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X Minus One - "And the Moon Be Still as Bright" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · The 50 Greatest Old Time Radio Shows | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three Earth expeditions have failed to return from Mars. Captain
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Wilder leads a fourth mission to a vast, deserted Martian city.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This is NBC's X-Minus One, presenting And the Moon Be
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Still as Bright, Episode 19, broadcast September 22, 1955. Adapted
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: from Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, the radio drama is
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: by Ernest Kenoy and directed by Daniel Sutter. Clark Gordon,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: John Larkin, and Nelson Olmsted join narrator Norman Rose as
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Wilder's crew encounters deserted streets, towers, and monuments, the remains
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of a lost civilization. This September broadcast revisited a program
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: first heard in April of that year. And now, our
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: story begins.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X minus 1, fire.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: million could-be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: astounding science fiction, presents X.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Minus 1.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Tonight, the Ray Bradbury story entitled, And the Moon Be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Still as Bright.
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: The first three expeditions for Mars left Earth in a
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: mushroom of flame, arced through the atmosphere, and finally dwindled
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: at tiny specks in the big eye of the Mount
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Palomar telescope. Men were lost to sight forever. The prearranged
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: landing signals flashed back to Earth, and then the radios
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: went dead. One after the other, ships had disappeared and
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: were never heard from again. But still the rockets came.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: The fourth expedition emerged from the silent gulfs of space,
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: angled down toward the floating red disk of Mars, down
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: into an orbit as the order came to land. The
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: last blast of the bow jets broke red against the
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: blue desert sands. and the ship slid to a halt
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: at the edge of a vast city that reflected the
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: icy glare of the moonlight.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: For a while, all was still. All right, Park Hill,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: open the airlock.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Aye, sir.
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: Fresh air.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Hey, it's cold out here.
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: Who cares? We got here. I thought I'd never hit
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: solid ground again. Hey, help out a fire, Captain Wildey.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: It's freezing. Later.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: We have work to do.
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: Oh, smell that air.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: Why, you could get drunk on it. Say, there's an idea.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: Why don't we break out a bottle and celebrate?
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Biggs, there will be no drinking done till we're secured.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: But we're landed, Captain.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Three other expeditions landed and disappeared within 24 hours. Now,
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: we're not relaxing security till we find out what happened
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: to them. What do you mean?
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: Maybe Martians?
• 3:51
  Speaker 8: Sender, you're an archaeologist. How old would you say they are?
• 3:56
  Speaker 8: I can't tell till I study them more closely. It's
• 3:58
  Speaker 8: the kind of engineering we couldn't duplicate on Earth. Well,
• 4:01
  Speaker 8: I'm not interested in the architecture now. I want to
• 4:03
  Speaker 8: make sure there's nothing there that might be dangerous.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Mr. Hathaway. Yes, sir? I want you and Sender to
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: take a reconnaissance party into the city and find out
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: what's there. We set up camp here. No man is
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: to go more than 50 feet from this rocket. And
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: there'll be no celebration till Hathaway and his party report back.
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: In the sea bottoms, the wind stirred along faint vapors.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: And from the mountains, great stone visages looked upon the
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: silvery rocket and the small fire. The sky was black
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: overhead as the two racing moons threw knife-edge double shadows
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: on the desert.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: All right, come and get it.
• 4:48
  Speaker 9: Ciao.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Hey, what do you got there, Jackie?
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: Sort of smothered in cold chicken fat. Good, I thought
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: it was something I couldn't eat. Hey, Captain, Mr.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Hathaway's back. Oh, Captain, Captain Wilder. Oh, yes, over here, Mr. Hathaway.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Most of the city's dead.
• 5:05
  Speaker 10: Spender says it's been dead a good many thousand years,
• 5:07
  Speaker 10: but we found one part about a mile over 20.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: What about it? People were living in it last week, sir. People? Martians.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Where are they now?
• 5:14
  Speaker 10: Dead.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: We found bodies, thousands of bodies. They hadn't been dead
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: more than ten days. When did they die? You won't
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: believe it. What killed them? Chickenpox. Chickenpox? Yes.
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: Where could they get chickenpox?
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: From Earth. Oh, then the other rockets did get through. Yes.
• 5:34
  Speaker 10: I don't know what the Martians did to them, but
• 5:35
  Speaker 10: I sure know what they did to the Martians. They
• 5:38
  Speaker 10: gave them chickenpox and wiped them out. They just didn't
• 5:41
  Speaker 10: have any resistance to an Earth disease.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Think of it, Captain.
• 5:45
  Speaker 8: A race builds itself for a million years, refines itself,
• 5:48
  Speaker 8: does everything it can to give.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Itself respect and beauty, and then it dies.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Of what?
• 5:53
  Speaker 8: It's like saying the Greeks died of mumps or the
• 5:55
  Speaker 8: proud Roman.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: Empire collapsed because of athlete's foot. We didn't even give
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: them a decent.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: Excuse for dying.
• 6:01
  Speaker 8: We just gave them chicken pox. Spender, get hold of yourself.
• 6:05
  Speaker 8: You didn't see those bodies, Captain.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, I know. It must have been a shock. You
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: need a rest, a little relaxation. The Martians are dead.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: There's nothing you can do about that now.
• 6:13
  Speaker 6: Hey, you hear that?
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: The Martians are all dead.
• 6:17
  Speaker 6: Come on, let's break out a bottle and hope it out.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Amen.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: How about a case, eh?
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, good Lord. They have to do that now.
• 6:28
  Speaker 8: Isn't there time later to throw old beer cans into
• 6:31
  Speaker 8: the canals?
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Bender, you're an idealist. They're not. All they know now
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: is that they're safe. A little shouting won't hurt. You
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: think too much.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I was safe on Mars.
• 6:43
  Speaker 7: The first Earth men on Mars.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: We're going to celebrate.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: 20 bottles were opened and drunk. The voices got louder.
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: The Earth laughs and shouts echoing across the empty Martian sands.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: Spender listened to the wind over his ears, cool and whispering.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: He felt the land getting cooler. The stars drew closer,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: very near. The air smelled clean and new. He looked
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: at the cool ice of the white Martian buildings over
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: there on the empty sea lands.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Oh, what a woman!
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: Hey, what do.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: We do with these empty bottles? Save them, stupid.
• 7:33
  Speaker 7: There's a two cents deposit.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Ah!
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: Throw him away.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Hey, wait.
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: Wait.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: How about that building? Two to one on a bucket
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: and he went right through that window. You're wrong.
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: All right. Here it goes.
• 7:49
  Speaker 10: Hey.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Double or nothing on the next shot. Put that bottle down, Biggs.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: Who's there, Mr.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Spender? Stop smashing those windows.
• 7:57
  Speaker 6: What's the difference? The planet's ours now. I guess I
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: can do anything with it I want. Drop that bottle
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: or I'll knock your teeth out. Yeah. And just watch me.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I warned you. Big.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: Hey, come on, come on. What's going on here?
• 8:15
  Speaker 9: Spender!
• 8:16
  Speaker 6: Spender!
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I hit him.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: He's crazy, Captain.
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: He just walked on a slug man.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: All right, Biggs. Spender, you come with me. Now, suppose
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: you explain. What was the idea? The noise, the drunken brawl.
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: Spender, the men are tired.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: This has been a long trip. And you have a
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: different way of seeing things. I'm seeing things, all right.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing how we'll ruin Mars.
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: We'll rip it up and rip the skin off the
• 8:44
  Speaker 8: way we've already ruined Earth.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Is that why you hit Biggs? Yes.
• 8:49
  Speaker 8: I couldn't stand the idea of them watching us make
• 8:52
  Speaker 8: fools of ourselves.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Damn.
• 8:53
  Speaker 6: The Martians. They're dead.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: They're all dead.
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: But they know we're here. Doesn't an old thing always
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: know when a new thing comes? We've come a long
• 9:04
  Speaker 8: way to smash their windows and spit in their wine.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: Well, maybe you're right. But I'm still going to fine
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: you $ 50 for that fight. Now, come on, Spender. Suck
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: in your chin. We'll go back there and play happy.
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: Now they moved out into the moonlight across the desert...
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: they made their way into the dreaming, dead city. The
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: light of the racing twin moons glinted on the barrel
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: of a pistol, the long blade of a machete, the round,
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: gurgling shape of a raised bottle. The wind blew in
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: from the dead sea bottom and brushed through the silvery
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: wire filigree of the towers. Strange music drifted down to
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: the double-shadowed streets, a thin, haunted music that played as
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: it had played through the uncounted years of time. Nobody moved.
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: The moons held and froze them. The wind beat slowly
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: around them.
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: Hey!
• 10:12
  Speaker 7: Hey, you people in the city! Pigs, I just want
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: to make a little noise. What kind of a celebration is.
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: This, anyway?
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Come on. They built this city thousands of years ago.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: And now where are they? How did they die?
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: Who cares?
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: They're dead. That's good enough for me.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Lord Byron. What?
• 10:38
  Speaker 8: Lord Byron, a 19th century poet. He wrote a poem
• 10:41
  Speaker 8: that fits this city. Might have been written by the
• 10:43
  Speaker 8: last Martian poet. So we'll go no more a-roving so
• 10:48
  Speaker 8: late into the night. Though the heart be still as loving,
• 10:52
  Speaker 8: though the moon be still as bright. For the sword
• 10:56
  Speaker 8: outwears its sheath and the soul outwears its breast. And
• 11:01
  Speaker 8: the heart must pause to breathe and love itself must rest.
• 11:05
  Speaker 8: Though the night was made for loving and the day
• 11:08
  Speaker 8: returns too soon. Yet we'll go no more a-roving by
• 11:14
  Speaker 8: the light of the moon.
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: Without a word, the Earthmen stood in the center of
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: the city. It was a clear night. There was not
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: a sound except the music of the wind. At their
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: feet lay a tile court worked into the shapes of
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: ancient animals and images. They stood there, silvered by the
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: double moons beneath the crystal towers of Mars. And then
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Biggs was sick, and the sour stench of liquor filled.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: The cool air.
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: The men of Earth had come to Mars. And Spender
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: turned and walked away into the city, alone in the moonlight,
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: never once stopping to look back. It was a morning
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: that might have been a Monday, or a Tuesday, or
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: any day on Mars. Biggs was on the canal rim,
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: his feet hung down in the cool water, soaking, while
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: he took the sun in his face.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Hey, what are you doing back here, Biggs? Didn't you
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: go out with the search party?
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: I come back.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: I got a blister.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 12:20
  Speaker 9: Here.
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: What do you mean? Look.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Look, Cherokee. See that?
• 12:25
  Speaker 6: Anyway, I had enough searching. Four days hunting for that
• 12:27
  Speaker 6: screwball spender.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Didn't find him yet, huh?
• 12:30
  Speaker 6: Good riddance. Oh, my feet. I'm going to soak them
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: in the canal. If I was wilder, I wouldn't worry
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: about that nut spender.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Let him go.
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: He's a crackpot anyway.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: He's a little foggy upstairs, I guess.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Hey, why don't you take your feet out of that canal, Biggs?
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: I got to make coffee out of that water.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Coffee?
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: You call that stuff coffee?
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: I had a motorcycle once that dripped grease that tasted
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: better than.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Hey, wait a minute, Biggs. Hey, look over there. Where?
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: By that bush. There's someone there.
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: Hey, it's him.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: Hey. Hey, Spender. Spender?
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: He's coming over.
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: Why don't you stay lost, that crazy jerk?
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Hi, Spender. Long time no see. Hello, Cherokee. I've been
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: exploring some ruins.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: Oh, you and them ruins.
• 13:18
  Speaker 7: You're like a dog in a boneyard.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: What's the matter, Erwin?
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: Just say something. Where you been?
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Up in the hills. What would you say if I
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: told you I found a Martian?
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: Oh, yeah?
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Where? Never mind. Let me ask you a question.
• 13:37
  Speaker 8: How would you feel if you were a Martian and
• 13:39
  Speaker 8: people came to your land and started to tear it up?
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I know how I'd feel. I'd I've got Cherokee blood
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: in me.
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: My grandfather told me a lot of things about the
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: way they kicked the Indians around in the Oklahoma Territory.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: If there's any Martian around, I'm all for him. How
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: about you, Biggs?
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: They're dead.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: They're all dead.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: It's a good thing, too.
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: Well, I found a Martian up in a dead town
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: in the hills. I've been reading their books, and they're
• 14:07
  Speaker 8: easy to understand. And I've learned their language. And then
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: I found this Martian. And I brought him here, now.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: I don't see no Martian. I'm the last Martian.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: What did you say?
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Biggs, I'm going to kill you.
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: Oh, cut it out. What kind of a lousy joke
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: is that? Now, don't put that gun away. You're kidding, huh? Spender, you're...
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: He's dead.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: You killed him. You can come with me, Cherokee. You're
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: an Indian. You know how the Martians would feel. You
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: can be with me in this.
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: You killed him.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: You just killed him.
• 14:47
  Speaker 6: He deserved it.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: You're crazy. Maybe I am, but you can come with me.
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: Come with you for what?
• 14:52
  Speaker 7: Go on, get out of here, you crazy murderer.
• 14:55
  Speaker 8: Of all of them, I thought you'd understand. I thought
• 14:57
  Speaker 8: you'd remember what happened to your own people.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: You get out of here, you crazy murderer.
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: Don't reach for that gun.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Spender.
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Spender. Spender. Hathaway, break out the arms locker. Issue pistols, rifles,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: and grenades. Yes, sir. And you'd better get the Bible
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: out of the navigation chest. We have to bury these two. Now, Parkhill,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: you start digging the grave. How about Spender? We'll have
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: to walk in the hills and find him. Just let
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: me at him with my bare hands, a crazy murdering louse.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: That's enough, Parkhill. The man is sick. He must be... Sick,
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: my eye! He's a.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: That's enough!
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Now grab a shovel and start digging.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Spender saw the thin dust rising in the valley, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: he knew the pursuit was beginning. The sun burned farther
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: up the sky, and the blue sand drifted lazily across
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: the sea bottom below.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: He sat beside a quiet.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: Pool 10,000 years old and held a silver book.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Through the house played.
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: The strange wind music of ancient Mars, and he heard voices.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Whisper in his mind. Spender. I hear you. I've always
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: heard you. Even down there on Earth. No, I won't run.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: What's the use? Live, what for?
• 16:34
  Speaker 8: To see them tear down your temples and put up
• 16:37
  Speaker 8: hot dog stands?
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: They've seen me now.
• 16:43
  Speaker 8: They know I'm up here. It's wilder now. I've got
• 16:48
  Speaker 8: them right in my sights. Funny, he hasn't ordered them
• 16:54
  Speaker 8: to use grenades. They could lob one right up here
• 16:56
  Speaker 8: and blow me to bits. Maybe the captain thinks I'm
• 16:59
  Speaker 8: too nice to be blown to bits. He wants my
• 17:02
  Speaker 8: death to be clean. Just one bullet hole in me,
• 17:05
  Speaker 8: nothing messy.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: And why?
• 17:08
  Speaker 8: Because he understands me. The only one in the crew
• 17:11
  Speaker 8: who ever did. Well, at least I can do the
• 17:15
  Speaker 8: same for him. Just one bullet in his head, a
• 17:19
  Speaker 8: nice clean death. All I have to do is pull
• 17:23
  Speaker 8: the trigger and then.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: It's no use. I can't do it to him.
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: Spender!
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Spender!
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: Can you hear me, Spender?
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I hear you, Captain.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: What do you want?
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: Talk. Truth.
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: All right.
• 17:43
  Speaker 8: Come on up.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Leave your gun down there. Keep your hands up. That's
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: quite a climb. Do you mind if I sit down?
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: How long do you think you can hold on? Until
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: you're all dead. Why didn't you kill all of us
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: this morning when you had the chance? You could have,
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: I know. I got sick.
• 18:14
  Speaker 8: When I started killing people, I realized they were just
• 18:16
  Speaker 8: fools and I shouldn't be killing them, but it was
• 18:18
  Speaker 8: too late.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: So I came up here where I could get angry again.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Why did you do it? When I was a kid,
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: my folks took me to visit Mexico City.
• 18:30
  Speaker 9: I'll always remember the way my father acted loud and big.
• 18:35
  Speaker 9: And my mother didn't like the people because she thought
• 18:37
  Speaker 9: they didn't wash enough. I can see my mother and
• 18:40
  Speaker 9: my father coming to Mars and acting the same way.
• 18:43
  Speaker 8: Anything that's strange is no good to us. We aren't
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: fit to take over this planet. But to kill two men.
• 18:49
  Speaker 8: How would you feel if a Martian spit on the
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: White House floor?
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: You know, you haven't acted very civilized yourself. I'll kill
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: you all off, Wilder. That'll delay the next rocket five years,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: and then I'll kill them too. And if I'm lucky,
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I'll live to be 60. And I'll meet every expedition
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: that lands on Mars. Oh, I'll be very friendly. I'll
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: explain our rocket blew up one day.
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: And then I'll kill them all.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: I'll save Mars for half a century. And by then,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: maybe the Earth people will give up. And yet you're outnumbered.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: We already have you surrounded. In an hour, you will
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: be dead. If I found an underground passage, it'll take
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: me back in the hills, Wilder. I'll go back there.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: And then I'll pick you off one by one. We'll see. Well,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: it's a nice town you've got here, Spender. It's beautiful.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I'd like to live here.
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: You can.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: Join me.
• 19:46
  Speaker 9: You're not like them. Why go back to them, Captain?
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: I'll show you.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: What a good life these people had. I'll... No, there's
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: too much earthblood in me. I may even agree with
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: you about all this, but that does not change what
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: I must do. You won't stay?
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: No.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: This is your last chance, Spender. Look, you're sick. Now,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: come along with me quietly. No. One last thing. If
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: you win, do me a favor. Try to see that
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: they don't tear this planet apart. Right.
• 20:22
  Speaker 8: And if it helps, just think of me as a
• 20:27
  Speaker 8: very crazy fellow who went berserk one summer day.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: It'd be easier on you that way. Now, I'll think
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: that over. So long, Spender. Bye, Captain. Good luck.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: The men spread out again, walking and then running on
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: the hot hillside places where there would be sudden cool
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: grottos that smelled of moss and sudden open blasting places
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: that smelled of sun or stone.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: The men ran and ducked and ran and squatted in
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: the shadows. Ah!
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: Captain Wilder hugged the rock worn by the sun. He gasped,
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: for the air was thin and not meant for running.
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: Spender lay at the top of the hill, and a
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: gap in the rocks showed the white of his shirt
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: against the shadows. Wilder looked at the towers of the
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: little clean Martian village, like sharply carved chess pieces.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Lying in the afternoon.
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: He saw the rocks, and the interval between where Spender's
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: chest was revealed.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Go on, Spender. Get out. You've only got a few
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: seconds to escape. Go on. Get out of the caves.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Come back later. Go now. I've got to win this.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: I've got to think that I'm right. Pull this trigger.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: Go now. Get out.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: I'll get him.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: A slug in the head.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: I'll blow his bloody brain.
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: No, Parkhill. Put down that gun. I'll do this myself.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: I'm suspended. Why didn't you get out? Why? Why? Why?
• 22:28
  Speaker 5: They buried him in that ancient valley town where the
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: music of the wind played on through the days and
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: the nights.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: They laid him in an ancient.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Silver sarcophagus with waxes and wines which were 10,000 years old.
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: His hands folded on his chest. The last they saw
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: of him was his peaceful face in the cold silver
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: light of the racing twin moons. The captain found the
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: poem in Spender's pocket. And he read it before he
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: shut the marble door. So we'll go no more a-roving.
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: so late into the night. Though the heart be still
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: as loving, and the moon be still as bright. Though
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: the night was made for loving.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: And the day returns too soon. Yet we'll go no
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: more a-roving by the light of the moon.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: The next afternoon, Parkhill did some target practice in one
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: of the dead cities, shooting out the crystal windows and
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: blowing the tops off the fragile towers. Captain Wilder caught
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: Parkhill and nearly knocked his teeth out.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: You have just heard X-1, presented by the National Broadcasting
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of astounding
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: science fiction. Tonight, by transcription, X-1 has brought you the
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Ray Bradbury story, and the moon be still as bright,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy. Featured in the cast
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: were John Larkin, Clark Gordon, Dick Hamilton, Nelson Almstead, Lawrence Kerr,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: and Stan Early.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Your narrator was Norman Rose.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Your announcer, Fred Collins. X minus one was directed by
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Daniel Sutter and is an NBC Radio Network production.
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: X minus one.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Our presentation of X-1 and And the Moon Be Still
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: as Bright now concludes. Follow the 50 greatest old-time radio
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: shows for more classic broadcasts.