Speaker 1: The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction thirteen.
Speaker 1: Our play tonight is titled The Dark Hour. It is
Speaker 1: an original radio drama by Charles Bennett and one which.
Speaker 2: We like very much.
Speaker 1: Indeed, we sincerely hope that after thirty minutes heavy laughs,
Speaker 1: you will share our opinion. The production is directed by
Speaker 1: Harry W. Jenkins and stars John Larkin as Paul. Here
Speaker 1: is Radio City Playhouse Attraction thirteen, The Dark Hour. This
Speaker 1: is a story about Paul, Paul Gallagher. It is a
Speaker 1: story about Paul when something happens to him. It is
Speaker 1: the story of the fears and thoughts within him when
Speaker 1: it happened, and it is the story of the voice
Speaker 1: that speaks these thoughts. It is not, we think, an
Speaker 1: ordinary story. Paul won't tell very many people about this.
Speaker 2: I say won't because it hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 1: It is just now beginning to happen.
Speaker 3: Paul, Paul Gallagher, Wake up. Paul.
Speaker 1: Paul is lying on the ground asleep. He is on
Speaker 1: a summer vacation. This afternoon, he went for a walk
Speaker 1: by himself along a dead road that winds through the woods,
Speaker 1: about a mile from his family's summer coffee It's a
Speaker 1: lonely road, never much traffic on it, but Paul knows
Speaker 1: it well. He's been on it dozens of times every
Speaker 1: summer of his life, except while he was away in
Speaker 1: the army.
Speaker 3: Wake up, Paul, open your eyes.
Speaker 1: He has stretched out flat on his back, lying still
Speaker 1: except for his breathing, which is slow and regular and gentle.
Speaker 2: Where is he? Well? After walking a while, he stepped
Speaker 2: off the road.
Speaker 1: Through an opening in the brush, and then to a
Speaker 1: familiar clearing in the wood. It was warm and peaceful,
Speaker 1: and he lay down on his back and gazed through
Speaker 1: the rippling treetops at the patch of blue sky above him, and,
Speaker 1: without meaning to, Paul Gallagher fell asleep.
Speaker 2: That's where he is now.
Speaker 4: Do you hear me, Paul? You are waking up. That's right, Paul,
Speaker 4: move stretch, open your eyes. Listen, Paul, listen deep within you.
Speaker 4: I am you.
Speaker 3: Paul. You've heard me before, haven't you. I am you.
Speaker 3: You'd better wake up, Paul. Do you hear me? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Then open your eyes, Paul, open your eyes. Mhm, what's
Speaker 3: the matter?
Speaker 2: Where am I? Dark?
Speaker 3: Pitch God, pitch dark, call out for help. What's the matter?
Speaker 2: Paul, frightened, only for a moment.
Speaker 3: I remember now, Paul, Remember where you are?
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm lying a little patch of grass and moss
Speaker 2: and the woods right.
Speaker 3: Where you lay down this afternoon, Paul.
Speaker 2: I remember what.
Speaker 3: Time did you go to sleep? Paul?
Speaker 2: Oh? About three o'clock, I guess.
Speaker 4: And now it's pitch dark, black dark, isn't it. Better
Speaker 4: make very sure where you are. Put your hands out
Speaker 4: and feel the ground around you.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's moss and grass all right.
Speaker 3: Well, at least you know where you are.
Speaker 2: Oh, vall this group, all things to do, sleeping all
Speaker 2: this time?
Speaker 3: What time is it, Paul?
Speaker 2: I can't see my watch a match because I haven't
Speaker 2: any matches in summer.
Speaker 4: The twilight lasts until around nine o'clock. It's so dark
Speaker 4: now you can't see a thing.
Speaker 3: Can you?
Speaker 2: Boy? This is one of the books.
Speaker 3: You must have been very tired, Paul.
Speaker 2: Yes, I must have been very tired, tired enough.
Speaker 4: To fall asleep accidentally and sleep for seven hours maybe more.
Speaker 2: No, I was that tired when they discharged.
Speaker 3: You from that army hospital. What did they tell you?
Speaker 2: Oh, that was a long time ago, two yous.
Speaker 3: What did they tell you, Paul?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 3: What did they tell you?
Speaker 2: They said? Take it easy, be careful.
Speaker 3: Why did they say that? Why? Paul? Why Paul?
Speaker 2: I had a rough trip getting up here from my vacation,
Speaker 2: that long hot train ride, sitting up all night for
Speaker 2: two nights. It's very tiring.
Speaker 4: Or maybe it's a change of climate. This fresh northern
Speaker 4: air just knocked you out.
Speaker 2: Yes, that must be it funny, isn't it? Paul?
Speaker 3: Get up? You can't just lie there. Sit up here?
Speaker 4: I am that's right. Brushed the grass and twigged from
Speaker 4: your sweater. What's the matter?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 3: Why are you rubbing the side of your face?
Speaker 2: Paw, skin is all dent. I slipping my face, pressing
Speaker 2: right into the grass. I guess.
Speaker 3: What's the matter, Paul? Why are you rubbing your temple
Speaker 3: with your finger? What's the matter? Pole?
Speaker 2: My scar stinging like a needle. The twide must have
Speaker 2: been digging into it when I was asleep.
Speaker 3: You'd better be getting home.
Speaker 2: Yes, stand up? Yeah, I'm standing.
Speaker 3: What are you waiting for?
Speaker 2: I I don't know which way to go? So dark,
Speaker 2: I've never known to be so dark before. Like, I
Speaker 2: can't even tell where the trees end and the sky
Speaker 2: begins up there.
Speaker 3: Probably it clouded over while you were asleep.
Speaker 2: And that's it.
Speaker 3: You're not afraid of the dark, Paul.
Speaker 4: Think how often you walked home along that road in
Speaker 4: the dark when you were a kid.
Speaker 2: You can do it again, of course I can do
Speaker 2: it again.
Speaker 3: The first thing is to get out of the clearing
Speaker 3: onto the road. Figure it out.
Speaker 2: Let's see, I came in out of the old tree,
Speaker 2: and then the opening must be in this direction.
Speaker 3: Which way, Paul?
Speaker 2: This way?
Speaker 4: Go on, Paul, stretch out your arms in front of you.
Speaker 4: Step forward, step, step step?
Speaker 3: What's the matter?
Speaker 2: I should have reached the edge of the clearing by now,
Speaker 2: one way or another.
Speaker 3: Do you feel anything yet?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Maybe you hit the exit from the clearing right on
Speaker 3: the button the first time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe I did step forward.
Speaker 3: Then what happened?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Somebody slapping in the face.
Speaker 3: Put out your hand and see what it was.
Speaker 2: No, go on, what It's only a leaf, a little
Speaker 2: branch hanging down over my head.
Speaker 3: You missed the opening.
Speaker 2: How am I going to get out of here?
Speaker 4: Suppose a car went by on the road outside the clearing,
Speaker 4: Why then then you would know where the exit is.
Speaker 2: Yes, how often do cars go.
Speaker 3: By on that road?
Speaker 2: It might be hours before one went by. I don't
Speaker 2: want to wait. I want to get out of here. Think, Paul,
Speaker 2: I know what a branch.
Speaker 4: Good, Paul, that's right, Grab it, I'll pull it down.
Speaker 4: Go on, twist it, twist. The branch broke off right
Speaker 4: into your hands, didn't it.
Speaker 3: Now what that's right, Paul.
Speaker 4: Strip off the twigs, the leaves, all of them there.
Speaker 3: Now what have you got now?
Speaker 2: A stick? Now I can feel where I'm going.
Speaker 3: Which way are you going to? Try?
Speaker 2: Left? I think yes? Left?
Speaker 3: Is that the opening?
Speaker 2: Wait? I I'm walking on leaves?
Speaker 3: What does that mean?
Speaker 2: Oh? I must be going into the woods instead of
Speaker 2: bout by the opening.
Speaker 4: And do something like back up, back out of there. Now,
Speaker 4: go on, Paul, to the left.
Speaker 2: Keep at it, Paul, I might go deeper into the woods.
Speaker 3: Keep at it, Paul.
Speaker 2: Wait, wait, I think, why are you stopping, Paul. I've
Speaker 2: made it. I'm out. I'm through the opening up by
Speaker 2: the road. I know what. I can feel it, I can,
Speaker 2: I can. I can feel more space around me.
Speaker 3: Better be sure, use the stick.
Speaker 4: Step forward, Paul, slowly, slowly, slowly, watch out.
Speaker 3: For the well. Paul.
Speaker 4: You had to step over that roadside ditch when you
Speaker 4: went to the clearing before falling asleep. Didn't you remember
Speaker 4: now you saw the water ended in the mud and
Speaker 4: the wet leaves, then didn't you get up?
Speaker 3: Get to your feet? Go on, Paul, there you should
Speaker 3: be standing by the side of the road. Now, stop trembling.
Speaker 2: A ditch and lousy rocking foul misbegotten the cursed ditch, Paul,
Speaker 2: I forgot the ditch, lousy rocking ditch.
Speaker 3: Calm down, Paul, Shake the mud off your clothes. Where
Speaker 3: is your sense of proportion?
Speaker 2: Sure, a blazers isn't my night, is it?
Speaker 3: You'd better get going?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: What are you waiting for?
Speaker 2: Paul? Now? When I was a kid and walked home
Speaker 2: on this road at night, even on the darkest nights,
Speaker 2: the sky was just faintly lighter than the wood. It
Speaker 2: made a sort of canyon of the road that you
Speaker 2: could follow easy. You couldn't see the road, but some
Speaker 2: kind of visual sense let you know what it was.
Speaker 2: But not tonight, Paul, Tonight, tonight, I can't see a
Speaker 2: blessed thing. The darkest night I've ever seen. Its black.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I are you nervous?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I am?
Speaker 3: In what way?
Speaker 2: I don't quite know? I can't quite quite figure it out.
Speaker 3: What do you feel, Paul?
Speaker 2: In my stomach sick?
Speaker 3: Do you feel something strange, something wrong? Have you ever
Speaker 3: felt it before? Paul?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Never?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: How about the war, Paul?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Remember the war? Paul?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: No, yes, yes, Paul, you have felt like this before?
Speaker 2: No? Never?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, Paul, I think think about it? Remember it?
Speaker 2: No? Maybe alone?
Speaker 3: The war, Paul, the war? The war?
Speaker 2: Thank? Yeah, mag listen here, Paul, I'm listened. I how
Speaker 2: never mind? It's nothing?
Speaker 5: Hey, what's eating you?
Speaker 2: You look like you're ready for your shower?
Speaker 5: No, it's nothing, bocking your frame when this lousy trench
Speaker 5: giving you the willies?
Speaker 2: Huh? Well, I say, what is the matter with you? Well,
Speaker 2: it's look mac to me a favor, will you? Yeah,
Speaker 2: here's my wallet and some other stuff. I keep them
Speaker 2: for me, will you? And then if you only, if
Speaker 2: you have to, you know what to do with them?
Speaker 2: Oh no, wait a sec, Paul. Sure, I can keep
Speaker 2: them if you want. But you're just putting the women
Speaker 2: on yourself. Oh no, I just got a feeling that's
Speaker 2: wrong today? Is it the ticket? I wanted the label
Speaker 2: on it and all let junk. I wish I could
Speaker 2: be funny about it, but I just feel so ratting,
Speaker 2: lousy bad. You want to talk to the chaplain lady.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I've talked to him. Thanks. Look at me, Max,
Speaker 2: look right at me.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm scared, but I'm not just scared. I know it's
Speaker 2: gonna happen. I can feel it all through me. Do
Speaker 2: you understand me, mat I know it, know it.
Speaker 3: Oh, steady, Paul, you're still standing by the side of
Speaker 3: the road. Is that the way you feel? Again?
Speaker 2: I'll leave me alone. I don't remember, all right, Paul.
Speaker 2: All right, I've gotta relax.
Speaker 3: You'd better get going, Paul.
Speaker 2: Yes, but how am I going to stay on the
Speaker 2: road if I can't see it?
Speaker 3: Figure it out? What kind of a road is it?
Speaker 2: Why? It's an ordinary dirt road? And yes, yes, I
Speaker 2: see car wheel throw most of the dirt and gravel
Speaker 2: to the side. That leaves hard are bare tracks in
Speaker 2: the center, and all I have to do is feel
Speaker 2: for a hard, bare part with my feet and it
Speaker 2: will be like a track to follow. I feel myself
Speaker 2: walking in loose gravel. I know I'm getting on the
Speaker 2: shoulder off the road. Good for you, Paul, And now
Speaker 2: I'm getting smart. There there's a bare track.
Speaker 3: Turns your right, Paul, start walking.
Speaker 2: Walk, I'm walking.
Speaker 3: Soon you won't have to concentrate so hard on feeling
Speaker 3: the road through your feet. Soon your feet will keep
Speaker 3: to the road almost automatically. Soon you want it? What
Speaker 3: is it, Paul?
Speaker 2: My wound a scar stinging again?
Speaker 3: You're a scar?
Speaker 2: Oh, it's a matic with it anyway?
Speaker 3: Hasn't bothered you for a long time? Has it?
Speaker 2: No? Now it's stinging. It goes right through my head?
Speaker 3: Is that why you're holding your head in your hands?
Speaker 3: Steady ball? What are you thinking of, Paul? The war again?
Speaker 2: Dizzy?
Speaker 3: Why are you thinking of the war again? Paul? And
Speaker 3: you're healthy?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh, dizzy?
Speaker 6: Steady fall, steady fall, steady.
Speaker 2: What time is it, Paul? Three sixteen?
Speaker 7: The two nineteen's supposed to take that hill over there.
Speaker 2: Soon you divide some of the spy from us. Huh yeah, man,
Speaker 2: What time do you say it was three sixteen? What
Speaker 2: time is it now? What comedy? What times do I
Speaker 2: have to tell you? All right?
Speaker 3: Paul?
Speaker 2: Hey, I am who I.
Speaker 3: Walk? Paul?
Speaker 2: I'm walking?
Speaker 3: Are you all right now?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, I'm all right.
Speaker 3: What's the matter with your head? Paul?
Speaker 2: I don't know my wound?
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 2: Trapnel?
Speaker 3: What do you remember about it?
Speaker 2: Remember?
Speaker 3: Yes, don't you remember anything about your wound?
Speaker 2: No, it's all fixed up now.
Speaker 3: Don't you remember the hospital?
Speaker 2: The hospital? Yes?
Speaker 3: What did they do in the hospital?
Speaker 2: Do?
Speaker 3: What did they do?
Speaker 2: They fixed it up? They fixed up the wound.
Speaker 3: Don't you remember what? Where is your wound, Paul?
Speaker 2: My head?
Speaker 3: Where in your head?
Speaker 2: My temple? Where my temple? Say it again, Mike temple.
Speaker 3: Is that a bad place to be wounded for? Is
Speaker 3: that a bad place? Paul? What did they do in
Speaker 3: the hospital, Paul? Do you remember now, Paul? The hospital?
Speaker 3: The hospital?
Speaker 2: Hello you Paul Gallagher, aren't you? That's right? Every time
Speaker 2: I turn overcomes a new nurse. Are you new on
Speaker 2: this ship?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not on the worry Well. Hello, anyway, we're
Speaker 2: ready for your apple? You ready for me? Yes?
Speaker 3: What what?
Speaker 2: Kids?
Speaker 3: Why for your operation?
Speaker 2: Of course? Operation?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, didn't anyone tell you?
Speaker 2: No, no they didn't. So that's what all that fussing
Speaker 2: with me was about last night and this morning. Oh great,
Speaker 2: isn't that just like the army? I'd say, a rotten thing.
Speaker 2: Why do they have to operate? I don't know it's
Speaker 2: practically heal. I thought it was perfectly all right. What's
Speaker 2: the matter with it? Come on, Paul, they're waiting for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, put on your slippers.
Speaker 2: Or isn't it healing properly? What's wrong with it? Nurse?
Speaker 2: Come on, Paul. We can't keep them waiting. Well, can't
Speaker 2: you tell me what's the matter?
Speaker 5: All right, Paul, I'm gonna put this over your face. Yeah,
Speaker 5: we breathe deeply? Take the deep what's this one?
Speaker 2: Doctor?
Speaker 7: Small piece of shrapnel in the temple seemed all right
Speaker 7: at first, and let it feel without taking it out. Readiness,
Speaker 7: danger of pressure on the optic nerve. It's going to
Speaker 7: be a tricky business.
Speaker 5: Any chance of loss of vision a chance?
Speaker 7: Yes, I don't think so. But he could be all
Speaker 7: right tomorrow and then some time later. I just can't
Speaker 7: tell now. Yes, blindness is unlikely, but perfectly possible.
Speaker 2: Any chance lost sub vision?
Speaker 3: Perfectly? Do you remember, now, Paul?
Speaker 2: I must have slept back there with my scar pressing
Speaker 2: on a twigger or small stone or something pressed on
Speaker 2: a nerve. Probably that's what makes it sting.
Speaker 3: So that's probably it dark, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Look up? Paul?
Speaker 3: Look up to the sky. Do you see anything, Paul?
Speaker 2: I already be able to see something, shouldn't I.
Speaker 3: It's uncanny, isn't it.
Speaker 2: No, it's clouded over, that's all. It's clouded over.
Speaker 3: You're all alone in the dark. It feels hollow and
Speaker 3: tight in the pit of your stomach.
Speaker 2: Well, that's natural, that's perfectly natural. Oh, Paul, it's so dark.
Speaker 4: It couldn't be any worse, could it? If you were blind?
Speaker 4: How do you know you're not blind?
Speaker 3: Paul?
Speaker 4: How do you know it's a very dark night. How
Speaker 4: do you know it isn't about four o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 4: How do you know you didn't fall asleep with two
Speaker 4: good eyes and wake up blind?
Speaker 3: What did the doctors say? Why is there a pain
Speaker 3: in your temple?
Speaker 2: Oh? I'm crazy, I'm absolutely crazy.
Speaker 3: On the other handful, why should you be blind?
Speaker 2: The doctors they said it was possible, didn't they did?
Speaker 3: They say it was probable?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Why shouldn't it be a dark night?
Speaker 2: It could be?
Speaker 3: Why shouldn't you sleep several hours?
Speaker 2: I was very tired.
Speaker 3: It's not very likely that you're blind, is it.
Speaker 2: No, it's not very likely.
Speaker 3: Figure it out? Then, what haven't you done all this time?
Speaker 2: What haven't I done?
Speaker 3: Your ears?
Speaker 2: My ears?
Speaker 3: Yes, listen, what's that?
Speaker 2: Just the breeze and the trees up there and that
Speaker 2: crickets and insects?
Speaker 3: What about birds?
Speaker 2: Birds?
Speaker 3: If you heard birds singing, it wouldn't be nighttime, would it.
Speaker 3: What was that? What didn't you hear it? Sounded like
Speaker 3: a robin, didn't I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe there was that a crawl.
Speaker 3: Birds don't sing in the heat of the day. It
Speaker 3: might still be too hot at four in the afternoon,
Speaker 3: So even if you don't hear birds, it might be daytime.
Speaker 3: Do you feel the warm sun?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yes, are you sure? Yes? No, No,
Speaker 2: it's not warm.
Speaker 3: Listen? Was that a squirrel?
Speaker 2: Where now there's a robin? I think so? No, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I didn't hear anything, the squirrel chattering.
Speaker 3: Don't you hear it?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You're listening too hard.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You
Speaker 2: don't know what you Oh, dear God, please what?
Speaker 3: Pull yourself together?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: So letting it get you down? Race up, Paul.
Speaker 2: Whether you're blind or not, I'm not blind.
Speaker 3: You've got to get home.
Speaker 2: I'm not blind.
Speaker 3: No. But suppose suppose you.
Speaker 2: Were, Paul, I'm not. It's just it's just my imagination.
Speaker 3: Then stop thinking about it, stop.
Speaker 2: Thinking about it, and start walking. I'm walking.
Speaker 3: You're not blind. Force yourself to stop thinking about it.
Speaker 2: Don't think about it.
Speaker 3: Your mind is whirling. Stop thinking about it.
Speaker 2: Stop thinking.
Speaker 3: Stop thinking about it.
Speaker 2: God, don't let me be blind, Please, please don't let
Speaker 2: me be stopped.
Speaker 3: Listen? What is it? Listen? Do you hear.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, I hear it.
Speaker 3: Do you know what it is?
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a car. Where is it? Way? Way off
Speaker 2: in the woods ahead of me?
Speaker 3: Is it coming this way or going away?
Speaker 2: It's coming this way?
Speaker 3: No, now you know?
Speaker 2: Yes, Now I'll get off the road.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's coming closer, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: Wait for it.
Speaker 2: I'm waiting.
Speaker 3: It's coming closer now, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Yes? Closer?
Speaker 3: What do you expect to see?
Speaker 2: Headlights?
Speaker 3: You see a glare in the sky? Yet?
Speaker 2: No, no glare?
Speaker 3: Why not, Paul? Why not?
Speaker 2: I don't know why?
Speaker 3: No glare?
Speaker 8: Paul?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Curves curves in the road ahead?
Speaker 3: When will you see the lights fall?
Speaker 2: Soon?
Speaker 3: Wait?
Speaker 2: Yes? Wait?
Speaker 3: How soon?
Speaker 8: Paul?
Speaker 2: Very m h How soon?
Speaker 3: How soon?
Speaker 2: How soon. What is the fool doing driving on a
Speaker 2: pitch dark night like this without lights?
Speaker 8: The food, the idiot driving without lights, idiot, no lights,
Speaker 8: no lights, no light.
Speaker 2: It's still broad daylight, isn't it all this time? It's
Speaker 2: been daylight?
Speaker 3: M hm?
Speaker 2: Please help, please please, I'm blind.
Speaker 1: And that is the story of Paul Gallagher. You have
Speaker 1: just heard Charles Bennett's The Dark Hour Attraction thirteen on
Speaker 1: Radio City Playhouse. John Larkin was heard as Paul Alan
Speaker 1: Stephenson is the voice within him. Other players included Eugene,
Speaker 1: Francis Headley, Rennie and Helen Choked. With this performance, Radio
Speaker 1: City Playhouse rings down its curtain for the time being,
Speaker 1: but we hope to be back on the again on
Speaker 1: a near future over most of these NBC stations, so
Speaker 1: please watch for the announcement of our return. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: staff of Radio City Playhouse, our producer, Director Harry W. Youngin,
Speaker 1: our composer conductor doctor Roy Shield, sound technician Jerry McGee,
Speaker 1: our skillful and resourceful engineer Monroe Jay Lawrence, and our
Speaker 1: supervisor Richard P. McDonough all join and saying thanks to
Speaker 1: you were your many wonderful letters, telegrams and phone calls
Speaker 1: expressing your appreciation of our efforts. You've been very nice
Speaker 1: to work for. Next Saturday Night, Hollywood Star Theater returns
Speaker 1: to the air. The morning show will star a talented
Speaker 1: and lovely young Hollywood actress, Marissa O'Brien. She will be
Speaker 1: introduced to you by her niece, a young lady known
Speaker 1: in love by millions of theater gores. Miss Margaret O'Brien.
Speaker 1: Hollywood Star Theater will be heard over most of these
Speaker 1: NBC stations next Saturday Night. This is Lionel Rico speaking,
Speaker 1: and this is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.