Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment,
Speaker 1: email it to me Box thirteen at Greatdetectives dot net,
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one
Speaker 1: of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash Radio Detectives. Well,
Speaker 1: before we do get started, I do want to encourage
Speaker 1: you to pick up your copy of All I Needed
Speaker 1: to Know I learned from Dragnet. We examine bluff lessons
Speaker 1: from seven more great fictional detectives and police officers, including Poirot,
Speaker 1: Frank Cannon, Jarny Dowler, and of course Sergeant Joe Friday.
Speaker 1: The book is available as an ebook in every major
Speaker 1: ebook store and also it stored on Great Detectives dot Net. Well,
Speaker 1: now it's time for today's episode of Philip Marlowe the
Speaker 1: original air date March the twenty first of nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: and the Toddle the Deep Shadow.
Speaker 2: Get this and Get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road,
Speaker 2: and those who travel had wind up in the gut
Speaker 2: of the prison of the grave. This time of bride
Speaker 2: to be a copse in a plush bungalow and a
Speaker 2: southern trawl behind a gun. All had one thing in common.
Speaker 2: They moved through the same Deep Shadow. It happened like this.
Speaker 3: From the pen of Raymond Chandler, outstanding author of crime fiction,
Speaker 3: comes his most famous character in the Adventures of Philip Marlowe. Now,
Speaker 3: with Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe, we bring you
Speaker 3: tonight's exciting story, The Deep Shadow.
Speaker 2: Hello, this is Philip marlow Please, this is Marlowe.
Speaker 4: Oh my name is Harvey Kettering and I'm to be
Speaker 4: married in four hours at nine Shops.
Speaker 2: Congratulations. I hope you'll be very happy.
Speaker 4: But my bride is gone, disappeared. I need your help now.
Speaker 2: Look if you've been left waiting at the oiler, I
Speaker 2: can no, no, no, it's nothing like that.
Speaker 4: She's in trouble, mister morlow I'm sure Shirley loves me. Now,
Speaker 4: I'll pay anything you say, two three hundred anything, only
Speaker 4: get out here fast please.
Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute. Where is here?
Speaker 4: Thirty eight forty sun Swept Drive. It's a studio city
Speaker 4: just across the coun from Hollyood thirty Canyon.
Speaker 2: Now look, mister Kettering, right, okay, okay, all right, mister
Speaker 2: Kettering I'll see it. The address he gave me turned
Speaker 2: out to be a healthy chunk of old Spain, a
Speaker 2: whitewashed house that spread out for at least one hundred
Speaker 2: yards under a pink tiled rule. I was admitted by
Speaker 2: a butler with our eyes no shoulders in a small
Speaker 2: bay window, and they followed the leader over a cool
Speaker 2: marble ankle, beat Persian rug and inlaid Philippine mahogany. Finally,
Speaker 2: I was ushered into the ballroom, which was big enough
Speaker 2: for a highlight match. It was decked out for a wedding,
Speaker 2: from the champagne buckets and dead over ice lobsters to
Speaker 2: a pink rose covered canopy at the center, and in
Speaker 2: the middle of it all chained smoking while he worried
Speaker 2: it was my new client, Hobby kettering.
Speaker 4: Oh, mister Mallow, I'm afraid there is no moment to lose,
Speaker 4: so I'd better tell you what I know quickly. But
Speaker 4: let's step outside on the patio, all right, mister Kettering,
Speaker 4: Miss Mollow. Last night, Chirley and I won a full name,
Speaker 4: mister Kenny Doyle. Shirley Doyle. Here here's a snapshot of her.
Speaker 4: She's twenty five, blonde and as you can see, mister Marlow,
Speaker 4: very attractive.
Speaker 2: Yes, so right you started? Tell me about last night.
Speaker 4: Oh, yes, we were out together at a nightclub, the
Speaker 4: blue Chip and Venturable. Of Yes, we'd never been there
Speaker 4: before yet I think that's where it started.
Speaker 2: What do you mean started?
Speaker 4: Well, when we were leaving the place about midnight, I
Speaker 4: called a cab. I was just giving the drive of
Speaker 4: Shirley's home address, the moor Park Court apartments, when suddenly
Speaker 4: she told me to get in and told the driver
Speaker 4: to start at once.
Speaker 2: You know why No.
Speaker 4: I thought perhaps she'd seen somebody coming from the club,
Speaker 4: but when I asked her about it, she said it
Speaker 4: was just her nerves. Since tomorrow is her wedding day.
Speaker 2: I see.
Speaker 4: Then today she was supposed to call, but she didn't.
Speaker 4: At two I called her. Oh she was gone, but
Speaker 4: I talked to the day maid, she said. When she arrived,
Speaker 4: she brought in a note that had been left outside
Speaker 4: Shirley's law. There's one of those lever message pads in
Speaker 4: a box on her portrail. She said. It seemed to
Speaker 4: upset Shirley terribly. Mister Mollow, what are we going to do?
Speaker 2: Look? Have you been over there to Shirley's place. No,
Speaker 2: I haven't got a key, Yes I do, all right,
Speaker 2: mister Kettering. You have the key, so let's go.
Speaker 4: But what should I do about the guests the.
Speaker 2: Nursing right now? We may be lucky.
Speaker 4: There are only three rooms, mister Marlow. What do you
Speaker 4: suggest we do?
Speaker 2: Well, first, let's look for that note. She may have
Speaker 2: left it here somewhere. You try the bedroom. I'll start
Speaker 2: with the waste basket full of papers, all right, yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: And the clinics, say, Kettering, what does Shirley do for
Speaker 2: a living?
Speaker 4: She was a receptionist, mister Marlow, with a medical clinic
Speaker 4: on run. I figure, miss Marlow. Mister Marlow, I found it,
Speaker 4: the note the maid spoke of. It's the same paper,
Speaker 4: written with a soft pencil, like the one attached to
Speaker 4: that box outside. It was on her dresser.
Speaker 2: Give it here, let's see it. Yeh, Shirley Doyle. Guess
Speaker 2: what I ran into last night? Francis Stragatto. It'sest to
Speaker 2: meet me at the corner of Ventura and WIT's at
Speaker 2: Boulevard at ten thirty.
Speaker 4: Not signed is Francis spelled with a knee.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The girl's name I've never heard Shirley mention, the Francis
Speaker 4: Stregatto and a public street corner wouldn't be much of
Speaker 4: a page to check five hours after people met, would it,
Speaker 4: mister Mallow?
Speaker 2: No, it's fun, mister What have you got?
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: A page torn out of the classified directory listing in
Speaker 2: theatrical agencies line threw by pencils made down the sea.
Speaker 4: The last one crossed out is Capital Artist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes Drake Talent Agency next.
Speaker 4: Well, she never had anything to do with show business,
Speaker 4: mister Marlow, What do you think it means?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Uh? You going to check with the Drake Agency?
Speaker 2: No, My first stop's going to be where you were
Speaker 2: last night, the blue Chip. I know the owner already cheft,
Speaker 2: and Eddie knows an awful lot, including things that aren't
Speaker 2: always exactly his business may be able to help us
Speaker 2: if he wants to.
Speaker 4: Should I come along with tomorrow?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: No, you go home kidding. I'll try to deliver a
Speaker 2: bride before nine.
Speaker 4: All right? Uh? Shall I pay you now? Now? Will
Speaker 4: let it go?
Speaker 2: Cod? I have the slightest idea what I'm going to
Speaker 2: run into the snapshot of Shirley Doyle my client had
Speaker 2: given me reminded me of the kid you went to
Speaker 2: school with. You know, she had the kind of well
Speaker 2: scrubbed look you knew was quick to smile, but I
Speaker 2: knew that she could be in a lot of trouble
Speaker 2: if she was tied in it all with a dapporady shaft.
Speaker 2: After Doc, the blue Chip was one of those cozy
Speaker 2: soft lights melting on thick drapes, kind of places made
Speaker 2: you forget all about the stiff prices for limp food,
Speaker 2: but now a little better than five in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: and the wide eyed, unblinking work lights had all the
Speaker 2: cushion come hither of a union hall. In one corner,
Speaker 2: a skinny musician with a golf ball complexion was working
Speaker 2: over a clarinet, while in the middle of a dance
Speaker 2: floor was no more diameter than the hole in a
Speaker 2: candy lifesaver. A girl was standing on a piano stool.
Speaker 2: She was smoking and looking straight ahead at nothing. A
Speaker 2: red shingled hair, promise of a nose and plunged neckline
Speaker 2: tagged her as the singer on the posters outside one
Speaker 2: Miss Cocky in netherliness.
Speaker 6: The place is closed, soldier, you told me, never would
Speaker 6: have known, never mind the routine, Soldier, come to the point.
Speaker 7: What do you want?
Speaker 2: Just a few words with the bus Eddie round, No, no,
Speaker 2: he's not I about his bungalow and cold a canyon.
Speaker 7: You mean it hasn't hit the papers yet.
Speaker 2: What's the connection between Eddie and the headline?
Speaker 7: Soldier, Eddie was stabbed to death sometime this morning.
Speaker 2: You've gotta be kidding, sometime.
Speaker 7: Between nine and eleven A cups say no, so long?
Speaker 2: Hey, wait a minute, Wait a minute, cocky, Do you
Speaker 2: have any idea who did it.
Speaker 6: Except that maybe it was a day, any description on it?
Speaker 6: The law isn't gabby about things, Soldier. Believe me if
Speaker 6: you don't why it is bungalow yourself and find out.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, and morning, don't forget to have that finger
Speaker 8: for crook over his other car on that back porch rail.
Speaker 5: How gonna start the body downtown?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 8: I guess so. We're not going to get me the
Speaker 8: smartest staring at.
Speaker 2: I am Atthews?
Speaker 4: Oh hollow Phil?
Speaker 2: What brings you up here? Curiosity? I was in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: What's the setup here? It's supposed to be a woman
Speaker 2: could be Where do you wear this singer? Over at
Speaker 2: the blue Chip Cocky, Netherlands.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, well she's clear. She was home right up
Speaker 8: until noon, and she can prove it. This happened a
Speaker 8: little before noon, an hour or so.
Speaker 4: But it was a woman, all right.
Speaker 2: It makes you so sure, Oh, Phil fresh lips.
Speaker 8: They kind of glass in a cigarette, a kitchen knife
Speaker 8: for a murder weapon, et cetera. Also some long No,
Speaker 8: his neighbors saw a girl. Said she was young, maybe blonde.
Speaker 8: She wasn't sure. So I'll run out of here a
Speaker 8: little after eleven this morning.
Speaker 2: All this adds up to somebody in particular. Huh, well
Speaker 2: it should.
Speaker 8: Fill normal Mayetta? Who Normal Mayetta's her name was Eddie's theorist.
Speaker 8: You see, it should add.
Speaker 4: But it doesn't.
Speaker 8: She left town last night for Chicago when the one
Speaker 8: am plane.
Speaker 2: We checked it.
Speaker 8: Of course Eddie Shaft went with a lot of girls.
Speaker 5: Right, yeah, just got hold of that nightcasher over at
Speaker 5: the blue Chip.
Speaker 4: Yeah what you say?
Speaker 5: Money cheft took fifty bucks and small bills out of
Speaker 5: the office safe last night. Oh what time about two am?
Speaker 2: Had it in a large Manila antelope.
Speaker 8: Yeah, nothing even close to the minil envelopes turned up here,
Speaker 8: has it?
Speaker 5: No lieutenant, but that gives us another angle to shoot
Speaker 5: at all.
Speaker 8: Right, Money passed a word to the boys. Okay, look, Monol,
Speaker 8: just a passing thought. You're sure, you're just curious. You're
Speaker 8: sure you don't want to play one and one makes.
Speaker 4: Two with me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Lieutenant. Well, look i'll see I'll
Speaker 2: give you a call out.
Speaker 8: Wait a minute, Yeah, look, I know all about your
Speaker 8: professional ethics, you know, relations between client and private detective.
Speaker 4: We won't go into that.
Speaker 8: We're going to go into something else very briefly, Phil,
Speaker 8: You know, the law on many points is quite.
Speaker 2: Clear, Mallow clear, like what Matthews clear, Like the.
Speaker 8: Status of an accessory before or after the fact in
Speaker 8: a murder case, and like aiding and a betting a criminal,
Speaker 8: like a lot of things. You know all about film.
Speaker 2: Keep me in mind, will you, Okay Matthews, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: see it. Since the lieutenant hadn't mentioned Francis Draccato, I
Speaker 2: didn't see why I should, All of which made it
Speaker 2: a good time for me to cross my fingers and
Speaker 2: check the name which have been on deck on the
Speaker 2: list in Shirley's apartment. The Drake Talida to say the
Speaker 2: place which was on Sunset's trip was strictly coy Colonial
Speaker 2: from miliature Mount vernon front two an oversized mirror polished
Speaker 2: brass knocker on the front door that said my tie
Speaker 2: was cooked, and I was sure that the gentleman who
Speaker 2: entered the door noticed it. It was impeccable in cooco
Speaker 2: brown gabardine white hired the throat tab shirt and also
Speaker 2: coco brown, so tired and at the bottom there with
Speaker 2: thick soled cordvens with leather laces at the top of
Speaker 2: crew cut of a jet black horn rims. He took
Speaker 2: the glasses off and long soft fingers toyed with one
Speaker 2: stem while he talked. Yeah, sir, my name is Philip Marlo.
Speaker 2: I'd like to talk to mister Drake.
Speaker 4: I'm mister Drake. What was it you wanted? Mister Marlow?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not exactly sure you see I Hey Drake,
Speaker 2: this picture here is cocky and other ones right, the
Speaker 2: third one over.
Speaker 5: Yes, she's a client of ours, But this picture isn't
Speaker 5: what you came to talk about, is it.
Speaker 4: Mister Marlin?
Speaker 2: What's her home address? I beg your mind quick. It's
Speaker 2: important and confidential.
Speaker 4: This isn't a lonely high.
Speaker 2: I was playing a long shot when I knocked on
Speaker 2: your door, Drake, but now it's paid off. So tell
Speaker 2: me any stranger call for Cocky's address today?
Speaker 4: I don't know, and the secretary has already left. Look here,
Speaker 4: mister marlow.
Speaker 8: What's this all about?
Speaker 2: Murder? Mister Drake A messy one. Now do you give
Speaker 2: me the address it? Or I start after it myself? Well,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Come on, answer up, Drake.
Speaker 4: The towers an apartment Hoe.
Speaker 2: One last thing I call her after I leave, unless
Speaker 2: you want to if your handstitch, lapels and cops.
Speaker 3: In just a moment, the second act of Philip Marlowe.
Speaker 3: But first you might think that, after several years with
Speaker 3: Gracey Ellen, George Burns had seen everything, done everything, been everything.
Speaker 3: But this Wednesday Night you'll find George in a brand
Speaker 3: new role, that of a Flora Dora girl, with costume
Speaker 3: and complications by Gracey Ellen. The Burns and Allen Show
Speaker 3: has heard every Wednesday and most of these same CBS stations,
Speaker 3: along with The Bing Crosby Show and the Groucho Marx Program. Now,
Speaker 3: with our star Gerald Moore, we returned to the second
Speaker 3: act of Philip Marlowe and Tonight's story The Deep Shadow.
Speaker 2: I left the glossy mister Drake and his glossy little
Speaker 2: agency with his mouth hanging open, and drove down a
Speaker 2: Hollywood boulevard tou iyevar on. From there up the hill
Speaker 2: to a five story air conditioned monolith with Venetian blinds
Speaker 2: called the Towers Chopped about as much sanctuary as the
Speaker 2: Yankee Stadium. I parked heading downhill and walked in across
Speaker 2: the buzzing green and silver lobby Drake with pale pink
Speaker 2: curtains and blaise women to the elevator and rode up
Speaker 2: to the third floor Cocky Netherland's apartment, with the fourth
Speaker 2: down the Hall of the Right and quiet. But the
Speaker 2: door was a jar two inches, so I wrapped hard
Speaker 2: enough to swing it all the way open. The answer
Speaker 2: sounded like a cry for help from the bottom of
Speaker 2: a well. When it came again, I went in, and
Speaker 2: it took me a few seconds to realize that the
Speaker 2: noise was coming from my closet. And when I got
Speaker 2: it open, Cocky Netherlands railed out, looking like she'd been
Speaker 2: through a threshing machine. She was after the money, Who
Speaker 2: was after what money coffee? Who some dame?
Speaker 7: I didn't know her, but she who she is?
Speaker 2: Surely miss boyer? Wait a minute, it was Chirley Doyle.
Speaker 2: She'd been hiding inside near the door. She grabbed her
Speaker 2: handy oversized ash tray and let it fly. It us
Speaker 2: can't beat it. I made it to the hall just
Speaker 2: as the elevated door closed, so I took the stairs
Speaker 2: and raced it down to the lobby. I got out
Speaker 2: on the street in time to see Shirley, with a
Speaker 2: lodge Manil envelope in one hand, pile into a sleek
Speaker 2: New Hudson and take off. I ran in my car
Speaker 2: to follow over, but that was as far as I got.
Speaker 2: I was stopped, cold and nasty little gut in the
Speaker 2: hands of a Southern accent behind a pair of strictly
Speaker 2: Hollywood duck glasses.
Speaker 9: See a good boy, honey, and hold it?
Speaker 5: Sister?
Speaker 2: Who do you think you are?
Speaker 9: What do you ask the questions? If you don't mind,
Speaker 9: why are you in such your fuss over the girl
Speaker 9: who just made off.
Speaker 2: I was trying to get her out of a jam.
Speaker 5: Believe it or not, Well, now, isn't that the dawn?
Speaker 7: This coincidence?
Speaker 9: You ever saw so am I only you want to
Speaker 9: catch her and I wanted to get away. I guess
Speaker 9: that's life, isn't it, honey?
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the row and the row said it.
Speaker 9: We got big business together her and knee and it
Speaker 9: shouldn't include you.
Speaker 2: Just a minute, this adds like you could be Francis Dragato,
Speaker 2: which is who the Dragotto me?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 9: Oh, that name is much too fancy for the likes
Speaker 9: of me. Honey, I reckon, we can break it up now.
Speaker 9: So why didn't you just give me the keys there
Speaker 9: in your hand?
Speaker 4: My key?
Speaker 3: Come on?
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's good boy.
Speaker 9: Now, don't try anything silly, and don't fred Honey, I'll
Speaker 9: eat your car two or three blocks down the street here. Look,
Speaker 9: maybe you want to go back upstairs and console little
Speaker 9: sugar child up there. Maybe take it to a movie
Speaker 9: or something, you know, the cooler.
Speaker 2: All well, that's a nice fresh thrower.
Speaker 7: Unloaded with it.
Speaker 2: Try me again sometime so long, Dames, Someday I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get a case where there's no Dames connected, either directly
Speaker 2: or indirectly. Parking my car three blocks away, that's fine, fine,
Speaker 2: just fine? Hey, hey, going up, flow up, please, sir three?
Speaker 7: Did you catch your marlow. Did you get her?
Speaker 2: No? No, she got away, which leaves you and me
Speaker 2: cocky to make cozy conversation about I mentioned a dough.
Speaker 2: You slip down when I let you out of the closet.
Speaker 2: Come on back in the room, honey, what now? Look,
Speaker 2: you worked for Eddie Schaft as a singer in his club.
Speaker 2: But what else was Eddie to you beside boss?
Speaker 7: Just a minute, I don't see what business that is
Speaker 7: of yours.
Speaker 2: It's easy, it's easy. Was murdered.
Speaker 7: The cops have already talked to me, Soldier. I'm clean.
Speaker 2: Those negotiations can be reopened at any time. Well, one thing,
Speaker 2: you forgot to tell him anything about Doe. And yet
Speaker 2: they're very interested in fifty thousand missing bucks at fifty
Speaker 2: grand was right here in the apartment, wasn't it.
Speaker 7: Well you can't blame a girl for trying, Marty.
Speaker 2: Not unless she tries too hard. And what is the name?
Speaker 2: Francis tregado media, Francis tragotta? Okay, skip it, skip it.
Speaker 2: Where'd you get the dough?
Speaker 7: Eddie gave it to me? Keep flooring?
Speaker 2: Why you I thought Normamida had the inside track with.
Speaker 7: Eddie, not after he fell in love with me.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's not good enough, baby. There was a
Speaker 2: double cross? Where was it? I look cocky, you might
Speaker 2: as well be smart about it.
Speaker 6: Huh, all right, I didn't kill him, but if you
Speaker 6: can get that dough back for me, I'll split it
Speaker 6: with you right down the middle.
Speaker 2: I'm listening.
Speaker 7: That club of his is dying on its feet. The
Speaker 7: blue chip's going broke. Eddie and Norma.
Speaker 6: Ma Etta raised fifty thousand dollars to keep it going,
Speaker 6: but Eddie decided to get out for Monday. He got
Speaker 6: rid of Norma by sending it to Chicago and a
Speaker 6: chumped up deal, and he put all that cash in
Speaker 6: one lump and gave it to me to hold.
Speaker 7: We're gonna run out together.
Speaker 2: Only somebody got to him, nailed him, and that left
Speaker 2: you holding the bag with fifty grand in it. That's nice, septent.
Speaker 2: A girl that belongs and this messed like a great
Speaker 2: grandmother belongs in a high hurdle race stepped in and
Speaker 2: took it away from you with the help of a
Speaker 2: Southern accent in dark glasses. Who are you calling friend
Speaker 2: of mine a homicide? Why you sit down and shut up?
Speaker 2: So if I even lucky cocky. Don't push it, Matthews,
Speaker 2: Marlow Matthews listening that Eddie chef case. I got a
Speaker 2: couple of things you might be of help to you. Now, Look,
Speaker 2: I don't want that missing fifty grand is being sought
Speaker 2: after by a Southern accent in dark glasses, a woman. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and she pulled a gun on me. Item two. The
Speaker 2: name Francis Dragatto. It ties in d R A G
Speaker 2: O T T O ring any bells, That's what I said.
Speaker 8: Yeah, wait a minute, Oh yeah, yeah, I remember, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 8: but it's nothing. Mallow Graggatto Io was a third rate
Speaker 8: burglar shot and killed resisting arrest on the Sandbah district
Speaker 8: about five years ago, way back when I was a
Speaker 8: proud cossage.
Speaker 4: Look what about this to me?
Speaker 2: Grigatto have a wife? No, no, I think there was
Speaker 2: a daughter around named Francis.
Speaker 4: I don't remember that, good modo. Look what is this Gragatto?
Speaker 8: Is this anyway?
Speaker 2: Well, so far, it's a hunch, That's what I thought.
Speaker 4: Climb off of it and get down in facts, will you?
Speaker 4: Who was the name after that? Any cheft money? Where
Speaker 4: did you run into it?
Speaker 2: I lost her on Ivar.
Speaker 4: That's not what I asked you.
Speaker 2: I know that's not what you asked, but anything else
Speaker 2: will be a breach of my client's confidence.
Speaker 8: A right, look, model, I'm real serious. I'm gonna give
Speaker 8: you just one out and notify your client and get
Speaker 8: down here and spill.
Speaker 4: After that, I'm putting on a call to have you
Speaker 4: picked up for withholding evidence.
Speaker 2: Do you think, kidd in this time.
Speaker 7: You didn't say goodbye? That's quite a tight rope you walk.
Speaker 2: Mona yeah sometimes, oh good And I'm.
Speaker 7: A girl of my word. You get that money back
Speaker 7: for me, and it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2: No, my only chance, don't kidd no kidder, baby, you're
Speaker 2: a girl of two words. Double and cross. Good night, cocky.
Speaker 2: And I found my Carol right at half a block
Speaker 2: from Sunset Boulevard. It took twenty minutes to get from
Speaker 2: there to the Sandbar District. It was downhill all the way.
Speaker 2: It was a neighborhood squeezed and cramped in by a
Speaker 2: solid wall of massive factories and its fested as the
Speaker 2: bottom of a bent garbage can. At the corner of
Speaker 2: River Street and Third I found the house, three sagging,
Speaker 2: rotten stories of tenement that squatted in the eternal shadow
Speaker 2: of a huge gas tank, like a sick, dirty old man.
Speaker 2: The proud, gleaming giant of City Hall was only seven
Speaker 2: blocks away, might just as well have been seventy miles.
Speaker 2: I went up to the door and knocked, and finally
Speaker 2: it inched open, just far enough for a face the
Speaker 2: color of dishwater to peek out. She hissed at me
Speaker 2: for a minute through the gap where her front teeth
Speaker 2: should have been, and then told me she was Ma. Haggas.
Speaker 2: The manager motioned me inside. The living room looked like
Speaker 2: something swept out the back door of it down at
Speaker 2: the Hill Museum.
Speaker 10: So you want to know about the Dragodas.
Speaker 5: Huh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they lived here, didn't they?
Speaker 5: Maybe?
Speaker 10: Maybe not.
Speaker 2: Cops got the old man about five years ago. Possible,
Speaker 2: I became of his daughter. Where's Francis Dragotto? Why are
Speaker 2: you being so cagey about Ma?
Speaker 10: Because a verd that asks questions has got an angle, Allas.
Speaker 2: The one who knows the answer has got a price.
Speaker 10: Huh always.
Speaker 2: Okay, how far will a couple of bucks go.
Speaker 10: From here to the door? Two bucks won't even buy
Speaker 10: a buzz on beer these days.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll make it five here that's better.
Speaker 10: Well, dirt Grogoto and his kid. Francis had the second
Speaker 10: floor here for fifteen years. His wife died of TV
Speaker 10: first year they was here. Oh, she was a smart one,
Speaker 10: that Francis had a head on her. She always said
Speaker 10: she was going to get off the sandbar someday and
Speaker 10: be somebody.
Speaker 5: Oh.
Speaker 10: I told her she'd never make it. It's too far, mister.
Speaker 10: Kids down here get dirty, and it's the kind of
Speaker 10: dirt you can wipe off.
Speaker 2: It gets inside of myne No, tell me what happens
Speaker 2: to her.
Speaker 10: I don't know when her old man got it.
Speaker 4: She left.
Speaker 10: I never seen her again, not to this day. Probably
Speaker 10: left Holland wound up work on the gin meals in
Speaker 10: some other place. Well, you bought sight on the scenes, honey, tell.
Speaker 2: Me you got a picture of him.
Speaker 10: Yeah, as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2: I had good.
Speaker 10: She was seventeen at the time. It's kind of fuzzy,
Speaker 10: but you can see.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, mar are you sure this is Francis Stragotto.
Speaker 10: Hey, she lived in this dump for fifteen years. Out
Speaker 10: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: I know she looks like somebody else. Girl was supposed
Speaker 2: to get married tonight.
Speaker 10: I got another picture of Francis or someplace women a
Speaker 10: better one. Let me see now, yeah, here it is.
Speaker 10: This was took down on ola Vera Street. One of
Speaker 10: them stands, ooh, that's her best friend there with her, Norma.
Speaker 2: Maetta, Norma Mata.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 10: Norma was a tough littleg Folks drank all the time
Speaker 10: and let Norma run wild.
Speaker 2: Oh fine, Francis, Dracgotto and Norma Mata friends.
Speaker 10: I'll say them two was quite a team. I always
Speaker 10: wanted to do some for them girls. But what can
Speaker 10: you ever do in a hole like this for anybody?
Speaker 2: You've just done it. Ma here's five more by yourself.
Speaker 2: Another light bulb, throw a party with the change. It's
Speaker 2: a long The eyes of one young woman in the
Speaker 2: chin and mouth of another side by side, smiling into
Speaker 2: a camera. Had cleared up a lot of questions, but
Speaker 2: there was one more that needed an answer fast. I
Speaker 2: called Matthews from the first phone booth I came too,
Speaker 2: brought him up the date and a hurry, and then
Speaker 2: asked him to check normal I at his place. If
Speaker 2: that was blank, to meet me at the moor Park
Speaker 2: Court apartments, which was the only other likely place I
Speaker 2: could think of. I crowded traffic lights all the way out,
Speaker 2: but he and Sergeant Mooney got there almost as soon
Speaker 2: as I did, and I led them back to Francis
Speaker 2: Stregato as well as Cottage. But once she'd taken in
Speaker 2: her new name, Shirley Doyle only went to cover the
Speaker 2: back while Matthews and I moved in up front.
Speaker 8: The Hunches are playing off tonight, Mollo.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they're in here all right. Yeah, come on
Speaker 2: over this way.
Speaker 4: The window's open.
Speaker 2: We could catch a little conversation first, you know, it
Speaker 2: might help. Yeah, if you keep quiet, we can in Chicago.
Speaker 9: Thanks for your hell, Francis, Dear. Yeah, I had to
Speaker 9: get this money, no more than ever. You've got it,
Speaker 9: Norma for goodbye.
Speaker 11: Now that's stuff. Shirt you're gonna marry. I'll never know
Speaker 11: where you really came from or who you really are.
Speaker 11: Oh and one more thing, dear, before I go. I
Speaker 11: killed Eddie Scheff this morning, and he put me on
Speaker 11: the plane for Chicago. I figured something was fishy, so
Speaker 11: I got off and I came back and I found
Speaker 11: out he was selling me short for that little jerk Corky, Netherlands.
Speaker 7: He had an argument.
Speaker 12: I killed him.
Speaker 5: Then I remembered.
Speaker 7: Seeing you leave the blue Chip last night.
Speaker 11: I needed someone like you to get the money for me, Francis.
Speaker 11: I couldn't afford to be seen here in La when
Speaker 11: I was supposed to be in Chicago, not with a
Speaker 11: murder on my name.
Speaker 9: But you're worst scene by that man who chased me
Speaker 9: at the hotel.
Speaker 11: He's still looking for a southern droll and dark glasses.
Speaker 11: You're the only one who knows the truth.
Speaker 5: You're with me now.
Speaker 11: I'm not gonna let you invom me the murder norma
Speaker 11: getting that money with one thing, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 11: be mixed up in at killing. I don't care what
Speaker 11: I'm gonna tell a whole fool crisis. I got a
Speaker 11: good alibi for one murder, it'll work for two.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 10: Yeah, nobody is.
Speaker 8: Ill the girls, but police, you're not telling me. Come on, Mollo,
Speaker 8: I think she's dead.
Speaker 2: Lieutenant, you wouldn't stop.
Speaker 8: She was shooting at me. But she's a woman, all right,
Speaker 8: moning and gun on her hand. She was a killer
Speaker 8: and nothing more.
Speaker 2: I suppose she was. If you asked that kid inside,
Speaker 2: she could tell you what made it that way. Oh well,
Speaker 2: let's get out of here, Matthews.
Speaker 4: I I can't thank you enough, mister Moller, for bringing Shirley,
Speaker 4: that is France Dispeck to me safely.
Speaker 2: Oh believe me, mister Kettering, it was a real pleasure.
Speaker 4: And you, Lieutenant Matthews, for your cooperation on withholding the
Speaker 4: publicity aspects of this.
Speaker 8: Horrible Oh no, it's okay, mister Kerin, glad to help out.
Speaker 4: We're going to be married, you know. Right away. Shirley
Speaker 4: told me the story and wanted to postpone the wedding,
Speaker 4: but I wouldn't hear of it. Good. After all, I'm
Speaker 4: not marrying her for the past. I'm marrying her for
Speaker 4: the future.
Speaker 2: Eh, best wishes, mister ketterery. Yeah, maybe tomorrow, when Shirley's
Speaker 2: calmed down, give him my congratulations, will you.
Speaker 4: Ill.
Speaker 2: After a long cup of coffee and a lot of
Speaker 2: conversation about people with Matthews, I finally got my car
Speaker 2: and headed home to my apartment on Franklin Avenue, which
Speaker 2: isn't the best street in the town, but it is
Speaker 2: lined with palm trees instead of garbage cans, and the
Speaker 2: sun hits it all day long. Yeah, but that reminded
Speaker 2: me again of River Street. A deep, perpetual shadow that
Speaker 2: that hangs over it, A dirty shadow that Ma Hagas
Speaker 2: said could never be rubbed off, A shadow that spawns
Speaker 2: the nomamadas of the world. I was still thinking about
Speaker 2: it when I got ready forbid. I knew Ma wasn't
Speaker 2: one hundred percent right. I'd seen the exception of the
Speaker 2: rule that she was ninety nine percent right, just enough
Speaker 2: to disturb my sleep. Oh well, one guy can't change things, Kenny.
Speaker 3: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe Bringing You Raymond Chandler's most
Speaker 3: famous character, star Gerald Moore, are produced and directed by
Speaker 3: Norman McDonald and are written for radio by Robert Mitchell
Speaker 3: and Gene Levitt. Gerald Moore may currently be seen starring
Speaker 3: in Republics The Blonde Bendit Featured in tonight's cast were
Speaker 3: Lillian Baya, Jan Banks, Verna felton Yvonne Pete, Jeff Corey,
Speaker 3: Jack Krusian, and Tom Holland. Detective Lieutenant Matthews is played
Speaker 3: by Larry Dubkin. The special music is composed and conducted
Speaker 3: by Richard Aran Assuring me with us again next week,
Speaker 3: When Philip Marlowe say.
Speaker 2: This time I started with a roominian from left field,
Speaker 2: got misled in the Philippine jungles, chased in English accent
Speaker 2: Clara Venice, and wound up at a shadow shrine with
Speaker 2: a friend from Siam, all without ever leaving Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Doctor Christian, the kindly Position of rivers End, has a
Speaker 3: most unusual case placed in his hands this Wednesday night
Speaker 3: on CBS. His patient a sixteen year old girl who's
Speaker 3: in love with an older man, and the man doctor
Speaker 3: Christian himself. CBS Courts will invite you to hear this
Speaker 3: Doctor Christian story, the Rainbow Trail, on most of these
Speaker 3: same CBS stations this Wednesday night. This is Roy Rowan speaking.
Speaker 3: This is CBS the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Speaker 12: This is Andrew Rhyns with Outrowesterns dot com. We streamed
Speaker 12: live old time radio Westerns twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 12: seven days a week, with a special twist. You select
Speaker 12: the tracks that get to be played. We've got a
Speaker 12: thousand different episodes from shows like Gunsmoke, Tales of the
Speaker 12: Texas Rangers, Escape, Genautry, and many more. Come check us
Speaker 12: out at Otrwesterns dot com slash live again. That's OTR
Speaker 12: Westerns dot com slash Live. You're listening to the great
Speaker 12: Detectives of Old Time Radio with Adam Graham and now
Speaker 12: let's get back into the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, Well, next week's episode sounds intriguing. As for
Speaker 1: this week's you definitely saw this focus, particularly at the
Speaker 1: time on the top of neighborhoods and situations, the family
Speaker 1: situations which often led to crime, and that theme worked
Speaker 1: its way out in the episode in a way that
Speaker 1: brought up the point without being obnoxious about it. Overall,
Speaker 1: some good twists and a fairly solid ending. It was
Speaker 1: weird though having Marlowe basically ask for an episode that
Speaker 1: was the opposite of ladies not if no women involved
Speaker 1: whatsoever or in any way related to the case. I
Speaker 1: think that was just him being cranky, though at any rate.
Speaker 1: We do turn to some listener comments and feedback and
Speaker 1: Mike Porter says that the line for the monkey's uncle
Speaker 1: was the best opening line, which, by the way, was
Speaker 1: this time I tangled with a mad scotsman, a phony
Speaker 1: English lord, in a blonde corpse in a freight house,
Speaker 1: all because of a butler who walked on his knuckles.
Speaker 1: That is pretty good, Laurence says. Adam says at the
Speaker 1: end that that was one of the worst Scottish accents,
Speaker 1: even though he was Welsh. Tutor Owen was known for
Speaker 1: playing many a Scotsman. Well, I still didn't think that
Speaker 1: was his best. Tutor Owen's done some great work, but
Speaker 1: I don't know. The Scottish accent was a bit, but
Speaker 1: it was passable, I guess all right. Well, we also
Speaker 1: have a review on iTunes and this one comes from
Speaker 1: She's on Fire FF five Rights. I've listened to this
Speaker 1: podcast for over a year now and haven't found a
Speaker 1: single podcast in old time radio that compares. Adam is
Speaker 1: very dedicated to the show, and it's obvious with his
Speaker 1: catchy enthusiasm. He is well versed in his dates and
Speaker 1: is accurate most of the time. Who are the best detectives? Personally?
Speaker 1: I love Sam Spade but haven't found anymore. Do you
Speaker 1: happen to have any more? Like the Gold Keykeeper? My
Speaker 1: copy is very scratchy in I would like to hear
Speaker 1: more Spade if you have any more. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your for quality and for making my listening time worth
Speaker 1: every minute. Well, thanks so much. We have not yet
Speaker 1: gotten into Sam Spade, but when we do, we'll definitely
Speaker 1: have a focus on bringing you the best recordings that
Speaker 1: we can. Of course, with Sam Spade, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of gaps and a lot of episodes missing, particularly from
Speaker 1: the Howard Duff era. The run by Steve Dunn is
Speaker 1: actually mostly complete with twenty three of twenty four episodes.
Speaker 1: But the Sam Spades do tend to be a little
Speaker 1: bit more iffy in quality than Marlowe and some other shows.
Speaker 1: It's just the nature of the preservation and the sort
Speaker 1: of recordings that are out there. All right, Well, that
Speaker 1: will do it for today. Join us back here tomorrow
Speaker 1: for Nick Carter, and then next Wednesday it's another episode
Speaker 1: of the Adventures of Philip marlow In the meantime, sentra
Speaker 1: comments to Box thirteen at Great to Tack Net, follow
Speaker 1: us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of
Speaker 1: our friends on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash Radiodetectives From Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.