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X Minus One - "The Green Hills of Earth" (Old Time Radio, 1955) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On Mars, a narrator recalls Rizzling, a blind singer whose
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: guitar songs have entered the folklore of the spaceways. That
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: recollection opens X-1's eighth episode, The Green Hills of Earth,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: broadcast by NBC on July 7, 1955. Adapted for radio
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: by Ernest Kenoy from Robert A. Heinlein's 1947 story, it
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: follows Reisling as an offer to join the spacecraft, Goshawk
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: carries him back toward deep space, among crews who know
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: its hazards, humor, and homesickness. Ken Williams portrays Rissling. Tom
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Glazer wrote and sings the original songs heard in the production.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: From the twin moons bar in dry waters Mars to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the working routes between worlds, we now take you back
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: to the original broadcast.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X minus 1, fire.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: Fire.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: of the future, adventures in which you'll live in a
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: million could-be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: astounding science fiction, presents.
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: X minus 1.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Tonight's story, The Green Hills of Earth. The men who
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: pioneer the trade routes of the world, the sailors of
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: the clipper ships, the whaling men, railroaders, black gangs on
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: the tramp steamers, all have their own stories and song
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: about dangers and struggles of their lives.
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: This is the story of Riesling. the blind singer of
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: the space waves. When I first met him, he was
• 2:33
  Speaker 6: hustling drinks in the Twin Moons bar at Dry Waters Mars.
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: He'd won a guitar off a Chinese barkeep at Luna
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: City by cheating at one thumb. And he made his
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: whiskey by singing in the bar and passing the hat.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Eh, listen to her, Hertzman. Don't you sing pretty? Like
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: a 16-year-old gal. Hey, Riesling, look over there at the bar.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: There's an Institute four-striper giving you the idea, you know?
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: Manner of speaking. Cold-looking scoundrel, ain't he? Gives you the
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: idea he graduated Harriman Space Institute, three men above St. Peter.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Who is he?
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: Captain Hicks off the go show.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, he sure gives you the once-over. Maybe he's
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: got a job.
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: That don't make never no mind to me. I've been blacklisted.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: Hicks logged me for making up a song on watch.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Right-fight song, too.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Oh, the skipper is a father to his crew.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: Well, hold on.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Here comes the rest of it.
• 3:25
  Speaker 7: Oh, Riesling, I've been looking for you.
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: You've kept your nose clean, and we're going to give
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: you another chance to get back to deep space. Been
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: a little changing down at the Gorshaw, ain't you, Skipper?
• 3:35
  Speaker 7: How'd you know that?
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: You got that new atomic pile drive.
• 3:38
  Speaker 7: If there's been a leak at the shops, I.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Oh, now, take it easy, Skipper. You'll have that gold
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: braid just crawling right up your arm.
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: Quit stalling, Riesling. Take it or leave it. It's a
• 3:45
  Speaker 7: loop trip to Jupiter with a standard release. I reckon.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: Double pay when you get back, if you get back.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: Last three of them atomic tea kettles blew somewhere in
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: the asteroids.
• 3:54
  Speaker 7: If you're scared.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: Scared?
• 3:57
  Speaker 8: Well, that goshawk is one stinking old tub. Her engine's
• 4:00
  Speaker 8: got more bugs than a beagle dog in spring. And
• 4:03
  Speaker 8: her new drive's about as safe as a pretty gal
• 4:05
  Speaker 8: in the Ozarks. But I reckon she'll do for one
• 4:08
  Speaker 8: more trip. Welcome home, Riesling.
• 4:21
  Speaker 5: Hi, Jimmy Lee. Meet my friend Hertzman. He can't hold
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: his liquor no more than a sieve, poor boy. Riesling,
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: are you sober enough to sign the book? Drunk or sober,
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: I make my mark. Stand aside. Three X's? Took me
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: a middle name.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: Ha, ha, ha.
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: You two lay below. And Hertzman, get him sobered up
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: before the skipper makes rounds. Cargo stowed, Captain. Fuel lines
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: away and ready.
• 4:56
  Speaker 7: Good, Casey. What's that?
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: What? Oh, that's a guitar, I guess.
• 5:03
  Speaker 7: If it's that shoeless hillbilly, I'm going to tell him.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: Ah, skip up. Riesling, what the devil are you doing
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: up here? That number two jet ain't fit. Cadmium dampers
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: are warped. Crooked like a turtle's back.
• 5:14
  Speaker 7: Why tell me? Tell the chief engineer.
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: I did.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: I did. He says they'll hold.
• 5:18
  Speaker 7: Well?
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: He's wrong.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: Oh, he's wrong, eh?
• 5:22
  Speaker 7: He's got a Harriman Institute degree in electronics and power.
• 5:25
  Speaker 7: And some drunk space rat says he's wrong.
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: Skipper, I was damping jets when that shirt-tailed tad wore
• 5:30
  Speaker 8: pins for buttons.
• 5:31
  Speaker 7: I got no time for your reasoning. Stretch your name
• 5:32
  Speaker 7: off the book and get out.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, don't get excited.
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: Well, are you shipping or not?
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I reckon, I reckon.
• 5:36
  Speaker 7: Then get below. That's all. Casey, sound takeoff.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: Aye, sir. Come on, boys.
• 5:53
  Speaker 6: On a Hawk-class clunker in those days, damping was done
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: by hand with a multiplying vernier.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: And a danger peeper.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: Jetman slept with one ear tuned to that, and as
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: long as the peeper ticked off slow and steady, we
• 6:06
  Speaker 6: knew the ship was safe.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: For a while. Recently, you better stole that guitar. If
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Jimmy Legs catches you, he'll blow a gasket.
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: Don't worry, I could damp this tea kettle in my sleep.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: How's number two?
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: All right, so far. Say, did you ever hear that
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: song about Hicks? The one that got me blacklisted?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, the skipper is the father of his crew.
• 6:29
  Speaker 7: A gentle guide and light.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: To me and you.
• 6:32
  Speaker 9: But on Mars he likes his women if they walk
• 6:35
  Speaker 9: or if they're swimming.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Or if they got six arms instead of two.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: Second verse is better. The skipper likes his liquor by
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: the court.
• 6:45
  Speaker 9: Yeah, he'd go from Mars to Venus for a snort.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: He'll drink rocket fuel and.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: Well, hi, skipper. Didn't see you come in. You were
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: too busy, eh?
• 6:58
  Speaker 7: Who's watching the gig?
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: I've got an eye on it. Don't you fret none.
• 7:00
  Speaker 7: Riesling, I'm going to fix it so you couldn't get
• 7:02
  Speaker 7: a space berth on a rocket-powered pogo stick. You're locked.
• 7:06
  Speaker 7: Report the casing under arrest.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: I don't rightly think I will, Skipper.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: You what?
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: You kind of forget, Skipper. According to space code, you
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: can't remove a jet man until the end of the war, right?
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: You tell me. Riesling, your ship is over at 2300.
• 7:18
  Speaker 7: And I'll see you ride the rest of the way
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: in slop locker.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Maybe, maybe. In the meantime, you clear out of my
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: power room. I'm gonna make me up a third verse
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: from a song. Yeah, I got it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Power room.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Vamp number two, a point.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Number two, I.
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: Hold on, Hertzman. Jimmy Legs, is that forced-drive boil up there?
• 7:43
  Speaker 10: Give me that, Casey.
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: Riesling, I've taken about enough from you.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: And I got a little news for you, Skipper. Number
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: two jet is bulging like a fat lady in a
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: satin skirt. Listen, you clown. Damp number two a point. Why, sure.
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: Look out, Hertzman, I'll take it. You watch the gauge.
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: Now.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: He's riding easy here.
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: He's bucking a little.
• 8:06
  Speaker 11: Huh?
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: What?
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: Riesling, hit the emergency!
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: All right!
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: She won't die with that warmth. There go the lights.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: Duck her. Freeze.
• 8:17
  Speaker 10: Freeze.
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Stay down behind the baffle. I've got to take a look.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: It's radioactive.
• 8:23
  Speaker 12: Look out. I've got to fish the hot stuff out
• 8:25
  Speaker 12: of the tube.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: What's going on down there?
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: Shut up, Jimmy Lace.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I'm busy.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: She's tight now. What happened? Number two, blue, you lunk-headed
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: space rat. You all right? Ah, a little sunburn. Lights
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: are gone. What's the matter with the emergency circuits?
• 8:42
  Speaker 7: Riesling, I.
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: Jimmy Legs, get some lights down here. It's dark. Get
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: the emergency light on.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: But they're on, Riesling.
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: They went on right after the blast.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: The lights are on.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: What are you talking about?
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: It's dark. Jimmy Legs? Jimmy Legs, turn on the lights.
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: Turn on the lights.
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: That blue, radioactive glow from the jets was the last
• 9:13
  Speaker 6: thing Riesling ever saw.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: His optic nerve was burned out in an instant.
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: He was in sickbay on the rest of the trip,
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: and on the swing back we set Riesling down at
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: dry water. I ran into Riesling about two months later,
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: playing his guitar on a jetty that ran out into
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: the canal. He had a dirty rag tied over his
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: eyes from the jetman's knot, and his hat was on
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: the wharf beside him. When he finished, we walked out
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: along the canal.
• 9:41
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm doing right fine. Working saloons mostly. I've been
• 9:46
  Speaker 8: thinking some funny songs, Hirschman. The words come out different
• 9:49
  Speaker 8: than they used to. Come on along the canal with me. Sure.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Here, take my arm.
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: I know the way. That's another funny thing, Hurston. I
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: figure I know it better than other folks. Look back there,
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: towards the city. What do you see?
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: Oh, new factory buildings. You can smell them from here.
• 10:09
  Speaker 8: I still remember them old Martian towers, old before Bible
• 10:13
  Speaker 8: times on Earth. Thin and graceful, like a fairy palace,
• 10:17
  Speaker 8: as my old Grammy used to tell about down home
• 10:19
  Speaker 8: in the hills.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they are. Torn him down now, or else blocked
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: him up with cinder blocks.
• 10:24
  Speaker 8: Hertzman, when I stand out here in the canal, I
• 10:27
  Speaker 8: can see it the way it used to be. The water,
• 10:30
  Speaker 8: ice blue, the stars shining up out of it. Way
• 10:33
  Speaker 8: off there in the city with the towers sweeping up
• 10:37
  Speaker 8: like a bird flying off a tree. I can see it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Now it's the dirtiest stinkhole in the system.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: Not to me.
• 10:45
  Speaker 7: Listen, Hertzman.
• 10:47
  Speaker 10: Bone-tired the race that raised the towers Forgotten are their.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Lores Long gone the gods who shed.
• 11:06
  Speaker 11: The tears That lapped these crystal.
• 11:11
  Speaker 10: Shores Slow beats the time-worn heart of Mars.
• 11:21
  Speaker 13: Beneath this icy sky.
• 11:27
  Speaker 10: The thin air whispers voicelessly that all who live must die.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: I can't figure it myself.
• 11:47
  Speaker 8: I never put words together like that before. I reckon
• 11:50
  Speaker 8: it's just I got time now to study the words
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: and shine them up in my head.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Till they sing true.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Why don't you go home recently?
• 11:58
  Speaker 8: Home?
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Hurry.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: I've been thinking about.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: That, Hertzman.
• 12:01
  Speaker 8: When I was a young'un down in the Ozarks, I
• 12:03
  Speaker 8: used to climb a big old oak tree my daddy
• 12:05
  Speaker 8: had in the dooryard. You could see the hills for miles,
• 12:09
  Speaker 8: green and cool. I've been thinking about that.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: Well, why don't you go back then? Some days.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Someday, Hertzman, I couldn't face those hills now.
• 12:17
  Speaker 8: I couldn't stand to see black when I knew there
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: was lying all around me.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Cool and green in the sun.
• 12:22
  Speaker 8: I couldn't stand that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: Well, let's get back to town, Hertzman. I made three
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: and a half dollars marching today, and I'm all set
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: to drink it down before dawn. Come on!
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: I lost track of reasoning after that. and I shipped
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: out in a slow freight of the Condor class for Luna.
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: And he hits the hike to Venusburg, an oar ship,
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: and the tri-planet run.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: So he beat around the system.
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: Venusburg, lay port to dry water to New Shanghai and back.
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: Any spaceport was his home, and no skipper refused to
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: lift the extra mass of Riesling and his guitar. He
• 13:07
  Speaker 6: made up his song, sitting out watches down in the
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: power rooms with old shipmates, while the monotonous beat of
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: the jets shook the hull plates.
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: Hear the jets. Hear the jets.
• 13:19
  Speaker 13: Hear them snarl at your back when you're stretched on
• 13:22
  Speaker 13: the rack.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Hear the jets.
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: Feel the pain in your ship.
• 13:26
  Speaker 7: Feel the strain in your grip.
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: Hear the jets.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Feel her rise.
• 13:31
  Speaker 9: Feel her drive.
• 13:32
  Speaker 10: Strain and steel come alive on her jets.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: On her jets.
• 13:38
  Speaker 10: On her jets.
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: Little by little, his songs began to travel along with
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: spaceways ahead of them.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: Raw spaceman songs. A different kind of song.
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: Strange, sad songs, like the ones you find printed in
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: the centennial editions.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Well, there's one.
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: Called Dark Star Passing and Death Song of a Weed Cove.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: And then finally, The Green Hills of Earth. It grew
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: for 20 years, that song.
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: They say it started way back when Riesling was down
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: in the labor camps in Venus singing for the indentured men.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: When Riesler, well, when he hit Venus, he'd always head
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: out for the backwoods to sing for them.
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: First, if someone will kindly pass a bottle.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, it ain't much, Riesling.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: Here. It'll do.
• 14:30
  Speaker 8: Oh, what is that stuff?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Tequila. You can't make them good here on Venus.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: What do you use?
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Carrot bush. Home it is. Home it is different.
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: How'd you come to sign on?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: When a man comes out the village from the city,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: he says there's work. You sign the paper and you work. Work?
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: There's work all right.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Ten stinking hours in the jungle with machete.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: How long you sign for? Ten?
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I only speak Spanish. I don't know. The paper says
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: ten years. Ten years.
• 15:05
  Speaker 7: How long you got to go?
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: What's the use? We ain't getting home. You know how
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: many men died out there in the swamp today? Ten men.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: Ten!
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: What's the use?
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: My mother, she's dead.
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: My father don't care.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Girl?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, she says she waits.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: You, you sing some.
• 15:31
  Speaker 11: More, Eastling.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: We drink and you sing, huh?
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: Maybe a new song, son.
• 15:38
  Speaker 11: We rot in the molds of Venus.
• 15:44
  Speaker 10: We retch out a tainted breath.
• 15:50
  Speaker 13: Foul are flooded jungles.
• 15:56
  Speaker 9: Crawling with unclean death.
• 16:01
  Speaker 10: We've tried each spinning space moat.
• 16:07
  Speaker 9: And reckoned its true worth.
• 16:13
  Speaker 13: Take us back to the homes of men and the
• 16:19
  Speaker 13: cool green hills of earth.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Take us back.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: What's the matter? Finish the song, Riesling.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: I can't.
• 16:34
  Speaker 7: I can't yet.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: It just don't come.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: I'll finish it... When I go home, that's it.
• 16:39
  Speaker 7: When I go home to the hills.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: Now pass that bottle.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: A dawn whistle don't blow for four hours.
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: That's where the Green Hills started. And I was there
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: when it was finished. It was 20 years after that.
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: And there wasn't a man flying or on the beach
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: that hadn't heard.
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: Of Riesling in his songs. He was getting old now
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: for a spaceman. He was a familiar figure through the system. Tall, gaunt,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: with that.
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: Dirty bandage tied across his blind eyes.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: I was a chief jetman then on the old Falcon.
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: We were cradled at Venus Ellis Isle, scheduled for a
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: direct jump to Great Lakes, Illinois, on Earth. I was
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: checking in Dunnage when Riesling felled his way up the
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: gangway and came.
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: Through the loft. Hey, Riesling.
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: Who's that?
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: Mike Hertzman.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: Hertzman.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: What are you doing in this old hog boat?
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: Well, I figured I'd ride it back to Earth. Earth?
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: You're going home, Riesling?
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: I thought you were never going to make that run.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: What changed your mind?
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: Oh, I've been hankering to set foot in the Ozarks again.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, how about those hills?
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: I've been singing about them so long now, Hertzman. I've
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: got to finish the song.
• 17:55
  Speaker 8: I've got to set foot in the dooryard and hear
• 17:58
  Speaker 8: the wind through that oak tree.
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: It's about the last thing I'll be doing. I've got
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: to get home before.
• 18:05
  Speaker 6: Look, Riesling, there's a new company policy in effect now.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: No more deadhead rides and new code books in force.
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: Oh, that don't bother me none. I'm riding her back
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: to Earth. I'm going to finish my song. It's got
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: to be there.
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but the skipper's one of them youngsters fresh out
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: of Harriman Institute cadet training.
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: He'll throw the book at you.
• 18:22
  Speaker 11: At me?
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: I've been around space as long as Haley's Common, Bruce's Ridge.
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: I'm going back to Earth. The old green hills of Earth.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: I'm going home.
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: All secured, Hertzman?
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Yes, sir.
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: What are you doing here? This is Riesling, Captain.
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: Riesling, huh? I'm dragging it back to Earth, Captain.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Not in this ship. Shake a leg and get out
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: of here.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: Oh, now, Captain, you wouldn't begrudge an old man a
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: trip home.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: I can't do it. Space Precautionary Code Clause 6.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: Now, come on, clear out.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: Now, look, Skipper, you can slide me by under the
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: distressed spaceman's coals in that code book.
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: Distressed spaceman, my eye.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: You've been bumming around the system for 30 years. Oh, Skipper,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: you're making me do something I've never done to no
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: one before. I'm an old man, an old blind man,
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: and I want to go home. I never crawled in
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: front of a forest drop in my life, but you've
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: got to let me drag home. The law says a
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: man's got a trip coming to him, and you can
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: stretch for a poor old blind man, can't you? You've
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: got to, Skipper.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: All right, you old space rat, but keep out of
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: the way.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I run an efficient ship and I don't want any trouble. No, sir,
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: no trouble. I'll just lay down to the power room.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: I'd kind of like to be near the jets when
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: they blast off.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Bird. Bird. Sit down, Rainsley.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: Take a load off your feet.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Mac.
• 19:56
  Speaker 12: Power on.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: Fire three.
• 19:58
  Speaker 7: Aye, sir.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: Have you seen these new automatic tampers, Riesling? Don't have
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: to do nothing, just sit and watch. Where's the peeper?
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: Turned off. It's all automatic.
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: Youngsters have it soft. When I was twisting her tail,
• 20:17
  Speaker 8: you had to stay awake. You got the old hand-damping
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: plates on?
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: Oh, but the links, I unshipped them. They cover up
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: the dials. You might need them. Oh, the automatics handle everything.
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: Well, you've finally gone home, Riesling.
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: Won't seem the same out past the moon. Yeah, been
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: waiting for this a long time, Mackett. It's going to
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: be good to get home, I reckon.
• 20:38
  Speaker 9: The arctic sky is calling spacemen back to their dreams.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: Mac! Mac! Mac, I've got the emergency! My hand dampers!
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: We're the least! Mac! Mac, I.
• 20:58
  Speaker 9: Mac, I.
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: They ought to be on the wall somewhere here.
• 21:03
  Speaker 10: I got him.
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: Emergency squad coming in. Stay out. Stay out. The place
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: is hot. Radiation blast. I got the link shift. I
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: can hand damper now.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: What's going on in there?
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: I'm spilling jet free.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Is this McDougal?
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: McDougal's dead. This is Riesling on watch. Riesling, get out
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: of there.
• 21:22
  Speaker 11: You'll kill yourself.
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: Don't worry, Skipper. I know this power room like the
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: inside of my shirt. Somebody's got the damper. Riesling, I'm
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: sending in the crew. No use. The whole room will
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: be hot for an hour, and the other jets won't hold. Oh, Skipper. Skipper,
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: throw on the recording tape. What? Throw on the recording tape.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: I've got a song to finish, and I've got to
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: make it right now.
• 21:43
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: I can hear it.
• 21:45
  Speaker 10: Riesling, the radiation will burn you down.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: She's clear now, Skipper. She'll burn out clean. Riesling. Riesling,
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: are you all right?
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: I reckon.
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: Pretty sharp sunburn.
• 22:01
  Speaker 12: You pick me out of here with tongs and bury
• 22:03
  Speaker 12: me in a lead shield coffin. Radiation's getting bright. I
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: can almost see it. Bright and Rosie, like the sun.
• 22:16
  Speaker 12: Like the sun over the hills down home.
• 22:20
  Speaker 9: We pray for one last landing on the globe that
• 22:35
  Speaker 9: gave us.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Birth.
• 22:39
  Speaker 9: Let us rest our eyes On the fleecy skies of
• 22:48
  Speaker 9: the cool green hills of Earth.
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: That's the way he died. Riesling, the blind singer of
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: the spaceways. Singing of the home he never reached. The
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: cool green hills of Earth.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: You have just heard X-1, transcribed by the National Broadcasting
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Company in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of astounding
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: science fiction. Tonight's story, The Green Hills of Earth, written
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: by Robert Heinlein and adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: Featured in the cast were Ken Williams as Riesling, Nelson
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Almstead as Hertzman, Matt Crowley as Hicks, Wendell Holmes as Casey,
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Bill Griffiths as Rodriguez, Bill Lipton as the Skipper, and
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: William Zuckert as McDougal. Original music for Riesling's songs was
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: written and sung by Tom Glazer. Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: X-1 was directed by Fred Way and is an NBC
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Radio Network production. And now, next week, the strange story
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: of Dr.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: Grimshaw's sanitarium and of a patient.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: There who suddenly found himself involved in a game of
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: cat and mouse. But the man had actually been reduced
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: to the size of a mouse while the cat remained
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: full size.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: What happened then? You'll learn next week.
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: Convicts tell their true stories on The Loser tonight over
• 24:44
  Speaker 6: most NBC radio stations.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: This concludes X-1's The Green Hills of Earth. Follow X-1
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: for more classic broadcasts.