Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we
are going to be bringing you Cloak and Dagger. But
first I do want to encourage you, if you are
enjoying this podcast, to please follow us using your favorite
podcast software and to listen to all of our Great
Adventurer series. Please subscribe to the Great Adventurers of Old
Time Radio at Great Adventures dot info. Now, this episode
is going out on the Great Detectors of Old Time
Radio podcast feed, and we'll kind of discuss the future
linking of these series and dlinking. But first let's go
ahead and talk about the series we'll be bringing you Cloak.
Speaker 2: And Dagger now.
Speaker 1: Cloaking Dagger is a series based on a book about
the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services. These stories are
based on true life incidents that happened during the war
and it is really a great contrast of the spectrum
of programs that we can feature on this podcast. That
our first episode is the far out adventures of Flash
Gordon on Planetmongo, and then our second series is a
grounded story of real life adventure. The original air date
is May the seventh, nineteen fifty. Here now is Frank
Baker's story.
Speaker 3: You're about to hear a new NBC presentation, Cloak and Dagger,
program number one in ninety minutes of continuous mystery and
suspense on NBC. Following Clock and Dagger, stay tuned for
high adventure, then listen to The Big Guy, NBC's new
unique mystery series. But first, Clock and Dagger.
Speaker 4: Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission for the
United States knowing in advance you may never return alive?
Speaker 5: What you have just heard is a question asked during
the War of agents of the OSS. Ordinary citizens who,
to this question answered yes. We have the honor at
this time to present a former OSS officer, co author
of the book Cloak and Dagger, upon which this series
is based, Colonel Corry Ford.
Speaker 2: Thank you. OSS.
Speaker 6: The Office of Strategic Services was America's top secret intelligence
agency during the war. It was this country's first all
out effort in black warfare, dropping undercover operators behind enemy lines,
organizing local partisans to blow bridges and dynamite tunnels outwitting
the best spy systems of Europe and Asia. The success
of OSS is known, but the story behind that success,
the story of the everyday average Americans of every race
and creed and color, who risk their lives, knowing all
too well that if they were caught, they would face
torture and probably death. It's what Alistair McBain and I
have tried to tell in Cloak and Dagger. We feel
it is a story in which every American can take
deep pride.
Speaker 3: The National Broadcasting Company takes you behind the scenes of
a war that nobody knew.
Speaker 2: This is Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 7: My name is Friedrich Schmidt and a German soldier. I
have a medical discs judge from the Army.
Speaker 2: I was in the two hundred sixtyeighth Infantry Division.
Speaker 8: My family was killed in an air raid near Berlin.
Speaker 7: My name is Friedrich Schmidt. I'm a German soldier. Repeat
it over and over again so I won't forget. My
name is Friedrich Schmidt. Ah, where did I go wrong?
Where did I go wrong?
Speaker 9: Sink back and remember from the beginning everything the colonel
told me to remember.
Speaker 4: Remember, Frank, from now on you'll be Friedrich Schmidt, German soldier.
You have your military pass forged signatures of adjutants, hospital certificates,
ration coupon permit to travel.
Speaker 9: You know what to do, yes, Colonel Carl, and I
parachute behind the enemy lines in Austria. We radio back
information on the strength and location of German troops around Innsbruck.
Speaker 4: You realize there will be no help from headquarters, no
contact waiting for you below.
Speaker 9: Well, Sir Carl knows the country and his sister is
still living there.
Speaker 4: I needn't tell you the risk you're taking. Of course,
you'll land in American uniform, so in case you're picked
up immediately, you'll be treated as prisoners of war. However,
later if you're caught out of uniform in enemy country,
I think I know what to expect, sir. All right,
then that's one more thing. The information we're after is vital.
The Third Army is closing in fast and we must
know what's ahead for them. I'll expect your first message
in ten days.
Speaker 2: You'll have it, sir.
Speaker 9: Oh and by the way, Colonel, yes, I don't forget
to have that package mail to Rhode Island for me
next month. It's my father's birthday. Cigarette Frank, Thanks.
Speaker 2: Carl. I uh hey, so what is it about Lisel,
about your sister?
Speaker 4: About her?
Speaker 2: You haven't seen her for over five years.
Speaker 9: Over six years, Well, six years is a long time.
Speaker 2: Let's ask get ready to jump? What did you want
to ask about Lisa?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 2: Nothing, forget it? Ready number one? Ready, Yeah, i'll see
who donstairs Ready two? Ready? Good luck?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 7: Oh.
Speaker 2: I heard the crack of the parachute as it snapped open.
I looked down.
Speaker 9: I saw a patch of snow in the valley, spreading
wider and wider in the moonlight, like a lot of
milk spilled on the kitchen table. And I thought of
Carl's sister and the question. I didn't have the courage
to ask.
Speaker 2: You. All right, Frank, Yeah, I'm okay. Well we made
at first step. Yeah, you got everything already? All right?
Does checked it? Nothing broke?
Speaker 7: Good?
Speaker 2: Mh there it goes to grain. Yeah, heading back, he's gone,
let's go.
Speaker 10: Well, it's dark. Sun starting to come up.
Speaker 2: Keep that keeper on you. There'll be people on this
road soon.
Speaker 9: What do you think about that sun? Well, astronomers must
be nuts. That can't be the same sun I used
to see back in Providence.
Speaker 2: Maybe it decent't.
Speaker 11: Love moon nnge love moon Nindy? Enough you started, Morgan started?
Speaker 9: What is that you've been singing that for hours? What
is that a kid's lullaby?
Speaker 2: Eh? I made it tough. Oh made it up police her.
When she was a little girl.
Speaker 8: I used to sing it to sleep with it, Oh, Frank.
Speaker 2: Yeah. On the plane.
Speaker 12: Before we jumped, there was something you wanted to ask
me about her?
Speaker 2: What was it?
Speaker 13: Be?
Speaker 2: Comes a cart? Watch your cake? Don't like the wind?
Blow it? Yeah?
Speaker 14: Hitler, good Morgan Poland? How many killer mates until the
railroad station? I don't die, don't get sar.
Speaker 9: You got only two more? This rucksack way is a tone.
There's no standing room on that train. I hope are
on too many German officers. You know one thing I
like about European trains, But these little compartments I'd just
as soon be closed up in here until we get
where we're going.
Speaker 12: We've got to get rid of these American uniforms, Frank,
as soon as possible.
Speaker 9: Well, we just have to find two obliging German soldiers
who'll be willing to give up theirs.
Speaker 8: That's obliging. They are not so far.
Speaker 9: They've been whet us have a nice compartment all to ourselves,
and there's no guarantee that let us.
Speaker 4: Keep it that way, you know, doctor tribal identification now right,
hope those papers are good.
Speaker 2: Fortune better be.
Speaker 9: Bentlemen, your identification travel permit, yeahspector.
Speaker 2: Hmm, now yours if you please?
Speaker 8: Helload now here you are? Yeah, here your.
Speaker 4: Papers chload now you seemed to be another. Don't be sure.
How much longer do we get there? About thirty minutes?
Think he was suspicious fall he.
Speaker 12: Didn't tact it just the same if anyone else comes,
if you have to take off your keep, taking off
in one motion your jacket with it, you might get
away with a.
Speaker 9: Khaki shirt and luxe held out so far, maybe nobody
will come.
Speaker 2: Let's hope. So here comes company, there comes trouble.
Speaker 9: May I share your compartment, gentlemen, Yeah, yeah, of course
here hap man.
Speaker 2: He's stuffy in here. Why don't you remove your keeps?
Speaker 8: Well, it was so cold and this country where both
of us just back from there.
Speaker 9: Hey, we'll take us time to thaw out. Join me
in some snaps. Gentlemen, Thank you, thank you, I said, Actually.
Speaker 2: Traine hire the two stuff or two drafty. They're all
badly on down since the war.
Speaker 9: You oh my, now or much fin remove your capes
hyperspile looking at you. Well, go on, take them off.
The helped Runner's right. It is hot better, much better?
Are you going to Southburg? No instinct, Sure you must
forgive me. Perhaps it's the heat, perhaps too much of
his bottle. I'm going to stretch out in the empty
compartment next door. I'd appreciate it if you, gentlemen, would
wake me when we get off at your station. But
I will be happy to you well, and I see
you again.
Speaker 2: You'll see me again and soon. Frank wait here with
the radio. What are you going to do?
Speaker 8: Our friend was warm.
Speaker 2: I'll help him up by relieving him of his uniform.
Speaker 8: No, Carl, No, I'll find his body before we get
to insane.
Speaker 2: They'll find it on the road.
Speaker 9: But two days from now, No, Carl, you can't take
that wrist. One of us in German uniform would help.
Wait here, Carl, kindly raise your hands. I was not
so drunk as either of you thought. It's too bad
about your plane. An unfortunate accident.
Speaker 2: He failed on the tree. A pity.
Speaker 9: It was as if I were standing three feet behind myself,
watching myself knocked the luger out of his hand. Watch
my fingers go around his throat. He gave a few
convulsive jerks, and then he was still. In his hand
he held a button he had ripped from my shirt.
For some reason, I reached down and I took it
from him. The next few minutes I worked fast. The
train was slowing down. I stuffed my uniform into the
rucksack where the radio was and borrowed his.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a perfect fit.
Speaker 9: That German uniforms never are, and this German wouldn't be
needing his anymore.
Speaker 2: I opened the door of the compartment for the second
time that day, jumped.
Speaker 9: To German soil thick slowly. Now somewhere from that moment on,
I made the mistake. Where did I go wrong?
Speaker 8: Where did I make that mistake?
Speaker 15: You've made a mistake, allogtment. My brother is not in Austria.
Speaker 2: Please listen to me.
Speaker 9: Karl was with me, We were both coming here together
before the accident on the train.
Speaker 15: You're mistaken. My brother is not in Austria.
Speaker 9: Pleasel, I'm taking a chance coming here at all. I
only have Karl's word that you'll help me.
Speaker 15: My brother is not in Austria.
Speaker 8: Look, I'm tired, I'm hungry, Weazel or Karl.
Speaker 15: There's not much to eat? Some bread and some soup.
So down, I'll bring it to you.
Speaker 9: I watched Karl's sister as she went over to the stove.
She was small and dark, and her hair was cut
short and brushed back. It was fine, like soft baby hair.
I felt so tired I wanted to brush my face
against it.
Speaker 15: Here's your soup, dak a shirt. There's more on the
pot if you wanted. I'll be back.
Speaker 2: Where are you going?
Speaker 15: Someone you might like to meet, the contact, I'll get him.
Stay indeed, I'll be right back. I see you've finished
the soup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope it is not all you have.
Speaker 15: Oh no, no, no, it's all right.
Speaker 2: Where's your friend friend?
Speaker 15: Oh you mean he's coming.
Speaker 9: He's coming soon, Karl said, you'd be in touch with
the Austrian Protestants.
Speaker 8: I need help, Liesel, I need all the help I
can get.
Speaker 15: My friend should be here any minute. I think i'll
wash the dishes now. Since everything around isn't such as odd.
Speaker 16: I.
Speaker 15: Like to keep some order about myself.
Speaker 2: Here, I'll wipe your mind.
Speaker 15: It's a life.
Speaker 2: Why does this seem so funny?
Speaker 9: Rock? What's happened to the world when you start taking
the crazy things for granted and the ordinary things seem
out of tune with the rest of the living. Like
watching a woman doing the dishes, helping her.
Speaker 15: You don't seem tired anymore.
Speaker 9: No, I feel fine now fell.
Speaker 2: Noon nine noon nine, Nah, this dah.
Speaker 15: How did you know that song?
Speaker 2: Carl? Carl was singing it?
Speaker 16: Oh my god, Liezel, what is it?
Speaker 2: You're pail as a ghost.
Speaker 15: I didn't know. Oh I didn't.
Speaker 2: You didn't know. What what are you talking about?
Speaker 15: The stop was coming. I told him you were here.
Speaker 2: What did you say?
Speaker 15: The commandant he suspected me for a long time, but
he's had no proof. I thought he he had sent
you to trick me. I was afraid.
Speaker 2: Are you telling me the truth? Are you telling me
the truth?
Speaker 17: Now?
Speaker 2: Shake it out of you.
Speaker 15: You've got to trust me. You have no one else
to turn to.
Speaker 16: Now you've got to trust me.
Speaker 15: Oh, you've got to trust me.
Speaker 2: I want to kill you.
Speaker 15: Listen to me. You can get out of the back
door out if you want, but don't know. You won't
get father. Oh you better go down there to the
cellar and trust me.
Speaker 2: I have no choice.
Speaker 15: Quick that door.
Speaker 2: It leads to the cellar.
Speaker 16: Go quickly, my brother in a minute.
Speaker 2: Kah, well, where see gone gone? What do you mean gone?
Speaker 15: I try to keep him here. I couldn't without arousing
his suspicion, so I uh, well, you asked me not
to do that. Remember, I'll go on. Well, it was
only passing through. He said he had a friend in
the mountains in a hat. In the mountains, he told
me where it was.
Speaker 18: You will take us then, Now, of course, sergeant, just
follow me, run up.
Speaker 2: The men come along after you. Lisen, I needn't tell you.
You're doing a great service for the fatherland.
Speaker 15: Take your hands of me.
Speaker 19: I've given en approof of my loyalty.
Speaker 4: Yes, any word from Frank or Carl. Yet no colonel, nothing,
no something hit a snag. It's been twelve days since
they jumps.
Speaker 2: Let me know something.
Speaker 4: Here's something now three forty five Brooklyn. Ah, well, that's it, Brooklyn.
That's the code name. Thanks coming to clear is.
Speaker 2: Loud forty three forty five, Come over, Dodger to Brooklyn.
We hear you over.
Speaker 20: Average fourteen inches snow fall nightly.
Speaker 2: Take this down.
Speaker 4: Average fourteen trains a night being assembled carrying sugar to Dixie,
carrying supplies to Southern German.
Speaker 2: Fold snow jamming Grand Canyon.
Speaker 4: All trains rooted by Borilberg tunnel juniors gaining weight over there,
a gathering strength.
Speaker 2: The corporal.
Speaker 4: Let me at that radio, dodge to the Brooklyn, making
this fast, sending it in clear impellative. Learn within two
weeks this condition of all airborne troops and units within
your area.
Speaker 2: Good night, good luck.
Speaker 9: Over, welcome, keep the home fires burning, good night, over
and out. Well that's the first one, Liesel, They got it.
I haven't got much time, you heard him, just two weeks.
Speaker 15: Oh, don't worry, we'll have the information.
Speaker 2: How nice it must be to be Liesel, so confident,
so cool and sure.
Speaker 15: But I'm not. I'm afraid. I don't sleep at night.
I'm afraid all the time. Oh ready, Liesel.
Speaker 9: From the night I first came there and crawled into
the corner of that damp cellar while she led the
Gestapo on a merry chase through the mountains, Lisel and
I worked hard. My radio area was set up, hidden
lost in a massive clothes lines. Together we rounded up
Austrian partisans.
Speaker 8: Where did I go wrong?
Speaker 2: You are Lisa's cousin Freddy ya Hair Commandant, I am
Liesel's cousin.
Speaker 15: Would you would you like some wine? Commandant?
Speaker 18: I didn't know Lisal had a cousin from Billy. We
knew she had a brother, Karl. Lisa and I never
mentioned Carl her Commandant. We're loyal Nazis host first. I
suppose she told you what happened to her a few
days before you came.
Speaker 15: Some more wine, Commandant, I haven't.
Speaker 2: Finished this class yet, Lisa, you seem nervous.
Speaker 15: What's such an honor having new visitors here?
Speaker 18: You know, Helloyd, your little cousin, has been much nicer
to me lately. I tried to convince her for some
time that there are advantages to.
Speaker 2: Being friendly with the right people.
Speaker 18: I suppose she told you about the American spy who
came here over a week ago.
Speaker 2: I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 15: I'm not sure what he was. He was in German uniform,
and he may have been a deserter.
Speaker 2: Possibly.
Speaker 18: In any case, we had a long search for nothing
that night. We found no trace of him. You say
you have a medical discharge, e Lleutenant.
Speaker 9: Ye, I had commandants. The rest of my family was
bummed out in Berlin. I had no place to go,
no one else to come to, so I came here
a strictly a matter of regulations. May I see your papers?
Your papers, said Lloydman.
Speaker 2: I have them here, are you? Ah? Yes, hm.
Speaker 15: Hm hm hm.
Speaker 18: You know he Lloydnant. This is the first time I've
seen one of these build out correct. Thank you for
the white Lisa, with your permission, I've come back again.
Speaker 20: Brooklyn to Dodger Heavy shipman of pianos to Dixie, Brooklyn
to Dodger. Bricklayers Union schedule Heavy meeting in Dixie.
Speaker 2: Brooklyn to Dodger.
Speaker 13: Maybe slight delay.
Speaker 2: All team will travel over and out.
Speaker 4: What's the matter, Conel? They must be closing in on him.
Home team will travel. That means he's got to move
the radio.
Speaker 15: I'm going with you, Freddy.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, you're not lethal. You're going to stay here.
If we both leave.
Speaker 9: When I moved the radio, Gubner is sure to be suspicious.
You go to Fritzheimer, tell him to send a courier
to the other town. Tell him I'll be there tomorrow night.
Speaker 15: All right, anything you say here, let me sew on
that button for you.
Speaker 2: No, sorry, I'll do it. If my mind off things.
Speaker 15: You're tired, you work too hard. If the Allied Army's
eye as close as you think, maybe it'll all be
over soon. I'll be back.
Speaker 17: H m hmmm, hmmmm, Lizzle, Oh, forgive me for just
walking here and Helloyd none good evening her come in
down door of a sudden, La, It's all right here, Commandad.
Speaker 2: I was just passing.
Speaker 18: I wanted to say hello to your little cousin. Invited
to dinner at my house tomorrow night. You think perhaps
she will come this time?
Speaker 2: Perhaps her comment dands, Women are never very easy to figure.
You're right there. What are you doing that? Did me
interrupt you? Oh? Just this button?
Speaker 18: It came off, So I see, m h Army training
is so valuable. It teaches you so many things, even
sewing on the button. I'll tell Lisa you were here.
That's very blanching of your only. I believe you will
not be in a position to take her anything I said.
You have made, just the little slip I have been
waiting for you to make. You are under arrest, Schmidt.
Speaker 7: Some of the things to remember it an American cigarette
could give me away in English match laund remarks and clothing,
cut them out, patch them up and hurled, yes, yes,
now I know where I made the mistake the button.
Speaker 9: Americans saw them on in crisscross Europeans in parallel. I
was nervous and I forgot the button, and Governor saw me.
Speaker 2: You come with me.
Speaker 21: You are wanted for more questioning. Your name, your objective?
Speaker 2: Who sent you?
Speaker 21: Where are the American armies? My name is Frederick Smith.
Speaker 2: Your name coming down? Passed? Your name? Your objective? You're objective?
Who sent you? Who sent you? Where are the American armies?
My name Friedrich Schmidt. I'm a German soldier. God throw
him back in his cell.
Speaker 13: Sneak tried to sleep.
Speaker 2: Remember to lie when they come to take me out
again for questioning. Wonderful Lisel, get away.
Speaker 22: You're going on a journey, Schmidt, to another camp where
they have even more persuasive ways of making you talk.
Speaker 2: I shall escort you there myself.
Speaker 22: My name is Get up, I said, get up, driver,
stop with that tavern on the right I had coming.
Speaker 2: Then it's a pitty Schmidt.
Speaker 18: We shall share no more wine and little cakes with Lisa.
I have something else in store for Liesel. When I
catch up with her.
Speaker 22: A cousin. That'd be only a few minutes. Driver, You're
not to speak to the prisoner while I'm gone, you understand, Yeah?
Speaker 12: Heah, come and done, Frank, listen. He won't catch up
with Lisa because she's with friends. You think a little
fall from a train could kill me? Googener wants to
know what the American armies are. You'll find out soon enough.
It was your messages, Frank, that brought them here here.
Speaker 2: I don't believe.
Speaker 12: I listen to me, You listen to me. Armies walked
right into that Dixie front. You told them about your messages.
Right now, they're only twenty miles north. I've got fifteen
hundred partisants organized, and elitis are of the whole towne
in the may.
Speaker 2: When they get there, it's a possible scene. How did
you listen?
Speaker 12: At the next fork at the road, there are friends
waiting to take us through to the army, the three
of us, three of us. Yes, I imagine you have
a few scars to settle on the way with her, Goopner.
Speaker 4: It wasn't coincidence, but a forged transfer that made Carl
driver of that car. It wasn't luck, but carefully planned
inside information that told the OSS exactly where Frank Baker
was that led to his release that closed the drawer.
Finally on file number two two one eight with the
words mission accomplished and Carl's story Carl's Adventures also based
on actual incidents his file number two two one nine
in next weeks Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 5: In today's True Oss Adventure, the part of Frank was
played by Joseph Julian Ross Martin was Carl. The Commandant
Barry Kroger Raymond Edward Johnson played the Colonel Bernard Pollock.
Speaker 2: The corporal Dally has played Leesel. This has been a
Lewis G.
Speaker 5: Cowen production under the supervision and direction of Sherman Marx.
Material heard on today's program was based on the book
Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alastair McBain. The
script was written by Winnifred Wolf and the music was
under the direction.
Speaker 2: Of John Gart. This is Carl Weber speaking.
Speaker 3: I've heard the first of your new NBC Sunday Afternoon Mysteries.
Stay tuned now for high adventure, thrilling stories of action
and suspense. Then be sure to hear the Big Guy
an exciting and different kind of detective. Now keep tune
for number two and NBC's new Sunday Afternoon mystery lineup.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. A great spionage story with a surprising twist
with Carl turning up alive. Now I'd love to know
how he got there and what happened to him. But
a last that particular episode of Cloakndagger is lost. But
I think this particular story stands alone. I'll have to
read the book because I'm getting that. In fact, I
probably should have bought that before we started the series
as an episode. It's a great start to the series.
You have some of the best radio talent in New
York here, including Joseph Julian, who is just an absolute
stalwart of the New York radio acting community. He did
a lot of work in the science fiction series produced
by NBC in New York, and we heard him on
Great Detectives so many years ago in Call the Police,
and of course we heard Carl Weber aka Inspector Thorne
and the substitute mister Chameleon as our narrator. This is
a tremendous series with some really big twist such as
him getting accidentally reported to the Gestapo and having to
try to find a way around that. And then of
course the detail that really got him was the button,
which was a note catch by the commandant, but an
understandable mistake given the situation he was in. It's really
hard to keep track of everything. So again, a really
good start to this series. It is an anthology series.
We will hear different actors and different characters each week.
Now I should say we have nineteen more episodes of
Cloak and Dagger to go through. What you can expect
is that you're going to have a series like this
which would have been categorized as mystery but don't really
fit under the Great Detectives umbrella. They may have been
the type of thing I said, no, I'm not going
to play that. So after this we will bring you Counterspy,
and then you'll have the intrigue and mystery of the
Voyage of the Scarlet Queen, which will be coming to
you probably in a few years. And we will also
be playing some anthology programs in between different series, and
maybe if we've got a really long run, we might
take a break of a couple of weeks from a
particular series and the anthology programs will be things like
radio adaptations of films that would fit into that same
sort of category. And we're kind of doing it this
way to promote the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio
on Great Detectives in a consistent way. So we will
be playing the adult adventure series on the Great Detectives feed,
cross posting that for the foreseeable future, with the other
series being only posted on the Great Adventurers feed. At
some point, my hope is that the Great Adventurers will
grow large enough, have enough subscribers and downloads that we
can kind of decouple the two podcasts, and then at
that point the Great Adventurers will go off into some
other directions. Like one thing that we will do once
that happens will be the Scarlet Pimpernel, which I don't
think really fifths but will be a lot of fun
to do. And so I'm looking forward to starting this
Great Adventurer and that will actually do it for today.
Now for the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, the
regular lineup resumes on Monday with the Adventures of the Falcon.
For those of you who want to find out what
happens next with Flash Gordon, be sure to subscribe to
the Great Adventurers of Old Time radio podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts from. From Boise, Idaho, this is
your host, Adam Graham, signing off.