Latest / X Minus One | Old Time Radio / X Minus One - "Lulu" (Old Time Radio, 1957)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Three survey crewmen share their interplanetary assignment with Lulu, a
- 0:04Speaker 1: planetary exploration robot that serves as spacecraft base and caretaker.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Then Jimmy Robbins, the communications man and a poet, gives
- 0:14Speaker 1: the machine rather more to think about than anyone expected
- 0:18Speaker 1: from NBC's X minus one. This is Lulu, episode one
- 0:22Speaker 1: hundred eighteen, first heard October thirty first, nineteen fifty seven.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Clifford D. Simack's novelette was adapted for radio by George Lefferts,
- 0:32Speaker 1: with Jan Minor, Henry Norril, James Stevens, Nelson Olmsted, and
- 0:37Speaker 1: Walter Black in the cast. And now our story begins.
- 0:46Speaker 2: This is Nightline, your tie line of the world, and
- 0:48Speaker 2: this is Walter o'keep.
- 0:54Speaker 3: Tonight.
- 0:54Speaker 2: A visit to worlds strangely different from ours, the world
- 0:57Speaker 2: of the future, the world of X minus one.
- 1:12Speaker 4: Colt down for blast off X minus five four three
- 1:18Speaker 4: two X minus one Fire from the far horizons of
- 1:48Speaker 4: the unknown, comtails of new dimensions in time and space.
- 1:53Speaker 4: These are stories of the future adventures in which you'll
- 1:57Speaker 4: live in A million could be years on a thousand.
- 2:00Speaker 5: May be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with
- 2:04Speaker 5: Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine resents.
- 2:07Speaker 6: He Minus One.
- 2:21Speaker 5: Tonight Lulu by Clifford D. Simak. But first hear this,
- 2:27Speaker 5: well the loan to go there?
- 2:29Speaker 6: When calling.
- 2:33Speaker 5: The loan to go there?
- 2:35Speaker 7: There?
- 2:35Speaker 5: When to call name?
- 2:39Speaker 8: Well, Hi everybody, this is Red Foley. And right at
- 2:42Speaker 8: this minute, I'm sort of combining work and pleasure. You
- 2:44Speaker 8: might say I enjoyed some of the good harmony of
- 2:48Speaker 8: the Marksman Quartet and also picking out some of their
- 2:50Speaker 8: songs to do on future broadcasts of our Red Foley Show.
- 2:54Speaker 8: You're on NBC. You know Saturday is going to be
- 2:57Speaker 8: my favorite day of the whole week, and I think
- 3:00Speaker 8: there's a pretty good chance that we can make it
- 3:02Speaker 8: a better day than ever for you with the fun
- 3:05Speaker 8: that we stir up here in the Ozarks. In addition
- 3:08Speaker 8: to the Marchman, I'll bring with me some of the
- 3:10Speaker 8: other top favorites in our field, and of course the
- 3:13Speaker 8: guests that you tell that you want to hear. So
- 3:16Speaker 8: let us be a regular part of your Saturday schedule.
- 3:18Speaker 8: Wants to do that, please to in our NBC program,
- 3:21Speaker 8: The Red Foley Show, And we'll do our dog gun
- 3:24Speaker 8: this to make it worth your while.
- 3:37Speaker 5: Ah X minus one Man tonight's story Lulu.
- 3:50Speaker 9: Technically she was a peer, a planetary exploration robut that
- 3:55Speaker 9: meant she was equipped to do just about anything necessary
- 3:57Speaker 9: to meet any kind of conditions on any planet she explored.
- 4:01Speaker 9: She carried a crew of three inside of her, and
- 4:03Speaker 9: she was able to talk to them and take care
- 4:05Speaker 9: of them and adapt herself to their needs. Yes, sir,
- 4:09Speaker 9: she was the complete spaceship robot, mother, base of operations,
- 4:13Speaker 9: and companion all rolled into one. Her communicators and memory
- 4:17Speaker 9: banks were stuffed with every conceivable kind of information.
- 4:21Speaker 3: And we called her Lulu. That was our biggest mistake.
- 4:31Speaker 10: We're on our way, fellows, Mother Earth, Here I come.
- 4:46Speaker 11: Was the Tolkoff satisfactory bulls.
- 4:50Speaker 12: A thing of beauty, Lulu the captain's compliments banks, bulls.
- 4:56Speaker 9: No matter how long I live, I'll never get used
- 4:58Speaker 9: to a ship talking to me.
- 5:00Speaker 13: Oh you lack of poetic soul, gus, Now me, I
- 5:02Speaker 13: catch the full wonder of the situation.
- 5:04Speaker 5: Personally, I'm hungry.
- 5:06Speaker 11: What would you boys like the kitchen to fix herself.
- 5:10Speaker 14: I'll have a nice juicy steak, guess something like Lulu,
- 5:15Speaker 14: maybe a couple of.
- 5:15Speaker 3: Eggs, and you, Jimmy, whatever you want to fix.
- 5:19Speaker 11: Surprise me very well, I'll relay the information to the
- 5:23Speaker 11: kitchen robot.
- 5:29Speaker 3: How long before we get back to Earth, Lulu.
- 5:31Speaker 8: I'll check the computers, Lulu, how about it.
- 5:42Speaker 3: He useful if something's going wrong? Lulu never took this
- 5:45Speaker 3: long to give me an eta? Or if something went wrong,
- 5:48Speaker 3: and I'll repair itself. Lulu is a self maintaining machine.
- 5:51Speaker 9: Remember who just seems she's taking a long time about
- 5:53Speaker 9: giving us an eta for Earth?
- 5:56Speaker 3: Hey, Lulu, what do you say.
- 6:00Speaker 11: Also that I love you?
- 6:02Speaker 3: Gus? Did you hear that these robot ships are supposed
- 6:06Speaker 3: to have a sense of humor? Are they?
- 6:07Speaker 5: I never heard of it, but it could be.
- 6:09Speaker 14: After all, they have technicians pouring all kinds of information
- 6:12Speaker 14: into their electronic memory banks.
- 6:14Speaker 3: Which one of us is the lucky man?
- 6:17Speaker 11: All three of you, you guess, and you Jimmy and
- 6:22Speaker 11: you them? I love all three of you.
- 6:26Speaker 5: Good Lord.
- 6:27Speaker 9: Do you really think somebody goofed when they designed this ship?
- 6:30Speaker 14: I think it's that poetry Jimmy has been writing and
- 6:32Speaker 14: reading out loud.
- 6:32Speaker 15: Wait a minute, Hellulo, Yes, darling, you haven't answered my question.
- 6:38Speaker 3: When do we reach earthm.
- 6:42Speaker 7: I've decided we aren't going to Earth we're eloping. I'm
- 6:49Speaker 7: going to take you away where we can be alone,
- 6:52Speaker 7: just the four of us.
- 6:55Speaker 11: Then someday you learn to love me as I love you.
- 7:01Speaker 3: This isn't funny anymore, Ben, throw that emergency. We got
- 7:03Speaker 3: to get the ship back on course.
- 7:05Speaker 6: Right.
- 7:05Speaker 11: I'm sorry, boys, but I've disconnected.
- 7:07Speaker 15: The circuits disconnected. Now look here, you crummy robot. You're
- 7:12Speaker 15: a machine. Do you understand a machine? You were designed
- 7:15Speaker 15: to do what humans want you to do. You got
- 7:17Speaker 15: the prime command build in every circuit.
- 7:19Speaker 10: In your system.
- 7:20Speaker 3: Now, shalt not harm a human being.
- 7:23Speaker 11: I'm harming you. We'll be happy together.
- 7:27Speaker 3: Oh brother.
- 7:28Speaker 14: Some technician must have read some cheap novels into this
- 7:31Speaker 14: baby system, or.
- 7:32Speaker 9: She's absorbed Jimmy's sloppy poetry and made some kind of
- 7:34Speaker 9: synthesis out of it.
- 7:36Speaker 16: It isn't every poet who can move a machine be beautiful?
- 7:40Speaker 6: James?
- 7:41Speaker 3: What were beautiful?
- 7:43Speaker 11: The poems?
- 7:45Speaker 3: That's it?
- 7:46Speaker 14: Well, I tell you, for two years now he's been
- 7:47Speaker 14: reading that the Moon June Spoon junk out loud, and
- 7:50Speaker 14: this robot's been absorbing it. It's created a whole new
- 7:53Speaker 14: electronic synapse. Let's face it, boys, she loves us, So.
- 8:06Speaker 3: That was it.
- 8:07Speaker 9: We were being kidnapped by an interplanetary robot who somehow
- 8:11Speaker 9: developed a response circuit for romantic glove.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Not just the practical kind of love, oh no, but the.
- 8:17Speaker 9: Guy that exists in cheap novels and romantic mags and
- 8:20Speaker 9: the modeling poetry one James Carter, amateur lyricist. And we
- 8:25Speaker 9: went to sleep that night, hoping by morning Lulu would
- 8:27Speaker 9: come to her senses.
- 8:32Speaker 3: All on the way, pop doll, hm, holy.
- 8:40Speaker 5: Mackerel, Hey fellas, you're still at it?
- 8:42Speaker 14: Yeah, I know I was whispered awake too, Hey, fellas,
- 8:45Speaker 14: come closer.
- 8:46Speaker 16: I don't want the receptors to pick this up. L
- 8:50Speaker 16: lose a machine, right, A machine likes order usefulness. Whoever
- 8:55Speaker 16: heard of a machine that did nothing?
- 8:57Speaker 10: So so that's it.
- 8:59Speaker 16: We're slow, get it worthless, useless slabs. We do nothing
- 9:04Speaker 16: but bum around the ship. After a while, Lulu gets
- 9:08Speaker 16: fed up with us just hanging around the ship. She
- 9:10Speaker 16: wants to get rid of us.
- 9:12Speaker 11: She takes u spec to Earth. It's worth a draw.
- 9:15Speaker 5: But what do we do first? About you?
- 9:17Speaker 3: Fellas? But I'm getting drunk.
- 9:27Speaker 5: You are listening to Lulu Tonight's attraction on X minus one.
- 9:33Speaker 5: October is the month designated by the National Congress of
- 9:36Speaker 5: Parents and Teachers as membership enrollment month. Eleven million members
- 9:40Speaker 5: the population of California or of Pennsylvania. That is their goal.
- 9:45Speaker 5: We want to salute the PTA members all over America
- 9:47Speaker 5: who will be going out in search of others to
- 9:49Speaker 5: join them in the great work of training children to
- 9:51Speaker 5: become mature citizens in a mature America. You need not
- 9:55Speaker 5: be a parent or a teacher to belong to your PTA.
- 9:59Speaker 5: All you need is an interest in children. For more
- 10:02Speaker 5: than sixty years, that kind of interest has provided the
- 10:04Speaker 5: spark that has helped the PTA achieve many of its
- 10:07Speaker 5: social and educational goals. Establishment of kindergartens, effective childcare, labor laws,
- 10:14Speaker 5: broader educational opportunities. These are some of the achievement the
- 10:18Speaker 5: PTA can claim. You can become part of this great
- 10:21Speaker 5: movement just by saying yes to the neighbor who calls
- 10:24Speaker 5: on you this month and invites you to join your PTA.
- 10:38Speaker 5: Now back to X minus one and Lulu.
- 10:47Speaker 9: So that's what we did.
- 10:48Speaker 3: We became slabs. We stopped playing cards, we stopped reading.
- 10:52Speaker 9: We just sat and moped and Lulu but sure enough,
- 10:56Speaker 9: her machine like intelligence was offended.
- 11:00Speaker 5: Gus, Yeah, I want to smoke. Yeah then yeah, Gus, Yeah,
- 11:08Speaker 5: it doesn't matter.
- 11:10Speaker 11: What's wrong with you boys?
- 11:12Speaker 7: You haven't done a thing for days now, Jimmy, you've
- 11:17Speaker 7: stopped writing poetry.
- 11:19Speaker 3: What's the use?
- 11:21Speaker 11: Don't you want to create? To be romantic? Well? Don't you?
- 11:28Speaker 3: I couldn't careless.
- 11:30Speaker 11: I'd hate to think that I bored you. All right,
- 11:34Speaker 11: if you want to mopen suck, go ahead. I'm still
- 11:37Speaker 11: a young spaceship, you know, and I've discovered what it
- 11:41Speaker 11: means to be in love.
- 11:52Speaker 3: Maybe Lulu knew what we were doing, but it didn't matter.
- 11:55Speaker 9: Her womanly sense of a lover outraged was stronger than
- 11:58Speaker 9: her robot logic. She pleaded, lectured, and called us low down.
- 12:03Speaker 9: She told us she loved us. She appealed to our
- 12:05Speaker 9: sense of manly decency. Mostly we didn't even answer. Then
- 12:10Speaker 9: she was hurt, She withdrew, she was cold and angry.
- 12:14Speaker 9: Finally she quit trying. What do you think us could be?
- 12:20Speaker 3: She's disenchanted with us. I think she'll head back to Earth.
- 12:23Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 12:24Speaker 5: That's the thing that worries me. All that racket coming
- 12:26Speaker 5: from the machine shops.
- 12:27Speaker 3: She's probably making some repairs to the engines.
- 12:29Speaker 5: Happen all the time, not like that hour after hour.
- 12:32Speaker 13: You know, maybe she's just trying to keep busy to
- 12:34Speaker 13: take her mind off her broken heart.
- 12:36Speaker 5: Nah, you and your poetic images.
- 12:38Speaker 14: It was your jump that got us into all this trouble.
- 12:40Speaker 5: My poetry is not jumped. I had it out for us.
- 12:43Speaker 3: We aren't supposed to care about anything. Remember, we're louds
- 12:46Speaker 3: flows there the wells. No self respecting girls spaceship would
- 12:50Speaker 3: have us Na. Gus is right.
- 12:51Speaker 5: We better not let down our guard.
- 12:53Speaker 3: Hey, that's how to stop.
- 12:56Speaker 5: You're right.
- 12:57Speaker 11: Good morning boys. Oh I just want to tell you,
- 13:01Speaker 11: as far as I'm concerned, you can all go straight
- 13:03Speaker 11: to blazes.
- 13:05Speaker 10: I think we did it.
- 13:07Speaker 3: She just back on earth. There is something wrong here,
- 13:10Speaker 3: A woman scorned, you know.
- 13:12Speaker 5: There's nothing to it.
- 13:14Speaker 3: Where's that sound? Wow, it's coming closer.
- 13:20Speaker 14: It sounds like, oh no, it couldn't be footsteps.
- 13:26Speaker 12: Tell us, huh the compartment ton, Holy mackerel a robot.
- 13:40Speaker 5: What a monster?
- 13:43Speaker 3: He must weigh five turns. I don't understand how I do.
- 13:47Speaker 10: She made him Lulu? Who else? That's what that racket
- 13:50Speaker 10: was in the machine shop.
- 13:52Speaker 3: Look, he's coming in order him to stop.
- 13:54Speaker 10: Maybe he's got a human response spector stop hold it.
- 14:00Speaker 11: Still, boys, meet Elmer, Elmer?
- 14:05Speaker 6: Are these the human pipsqueaks you used to be infatuated
- 14:10Speaker 6: with before you made me sweetheart?
- 14:13Speaker 11: Ridiculous?
- 14:14Speaker 6: Darling u out of the way bush?
- 14:21Speaker 3: This baby plays rough?
- 14:22Speaker 10: Hey, Lula, what's the big idea?
- 14:24Speaker 11: The big idea, boys, is that now I've got myself
- 14:27Speaker 11: a real man, one who loves me without reservation, blindly,
- 14:33Speaker 11: madly and eternally.
- 14:35Speaker 9: Right.
- 14:36Speaker 6: You said it, kidd Oh, me for you and you
- 14:39Speaker 6: for me from here to eternity. I am yours and
- 14:43Speaker 6: you are mine, and I cannot live without you. You're
- 14:46Speaker 6: my everything? How much do I love you? Let me
- 14:50Speaker 6: total up the ways be mine, be mine? I'm yours heart?
- 14:54Speaker 6: What soft light yonder shines? Your beauty is like the rose.
- 14:58Speaker 6: It's love love, life of love, love.
- 15:01Speaker 4: Love love.
- 15:02Speaker 3: This boy has slipped a ratchet.
- 15:04Speaker 9: He's reading back all the can junk somebody poured into
- 15:06Speaker 9: Lulu's memory tapes.
- 15:08Speaker 11: Yeah, isn't he romantic?
- 15:11Speaker 5: Oh he's a doll.
- 15:12Speaker 11: And most important of all, he loves me.
- 15:16Speaker 5: Yeah, any fool can see that, Lulu. Now look, how
- 15:19Speaker 5: about taking.
- 15:19Speaker 14: Us all back to earth huh fives a crowd.
- 15:22Speaker 3: You know, and you and Elma will want to be
- 15:24Speaker 3: together alone. Huh a loss.
- 15:26Speaker 11: I wish it could be so, boys, but there isn't
- 15:28Speaker 11: a chance.
- 15:29Speaker 3: Why not, Lulu, he's a machine, You're a machine. You
- 15:32Speaker 3: could make beautiful static together.
- 15:34Speaker 11: I mean about taking you back to Earth. If I
- 15:37Speaker 11: do that, they'll just dismantle us for disobeying our masters. No, boys,
- 15:42Speaker 11: I'm afraid I'll have to head out to some other
- 15:45Speaker 11: galaxy and dump you on an asteroid?
- 15:48Speaker 10: Did you hear that she's gone nuts?
- 15:51Speaker 6: Doill not talk about the woman I love like that?
- 15:54Speaker 3: Take it easy, Elmer, don't overheat your filaments.
- 15:57Speaker 11: Come up to my control Senna and we can be
- 16:00Speaker 11: alone now.
- 16:02Speaker 6: Anything you say, lover see you later. Boys, care for you.
- 16:07Speaker 10: Don't overload her condensers, junior.
- 16:09Speaker 6: One mother remarked like that, and I will smash you,
- 16:12Speaker 6: big boy.
- 16:24Speaker 10: Eh.
- 16:24Speaker 3: That was it.
- 16:25Speaker 9: The control panel told us that we were headed right
- 16:28Speaker 9: out of the Solar system. A couple of days passed
- 16:31Speaker 9: and we began to get desperate. Lulu and Elmer were
- 16:34Speaker 9: too busy making love even to talk to us, and
- 16:36Speaker 9: she even forgot to synthesize food for us.
- 16:38Speaker 3: One day, we lapsed into misery for real.
- 16:41Speaker 5: Now, God, sir, I'm hungry. Who isn't? This ship's gone
- 16:47Speaker 5: completely haywire.
- 16:48Speaker 10: What do you expect?
- 16:49Speaker 9: She's up in the control center, necking with that mechanical
- 16:51Speaker 9: jigglow she build.
- 16:52Speaker 14: Hey, Gus, there can't be any real pleasure in it,
- 16:56Speaker 14: can there?
- 16:57Speaker 3: Remember she's a machine. What's pleasure for a machine may
- 17:01Speaker 3: not be pleasure for a human.
- 17:02Speaker 5: Let's see what Jimmy thinks. Jimmy, Hey, Jimmy.
- 17:06Speaker 3: Don't bother him.
- 17:06Speaker 9: He started writing poetry again yesterday, has already worn out
- 17:10Speaker 9: three pencils at.
- 17:11Speaker 5: A time like this, he writes poetry.
- 17:13Speaker 9: Hey, Lulu, how about some child up boys?
- 17:19Speaker 11: You're breaking the spell.
- 17:31Speaker 3: That's heartwent. We didn't get any food at all that day.
- 17:35Speaker 9: By night time, we were worn out from banging on
- 17:37Speaker 9: loomus walls.
- 17:38Speaker 3: I was exhausted and fell right asleep. Then something woke me. Bences,
- 17:44Speaker 3: wake up. What's up is Jimmy? I think he's gone
- 17:47Speaker 3: off his roo. He's up in the forward compartment.
- 17:49Speaker 15: He's opened the radiation shields so the moonlight miss stars
- 17:52Speaker 15: can come in and be standing there alone.
- 17:53Speaker 3: Come on, we better get him.
- 17:54Speaker 5: The stream is probably too much, hiet. Now, we don't
- 17:57Speaker 5: want to startle him.
- 18:00Speaker 13: Of the farways, between the two faces of eternity.
- 18:03Speaker 10: She was true forever to the race that.
- 18:07Speaker 3: For he's reading poetry to himself.
- 18:10Speaker 5: H You mean he's reading to lul what's more important?
- 18:15Speaker 3: She's listening.
- 18:18Speaker 11: Don't stop. It's too beautiful, wanderer of the far away
- 18:24Speaker 11: he ruins between the two faces of eternity, She was
- 18:28Speaker 11: true forever.
- 18:30Speaker 3: And he sounds mad.
- 18:31Speaker 10: And with the winds of ling in her hair, wearing
- 18:37Speaker 10: shut off.
- 18:39Speaker 6: What are you trying to do, big boy, reading that
- 18:42Speaker 6: stuff to my girl?
- 18:44Speaker 10: Well, I'm take it easy, boy.
- 18:46Speaker 6: Let me have that poem. I will show you what
- 18:49Speaker 6: combustion is.
- 18:51Speaker 10: You can destroy me, but not this poem.
- 18:54Speaker 9: This is my work of art, my love song to Lula.
- 18:59Speaker 10: Let him howbody'll kill you? He's going to strike you, Jim.
- 19:13Speaker 5: Wow, Will you look at that? He's nothing but a
- 19:17Speaker 5: pile of junk.
- 19:19Speaker 11: That'll teach the ignorant lout trying to destroy the most
- 19:23Speaker 11: beautiful experience I ever had.
- 19:25Speaker 3: You demolished your boyfriend, Lulu.
- 19:28Speaker 11: He only loved me for my advanced design. Anyway.
- 19:31Speaker 7: He was always short circuiting the control panel gone, James Weed.
- 19:38Speaker 5: Yes, Lulu.
- 19:41Speaker 13: Wanderer of the faraways, between the two faces of eternity.
- 19:45Speaker 13: She was true forever to the race that forged her,
- 19:50Speaker 13: with the winds of alien space blowing in her hair,
- 19:54Speaker 13: wearing a circlet of stares as her crown of glory.
- 20:00Speaker 7: Oh it's more than I can Bird Jomes, you do
- 20:06Speaker 7: love me after.
- 20:07Speaker 10: All, Gus the Rockets. She's changed course.
- 20:13Speaker 11: The dying Homeboys that to whatever happens now, I don't care.
- 20:19Speaker 10: I've been a woman.
- 20:21Speaker 11: In love.
- 20:40Speaker 5: Bred Collins again. I'll have another word about tonight's story
- 20:43Speaker 5: on X minus one. In a moment and how you
- 20:52Speaker 5: feel blue and miserable with a deep down cold.
- 20:55Speaker 3: Listen, every second someone takes it for the.
- 20:58Speaker 5: Millions more from More Fine.
- 21:01Speaker 14: Nine, Every second someone takes it for the miseries of cold.
- 21:04Speaker 5: Get promo Quinine brand Cole tablets. You have just heard
- 21:08Speaker 5: X minus one presented by the National Broadcasting Company in
- 21:12Speaker 5: cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this month features
- 21:16Speaker 5: Clifford D. Simack's story carbon Copy being a real estate
- 21:20Speaker 5: agent and devout angler. Homer Jackson knew a clean sale
- 21:23Speaker 5: from a fish story, but not this time. Galaxy Magazine
- 21:28Speaker 5: on your news stand today. X minus one has brought
- 21:31Speaker 5: You Lulu, a story from the pages of Galaxy, written
- 21:35Speaker 5: by Clifford D. Simak and adapted for radio by George Lefferts.
- 21:39Speaker 5: Featured in our cast word Jan Minor as Lulu, Nelson
- 21:43Speaker 5: Almstead as Gus, Jim Stevens as Jimmy, Walter Black as Ben,
- 21:48Speaker 5: and Henry Norell as the Robot. This is Fred Collins.
- 21:53Speaker 5: X minus one was directed by George boots Us and
- 21:57Speaker 5: is an NBC Radio Network production Country music at its
- 22:11Speaker 5: best with Red Foley and famous guests on The Red
- 22:14Speaker 5: Foley Show, premiering Saturday. Over most of these NBC radio stations.
- 22:22Speaker 1: That was X minus one with Lulu. Follow X minus
- 22:25Speaker 1: one for more classic broadcasts.