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X Minus One - "The Old Die Rich" (Old Time Radio, 1956) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On July seventeenth, nineteen fifty six, NBC's Sustaining X minus
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: one presented episode sixty The Old Die Rich Ernest Kinoy
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: adapted H. L. Golds nineteen fifty three Galaxy science fiction
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: story with Bob Mauer directing.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: The radio drama.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Actor Mark Weldon, investigating a role, joins his police acquaintance,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Sergeant Lou Pape, as they look into the deaths of
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: elderly people who appear to have starved despite having cash
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and bank savings. Their inquiries lead through the city toward
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: May Roberts and an unusual employment scheme. Jim Bowles, Jan Miner,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: William Zuckert, Guy Repp, Wendell Holmes, Ralph Camargo, and Iva
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Francis are heard in the cast and now the original broadcast.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: In just a moment X minus one. But first, here's
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: an important date to remember. It's this Sunday when the
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: highly acclaimed program On the Line with Bob Considine premiers
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: on NBC Radio.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Behind each news of that is a human interst story.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Beginning Sunday, you can hear these fascinating sidelights with commentator
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Bob Considine. You'll also meet the important people who make
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: the headlines, people from the government, labor and management, or
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: perhaps someone in your own hometown.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: The latest news becomes more meaningful when you understand the
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: human interest. So make a day to hear on the
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: line with Bob Considine. I'll stay tuned for X minus
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: one on NBC.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Contdown for blast off X minus five four three two
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: X minus one. Fire from the far horizons of the
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: These are stories of the future.
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: Adventures in which you'll live in a million, could be years,
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: on a thousand, maybe worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: cooperation with Galaxies Science Fiction Magazine resents Heck.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: He minus one to Night The Old Die Rich by H. L.
• 2:39
  Speaker 6: Gold.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: The uniformed carp at the door told me to get lost,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: but Blue Pape spotted me and told the man to
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: let me in. It was a shabby room, they always are.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: There was a woman on the bed, an old woman
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: with white hair, thin enough to show the tight drawn scalp.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: The medical examiner was going over her as if she
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: were a side of beef that you had to put
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a federal grade stamp on. When are you going to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: stop taking this ham?
• 3:13
  Speaker 7: Friend, of yours, around of these cases out and just
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: to gratify his morbid curiosity.
• 3:17
  Speaker 8: Forget about Weldon, Doc, what did she die of?
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Not eating malnutrition?
• 3:22
  Speaker 8: I look, Doc, in the top eureau drawer. She had
• 3:25
  Speaker 8: bank books showing thirty two thousand dollars from five different banks.
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: She had the price of malnutrition induced by senile syde coasts.
• 3:33
  Speaker 7: They starve because they're less afraid of death than digging
• 3:36
  Speaker 7: into their savings.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Right, don't know, Doc, It doesn't feel right to me.
• 3:39
  Speaker 7: Listen, Weldon, Just because you get up on a stage
• 3:41
  Speaker 7: or on some half baked television show and make believe
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: you're seventy years old doesn't qualify you as an expert
• 3:47
  Speaker 7: on gerontology.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Maybe not, Doc, But I went ball at twenty five,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: and I've been playing old men ever since. There's a
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: lot more to it than just shuffling around and talking
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: in a high cracked voice.
• 3:57
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: There hasn't been an actor since Odor Skinner. Maybe, But
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the way I work, I have to get inside the character.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I have to decide when he was born, how he
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: got along with his father, where he went to school,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: what he thinks of women. Everything about a character.
• 4:10
  Speaker 7: Isn't there one of them these days can make themselves
• 4:12
  Speaker 7: heard past the fifth row.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm serious now, I've tried imagining myself growing weak
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: from hunger. I've tried to think of not even spending
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: a nickel to keep me from dying. Oh, I just
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: don't believe it. It isn't right. I don't feel it.
• 4:25
  Speaker 7: Well, Lucky for me, I don't have to feel these
• 4:27
  Speaker 7: things inside of me, because I'm a doctor, not an actor.
• 4:30
  Speaker 7: Sergeant malnutrition induced by senile psychosis. I lord of the
• 4:35
  Speaker 7: wicker basket from Bellevulle. So long, Barrymore, Well.
• 4:40
  Speaker 8: He's right, Mark. We get a couple of these cases
• 4:43
  Speaker 8: every year, some old batstuff, and the death was seventeen
• 4:46
  Speaker 8: thousand dollars in old bills pinned on his union suit.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Tends up all of time all it doesn't feel right. Well,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: he knows his business, but he doesn't know old people.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I do. It isn't easy to stop to death, not
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: when you can buy day old bread the bakery or
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: wilted vegetables the grocer's ready to throw out. Anyone who's
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: willing to eat that stuff can stay alive from day
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to day. Hunger is a well, it's a pretty potent instinct.
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: Maybe they get too sick to go out after old
• 5:12
  Speaker 8: bread or wilted vegetables.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: It takes weeks to die of starvation. Did you ever
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: try starving for weeks? Loop?
• 5:17
  Speaker 8: Now?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Did you? Well? The point is somebody would find out
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: a janitor or landlord somebody, and they'd get him to
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: a hospital.
• 5:24
  Speaker 8: Forget about it. Mark can't argue with it. Here there
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: were five bank books thirty two thousand dollars.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she took good care of them. They look almost new.
• 5:33
  Speaker 8: Sure she did most important thing in the world.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Huh April twenty third, nineteen seven, one hundred and fifty dollars.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: The ink's pretty dark. Shouldn't it be faded? She probably
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: never took it out in the light. Anyone ever think
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of testing the ink or what for? Bank's records? Always
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: check these aren't forgeries. If that's what you're thinking, Well,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I'd like to get a chemist working on this ink.
• 5:56
  Speaker 8: No, Mark, Look, this is strictly against regulation. I got
• 6:00
  Speaker 8: to take these books down to the squadroom and sign
• 6:02
  Speaker 8: them in pretty dark ink for nineteen seven. Well, it's
• 6:07
  Speaker 8: about five o'clock in the afternoon. I guess I could
• 6:10
  Speaker 8: hold them over tonight and bring them down the property.
• 6:12
  Speaker 8: Click in the morning.
• 6:13
  Speaker 6: Good, I know where I can find a chemist, mister Weldon,
• 6:22
  Speaker 6: There's no doubt of it. The ink sample is typical
• 6:25
  Speaker 6: of inks used fifty years ago. Nineteen oh seven would.
• 6:29
  Speaker 8: Be about right there, you see, Weldon, I was supposed
• 6:32
  Speaker 8: to go to the tratas tonight, but according to the
• 6:34
  Speaker 8: amount of oxidation, it's fresh enough to be only a
• 6:38
  Speaker 8: few months old.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: There, I was right.
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: Well, could not be the result of unusually careful handling it?
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: No, yes, yes, I suppose it could. An airtight compartment,
• 6:49
  Speaker 6: perhaps see it with one of the inert gases or
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: a vacuum. That might account for the lack of normal aging.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Lou, you can't keep inert gases and a top bureau
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: drawer and a fourth floor walk up.
• 7:01
  Speaker 8: Yeah, well, it's probably some simple explanation for fresh ink
• 7:06
  Speaker 8: half a century old.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: I've been going out on these cases for about a year.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: It's my specialty playing old people. And when I'm not
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: working television or something on the Broadway, I go down
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: to the homes for the aged of the parks, or
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: just watch blue Paint's no friend of mine, and he
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: put me on these malnutrition cases. But there was more
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: to it than just picking up color and tricks of
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: the trade. There had to be a better reason for it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: You can't, Jeff, start to death with upwards of thirty
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars right at your fingertips, not without at least
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: buying a bowl of soup. I had a run of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: television that kept me busy for about a month. Then
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: lou Pape called me up and asked me to come
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: down to BELvue.
• 7:55
  Speaker 7: I love Atopicy if you wanted, Sergeant, but I can
• 7:57
  Speaker 7: give you the cause of death right now. Attritionian due
• 8:00
  Speaker 7: to senile psychosis.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: What's up, well, Mark?
• 8:04
  Speaker 8: An old guy was found wandering around down on Hester
• 8:07
  Speaker 8: Street suffering from mount nutrition. He had seventeen thousand dollars
• 8:10
  Speaker 8: in cash inside the lining of his jacket.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Is Is he alive?
• 8:13
  Speaker 10: No?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Not now he isn't.
• 8:15
  Speaker 8: Dock's got him in the room there. But he was
• 8:17
  Speaker 8: stumbling around when the cop on the beat picked him up.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Did he say anything?
• 8:21
  Speaker 8: Well, he talked to the cop, Pretty smart, young kid, Jims.
• 8:24
  Speaker 8: The old man kept talking about money, about his wife,
• 8:27
  Speaker 8: she must have been dead twenty years, and then just
• 8:30
  Speaker 8: before he went out completely, he did say something maybe
• 8:33
  Speaker 8: three or four times.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Well, what was it El Greco? You mean the artist?
• 8:39
  Speaker 8: Well, that's what Stankowitz said. He's the officer who picked
• 8:42
  Speaker 8: him up. Said he remembered he'd heard the name on
• 8:44
  Speaker 8: that television quiz program, you know, the jockey who's the.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Odd expert regret.
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: Probably some Greek restaurant where he was bumming his meals.
• 8:53
  Speaker 7: Are you sure you want not top seeded?
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Sergeant? It's late. I won't get to it till Lamora.
• 8:57
  Speaker 8: All right, take your.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Time as something else, isn't there lou.
• 9:03
  Speaker 8: Maybe Mark found the old guy's room and there was
• 9:06
  Speaker 8: an ad thumbtacked over the sink. Nothing too unusual.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there it is. Men and women wanted light work
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: suitable for old people, no references required.
• 9:19
  Speaker 8: Well, I checked it with Lieutenant. He says, to forget it.
• 9:21
  Speaker 8: He says, it figures for an old guy to be
• 9:23
  Speaker 8: interested in an ad like that.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: An old guy was seventeen thousand dollars in cash.
• 9:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah, well I didn't figure. I'd argue with lieutenant.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Do you mind if I keep it? No?
• 9:32
  Speaker 8: Go ahead.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It was an old brown stone house in the East eighties.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: I got in line with the rest of the applicants.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: My face was lined with plodian wrinkles, and I wore
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: an antique shiny suit and run down shoes. It was
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: a good makeup job. I looked more authentic than the
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: rest of the old timers. They were waiting for the interview.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: I finally came up to where a woman was asking questions.
• 10:01
  Speaker 10: Name, Curnit, Louis Kurnitt, Kurnit. Address, Well, I don't exactly
• 10:10
  Speaker 10: have a place. I've been staying with a fellow down
• 10:13
  Speaker 10: on Twelfth Street, friendly man. I met him in the cafeteria.
• 10:17
  Speaker 11: Previous occupation.
• 10:18
  Speaker 10: Well, I worked. Did a lot of things used to
• 10:22
  Speaker 10: be printed way back. I could handsh you.
• 10:25
  Speaker 11: Do you have any references?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 10:27
  Speaker 11: Family, no, no, no, ma'am.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I hadn't got any family.
• 10:31
  Speaker 10: I had a cousin in Short Lake City, but I
• 10:34
  Speaker 10: haven't seen him in thirty years or more. The ad said,
• 10:39
  Speaker 10: you didn't need no reference. Well, that's right now. Will
• 10:41
  Speaker 10: you wait in the other room, ma'am?
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Do I get the job, ma'am?
• 10:46
  Speaker 9: Just wait in the other room.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I shuffled into the other room and sat down to wait.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I concentrated on building a character for Louis Kernitt. If
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: I was going to carry this through, I was going
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: to have to play a better performance than I'd ever
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: given before. About half an hour a young woman came
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: into the room. I'd planned to be dozing the way
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: an old man would, and so my eyes were closed
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: when I heard the door close. When I opened them,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: I was looking into the barrel of a thirty eight revolver.
• 11:23
  Speaker 11: Are you awake now, mister Weldon?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Eh?
• 11:27
  Speaker 12: I don't think you need to carry on anymore, you
• 11:29
  Speaker 12: need any further convincing.
• 11:30
  Speaker 11: You are Mark Weldon.
• 11:32
  Speaker 12: You're about forty years old, and you played this same
• 11:35
  Speaker 12: character on television about six weeks ago.
• 11:37
  Speaker 11: You played it fairly well.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Thank you. Would you mind putting down that gun? Yes?
• 11:46
  Speaker 11: Why did you apply for this position? Mister Weldon?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: You're not old? Not really well. As a matter of fact,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: it was a bet. I was having an argument about
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: the method with an actor who trained at the Old VIC.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: I bet him that I could, well, I could get
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: by off the stage.
• 12:03
  Speaker 11: Well, no bother.
• 12:04
  Speaker 12: You've been very busy recently trying to find out why
• 12:07
  Speaker 12: senile psychotics starved themselves to death.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: How did you know that? Well?
• 12:11
  Speaker 12: I happen to know that you've been present at several
• 12:13
  Speaker 12: police investigations into these cases, and you're a good friend
• 12:16
  Speaker 12: of Sergeant lou Pate.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you know a great deal more about me than
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I do about you.
• 12:20
  Speaker 11: Well, I would be glad to enlighten you. My name
• 12:22
  Speaker 11: is May Roberts.
• 12:24
  Speaker 12: I'm the daughter of the late doctor Anthony Roberts, the
• 12:26
  Speaker 12: physicist who was dismissed from the Brookhaven Atomic Energy Laboratory
• 12:29
  Speaker 12: five years ago.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I assume you're connected with these starvation cases, or you
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: wouldn't have known I was investigating.
• 12:36
  Speaker 11: Well, that's obvious, isn't it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 12: I'm not afraid of professional detectives, mister Weldon. They deal
• 12:42
  Speaker 12: only with facts. I don't like amateurs. They guessed too much,
• 12:46
  Speaker 12: they don't stick to reality. Consequently, they're likely to get
• 12:50
  Speaker 12: too close to the truth.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, miss Roberts, I'm nowhere near the truth. I haven't
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: the slightest idea how you're tied in with those starvations.
• 12:57
  Speaker 12: Well I intend to show you, mister Weldon. I'm happy
• 13:00
  Speaker 12: to announce that you have the job.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 13:03
  Speaker 11: Look, don't move, mister Weldon.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 13:06
  Speaker 12: Incidentally, about fifteen minutes ago I called Sergeant Pape and
• 13:10
  Speaker 12: told him I was your sister, just in from Pittsburgh.
• 13:13
  Speaker 12: I wanted to get in touch with you very badly,
• 13:15
  Speaker 12: and Sergeant Pape was very sorry. He wished he could
• 13:18
  Speaker 12: help me, but he didn't have the slightest idea where
• 13:20
  Speaker 12: you were. All right, mister Weldon, right ahead of you,
• 13:25
  Speaker 12: Please through that door.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: She didn't look like the kind of girl who could
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: get to hold the gun on me as I went
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: down the hall. So that's all I did. Just go
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: down the hall. I climbed up to the fourth floor
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: to a large room. There was a maze of electrical equipment,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: folded down, tubes and wires and dials. In the middle
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: of the room was a wire mesh cage. She kept
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: that gun on me, steady as a rock. She began
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: to set readings on the dials and flip switches on
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: the control panel.
• 14:01
  Speaker 12: It'll take about five minutes for the field to build up.
• 14:04
  Speaker 12: Mister Weldon, Please get in the cathode area.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: You mean that wire cake?
• 14:09
  Speaker 11: Go ahead?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: All right?
• 14:10
  Speaker 12: All right now, I wouldn't advise moving now, mister Weldon.
• 14:16
  Speaker 11: Why I carry some ten thousand volts? Now, mister Weldon,
• 14:19
  Speaker 11: you're curious, and.
• 14:21
  Speaker 12: You could turn out to be a great nuisance to me.
• 14:23
  Speaker 12: As long as you come this far, we might as well.
• 14:25
  Speaker 12: Both benefit by it.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Benefit.
• 14:27
  Speaker 12: You'll find a suit of clothes on the floor there.
• 14:29
  Speaker 12: Put it on, after all, put it on.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't know whether she was bluffing about the electric charge.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: The revolver looked real enough, so I stripped and changed
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: into the other clothes. The shoes were a little too
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: tight and pointed in the color of the shirt was
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: too stiffly starks, and too high under my chin. The
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: suit was too narrow with the shoulders and the ankles.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I remember my father had a suit like that, the
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: same shiny blue surge.
• 15:00
  Speaker 12: All right, in your pocket, you find a set of envelopes.
• 15:03
  Speaker 12: You find a set of instructions on each Follow them carefully.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: I don't get it.
• 15:07
  Speaker 12: You will use the envelopes in the order they're arranged.
• 15:11
  Speaker 12: What's all about, mister Weldon? I meant it when I
• 15:14
  Speaker 12: said this could be a benefit to both of us.
• 15:16
  Speaker 12: There's no use explaining anything. You'll find out, and don't
• 15:19
  Speaker 12: try to escape. It can't be done.
• 15:22
  Speaker 11: All right now, the field generators are ready.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Look, Miss Roberts.
• 15:26
  Speaker 11: Just follow instructions, mister Weldon, I blinked.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I was standing outside a bank on a sunny day
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: in spring. I stared at the people passing by. They
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: were dressed like the characters in the nineteen thirty movie.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: The women wore long dresses and flower pot hats, and
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: men had hard draw hats, suits with narrow shoulders. Cars
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: were square with flat radiators in the front. There's a
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: trolley car passing by, and suddenly I realized that the
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: last trolley car stopped running in Manhattan years ago. I
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: tried to figure it out. Who's New York? All right?
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I recognize some of the buildings. First, I figured it
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: must have been hypnosis, and then I looked at the
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: first of the envelopes in my pocket. I read it
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: and walked into the bank. Yes, sir, our mister Golden
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: tells me that you wish to open an account. Yes,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: that's right, uh huh. We're very happy to have a
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: new depositor.
• 16:34
  Speaker 10: Very happy.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Indeed, of course, you realize the institution is in sound condition,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: very sound. You didn't worry about all those rumors in
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: this bank, No, sir, solid solid, no, that that's good.
• 16:44
  Speaker 8: All right.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Now, the name Mark Weldon. You have no address in
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: the city at prison, No no, and you're depositing one
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars. That's right, alright, eh, I'll just
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: checked the slip here. One hundred and fifty dollars, right,
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: and the date May fifteenth, of course, nineteen thirty one,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: thirty one for the pressure. Oh now, mister Weldon, this
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: is a very good year for business. This temporary recession
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: is bound to abait sound banking policies will see us through.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: It's just around the corner, you know what, Well, what
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: is prosperity? All right, mister Weldon. We're very happy to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: have your account. I went outside the bank, and I
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: stood there in the spring sunlight and let the terror
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: soak into me. Possibility of the entire situation was gnawing
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: at the edges of my mind. And then suddenly I
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: wasn't there. It was as fast as blinking. I was
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: outside another bank in the same city. The date on
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: the next envelope was May twenty ninth, and it was
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: still nineteen thirty one. I made a seventy five dollars
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: deposit there, and then one hundred dollars of another place
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: a few days later, spending a few minutes each time,
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: and going ahead anywhere from a couple of days to
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: almost a month. Nineteen thirty four, I found myself inside
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: a broker's office.
• 18:09
  Speaker 10: Very well, mister Weldon, as I understand that you are
• 18:12
  Speaker 10: buying the stock for a doctor Anthony Roberts.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 18:16
  Speaker 10: I assume the stock will be in his name, that's right.
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: I'm just acting as agent. I follow instructions of sorts,
• 18:23
  Speaker 10: of course. Well, are you sure I can't convince you
• 18:25
  Speaker 10: that you're making a big mistake? No, No, these are
• 18:28
  Speaker 10: my instructions. Well, I'm mister Weldon. We are a reputable
• 18:31
  Speaker 10: brokerage house, and well, frankly, I feel quite shaky about
• 18:34
  Speaker 10: putting our client's money into this kind of security.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: There's no future in it.
• 18:38
  Speaker 10: It's a rare metal for which there is very little
• 18:40
  Speaker 10: use for industrial purposes.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: And well, however, if your.
• 18:44
  Speaker 10: Client is adamant, I have my instructions very well, then
• 18:48
  Speaker 10: in the name of doctor Anthony Roberts, one hundred shares
• 18:51
  Speaker 10: of montana uranium, most unwise, most done wise.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: It went that way about fifty to fifty hind deposit
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: money and my own name in various banks. At other times,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: then I'd buy a stock make a bet for Mayor Roberts.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: On June twenty first, nineteen thirty two, I begged Jack
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Sharky to take the heavyweight title away from Matchmailing. They
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: were singing Wood in nineteen thirty three at Belmont Park
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: and Max Bayer over Primo Carnera. I went on skipping
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: through the years, touching here and there for a few
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: minutes to an hour at a time. It was in
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: early October nineteen thirty eight, about five hours after I
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: had left Mayor Roberts House, before I realized what she
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: had me doing was making deposits and winning sure bets,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: just as those senile psychotics had done. The ink on
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: their bank books seemed fresh because it was fresh. It
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: wasn't given a chance to oxidize the rate I was going,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I'd be back at my own time in a few
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: hours with fifteen thousand dollars compound interest in cash. But
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: those old people had died of starvation somehow with all
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: that cash and banks. I didn't know how it happened
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: or why, But suddenly it occurred to me that I
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: didn't want to be found dead in my hotel room.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: So rather than make the deposit in nineteen thirty eight,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: I grabbed a cab and told the driver to step
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: on it. I got a mile away from the bank,
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: and then the cab suddenly disappeared, found my himself and
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: in front of a counter at a lunch room. The
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: envelope instructed me to make a bet on the World Series.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: There wasn't any way to get out of the range
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: of the machine to pick me up, at least five
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: miles away from where I was supposed to be. Came
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: back a week later to get my winnings. Was hungry,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: so I got myself a hamburger and went out the door.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: When I hit the sidewalk, it happened again.
• 20:50
  Speaker 11: Don't touch the cage yet, mister Weldon. I'll have to
• 20:53
  Speaker 11: clear the charge.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Hey, what happened to my hamburger? What the hamburger? I
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: had it here? It's gone. I'm hungry.
• 20:59
  Speaker 12: I'll get you something to eat well before your next trip. Well,
• 21:04
  Speaker 12: you've done pretty well for yourself, haven't you.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I have about fifteen thousand. I had ketchup
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: on my sleeve.
• 21:12
  Speaker 12: It's gone, mister Weldon. I want to talk seriously with
• 21:15
  Speaker 12: you now you've seen part of what I'm doing.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Part.
• 21:19
  Speaker 12: My father was discharged from all his research and university
• 21:22
  Speaker 12: connections because he insisted in publishing his findings on the
• 21:25
  Speaker 12: temporal field research. All a conventional physicist explained that it
• 21:29
  Speaker 12: was over work and recommended everything from hot Bouillon before
• 21:32
  Speaker 12: retiring to psychoanalysis.
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: Oh.
• 21:35
  Speaker 12: Possibly both of these might have been beneficial. But the
• 21:38
  Speaker 12: fact of the matter is that temporal field activities are
• 21:41
  Speaker 12: quite true, and you've seen proof.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I suppose I have.
• 21:45
  Speaker 11: So it seemed just a question of money, although obviously
• 21:47
  Speaker 11: I can get.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: All I need now, But sending people back through time
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: to bet on sure things like uranium.
• 21:53
  Speaker 11: It's a fair exchange. I pay well for service, don't I.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I suppose so.
• 21:57
  Speaker 12: But that isn't the most important thing. I've been to
• 22:00
  Speaker 12: save things that would have been lost otherwise. I've sent
• 22:02
  Speaker 12: people back to find precious treasures that would have been
• 22:05
  Speaker 12: destroyed it would have disappeared.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: Like an El Greco painting, Yes, and.
• 22:09
  Speaker 12: The original score of Mozart's Magic Flute that would have
• 22:12
  Speaker 12: been burned in nineteen forty two, and a Picasso miniature
• 22:15
  Speaker 12: that would have been lost at sea in fifty two.
• 22:17
  Speaker 12: I have them all here, stolen, no bought with money
• 22:21
  Speaker 12: from the year itself, at a fair price. Well, mister Weldon,
• 22:26
  Speaker 12: I sent you back because I've needed someone to work
• 22:28
  Speaker 12: with me on a regular basis, someone who's faster and
• 22:31
  Speaker 12: more alert than the old people I've hired till now.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Why old people.
• 22:34
  Speaker 12: It's a function of the field. You can't send somebody
• 22:36
  Speaker 12: back to a year in which they didn't exist at all.
• 22:40
  Speaker 12: I'm hungry, please, mister Weldon, this is very important. My
• 22:45
  Speaker 12: father died trying to prove the validity of his field
• 22:47
  Speaker 12: theory to conventional scientists, and I don't intend to bother.
• 22:51
  Speaker 11: We can become the most powerful people in the world.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I don't feel very powerful now. You haven't got a
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: sandwich hanging around.
• 22:57
  Speaker 12: I want to make you an offer, mister Weldon. I
• 23:00
  Speaker 12: need someone to help me expand the operation, plan, the
• 23:03
  Speaker 12: projects and research. I chose you because I was afraid
• 23:06
  Speaker 12: that you might hit on the truth by yourself.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Can I come out of this case? Careful?
• 23:10
  Speaker 11: Don't touch the contacts.
• 23:12
  Speaker 12: The fuel reacts on a random factor for at least
• 23:14
  Speaker 12: an hour after it's cut off.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: I'll be careful.
• 23:17
  Speaker 10: Tell me, miss Roberts, why haven't you been able to
• 23:20
  Speaker 10: go back to the time that your father was alive
• 23:22
  Speaker 10: and bring him.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Back before he died dead.
• 23:25
  Speaker 12: Tissue can't be transported We've tried it with mice and
• 23:28
  Speaker 12: rabbits from a laboratory in nineteen forty one, and they
• 23:31
  Speaker 12: just disappear like my hamburger. Mister Weldon, I assume that
• 23:37
  Speaker 12: you're interested and that we can make our plans without
• 23:40
  Speaker 12: using this revolver.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I hope. So fifteen thousand dollars there's a lot of money.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Of course, you were able to send those old people
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: back a lot.
• 23:49
  Speaker 11: Further, some of them as far back as eighteen eighty.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: How long would they be gone?
• 23:55
  Speaker 11: I mean, in subjective time, several weeks, perhaps a month,
• 23:59
  Speaker 11: no more.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: There's only one problem with Roberts.
• 24:03
  Speaker 11: I'm sure we can work out any details.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Well, this one is a little hard to work out.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: You see, I'm hungry. I haven't been this hungry since
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I got lost on the hunting trip and went without
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: food for three days. You say, you forget I've got
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: an interest in this business. Because they found some old
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: people dead of malnutrition and thirty thousand dollars or so
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: tucked away in their pockets.
• 24:22
  Speaker 10: They had been gone a month or more, and they
• 24:23
  Speaker 10: had to eat during that time, didn't they. When they
• 24:26
  Speaker 10: came back, the food disappeared like my hamburger. It disappeared
• 24:29
  Speaker 10: all at once, all over their body in one fast joke.
• 24:31
  Speaker 10: They starved to death.
• 24:32
  Speaker 12: Oh no, you don't understand. They just couldn't take the
• 24:35
  Speaker 12: field transition. They were too old, some of them, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 12: they lied to me about their age to get the job.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Oh no, you can't tell me that, because I know
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: how hungry I am, and I was only gone about
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: twelve hours. They were murdered.
• 24:45
  Speaker 11: Get back.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: You know they say hungry man gets mighty desperate. He'll
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: do almost anything but my arm.
• 24:54
  Speaker 10: Look out the change the context.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: She fell into that cage and disappeared before she hit
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: the ground. I didn't know what happened. I know she
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: said the field worked in a random factor of whatever
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: that meant. I called Lou Payton. He came to the
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: house just after the fire started. Something went in the
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: control panel and it turned out to be a four
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: alarm fire. Before they got it under control, there was
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: nothing left with the machine. There wasn't much left of
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: the Bronstone house. Lou didn't believe the story.
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: I told him, you mean, there won't be any more
• 25:36
  Speaker 8: of no more senile psychotics starving to death with a
• 25:39
  Speaker 8: bank roll in the head pocket.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: No, I told you, Louke, come on the mark.
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: We get plenty more. We always have.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I bet you won't. I'll bet your dollar there won't
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: be another case like that. I'll take that bet.
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: I lost the bet. There was one more case, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: perhaps it was the strangest one. A woman was found
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: wandering in Bryant Park just before she died of acute starvation.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: One strange thing was she was young, not more than thirty,
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: and the other was she had seventeen thousand dollars stucked
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: in her pocket book and a bullet wound in her arm.
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: The medical examiner said was at least two months old.
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: I guess that's what she meant by the random factor.
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: You have just heard X minus one, presented by the
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine,
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: which this month features This Way to the Regress by
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: Damon Knight, the story of a man named Sullivan who
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: strangely enough, did not have a great future behind him,
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: but rather a great past ahead. Galaxy Magazine on your
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: new stand today. In a moment to night's cast and
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: a preview of next week's exciting drama. Farmers know they
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: can't stop storms, floods or drafts from ruining a crop.
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: But they can make sure things like that can't ruin
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: them by investing in United States Savings bonds. Not only farmers,
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: but over forty million Americans in all sorts of jobs
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: own forty billions of savings bonds. And why because savings
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: bonds are the easy way to start saving and to
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: keep saving. And the money you invest in savings bonds
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: mean protection now and ready cash when you need it
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: in the future. Improving the farm, sending the youngsters to college,
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: or planning your own retirement. These are the big things
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: you can be ready for with savings bonds. And besides
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: offering you a safe investment, each series he savings bond
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: pays you back four dollars at maturity for every three
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: you invest. Yes, you are an extra dollars while you save.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: So start saving now for the big things in your life.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Be ready with United States Savings Bonds. Tonight by Transcription
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: X minus one has brought You the Old Die Rich,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: a story from the pages of Galaxy, written by H. L.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: Gold and adapted for radio by Ernest Canoy. Featured in
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: the cast were Jim Bowles, Jan Miner, Bill Zuckert, Guy Repp,
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: Wendell Holmes, Ralph Camargo and Ivor Francis.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You're announcer Fred Collins.
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: X minus one was directed by Bob Mauer and as
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: an NBC Radio Network production.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Our visit with X minus one concludes with the old
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: die Rich, good night, and thank you for listening.