there was no blood or no gettle Joe,
mister Kemp, I'd swear on my father's grave is necessary,
you see, mister Spade. I calmed down in a little
while and searched the place myself. I came up with
exactly nothing but an attack of hay thiever in a
horsey smell. And I suddenly wondered why I cared about
(16:56):
General Joe at all after what he'd done to me.
So I went home and called Fi Dollar.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Frankie, you will say you have convice with Gentle.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Joe twice, and both under rather trying circumstances. Frankie, once
I was doped, and once something happened to him.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I take it he did not heed the message I employed.
You took convice.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So far he hasn't heeded anything, uh.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Than he is, without a doubt, in considerable.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Trouble, I would say.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
So, it seems that my business associates, Dinosaur Parelli and
Bone's Molten have blown their tops and gone looking for
gentle Joe with something special in mind, something like assassination.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I was afraid of that.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Mayhaps they have already contacted gentle Joe.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
For an accounting.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Certainly may have.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So I think they've already mowed him down, and.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
There is nothing further for us to convise about. Sam
It is history, and it will be recorded fustly well
if you say so, And if I might tender a
bit of advice, I would say, pop into the Simmons, Sammy,
and knock yourself off a.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Few hours of that.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Ever, love and forgetfulness, and when you arise, you will
have a race from your mind the names of gentle
Joe Higgins and yours truly five dollars Frankie for some
time to come.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I was tired and it seemed smart to take his advice,
so I did. I went to bed. It must have
been three in the morning when something woke me up.
It was a ghost with a big white head tiptoeing
into my room. I thought was so absurd that I
turned over and started back to sleep. That's when the
ghost touched me and I grabbed for him.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Let me go to space, Let me go, it's me
gentle Joe.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Will I turn on a light.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Of course I look a little different. The bandages around
my head look like an turble.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
What happened to you?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I was in mister Kemp's house when you were searching
the stage.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Stupid me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I should have come out then, but I didn't, And
then I got to thinking I certainly owed you some
kind of an explanation. Oh, I found your address and
came here.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
All right, I'll collect the explanation now.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
First, what was a dope for?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was afraid you might take me back to five
dollars Frankie in this friends, before I did what I
had to do, would you care to tell me what
that was? I wanted to buy a horse their money, Yes,
with their money.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
They thought you were betting it on a horse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
A sure thing.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I know, I know, but let me explain. I was
thrown off the tracks for doping a horse. I needed money,
But that stet's another story. After five years, I could
get my trainer's license back. Tell me more, do you
know what it is to love horse flesh and not
be able to go near it for five years? No?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
The banktail bug never got me. You can't con guys
like Frank and his thugs out of some money to
buy a horse whenever you want one.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
There's more to the story.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
The horse I doped didn't get into the race, and
the jockey had to ride another mount He was thrown
and killed.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh I was too bad.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I felt that i'd murdered the man. His name was
Sandy Bean.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Andy Bean, that stable boy at Sunset Stables, any relative,
his son, his wife.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And son ran out of money, and they've had a
hard time of it. I'd worked as a janitor for
the past five years trying to raise enough money to
buy them a horse to help make up for what
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
How much did you say?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Only fifteen hundred dollars? The horse I wanted, a two
year old name sure thing costs three thousand.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Ah. Thanks are beginning to clear up now. How did
you figure you had to take money from Frankie.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
The Bay, Well, Frankie and his friends made a lot
of money off Sandy Bean when he rode. I figured
it wouldn't hurt him to pay a little of it back.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I don't think they'd see it that way.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I wasn't stealing the money. I was going to give
each of them a ten percent of the horse. I
didn't dare pull up until after I bought it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, General Joel, maybe they'll see the light, but I
doubt it.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
If I was going to take ten percent for training
to give the other sixty to missus Bean and her
son Danny, he'll make a good jockey, and sure thing
is a great horse. I know, I know they'll make
a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Off of it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It's a noble plan.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Tomorrow my five years is up, and I wanted to
give them the horse.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Then I see who rocked you up.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
When I was talking to you on the phone.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Danny was backing a horse into the stable and it
got excited, it started kicking, and I was in the way.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I thought maybe you had been done in.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I know. That's why I came to see you and
explain things. Can you do anything to help me?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Well, all right, I'm just staying up. There's no need
to wave a gun around here.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
You get to the Joe. We've been looking for you around.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
In a buck now a dinosaur now here we were
Steeve and your joke coming.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Look you're not gonna take him out here without a fight.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
We wouldn't mind as much as become a quipped with
a little Tilly. I didn't still get all right, all right,
knock at all?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
You want some of this time?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Laugh if you think you can do.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It, And it turned out I could.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Why not Torelli's gonnaside hit him with a hard left
and he didn't go down.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I'd try to right down and knee, then a couple
of elbows.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was just getting ahead of that game when something
hit me across my facing fronted COD forty five on
my forehead. I know this sounds repetitious, but I went
out again, honest idea, really, I'm sorry. Appropriately it was
dawn when I woke up cold and headache.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Of course I was alone.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
General Joe Higgins was the victim of a successful snatch, and.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I had an idea what might have happened to him.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I dressed and started looking all over time, but I
didn't have any luck. Anny wasn't until I was eating
breakfast and met a police sergeant. I know that I
got a tip or and send hello, sergeant, that you
I tried the kisser.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I didn't know they made those ken damns anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Let them sit out a pleasure. Yeah, we got a
homicide this morning.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, who who knows? Just no man fought him.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
In the park.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Somebody really worked you moving?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And what do you look like? Ooh five? Ten? Wat?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Clothes?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Probably bum?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Where is he morre?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Eh?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Else?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
He's putting the run down on him?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Now, yeah, I'll see you later, Cardiff. Thanks, Hey, Sam,
I haven't finished your breakfast. They let me in the
morgue and I took a look at the corpse, and
once I saw it, I knew just where I had
to go.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I caught a cab out of the Sunset stables.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
The horses were just having a roller loas when I
pulled in, and Danny Bean, the stable boy, was there,
dressed in his cleanest LEVI, what do you want?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Where's the show going to be?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Wat?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Show?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
A general?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Joe gives you the horse?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Isn't this today?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Okay? So you know see, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Sorry about last night, missus Spade.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I had to keep it a secret to get it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Forget it.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
He did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
When's the ceremony?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
About an hour?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Right here?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
You want to write?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Sure? Sure?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Of course, I cheated a little.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I didn't tell you who it was I saw and
the Lord. The truth was, I didn't know it wasn't
gentle Joe Higgins, though, and so I reasoned dustly, If
Toarelli and Moulton didn't finish him off in the night,
he must have gotten out of it somehow. It was
a resourceful old man, and I was sure nothing short
of death would keep him from presenting Danny with a
horse on the day he played.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And I was right. An hour later he came walking in.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Leading the prettiest chestnut mayor I'd ever seen, and was
a smile two feet wide on his face and behind
him carrying blankets, a saddle and riding colors where who else?
Five dollars Frankie, Dinosaurs, Torelli and bone smoke.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, this is a surprise.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It was a pleasant one.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, this is sure thing, isn't she is?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Indeed, how did you do it?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Gentle Joan?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Where was the spade? I had them over to my
place to have a cup of tea? You get it?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
While we was a half out to explain the whole
thing to us, Joan like, good deal, and may we
can win both ways?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And the two the window.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Horse just waiting to cost the finish line.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Alley boy, this is indeed a signal occasion. Huh, this
is the first time I have ever been this close
to a horse, and me being a horse player. Sure,
I am already talking to sure Thing and explain to
her our financial position. She has assured me she will
ramp home first more times than that.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, gentlemen, shall we do what we came here to do?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Sure, leave us make the present.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Come on, come on, let's get in the business.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
You have the animal already, I agree, Danny.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yes, mister Higgins, Danny, the four of us are giving
you this horse, sure Thing in memory of your father,
the late Great Sandy b.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Thank you, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
He's a beauty.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I feel like I was just born Rither Wilson.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Rather wealth, and I think he will period.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
End of report.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It was so beautiful, A simple.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Old fashioned type story. If we feel we can use
one now and then. And I'm glad nothing happened to
anybody because I just love them all everything considered. If
they weren't half bad. Now, how about typing it up?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I loved you.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Three times mean good times on NDC. There's music and
fun in the air tomorrow evening styles to suit your
Saturday night of Merriman. Dennis Day brings you songs in
comedy in his charming, boyish manner, and then Judy Canova
gets together with her frolicsome Friends for Mountain Melody and Mayhem,
followed by grand ol Opera with singing mc red.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Foley in his gang.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It's a Saturday night of fun designed for you all types.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Uff.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Let me say, now you've captured five dollar Frankie's peculiar
style perfect. And I wasn't easy, oh, I was just
thinking we ought to contribute something, along with everybody else
to that horse.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
You know that sure thing.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I probably will Effie a few dollars here, a few
there whenever it's running.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Well, I didn't mean benny.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
What I naan is for example, it's it's gonna need
a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Of hay, isn't it bails and bails.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Well, my cousin's Frisby cuts ilan. I'll have him save
the grass and send up the stable.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Effie, you are a noble creature.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
But I think sure Thing can get along without your
little loss.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Well, i've seen horses wearing stockings.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Couldn't I need a pair?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Two pair, two pair?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
But at let's not lose our heads. Five dollar Frankie
and his pals will take good care of sure Thing.
All about worrying about taking care of me?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
All right? Think?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, did you use some grass?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Effie? Knock off this horse talk? Well, yeah, we're almost
at the wire now.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
People are just champing at the bit for the payoffs.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Let's finish neck and neck.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Why not come here, sure Thing? Good night, sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The Adventures of Sam Spade are produced, edited, and directed
by William Spears. Sam Spade was played by Stephen Dunn.
Loreen Tuttle is Effie Wally Mayer was Gentle Joe. Script
for tonight's adventure by John Michael Hayes, Musical scoring by
lud Gluskin, conducted by Robert Armbrewster. Join us again next week,
(28:04):
same time for another adventure with Sam Spade. The fight
against heart disease, the greatest killer in America, goes on
with increased intensity. But doctors cannot wage this battle alone.
They need your help for the eventual control of heart
disease through research, education and community heart programs. Give now
(28:27):
to fight heart disease. Send your contribution to.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Heart Hart in care of your.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Nearest post office. Join the Magnificent Montague. Then it's Duffy's
tavern On, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company presents the adventures of Sam Spade Detective.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Sam Stage Etative Agency.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Me Sweetheart, dam A man named five Dollars Frankie call
up and said he's putting two dollars in your name
on a sure thing at some track or other.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Well, that's nice to hear.
Speaker 4 (00:26):
I don't think it is at all. You know, I
don't approve of your gambling.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Sake, Effie, you do some things I disapprove of. But
do I snipe as you well know?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
No?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
But's about it? And besides, I didn't place the bet.
It was placed for me.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
I don't care. It's the principle of the thing I
don't like.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
I suppose I put it this way, Fee, that two
dollars bet on a sure thing was more than just
a money bet. It was a gamble on the inherent
goodness of the human soul.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Oh Samn, you're just trying to confuse me, I.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Am, but I'll straighten everything out to your satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I trust.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
When I appear at the office with a highly.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Stylized and rather charming saga of horse players and the
world they live in, what else but the sure Thing?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Kaper NBC.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
William Spear Radio is outstanding.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Producer, director of mystery and crime drama. Brings you the
greatest private detective of them all in the Adventures of
Sam Spade.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yes, and I hope you always are at the wages
I pay you. I'm glad you brought that up stairs
when I pay them.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I don't want to start an argument, but I do
need some new clothes.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You want me to put up a good front, don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I will rephrase my answer.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yes, well, Effie, if you can hold warp and looks
together for a few weeks, I have a feeling we'll
be rolling in dough, driving big cars and wear and.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
Make oh you mean that all cojecture.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Enough of your sneering, man, you hear me out, weigh
the evidence, and maybe you'll feel different.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
I doubt it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
No good comes to playing the horses dates fill it
in two five dollars Frank a care of five dollar
Fran What did that? I don't think he has one
f as I get it. He was born just before
a gold Cup handicap Pimlico, and they didn't have time
to give him last name and place a bet too,
so they chose the bet.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Oh sand, that's awful. What do you mean awful?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
At horse paid eighteen to one, well well to get
on two five dollars Frankie, care of Patterson's Smoke Shop,
Myrtle Street, City, from Samuel Sucker Spade, San Francisco, license
number one three seven five nine six, subject the sure
thing Caper Dear, five dollars Frankie for you to be
seen at the r of one pm post time anywhere
(02:33):
but at the track is truly a veritable, unbelievable occurrence.
So in my door pivoted open Monday it said R
and a short gent with thirty six shoulders and a
forty four long flaid coke came in My eyes told
me it was you, but my mind screamed no.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I checked your.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Wide brim pork pires zuke gabardine slacks swayed and alligator
winged fifth shoes, and it's still repeated, you, you.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
You, Sammy, look as if you have just lamp the ghosts.
It is I five dollars, frankly, But.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
At this hour, Frankie, what is it? You're watch broken?
Did you lose your way? Your sleepwalking?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
What?
Speaker 5 (03:08):
No, Sam, I am in complete possession of my faculties.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Good and I came here with the full knowledge of
my intellect.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I even see through the crystal of my timepiece that
it is one o'clock, the hour from which.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
They break from the barrier.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
Right, But I have not been drinking and as far sleepwalking.
That is strictly for gents with unhappy marathal relationships.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right, Frankie, I'm forced to agree with you that
you're standing in front of me instead of the five
dollar window. Now what's the dope.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Well, ordinarily I do not resort to hiring a strong
arm to consummate my business dealings, naturally, there being a
full supply of such muscles lying around the back room
of Patterson Smoke Shot loose.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
But when the.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Job calls for both packed and muscle, I am forced
to roam far abroad in sights of the same. You
mean you have a job for me, a real, honest
to seabiscit job that'll pay money. Well, with the ordinary shamus,
I might try to offer a little paduct chatty you know, yes,
you Sammy.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
With you, I will tender coin of the realm good.
I will pay you, of course, in five dollar bills,
as is my wont in advance ten twenty thirty, twenty fifty,
ten times five figures. Now do you veritably consider yourself.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
In my employees?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I am veritably in the race.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Frankly, good Now, Sammy, leave it to be understood by
both parties that I am not powered you off on.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Any sour deals.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
A rather curious situation has arisen, and I will explain
it to you candidly.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
As they say. It's Citan novels, which I have not
read well.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Most novels lose so much in the translation true truth.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Yeah, my narrative begins yesterday, to be exact, yesterday. There
heels impose into the back room of Patterson smoke Shop
a Jim whose face was once as familiar to.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Me as my own by name, said Jen.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
They call him a gentle Joe Higgins, gentle Joel, Yeah,
a horse trainer by profession, which in our civilized society
stands second only for jockey's an.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Important granted, granted, no argument.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Well, I say to gentle Joe, it is in some time,
gentle Joe, since I see you round and about, And
he says, I have gave up the old life for
the new, as I no longer am welcome at the
track since a certain embarrassing incident five years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
What incident was that, Frankie?
Speaker 5 (05:12):
A horse doping job, the illegal type, all which depresses
me to relate, So I will not ethics. Yeah, well,
gentle Joe looks a little voice for the wear, his
clothing being littlely shabby. Oh, I figure a touch, and
I am preparing a story that will ring tears from.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
A tax collector.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
Even But what gentle Joe does not mention the word touch. Instead,
he announces he has a sure thing. Sammy, you know
how those words do to a horse.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Plan It's like throwing a bailor catnip to a lion.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Oh, my arter is open to let the blood through faster.
My nerves give off loud ringing noises, and my mind
is already computing.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
Well, before I can stop.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Myself, I have pressed five hundred rocks in gentle Joe's hand,
begging him to place them on the same short thing.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I'd have done the same thing under the circumstance, of course.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Or gentle Joe says it will take at least fifteen.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Hundred rocks to pull off the dealer.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
He further advises me that the horse in question is
due to retain twenty rocks to one.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So you gave him the other times well.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Not having it in my jeans at the time. I
cut two other business and professional friends in on the grave, Dinosaur,
Tharelli and Bones mot five bills a pitch, and then
gentle Joe rushes out of Patterson's.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And has never been heard from again.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
A sad tale.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Do you think he just stole the money? Sad?
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Gentle Joe Higgins is a horse player, not a common
sneak bee.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I'm sorry, sorry, but did he leave time?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
He did not, or the advice of certain informers. I
tracked this gentle Joe to a ramble shack or rooming
house on Client Street two forty one to be sad Am,
and there the trail gets very cold, very.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Cold and deep.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
He's made his move.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
No, no, but he had a landlady who would not
let me in. Oh she is a frightening poison to behold.
She is indeed half wild captain, half witch. I'll deal
with her and tell gentle Joe that I am not
an overly suspicious prison, but also relate to him my position.
Dinosaur Paurellian, bones Molten are two such gents, as it
(07:19):
is wise not to cross rough back fence. Gossip has
it they are the Undertaker's best friend. Indeed, it is
also rumored they are behind their quota for the month. Well,
oh when Sam at Bay Meadows, Yeah, a bad cod
nothing going today.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
In preparation for my meeting with this redoubtable landlady, I
ran through my repertoire of low mean faces in front
of the mirror, leaving smoking holes in the glass, and
then I stamped out, heading for the rooming house on
Clark Street two forty one. The big exact Minock was
answered by, well, it was even worse when you told
me she was gumming a Sam sent What.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Do you stand in there for? You're shaking my geraniums?
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
No, well, sir Peacocks seacock, curly, I ain't that old
day madam? Perchance? Do you house in this quaint colonial inn?
The fine old gentleman called gentle Joe Higgins, You the lark. No,
I'm in business for myself, you see this?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Oh. One thing I hate worsion lore is drivate detectives.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Can't trust them. Nope, she never have any money, look,
never want to pay anything, always want coping for nothing,
you suirly, no.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Good lot of pocket pickers who should all be boiled
and all and throwed in a piel or snarling one moment, madam, madam,
look at this fool well, I's kind of crinkling and
like to hear. I thought you would you wouldn't mind
having a matters to pull that green paper curly. It
is a pleasure, itstinkly to be able to present it
(08:58):
to such a charming, witty and gay woman. I guess
as yourself.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
Now come in, come in right?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Aye? Yes, Now where did you say, gentle Joe could
be located?
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Getting door the left?
Speaker 6 (09:10):
Thank you kindly go knock somewhere.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yes, your timing, madam, and I should add defarge was
a little sadistic. Now give me my five back.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
You ain't heard my proposition.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I've heard enough, madam, you have acted in a very
hateful manner.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Another five.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
I'll let you wait in your room.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Madam, you are a dresdend no matter what anybody says.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Tell the towra wave you locks.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Don't have a ball.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Once in general Joe's room, I closed the door, thus
separating myself from that skid Rowe Bankhead. While I was waiting,
I kased the room spartan, the bed, the chair, addresser,
a racing form, some worn closed, various mementos and pictures
of his better days at the track. I was studying
an print of equapoise when gentle Joe turned up.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
She was a great stretcher and it wasn't she eh? Yes,
indeed a violent one by one and nip and hardly
damp at the end.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't don't cup set.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
That's the spade. Fanny. Fanny told me that you were
a detective waiting.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
For Oh she's a swell chit.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah, Fanny's impetuous, but a good sort.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It keeps the right people out and lets the wrong
ones in. Fine judge of characters.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Oh you're generous, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm about to have a cup of tea. Will you
join me?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Be delighted.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I'll just take the water out of the tap.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
It's enough.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Well, hell, gentle Joe, I'm I'm here on a rather
painful mission.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
How you didn't go to the tea?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Uh five dollars? Frankly, he thinks you caged them out
of fifteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Dollars and now for the water.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And the two tough friends of his are looking for
your scout.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, there we are. Now we'll just let that steep
a while and we'll have us a pickups.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Do you hear anything I said?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Of course, every word. I know why you're here. Those
men are worried about their money.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
But the next time you see.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Them, you tell them not the word.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, he said this sure thing of yours was going
to return twenty to one odds. That's a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Oh it will, it will all.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of that, maybe even many times more. Yeah, yes, it's
a sure thing.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
You mean the race hasn't been run off yet.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, there we are. Now I think the tea should
be ready.
Speaker 6 (11:16):
Well, now this is yours, thank.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
You, and this is mine. Ah ahdajeeling flowering pico. There's
no finer tea as an almond flavor. Yeah, it's peculiar
to the region, especially pronounced in last year's.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Crops Well show we get back to business.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yes, now you tell those gentlemen that they have no
need to fit about their money. It'll be returned to
them many times over, many many times over. Are you
feeling all right, mister Spain? Groggy they'll look back on
this investment with considerable pleasure and pride, and some day
they'll be able to say.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Too stupid, Sam.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Nobody had to give me a salivattest.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
To guess what happened.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
That nice, sweet, gentle old man had doped me right
up to the ears. I tried to stand up, at
my legs were like two wet pieces of spaghetti.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And I went down.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Gentle Joe went right on talking and smiling until everything
was nothing. When I came to, Joe was gone, and
so was my faith and horse people Fanny. It made
herself scarce too, and I stumbled alone out into the
daylight for resuscitation. It took walking, coffee, whiskey, and a bowl.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Of raspberries to bring me around.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I eventually found a safe haven in my own office,
Sam Spade, Detective Agency, Mister Hangover seek.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah, missus Spade, this is general Joe.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
What listen? Yeah, I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
How upset you must be over my little deception. Lit this.
It was out to a good purpose, mister Space. You see,
I had to get out of there in a hurry
with the minimum of distress.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I seem to remember you were huttle out of the
racing game for doping a few three year olds.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well that's what some official circle stuff. But mister Spate,
I want to apologize to you and tell you that
I will be able to explain everything to you. Are
satisfact for it? No, no matter? Stay wait hello, hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Somebody put the phone back on the hook.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
So I hung up and dial a friend at the
telephone exchange.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
She quickly paced the number. The call came from the
Sunset stables out.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Near Bay Meadows.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I dialed back, but nobody answered, so I beat it
out there.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
It was dark and the only person I could rouse
was a young stable boy.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
What do you want?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
My name's Spade.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
A guy named General Joe was calling me from hearing something.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Happened for him, General Joe Higgins, that's what I said.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Oh I haven't seen him in two or three years.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Now.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Look don't give me that he called from here?
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Now where is he?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
All? Love?
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Beete the way before?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I screamed for the CODs. All right, I'll look myself.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I say, you can't know, but I did.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
There were two phones inside the stables, both hanging on posts.
The second one had the number of the Phon owned
company had given me, and although someone had tried to
cover it up with sawdust on the floor under the phone,
where three tea bags and somebody had done a lot
of bleeding, looked like Gentle Joel's parley had run out.
(14:17):
You are listening to the weekly adventure of radio's most
famous detective, Damn Spade. Three chimes mean good Times on NBC.
(14:40):
There's Music and Mystery on NBC every Saturday night.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
For Music Tomorrow, your.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Hit Parade brings you the top tunes in the land,
as selected by you and presented by Raymond Scott's orchestras
Nukie Lanson and Eileen Wilson. For Mystery Tomorrow, Herbert Marshall
stars as the Man called at In all the strange
and far off places of the world, wherever there is intrigue,
danger and romance, there you will find the man called in.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Hear him tomorrow night.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And now back to the sure Thing Caper Tonight's adventure
with Sam Spade. I called the stable boy and questioned
them about the blood under the phone, and about what
could have happened to General Joe Higgins.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He just wouldn't talk, and he was too small to
beat up, So I went looking for the stable manager.
He lived in a small white house behind the exercise ring.
He wasn't too happy at being awakened, but when I
explained things, he came down to the stable with me.
I Canada sent a missus Spade. General Joe Higgins hasn't
been around here for at least.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Two years with the boys.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Told me, you see, for doping a horse once, he
can't come near a track or a stable. We let
him hang around here the racing Commission and find us. Well,
he called from here and something happened to him. A
number the phone company gave me matches up with one
of your phones with a lot of blood on the
floor too. Here we are, now which phone?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Was it?
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That one?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
All right, let's look at it.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is the phone and here is that Wait a minute,
come in here.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Now, tell mister kemp here.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
What was on the floor when I came in?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Nothing?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
Nothing, but I tell you.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
There was blood?
Speaker 1 (16:16):
They Oh, no, honest, nothing, mister Spade.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
This boy has been with me for five years.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He's perfectly reliable.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
So am I or what do you think happened?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I think somebody used this old man for a punching bag.
Maybe you'd better go home and sleep on it, mister Spade.
We'll talk about it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Don't humor may make this ched talk, mister Kemp. This
guy's tappy, Danny.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Are you certain there was no blood or no gettle Joe,
mister Kemp, I'd swear on my father's grave is necessary,
you see, mister Spade. I calmed down in a little
while and searched the place myself. I came up with
exactly nothing but an attack of hay thiever in a
horsey smell. And I suddenly wondered why I cared about
(16:56):
General Joe at all after what he'd done to me.
So I went home and called Fi Dollar.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Frankie, you will say you have convice with Gentle.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Joe twice, and both under rather trying circumstances. Frankie, once
I was doped, and once something happened to him.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I take it he did not heed the message I employed.
You took convice.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
So far he hasn't heeded anything, uh.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Than he is, without a doubt, in considerable.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Trouble, I would say.
Speaker 5 (17:18):
So, it seems that my business associates, Dinosaur Parelli and
Bone's Molten have blown their tops and gone looking for
gentle Joe with something special in mind, something like assassination.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I was afraid of that.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
Mayhaps they have already contacted gentle Joe.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
For an accounting.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Certainly may have.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So I think they've already mowed him down, and.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
There is nothing further for us to convise about. Sam
It is history, and it will be recorded fustly well
if you say so, And if I might tender a
bit of advice, I would say, pop into the Simmons, Sammy,
and knock yourself off a.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Few hours of that.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Ever, love and forgetfulness, and when you arise, you will
have a race from your mind the names of gentle
Joe Higgins and yours truly five dollars Frankie for some
time to come.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I was tired and it seemed smart to take his advice,
so I did. I went to bed. It must have
been three in the morning when something woke me up.
It was a ghost with a big white head tiptoeing
into my room. I thought was so absurd that I
turned over and started back to sleep. That's when the
ghost touched me and I grabbed for him.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Let me go to space, Let me go, it's me
gentle Joe.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Will I turn on a light.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Of course I look a little different. The bandages around
my head look like an turble.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
What happened to you?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
I was in mister Kemp's house when you were searching
the stage.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Stupid me.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I should have come out then, but I didn't, And
then I got to thinking I certainly owed you some
kind of an explanation. Oh, I found your address and
came here.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
All right, I'll collect the explanation now.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
First, what was a dope for?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
I was afraid you might take me back to five
dollars Frankie in this friends, before I did what I
had to do, would you care to tell me what
that was? I wanted to buy a horse their money, Yes,
with their money.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
They thought you were betting it on a horse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
A sure thing.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I know, I know, but let me explain. I was
thrown off the tracks for doping a horse. I needed money,
But that stet's another story. After five years, I could
get my trainer's license back. Tell me more, do you
know what it is to love horse flesh and not
be able to go near it for five years? No?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
The banktail bug never got me. You can't con guys
like Frank and his thugs out of some money to
buy a horse whenever you want one.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
There's more to the story.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
The horse I doped didn't get into the race, and
the jockey had to ride another mount He was thrown
and killed.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh I was too bad.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I felt that i'd murdered the man. His name was
Sandy Bean.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Andy Bean, that stable boy at Sunset Stables, any relative,
his son, his wife.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
And son ran out of money, and they've had a
hard time of it. I'd worked as a janitor for
the past five years trying to raise enough money to
buy them a horse to help make up for what
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
How much did you say?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Only fifteen hundred dollars? The horse I wanted, a two
year old name sure thing costs three thousand.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Ah. Thanks are beginning to clear up now. How did
you figure you had to take money from Frankie.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
The Bay, Well, Frankie and his friends made a lot
of money off Sandy Bean when he rode. I figured
it wouldn't hurt him to pay a little of it back.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
I don't think they'd see it that way.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I wasn't stealing the money. I was going to give
each of them a ten percent of the horse. I
didn't dare pull up until after I bought it.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, General Joel, maybe they'll see the light, but I
doubt it.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
If I was going to take ten percent for training
to give the other sixty to missus Bean and her
son Danny, he'll make a good jockey, and sure thing
is a great horse. I know, I know they'll make
a lot of money.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Off of it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It's a noble plan.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Tomorrow my five years is up, and I wanted to
give them the horse.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Then I see who rocked you up.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
When I was talking to you on the phone.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Danny was backing a horse into the stable and it
got excited, it started kicking, and I was in the way.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I thought maybe you had been done in.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I know. That's why I came to see you and
explain things. Can you do anything to help me?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Well, all right, I'm just staying up. There's no need
to wave a gun around here.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
You get to the Joe. We've been looking for you around.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
In a buck now a dinosaur now here we were
Steeve and your joke coming.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Look you're not gonna take him out here without a fight.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
We wouldn't mind as much as become a quipped with
a little Tilly. I didn't still get all right, all right,
knock at all?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
You want some of this time?
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Laugh if you think you can do.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It, And it turned out I could.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Why not Torelli's gonnaside hit him with a hard left
and he didn't go down.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I'd try to right down and knee, then a couple
of elbows.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I was just getting ahead of that game when something
hit me across my facing fronted COD forty five on
my forehead. I know this sounds repetitious, but I went
out again, honest idea, really, I'm sorry. Appropriately it was
dawn when I woke up cold and headache.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Of course I was alone.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
General Joe Higgins was the victim of a successful snatch, and.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I had an idea what might have happened to him.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I dressed and started looking all over time, but I
didn't have any luck. Anny wasn't until I was eating
breakfast and met a police sergeant. I know that I
got a tip or and send hello, sergeant, that you
I tried the kisser.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I didn't know they made those ken damns anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Let them sit out a pleasure. Yeah, we got a
homicide this morning.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, who who knows? Just no man fought him.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
In the park.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Somebody really worked you moving?
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And what do you look like? Ooh five? Ten? Wat?
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Clothes?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Probably bum?
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Where is he morre?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Eh?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Else?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
He's putting the run down on him?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Now, yeah, I'll see you later, Cardiff. Thanks, Hey, Sam,
I haven't finished your breakfast. They let me in the
morgue and I took a look at the corpse, and
once I saw it, I knew just where I had
to go.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I caught a cab out of the Sunset stables.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
The horses were just having a roller loas when I
pulled in, and Danny Bean, the stable boy, was there,
dressed in his cleanest LEVI, what do you want?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Where's the show going to be?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Wat?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Show?
Speaker 1 (22:55):
A general?
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Joe gives you the horse?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Isn't this today?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Okay? So you know see, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Sorry about last night, missus Spade.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I had to keep it a secret to get it.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Forget it.
Speaker 6 (23:03):
He did the right thing.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
When's the ceremony?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
About an hour?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Right here?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
You want to write?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Sure? Sure?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
I wouldn't miss it for the world.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Of course, I cheated a little.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
I didn't tell you who it was I saw and
the Lord. The truth was, I didn't know it wasn't
gentle Joe Higgins, though, and so I reasoned dustly, If
Toarelli and Moulton didn't finish him off in the night,
he must have gotten out of it somehow. It was
a resourceful old man, and I was sure nothing short
of death would keep him from presenting Danny with a
horse on the day he played.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And I was right. An hour later he came walking in.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Leading the prettiest chestnut mayor I'd ever seen, and was
a smile two feet wide on his face and behind
him carrying blankets, a saddle and riding colors where who else?
Five dollars Frankie, Dinosaurs, Torelli and bone smoke.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, this is a surprise.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It was a pleasant one.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, this is sure thing, isn't she is?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Indeed, how did you do it?
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Gentle Joan?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Where was the spade? I had them over to my
place to have a cup of tea? You get it?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
While we was a half out to explain the whole
thing to us, Joan like, good deal, and may we
can win both ways?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And the two the window.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Horse just waiting to cost the finish line.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Alley boy, this is indeed a signal occasion. Huh, this
is the first time I have ever been this close
to a horse, and me being a horse player. Sure,
I am already talking to sure Thing and explain to
her our financial position. She has assured me she will
ramp home first more times than that.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Well, gentlemen, shall we do what we came here to do?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Sure, leave us make the present.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Come on, come on, let's get in the business.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
You have the animal already, I agree, Danny.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yes, mister Higgins, Danny, the four of us are giving
you this horse, sure Thing in memory of your father,
the late Great Sandy b.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Thank you, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
He's a beauty.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
I feel like I was just born Rither Wilson.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Rather wealth, and I think he will period.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
End of report.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
It was so beautiful, A simple.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Old fashioned type story. If we feel we can use
one now and then. And I'm glad nothing happened to
anybody because I just love them all everything considered. If
they weren't half bad. Now, how about typing it up?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I loved you.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Three times mean good times on NDC. There's music and
fun in the air tomorrow evening styles to suit your
Saturday night of Merriman. Dennis Day brings you songs in
comedy in his charming, boyish manner, and then Judy Canova
gets together with her frolicsome Friends for Mountain Melody and Mayhem,
followed by grand ol Opera with singing mc red.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Foley in his gang.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It's a Saturday night of fun designed for you all types.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Uff.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Let me say, now you've captured five dollar Frankie's peculiar
style perfect. And I wasn't easy, oh, I was just
thinking we ought to contribute something, along with everybody else
to that horse.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
You know that sure thing.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I probably will Effie a few dollars here, a few
there whenever it's running.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Well, I didn't mean benny.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
What I naan is for example, it's it's gonna need
a lot.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Of hay, isn't it bails and bails.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Well, my cousin's Frisby cuts ilan. I'll have him save
the grass and send up the stable.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Effie, you are a noble creature.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
But I think sure Thing can get along without your
little loss.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Well, i've seen horses wearing stockings.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Couldn't I need a pair?
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Two pair, two pair?
Speaker 1 (26:50):
But at let's not lose our heads. Five dollar Frankie
and his pals will take good care of sure Thing.
All about worrying about taking care of me?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
All right? Think?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yes, did you use some grass?
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Effie? Knock off this horse talk? Well, yeah, we're almost
at the wire now.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
People are just champing at the bit for the payoffs.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Let's finish neck and neck.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Why not come here, sure Thing? Good night, sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The Adventures of Sam Spade are produced, edited, and directed
by William Spears. Sam Spade was played by Stephen Dunn.
Loreen Tuttle is Effie Wally Mayer was Gentle Joe. Script
for tonight's adventure by John Michael Hayes, Musical scoring by
lud Gluskin, conducted by Robert Armbrewster. Join us again next week,
(28:04):
same time for another adventure with Sam Spade. The fight
against heart disease, the greatest killer in America, goes on
with increased intensity. But doctors cannot wage this battle alone.
They need your help for the eventual control of heart
disease through research, education and community heart programs. Give now
(28:27):
to fight heart disease. Send your contribution to.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Heart Hart in care of your.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Nearest post office. Join the Magnificent Montague. Then it's Duffy's
tavern On, NBC
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