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: send it to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
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Speaker 1: before we do get started, I do want to let
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Speaker 1: donation to our peel box Adam Graham Peelbox one five
Speaker 1: nine one three, Boise, Idaho eight three seven one five.
Speaker 1: Now it's time for today's episode of the Adventures of
Speaker 1: Philip Marlow. The original aired eighth February twenty eighth, nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty and the title The Big Step.
Speaker 2: Get This and get it straight. Crime is a sucker's road.
Speaker 2: Those who travel had wind up in the gut of
Speaker 2: the prison of the grave, this time a friend with
Speaker 2: millions and my epic chemist and a long head piano player,
Speaker 2: but thrown in a panic because a brilliant young lady
Speaker 2: with a gun was taking a big step in the
Speaker 2: wrong direction. It happened like this.
Speaker 3: From the pan of Raymond transfer outstanding all through crime
Speaker 3: fiction comes his most famous character in the Adventures.
Speaker 2: Of Philip Marlowe.
Speaker 3: Now with Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe. We bring
Speaker 3: you tonight's exciting story, The big Step.
Speaker 4: Yeah, mister Mallow, I always figure shoes just like faces.
Speaker 2: How's that, Champ?
Speaker 5: They make it old and they make it wrinkle, but
Speaker 5: they're still okay as long as they gotta.
Speaker 2: Shine on it keeps that writing condition, that champ. Yes, hey,
Speaker 2: let me just spank up this one again. Sure. Oh
Speaker 2: come in, miss Mona.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Oh excuse me, I didn't know you was busy.
Speaker 2: That's all right, okay, Champ, I guess that does it?
Speaker 7: Oh, thank you, mister Mallow.
Speaker 2: I see tomorrow right. Well, one of my shoes have
Speaker 2: a new lis on life. Won't you sit down, Miss.
Speaker 6: Missus, Betty can't. I'm a waitress at the Shelton Cafe.
Speaker 6: I need your help, mister Mallow. There's something you could
Speaker 6: do for me. You free to take a case.
Speaker 2: I'm free depending on the case. What is it.
Speaker 6: Well, today this friend of mine, Shirley Battella, comes into
Speaker 6: the restaurant, wife work.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: She takes her usual table, and while she's waiting for
Speaker 6: her order, she starts reading the paper.
Speaker 2: It's all quiet so far, Betty.
Speaker 8: Yeah, But just when.
Speaker 6: I'm bringing in the tomato juice, it happens she sees
Speaker 6: something in the paper that scares it scares are bad?
Speaker 2: Well was it, Betty?
Speaker 6: Then I don't know. She muttered something and then she
Speaker 6: runs out of the place. Her face was gray like ashes.
Speaker 6: Later I got to worry him. I called her at home,
Speaker 6: then at the lab where she works, even her husband's studio.
Speaker 6: No locke.
Speaker 2: I wait a minute, Betty, I don't quite get the
Speaker 2: connection you and Shirley Vitello.
Speaker 6: I mean, oh, I.
Speaker 8: Don't know where social we're only tell me at the restaurant.
Speaker 8: She's been eating there for years.
Speaker 2: That's the basis for friendship.
Speaker 6: Well, about six months ago, I was in bad trouble
Speaker 6: and Shirley came through with two hundred bucks when it
Speaker 6: seemed like more money than I'd ever seen. It kept
Speaker 6: me and my husband together. So you see she means
Speaker 6: a lot to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, look, bet what
Speaker 2: was this about a lab?
Speaker 8: Well, Shirley's a technician.
Speaker 6: She works as an assistant to a chemist named Softman,
Speaker 6: Abraham Softman out on Melrowe someplaces.
Speaker 2: What about Hurley's husband?
Speaker 8: Do you know him Gilbert? Oh?
Speaker 6: Yeah, he comes in with her of a lot. He's
Speaker 6: a piano composer and a real nice guy.
Speaker 8: He lives for his work. He's unknown now, but he's
Speaker 8: a real genius. Churli says. She do anything to keep
Speaker 8: him and his music going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, tell me this friend of yours saw something
Speaker 2: in a paper. He said, it's scared now, that's all
Speaker 2: you know?
Speaker 8: Uh yeah, and I want you to find out why
Speaker 8: and help her.
Speaker 6: He's fifty bucks, mister Mala, that's what you chay, it's
Speaker 6: more or less.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, missus Kanada, where's your ring? Oh?
Speaker 8: I sometimes take it off when I'm working.
Speaker 2: You do?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Oh, perhaps when your hocket to raise fifty bucks. Look, Betty,
Speaker 2: I'm a careless guy. You you better hold the money.
Speaker 2: But mister manor hurry Betty. Remember where's the address.
Speaker 6: Well it's thirty one forty Veteran Avenue, and in case
Speaker 6: you wanted, Gilbert Studio is Benedict Canyon, five tens. Thanks
Speaker 6: mister Mala, you called me an empire of one seven
Speaker 6: A wait, seven huts.
Speaker 2: Betty Catna was gone. I got my car and drove
Speaker 2: out the Veteran Avenue. You know, she was a pathetic
Speaker 2: little creature and with a little effort she could have
Speaker 2: that touch and glow look, no whir. Thirty one forty
Speaker 2: was one of those small but neat houses that grow
Speaker 2: like mushrooms overnight on a post war California landscape, and
Speaker 2: it was locked, dark and quiet. I went around to
Speaker 2: the back and started on the windows. I turned one open.
Speaker 2: When I tried it, I climbed it and turned onto
Speaker 2: lights and made the grand tour. Then ended in the den.
Speaker 2: The only indication that anyone had been there all day
Speaker 2: was a current issue of the La Star, crumpled in
Speaker 2: the waste basket. I pulled it out and started through it.
Speaker 2: On page five, I found the hole where a two
Speaker 2: column story had been clipped out, and then somebody was
Speaker 2: at the front door. I started toward it to change
Speaker 2: my mind at the sound of the key in the lock.
Speaker 2: Instead moved back into the den and watched I hea
Speaker 2: that belonged on a gopher wearing a battet fedor and
Speaker 2: instinct glasses above a fur colored coat, peeked in, gave
Speaker 2: the place of my epic once over, and headed straight
Speaker 2: for the den. So I stepped out. What he could
Speaker 2: see me.
Speaker 9: I've never seen you before. What are you doing here?
Speaker 2: You tell me first, Pop, I'm bigger than you are.
Speaker 2: And doctor Abraham Softman Softman, Oh, the chemist Shirley Vittello
Speaker 2: works for? Is that why you? And the key?
Speaker 9: Yes, she leaves unfinished. She leaves work here for me
Speaker 9: to pick up. It's a convenience for both of us.
Speaker 9: But now you you can also explain.
Speaker 2: Maybe well, a friend, thanks to your assistance in trouble,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find out the name is mallow Ah.
Speaker 9: I suspected now I am right. Sureley came to the
Speaker 9: laboratory late from lunch today and very much upset. She
Speaker 9: left again soon right in the middle of our most
Speaker 9: important crimson test, our crimson test without one word to
Speaker 9: me she left. Never does this happen before? And all
Speaker 9: the five years she has been my loyal right heat.
Speaker 2: Well, tell me what's the nature of your Researchuth one?
Speaker 9: And we are developing new commercial dyes of such a
Speaker 9: beautiful crimson we have now really surely knows as much
Speaker 9: as I do about.
Speaker 2: All of it.
Speaker 9: With the marlow Was it you who opened the desk door?
Speaker 2: There? No, as I didn't notice it till now. Two
Speaker 2: boxes of thirty two caliber ammunition, nine shells guns on
Speaker 2: the top.
Speaker 9: One she kept a gun there. I've seen it before.
Speaker 9: That's gone too. What kind of trouble needs a gun,
Speaker 9: mister Marlowe?
Speaker 2: Oh, I could think of a few, and they all
Speaker 2: say we better locate Shirley and soon. Now, look, Doc,
Speaker 2: I want to ask you.
Speaker 9: One moment, please, maybe you will know if this means anything.
Speaker 9: I found this under her work table after she left
Speaker 9: this afternoon. Is it maybe something.
Speaker 2: I don't know? Let me see And the reservation I've
Speaker 2: a love from Federal Airlines LA New York Departure eleven
Speaker 2: thirty five s and its made after Ruth Brinton. Ruth
Speaker 2: Who's that?
Speaker 9: Or I don't know how, but she must be something
Speaker 9: to surey. Perhaps this Ruse Burton is the Traubo.
Speaker 2: Early airline numbers. Here? Where's the phone? It's out there? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I got it. M that's in two six one off.
Speaker 8: Good evening.
Speaker 3: Federal Airlines Agent Frederick Stone speaking Frederick.
Speaker 2: Do you have a roof Britain listed on your eleven
Speaker 2: thirty five flights in New York? Oh?
Speaker 3: Just one moment now, so I'll check.
Speaker 2: Oh no, yes, yes we do. Yeah, well, I I've
Speaker 2: got a located Do you have an address or a
Speaker 2: phone number there? Oh?
Speaker 4: No, sir, I do not, And even if I did.
Speaker 2: A boy, Freddie, boy, this is important. I need that information.
Speaker 2: I describe it to me. What does she look like? Oh, dear,
Speaker 2: I'm afraid I can. I must have sold the ticket.
Speaker 5: I'm the only agent on duty, but I just can't
Speaker 5: seem to think we're right?
Speaker 2: Will you think I am? How do you expect me
Speaker 2: to remember seventy five or eighty faces every day? Listen, heaven?
Speaker 2: Don't you think I get confused? Yes?
Speaker 3: Come in here at all?
Speaker 2: Wanting tickets to the guy Fredericks A lock, doc, now, lock,
Speaker 2: do me a favor, stay right here and wait for
Speaker 2: Shirley if she comes back holder. I'm going to look
Speaker 2: up her husband, Gilbert. The first stop was a news
Speaker 2: tan I bought a last turned to page five and
Speaker 2: found that the missing story was on a man identified
Speaker 2: only as Dennik, who'd been hit by a taxi on
Speaker 2: Temple Street to the eight am. The only reason that
Speaker 2: rated two columns was that before he lapsed into unconsciousness,
Speaker 2: he told the ambulance group from the Citizen's emergency hospital.
Speaker 2: But he knew he was going to die and wanted
Speaker 2: to clear his conscience by confessing a crime he'd committed.
Speaker 2: It ended with police as standing by. I drove on
Speaker 2: into Benett Canyon, wondering what kind of a bridget was
Speaker 2: going to take to span the gap between a female
Speaker 2: chemist and a downtown traffic accident. I was still wondering
Speaker 2: when I got the number five. I have ten. All
Speaker 2: I could see if Gilbert Vitello's studio over the brush
Speaker 2: around it was something pseudo Spanish that had been stuck
Speaker 2: under a pizez of vertical real estate by an Optimist
Speaker 2: in the early twenties. The path had been opened from
Speaker 2: the driveway to the house. Since I walked to the door,
Speaker 2: piano music minside got louder, but not better even in
Speaker 2: the long haired circle. That stuff needed a haircut. Hey,
Speaker 2: Heytello backing up them and I we're there.
Speaker 4: What's the meaning of this outburst?
Speaker 2: I'm working and I won't be interrupted. Who are you?
Speaker 2: What do you want? Anyway? It is he mister is mollow.
Speaker 2: Betty Cant has sent me here because she's worried about
Speaker 2: your wife.
Speaker 9: The waitress worried about Cherlie.
Speaker 2: Why she's in some kind of trouble? Have you seen
Speaker 2: it night?
Speaker 4: No? No, no, not since this morning. But that's not unusual.
Speaker 4: I often work late. My music is very demanding. Now
Speaker 4: what gives that waitress the idea that Charlie's in trouble?
Speaker 2: Oh? Wife's reaction to a newspaper story? It's the WIT's
Speaker 2: out of her by a taxi hitting a man named Denneka?
Speaker 4: Anything to you, Denny Shirley worked for the fellow by
Speaker 4: that name once, I believe, But why would that sorry
Speaker 4: frighten her?
Speaker 2: And I was hoping you'd tell me. Do you have
Speaker 2: a gun?
Speaker 4: A little thirty two pistolits at home?
Speaker 2: Why it's gone?
Speaker 7: See here?
Speaker 9: What's this all about?
Speaker 2: Tell me?
Speaker 9: Tell me the truth and be quick.
Speaker 2: About Oh shut up, answer my question.
Speaker 5: Ry.
Speaker 2: My wife was shocked by that, Adam and Denneker. She
Speaker 2: isn't it home, she isn't at Seffman's lab, and has
Speaker 2: n't been all afternoon. And what's more, she's got a gun.
Speaker 2: All I know except for one thing. Who's Ruth Brittany.
Speaker 4: She's a friend of Shirley's from the She's been visiting
Speaker 4: relatives out here.
Speaker 2: Why nothing, Maybe Shirley's got a plane reservation for her,
Speaker 2: that's all, Miss Samlo.
Speaker 4: If that's all you have to offer, Why don't you
Speaker 4: get out of here so I can go to work.
Speaker 4: I'm quite certain if Shelley were actually in trouble, she'd
Speaker 4: come to me if I help, And incidental he tell
Speaker 4: Benny Kazad to take some vitamins or something.
Speaker 9: She's becoming a meddlesome busy buddy.
Speaker 2: You know, there was a quality about Gilbert Vittello that
Speaker 2: made me want to suck him on the temperament with
Speaker 2: the heavy end of his grand piano. And I started
Speaker 2: down the path to the driveway. I forgot about it
Speaker 2: because a pair of headlights slashed through the foliage like
Speaker 2: a giant sid rand away. I could see and watch
Speaker 2: the girl in a brown suit get out of a
Speaker 2: sleek New Hudson and start toward the house, and she
Speaker 2: saw me. She backed the way, then threw me one
Speaker 2: scared look and darted into a side path like a
Speaker 2: jittery coppontail. I followed as fast as I could, but
Speaker 2: it was home ground. A heard in twenty yards. I
Speaker 2: was outclassed. I lost her at the corner of a
Speaker 2: sagging shed and stopped to listen for a footsteps. I
Speaker 2: heard something else, but not in time. The duck.
Speaker 10: Oh oh, oh, moll is that mallow?
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 7: Mala?
Speaker 2: A cock up? Surely, she slugged me.
Speaker 4: I don't believe that you're lying.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm lying. What it's worth to you? Die hard?
Speaker 2: Your wife isn't kidding, she told me personally with a
Speaker 2: blunt instrument. Lay that knee, flat jack, Mister Marlow, did
Speaker 2: you get something? Lumps? How about you? Doctorsftman?
Speaker 9: No nothing come here? Come here? Yeah, no, no one
Speaker 9: has come here. You found out something?
Speaker 2: Have they hear of a guy named Deneka?
Speaker 9: Dok me here, Marris Dennik. Five times in the past
Speaker 9: three years, Marris Denneka in Chicago has beaten me by
Speaker 9: introducing a new die substance or a new process just
Speaker 9: days ahead of me. Five times this happened.
Speaker 2: He's a die chemist too, really good one.
Speaker 9: I admire you.
Speaker 2: Listen, this is beginning to fit like a rubber glove.
Speaker 2: Dennika is in a hospital right here in LA You
Speaker 2: may not live, and he wants to confess to a
Speaker 2: crime here. Look, I'll read it yourself. When Shirley saw
Speaker 2: that story, I throw her into a panic and now
Speaker 2: and only figures one way. Your assistant has been selling
Speaker 2: your new developments for Denneka before you release them. No,
Speaker 2: it is not true.
Speaker 9: Sureley would not do this thing, not to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, Doc, we'll see now. Look, why don't you go
Speaker 2: back to your lab and wait, I'm going to the
Speaker 2: hospital now and do some more fast editions. If it
Speaker 2: comes right. Just don't forget your scientist, will you? I
Speaker 2: would not forget? Now.
Speaker 9: You remember something, mister Marlowe, Two plus two does not
Speaker 9: always make four, especially when you are adding up human.
Speaker 2: Hearts in just a moment.
Speaker 3: The second act of Philip Marlowe, but first Wednesday's Wonderful
Speaker 3: on CBS with Doctor Christian Groucho, Marx Ming Crosby and
Speaker 3: Burns and Allen all coming your way over most of
Speaker 3: these same CBS stations This Wednesday. Brother Bob Crosby visits
Speaker 3: bing Gracie, Allen stumps the income tax experts, Groucho will
Speaker 3: be on hand with his ad libs and teams of opposition,
Speaker 3: and Doctor Christian makes a wily grandmother stick to the
Speaker 3: truth for once.
Speaker 2: So be listing this Wednesday, won't you Now?
Speaker 3: With our star Gerald Moore, we returned to the second
Speaker 3: act of Philip Marlowe and Tonight's story, The Big Step.
Speaker 2: It was twenty stop and go minutes through the snarled
Speaker 2: early evening traffic over to the Citizens Emergency Hospital. All
Speaker 2: the way, I kept hoping that Denica's confession wasn't gonna
Speaker 2: have anything to do with Shirley Vittello. But when I
Speaker 2: was there, standing next to Detective Lieutenant Matthews and filling
Speaker 2: him into date, wrecked that hope up under wishful thinking.
Speaker 2: Our asthenic had already come too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm a little about a half hour ago. He
Speaker 5: didn't say too much much, only something about this woman
Speaker 5: you mentioned is Shirley Vittello and the formula for some
Speaker 5: kind of a bleaching agent. Then he went out again.
Speaker 5: He look this this Fottello girl who currently adds up
Speaker 5: to something very just.
Speaker 2: What does she look like? Oh, blonde, about five four,
Speaker 2: maybe thirty, wearing a dark brown suit nor hat. That's right,
Speaker 2: she's been around ye.
Speaker 5: I spotted her here in the hall about forty five
Speaker 5: minutes ago. I claimed she was a reporter, but she
Speaker 5: didn't make any small talk with the other news hands.
Speaker 5: I got a little suspicious. Just then Deneka came too,
Speaker 5: So I went in there and I came back out.
Speaker 5: She was gone, hey, Malo, you know we can pick
Speaker 5: her up.
Speaker 2: No, I don't, Lieutenant doesn't look so good for her.
Speaker 2: She could be pretty desperate right now, like a quick
Speaker 2: trip to the country, or like words, she's got a gun, Matthews.
Speaker 2: And now with Denika's starting to talk, very little hope left.
Speaker 2: I better be going where, just going, just going, mat
Speaker 2: won't keep in touch. Wait a minute, Look, we have
Speaker 2: a big organization, miss the Mala. We're equipped to handle
Speaker 2: all kinds. We could do almost as good a job
Speaker 2: as you. Just keep that in mind. Where yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad you said almost. It's a long I
Speaker 2: got back into my car and pointed it toward the
Speaker 2: Botello Place on vedroand Avenue again, because I didn't know
Speaker 2: where else I got possibly pick up Shirley's trail. I
Speaker 2: felt like an uncomfortable emptiness was in the pit of
Speaker 2: my stomach. You know, like the guy who stands in
Speaker 2: a street corner and watches an ambulance and turns scrape
Speaker 2: up a traffic victim. He knows he didn't have anything
Speaker 2: to do with it, but that knowledge doesn't make him
Speaker 2: feel any better. Shirley Battello is hit it for troubled,
Speaker 2: bad trouble, and the pathetic little kid that he can't
Speaker 2: who came into my office and started the whole thing
Speaker 2: could get hurt in the process. And I parked in
Speaker 2: front of the place, which, from inside a death lamp
Speaker 2: showed a circle of light the size and color of
Speaker 2: a lemon lifesaver, and the front door was open inches,
Speaker 2: as though somebody had left in a big hurry. I
Speaker 2: walked on ages as far as the door and nudged it,
Speaker 2: and I saw it on the table in the far
Speaker 2: corner of the room, a note propped up against the
Speaker 2: lamp and nothing else. I started toording, I'm behind you,
Speaker 2: no fine thirty two caliber out of the desk drawer,
Speaker 2: no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 7: I don't know why you're mixing the something that's no
Speaker 7: business of yours.
Speaker 2: I'm a private detective working for your friend. Betty can't
Speaker 2: as she's worried about you, Shirley Mallow.
Speaker 7: What's done is done. Betty can't help me. You can't
Speaker 7: help me. Nobody can help me. I stole Softman's work
Speaker 7: and I sold it to Morrows Dennaker. I didn't count
Speaker 7: on a deathbed confession.
Speaker 2: Why'd you do it?
Speaker 7: I love my husband and he he needs money to
Speaker 7: go on with his work.
Speaker 2: Oh Gil puts in on this with you.
Speaker 7: Oh no, no, he isn't. He thought my wages were high.
Speaker 7: That's all. The note I left there on the table
Speaker 7: makes that clear.
Speaker 2: Also, also what said goodbye?
Speaker 7: I love him, Marlow. When I'm gone, you'll have enough
Speaker 7: money to carry on keep the studio that means so
Speaker 7: much to him, and nothing can be taken away from him.
Speaker 7: I've seen to that legal like, just what.
Speaker 2: Do you mean gone, Shirley? How far is gone?
Speaker 7: A long way?
Speaker 2: Marlow? All the way Sue is ha.
Speaker 7: Oh, let's not talk anymore, and don't bother about that phone.
Speaker 7: It's only Gilbert when I pulled up outside here. After
Speaker 7: I came to the mouth and he was home. I
Speaker 7: didn't want to speak to him, so I drove on
Speaker 7: until I came to a phone booth, and then I
Speaker 7: called here and told him to meet me at the
Speaker 7: Saffron Bar. It's no hangout of us.
Speaker 2: Wanted to leave a note for him, but didn't want
Speaker 2: to face him. Is that it?
Speaker 7: Yeah, he'll keep calling on and off for quite a
Speaker 7: while before he comes back here. I figured it would
Speaker 7: be better that way. I didn't want him chasing me.
Speaker 7: See air might give the big lug a cold. It
Speaker 7: always did.
Speaker 10: For mom.
Speaker 7: It looks like it's about time to put you away
Speaker 7: for safe keeping.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, Shirley. I think a phone is a.
Speaker 8: Next time mollow.
Speaker 7: It'll be more than a base. But justice, Fred No.
Speaker 7: The closet set a line and strong. It should hold
Speaker 7: you long enough. Get in, Go on?
Speaker 2: Okay, and it is, baby, But first, what the step
Speaker 2: you're about to take?
Speaker 7: You know all about it. It's a big step in
Speaker 7: the mallow, will save your breath. That wouldn't be any
Speaker 7: happier in prisoner running away, Believe me, not a bit.
Speaker 2: Happier it's so long, Mallow, nobody's home. Surely Vittello was
Speaker 2: mixed up about a lot of things in life, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't include closets, because the one she put me
Speaker 2: in was strong. The lining she called Sita must have
Speaker 2: been hand me down on my plate from a retired
Speaker 2: battle wagon. So all in all, I was forty five minutes,
Speaker 2: ultimately kicking and resting, while the insistent telephone marked the
Speaker 2: five minute intervals for me. But finally it was the
Speaker 2: wood around the lock that gave way. I was out. Hello, Hello,
Speaker 2: what is it all over? Tello? And save your questions?
Speaker 2: Do you hear what I have to say?
Speaker 3: Marlow?
Speaker 2: Where's my wife? She was supposed to meet me here
Speaker 2: at a tip front box said save it now listen,
Speaker 2: my wife's out to kill herself. No, no, yes, tell
Speaker 2: me did you two have a favorite spot out near
Speaker 2: the ocean. I don't care whether you see or not.
Speaker 2: Did you or didn't you?
Speaker 7: Yes?
Speaker 2: Yes, the Rodondo fishing right now. Keep listening to Tello
Speaker 2: and do as I say, come straight home. But do
Speaker 2: as I say, Betello back here and sit tight with
Speaker 2: fingers crossed. I worry about the pier. Goodbye. Second connection
Speaker 2: was broken. I picked up the phone again and dialed
Speaker 2: one one six, got through the police emergency operator, and
Speaker 2: from there to Matthews, who was still at the Citizens Hospital.
Speaker 2: I told him to pick me up in a squad
Speaker 2: con You're ready for a fast ten mile drive to
Speaker 2: the Redondo Fishing Pier. Surely Brittillo was going to kill herself.
Speaker 2: And I got outside and waited the fall longest minute
Speaker 2: of my life, until finally Matthews screeched up to a
Speaker 2: halt and I piled in. We took off siren wide open.
Speaker 2: I'll be less than a minute now. Mollo appears only
Speaker 2: a couple of blocks away. Good. Better have Mooney kill
Speaker 2: that siren, Lieutenant. We want to come in quiet money, okay, lieutenant,
Speaker 2: Well this is a power down on the pier.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Money, pull up here. What do we don't want
Speaker 5: to scare her into something, Matthews.
Speaker 2: That crowd there halfway out on the pier, so there
Speaker 2: is you better drive right up, Mooney.
Speaker 9: Looks like we're too late.
Speaker 2: To We were too late. At the center of a
Speaker 2: circle of the morbidly curious who always stand and gape,
Speaker 2: we found a lying face down and the greasy planks
Speaker 2: of the pier dead she shot herself through the heart
Speaker 2: and the gun and the same thirty two she'd used
Speaker 2: on me was lying next to her. Two bullets gone,
Speaker 2: I explained the easter shot the Matthews huh okay.
Speaker 5: One bullet fired up at her place and the other
Speaker 5: one here. Well, I hope you're satisfied, mollow.
Speaker 2: What do you mean satisfying?
Speaker 5: I mean single handed. You had to leave the cops
Speaker 5: out of it, didn't you. You want to go up
Speaker 5: to veteran af You all buy your lansome.
Speaker 2: Didn't you? You wait a minute, Matthews, I was only
Speaker 2: tiving nuts.
Speaker 5: Only where's an error phone across the streets, the Triple
Speaker 5: Egle cafe, the Troman here's already called.
Speaker 9: A a All right, tell him she can be moved.
Speaker 5: Come on, well, I want to turn in a first
Speaker 5: report on this.
Speaker 2: Only pick us up in the cafe, right little ten okay.
Speaker 5: Shirley Vittello was stealing formulas for those guys from her
Speaker 5: boss and selling him to this Morris Dennecker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was Rosie until Denneka walked out in front
Speaker 2: of a taxi earlier this morning. I put him close
Speaker 2: to death and in the mood to talk. Also put
Speaker 2: Shirley Vittello on the spot. Hey, is that the place
Speaker 2: you want the phone from? Yeah? Yeah, but one thing more, Mollo.
Speaker 2: The girl's motive all the way through. She loved her husband.
Speaker 2: He loved his work her too, Yeah, after his work,
Speaker 2: so since he didn't make any dough, she still to
Speaker 2: keep him going and close to her. There's the phone.
Speaker 2: Fill Come on, William may need you to fill in
Speaker 2: the blanks for me. I said, I heard you, I
Speaker 2: heard you. The phone can wait, Lieutenant, come on over here.
Speaker 2: What I want to talk to that piano player? Player?
Speaker 2: What about it? Tricky Way has a playing Blue Skies? What? Hey?
Speaker 2: But that's all right? You gotta mean leftan there.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I opened a Connegie Hall next week. Don't miss man.
Speaker 2: I'll try not to. It's just terrific what you do
Speaker 2: with that tune.
Speaker 9: You know my own particular arrangement.
Speaker 2: Nobody else's huh oh nobody.
Speaker 9: I've been working on this arrangement for a week.
Speaker 2: That's all I wanted to know. Hey, Mallow, what are
Speaker 2: you getting at the phone? I've heard enough what you said?
Speaker 2: It was Matthews the left of the bar. But what
Speaker 2: time is it? Lieutenant?
Speaker 9: Five after twelve?
Speaker 2: Mallow won witch is switch Matthews. Switch, Yeah, one that'll
Speaker 2: not get bad. Job. You get a load of this.
Speaker 3: Listen, good evening, Federal agent Ed Stowe.
Speaker 2: Listen, Frederick, I'm the party who called before about the
Speaker 2: reservations for Ruth Britain on the eleven thirty five in
Speaker 2: New York. Oh, yes, I remember you. I'll probably never mind.
Speaker 2: It's police business, Freddy. The plain leants drew. Of course
Speaker 2: it did.
Speaker 3: But Miss Britain didn't make it, and she didn't bother
Speaker 3: the call and cancel her reservation.
Speaker 2: Thanks. I've heard enough so far, so good, Matthew. Which
Speaker 2: means what a saffron bar in Hollywood, which means what
Speaker 2: Charlie Rattello didn't commit suicide, Matthew, she was murdered.
Speaker 9: Okay, Phil, where's your man.
Speaker 2: Right there that table against the wall? Come on, Matthews.
Speaker 4: Hawaiian music sentiment of rock degrandation no pollination.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's as bad as all that. Gilbert,
Speaker 2: old boy, Mallow, you.
Speaker 4: Were cop, the most insensitive of all people.
Speaker 2: What would you know about music? Just for the record,
Speaker 2: he's not a cop. My question still stands, what do
Speaker 2: you know about music? As a matter of fact? Not much?
Speaker 2: But you know, I'm fascinated by what they're doing with
Speaker 2: instruments these days. Really, what are they doing that might
Speaker 2: fascinate you? Well, for example, take that picture where the
Speaker 2: score is done by only one instrument, a zither. What's more,
Speaker 2: it doesn't sound like a zip to a trained here,
Speaker 2: it's a You mean you can't make one instrument sound
Speaker 2: like another. Well, for example, a guitar like a piano.
Speaker 9: Don't be ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, wait a minute, not so ridiculous. My
Speaker 2: only the night I heard a guitar that sounded just
Speaker 2: like a piano. Real tricky arrangement. It was due sounded joking. No, no,
Speaker 2: you must have heard it too. It was why we
Speaker 2: were talking on the telephone.
Speaker 3: Telephone, I talk to you?
Speaker 2: Sure you did? You remember you said you were calling
Speaker 2: from here the Saffron Bob. The conversation was being scored
Speaker 2: by the pianist at the Triple Ego Cafe at Rodondo Beach.
Speaker 2: A real tricky arrangement in more way than why I
Speaker 2: didn't need it.
Speaker 9: Alright, watched the rest of it.
Speaker 2: Phil He didn't want to quit his work and spend
Speaker 2: the rest of his life hiding in some forgotten corner
Speaker 2: of the globe, which was her plan. Yeah, as I
Speaker 2: figured it. Once Shirley knew she was finished, she decided
Speaker 2: they should both run for him. He was in on
Speaker 2: what she was doing all along, and the suicideal was
Speaker 2: part of a plan o lead puppy here and innocent
Speaker 2: with the money she got for Shenanigans and framerer own suicide.
Speaker 2: A trailer would lead us to the Redondo Pier, her
Speaker 2: hat and coat floating in the drink, and.
Speaker 5: After a couple of days of searching, we say the
Speaker 5: tide probably carried a body office so close case.
Speaker 2: That's right. In the meantime, she's phone in New Yorker's
Speaker 2: Ruth Brittain and is heading on from there, pubby here
Speaker 2: to join her at a later day.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Finally, Hubby double cross and shut us so he can
Speaker 5: sit tight with the money right here.
Speaker 2: That's it, Matthew, Oh, shut out, wipe and try Matthews
Speaker 2: and take him away. I didn't go along with Matthews.
Speaker 2: I didn't even bother about my car, which i'd left
Speaker 2: in front of the Botello place. I'd had enough for
Speaker 2: one n not the kind of person who hitches wag
Speaker 2: into a star. Only a twink. He saw on the
Speaker 2: horizon was the reflection of a dollar sign. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they were a pair, all right. The battellos Pero finally
Speaker 2: canceled each other up. You know what, I'm glad of it.
Speaker 3: The Adventures of Philip Marlowe bringing you Raymond Chandler's most
Speaker 3: famous Carol, star Gerald Moore, are produced and directed by
Speaker 3: Norman McDonald and are written for radio by Robert Mitchell
Speaker 3: and Gen Leffett. Featured in the cast were Gene Bates,
Speaker 3: Paul Dubob, Billy Janice.
Speaker 2: Edgar Berrier, and Peter Leed.
Speaker 3: The technical Lieutenant Matthews is played by Larry Dubkin. The
Speaker 3: special music is composed and conducted by Richard Urrant. Be
Speaker 3: sureten me with us again next week, when Philip Marlowe say.
Speaker 2: It's time I tangled with a mad scotchman, a phony
Speaker 2: English lord, and a beautiful blonde copse in a freight house,
Speaker 2: all because of a butler who walked on his knuckled.
Speaker 3: How about tying a metal spring around your finger today
Speaker 3: to remind yourself to file your nineteen forty nine income
Speaker 3: tax return as soon as possible. The fifteenth of March
Speaker 3: isn't several miles down the road the way it used
Speaker 3: to be. It's almost at your front door, and you'd
Speaker 3: certainly get us scare if you came home one evening
Speaker 3: to find it sitting right smack in your living room
Speaker 3: saying smugly, well, you forgot to file.
Speaker 2: Your income tax return? What now, little man?
Speaker 3: So why not set aside tonight his income tax night
Speaker 3: and file your nineteen forty nine return. This is Roy
Speaker 3: Rowan speaking. This is CBS, where Burns and Allen are
Speaker 3: heard every Wednesday night, the Columbia Broadcasting SUST. This is
Speaker 3: Andrew J.
Speaker 2: Graham, author of the web surface series Oh and a
Speaker 2: Man In's Wife. You're listening to the Great Detectives of
Speaker 2: Old Time Radio.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Well, we once again hear a naming scheme
Speaker 1: for an episode similar to Dragnet. And I think that
Speaker 1: we heard that on The Saint and I think it's
Speaker 1: fair to say that this is not just a Dragnet thing,
Speaker 1: though it really became associated with them. This is an
Speaker 1: episode also features a kind of interesting reversal of a
Speaker 1: key trope of the hard boiled detective story. It's one
Speaker 1: of those points what will often happen is you will
Speaker 1: see a hard working man let us stray and into
Speaker 1: crime by the demand of a spoiled wife. That's the
Speaker 1: typical trope, and here they turned that sort of trope
Speaker 1: on its head, and it makes for a pretty interesting case.
Speaker 1: And this definitely does continue to be a strong series.
Speaker 1: I definitely appreciated Lieutenant Matthews getting on marlow for getting
Speaker 1: into the police's business. That's realistic, and I think I
Speaker 1: do prefer that over Lieutenant Ibarra's sort of nonchalance about
Speaker 1: the whole thing. All right, Well, onto listener comments and feedback.
Speaker 1: Francis rites in. This is an excellent show from a
Speaker 1: great series. Gerald Moore was such a good actor, and
Speaker 1: playing Marlowe was I think some of his best work. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it was and certainly his most memorable. He often did
Speaker 1: a good work in other series, but I didn't stand
Speaker 1: out necessarily, which I think is part of the nature
Speaker 1: of good character work. All right, Well, we also do
Speaker 1: have a letter from Ronn and Nancy who right, regarding
Speaker 1: their donation. This is a small token of appreciation for
Speaker 1: your broadcast. My husband has them on his iPhone and
Speaker 1: we listen to them as we drive. They make the
Speaker 1: trips between home and our boat or wherever we're going
Speaker 1: past quickly. Recently we listen as we cruised Alaska's inside
Speaker 1: passage from Vancouver to Juno Love Dragnette, Philip Marlowe and
Speaker 1: Johnny Dollar. Each year when Johnny gives a concussion instead
Speaker 1: of getting one, that's definitely a good moment. We enjoy
Speaker 1: all the hard work you do researching too. Has anyone
Speaker 1: counted the roles Virginia Greg did so versatile and believable?
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Ron and Nancy. In answer to the
Speaker 1: Virginia a great question, no one has done a comprehensive
Speaker 1: survey to discover how many appearances she made. Some of
Speaker 1: that is complicated by poor record keeping of the time.
Speaker 1: There are so many shows for which the record is lost,
Speaker 1: and we don't really know who appeared in all of
Speaker 1: these programs. But from what we do know, it is
Speaker 1: a prodigious record of radio productivity. The radiogoldindex dot com,
Speaker 1: whose catalog is by no means complete, tracks fourteen hundred
Speaker 1: appearances by Virginia Greg from nineteen forty two and then
Speaker 1: even into some of the radio revival programs like the
Speaker 1: Sears Radio Theater. Again, that's not a comprehensive database. Dennis
Speaker 1: of the Digital deli FTEP estimates that he has three
Speaker 1: thousand programs featuring Virginia Greg and that certainly seems believable.
Speaker 1: But at any rate, thanks so much for the question.
Speaker 1: And yes, Virginia Greg really was so vital to the
Speaker 1: success of the Golden Age of radio into so many programs.
Speaker 1: When I did my list of Radio's most essential people,
Speaker 1: she was number five on the list. She mostly did
Speaker 1: character roles, but she did so many, and she did
Speaker 1: them so memorably. She was just incredibly vital. I don't
Speaker 1: think the Golden Age of radio would have been the
Speaker 1: same without her. All Right, well, that will do it
Speaker 1: for today. We'll be back tomorrow with an episode of
Speaker 1: Nick Carter, and then join us again next Wednesday for
Speaker 1: another adventure with Philip Marlow. In the meantime, sendra comments
Speaker 1: to Boxen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Facebook dot com, slash Radiodetectives