Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
Speaker 1: going to bring you this week's episode of Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 1: But first, I do want to encourage you, if you
Speaker 1: are enjoying the podcast, to please follow us using your
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Speaker 1: You can become one of our ongoing Patreon supporters for
Speaker 1: two dollars per month by going to Patreon dot Great
Speaker 1: Detectives dot net. But now, from July twenty third, nineteen fifty,
Speaker 1: here is the Secret Box.
Speaker 2: Are you willing to undertake a dangerous mission behind the
Speaker 2: enemy lines knowing you may never return alive?
Speaker 3: What you have just heard is the question asked during
Speaker 3: the war to agents of the OSS ordinary citizens who
Speaker 3: to this question answered yes.
Speaker 2: This is Cloak and Dagger.
Speaker 3: Black warfare, espionage, international intrigue. These are the weapons of
Speaker 3: the OSS. In today's adventure, the Secret Box concerning an
Speaker 3: American agent who was sent into a Japanese infested jungle
Speaker 3: who take back a prisoner. The role of John Marco,
Speaker 3: the OSS agent, is played by comedy star Jerry Lester.
Speaker 3: The story is suggested by actual incidents recorded in the
Speaker 3: Washington files of the Office of Strategic Services, a story
Speaker 3: that can now be told.
Speaker 4: I always carried this little box. I never knew when
Speaker 4: it might come in handy. It was about as big
Speaker 4: as a small lunch box. Well, to begin at the beginning,
Speaker 4: I happen to be in the radio room at OSS
Speaker 4: headquarters in Bambo that night when the message came through.
Speaker 5: How important chap on the captive for you, can you
Speaker 5: come get him?
Speaker 6: Come soon?
Speaker 2: Chop only chum away again for.
Speaker 5: Headquarterter in Mama to Agel Terry.
Speaker 4: So that's how Harry Stevens and I happened to be
Speaker 4: in an eighty eighteen flying over Agent Terry's position about
Speaker 4: eighty six miles behind enemy lines in Burma. And like
Speaker 4: I say, I had this little box in my knapsack.
Speaker 4: Oh oh, in case I forgot to mention it. My
Speaker 4: name is Johnny Marco Snappy Songs and what are he sayings?
Speaker 4: Just mentioned my name in Sheboygan. Oh they loved me
Speaker 4: in Sheboygan.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I know, Marco.
Speaker 4: Hey, Harry, did I ever tell you about my last
Speaker 4: date in Frisco before I went overseas I.
Speaker 6: Can hardly wait. Her name was Rose.
Speaker 4: She had a name like a flower and a face
Speaker 4: like a weed. I called her cream a weed because
Speaker 4: she was so mushy.
Speaker 6: Marco, I have but one thing to say to you.
Speaker 4: Well, talk to me.
Speaker 6: I hope you'll live to be as old as you jokes.
Speaker 4: You know the trouble with you, Harry. You don't realize
Speaker 4: you're carting around a million dollars worth of talent. I
Speaker 4: tell you they love me and your boy.
Speaker 2: I'm in the city.
Speaker 6: Hang on, I'm gonna take a dive, see if i
Speaker 6: can find a landing strip.
Speaker 4: We had figured our checkpoints carefully, but when we reached
Speaker 4: our rendezvous, all we could see was a rough field
Speaker 4: with a Buddhist pagoda at the fire end. Nothing else,
Speaker 4: No landing strip, no markers, no one waiting downstairs. Just
Speaker 4: a rough field covered with brush. We knew something must
Speaker 4: have gone wrong.
Speaker 6: I don't get if, Marco.
Speaker 4: Well, the jap's probably closed in and they're afraid to
Speaker 4: come out of hiding.
Speaker 3: Oh great, live jaft. Prisoners aren't dropped in our laps
Speaker 3: every day. Hey, Harry, huh who is this agent Terry?
Speaker 6: Anyway?
Speaker 3: Oh, missionary, it's been working with a tribe of Anglo
Speaker 3: or me for years. Colonel says he's already radioed back
Speaker 3: a lot of information on enemy physicians. This is the
Speaker 3: first prisoner he's ever taken. What a rotten break.
Speaker 4: Will look circle around again, maybe we'll see something.
Speaker 5: Up.
Speaker 6: Better head back before we run into trouble ourselves.
Speaker 4: Hey, Harry, Harry, Look look the brush it's being yanked away.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I see it. Look those natives they're putting
Speaker 3: up the white Marcus stripes, the.
Speaker 4: Safety land panels out. It just like seeing something pumped
Speaker 4: before your eyes.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 4: And landing strip came out of nowhere, just all of
Speaker 4: a sudden, there it was. The plane bumped the ground
Speaker 4: and rolled in. But we kept the motor still running
Speaker 4: in case of a jab trick. And we sat there
Speaker 4: waited for whatever was going to happen next. Harry, Harry, Look, look,
Speaker 4: look something or somebody's coming out of that clump of
Speaker 4: bamboo at the end of the field.
Speaker 6: Yeah, hip your hand on your gun.
Speaker 3: I'll make a quick getaway if I have to check, Harry, Harry.
Speaker 4: Natives, Yeah, but are they friendly spears? Hey the arm
Speaker 4: let's get out of here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hey, wait a minute, there's a white woman with him.
Speaker 7: I am missus Terry. Gentlemen, one would never suspect I
Speaker 7: was a n agent.
Speaker 6: Two it one, Well what's the angle? I mean, well,
Speaker 6: I think you point.
Speaker 7: Oh it's very simple. Really, my husband, the late Reverend
Speaker 7: Oscar Terry of God killing Man, went to his rest
Speaker 7: a few months ago.
Speaker 4: You mean man that you're the agent who's been sending
Speaker 4: all that information to OSS headquarters in Bambo.
Speaker 7: Naturally this is Lynn Taw. I suppose you'd call him
Speaker 7: the right hand man. Say how'd you do? Lynn?
Speaker 2: How you do? Hi?
Speaker 7: Lynn incidentally sent the radio message. He does so enjoy
Speaker 7: tinkering with mechanical devices. I showed him how to use it. Unfortunately, however,
Speaker 7: my husband, the late referend Oscar Terry, a god filling man,
Speaker 7: is the only one of us who knew how to
Speaker 7: take it apart and put it together again.
Speaker 2: Lynn, Yes, miss Tarring, that radio?
Speaker 6: You have it?
Speaker 7: I have it here, excellent captain. Would you either have
Speaker 7: this replaced in Bomo with new parts? I have a
Speaker 7: new radio dropped over to.
Speaker 6: Us by sure, missus Terry. I'll see what can be
Speaker 6: done for you.
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you so much, Oh fancy I almost forgot.
Speaker 7: We have a Japanese prisoner for you.
Speaker 4: About a half a dozen natives a short distance away
Speaker 4: standing around the cart.
Speaker 8: In it.
Speaker 4: They had a jab officer with his hands and feet tight.
Speaker 6: They dragged him over.
Speaker 4: He was a surly character. Maybe I would under the
Speaker 4: same circumstances.
Speaker 2: Anyway.
Speaker 4: He didn't say a word, just glared at us from
Speaker 4: under the bloody bandage around his head.
Speaker 7: Here is your guest, gentlemen, Colonel Siwaka, the Japanese high Command.
Speaker 7: He resisted arrest rather strenuously, so it was impossible to
Speaker 7: avoid banging around a bit. Well, goodbye, now, good luck.
Speaker 7: Do give my regards to your colonel.
Speaker 4: We loaded Colonel Slowaka into the small plane, and a
Speaker 4: few seconds later, as we swung over the field, we
Speaker 4: looked down and saw that all trace of the strip
Speaker 4: had completely disappeared. The brush was replaced and there was
Speaker 4: nothing only jungle.
Speaker 6: How's our friend, Colonel Siwaka doing, Marco?
Speaker 4: While he's a little tied up at the moment, Hey friend,
Speaker 4: how you doing? Friend doesn't want to talk?
Speaker 3: You know something, that's the best audience you'll ever have, Marco.
Speaker 3: One who can't understand English.
Speaker 4: Oh come on now, will your hair? Hey, maybe you
Speaker 4: got something? Hey friend? Uh, did you know that the
Speaker 4: former ruler of Russia was called the Tsar? His wife
Speaker 4: was called the csarena? And you know what they call
Speaker 4: his kids. Get a load of this czardines?
Speaker 2: Yeah you know?
Speaker 6: I think you're right, Harry.
Speaker 4: Friend obviously doesn't understand a word of comedy English.
Speaker 6: Oh what's that? Chat?
Speaker 9: Backack?
Speaker 6: They've spotted us. Can we get away from him?
Speaker 10: Now?
Speaker 6: We can try.
Speaker 4: That's climbing, Harry, gee a thousand feet in.
Speaker 2: About a half a minute. It's no good.
Speaker 6: Hack it out of rageous way.
Speaker 4: But what do we do?
Speaker 3: I'll level off and head for home. I can't get
Speaker 3: away from him just climbing.
Speaker 4: You did it. We're not arranged now.
Speaker 6: I think I just spoke too fast. Trouble Black must
Speaker 6: have hit one of the engines. It's not all fine
Speaker 6: that it could have been worse. I can get us
Speaker 6: back on one.
Speaker 4: Brother. If you were your sister, i'd marry.
Speaker 6: Oh you're a big hearted guy, you know that, Marco.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't go around for rose and every day
Speaker 3: you better go back and see our friend is doing.
Speaker 10: When the colonel sawaka doing extreme well, thank you? Keep
Speaker 10: me your hands on the flying instruments. The captain, Hey,
Speaker 10: and you, lieutenant, keep me your hands and their way
Speaker 10: in there.
Speaker 4: I thank you? Are you dirty dog face? You spoke
Speaker 4: English all the time.
Speaker 10: Enough to tell you that if you do not as
Speaker 10: you are told, I put the boy through your heads.
Speaker 10: I thank you, lieutenant, for have you been gone within
Speaker 10: easier reach? And you do anything, do not talk, just
Speaker 10: to continual to fly plane.
Speaker 4: So Harry kept the plane steady, his back to our friend,
Speaker 4: and I just stood there and watched Colonel Siwaka as
Speaker 4: he manipulated the parachute and buckle it on, changing the
Speaker 4: gun from one hand to the other as he put
Speaker 4: his arms through the straps of the choote. Then he
Speaker 4: opened the handle of the waiste door.
Speaker 10: I we say good bye now it was on a
Speaker 10: pleasant to ride.
Speaker 4: Why you had it in the air.
Speaker 9: Keep my hands in air? Watch better? Now I shoot
Speaker 9: you both.
Speaker 4: Then I jump goodbye, friend, don't forget to ride.
Speaker 3: Jack shouldn't have opened the waist first. All I had
Speaker 3: to do was bank the plane over and it's side
Speaker 3: and we.
Speaker 4: Lost Yeah, we lost him all right? Oh he shoot open?
Speaker 6: Oh fine, Uh, mission unaccomplished. Well anyway, it was a
Speaker 6: nice ride.
Speaker 3: Glad uh second engine couldn't take the strain of that
Speaker 3: flip flop was punking out.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it cut all right?
Speaker 6: Hit the soap, Marco, we better pail out.
Speaker 4: I made it okay, rolled over a couple of times
Speaker 4: when I landed and pulled the shoot down. But it
Speaker 4: was another story with Harry. As he bailed out, his
Speaker 4: slipstream caught him, flung him back against the horizontal stabilizer
Speaker 4: and cut a gash.
Speaker 6: In his head.
Speaker 4: Miraculously, his shoot open and he drifted into the green
Speaker 4: jungle and landed upside down in the top of a
Speaker 4: tall mahogany tree. Harry, Harry, are you all right? Can
Speaker 4: you talk?
Speaker 2: Mark? Strapline of the shute? It tangled?
Speaker 9: Kick it out my head?
Speaker 2: I cut it, yeah, I see Marco.
Speaker 6: Get me done?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, easy boy. Now I'll do something something But what
Speaker 4: I tried to climb the tree to.
Speaker 6: Reach them, but it was no use.
Speaker 4: The trunk was bare smooth. I kept slipping back. It
Speaker 4: was the two of us were in the middle of
Speaker 4: a nightmare. Harry, Harry, can you hear me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I can't climb that lousy tree. It's too slippery. There's
Speaker 4: nothing for me to hold on. Marco, it's no yourse, Well,
Speaker 4: oh what do you mean? It's no use you waste.
Speaker 6: Time standing there, You'll be caught. Jap's all around. You
Speaker 6: know that as well as I Harry.
Speaker 3: When you're listening now, you're listening to me, get away now,
Speaker 3: will you?
Speaker 6: They may have seen the place.
Speaker 4: Shut up now when you're shut it out of a
Speaker 4: boat that ducks.
Speaker 3: I know I am anyway, Just do one thing, Marco, Yeah,
Speaker 3: don't leave me here to stop or falling the Jeff hands.
Speaker 6: Maybe you can make it back along.
Speaker 4: You're nuts now, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 3: Just don't leave me to start, please, please, huh shook
Speaker 3: me first, so the head marker, please.
Speaker 4: I knew he was right. I couldn't leave him plase marker,
Speaker 4: not that way, and I couldn't.
Speaker 6: Stay maka well.
Speaker 4: I took the forty five from the holster at my belt.
Speaker 4: When I heard the dry click of the hammer being
Speaker 4: drawn back, I broke out in a sweat. My hands
Speaker 4: started to get wet. Marca, I counted one, two, and.
Speaker 9: The looks of it, we are right in time.
Speaker 4: Lynn Tow and the natives went to work swiftly knocking
Speaker 4: down a second, smaller tree against the mahogany. They scaled
Speaker 4: it like cats to the base of the branch where
Speaker 4: Harry was hanging, tossed a loop of rattan across the
Speaker 4: branch and told a torrent. Then they lift Harry and
Speaker 4: passed him from hand to hand and lowered him gently
Speaker 4: to the ground. And all the time I just stood
Speaker 4: there next to missus Terry, feeling the blood pounding in
Speaker 4: my head. And I put the pistol back into my
Speaker 4: holster and.
Speaker 7: That other bandage.
Speaker 2: Please here, here you are, Miss Terry.
Speaker 7: That's a good fellow. Thank you so much. How is
Speaker 7: your head now, Captain Stevens much better face?
Speaker 4: I still don't understand.
Speaker 7: How did you hear so the Japanese act gut hit
Speaker 7: your plane almost immediately after you left us. We came
Speaker 7: along with the jungle in case this should be need
Speaker 7: of us.
Speaker 4: Lady, no one ever needed you more.
Speaker 7: You say, Colonel sir Waker, escape dear here for the kitty.
Speaker 7: H Now I think that bandage will do.
Speaker 2: Do you get back, Miss Terry?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 2: Lynn Lynn say leave now? Do not stay back to village?
Speaker 7: Oh yes, great, but that poses a problem. As I
Speaker 7: told you earlier. Our radio is out of use.
Speaker 4: There's no way of contacting headquarters and telling them to
Speaker 4: send a plane for.
Speaker 7: Us, exactly, Lieutenant Marco, Well, do.
Speaker 4: You think we can make it back through enemy lines
Speaker 4: on foot?
Speaker 7: Possibly take five or six days anyway, But it.
Speaker 4: Could be done, couldn't it. I mean we could sneak through.
Speaker 9: Couldn't we by.
Speaker 7: Passed the JAT So I don't can't do?
Speaker 2: Brind Car help, Thank.
Speaker 7: Your capitalized Lynn Tao, my husband, the late repend Oscar Terry.
Speaker 2: A god fearing man, thank you.
Speaker 7: He would approve heartily.
Speaker 4: Lynn Tao knew plenty of short cuts, and we followed him,
Speaker 4: skirting Jap patrols all the way. There was something uncanny
Speaker 4: about the way he led us over miles of jungles.
Speaker 4: We kept our packs light because we had a pretty
Speaker 4: long high take ahead. But just the same, I kept
Speaker 4: that little box with me. I never knew when it
Speaker 4: might come in handy. Then we came to a small stream.
Speaker 2: Our Moscow to stream here take off shore.
Speaker 4: Well wait a minute, then, why bother? We'll be wading
Speaker 4: through a lot of water, and why take our shoes
Speaker 4: off and on?
Speaker 2: But do Ashlyn say if she get wet feet?
Speaker 8: Wet or time many saw come on feet well, not
Speaker 8: be easy for you to walk much distance to Obama.
Speaker 4: We crossed several more brooks, and we kept taking our
Speaker 4: shoes off than not on and off. The jungle along
Speaker 4: the banks grew thinner, and so did we. The sun
Speaker 4: beat down harder, the water washed, stand up around our knees,
Speaker 4: the shoes off and not on and off. We'd splash
Speaker 4: him and then stumping, and then start walking again. A
Speaker 4: couple of days of this, you're pretty beat except for
Speaker 4: iron Man.
Speaker 2: N Ah, feel.
Speaker 6: Good, Linden. Then the sun had to hold up a while.
Speaker 2: We'll rest here near scream.
Speaker 4: Hey, this is an ideal spot for a picnic. Fifty
Speaker 4: million insects can't be rough. Got your first, you little foreigner.
Speaker 6: Marcaa got the water left my canteens dry?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, here.
Speaker 6: It's so you got. It's okay, Go ahead, dragon, lend
Speaker 6: the swallow water we could when do say, do not worry.
Speaker 2: Watch I will show what to do. So you know.
Speaker 6: Hey, wait a minute, what are you taking? The hold
Speaker 6: in the sand.
Speaker 8: Pot first dick small hall in sand near stream ways
Speaker 8: leave in bomb i geese and water come to shant
Speaker 8: and leave it not be muddy can bring.
Speaker 4: Hey, that's the greatest. The leaves act like a filler.
Speaker 2: Of our water is clear. Uh, drink it with your hand.
Speaker 2: Will not hurt you.
Speaker 4: Now this lind Tao had a dozen cute little tricks
Speaker 4: like that, he'd have been a riot and vodell well.
Speaker 4: The next morning we were back on the trail, pushing
Speaker 4: our way through sharp blades of grass, and all of
Speaker 4: a sudden we heard the tinkle of an iron bell.
Speaker 6: Helen, what's that? I escape book?
Speaker 8: Elephant coming thank to us villagr in jungle put iron
Speaker 8: fell around neck to warm or thanks to our guns.
Speaker 6: We've got guns. Let's shoot at.
Speaker 2: Us on our shoot You have been left. Not go
Speaker 2: too hide, only leave the elephant.
Speaker 6: Anyway, Do not sooth still.
Speaker 7: The size of them.
Speaker 4: Look at the size of them. It's like being charged
Speaker 4: at by a six story still.
Speaker 2: Do not shoot yet, only if we must.
Speaker 4: Shot passed right by us here.
Speaker 6: Maybe he didn't think we were worth noticing.
Speaker 4: You know, something to hurt One thing? I can't figure
Speaker 4: out about an elephant with a tail at both ends.
Speaker 4: How does he know which end to sit on?
Speaker 6: Funny man, come on, let's make time.
Speaker 4: Lynn Taud did our seeing and our thinking for us.
Speaker 4: He did everything but walked for us, and we got
Speaker 4: sort of used to leaning on him. Nothing could happen
Speaker 4: to iron man Lynn.
Speaker 2: Only it did.
Speaker 6: Lynn Lynn.
Speaker 4: Harry, Harry, He's dead. That knife went right in his back.
Speaker 6: Where did it come from?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 4: They came out of the jungle, at least fifty of them,
Speaker 4: half naked savages, carrying long stalks of bamboo that had
Speaker 4: been sharpened to deadly points. Their leader was a giant,
Speaker 4: must have been about six foot seven. He held up
Speaker 4: his hand, and the sudden silence scared us more than.
Speaker 2: The noise we done thee What did he say?
Speaker 4: Did you understand him?
Speaker 2: Harry?
Speaker 6: I look, friend, France heavy frimt nuh.
Speaker 2: No, friend, Juan Dunlee, White devil.
Speaker 6: White devils.
Speaker 2: That was us.
Speaker 4: The slashed off pieces of the vine ropes around the
Speaker 4: tree and twisted them about us so we could just
Speaker 4: move our legs. Then they pushed us ahead of them
Speaker 4: through the great daylight of the jungle, through the dim
Speaker 4: passages of winding leanas the climbing tropical plants.
Speaker 2: The above us.
Speaker 4: Stray bird shot the.
Speaker 6: Color through the overhanging trees.
Speaker 4: After about a mile, the path became a trail. The
Speaker 4: Leannas were cut away. We tripped over some coconut husks
Speaker 4: by the side of a chardfire. We were coming into
Speaker 4: the village. Then Harry saw them first, Marker Luk.
Speaker 6: Up there on the poles.
Speaker 4: Human heads, a rower, skulls.
Speaker 6: Head hunters, Marca, there's a head hunters.
Speaker 2: Wolf, Guam Dunley Wolf.
Speaker 4: Hey, look, chief Chief, you got it all wrong. Now, No,
Speaker 4: we're not devils.
Speaker 2: We're friends.
Speaker 7: Friends.
Speaker 10: It's American. You are right, it's no yours. Colonel Swaker,
Speaker 10: I am a great the friends of these ahead hunters,
Speaker 10: so I want them out your coming. Told them you
Speaker 10: are Quan Dunlee, what devils who come to bring a puaga?
Speaker 10: And the question and stood them jeef, what the devils away?
Speaker 2: Then Guam Dunley.
Speaker 4: Basha the young Titus and threw us in a straw
Speaker 4: thatched how they called the Basha. Through the makeshift door,
Speaker 4: we could see the skulls on the pole, an endless
Speaker 4: row of them under the hot sun, and up the
Speaker 4: poles streamed columns of jungle ants giving them an ancient burial.
Speaker 6: Looks like the end of the line. Marko, Yeah, hey.
Speaker 4: Wait a minute, Harry, that Chief speaks a little pigeon English.
Speaker 4: He understands a little. Do you think we could reason
Speaker 4: with him?
Speaker 3: It doesn't look like a reasonable type. Besides, our friend
Speaker 3: Colonel Siwaka got to him first. The tribes convinced with dangerous.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but as dangerous as a glass of buttermilk, lot
Speaker 4: money bucket that Waka outside talking to the curt.
Speaker 2: We got company.
Speaker 9: I do the U are comfort? Captain?
Speaker 4: Why don't you climb a tree? A little monkey watch.
Speaker 9: A tongue.
Speaker 10: Was the most affortunate for me. I found a way
Speaker 10: here to a friend a camp. Sorry, I don't like
Speaker 10: your friends. My friends do not to work you either.
Speaker 10: I think you are devil Americans. We'll bring evil to
Speaker 10: the people. Sleep well, tomorrow you will join the heads
Speaker 10: on the poles.
Speaker 4: In the morning, they brought us out. I guess we
Speaker 4: were pretty important because the big chief himself came over
Speaker 4: to tie us to the poles. Then I got an idea.
Speaker 4: I sleeped my hand in my pocket and grabbed a coin,
Speaker 4: just held it tight.
Speaker 2: Kwan dunlee. Tie you now, hey, Jeeve, look at this.
Speaker 4: What are you doing carrying dimes around in your ear? Well?
Speaker 6: What do you know?
Speaker 4: Another in your other ear? And here's one in your nose.
Speaker 4: Say you're a pretty sly carriacter. Aren't you a regular
Speaker 4: walking back of Englandbarka, What are you working to? Just
Speaker 4: a couple of magic tricks. If I can get away
Speaker 4: with them, I'll tell you they love me, Mudgie. That's right,
Speaker 4: Toba magic. Now if you get me that knapsack you
Speaker 4: grab for me, I'll do more. See knapsack bag from back, Sammie, remember,
Speaker 4: will do Toba.
Speaker 9: You will not listen to band but off a head now.
Speaker 4: Hate you look at this, Look at this, now you
Speaker 4: see it? Now you don't resto coins disappear? Oh get
Speaker 4: knapsack or you'll disappear. Sabbie.
Speaker 2: Good sharp run by Hua boy.
Speaker 4: That coin trick got him in the che pushed Sowaka's side.
Speaker 4: Send one of his rover boys to get my knapsacked.
Speaker 4: They brought it to me and I took out the
Speaker 4: little bottle. I always knew it would come in handy sometime.
Speaker 4: Then the chief held up his hand again. Both h
Speaker 4: and I went into my act. Ruh, what an audience
Speaker 4: and what a performance. I'll watch closely, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4: The hand is quicker than the eye. Rest to change. Oh,
Speaker 4: I take this little glass of water, just an ordinary
Speaker 4: glass of water. If you will observe closely and resto
Speaker 4: it turns color.
Speaker 6: You're doing great, I tell you.
Speaker 2: Cut off of the hats.
Speaker 4: Still you tell them cheef go away, little man, you
Speaker 4: bother me. Now for the next bit of magic, ladies
Speaker 4: and gentlemen. I pulled every trick in the book out
Speaker 4: of that little box, dow cigarettes from the chiefs here,
Speaker 4: pulled flowers out of empty pots, yanked a dozen colored
Speaker 4: scarves out of a single white handkerchief. And then I
Speaker 4: broke a stick in half and put it together. Boy
Speaker 4: did they love it. And now by my final bit
Speaker 4: of hocus pocus, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 6: Why was he tried walk and have them forget to
Speaker 6: put them together?
Speaker 4: I got something better as I was saying, you're coming after,
Speaker 4: Maybe this will stop him. Look what sign from God's
Speaker 4: look stopped him? All right? I pulled a bee blower
Speaker 4: out of the box blue Hawk, and out came a
Speaker 4: tiny doll dressed in a jack uniform, without his head, and.
Speaker 2: He floated to earth.
Speaker 4: A superstitious native stepped back, afraid to come any closer.
Speaker 4: See see sign Japanese is Kwandan Lee. God say so
Speaker 4: Americans friends, friends, doll there on the ground. Japanese now
Speaker 4: signed from Gods, follow great White father and fight Japanese chief.
Speaker 2: You tell him I'll do you to God.
Speaker 4: He told them all right, big trouble. We had a
Speaker 4: keeping them from tearing Sawaka apart. We wanted them alive
Speaker 4: to take back to OSS headquarters in Bamo. Well that's
Speaker 4: the story. The next day the headhunters let us back
Speaker 4: through the jungle with our prisoner. There's only one thing
Speaker 4: I'm sorry about. Too bad variety couldn't have caught my act.
Speaker 4: I tell you they loved me.
Speaker 3: In Burma, Captain Harry Stevens and Lieutenant John Marco safely
Speaker 3: delivered Colonel Slowaka to os S headquarters in Bambo, where
Speaker 3: he gave valuable information on Japanese war industry and finance.
Speaker 3: And so, once again, the report of ANOTHERSS agent closes with.
Speaker 2: The words mission accomplished.
Speaker 3: Listen again next week for another true adventure from the
Speaker 3: files of the OSS on.
Speaker 2: Clap and Dagger.
Speaker 11: Starred in today's Cloak and Dagger Adventure as Marco was
Speaker 11: Jerry Lester, with Larry Haynes as Harry. Colonel Siwaka, Daniel Lockoe, Missus, Terry,
Speaker 11: Irene Hubbard, the Colonel Raymond Edward Johnson. Others were Carl Weber,
Speaker 11: Arnold Robertson and Jerry Jarrett. The script was written by
Speaker 11: Wonterford Wolf and Jack Gordon. The music was under the
Speaker 11: direction of Murray Ross. Today's True Oss Adventure was based
Speaker 11: on the book Cloakandagger by Corey Ford and Alistair McBain.
Speaker 11: This has been a lowis Gicon production in association with
Speaker 11: Alfred Hollander. This was under the direction and supervision of
Speaker 11: Sherman Marx Programs. Get your programs here, mystery fans. There's
Speaker 11: an exciting evening waiting for you tonight on NBC. First,
Speaker 11: some listener will have a chance to win one thousand
Speaker 11: dollars for solving the case on one thousand dollars reward.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 1: A great story, so many great twist and turns in
Speaker 1: this adventure, and I like, just as with the episode
Speaker 1: with the cartoon is you get an illustration of how
Speaker 1: people in the OSS came from a lot of civilian
Speaker 1: backgrounds that came in handy in ways that you wouldn't expect. Now,
Speaker 1: it's worth noting that our star. Jerry Lester was kind
Speaker 1: of a big deal in nineteen fifty. This was his
Speaker 1: first radio dramatic role, but he did a lot of comedy.
Speaker 1: He was a featured comic on the Craft Music Hall
Speaker 1: in the early forties, and then he got his own
Speaker 1: show for Pebsident in nineteen forty three. And he was
Speaker 1: also a pioneer on television. He hosted Broadway Open House
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty and nineteen fifty one, which is often
Speaker 1: cited as a precursor to the Tonight Show. He began
Speaker 1: alternating with Moury Ancesterdam before becoming the Soul host later
Speaker 1: on in the season. Steve Allen, who was the first
Speaker 1: Tonight Show host, said that the big problem for Broadway
Speaker 1: Open House was that it was still really early in
Speaker 1: the age of television. There were a lot of mid
Speaker 1: size cities that didn't have TV, and you also had
Speaker 1: sponsors who really didn't think that you could show a
Speaker 1: program at eleven o'clock, but there were some people who
Speaker 1: watched it. George Harlan cited it as a key early influence.
Speaker 1: In addition to this, Lester also was the host of
Speaker 1: Cavalcade of Stars. Now it seems to me with Kloaken
Speaker 1: Dagger having this big TV comedian and the real interest
Speaker 1: in television, this would have been a great opportunity for
Speaker 1: NBC to play up the appearance. But all I could
Speaker 1: find on Lester's appearance was this item from the back
Speaker 1: of a newspaper where someone stated that he'd been told,
Speaker 1: like it was some top secret gossip that Lester was
Speaker 1: going to make his first radio dramatic performance, which nicely
Speaker 1: confirmed that there wasn't some other radio dramatic performance that
Speaker 1: we'd missed more or among the many many lost episodes
Speaker 1: that are out there. So it seems like a bit
Speaker 1: of a missed opportunity for NBC, although the fact that
Speaker 1: NBC didn't really promote Cloak and Dagger or do any
Speaker 1: of that publicity work for it is part of the
Speaker 1: reason why the series was obscure and ended up fading
Speaker 1: to obscurity for decades afterwards. I'd really be curious what
Speaker 1: sparked Leicester's interest or how this ended up working out, Like,
Speaker 1: was Lester a friend of somebody on the program? Now,
Speaker 1: of course Leicester star did fade after the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1: He did some theater. He ended up being forced into
Speaker 1: retirement due to Alzheimer's in nineteen seventy five. He could
Speaker 1: not memorize his monologues. His younger brother, Buddy might be
Speaker 1: more better remembered today. He did a lot of the
Speaker 1: movies with Jerry Lewis, and he was also in Barney Miller,
Speaker 1: among many many other projects as a really solid character
Speaker 1: actor in many roles, particularly comedic rolls. All right, listener,
Speaker 1: comments and feedback. Now we start on Spotify, where Norse
Speaker 1: jeweler Donnie Jowler writes regarding the episode direct line to Bombers,
Speaker 1: I feel bad now for not giving this show a shot.
Speaker 1: It has the storytelling of the Silent Man with the
Speaker 1: honest brutality of tales of the Texas Rangers, the strange
Speaker 1: and dangerous places of dangerous assignment, with some music from
Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar. Now I'm going to go back and listen
Speaker 1: to episode one. Thanks for bringing these to us, Adam, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy them.
Speaker 1: And of course coming in at the sixth episode of
Speaker 1: Cloak and Dagger, not a whole lot behind, but it
Speaker 1: really is an underrated and under talked about series, and
Speaker 1: I'm really pleased that we're able to give it some
Speaker 1: broader exposure as part of our Great Adventurers podcast and
Speaker 1: getting that launched. And then we turned to a listener
Speaker 1: comments on the episode from YouTube, where a listener starts
Speaker 1: by quoting what I said during this episode. That's why
Speaker 1: I'd never make it as a spy. Sounds like something
Speaker 1: a spy would say. Oh, no, you've found me out.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I would say that that was funny, but of course
Speaker 1: I'm not a spy, but that is also what you
Speaker 1: would expect to spy to say. I just I don't
Speaker 1: think I can win, so I will just let the
Speaker 1: audience determine it. I will say that large man hosting
Speaker 1: an old time radio podcast. If that's my cover, then
Speaker 1: I must work for an organization out of get smart.
Speaker 1: On a more serious knowing something of the limitations of
Speaker 1: strategic bombing this point, I have to wonder how much
Speaker 1: of this episode is actually real. I don't believe that
Speaker 1: they could call in bombers on a specific bakery. At best,
Speaker 1: the barmbers could target the general area, but in that
Speaker 1: case the agent isn't necessarily any safer by running. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a good question. I do think that these are
Speaker 1: based on true events. However, from going through the episode
Speaker 1: The Eyes of Buddha, I noticed that there were quite
Speaker 1: a few points in that story which were composites of
Speaker 1: other events. I would assume that they wanted to cover
Speaker 1: as much as they could within the number of episodes
Speaker 1: that were approved, so there could be some composite events,
Speaker 1: and there could be some situations that are greatly simplified.
Speaker 1: Keeping in mind as well that not necessarily all operational
Speaker 1: details of what happened during the war would be declassified,
Speaker 1: so there are limitations in that direction as well. And
Speaker 1: then a listener tegan comments that was great. Thank you
Speaker 1: love the thumbnail too, well, I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Spend a lot of time trying to get those just
Speaker 1: right for our listeners, and particularly on YouTube, where with
Speaker 1: old time radio the visuals matter, even if that's what
Speaker 1: you're posting on YouTube. All right, well, now it is
Speaker 1: time to think our Patreon supporter of the day, and
Speaker 1: I want to go ahead and think Monica, Patreon supporter
Speaker 1: since March of twenty nineteen, currently supporting the podcast at
Speaker 1: the Master Detective level of fifteen dollars or more per month.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your support, Monica, and that will
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 2: For today.
Speaker 1: If you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your
Speaker 1: favorite podcast software. We will be back next Saturday with
Speaker 1: another episode of Cloak and Dagger. If you are listening
Speaker 1: to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio, we will
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow with our four thousand, eight hundredth episode special,
Speaker 1: which will be our final listener support and appreciation specials
Speaker 1: for the Great Adventurers. We will be back on Tuesday
Speaker 1: with the next installment of Flash Gordon. And if you
Speaker 1: want to find out what's happening with Flash Gordon and
Speaker 1: you're listening to the Great Detectives, be sure and subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Great Adventurers of Old Time Radio. In the meantime, though,
Speaker 1: do send your comments to Box thirteen, ack Rightdetectives dot knit,
Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 1: This is your host, Adam Graham signing off.