Speaker 1: Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're
going to bring you our four thousand, seven hundredth episode special.
But first, I do want to encourage you, if you're
enjoying the podcast, to follow us using your favorite podcast software.
Today's program is brought to you in part by the
financial support of our listeners. You can become one of
our ongoing Patreon supporters at Great Detectives dot net for
as little as two dollars per month. The thought process
behind today's special is actually pretty simple. I had listened
to a few episodes of The Chase recently and I thought,
you know, it has been a long time since we
featured an episode of The Chase, and I checked, and
we played an episode of The Chase back in twenty fourteen,
and that's all we've done. The Chase was a series
created by Lawrence Klee, who also had created the series
The Clock, and honestly, some of the episodes I've heard
of The Chase were very similar to that series. The
way the series was presented to the public, it was
NBC's attempt to have a competitor to CBS's big anthology
programs like Escape. Some of these stories are adventure, some
are a bit more supernatural. There are also a few mysteries,
and I'm so glad to share one of those with you.
So here from August fourteenth, nineteen fifty two is the
episode the Amusement Park.
Speaker 2: The National Broadcasting Company invites you by transcription to join
the chase. In the animal world, there is the hutter
and the hunted hound, and fox, hawk and sparrow, cat
and mouse. We on the topmost species have also joined
the hunt. But who is to judge precisely which of
us are hounds or foxes? As we had her let chase.
Speaker 3: Hey lucky for Hey, looky, step right up and buy
your tickets.
Speaker 4: Fire the strip.
Speaker 3: Hey, looky, hey, looky, step right up and buy your ticket.
Speaker 4: Fire the strip.
Speaker 5: One for young And.
Speaker 6: Oh, I did it again, Kathy put both those last
two candles.
Speaker 4: I was just two shots.
Speaker 2: You bad.
Speaker 5: We don't have prizes at this gallery. Mister, you'd clean
me out.
Speaker 4: I told you my name was Bob. How many shots
have I got left from my quarter?
Speaker 5: Three?
Speaker 4: I think, Oh, light up those candles again and watch
them get knocked.
Speaker 5: Out you're a regular one man fired apartment. Don't you
want to try for those tin ducks of the clay
pipes there?
Speaker 4: Light up the candles, Kathy, I'm a specialist.
Speaker 5: How'd you find out my name?
Speaker 4: I wasn't too hot. I went over to Madame loranda'sa
the fortune telling booth, and made a bet with him
about me. I better half a dollar.
Speaker 5: Your name was Melinda and Maral Laranda told you my
name was Kathy.
Speaker 4: I had too to collect a half dollar, but I
told you for free that my name was Bob. Whch
you ever gonna use it?
Speaker 7: Excuse me, Bud?
Speaker 4: Kathy?
Speaker 7: Can you get the stand closed up and come over
to Adam's office for a minute? Closed there's been a
little trouble. The boss wants you to confirm a statement
he's making.
Speaker 6: Wait a minute, Kathy, you I won't have to go
to all the trouble at closing up. I can mind
the concession for you if this won't take too long.
Speaker 4: This kid a friend of yours, Kathy.
Speaker 5: Well, yes I know him, but I okay.
Speaker 7: We'll get your bills out of the register and let
him take over. The worst he can do is fire
off a few free shots. It look better if the
place days.
Speaker 5: Opening me, Bob, you're sure you don't mind?
Speaker 4: Run along, Kathy. It'll be a pleasure to hold a
ford for you.
Speaker 7: One thing, kid, anybody asks, you don't start saying there's
been trouble.
Speaker 4: It's all over.
Speaker 7: We don't want to start stampeding any of this Saturday
night crowd.
Speaker 4: You got that straight.
Speaker 6: No, I'm not even asking what the trouble is, am I.
If it'll help Kathy out, that's all I have to know.
Speaker 5: Thanks, Bob. I'll try to be back as fast as
I can.
Speaker 4: Let's go, Kathy, Tipper.
Speaker 5: This must be real trouble. I can tell oh.
Speaker 7: I wouldn't call it real trouble, Kathy, at least not
for anybody but old Uncle Billy.
Speaker 5: Uncle Billy, that poor old man is not off on
a bender again.
Speaker 7: Old Billy's done all the drink and he's ever gone
to do. We fished him out of the water and
the Tunnel of Love about half an hour ago, out
of it, drowning the doctor in two feet of water.
The doctors gave up trying to bring him around, and
there's an ambulance waiting on the side alley to take
him to the morgue.
Speaker 5: Oh and you said there was just a little trouble.
Speaker 7: We're all sorry about it, but well, as Adam says,
we've still got a Saturday night crowd here. Billy had
to get blind drunk and go stumbling into the tunnel.
Is that any reason for spailing Saturday night for all
the hundreds of customers here?
Speaker 5: Is it the customer's feelings? Adam is concerned about her.
The cash registers that wouldn't ring if this news got around.
Speaker 4: I'll take it easy, kid, take it easy. There's a
cop over in the office.
Speaker 7: All he wants is to have Myra, Loranda, You and
a couple of more us back up with Adam told
him about Billy always hitting the bottle and having a
weak heart. Here we can go in the side door
that about in the front.
Speaker 4: Is this the man you knew as William Connery, Miss.
Speaker 5: Owens, Yes, we all n him his uncle Billy Officers.
Speaker 4: Okay, his name was Connery. We got that pin down.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 8: You didn't know him before he came here to do
odd jobs around the park for mister Sadlick here. No,
you don't know of any relatives he might have.
Speaker 5: You never talked about any at least next to me.
Speaker 8: But you did know him pretty well. Your boss says
you were kind of a favor of the old man.
Speaker 5: Yes, I always liked him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he got drunk every Saturday night? Regular, didn't he
real drunk?
Speaker 5: Billy never heard anybody but himself, and if he did
take a few drinks once in a while.
Speaker 4: Just answered Officer Keio's questions.
Speaker 5: Can't well, Adam, it's not fair with poor Billy Liner.
Speaker 9: The officer has his report to make, Kathy, and he's
only trying to confirm it.
Speaker 8: We all know happened, Thanks, mister sadlick. The old guy
could really tie one on, couldn't he? Miss Owens get those?
He didn't know whether he was coming or going.
Speaker 5: Yes, I've seen Billy with too much, Officer, but I
saw him about two hours ago when I went over
to get something to eat, and I'm not sure he
was drinking at all tonight. What do you mean, Well,
he was worried about something he'd found. He started to
ask me about it and then said I probably wouldn't
know either, with just some scrap celluloid he had in
a blue tobacca can.
Speaker 8: A blue tobacco can like this one.
Speaker 5: Yes, I'm almost sure that's the can he had, and
he didn't seem as if he'd been drinking.
Speaker 8: Mister Sadlick here tells me the can was empty when
they found it on him after fishing him out of
the water. You sure the old guy wasn't just kidding you,
Miss Owens.
Speaker 5: Of course, I don't really know whether it has anything
to do with it.
Speaker 4: Thanks very much, Kathy. You've confirmed with Officer Key. Oh
want to know if there any minor loose ends. Officer
Your people can get to him to many, can't they?
Speaker 8: Well, I suppose I have got enough for this preliminary report,
seeing as we got the doctor's findings to back it up.
Speaker 4: You're all squared away.
Speaker 9: The body can be moved out quietly the morgue with
no further trouble for anybody. All right, Kathy, you can
get back the shooting gallery now and I'll let you
know about the funeral plans and we get them worked out.
Speaker 10: Let Madame Mirande for tell your future folks.
Speaker 5: Seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, I lift the veil
that hides the days and nights ahead. Will you be rich?
Speaker 4: Will you be lucky in love?
Speaker 5: Will you be both or fifty cents.
Speaker 4: You can know, not.
Speaker 10: Fifty dollars, not even five fifty cents, folks, for a
preview of your own future?
Speaker 5: Can I see for a second? Oh?
Speaker 10: Oh, Kathy, how anybody the looks of this crowd? I've
got all the time in the world. Sit down, make
like a customer. Maybe that'll get him started.
Speaker 5: No, I've got to get back to my stand. But well,
there's something I want to ask you about Uncle Billy. Oh,
I didn't know you knew yet, Kathy. I was afraid
you'd be broken up with Myra. You remember last week,
after that second big mystery fire downtown, you were telling
us something about scrap celluloid and paraffin wicks. Can you
tell me again what it was you said about celluloid?
But what's this got to do with old Bill Kungley?
That's what I'm trying to find out. Billy found some
scrap celluloid somewhere earlier tonight.
Speaker 10: And Kathy, you're not trying to say you think old
Uncle Billy was a firebug.
Speaker 5: Of all the people in the world who wouldn't go
in for ars, Myira, you said, the firebug who's been
setting those big downtown fires probably you celluloid and paraffin wicks.
Celluloid because it burns fast and doesn't leave ash or odor,
and paraffin wicks before that to get Kathy child, have
you lost your mind? Poor old Bill was drowned, not
burned to death. Thanks Myra, I'll explain later. I've got
to see Adam Sadwick again. Fast. Adam, you've got to
call the police in again and clear the park.
Speaker 4: Dick it easy, Kathy, what's this all about?
Speaker 5: I'm not sure now that Uncle Billy wasn't murdered, and
if he was, I think I know why.
Speaker 4: Wait a minute, where'd you get this wild idea?
Speaker 5: You know the pipe tobacco Billy always used. Well, it
doesn't come in.
Speaker 4: A blue can, all right, maybe it doesn't.
Speaker 5: There was scrap cellulard in that blue can when Billy
showed it to me, and that could mean that Billy
found signs of that firebug getting ready to operate here.
The same firebug is that those two big fires downtown
last week? And Adam, if it is the firebug, and
if he's out there somewhere in that crowd waiting for
his chance to touch the place off, it will Kathy?
Speaker 9: Perhaps, oh, Adam you will tomorrow or Monday at the
coroner's in quest. You can call us homicide, attempted ours
and anything you like. And if the cops want to
have another quiet look around, I'll cooperate all away. But
I know they won't find anything, so I'm not letting
you go off half cock tonight.
Speaker 5: You can't really stop me, Adam. I could phone the
police right now, and.
Speaker 9: Yeah, haven't a wrap of evidence. Get back here gallery, Cathy,
forget all this nonsense about a firebug, be it loose,
but there.
Speaker 5: Is a firebug loose, loose and operating all through this area.
You've seen about it in the papers yourself.
Speaker 9: I saw where a girl has herself tripless last night
at the hospital over town. That mean I have to
open an emergency maternity clinic here next to the roller coaster.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 4: The thing to remember, Kathy, A thing.
Speaker 5: I'll remember, Adam, is that I don't think Uncle Billy
was drinking it all tonight and he was trying to
find out about that celluloid.
Speaker 6: Hi, Kathy, that was a pretty long ten minutes. But
I took in four fifty for you four seventy five,
as a matter of fact, because I owe you a
quarter for another clip I shot off myself.
Speaker 4: How's that for your new partner? Huh?
Speaker 5: Thanks, Bob, it was wonderful. Are you to stand by
for me?
Speaker 4: It was a pleasure. You'll find the money there in
the register, and if you want, I'll start replacing those
clay pipes last couple knocked off.
Speaker 5: Thanks for I think I'll be closing up the gallery now.
Speaker 4: Closing up. It isn't past ten thirty.
Speaker 5: Yet, I know, but there's something I have to do.
Speaker 4: Hey here, let me help you with those shutters. What
is it you have to do? All of a sudden, Kathy.
Speaker 5: I have to find a man who may be somewhere
in the.
Speaker 4: Park, A man I suppose I shouldn't ask about him.
Speaker 5: This isn't anybody I know, Bob, or anybody I want
to know. But if he's here, I have to find him.
Speaker 6: Look, Kathy, cut me down if I'm out of line.
But I was hoping you'd let me take you out
for a while after you finished you tonight.
Speaker 5: That's sweet of you, but not tonight because.
Speaker 4: Of this man you've got to find.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that closes the place up, Yes, Bob. Because of
this man I've got to find at least try to
find I don't.
Speaker 4: Get it, Kathy. Didn't you say it was someone you
don't know and don't want to know.
Speaker 5: That's right. I think he's a piratemain. Isn't that what
they call a firebug? Man likes to start fires?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 5: Sure, And what's more, I think he may be a murderer.
Speaker 4: Oh wait a minute, Kathy. We don't know each other
very well yet. But if you think i'd let you
or any girl go off alone in search of the
kind of trouble you're talking about.
Speaker 5: It all right, then Bob, you can come along with
me if you want. You really mean that, well, I'd
probably need some help anyhow, if I ever caught up
with this man. And since Adam and Tipper Trask won't
believe me.
Speaker 4: Kathy watched this all about.
Speaker 5: Well, Bob, a harmless old man was drowned here tonight,
and I think he was knocked out first or held
under the water till it happened, because I think he'd
found a man putting celluloid or kerosene where it could
threaten every building here in the park.
Speaker 10: And the thing I mean to find out, all right, honey,
if you have to know, I'll tell you. But I
think you and this nice young man ought to be
off dancing somewhere instead of plaguing me about arson wicks.
Speaker 4: That's what I've been trying to tell Kathy, Madame Miranda,
but she won't listen.
Speaker 5: Just describe the wicks again for me, Mara, I want
to be sure we'll know what they look like.
Speaker 10: Well, you could call it a very fancy way of
playing with matches, Kathy. You see, the idea of the
thing is to give the firebugs some clear getaway time
before the fire actually breaks out. If you took any
kind of a lamp wick or rolled up piece of
cloth about well as long as this pencils say, and
soaked it in taro or a paraffe.
Speaker 4: Or bacon faed. If you don't have any paraffine.
Speaker 10: Well yes, I suppose nearly any kind of grease would do.
The thing to do, Kathy, once you have some wicks
is to time one or two samples for their burning time.
Then you put a collar of matches in one end,
sewing a tabium on just belly enough to hold so
they'll pop out every which way when the wick burns
up to the matches.
Speaker 5: A lot of matches fastened on dozens of them.
Speaker 10: Then if you set this wick near a pileup scrap
celluloid a waste paper somewhere under some dry wooden shelves
or crates where if I can get a good star.
Speaker 5: Thanks Mar. I'm pretty sure we'll know what to look
for now.
Speaker 6: I think if the guy exists, and if he did
look in here earlier tonight, and if he had any
kind of sense, he'd be miles away by now.
Speaker 2: Bob.
Speaker 5: If our man taught the way normal people do, he
wouldn't be what he is. Are you coming with me
to have a look around the park or not?
Speaker 4: I'll tag along till you give up, Kathy, And then
I still think we ought to be reconsidering that late
date I asked.
Speaker 10: About Kathy one fifty cents worth of fortune telling for free.
Speaker 5: I'll go ahead, Marra, make fun of me some more.
Speaker 10: No, no, honey, I'm not making fun of you now.
I say, if you think you've got anything, go out
and get some law in on it, whatever Adam says.
If you don't, you could well you could be taking
on more than your booin.
Speaker 5: For Thanks Mar. But I'm still gonna have my look around.
Speaker 4: We're gonna have our look, Kathy, I told you I've
signed up for the duration. Except just remember there's supposed
to be a mighty fine moon coming up around midnight.
Speaker 3: Hey, look at hey, Okay, buy your tickets by this strip.
A thrill for young and old and every ageing between.
You can't take it with you and hold on to
And it's Saturday night at Adam's Paradise.
Speaker 5: Hey, Bob, Bob, look at that man just over beyond
the merry ground. Well there he's standing, half hidden by
that poster board.
Speaker 4: Oh oh, sure, I see him now, what's special about him?
Speaker 5: But don't you see what he's doing? That's the hose
outlet leading down from one of the three emergency water
tanks in the.
Speaker 4: Park, Bullet, and he's trying to turn that thing on,
isn't it perse he is?
Speaker 5: And it's marked hands off as plenty as you could ask.
Speaker 4: Why would he be?
Speaker 5: He could be trying to drain off all the extra
water pressure to hurt the fire fighting later.
Speaker 4: Come on, wait a minute, Kathy, shouldn't we wait?
Speaker 5: No, we gotta stop him, Bob, come on, Hey, what
do you think you're trying to do? Mister? Don't you
know you're not supposed to fall around with those water tanks.
Speaker 4: Well, what do you know?
Speaker 7: What do you know?
Speaker 4: You folks thirsty? To is that what you think? That
thing is? A drinking fountain?
Speaker 11: I don't know what it is, except they ought to
have some water in it. If they don't have any
fountains around they.
Speaker 5: Have, there's one just over by the roller skating right there.
Speaker 11: Well, thank you, late, thank you. Didn't see how I
was gonna get this open without her and chennyhow you
say it?
Speaker 10: So there by the.
Speaker 5: Skating rink, Yes, you can see it from here by
those benches, so.
Speaker 6: You can, so you can watch me go over and
drink and ride. Well, that lets him out, doesn't the Cathy?
He's heading straight for the drinking Wait.
Speaker 5: Let's watch him for a minute. You could have been
making that up about it, Not that.
Speaker 4: Character, Kathy. Look at him. He's got a grip on
the fountain now, and he's drinking away like a camel
back from a ten day desert run. He's really thirsty.
Speaker 5: Yes, admit it looks that.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what, Kathy. We've been patrolling around out
for nearly an hour. Let's have one ride on the
roller coaster here before we start again.
Speaker 5: Huh, but we won't be able to watch people in
the croub.
Speaker 4: From up there, you'll be able to see the whole park,
and it'll give our feet arrest. Okay, just one ride?
Speaker 5: Well I suppose one ride won't lose this too much?
Speaker 4: A girl, let's go.
Speaker 5: Having fun, Kathy, Bob, I really think we should refasten
these safety billfoy, do you.
Speaker 4: Want to take all the throw out of it? Only
real excitement on these is taking a chance.
Speaker 5: Hang on, Bob. This drops wig again, then takes a
hard turn at the bottom.
Speaker 4: Right. I'll just hang on to you, Kathy. He's the
best breeze we've had all night.
Speaker 5: Let's hold my head. I can't hold the bar.
Speaker 4: Okay, but what's your up with no hands? Look, I'm
not holding on, Bob.
Speaker 5: You'll be thrown out of the car.
Speaker 4: Watch me. I used to stand up in these threats.
Speaker 10: Get here, you, Kathy.
Speaker 4: What you say?
Speaker 5: Don't lean against me, You'll push me out of the car.
Get down, don't you tore on?
Speaker 4: Knock you down? You want to get yourself here? That
man is right.
Speaker 5: It's how many fastness? Thank you about again? Here comes
the last turn.
Speaker 4: Golly, Kathy, I do owe you an apology. Always get
to kick out of these roller coasters. But I certainly
didn't mean to be reckless about it.
Speaker 5: I'm sure you didn't realize it, Bob, but you did
almost have us in danger back there. At least you
almost had me in danger. That man behind us hadn't
spoken up when he did a couple of minutes there.
Speaker 4: I guess I was acting like a ten year old, Bob.
What is it, Kathy, Bob?
Speaker 5: I just noticed something. You see the back of the
Tunnel of Love building over there, Tunnel of Love, the
place where Uncle Billy's body was found. From the ground,
I wouldn't have remembered how closely it backs up to
the old House of Fun. But from up here on
this platform you can see that there's only a narrow
alley between them.
Speaker 4: I can see a lot of old wooden buildings down together.
Speaker 5: You realized before that House of Fun building has been
closed for two seasons, and of course it would be
target number one for anybody who wanted to start a
bad fire here.
Speaker 4: Oh, read back on that again, back.
Speaker 5: On it, Bob, and I think this time we may
be near an answer. Come on, we're having a look
inside there. What a break into an old junk room
like this, someone did no longer go than the night well.
You saw how that door nearest the tunnel of love
had been forced open.
Speaker 4: If it hadn't been, we wouldn't have been able to
get in ourselves. But I still don't see what anybody
would be wanting in this dusty old barracks, except maybe
some kids.
Speaker 5: This is exactly the kind of a place the fire
bugle to hope for, didn't you see it, Bob? See
what get a firewell started here in the whole park
could go up before they got it under control. It's
a fire travel right, I'll grant you that. From a narcist.
It's even better than that, Bob. Almost anywhere else on
the grounds of fire might be no before it got
very far, but here it could be roaring up before
anybody even knew it was starting.
Speaker 4: Oh, Kathy, I didn't want to say this before because
I was hoping you give up on this obsession after
a session, Yes, obsession. I was hoping you'd give up
on it and we could go out tonight. If you're
going to waste the whole evening poking around in places
like this, what are you.
Speaker 5: Trying to say, Bob, that you think, as the others do,
that this is a crazy notion I have about Uncle
Billy discovering the firebug at work here.
Speaker 4: You keep saying firebug, Kathy. You think a man with
courage and brains enough to burn up a whole warehouse
or apartment building and get away with it as someone
to brush off with a ridiculous name like that.
Speaker 5: Bob, he wouldn't be defending a man crazy enough to know.
Speaker 4: I wasn't trying to defend him. I just think you
ought to remember there might be two sides to everything.
Speaker 5: Robi almost frightened me. You seem bent on taking this
maniac's part, and a moment ago you were denying that
there could be any such man.
Speaker 4: Kathy, I, I guess this is my night for arguing
around in circles. All I really want is to get
out of this place pretty soon and get started on
our plane, old fashioned Saturday night date, just the two
of us, with no complications at all.
Speaker 5: But Bob, I've almost enough now to prod Adam into action.
This old house of fun broken into at the door
nearest the back of the tunnel of love, and Bob
looked there, What there there? Were my flashlights pointing? Isn't
that a pile of scrap celluloid next to that stack
of old empty crates?
Speaker 4: Let's have a look.
Speaker 5: Come on, oh, Bob, it is, and look at all
the old excelsior crammed into these crates. This is where
the fire was supposed to be started.
Speaker 4: Wait a minute, Kathy, this looks pretty careless here, I'll admit,
But how do we know that excelsior wasn't just some
packing material for whatever came in the crate?
Speaker 5: This celluloid was brought in here. There's never been anything
like it around the park. This is where the fire
was to start. Bob, all arranged and ready for the
candle or the arson.
Speaker 4: Wick You know, Kathy, I I guess this is the
end of the trail. You've been the only one here
at the park smart enough to suspect what was planned
for tonight, and now you've nearly proved it all the way.
Speaker 5: No, it won't be the end of the trail until
we catch the firebug. But this means we can call
the police in and get started, and we'll just have
to forget his Saturday night business when we show him this.
Speaker 4: Kathy, what makes you think your boss will even know
about this.
Speaker 5: But we'll go and tell him now, of course, will we, Bob,
what's the matter with you?
Speaker 6: Of course you don't think it'd be a pity to
spoil what could be one of the best fires and
years around here, all these wooled wooden buildings that had
go sky high in flames, if just one little match
were dropped here and they cell you.
Speaker 5: Logob, you've been the one all along.
Speaker 4: Where'd you think you were going, Kathy risk? Wouldn't that
be pretty foolish of me? Kathy, now that you know
as much as you're doing, you're.
Speaker 5: The firebug'll kill old Billy when he found you getting
set up here.
Speaker 4: That all fool came looking for trouble and he got it.
I didn't mind about him, but but I'm really going
to be sorry about you, Kathy. I wasn't fooling before
when I said that I'd go for you.
Speaker 6: How ihead scream your head off with a couple of
hundred women out screaming on the roller coaster on every
ride in the park, do you think anyone's gonna hear you?
Speaker 5: You couldn't be crazy enough to think you could get
away with tumors.
Speaker 4: If I thought I could trust you, Kaffe, I'd much
rather take you along with me when I clear out
of here. Oh no, I don't try to twist away
and get it. I'd like to take you along, but
I've learned there's only one person in the world I
can depend on, and that's myself.
Speaker 5: Who wanted to push me out of the roller coaster.
He knew even then that you'd have to try to
get rid of me.
Speaker 4: You happen to be the only one around here with
bad ideas about that old watchman, And was my luck
to find that out when all I'd actually looked you
up for was to try for a date.
Speaker 5: What's that you're taking out of your pocket?
Speaker 4: A handy little device you heard badly described by our
friend Madame Miranda. A much better, when I promise you,
than any of the old woman ever heard about. It's
one O'll burn for exactly nine minutes before it sets off.
To tell you, Lloyd, time enough for me to take
care of you and get all the way out of
the park before this building starts going up.
Speaker 5: Are insane?
Speaker 4: Aren't you call? It? Different from most people? Kathy? As
different as a smart wolf from a flock of tame,
brainless sheep. Wait a minute now, and I set this
down here by the cell, you lord, where I can
get at it with one hand. Excitement happens to be
my pleasure. Kathy, you and all the rest of the
sheep are the ones who slave away and build the buildings.
But I'm the lone wolf who can burn them down
with one scratch of a match like this. Now, I
just get my nine minute wick started.
Speaker 10: Look, Adam, I don't care if you've got six hundred
or six thousand customers milling around out there.
Speaker 4: I'm worried about Kathy.
Speaker 9: Okay, we'll put a report to the office announcement on
the amplifier, and I'll throw Tipper and all the spare
of hands we've got on it.
Speaker 10: Thanks, Adam, But I want you to come out on
this with me yourself, if you'd only listen to Kathy
to start.
Speaker 9: Okay, Okay, I'll trail along, will you, Mayra, where'd you
figure to start looking?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 10: I think there are just three places in the park
where Kathy might not be able to keep everything under control.
Speaker 4: Done by the water where the boardwalk's being.
Speaker 10: Repaired, that one, or down the basement of the power plant,
or anywhere in the old House of fun.
Speaker 9: Let's try the power plant first. If any trouble ever
started there, it could be plenty bad. Three of the
nine minutes gone, Kathy made your mind up.
Speaker 5: Yet you haven't given me much of a choice.
Speaker 4: Bob, That's all I can afford to give you. In
six minutes, those matches will be popping off into the celluloid,
and I've got to be out of here, in a
couple of miles away by then. How which way do
you want it?
Speaker 5: It just knocked out and left here to burn.
Speaker 4: Or really dead before I go. If you don't like
the idea of fire, I've been making fast and pretty painless.
You'd keep from twisting while I use this knife.
Speaker 5: I suppose there's no use.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I can't take you with me.
Speaker 6: Even if you pretended you wanted to play along, I
know you'd turn on me the first chance.
Speaker 5: You've got fire or your knife? Which would you take?
Speaker 4: Bob, That isn't even a choice. Of course, I'd take
fire if it came down to that. I wouldn't have
to be knocked out either. Fires the cleanest, purest thing
in the world.
Speaker 5: You have time to put out that burning with Bob,
And if you gave yourself up and took treatment, maybe
you'd still have a chance.
Speaker 6: I'd give the treatments. I don't take them. And that's
all the time you get for stolling, Kathy?
Speaker 4: Is it the knife? Or do I tap you on
the head?
Speaker 5: Would you light me one final cigarette? Bob?
Speaker 4: You said you hardly ever smoked, I hardly.
Speaker 5: Ever get murdered, and don't all condemned people have a
right to one last cigarette.
Speaker 4: You won't have time to smoke it all the way.
Speaker 5: Just to get it started. Then I'll leave the next
move up to you.
Speaker 4: You will make a choice.
Speaker 5: Put the cigarette in my mouth and get your match lighted.
After that, it's up to you.
Speaker 4: Okay, there's your cigarette, and here's your match.
Speaker 5: Thanks, Kathy, you're not that lighted match, And there goes
your place. I had a schedule.
Speaker 4: You cross me, you cross.
Speaker 5: Not Finally, No, it's flames so clean and fure anymore,
are you? Bob? Don't waste time trying to stap it out.
It's too late.
Speaker 6: It's not too late to knock you right in the middle.
Speaker 10: Too late, Bob, Look behind you, see who's coming.
Speaker 5: Through the window.
Speaker 4: Okay, we got him covered, all right. You drop a
knife and come out of that. Nobody takes me.
Speaker 6: Alive, mister Noboddy, We got Kathy.
Speaker 5: Look how he's not going after herr. He's running way
back into the bar.
Speaker 10: Bob, come that.
Speaker 12: Nobody takes me, Kathy, Nobody.
Speaker 10: M Kathy, Kathy, Honey, you're gonna be all right now
the fire is under control.
Speaker 5: Yes, honey, did Bob get away?
Speaker 4: No? No, Kathy.
Speaker 10: Bob finally caught up with enough fire to last him
for keeps.
Speaker 2: The chase was created for the National Broadcasting Company by
Lawrence Clee. Tonight's script was written by Charles O'Neill in.
Tonight's cast were Patsy Campbell, Bill Lifton, Sidney Smith, Adelaide, Kleine,
Jack Lloyd, and Walter Black. Next Week, a disembodied voice
dictates a story of love and murder on the chase.
The chase was directed and transcribed by Dan Setter. This
is Arthur Gary speaking.
Speaker 13: Ray Chimes Mean Good Times on NBC This Friday Evening.
Bob and Ray of You, a half hour of sparkling
comedy than Mario Lanza, Lovely Jaselle McKenzie and Ray Sinotrin
The orchestrasp like your favorite songs on the Mario Lanza Show,
later the singing violins on music by Montovanni.
Speaker 1: Welcome Back. Patsy Campbell does a great job in this
as the amateur sleuth who sees a threat and investigates
even though nobody takes her seriously. Having Bill as the
arsonist was a twist, and I liked how Bill left
him played it. I've often critiqued some of the overtaught
performances that we got from New York radio actors, but
his performance is great as a crazy man who believes
he's saying and has a view of the world that
is saying to him, but is totally off the rails
to everyone else, which is more realistic and I think
a bit more gary then you're over the top mad man.
It also makes him harder to spot, and I think
that while once he is really revealed as a firebug,
he changes, it's not as big of a change as
you might see on something like Mister Keane. Now, of course,
I would say we did get a bit of a
hint that something was not quite right with Bill with
the scene on the roller coaster, and that was probably
our first big clue implicating him now. Patsy Campbell was
a veteran New York radio actress. From what I could
find out, she did a lot of soap work, nothing
I've ever listened to. She did do a couple of
TV shows, just guest appearances. She did play the second
Missus Burton on radio, which was featured in our Thanksgiving
special on the Amazing World of Radio last year, but
she played the role long before that that was featured
in that episode. More recognizable in this were some of
the supporting players. Adelaide Clime not only had a great
radio career, but was noted for her appearance in the
film The Naked City. And then you had Adam, who
was played by Sidney Smith, who also was one of
the actors who portrayed Ellery Queen. I do hope Adam
gave Kathy a proper apology and a bonus for saving
the amusement park. He besmirched Adams everywhere with his lackadaisical attitude,
and it's the least that he could do to restore
some honor to that fine name. A name that definitely
has some honor is our Patreon supporter of the Day,
and I want to go ahead and think Frank. Frank's
been one of our Patreon supporters since January twenty twenty one,
currently supporting the podcast at the rookie level of two
dollars or more per month. Thanks so much for your support, Frank,
and that will do it for today. If you're enjoying
the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software
and we will be back tomorrow with the Adventures of
the Falcon. Where what can I do for you?
Speaker 5: Julian?
Speaker 14: I am what you call the house detective here.
Speaker 13: Oh, I'm glad to meet you.
Speaker 1: Leanor is all mine?
Speaker 14: Signor it is a great pleasure to greet my opposite
number from the great democracy across the Atlantic.
Speaker 8: How's that again?
Speaker 14: Well? Are you not the private detective they call the
Falcon only?
Speaker 4: When I can think of anything worse?
Speaker 14: You are here on business.
Speaker 7: No, I've retired, Julian.
Speaker 14: What ti pity? I had hoped to be allowed to cooperate.
No one knows the criminal mind like Julio Fari Nacchi.
I trust you will forgive me for mentioning it. But
as one in the profession, you will understand what The
senior who was just here you call him Kirby.
Speaker 1: What about it.
Speaker 14: It is an unusual American name. No, not too Why
in the lobby yesterday I heard a funny lady college gentlemen, Kirby.
He did not look like your friend you sure, yes,
he was a tall, blonde man.
Speaker 1: I hope you'll be with us then in the meantime,
send your comments to Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net,
follow us on Twitter at Radio Detectives, and check us
out on Instagram, Instagram, dot com slash Great Detectives from Boise, Idaho.
This is your host, Adam Graham. Sign and off.