August 20, 2025 • 30 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
The last real broadcasting company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction
twenty one. Ladies and gentlemen, here's the author of tonight's
(00:33):
play and the director of Radio City Playhouse, Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Duncan thank you, Bob Warren.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good evening everybody. Although this is not by any means
her first appearance on our show, we are very happy,
indeed to welcome miss jan Minor back to Radio City Plans.
It was this talented young actress who opened our series
last July third with a sensational performance in a play
called Long Distance. So stirring was the impression created by
(01:01):
Miss Minor in this play that we repeated it some
weeks later. It is then, with justifiable pride that we
welcome her back tonight, in response to many, many requests
from all across the country. She plays the part of
Janet Wood, a role seldom equalled for the depth and
intensity of emotion which it required.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Here is Jan Miner in.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Strange Identity Attraction twenty one on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Somehow I got out of that room. I don't know
how that I did. I got down the stairs and
across the street and stumbled into the same dull, dirty
little Hamburger joint down in one of the bulls. That's
where I am now numb. I'm incapable of any thoughts.
My mind refuses to function in the face of anything
(02:10):
so fantastic, so incredibly evil. I've just seen something that
no man or woman has ever seen before, and I'm stunned.
I'm stunned and horrified. I'm so frightened that when the
waitress brings my coffee, I'm not going to be able
to speak to her. She's coming now. She thinks something's
(02:33):
wrong with me because of yesterday has ten cents lady.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Thanks, Hey, weren't you in here yesterday afternoon?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Say, honey, you are right listen to this. Do you
gonna please go away? I'm not going to faint. I
I've got to decide what to do.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Yeah, well, don't do it in here, honey.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
It began four weeks ago. I was riding in a
taxi going north on Fifth Avenue at seventy second Street.
We stopped for a red light, pulling up alongside of
a Fifth Avenue bus. We waited for a few seconds,
and just as the light changed to green, I happened
to look up. He was sitting on the bus. We
were so close we could have reached out and touched
(03:23):
each other. I looked right into his face, right square,
smack into his face. There's no possibility that I made
a mistake. I was married to him for five years,
and I looked directly into his face for at least
five seconds. That's a long time. It's one, two, three,
(03:46):
four five that long. I looked right at him for
that long, and I slid down the level seat onto
the floor of the cab and fainted. The driver was
(04:06):
very kind, kind, nice looking boy with a gentle voice.
He brought me home. He helped me upstairs to the apartment.
Then he went next door and got Grace Henderson to
come in and stay with me for a little while.
Grace was an old friend. I say it was because
now she thinks I'm not quite all there, and it's
(04:27):
hard for friendship to stand up against that sort of thing.
She got me undressed, prought me up on the couch,
and poured me a stiff shot of brandy. Grace believes
that brandy don't cure anything.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
Drink that Janet you'll feel better. Brandy cure is anything. Thanks, Grace,
scare the living daylights out of me painting and taxis.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
What's the matter with you? Anyway? Grace? Hand me Clinton's
picture party, good picture on the table there, Hand it
to me. Why sure, honey, sure there? Thanks? You never
knew him, did you? Nope? I wish you had. Well,
(05:12):
that's war. Yes, it's funny that you know me so
well and yet that you've never known Clint.
Speaker 7 (05:18):
I don't want to be brutal, Janet, but there's no
use brooding over Clint.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
He's been dead for five years and it's over.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
And that's that he's not dead, I know, honey, and
it's fine to think of him that way.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I saw him in a Fifth Avenue bus this afternoon.
That's why I fainted, Janet. I took a cab home
from shopping. We came to seventy second Street and stopped,
and we pulled up alongside a bus. I looked up
and saw him in the bus. He wasn't more than
three feet away from me. I looked right into his face,
and then I fainted. Janet's baby, you mustn't talk that way.
(05:51):
I know it's been tough getting over Clint. I know
you were.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Pretty gone on the guy, but Honey, this isn't healthy.
He's been dead for five years, and you've just got
to face it. You've got to stop brooding. Um, he
will start seeing him out of every street corner. That's
the way people start going nuts.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You've dice the top that you're behaving like a right
into his face, Janet stopped. I did. I saw him.
I looked at him for at least five seconds. I'm
going to call it. I can call all the doctors
you like. I saw him. I was as calm and
cool as could be. I wasn't even thinking about him.
I'd been shopping and had my hair done that I
looked up the bus and there he was. You can
call all the doctors in New York, but there's nothing
neurotic or double vision or queer about this, Janet.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
Baby, it's so easy to be fooled in things like this.
You saw somebody that looked like Clinton, and just the
way the lights fell or something of the shape of
his head. I mean, it's so big alive. Janet's a
war department. Never makes mistakes like that. Never they sent
you his belongings, his letters. He made a mistake, baby,
and it's upset you.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
He was the strongest man I ever knew he was
so big. He taught me so much. He took me
up into the mountains, and in two weeks I was
skiing like an expert. He taught me to shoot, to ride.
When he was with me, I could do anything, Janet.
(07:07):
I began to get part of his mind inside mine.
He took up painting one time. In four months later
he gave a one man exhibition. More than half the
pictures were sold. That's what he's like, Janet. Please. He
used to say that only geniuses were normal, that the
rest of us were subnormal. He didn't think that he
was unusual. He just thought that he utilized all of
(07:29):
his ability. He he had the most beautiful body I
ever saw On the beach. Women and even men would
look at him with all his strength and brilliancy. He
was so tender, honey, so tender. I could pick out
(07:51):
his hand from every hand in the world. I know
it wasn't any optical illusion, grace or mistake. He's alive
and I saw him. I don't know what to say.
After five years, is what are you going to do?
I don't know. You could check with the War Department.
They wouldn't believe me. No, no, they wouldn't. You don't
(08:15):
believe me, do you? Hi? Yes, honey, But it's just
that there's no possible way of explaining it. Do you
know anything about private detectives? How do you find one?
Why don't you call what's his name? Your lawyer? Grange?
Speaker 7 (08:29):
And you'd better get some rest or you'll break up.
You look terrible. I called to it Grange, my lawyer.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
He recommended a man named Powell, a private detective company.
I made an appointment with mister Powell for the next afternoon,
and then I tried to get some sleep, but I couldn't.
Over and over and over, I asked myself, why, why, why? Why?
Why would he be alive and in New York and
not get in touch with me? Why? There was no answer,
(09:10):
no reason. Why would he be alive and let me
go on thinking he was dead? That's the first question
mister Powell would ask me.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Why would he be alive and let you go on
thinking he was dead?
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Why?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What reason could there be?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I don't know, all right?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Could he be ill? I don't know, I mean mentally ill?
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Perhaps, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Have you checked with the War Department?
Speaker 7 (09:35):
No.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Five years ago they sent me his belongings and some letters.
He's buried in the military cemetery in Pyrol. That's what
they said. If I went to see them, they well,
you know how far I did.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Have you collected his insurance?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yes, in a lump sum. I also have a war pension.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
What would he be using for money?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (09:54):
Did he leave you reasonably well fixed? I mean, would
the money be of no inter to him? Or how
you understand I'm.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Not trying to He let me thirty five thousand insurance,
about five thousand cash and the pension.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It's a very baffling thing. You know, you could have
the caskets.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
It's the Powell. I'd like to start with the fact
that I saw him alive yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Well, and we've got to find a reason.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Not yet.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
We've got to find Clinton first, and then he'll tell
me the reason.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I don't think.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Please help me. Can you imagine how I feel? I'll
pay pay anything you have.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He isn't important, it's we've so little.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
To go on.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
I brought you his picture, surely.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Missus Wood. We often have missing person cases.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
But usually not one where there's such incontrovertible proof that
the person is dead. The War Department never makes mistakes
like this. They'd have every widow and mother and wife
and the country raising the very devil. They absolutely never
could declare a man dead until they've absolute and final proof.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I think you've made a mistake, missus.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Will you stop treating me as if I were feeble minded?
I saw him. I tell you stop talking to me
about the War Department. I saw him. I'm asking you
to find him. I'm not asking for psychiatric help. I'm
insane and as sharp witted.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As you are.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
If you can't be of any please, missus Wood, I'm
sorry if it makes me so furious.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
We got to start with the assumption that he's alive.
We can't prove he's alive. We've got to believe he
is alive, and then we've got to try to find him.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Could there be any sort of secret mission, any reason
why the government wishes your husband to be thought that?
Speaker 5 (11:30):
I don't know. It doesn't sound very likely.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Could he be Uh could be having any sort of
affair you mean a woman? Yes, I suppose he could.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
But can you imagine a man pretending he's dead just
because he's married and wants to live with another woman?
But he'd come back and ask for a divorce. Well,
I've asked myself every possible question as to why there
isn't any answer. You just got to find him.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Well, missus Wood, I'll put some men on it at once, and,
believe me, will the very best we can. I'll go
home and write me a list of every place he
ever mentioned.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Or ever went to. We'll get busy right away.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
How long does this sort of thing usually take?
Speaker 8 (12:08):
Oh, two days, two weeks, maybe two years, maybe never.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
I see.
Speaker 8 (12:15):
We'll keep in touch with you, all right, missus Wood. Yes,
you realize, of course that if we do find him,
there may be something behind his.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Well, behind this his strange behavior.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
That will make you wish you'd never tried to find
him at all.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
I'm quite prepared for anything, anything. For three weeks I
heard nothing. I'd go to bed at nights and it
(12:57):
would start, Why why, why? What? Why? Over and over?
Why should he want me to think he was dead?
Why when we were so in love, so happy, so
completely wonderful to get us? Why would he do this?
Then I began to get sick, I couldn't eat. I
(13:19):
began to go over our life together, wondering what I
could have done with his maids. Clinton hate me. I
exaggerated the silly little differences of opinion which we'd had.
I began to manufacture terrible, non existent crimes which i'd committed,
always against Clinton. And then I began to think that
perhaps I had made a mistake. It couldn't have happened.
(13:39):
He was dead and i'd seen his double. I began
to get a funny twisting feeling in my legs. I'd
be walking around the apartment and I began to feel
as thought nerve was loose in my knees. And then
one day, mister Powell phones, they'd had some luck.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
You want to be down there right away.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
One of my men located him in a cheap walk
up on West fiftieth Street. He's apparently spending a lot
of time in Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yes, does that surprise you?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Yes, it does rather. But I don't think I better wait, would.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wait a minute, don't go yet.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
I'm quite sure there's something, well, something sinister about this.
I don't know why, but it's not like any case
I've ever had before. I was wondering if you'd like
me to go and see him first.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Then let you know what.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
No, No, I'll go give me the address.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
It's written down.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Thanks. You've been very kindly to Powell, very understanding.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You look very tired. Try to get calm down little
before you see him.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
All right, I'll go in somewhere and have some coffee.
I'll be all right. That was yesterday. I came into
this frowzy little hamburger place yesterday afternoon. Yesterday it looked
exactly the same way it looks now, and it looked
the same way tomorrow. I came in here because it
(15:23):
was right across the street from the address that mister
Paul had given me. That was yesterday, less than twenty
four hours ago. I've got to go over everything very
careful in my mind, because I don't dare forget. I
don't dare forget anything, he said. I came in here
yesterday afternoon about four o'clock. The waitress thought I was
(15:43):
behaving strangely. I can hear the suspicion in her voice.
I asked her for a check, and she said.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Why sure, honey, Yes, five coffee, fifty cents.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Listen, Darie, are you sife? Here's a dollar? No, I'm
all right, well, you don't look so good. I'm all right.
The change.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
Well, thanks baby, thanks a lot, and take care of yourself.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Tell what where you're going?
Speaker 5 (16:26):
What it sounds dirty? So horrible? Yeah, Dear God, whatever
this is, give me the strength to be, give me
the strength to take it. Please God, Please, I can't
(16:50):
go on. It would make him hide in this dirty,
horrible house to be.
Speaker 11 (17:09):
There's nobody home, quin, good God, let me.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'll tell you. You're gonna help me, help you understand this,
help me.
Speaker 12 (17:37):
Come in, Janet, don't say anything, just to me. Please,
don't say anything.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Yes, is it really you?
Speaker 12 (17:49):
Oh, Janet, Janet Darling.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Never it is.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
It doesn't matter. It's so long as you're alive. I
don't care. I want to hear anything. I just want
old you like this and not care about why, what's happened?
You love me? There's nothing, nothing else. It's it's morning, Clint. Yes,
(18:48):
we've got to talk about it now. Yes, you've got
to tell me. I know I'm waiting, j.
Speaker 12 (18:56):
Jane.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I can't tell you.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Listen, there's absolutely nothing you can't tell me. I'm your wife.
I love you. I love you so much that I
forgive anything. There isn't anything you could have done that
I wouldn't forgive. There's no crime, no wickedness, no nothing
that I but you've got to tell me if we're
ever to have any life together again, you've got to
tell me why you let me think you were dead for.
Speaker 12 (19:16):
Five years where we're not going to have any life together.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
You're sick, that's it. You're sick and you've been through something.
You need rest, rest and a good food and a
good bad and me you need manna. Boy. Is there
some sort of secret mission that you're on that I well,
has it something to do with the war?
Speaker 6 (19:38):
No?
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, then tell me.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I can't tell him.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Please don't touch yourself. Whatever it is, I can take it.
I'm not afraid. I'll look after you. I want you
to come home with me now, away from this dreadful,
dark apartment.
Speaker 12 (19:52):
I'm not going home with you, chatny y, you're what
This is my last day here. HI may have to
leave at any minute.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
I just can't understand anything worse. Nothing could be worse
than this, nothing, not knowing, not knowing what's behind this
fantastic and tell you. I demand that you tell me.
You've got to tell me. I can't you understand? Look
you're go on like this. I go crazy. I lost
my mind.
Speaker 12 (20:18):
I saw you that day on the bus. I should
have left New York and gone away. I knew you'd
trying to find me. I knew it would be like.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Now, tell me it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Happened. In Cairo. I was hungry forty eight hour pass.
Speaker 12 (20:43):
A taxi i'd hired for the day went over an
old man. He was a funny, tiny, wistened old man,
a beggar, an Egyptian. He didn't seem to be hurt
very much, but he was so old that I made
him come back to my hotel and lie down.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
For a bit. He was very clean, but so old
that his bones.
Speaker 12 (21:05):
Were like like little bits of stick. I made him
lie down on my bed for a few minutes. I
gave him a sip of wine, and he closed his
eyes for about ten minutes, then opened them, looked up
at me, and told me he was dying.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
He seemed read.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
His whole face lit up as though it were the
most tremendous relief. He told me not to be worried,
not to try to help him, that he was very
old and quite ready to die. Then he reached into
his clothes and handed me this. What is it?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It's the holder?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
What the holder?
Speaker 12 (21:53):
It's a little wheelbarrow made of the finest cold, a
tiny little golden wheel bar and the green stone inside
it as an emerald. He said it would be of
no use to anybody but me. I didn't understand what
he meant. He said I'd been picked, picked, chosen. I
(22:15):
asked him what he meant, but he wouldn't say. He
told me the howls had brought good luck and bad luck.
He said, if I held it over my heart and
wished that I get my wish.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Then he sort of breathed once, and I can't.
Speaker 12 (22:32):
I can't go, Wader, I can't, Janet, please don't make me.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well.
Speaker 12 (22:41):
In just a few seconds, there was nothing left, nothing
but a thin, fine, silvery powder. He he just disintegrated
in front of my very eyes, to dust, dry fine
gray dust.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Is old as old this forever, like poor mis power.
I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 12 (23:07):
I I called the manager, but he wouldn't believe that
anybody had just died in my bed.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There was nothing there, just half a cupful of dust,
dry white dust.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
And then I.
Speaker 9 (23:24):
Went on with my leave.
Speaker 12 (23:25):
I was a little shaken, so I went out and
got drunk. The next night I reported back to camp.
I blurted out the story in the mess. One night,
I passed the haul around and everybody wished. Some wished
for money, some for girl something. Of course, nothing happened.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Did you expect something? What? Oh? Not? Really? I I
don't know then what? Then?
Speaker 12 (23:47):
I took it and wished that you standing in front
of me. Everybody laughed. We knew there was nothing in it.
Nobody believed the story. I certainly didn't. I felt sort
of sheepish. That night I went to bed, I got
the hauled out and looked at it again.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
It sort of fascinated me.
Speaker 12 (24:10):
I began to imagine all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wishes I could make.
Speaker 12 (24:13):
I wished that I could be made invisible, that I
could move my body from one place or another instantly,
silly day dreaming kids, Stop Clinton.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Please come home? Knew not well, you'll let me finish.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Days passed by January. This was nineteen forty three. The
advance in an issue was told German dive bombers were
continuously in action. It was a time of horror and death,
and and all through those terrible days, the feeling gradually
came over me that the halder would for some time
(24:46):
when I was in desperate trouble, that.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
It would help me.
Speaker 12 (24:49):
This feeling became very strong. I can't describe it, but
it was very strong. One night, with ten men, I
was ambushed in a small mountain pass. We knew that
it was the end. We knew we would all be killed.
It was letterally rained death, and I suddenly became terrified.
I'd always been nervous in action, but never before I
(25:10):
lost control of myself.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There were German plains everywhere.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
I stood up, scream at the scream at the world.
I wish for just one month.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I begged for a month.
Speaker 12 (25:21):
If I have to die, give me a month, just
one month, any time in five years and ten years,
what a month? Give me back a month to see
my wife again.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
Goddon, Darling, Please come on me. You're so thick, you
for so terrible. Please, Janet, you may not believe this.
I got my wish.
Speaker 12 (25:42):
I was instantly killed that night, instantly killed.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yet I'm here with you in this room. Don't you
understand I'd got my wish and I'm leaving. I've got
to leave Clinton.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Stop.
Speaker 12 (26:02):
Where are you going, Jennet, get away from my door.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Please, I don't want you to see this.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
What Clinton? What is it?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
My month is up?
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Janet?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I wished through a month back here again.
Speaker 12 (26:14):
I got it. I followed you in the daytime. I've
watched you and seen you. But there was no use
my coming back into your life. You made the adjustment,
you were set, you were happy.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
I've never been happy without you. Never. Clinton. Please, please
come on, get away door. This is a nightmare.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
It didn't.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
JENEDI who Clinton?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Glennon, don't do it?
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Clinton? Wait, No, no.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Clinton, dust up, just thin Greg silver dust. Somehow I
(27:16):
got out of that room. Somehow I fought down the hysteria,
the terror. I stumbled down the stairs, crossed the tree,
back into this horrible little Hamburger place. I've got the
halt of with me. I want to go with Clinton.
If it worked for him, perhaps it will work for me.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I'm gonna try it.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I just can't live without him. Oh, a loving Father
God in heaven. If this is just sin, forgive me, Please, please.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
God, forgive me.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
But I've got to go with him. I've got to
go with Clinton if I can. Hey, Joe, did that gang?
It was backing so queen.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
Without pay her checks, the fancy dresses with the chief cake, Hey, Joey,
Dad Camia and bring a rag his great kind of
dust stuff fall over the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You have just heard Strange identity and original radio drama
written and directed by Harry W. Duncan. Jan Minor starred
in the difficult role of Janet Wood. Clinton was Bernard Grant.
Other players were Etha Laubert and Lyle Sudrow. The music
was composed by doctor Roy Shield and conducted by Joseph Garner.
Radio City Playhouse is supervised for the National Broadcasting Company
(28:53):
by Richard P.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
McDonough.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
This is Harry Johnson Agham. Next week Radio City Playhouse
will not be heard. In its place a special news
program called Plans for the New Congress, presented under the
auspices of the Democratic National Committee. The week after, Radio
City Playhouse will be back as usual and we very
much hope you'll join us. Good Night, everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.
The last real broadcasting company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction
twenty one. Ladies and gentlemen, here's the author of tonight's
(00:33):
play and the director of Radio City Playhouse, Harry W.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Duncan thank you, Bob Warren.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Good evening everybody. Although this is not by any means
her first appearance on our show, we are very happy,
indeed to welcome miss jan Minor back to Radio City Plans.
It was this talented young actress who opened our series
last July third with a sensational performance in a play
called Long Distance. So stirring was the impression created by
(01:01):
Miss Minor in this play that we repeated it some
weeks later. It is then, with justifiable pride that we
welcome her back tonight, in response to many, many requests
from all across the country. She plays the part of
Janet Wood, a role seldom equalled for the depth and
intensity of emotion which it required.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Here is Jan Miner in.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Strange Identity Attraction twenty one on Radio City Playhouse.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Somehow I got out of that room. I don't know
how that I did. I got down the stairs and
across the street and stumbled into the same dull, dirty
little Hamburger joint down in one of the bulls. That's
where I am now numb. I'm incapable of any thoughts.
My mind refuses to function in the face of anything
(02:10):
so fantastic, so incredibly evil. I've just seen something that
no man or woman has ever seen before, and I'm stunned.
I'm stunned and horrified. I'm so frightened that when the
waitress brings my coffee, I'm not going to be able
to speak to her. She's coming now. She thinks something's
(02:33):
wrong with me because of yesterday has ten cents lady.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Thanks, Hey, weren't you in here yesterday afternoon?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Say, honey, you are right listen to this. Do you
gonna please go away? I'm not going to faint. I
I've got to decide what to do.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
Yeah, well, don't do it in here, honey.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
It began four weeks ago. I was riding in a
taxi going north on Fifth Avenue at seventy second Street.
We stopped for a red light, pulling up alongside of
a Fifth Avenue bus. We waited for a few seconds,
and just as the light changed to green, I happened
to look up. He was sitting on the bus. We
were so close we could have reached out and touched
(03:23):
each other. I looked right into his face, right square,
smack into his face. There's no possibility that I made
a mistake. I was married to him for five years,
and I looked directly into his face for at least
five seconds. That's a long time. It's one, two, three,
(03:46):
four five that long. I looked right at him for
that long, and I slid down the level seat onto
the floor of the cab and fainted. The driver was
(04:06):
very kind, kind, nice looking boy with a gentle voice.
He brought me home. He helped me upstairs to the apartment.
Then he went next door and got Grace Henderson to
come in and stay with me for a little while.
Grace was an old friend. I say it was because
now she thinks I'm not quite all there, and it's
(04:27):
hard for friendship to stand up against that sort of thing.
She got me undressed, prought me up on the couch,
and poured me a stiff shot of brandy. Grace believes
that brandy don't cure anything.
Speaker 7 (04:40):
Drink that Janet you'll feel better. Brandy cure is anything. Thanks, Grace,
scare the living daylights out of me painting and taxis.
Speaker 5 (04:49):
What's the matter with you? Anyway? Grace? Hand me Clinton's
picture party, good picture on the table there, Hand it
to me. Why sure, honey, sure there? Thanks? You never
knew him, did you? Nope? I wish you had. Well,
(05:12):
that's war. Yes, it's funny that you know me so
well and yet that you've never known Clint.
Speaker 7 (05:18):
I don't want to be brutal, Janet, but there's no
use brooding over Clint.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
He's been dead for five years and it's over.
Speaker 7 (05:24):
And that's that he's not dead, I know, honey, and
it's fine to think of him that way.
Speaker 5 (05:28):
I saw him in a Fifth Avenue bus this afternoon.
That's why I fainted, Janet. I took a cab home
from shopping. We came to seventy second Street and stopped,
and we pulled up alongside a bus. I looked up
and saw him in the bus. He wasn't more than
three feet away from me. I looked right into his face,
and then I fainted. Janet's baby, you mustn't talk that way.
(05:51):
I know it's been tough getting over Clint. I know
you were.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Pretty gone on the guy, but Honey, this isn't healthy.
He's been dead for five years, and you've just got
to face it. You've got to stop brooding. Um, he
will start seeing him out of every street corner. That's
the way people start going nuts.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
You've dice the top that you're behaving like a right
into his face, Janet stopped. I did. I saw him.
I looked at him for at least five seconds. I'm
going to call it. I can call all the doctors
you like. I saw him. I was as calm and
cool as could be. I wasn't even thinking about him.
I'd been shopping and had my hair done that I
looked up the bus and there he was. You can
call all the doctors in New York, but there's nothing
neurotic or double vision or queer about this, Janet.
Speaker 7 (06:27):
Baby, it's so easy to be fooled in things like this.
You saw somebody that looked like Clinton, and just the
way the lights fell or something of the shape of
his head. I mean, it's so big alive. Janet's a
war department. Never makes mistakes like that. Never they sent
you his belongings, his letters. He made a mistake, baby,
and it's upset you.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
He was the strongest man I ever knew he was
so big. He taught me so much. He took me
up into the mountains, and in two weeks I was
skiing like an expert. He taught me to shoot, to ride.
When he was with me, I could do anything, Janet.
(07:07):
I began to get part of his mind inside mine.
He took up painting one time. In four months later
he gave a one man exhibition. More than half the
pictures were sold. That's what he's like, Janet. Please. He
used to say that only geniuses were normal, that the
rest of us were subnormal. He didn't think that he
was unusual. He just thought that he utilized all of
(07:29):
his ability. He he had the most beautiful body I
ever saw On the beach. Women and even men would
look at him with all his strength and brilliancy. He
was so tender, honey, so tender. I could pick out
(07:51):
his hand from every hand in the world. I know
it wasn't any optical illusion, grace or mistake. He's alive
and I saw him. I don't know what to say.
After five years, is what are you going to do?
I don't know. You could check with the War Department.
They wouldn't believe me. No, no, they wouldn't. You don't
(08:15):
believe me, do you? Hi? Yes, honey, But it's just
that there's no possible way of explaining it. Do you
know anything about private detectives? How do you find one?
Why don't you call what's his name? Your lawyer? Grange?
Speaker 7 (08:29):
And you'd better get some rest or you'll break up.
You look terrible. I called to it Grange, my lawyer.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
He recommended a man named Powell, a private detective company.
I made an appointment with mister Powell for the next afternoon,
and then I tried to get some sleep, but I couldn't.
Over and over and over, I asked myself, why, why, why? Why?
Why would he be alive and in New York and
not get in touch with me? Why? There was no answer,
(09:10):
no reason. Why would he be alive and let me
go on thinking he was dead? That's the first question
mister Powell would ask me.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Why would he be alive and let you go on
thinking he was dead?
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Why?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What reason could there be?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I don't know, all right?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Could he be ill? I don't know, I mean mentally ill?
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Perhaps, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Have you checked with the War Department?
Speaker 7 (09:35):
No.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Five years ago they sent me his belongings and some letters.
He's buried in the military cemetery in Pyrol. That's what
they said. If I went to see them, they well,
you know how far I did.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Have you collected his insurance?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
Yes, in a lump sum. I also have a war pension.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
What would he be using for money?
Speaker 5 (09:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 8 (09:54):
Did he leave you reasonably well fixed? I mean, would
the money be of no inter to him? Or how
you understand I'm.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Not trying to He let me thirty five thousand insurance,
about five thousand cash and the pension.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It's a very baffling thing. You know, you could have
the caskets.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
It's the Powell. I'd like to start with the fact
that I saw him alive yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Well, and we've got to find a reason.
Speaker 6 (10:22):
Not yet.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
We've got to find Clinton first, and then he'll tell
me the reason.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I don't think.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Please help me. Can you imagine how I feel? I'll
pay pay anything you have.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
He isn't important, it's we've so little.
Speaker 7 (10:34):
To go on.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
I brought you his picture, surely.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Missus Wood. We often have missing person cases.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
But usually not one where there's such incontrovertible proof that
the person is dead. The War Department never makes mistakes
like this. They'd have every widow and mother and wife
and the country raising the very devil. They absolutely never
could declare a man dead until they've absolute and final proof.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I think you've made a mistake, missus.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
Will you stop treating me as if I were feeble minded?
I saw him. I tell you stop talking to me
about the War Department. I saw him. I'm asking you
to find him. I'm not asking for psychiatric help. I'm
insane and as sharp witted.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
As you are.
Speaker 8 (11:10):
If you can't be of any please, missus Wood, I'm
sorry if it makes me so furious.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
We got to start with the assumption that he's alive.
We can't prove he's alive. We've got to believe he
is alive, and then we've got to try to find him.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
Could there be any sort of secret mission, any reason
why the government wishes your husband to be thought that?
Speaker 5 (11:30):
I don't know. It doesn't sound very likely.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Could he be Uh could be having any sort of
affair you mean a woman? Yes, I suppose he could.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
But can you imagine a man pretending he's dead just
because he's married and wants to live with another woman?
But he'd come back and ask for a divorce. Well,
I've asked myself every possible question as to why there
isn't any answer. You just got to find him.
Speaker 8 (11:57):
Well, missus Wood, I'll put some men on it at once, and,
believe me, will the very best we can. I'll go
home and write me a list of every place he
ever mentioned.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Or ever went to. We'll get busy right away.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
How long does this sort of thing usually take?
Speaker 8 (12:08):
Oh, two days, two weeks, maybe two years, maybe never.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
I see.
Speaker 8 (12:15):
We'll keep in touch with you, all right, missus Wood. Yes,
you realize, of course that if we do find him,
there may be something behind his.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Well, behind this his strange behavior.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
That will make you wish you'd never tried to find
him at all.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
I'm quite prepared for anything, anything. For three weeks I
heard nothing. I'd go to bed at nights and it
(12:57):
would start, Why why, why? What? Why? Over and over?
Why should he want me to think he was dead?
Why when we were so in love, so happy, so
completely wonderful to get us? Why would he do this?
Then I began to get sick, I couldn't eat. I
(13:19):
began to go over our life together, wondering what I
could have done with his maids. Clinton hate me. I
exaggerated the silly little differences of opinion which we'd had.
I began to manufacture terrible, non existent crimes which i'd committed,
always against Clinton. And then I began to think that
perhaps I had made a mistake. It couldn't have happened.
(13:39):
He was dead and i'd seen his double. I began
to get a funny twisting feeling in my legs. I'd
be walking around the apartment and I began to feel
as thought nerve was loose in my knees. And then
one day, mister Powell phones, they'd had some luck.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
You want to be down there right away.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
One of my men located him in a cheap walk
up on West fiftieth Street. He's apparently spending a lot
of time in Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yes, does that surprise you?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Yes, it does rather. But I don't think I better wait, would.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Wait a minute, don't go yet.
Speaker 8 (14:32):
I'm quite sure there's something, well, something sinister about this.
I don't know why, but it's not like any case
I've ever had before. I was wondering if you'd like
me to go and see him first.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Then let you know what.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
No, No, I'll go give me the address.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
It's written down.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Thanks. You've been very kindly to Powell, very understanding.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You look very tired. Try to get calm down little
before you see him.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
All right, I'll go in somewhere and have some coffee.
I'll be all right. That was yesterday. I came into
this frowzy little hamburger place yesterday afternoon. Yesterday it looked
exactly the same way it looks now, and it looked
the same way tomorrow. I came in here because it
(15:23):
was right across the street from the address that mister
Paul had given me. That was yesterday, less than twenty
four hours ago. I've got to go over everything very
careful in my mind, because I don't dare forget. I
don't dare forget anything, he said. I came in here
yesterday afternoon about four o'clock. The waitress thought I was
(15:43):
behaving strangely. I can hear the suspicion in her voice.
I asked her for a check, and she said.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Why sure, honey, Yes, five coffee, fifty cents.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Listen, Darie, are you sife? Here's a dollar? No, I'm
all right, well, you don't look so good. I'm all right.
The change.
Speaker 10 (16:00):
Well, thanks baby, thanks a lot, and take care of yourself.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Tell what where you're going?
Speaker 5 (16:26):
What it sounds dirty? So horrible? Yeah, Dear God, whatever
this is, give me the strength to be, give me
the strength to take it. Please God, Please, I can't
(16:50):
go on. It would make him hide in this dirty,
horrible house to be.
Speaker 11 (17:09):
There's nobody home, quin, good God, let me.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I'll tell you. You're gonna help me, help you understand this,
help me.
Speaker 12 (17:37):
Come in, Janet, don't say anything, just to me. Please,
don't say anything.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Yes, is it really you?
Speaker 12 (17:49):
Oh, Janet, Janet Darling.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Never it is.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
It doesn't matter. It's so long as you're alive. I
don't care. I want to hear anything. I just want
old you like this and not care about why, what's happened?
You love me? There's nothing, nothing else. It's it's morning, Clint. Yes,
(18:48):
we've got to talk about it now. Yes, you've got
to tell me. I know I'm waiting, j.
Speaker 12 (18:56):
Jane.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
I can't tell you.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Listen, there's absolutely nothing you can't tell me. I'm your wife.
I love you. I love you so much that I
forgive anything. There isn't anything you could have done that
I wouldn't forgive. There's no crime, no wickedness, no nothing
that I but you've got to tell me if we're
ever to have any life together again, you've got to
tell me why you let me think you were dead for.
Speaker 12 (19:16):
Five years where we're not going to have any life together.
Speaker 5 (19:21):
You're sick, that's it. You're sick and you've been through something.
You need rest, rest and a good food and a
good bad and me you need manna. Boy. Is there
some sort of secret mission that you're on that I well,
has it something to do with the war?
Speaker 6 (19:38):
No?
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Yes, then tell me.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I can't tell him.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
Please don't touch yourself. Whatever it is, I can take it.
I'm not afraid. I'll look after you. I want you
to come home with me now, away from this dreadful,
dark apartment.
Speaker 12 (19:52):
I'm not going home with you, chatny y, you're what
This is my last day here. HI may have to
leave at any minute.
Speaker 5 (20:03):
I just can't understand anything worse. Nothing could be worse
than this, nothing, not knowing, not knowing what's behind this
fantastic and tell you. I demand that you tell me.
You've got to tell me. I can't you understand? Look
you're go on like this. I go crazy. I lost
my mind.
Speaker 12 (20:18):
I saw you that day on the bus. I should
have left New York and gone away. I knew you'd
trying to find me. I knew it would be like.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Now, tell me it.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Happened. In Cairo. I was hungry forty eight hour pass.
Speaker 12 (20:43):
A taxi i'd hired for the day went over an
old man. He was a funny, tiny, wistened old man,
a beggar, an Egyptian. He didn't seem to be hurt
very much, but he was so old that I made
him come back to my hotel and lie down.
Speaker 5 (21:01):
For a bit. He was very clean, but so old
that his bones.
Speaker 12 (21:05):
Were like like little bits of stick. I made him
lie down on my bed for a few minutes. I
gave him a sip of wine, and he closed his
eyes for about ten minutes, then opened them, looked up
at me, and told me he was dying.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
He seemed read.
Speaker 12 (21:28):
His whole face lit up as though it were the
most tremendous relief. He told me not to be worried,
not to try to help him, that he was very
old and quite ready to die. Then he reached into
his clothes and handed me this. What is it?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It's the holder?
Speaker 6 (21:51):
What the holder?
Speaker 12 (21:53):
It's a little wheelbarrow made of the finest cold, a
tiny little golden wheel bar and the green stone inside
it as an emerald. He said it would be of
no use to anybody but me. I didn't understand what
he meant. He said I'd been picked, picked, chosen. I
(22:15):
asked him what he meant, but he wouldn't say. He
told me the howls had brought good luck and bad luck.
He said, if I held it over my heart and
wished that I get my wish.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Then he sort of breathed once, and I can't.
Speaker 12 (22:32):
I can't go, Wader, I can't, Janet, please don't make me.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well.
Speaker 12 (22:41):
In just a few seconds, there was nothing left, nothing
but a thin, fine, silvery powder. He he just disintegrated
in front of my very eyes, to dust, dry fine
gray dust.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Is old as old this forever, like poor mis power.
I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 12 (23:07):
I I called the manager, but he wouldn't believe that
anybody had just died in my bed.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
There was nothing there, just half a cupful of dust,
dry white dust.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
And then I.
Speaker 9 (23:24):
Went on with my leave.
Speaker 12 (23:25):
I was a little shaken, so I went out and
got drunk. The next night I reported back to camp.
I blurted out the story in the mess. One night,
I passed the haul around and everybody wished. Some wished
for money, some for girl something. Of course, nothing happened.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
Did you expect something? What? Oh? Not? Really? I I
don't know then what? Then?
Speaker 12 (23:47):
I took it and wished that you standing in front
of me. Everybody laughed. We knew there was nothing in it.
Nobody believed the story. I certainly didn't. I felt sort
of sheepish. That night I went to bed, I got
the hauled out and looked at it again.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
It sort of fascinated me.
Speaker 12 (24:10):
I began to imagine all sorts of.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wishes I could make.
Speaker 12 (24:13):
I wished that I could be made invisible, that I
could move my body from one place or another instantly,
silly day dreaming kids, Stop Clinton.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Please come home? Knew not well, you'll let me finish.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Days passed by January. This was nineteen forty three. The
advance in an issue was told German dive bombers were
continuously in action. It was a time of horror and death,
and and all through those terrible days, the feeling gradually
came over me that the halder would for some time
(24:46):
when I was in desperate trouble, that.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
It would help me.
Speaker 12 (24:49):
This feeling became very strong. I can't describe it, but
it was very strong. One night, with ten men, I
was ambushed in a small mountain pass. We knew that
it was the end. We knew we would all be killed.
It was letterally rained death, and I suddenly became terrified.
I'd always been nervous in action, but never before I
(25:10):
lost control of myself.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
There were German plains everywhere.
Speaker 5 (25:13):
I stood up, scream at the scream at the world.
I wish for just one month.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
I begged for a month.
Speaker 12 (25:21):
If I have to die, give me a month, just
one month, any time in five years and ten years,
what a month? Give me back a month to see
my wife again.
Speaker 5 (25:32):
Goddon, Darling, Please come on me. You're so thick, you
for so terrible. Please, Janet, you may not believe this.
I got my wish.
Speaker 12 (25:42):
I was instantly killed that night, instantly killed.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yet I'm here with you in this room. Don't you
understand I'd got my wish and I'm leaving. I've got
to leave Clinton.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Stop.
Speaker 12 (26:02):
Where are you going, Jennet, get away from my door.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Please, I don't want you to see this.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
What Clinton? What is it?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
My month is up?
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Janet?
Speaker 2 (26:11):
I wished through a month back here again.
Speaker 12 (26:14):
I got it. I followed you in the daytime. I've
watched you and seen you. But there was no use
my coming back into your life. You made the adjustment,
you were set, you were happy.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
I've never been happy without you. Never. Clinton. Please, please
come on, get away door. This is a nightmare.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
It didn't.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
JENEDI who Clinton?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Glennon, don't do it?
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Clinton? Wait, No, no.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Clinton, dust up, just thin Greg silver dust. Somehow I
(27:16):
got out of that room. Somehow I fought down the hysteria,
the terror. I stumbled down the stairs, crossed the tree,
back into this horrible little Hamburger place. I've got the
halt of with me. I want to go with Clinton.
If it worked for him, perhaps it will work for me.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I'm gonna try it.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I just can't live without him. Oh, a loving Father
God in heaven. If this is just sin, forgive me, Please, please.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
God, forgive me.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
But I've got to go with him. I've got to
go with Clinton if I can. Hey, Joe, did that gang?
It was backing so queen.
Speaker 10 (28:00):
Without pay her checks, the fancy dresses with the chief cake, Hey, Joey,
Dad Camia and bring a rag his great kind of
dust stuff fall over the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You have just heard Strange identity and original radio drama
written and directed by Harry W. Duncan. Jan Minor starred
in the difficult role of Janet Wood. Clinton was Bernard Grant.
Other players were Etha Laubert and Lyle Sudrow. The music
was composed by doctor Roy Shield and conducted by Joseph Garner.
Radio City Playhouse is supervised for the National Broadcasting Company
(28:53):
by Richard P.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
McDonough.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
This is Harry Johnson Agham. Next week Radio City Playhouse
will not be heard. In its place a special news
program called Plans for the New Congress, presented under the
auspices of the Democratic National Committee. The week after, Radio
City Playhouse will be back as usual and we very
much hope you'll join us. Good Night, everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.
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My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.