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X Minus One - "The Light" (Old Time Radio, 1957) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Near the lunar Alps and the crater Plato, a three-man
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: United States expedition encounters an unexplained light and human footprints
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in the lunar dust. It is X-1, with episode 117,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The Light, first heard over NBC on October 24, 1957,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: just 20 days after Sputnik 1 launched. Paul Anderson's story
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: was adapted for radio by William Welch, with Carl Weber
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: as the narrator, David Kerman as Captain Baird, and Bob
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Hastings as Hernandez. Their mission unfolds amid a Cold War
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: race for space prestige as scientific curiosity, mission safety, and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the risk of international confrontation enter the equation. We now
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: take you back to the original broadcast.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: This is Nightline, your open door to people and places,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: and this is Walter O'Keefe. Nightline invites you to listen
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: in on NBC's award-winning science fiction series, X-Minus One.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Countdown for blastoff.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: X-Minus Five.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Four, three, two, X minus one, fire.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: From the far horizon of the unknown come tales of
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: new dimensions in time and space.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: These are stories of the future.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Adventures in which you'll live in a million could be
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: X minus 1.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Tonight, The Light by Paul Anderson. But first, hear this.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: The glamour backstage at Broadway's newest hit musical show. The
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: spectacular West Side Story. The novel experience of accompanying a congressman,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: Joseph Martin, as he searches out the complaints, compliments, and
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: problems of his constituents on a grassroots tour of his district.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: The thrill of attending one of the top football games
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: in the nation as Army versus Virginia. The excitement of
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: spending late evening hours with the music of top artists
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: performing in famous nightclubs in New York and Chicago. These
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: are just a few of the highlights of the weekend
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: entertainment Monitor has planned for you.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Beginning tomorrow night.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Gene Kelly, Milton Berle, Tab Hunter, and Tony Martin are
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: among the celebrities who will be visiting you over the
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Monitor weekend. There'll be comedy by Fibber McGee and Molly
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: and Bob and Ray.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Music, news, and sports, all on Monitor.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: So why don't you start your weekend right with Monitor
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: on Friday night and stay with Monitor all weekend long
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: over most of these same NBC radio stations. Now, X
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: minus one and tonight's story, The Light. You really should
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: feel highly honored, Professor. You're the only person I've been
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: allowed to tell this to. And, of course, there's a
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: good reason why you're being permitted to hear it. Why?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: I think you'll see why before I've finished. We're not
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: a gang of power-nutty militarists, you know that. Personally, I'd
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: like to tell it to the whole world. But it
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: could very well touch off a war. And a war
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: would mean the absolute end of civilization. There's one thing
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: you should understand right from the start. Just because I
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: know enough math and physics, just because I could pass
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: the most rigid physical exam ever devised, doesn't mean I
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: don't know anything about culture and art. When they picked
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: me for the three-man crew for the first landing on
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: the moon, they were a little condescending about that side
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: of my background. Baird, the skipper, and Hernandez, the engineer,
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: the other two members of my team, were a little
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: leery of me just because I could talk about art.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Every now and then. They needn't have worried.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Once we left the space station and got into orbit,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: We didn't have much to do for several days, but talk.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: Look at it.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: From this distance, you'd swear the Earth was uninhabited. It's
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: hanging like a big sapphire in the inky black.
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: Poetry.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: Don't you ever quit spouting it. Why are you writing
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: me all the time, Baird? Maybe I don't trust a
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: scientist who keeps talking about art all the time.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: You think there's no connection between the two?
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: I know blamed well there isn't.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I always thought that when you got up this high,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: you could make out the continents.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: I can't tell where the sea ends and the land begins.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: It's the clouds lying all over the surface that make
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: it so tough. I think that's Russia coming into view,
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: isn't it, Skipper? According to the orbital schedule, that should
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: be Siberia emerging from the Terminator right about now.
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: Are they watching us, I wonder?
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Why not? They've got a space station of their own
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: with good telescopes on it. Yeah, and I'll bet they're
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: hoping that we smack into a meteor.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Maybe they don't have to hope. Maybe they've already arranged
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: an accident. I doubt it, Baird. They wouldn't risk sabotaging us.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Not on a trip like this with the whole world watching.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Because it might start a war.
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: Don't make me laugh.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: Nobody's going to start shooting when they know the whole
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: world will go up in smoke just to avenge three
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: spacemen and a $ 10 million hunk of ship. Ever hear
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: of chain reaction? One sharp diplomatic note might set off
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: the whole thing. You think our own government would be
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: sending us to the moon if there were any military
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: advantage to be gained from it?
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Then what's the idea?
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Why are we doing this? Prestige. They put up the
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: first satellite, built the first space station.
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Now we've got to be the first man to step
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: on the moon or the rest of the world will
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: start looking on us as a second-rate power.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: You make it sound like some kind of game. Oh,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: it is, Hernandez.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: The deadliest game mankind ever played. One false move and bang.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: The whole world goes up in a mushroom cloud.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: How long will it go on? That's what gets me.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: As long as there's a balance of power. But let
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: one side, Russia or us, find a really new concept.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Something the other side doesn't even dream about. And it'll
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: be all over.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Suppose they find it before we do.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: That'll be too bad for us. The Cold War will
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: be over, and so will we. Why don't you shut up,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: the two of you? You both talk too much. It
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: was the wrong thing to say, I knew, out there
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: in a great quiet night. We shouldn't carry our little
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: hates and fears and greeds out beyond the sky and
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: into space. Or perhaps the fact that we can be
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: burdened with them and still reach the moon shows that
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: man is bigger than he knows.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: I couldn't say. Anyhow, as the whole world knows, we
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: made it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: Our landing site hadn't been chosen exactly, but as you know, Professor,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: we came down at the foot of the Lunar Alps,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: not far from the crater Plato. We felt no sense
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: of pioneering when we touched down. We were tired and tense.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: It was merely a hard, breakneck job.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: Hot rockets. Rockets off.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Well, gentlemen, we're on the move. Can we open the viewports?
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: I want to see this.
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: Go ahead.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: I'm bushed. Look at that.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: That light.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: I didn't realize it would be so bright.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: It's a cold, eerie light. It's not like our deserts
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: on Earth. They aren't as bright or as dead. All right,
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: that's enough gawking. Our orders are to draw lots to
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: see who's first on the moon. All right, Hernandez, you
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: draw first. Well, Professor, we drew lots, and of course
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: everyone knows who won.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: I did.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: I was to be the first man ever to set
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: foot on the moon. At least for a little while,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: that's what I believed. You're listening to The Light, tonight's
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: attraction on X-Minus One. Now back to X-Minus One and
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: The Light. We were in heavy space suits, of course,
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: and it wasn't any too easy to move about, even
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: with the light gravity of the moon. I stepped out
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: of the airlock first, followed by Baird. I just stood
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: there in the shadow of the ship, looking at the
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: weird light, lost in wonder. I don't know how long
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I stood there before Baird spoke to me.
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: Well, go ahead.
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: Go ahead what?
• 9:36
  Speaker 6: Make the speech. You're the first man on the moon.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: You mean that prepared speech they gave us? No, thanks.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: We've got to make it. What's the matter with you?
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: You're a good job to make the speeches.
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: This is mutiny, you know. I ordered you to make it.
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: I could make a suggestion.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Why don't you write in the log that the speech
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: was made and let it go at that?
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: Judas Priest, man.
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: But if this ever gets out.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: It's our secret, Captain. Consider the speech. made. What do
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: we do now?
• 10:02
  Speaker 6: You start gathering rock samples. I'm going to take pictures.
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: Come on, I'm a double.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: So we went to work. I gathered some samples. And
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: each time I did, I left a little mark in
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: the dust on the surface.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: The traces I left would probably last until the sun
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: burned out. It seemed like an act of desecration, though
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: the landscape was ugly enough. No, that's not true.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: It wasn't ugly. Only alien.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: You know, it was several hours before I could really
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: begin to see anything. I mean, it took that long
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: for my brain to start registering in this strange, eerie place.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: I remember pausing to rest a minute while I watched
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: Baird making adjustments on his camera lens and snapping various
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: bits of landscape.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that ought to be a good one. You know, Baird,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: the thing that gets me is the light. That's no trouble.
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: I'm using an F8 exposure this time.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: I mean, oh, the quality of it. It isn't like
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: anything I ever saw on Earth. I wonder if it
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: can be photographed.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: Of course it'll photograph.
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: You know, in a way, it reminds me of that
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: weird brass-colored light you get just before a storm on Earth.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: But it isn't the same either.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Well, I think I'll try an F-11 setting. What I mean, though, Baird,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: is I don't think you can get the feel of
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: this light in a picture. What you'd need for that
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: is such a painter as hasn't lived for centuries. Rembrandt?
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: It's too harsh a light for him.
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: Cold light that's somehow hell-hot.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Will you shut up, you and your blasted Renaissance? Well,
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: I suppose Baird had a point. This was hardly the
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: place for a chat about art. We went back to
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: the ship after that, had a meal and a nap
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: before setting out for more explorations.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: We decided to.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Take a look at the Plato Crater, and conditions were
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: right for it, so we set off, all three of
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: us this time.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: I won't describe the walk in detail. I can't.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: It wasn't simply the landscape and the lighting. On the moon,
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: your weight is only one-sixth as much as it is
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: on Earth, while the inertia remains the same. Feels almost
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: like walking underwater. But you can move very fast once
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: you get the hang of it. After a while, we
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: reached the crater wall, climbed it, and stood looking down.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: Then Hernandez saw something and let out a yelp that
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: almost split my ear when I heard it on a
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: speaker in my helmet.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Hey, look! What's the matter? What happened? There, on the
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: floor of the crater, that mist. Yes, I see. Then
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: they were right.
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: What are you talking about?
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: The astronomers. They thought they saw something that looked like
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: a mist in some of the big craters. They're right.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: It's right in front of our eyes.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: I thought there was no atmosphere here.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: How could there be mist? Maybe there's some kind of
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: water table down in the floor of the crater. Hey,
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: get back here.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: I want to go down for a closer look, Baird.
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: And break your legs so we have to carry you home?
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: No, Dice.
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: You stay here.
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: We've got to find out. He couldn't break anything wearing
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: that space suit. They're like arms. Stay here. I'll have
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: your court martial. Oh, Skipper, have a hard. Yeah, come on, Skipper.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: We've got to find out what that stuff is.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: In the end, we convinced Captain Baird, but he insisted
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: we rope ourselves together before we made the descent.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: It was agonizing work getting down the lip of that crater,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: but we made it.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: We stood there silently on the floor of the crater,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: bathed in a cold, golden-white radiance.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: There's never been such a light on Earth.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: It seemed to pervade everything, drenching us cold and white,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: like silence made luminous.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: It was the light of Nirvana. And somewhere, somehow, I
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: had seen it before.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: I stood there, unable to speak, until another yell from
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Hernandez brought me to my senses with a wrench.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: Oh, no. It can't be.
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: No, what's the matter, Hernandez?
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Look.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: Look there in the dust of the crater. Look and
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: tell me I'm crazy. The prince of a man. Who?
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: There's only one other country on Earth that could send
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: a spaceship to the moon yet.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, Hernandez.
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: Russians. Are they still here, I wonder?
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: We can't tell by staring at the tracks. They could
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: be five hours old or five million years. But why
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: haven't they told the world? Why haven't they been bragging
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: about it?
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: Why do you think? You mean they've found something of
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: vital military importance?
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: Look up at the Earth. Maybe right now they're planning
• 14:40
  Speaker 6: their next move.
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: The last move. I don't believe it. They couldn't have
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: done it. They couldn't have kept it secret. Why not?
• 14:46
  Speaker 6: They could have taken off on a black ship when
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: our space station was on the opposite side of the planet.
• 14:51
  Speaker 6: How would we know?
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: Come on. Where?
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: Back to the ship, of course. They'll have to know
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: about this in Washington immediately.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: If they find out we know their secret, that could
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: be enough, Baird. That could trigger the war.
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: I've got a code.
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: Are you sure it can't be broken? That it already
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: hasn't been broken?
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: Shut up, you troublemaking whelp.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: Let me alone. Just the same, Skipper. We'd better follow
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: those tracks. See where they lead to. We didn't bring
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: any weapons. I'd be surprised if they were as careless. Baird, Baird,
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: listen to me. All right, court-martial me later if you want,
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: but listen.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: We can't just go back to the ship, never knowing
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: for sure what these footprints are and who left them.
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: How much looking can you do? In less than one hour,
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: the sun will sink behind the lip of the crater.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: When that happens, it's going to get cold. Colder than
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: anything you've ever imagined. I've got a heating unit in
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: my suit. Good for 20 minutes at the most against
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: a cold like that. Really time to get back to
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: the ship?
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: All right. I'll take the chance and get back in time.
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: But let me follow those footprints, Baird. It's your duty
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: to let him, Baird.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: Permission granted.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: God help you.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Baird and Hernandez still roped together.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Climbed the crater side and disappeared, leaving me alone, staring
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: at the hobnatal boot footprints of a man. I had
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: to work fast, knowing that the sun would soon disappear
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: and the awful cold begin. I went on, following the
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: steps in the still, lifeless dust of the moon. At last,
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I came to the place I was looking for. It
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: wasn't much to see. There was a long track of
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: plowed dust and a chipped stone where something had landed
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: and taken off again.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: But.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: And this was the astonishing thing. There was no sign
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: of a rocket blast. A few scars where a pick
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: had removed samples, footprints, and that's all. Someone, sometime, had
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: landed here without rockets and had never.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Told anyone about it. I looked up at the sky,
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: saw the ruddy speck of Mars, and felt cold. Had
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: the Martians beaten us to our own moon? But I
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: had to get back now.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Every second longer that I remained whittled down my chances
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: of ever reaching the ship again. I was about to
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: start back when something caught my eye. A big chunk
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: of rock with something carved on it. Something unmistakable.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: A cross. A million suns wheeled and glittered above me.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Then I knew.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: I remembered where I had seen that weird light which
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: remained on the wall at sundown. And then I knew
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: the truth. I turned and started to run for the ship.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: I almost didn't make it. Baird met me halfway, ripped
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: off my pack, and connected another heating unit.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: Jackass! Puddin' brain fool! I'm gonna have you up before
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: a court-martial, so help me if it's the last thing I...
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: Even if I tell you who made those footprints in Plato? What?
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: I can, you know. I've got it all figured out.
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: And in a way, it's a good joke on you.
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: All right, back into the ship with you, and let's
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: hear the whole story.
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: And it better be good.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: THE END Of course, intelligence has been working night and
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: day ever since we returned and made our report. They
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: know we were telling the truth. And that's why you've
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: been drafted, Professor. We're going overseas together, you and I. Officially,
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: we're tourists. You search the archives, and I'll tell you
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: when you've turned up something we can use. Oh, we'll
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: find it. We'll find something. It couldn't have been done
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: by rockets, you see. Even if the physics had been known,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: which it wasn't, the chemistry and metallurgy wasn't there.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: But there was something else. Anti-gravity?
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: Maybe.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: Whatever it is, when we find it, the Cold War
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: will be over and we'll have won. You don't get it? Professor,
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: I'm shocked and grieved. You're a historian, a cultured man.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: All right, then.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Our first stop is the National Gallery in London, where
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: there's a painting called The Virgin of the Rocks. In
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: that painting, you'll see a light Cold and pale and
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: utterly gentle. A light which never shone on earth. A
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: light playing over the mother and child. And the artist, Professor,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: but of course you know the answer now.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: The artist was Leonardo da Vinci.
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: You have just heard X-1, presented by the National Broadcasting
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: month features the conclusion of an exciting two-part serial, Wolfbane,
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: by Frederick Pohl and C.M.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Kornblatt.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Read it in Galaxy Magazine on your newsstand today. X-1
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: has brought you The Light, a story written by Paul
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: Anderson and adapted for radio by William Welch. Featured in
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: our cast were Carl Weber as the narrator, David Kerman
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: as Captain Baird, and Bob Hastings as Hernandez.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: X-1 was an NBC Radio Network production.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: This concludes the X-1 presentation, The Light. Follow X-1 for
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: more classic broadcasts.