July 26, 2024 • 20 mins
Please enjoy Old Die Rich The a great episode of the legendaryX Minus One radio - A Classic Old Time radio Show - OTR
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's inviting you to listen in on the nightlife.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tonight lived the incredible life of ages yet to come
in a time that might be a million years from now.
I'm X minus one now an incredible story of the
world beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Come down for blast off X minus five four three
two x minus one Fire from the far horizons of
(01:03):
the unknown. Com tales of new dimensions in time and space.
These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
live in a million, could be years, on a thousand,
maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Galaxy
Science Fiction Magazine presents.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
He one one one Tonight They All Die Rich by H. L. Gold.
But first hear this Hello.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I'm draty Olsen, singing school teacher on NBC's big weekday
musical show Dance Dance. But right now I'd like to
talk to you parents. I'd like to ask you a
few questions. As you're getting ready to send your youngsters
back to school. Are you helping your child at the
most out of his school. Do you make his home
conditions favorable enough for him to do his home work?
(02:04):
You show an interest in his schoolwork, Remember your child's
success in school and later on in life depends to
a large degree on your attitude towards his schooling to day.
And there's another important thing. Everyone needs a good send
off in the morning, and that goes for children too.
Be sure your children have a substantial breakfast and a cheery,
(02:26):
good bride before they head for school each day. Remember
you can't expect your child to do it all himself.
Encourage you in his schooling, both in your attitude and
in your actions as he goes back to school this fall.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Now x minus one and to Night's story, they all
die rich, Doc.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What did she die of? Not eating? Sergeant malnutrition?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
Oh look, Doc, in the top bureau drawer, she has
bank book showing thirty two thousand dollars in five different banks.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
She had the price of the meal malnutrition induced by
semile psychosis.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
They starve because they're less afraid of death than of
digging into their savings.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I don't know, Doc, doesn't feel right to me. Listen.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Well, then, just because you can get up on a
stage and play the part of some seventy year old geezer,
that doesn't qualify you as an expert on gerontology.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I just don't believe it. It isn't right. I don't feel it.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Well, Lucky for me, I don't have to feel these
things inside of me because I'm a doctor, not an actor,
nor an amateur detective. Pargeant malnutrition induced by senile psychosis.
I'll order the wicker basket from Bellevue.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So long, barrymore. Well, he's right, Mark. We get a
couple of these cases every year.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
Some old bats starving to death with seventeen thousand dollars
in old bills pinned on his union suit turns up
all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It doesn't feel right. Well, Doc knows his biz, but
he doesn't no old people I do. I've gone to
a lot of trouble to study their habits.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It isn't easy to start to death. Hunger is a
pretty potent instinct. Yeah, but Mark, you can't argue with
the facts.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Were the five bank books thirty two thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
She took good care of them. I look almost new.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Let's see you pro twenty third, nineteen oh seven, deposit
of one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The ink's pretty dark? Shouldn't it be faded? She probably
never took it out in the light. Anyone ever to
think of testing the ink.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
Oh, now, Mark, this is strictly against regulations. I've got
to take these books down to the squad room and
sign them.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
In pretty dark ink for nineteen oh seven. Well, it's
about five o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 6 (04:47):
I could hold them over tonight, bring them down with
the property click in the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
God, I know where I can find a chemist, mister Weldon.
There's no doubt of it. The ink sample is typical
of inks used fifty years ago. Nineteen seven would be
about right.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But according to the amount of oxidation, it's fresh enough
to be only a few months old.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Well, couldn't that be the result of unusually careful handling?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yes, alget yes, I suppose it could.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
An air tight compartment, perhaps sealed with one of the
inert gases or a vacuum that might account for the
lack of normal aging.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Lou, you can't keep inert gases in a top bureau
drawer and a fourth floor walk up.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Yeah, well, it's probably some simple explanation for.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Fresh ink half a century old.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Right after that, I got a television part that kept
me busy for about a month, and then Lou Pate
called me up and asked me to come down to BELvue.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Mark, is that you?
Speaker 7 (06:02):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
What's up? An old guy found.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Wandering around down on Hester Street. He was suffering from malnutrition.
He had seventeen thousand dollars in cash inside the lining.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Of his jacket. He's alive, No not now he hasn't.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Doc's got him in the room there, but he was
stumbling around when the cup on the.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Beat picked him up. Did he say anything just.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Before he went out completely? He did say something, maybe
three or full of time?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What was it? El greco? Do you mean the artist
of anything else? Lou, Yeah, it's nothing for me. But
we found the old guy's room and there was an
ad thumbtacked over the sink. Nothing unusual.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, oh here men and women wanted might work suitable
for old people. No reference was required. Now, why would
an old man with seventeen thousand and cash be answering
an ad like that? Yep, it was an old brown
(07:13):
stone house in the East eighties. I got in line
with the rest of the applicants. My face was lined
with Colodian wrinkles, and I wore an antique shiny suit
and run down shoes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
There's a good makeup job.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I look more authentic than the rest of the old
time we're waiting for the interview.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I finally came up to where a woman was asking
the questions name Cournet, Louis Curnet, Curnet.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Do you have any references? Family?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
No, ma am, I haven't got any family. I had
a cursain in Shalt Lake City. I haven't seen him
in thirty years or more.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Er.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I said, you didn't want no references. That's right.
Speaker 8 (07:55):
And now when you wait in the.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Other room, do I get the job? Man?
Speaker 8 (08:00):
Just wait in the other room.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I shuffled into the other room and sat down to wait.
I'd planned to be dozing the way an old man would,
and so my eyes were closed. When I heard the
door close and I opened them. I was looking into
the barrel of a thirty eight revolver.
Speaker 8 (08:21):
Are you awake now, mister Weldon? Mum, I don't think
you need to carry on any more. If you need
any further convincing, you're Mark Weldon. You're about forty years old,
and you played the same character on television about six
weeks ago. You played it fairly well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Would you mind putting down the gun You've.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Been very busy recently trying to find out why senile
psychotics starved themselves to death.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You know a great deal more about me than I
do about you.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I would be glad to enlighten you. My name is
May Roberts. I'm the daughter of the late doctor Anthony Roberts,
the physicist who was dismissed from the Brookhaven Atomic Energy
Laboratory five years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I assume you're connected with those starvation cases, or you
wouldn't have known that I was investigating them.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Un Well, that's obvious, isn't it. I'm not afraid of
professional detectives, mister Weldon. They deal only with facts. But
I don't like amateurs. They guess too much, they don't
stick to reality. Consequently, they're likely to get too close
to the truth.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Unfortunately, miss Roberts, I'm nowhere near the truth. I haven't
the slightest idea how you're tied in with these starvation deaths.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
I intend to show you, mister Weldon. I'm happy to
announce that you have the job.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh no, look all.
Speaker 8 (09:33):
Right, mister Weldon. Right ahead, if you please through that door.
It will take about five minutes for the field to
build up. Mister Weldon, please get in the caso there there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You mean that that wire cage go ahead? All right?
Speaker 8 (09:49):
All right now, I wouldn't advise moving now to Weldon.
The wire carries some ten thousand volts.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, now, look, miss Roberts, mister Welden, you.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Are curious and you could turn out to be a
great usance to me. As long as you've come this far,
we might as well both benefit by it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Benefit.
Speaker 8 (10:13):
Yes, on the floor, you'll find a set of envelopes.
There's a set of instructions in each. Follow them carefully.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I don't get it.
Speaker 8 (10:21):
You will use the envelopes in the order they are arranged.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Look, what's all this about it, mister Weldon?
Speaker 8 (10:27):
I meant it when I said this could be a
benefit to both of us. There's no use in my explainings.
You'll find out and don't try to escape. It can't
be done. All right now, the field generators are ready.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Now look, miss robertslutely must follow instructions, mister Weldon.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I flink I was standing outside a bank on a
sunny day in spring. The cars were square with black
radiars in the front. There was a trolley car passing car.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Suddenly I realized that the last trolley car stopped running
in Manhattan years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I tried to figure it out. It was New York,
all right.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I recognize some of the buildings. First I figured it
must have been hypnosis.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Then I looked at the first of the envelopes in
my pocket. I read it and walked into the bank. Yes, sir,
how mister Golden tells me you wish to open an account.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yes, that's right, mm hmm. Well, you're very happy to
have a new depositor, very happy. Indeed, of course, you
realize the institution is in sound condition, very sound. You
needn't worry about all those rumors in this bank. No, sir,
Salid Salid, that's good now, then name Mark Weldon. You
have no address in the city at prison?
Speaker 9 (11:49):
Uh no, no, And you're depositing one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That's right, all righty, I'll just check the slip.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
One hundred and fifty dollars right the day May fifteenth,
of course, nineteen thirty one, I.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Went outside the bank and I stood there in the
spring sunlight and let the terror soak into me. The
impossibility of the entire situation was gnawing at the ages
of my.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Mind, and then suddenly I wasn't there. It was nineteen
thirty four, and I found myself in a broker's office.
Speaker 10 (12:28):
As I understand it, mister Weldon, you're buying this stock
for doctor Anthony Robbers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's right. I assume the stock will be in his name.
That's right. I'm just acting as agent. I follow instructions,
of course. Of course, are you sure I can't convince
you that you're making a mistake. No, No, these are
my instructions, mister Weldon.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
We are a reputable brokerage house, and I've been quite
shaky about putting.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Any client's money into this kind of security. Frankly, I've
seen no future in it.
Speaker 10 (12:57):
It's a rare metal for which there is very little
use for industrial papass.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
However, if your client is adam me, I have my
instruction serve very well.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
Then in the name of doctor Anthony Roberts, one hundred
shares a month and a uranium, oh well, veryon wise,
Most time wise, it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Went that way about fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'd deposit money in my own name in various banks
at various times, and then I'd buy a stock or
make a bet for May Roberts.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
On June twenty.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
First, nineteen thirty two, I bet Jack Sharky to take
the heavyweight title away from Max Schmelling. There was singing
Wood in nineteen thirty three at Belmont Park, and Max
Barrow were primo Carnera.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I went on skipping through the years like a flat
stone over water, touching here and there for a few
minutes to an hour at a time. It was in
early October nineteen thirty eight, about five hours after I
had left May Robert's house.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Before I realized what she had me doing. I was
making deposits and winning sure bets, just as those senile
psychotics had done. The ink of their bank books was
fresh because the entries in them were fresh. The ink
wasn't given a chance to oxidize. At the rate I
was going, i'd be back at my own time in
(14:23):
a few hours, with fifteen thousand dollars compound interest in cash,
to say nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Of those bets.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
But those old people had died of starvation in spite
of all that cash. Well, I was hungry, so I
got myself a hamburger and went out the door. When
I hit the sidewalk. It happened again.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
Don't touch the cake yet, miss Weld, and I'll have
to clear the charge.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Hey, what happened to my hamburger? What the hamburger? I
had it here, it's gone. I'm hungry.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Get you something to eat, mister Weldon before your next trip.
You's done pretty well for yourself.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Haven't you. Yes, yes, I have about fifteen thousand.
Speaker 8 (15:07):
You can come out now, but be careful. Don't touch
the contact. The field reacts on a random factor for
at least an hour after it's cut off. Hey, I
had ketch up on my sleeve. That's gone, mister Weldon.
I want to talk seriously with you. You've seen now
part of what I'm doing part. I've been able to
say things that would have been lost otherwise. I have
(15:28):
sent people back to find precious treasures that would have
been destroyed or would have disappeared.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Like an El Greco painting.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Yes, and the original score of Mozart's Magic Flute that
would have been burned in nineteen forty two, and of
the Castle miniature that would have been lost at sea
in fifty two. I have them all here, stolen, no
bought with money from the year itself at a fair price. Well,
mister Weldon, I sent you back because I've needed someone
to work with me on a regular basis, someone who's
(15:56):
faster and more alert than the old people I've hired
up until now. I assume you're interested and we can
make our plans without my using this revolver.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Well, this one is a little hard to work out.
You see.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I got interested in this business because they found some
old people dead of malnutrition and thirty thousand dollars or
so tucked away in their pockets. They've been gone a
month or more. They had to eat during that time,
didn't they, And when they came back, the food disappeared
like my hamburger. It disappeared all at once, in one
fast joke. They starved to death.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
No, no, no, no, you don't understand. They just couldn't
take the field trends this show.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh no, you can't tell me that, because.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I know how hungry I am, and I was only
gone about twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
They were murdered. Get back.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You know they say, a hungry man gets pretty desperate.
You'll do almost.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Anything, but the.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
Look out the case the contacts.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
She fell into that cage and disappeared before she hit
the ground.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I didn't know what happened. I know she said the
field worked in a random action, whatever that meant. Lou
didn't believe the story. I told him, you.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Mean there won't be any more of them, No more
senile psychotics starving to death with a bank roll in
their hip pocket.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No more.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Lou I was wrong. There was one more case, and
perhaps it was the strangest one. A woman was found
wandering in Bryant Park just before she died of acute starvation.
The strange thing was she was young, not more than thirty,
(17:51):
and the other was that she had seventeen thousand dollars
stuffed in her pocketbook and a bullet wound in her
arm that the medical examiner said was at least two more. Oh,
I guess that's what she meant by random action.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Fred Collins speaking, and they'll have another word about X
minus one in a moment. As a child, Louise had
been a lonely orphan until the Harvey family came along
and took her into their home and into their hearts.
As Louise herself says, they gave me everything, including the
love I longed for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
They fed me and clothed me as if I were.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
One of their own, and I repaid them with treachery
and heartache. You'll wonder if Louise will be able to
repair the damage she's done to a group of splendid
people as you listen tomorrow to My True Story. My
True Story, complete drama every morning about people and their problems,
is one of radio's most popular morning programs. You'll hear
(19:07):
My True Story every weekday just before NBC Bandstand. So
remember My True Story for drama and NBC Bandstand for
music and lighthearted entertainment. Together they make a wonderfully varied
mornings listening every weekday on most of these NBC stations.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You have just heard X.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Minus one, presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation
with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, with this month features.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Share Alike by Daniel F. Gallugay.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
When the experts discovered a way to enable two objects
to occupy the same space at the same time, they
thought they'd solved the housing problem, but on the other hand,
they created an exasperating new one. Read it in Galaxy
Magazine on your new stand today tonight, X minus one
has brought you the old Die rich a story written
(20:00):
by H. L. Gold and adapted for radio by Ernest Cannoy.
Featured in our cast were Ralph Camargo as Mark Weldon,
Patrisha Wheel as May Roberts, Bill Zuckerd as Sergeant Pate,
and others in our cast were Harvey Hayes, Roger Dick Covin,
and Guy Repp. This is Fred Collin Speaking X minus
one was directed by George Botsas and is an NBC
(20:22):
Radio Network production. You'll be on the right line for
exciting nighttime entertainment when you hear Nightline Tonight over most
of these NBC stations.
Speaker 8 (20:44):
O
It's inviting you to listen in on the nightlife.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Tonight lived the incredible life of ages yet to come
in a time that might be a million years from now.
I'm X minus one now an incredible story of the
world beyond.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Come down for blast off X minus five four three
two x minus one Fire from the far horizons of
(01:03):
the unknown. Com tales of new dimensions in time and space.
These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
live in a million, could be years, on a thousand,
maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Galaxy
Science Fiction Magazine presents.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
He one one one Tonight They All Die Rich by H. L. Gold.
But first hear this Hello.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I'm draty Olsen, singing school teacher on NBC's big weekday
musical show Dance Dance. But right now I'd like to
talk to you parents. I'd like to ask you a
few questions. As you're getting ready to send your youngsters
back to school. Are you helping your child at the
most out of his school. Do you make his home
conditions favorable enough for him to do his home work?
(02:04):
You show an interest in his schoolwork, Remember your child's
success in school and later on in life depends to
a large degree on your attitude towards his schooling to day.
And there's another important thing. Everyone needs a good send
off in the morning, and that goes for children too.
Be sure your children have a substantial breakfast and a cheery,
(02:26):
good bride before they head for school each day. Remember
you can't expect your child to do it all himself.
Encourage you in his schooling, both in your attitude and
in your actions as he goes back to school this fall.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Now x minus one and to Night's story, they all
die rich, Doc.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
What did she die of? Not eating? Sergeant malnutrition?
Speaker 6 (03:02):
Oh look, Doc, in the top bureau drawer, she has
bank book showing thirty two thousand dollars in five different banks.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
She had the price of the meal malnutrition induced by
semile psychosis.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
They starve because they're less afraid of death than of
digging into their savings.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I don't know, Doc, doesn't feel right to me. Listen.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Well, then, just because you can get up on a
stage and play the part of some seventy year old geezer,
that doesn't qualify you as an expert on gerontology.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I just don't believe it. It isn't right. I don't feel it.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Well, Lucky for me, I don't have to feel these
things inside of me because I'm a doctor, not an actor,
nor an amateur detective. Pargeant malnutrition induced by senile psychosis.
I'll order the wicker basket from Bellevue.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
So long, barrymore. Well, he's right, Mark. We get a
couple of these cases every year.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
Some old bats starving to death with seventeen thousand dollars
in old bills pinned on his union suit turns up
all the time.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
It doesn't feel right. Well, Doc knows his biz, but
he doesn't no old people I do. I've gone to
a lot of trouble to study their habits.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It isn't easy to start to death. Hunger is a
pretty potent instinct. Yeah, but Mark, you can't argue with
the facts.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Were the five bank books thirty two thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
She took good care of them. I look almost new.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Let's see you pro twenty third, nineteen oh seven, deposit
of one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
The ink's pretty dark? Shouldn't it be faded? She probably
never took it out in the light. Anyone ever to
think of testing the ink.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
Oh, now, Mark, this is strictly against regulations. I've got
to take these books down to the squad room and
sign them.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
In pretty dark ink for nineteen oh seven. Well, it's
about five o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 6 (04:47):
I could hold them over tonight, bring them down with
the property click in the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
God, I know where I can find a chemist, mister Weldon.
There's no doubt of it. The ink sample is typical
of inks used fifty years ago. Nineteen seven would be
about right.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
But according to the amount of oxidation, it's fresh enough
to be only a few months old.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Well, couldn't that be the result of unusually careful handling?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yes, alget yes, I suppose it could.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
An air tight compartment, perhaps sealed with one of the
inert gases or a vacuum that might account for the
lack of normal aging.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Lou, you can't keep inert gases in a top bureau
drawer and a fourth floor walk up.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
Yeah, well, it's probably some simple explanation for.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Fresh ink half a century old.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Right after that, I got a television part that kept
me busy for about a month, and then Lou Pate
called me up and asked me to come down to BELvue.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Mark, is that you?
Speaker 7 (06:02):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
What's up? An old guy found.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
Wandering around down on Hester Street. He was suffering from malnutrition.
He had seventeen thousand dollars in cash inside the lining.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Of his jacket. He's alive, No not now he hasn't.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
Doc's got him in the room there, but he was
stumbling around when the cup on the.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Beat picked him up. Did he say anything just.
Speaker 6 (06:22):
Before he went out completely? He did say something, maybe
three or full of time?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
What was it? El greco? Do you mean the artist
of anything else? Lou, Yeah, it's nothing for me. But
we found the old guy's room and there was an
ad thumbtacked over the sink. Nothing unusual.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, oh here men and women wanted might work suitable
for old people. No reference was required. Now, why would
an old man with seventeen thousand and cash be answering
an ad like that? Yep, it was an old brown
(07:13):
stone house in the East eighties. I got in line
with the rest of the applicants. My face was lined
with Colodian wrinkles, and I wore an antique shiny suit
and run down shoes.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
There's a good makeup job.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I look more authentic than the rest of the old
time we're waiting for the interview.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I finally came up to where a woman was asking
the questions name Cournet, Louis Curnet, Curnet.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Do you have any references? Family?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
No, ma am, I haven't got any family. I had
a cursain in Shalt Lake City. I haven't seen him
in thirty years or more.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Er.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, I said, you didn't want no references. That's right.
Speaker 8 (07:55):
And now when you wait in the.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Other room, do I get the job? Man?
Speaker 8 (08:00):
Just wait in the other room.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
I shuffled into the other room and sat down to wait.
I'd planned to be dozing the way an old man would,
and so my eyes were closed. When I heard the
door close and I opened them. I was looking into
the barrel of a thirty eight revolver.
Speaker 8 (08:21):
Are you awake now, mister Weldon? Mum, I don't think
you need to carry on any more. If you need
any further convincing, you're Mark Weldon. You're about forty years old,
and you played the same character on television about six
weeks ago. You played it fairly well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Would you mind putting down the gun You've.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Been very busy recently trying to find out why senile
psychotics starved themselves to death.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
You know a great deal more about me than I
do about you.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I would be glad to enlighten you. My name is
May Roberts. I'm the daughter of the late doctor Anthony Roberts,
the physicist who was dismissed from the Brookhaven Atomic Energy
Laboratory five years ago.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
I assume you're connected with those starvation cases, or you
wouldn't have known that I was investigating them.
Speaker 8 (09:05):
Un Well, that's obvious, isn't it. I'm not afraid of
professional detectives, mister Weldon. They deal only with facts. But
I don't like amateurs. They guess too much, they don't
stick to reality. Consequently, they're likely to get too close
to the truth.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Unfortunately, miss Roberts, I'm nowhere near the truth. I haven't
the slightest idea how you're tied in with these starvation deaths.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Oh.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
I intend to show you, mister Weldon. I'm happy to
announce that you have the job.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Oh no, look all.
Speaker 8 (09:33):
Right, mister Weldon. Right ahead, if you please through that door.
It will take about five minutes for the field to
build up. Mister Weldon, please get in the caso there there.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
You mean that that wire cage go ahead? All right?
Speaker 8 (09:49):
All right now, I wouldn't advise moving now to Weldon.
The wire carries some ten thousand volts.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, now, look, miss Roberts, mister Welden, you.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Are curious and you could turn out to be a
great usance to me. As long as you've come this far,
we might as well both benefit by it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Benefit.
Speaker 8 (10:13):
Yes, on the floor, you'll find a set of envelopes.
There's a set of instructions in each. Follow them carefully.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I don't get it.
Speaker 8 (10:21):
You will use the envelopes in the order they are arranged.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Look, what's all this about it, mister Weldon?
Speaker 8 (10:27):
I meant it when I said this could be a
benefit to both of us. There's no use in my explainings.
You'll find out and don't try to escape. It can't
be done. All right now, the field generators are ready.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Now look, miss robertslutely must follow instructions, mister Weldon.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I flink I was standing outside a bank on a
sunny day in spring. The cars were square with black
radiars in the front. There was a trolley car passing car.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Suddenly I realized that the last trolley car stopped running
in Manhattan years ago.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I tried to figure it out. It was New York,
all right.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I recognize some of the buildings. First I figured it
must have been hypnosis.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Then I looked at the first of the envelopes in
my pocket. I read it and walked into the bank. Yes, sir,
how mister Golden tells me you wish to open an account.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yes, that's right, mm hmm. Well, you're very happy to
have a new depositor, very happy. Indeed, of course, you
realize the institution is in sound condition, very sound. You
needn't worry about all those rumors in this bank. No, sir,
Salid Salid, that's good now, then name Mark Weldon. You
have no address in the city at prison?
Speaker 9 (11:49):
Uh no, no, And you're depositing one hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
That's right, all righty, I'll just check the slip.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
One hundred and fifty dollars right the day May fifteenth,
of course, nineteen thirty one, I.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Went outside the bank and I stood there in the
spring sunlight and let the terror soak into me. The
impossibility of the entire situation was gnawing at the ages
of my.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Mind, and then suddenly I wasn't there. It was nineteen
thirty four, and I found myself in a broker's office.
Speaker 10 (12:28):
As I understand it, mister Weldon, you're buying this stock
for doctor Anthony Robbers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
That's right. I assume the stock will be in his name.
That's right. I'm just acting as agent. I follow instructions,
of course. Of course, are you sure I can't convince
you that you're making a mistake. No, No, these are
my instructions, mister Weldon.
Speaker 6 (12:47):
We are a reputable brokerage house, and I've been quite
shaky about putting.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Any client's money into this kind of security. Frankly, I've
seen no future in it.
Speaker 10 (12:57):
It's a rare metal for which there is very little
use for industrial papass.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
However, if your client is adam me, I have my
instruction serve very well.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
Then in the name of doctor Anthony Roberts, one hundred
shares a month and a uranium, oh well, veryon wise,
Most time wise, it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Went that way about fifty to fifty.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I'd deposit money in my own name in various banks
at various times, and then I'd buy a stock or
make a bet for May Roberts.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
On June twenty.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
First, nineteen thirty two, I bet Jack Sharky to take
the heavyweight title away from Max Schmelling. There was singing
Wood in nineteen thirty three at Belmont Park, and Max
Barrow were primo Carnera.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I went on skipping through the years like a flat
stone over water, touching here and there for a few
minutes to an hour at a time. It was in
early October nineteen thirty eight, about five hours after I
had left May Robert's house.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Before I realized what she had me doing. I was
making deposits and winning sure bets, just as those senile
psychotics had done. The ink of their bank books was
fresh because the entries in them were fresh. The ink
wasn't given a chance to oxidize. At the rate I
was going, i'd be back at my own time in
(14:23):
a few hours, with fifteen thousand dollars compound interest in cash,
to say nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Of those bets.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
But those old people had died of starvation in spite
of all that cash. Well, I was hungry, so I
got myself a hamburger and went out the door. When
I hit the sidewalk. It happened again.
Speaker 8 (14:51):
Don't touch the cake yet, miss Weld, and I'll have
to clear the charge.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Hey, what happened to my hamburger? What the hamburger? I
had it here, it's gone. I'm hungry.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Get you something to eat, mister Weldon before your next trip.
You's done pretty well for yourself.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Haven't you. Yes, yes, I have about fifteen thousand.
Speaker 8 (15:07):
You can come out now, but be careful. Don't touch
the contact. The field reacts on a random factor for
at least an hour after it's cut off. Hey, I
had ketch up on my sleeve. That's gone, mister Weldon.
I want to talk seriously with you. You've seen now
part of what I'm doing part. I've been able to
say things that would have been lost otherwise. I have
(15:28):
sent people back to find precious treasures that would have
been destroyed or would have disappeared.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Like an El Greco painting.
Speaker 8 (15:34):
Yes, and the original score of Mozart's Magic Flute that
would have been burned in nineteen forty two, and of
the Castle miniature that would have been lost at sea
in fifty two. I have them all here, stolen, no
bought with money from the year itself at a fair price. Well,
mister Weldon, I sent you back because I've needed someone
to work with me on a regular basis, someone who's
(15:56):
faster and more alert than the old people I've hired
up until now. I assume you're interested and we can
make our plans without my using this revolver.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Well, this one is a little hard to work out.
You see.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I got interested in this business because they found some
old people dead of malnutrition and thirty thousand dollars or
so tucked away in their pockets. They've been gone a
month or more. They had to eat during that time,
didn't they, And when they came back, the food disappeared
like my hamburger. It disappeared all at once, in one
fast joke. They starved to death.
Speaker 8 (16:33):
No, no, no, no, you don't understand. They just couldn't
take the field trends this show.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Oh no, you can't tell me that, because.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I know how hungry I am, and I was only
gone about twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
They were murdered. Get back.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You know they say, a hungry man gets pretty desperate.
You'll do almost.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Anything, but the.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
Look out the case the contacts.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
She fell into that cage and disappeared before she hit
the ground.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I didn't know what happened. I know she said the
field worked in a random action, whatever that meant. Lou
didn't believe the story. I told him, you.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Mean there won't be any more of them, No more
senile psychotics starving to death with a bank roll in
their hip pocket.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No more.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Lou I was wrong. There was one more case, and
perhaps it was the strangest one. A woman was found
wandering in Bryant Park just before she died of acute starvation.
The strange thing was she was young, not more than thirty,
(17:51):
and the other was that she had seventeen thousand dollars
stuffed in her pocketbook and a bullet wound in her
arm that the medical examiner said was at least two more. Oh,
I guess that's what she meant by random action.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Fred Collins speaking, and they'll have another word about X
minus one in a moment. As a child, Louise had
been a lonely orphan until the Harvey family came along
and took her into their home and into their hearts.
As Louise herself says, they gave me everything, including the
love I longed for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
They fed me and clothed me as if I were.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
One of their own, and I repaid them with treachery
and heartache. You'll wonder if Louise will be able to
repair the damage she's done to a group of splendid
people as you listen tomorrow to My True Story. My
True Story, complete drama every morning about people and their problems,
is one of radio's most popular morning programs. You'll hear
(19:07):
My True Story every weekday just before NBC Bandstand. So
remember My True Story for drama and NBC Bandstand for
music and lighthearted entertainment. Together they make a wonderfully varied
mornings listening every weekday on most of these NBC stations.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
You have just heard X.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Minus one, presented by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation
with Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, with this month features.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Share Alike by Daniel F. Gallugay.
Speaker 4 (19:38):
When the experts discovered a way to enable two objects
to occupy the same space at the same time, they
thought they'd solved the housing problem, but on the other hand,
they created an exasperating new one. Read it in Galaxy
Magazine on your new stand today tonight, X minus one
has brought you the old Die rich a story written
(20:00):
by H. L. Gold and adapted for radio by Ernest Cannoy.
Featured in our cast were Ralph Camargo as Mark Weldon,
Patrisha Wheel as May Roberts, Bill Zuckerd as Sergeant Pate,
and others in our cast were Harvey Hayes, Roger Dick Covin,
and Guy Repp. This is Fred Collin Speaking X minus
one was directed by George Botsas and is an NBC
(20:22):
Radio Network production. You'll be on the right line for
exciting nighttime entertainment when you hear Nightline Tonight over most
of these NBC stations.
Speaker 8 (20:44):
O
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