Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: The Utopia Ballroom Murder (EP1504)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: The Utopia Ballroom Murder (EP1504) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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you would like a physical item that's available sent to you. All right,
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well, now it's time for today's episode of Crime and Peter Chambers. The
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original aired eight August the tenth of nineteen fifty four and the title The Utopia
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Ballroom Murder, Crime and Peter Chambers created by Henry Kine, transcribed and starring
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Jane Clark, Live investigator, duly licensed and duly sworn, Peter Chambers.
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You're a private eye. That's your business. Anything else that's for laughs.
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You hope you can makes a couple of laughs with this one, because the
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client that's sitting opposite you, you'd like to have a couple of laughs with.
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She's got black, limpid eyes, black listening hair, shining white teeth
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and red red lips. And her figure it's got more curves and a swindle
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artist can throw at you and they're much more interesting. Her name is Tina
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Dias, an American of Castilian extraction. You're very handsome, mister Chambers,
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much more handsome than i'd expected. We're supposed to be talking about murder,
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mister ass Tina to you and mister Chambers. Or may I call you Pete?
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Yes, you may call me Pete? No? PD? I think
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I like that best. Look. You call me whatever you want, miss
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Tina, and let's get back to business. Huh about Winnie Brown who was
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murdered last night? I saw the item in the newspapers. Shot and killed
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in the apartment on Central Park West. Now, why haven't you gone to
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police with this instead of coming here? PD? I wasn't particularly fond of
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Winnie Brown. We happened to be earning our living the same way as dance
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hall hostesses, both working in the Utopia Bull and both of you interested in
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one of its patrons, Gordon Phelps, playboy, millionaire man about town.
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I was interested, but Winnie went out. Maybe Frank I didn't like it.
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Of course, that was before I met you. Let me hear about
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Gordon Phelps. First he was interested in me, and then he shifted to
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WINNI We're all over the joint, all over the dance Palace to Utopia Balden.
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There was a rumor that Winnie was blackmailing him, So don't you think
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the police would be interested in that? Yes, but I'm not going to
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deliver that information. Why not? Because Gordon Phops is a right guy.
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That's why maybe I ought to call him huh and get it straight from the
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horse's mouth. He won't be able to reach him. Why not. The
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Phelps mansion is on fifty six in Madison. You won't find me there,
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how do you know? Because he's been in touch with me, which really
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is why I'm here right now. He's in a little place that he has
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down the village, a little hideaway he keeps, you know, the phone
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number, Uh huh one or two one one one? Not want the punchline
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PD, honey from you. I'll take anything he sent me. Gordon Phelps
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sent me. He's waiting for your call right on to Maybe you are going
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to earn a fee after all. Hello, Gordon Phelps. This is he
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Peter Chambers. Oh good, I'm relighted that you called me so promptly.
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Hiding out, mister Phelps, Not exactly, No, I'm merely attempting to
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avoid any unnecessary publicity, if that's possible. I know the police want to
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talk with me, but I won't talk with him, not until his hubbub
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dies down, which is the reason I asked Tina to put you in contact
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with me. I want to retain you on this, mister Chambers over the
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telephone. No, I'd like to talk to you personally, but where I
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wouldn't want you to come here it might be awkward. Or how about the
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Utopia Ballroom? Good sort of home base and most appropriate. You know what
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I look like? Yes, yes, I've seen your pictures. Good enough.
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You top your ballroom nine o'clock, reluctantly. You kiss off the lush
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and luxurious Tina Diaz. You try to get through to your friend Detect,
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the Lieutenant Louis Parker, but he's working nights, so you march to a
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dull day, and then at eight thirty are at the Utopia Ballroom. You're
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a little early, but that's the way you want it. Utopia Ballroom.
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They're all the same all over the world, dim dark and rather delightful,
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and the girl's young, beautiful, little hard garbed in clinging gowns, all
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shapely and vivacious. But that's not all you see. You clamp onto a
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couple of points of real interest snow Time Cummings and Mousey Lawrence, a couple
7:48
of top narcotics bushes of the West coast, and you wonder what they're doing
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here in the east. And then Tina Diaz approaches and she takes your breath
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away. Tina Diaz, sheathed and red silk. I want to dance handsel
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uhh, No, you know I'm waiting here. You gotta buy tickets.
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But for you, Pitie, it's for free. I'd love to hold you
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close down. Oh honey, I've got a date with Gordon Phelps. You
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know that. Yeah? Okay, See that table over there, way over
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there where it's dark, that's his favorite table. Huh. Sit there and
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when he comes in, I'll send him to you. You sit and you
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wait, and pretty soon he's there, a tall, middle aged, slender
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guy with man of distinction written all over him. The first thing he does
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is hand you an envelope. This is for you, mister Chambers. Tina
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di guy has directed me to you. What is it? Your feed?
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Thousand dollars? I hope that's acceptable. It's acceptable, saint mister Phelps.
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Thank you. You know your job, mister Chambers. I want to know
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who killed Winnie Brown, and if it turns out to be you, mister
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Phelps, there's no rebate on one thousand bucks. Good enough. Now,
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what's your connection with that girl Winnie Brown? What about this blackmail talk?
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Absolute nonsense? She was taking dramatic lessons and well I was helping her.
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How much were you helping her, mister Phelps, seventy five dollars a week.
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Well, I don't misunderstand. It was building an active charity. The
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girl had die, yes, sure, sure not all looks, what's with
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this blackmail pitch that everybody's talking about room a gossip and nonsense? She probably
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boasted that I was helping her, and well, you know a place like
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these tongues get the waggon? Did you visit her apartment often? As a
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matter fact, I've never been to her apartment. Okay, you've never been
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to her apartment. Now, look, somebody did kill him, miss Phelps.
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Any ideas that you can kind of throw into the hopper. Well,
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there are two people. There's Tina, Tina the ass. Yes, perhaps
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in a sense, it was my fault because it was Tina's belief that Winnie
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had won me away from her. There was bad blood between those two,
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and I know for certain that Winnie was in mordal fear of Tina, fiery
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type, that Tina bad temper. How long have you know those girls?
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I met them about a year ago. You said, two people, mister
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Phelps, who's your other candidate? Johnny Hayes? So Dad, the man
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that owns this place. His office is upstairs. A couple of nights ago,
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I knew that Winnie was in his office, and I was going up
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there to sort of pay my respect. The door was partly open. Before
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I actually realized that I was eavesdropping, I overheard an argument. Now,
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look, you, big shot, Johnny Hayes. I know what's going on
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around here, and I don't like it. You're putting a lot of nice
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kids in the spot making criminals and lem and I don't like it. You
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don't like it? Well, who the do you think you are? I'm
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the Dame, the km bother Whistlania, That's who I am. Just tell
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let me tell you something for your own good. I'm moving in all your
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head way over your head unless you butt out of this and keep your nose
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clean, you figure to get your head handed to you with a few holes
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in it. And that's final. And so's this final, Johnny. Unless
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you put a stop to this thing within a week, I'm going to the
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cops and you'll get your head handed to you and it's got holes in it
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already. And that was that, mister Chambers. I heard the way he
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spoke to her, and that was a threat, a definite threat to no
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two ways about it. He ah, I suppose I go up and talk
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to this Johnny Hayes soudrase. Can I quote you on that overheard conversation?
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Certainly? Why not? If there's nothing more, mister Chambers, then I
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shall be going you know where, It'll be in touch with me. I'm
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sort of hiding out. I just don't want to mix with the police or
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make any public statements, not until this thing is completely finished. Johnny Hayes's
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office is the usual cubyo, overloaded with pictures of prize fighters and actors.
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Okay, so you're a private cop, So what can I do for you?
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He's a sharply dressed guy, tall, pale, slender, and good
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luck. I'm trying to learn anything from his face is like trying to learn
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something from our clock without hands. Okay, so you're Peter Chambers. So
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what he wanted to do? Bring out a flag and wave it. I
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want you to answer a couple of questions. I'm working on that Winny Brown
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thing. Okay, so work somewhere else. I'm working here. Oh,
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tough boy, half enough. If that's the way you want it, now,
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how do you want it? Well, for the time being, let's
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play it in a softy, tough boy, what do you want that's better.
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A couple of nights ago, you were overheard threatening Whinnie Brown. Right
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here, it's a lie. You didn't have an argument with her. I
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did not suppose. I tell you, I got a witness to that,
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and I'll tell you he's a liar. Would you say that Gordon Phelps is
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a liar? Gordon Phelps, Yeah, yes, I certainly would say he's
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lying? Why she lie? So's he can take the heat off himself if
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anybody killed her he did? How does that figure? Because she was playing
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him for a sucker, that's why. And he couldn't get the first base
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and I drove him off his not ay, he's one of the millionaire guys
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spoil all away from the cradle. If they can't get what they want,
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they kill it, so's no one else can get what they can't get.
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And that about does it for your conversation with Johnny Hayes. Next stop police
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headquarters where you wait for Lieutenant Parker and it's about two o'clock in the morning
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before he finally shows up. Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker, homicide staunch, minion
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of the law, a gentleman and good friend. Well, bless my soul
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of it. Ain't Peter Chambers or Louis into the little pasture bedtime, friend,
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Louis, what have you got on that Winnie Brown murder? Knowing you
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and what have you got that? Well, it might have something you want,
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like perhaps a guy by name of Gordon Phelps. Perhaps, Hey,
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you're not you're not kidding people. No, will you be able to produce
15:01
that guy for might win within the next twenty four hours? Good enough?
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All right? What have you got for me? Louis? This gun killed
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her and her diary to trace the gun, yet we're working on him.
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About the diary? Did you give you anything? No? Nothing that helps
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makes a lot of mention of that. Gordon Phelps though, and says she
15:28
lived in that apartment the past two years. Did he grow up to her
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apartment often? As a matter of fact, according to the diary, he
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never went there ever, Well, Gimes gives gives want skipper Louis for the
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time being. Now, what did happen up there at Winnie Brown's. All
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I've got is a smattering in the newspapers. Dead shot through the head gun
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left their old fingerprints. Killer probably wore gloves. Apartment been searched, but
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not thoroughly searched. It appears that she interrupted the search and that's when she
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was killed. The neighborhood the shots reported. I'll be true to get in,
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and that is one of our chief problems. Well, the windows were
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locked from the inside. Door lock was not tampered with the fact when we
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got there was actually locked from the outside. We had to use master keys.
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Louis a favor. What else I'd like to look that apartment over?
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Do I get cooperation? Have I ever failed you, Louis? No,
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you never have. Here's the key, pal, thanks, pal, enjoy
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yourself. Let me hear from you. It's two well furnished rooms on Central
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Park West near seventy fifth Street. You get the joint or quick going over
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and you come up with nothing. You're just about to start a return engagement,
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this time more intensive. When you hear an instrument fumbling in the door
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lock, you dust the lights. You take up a stand behind the door,
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and when the door opens, you jump them. But the hymn is
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soft and pliant and nice to the touch. And when you get the lights
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on him, ain't a him, it's a her. Tina the ass,
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Oh hurt me, help me up, please help me out? Okay with
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a pick lock in your hand? Yet, oh you Tina the ass,
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You naughty, naughty me, you go you hurt me? Here? All
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right? Right here? Much better? Okay. Now we finished playing post
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off, let's start playing detective and suspect. What are you doing here?
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I didn't kill her, Please believe me. I had nothing to do with
18:07
So what are you doing here? I came because because I'm afraid, Well,
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it makes a lot of sense. You came because you're afraid. I
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don't get it. I was afraid they'd mix me up in her murder.
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You see, A long time ago, I threatened. But she's dead.
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She can't tell the police you threatened her. It was right. I still
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don't get it this and I have a temper. I flare up when Gordon
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selves became interested in her. I felt that well, that she tricked me.
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At that time, I went away for a vacation. I wrote her
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some letters, threatening letters. Well later, when I returned, she told
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me she'd saved those letters for insurance. I'm sure the police haven't found them,
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otherwise they'd have picked you up. Yeah, that's right, So they're
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still here. Well, I don't want to be involved. So I borrowed
18:47
this picklock, and I came here and I took some time off from the
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dandator. Okay, sweety, okay, okay, Now let's see. Let's
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look together. Let's see. I'm uh Winnie Brown and a girl who works
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in the dance hall. I have a tomb of part and I have some
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letters that I want to hide. O where would I hide them? I'm
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a girl's influenced by movies, comic strips, celebina. Yeah, help me
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take that picture off the wall, that big one. You'll miss on the
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first, but the second picture does it? You'll rip off the brown paper
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back and there are the letters and there also is another item, a document.
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You look at that and you're pocketing, and then you return the letters
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to Tina. Oh oh, I don't know how to thank you. Well,
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we'll discuss that later at my place. Huh. I've got a great,
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big, beautiful terrace overlooking the city. I'd love that. It's a
20:00
date. What was that other thing you found? That legal looking docu?
20:04
Well, at the moment, it's none of your business. We heard.
20:07
Look, tell me, do you know a character called snow Time Cummings another
20:11
guy called Mousey Lawrence? Yeah, yes I do. Are you mixed up
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in any of that? No, I'm not good enough. Do you know
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what's been going on there at the Utopia Ballroom with those guys? Yes?
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A lot of the girls know, but they're afraid to talk when not mixed
20:32
up them. Don't you be afraid? You tell me? Well, those
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two men come from the West coast, that snow Time Comings and Mousey Lauren.
20:48
You call Parker, and you call Gordon Phelps, and then you and
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Tina and a lot of cops and Parker and Phelps are all gathered in Johnny
20:55
Hayes's office. Snowtime and mouse you have already been picked up. And now
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Parker points a finger at Gordon Phelps. You, mister Phelps, just in
21:03
case you're remotely interested, the gun that killed Winnie Brown was your gun.
21:07
Well that doesn't mean a thing, Lieutenant. I gave her that gun six
21:11
months ago as a gear. You're pointing the finger with the wrong guy,
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Louis. Who's the right guy? A little bit to your left? Correct?
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Johnny Hayes me, why you dirty law? Shut up? Let him
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talk. Those two West Coast hoods were passing narcotics right here in this dance
21:26
hall. They terrorized some of the girls into working for them. They slipped
21:30
the girl a packet and the girl was slipping to the customer while dancing with
21:33
him, and then they take his dough in return. I didn't know anything
21:36
about the lie. You even try to talk, miss Dasn't you have a
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filthy little racket? Yes, it's true he did, and for all of
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that the boys paying him off. Louis. Winnie Brown found out about it,
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and she was a spunky one. She told Hayes unless he cut it
21:51
out, she'd go to the cops. So he killed her. Johnny Hayes
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is all washed up, and he knows it. Suddenly he pulls a gun
22:03
from a journey points it at you, but it's Parker shooting the gun out
22:11
of his hands, Good old Parker. Then everybody heads for Downtown police headquarters,
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and there you clean up a couple of loose ends with the lieutenant.
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And then, in the faint blue of the very early morning, on your
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terrace overlooking the park, you and Tina Diaz drink a quiet toast to the
22:37
great sprawling, sleepy city beneath you, to New York, and to you
22:45
and congratulations on a really brilliant performance, and to you, honey, who
22:49
held plenty And believe me, it took a lot of nerve. How would
22:57
you so shore it? With John Well? First, whoever killed her,
23:03
had used a key to go in, and when he left, he actually
23:06
locked the door behind him, So there was plenty of motive for Johnny Phelps
23:11
had hurt his threat, and you gave me the rest of the information that
23:14
made me very sure that he was our boy. But that document stuck behind
23:18
a picture was the clincher. What was that? That's what he was searching
23:22
for brought my time into it. It was a legal separation between Winnie and
23:29
Johnny Hayes dated six months ago. They'd been married husband and wife and they'd
23:33
broken up, and back of my mind, I was looking for somebody with
23:37
the key to that place. And who else would that be but the legally
23:40
wooded husband, real little old brilliance in the lock homes. Well, I
23:48
like you, PD, I like you very much. Oh and I you
23:56
PD. You you make a lot of money, don't you. I do
24:03
all right? Well, I was thinking I worked pretty hard for a living,
24:10
and I don't know him very much. And I was thinking that if
24:15
you had confidence in my ability, well I have confidence. Well I know
24:21
a dramatic school. It's only seventy five dollars a week, and if you
24:23
could lend it to me. And what's so funny? Nothing except this is
24:30
where I came in. And there you've had Crime and Peter Chambers. Dane
24:56
Clark was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter Chambers was created and written
25:02
by Henry Kane. Others in the cast were Bill zuckerd Heard as Lieutenant Parker,
25:07
Patricia wheel as Tina, and Bill Griffiths as Gordon. It was directed
25:11
by Fred Way And this is Fred Collins in Boding You to tune in next
25:15
week, same time, same station. Transcribe for Dane Clark in Crime and
25:22
Peter Chamber Crime and Peter Chambers has come to you through the worldwide facilities of
26:27
the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Welcome back. I did
27:49
like how Peter Chambers was up front that if his client was guilty of the
27:55
murder he was investigating, he wouldn't get a rEFInd As I know, I've
27:59
listened to some shows where I think, let George do it, where George
28:03
Valentine did that, found out his client was guilty so gave back the money.
28:07
But Peter Chambers doesn't go that way. He's got an expensive lifestyle to
28:11
maintain, so you better hope when you hire him that he doesn't find out
28:15
you're the killer at any rate. On to some listener comments and feedback,
28:19
and we have a new review of the app on Amazon and says simply I
28:26
love this app. And then we have a tweet from Caden who says,
28:32
I devour old time radio detective stories, my fave via I had Radio Detectives
28:37
free. Well, thanks so much. Do you appreciate you sharing with us
28:41
on Twitter? Now I'm going to have a somewhat unrelated discussion, because in
28:48
the past I've discussed cities where the Golden Age of radio really came from.
28:55
For the most part, you had New York and Los Angeles as the two
29:00
prime cities from which Golden Age productions were calm because you had a little bit
29:06
of movie industry in New York for a few years until it all ended up
29:10
in Hollywood. But still in New York you had Broadway and a lot of
29:17
theaters, and eventually a lot of television soap operas would come out of New
29:22
York City, and of course Hollywood was teaming with talent. Young film stars
29:27
could come in and do some radio dramas. And then in addition to that,
29:33
we've mentioned a little bit that Chicago had a lot of radio dramas.
29:37
They had quite a few comedies, most famously Amos and Andy and Lumon Abner
29:44
that originated there for a few years, and there were other programs. One
29:49
I brought for an app extra a few months back was a Bob Bailey app
29:55
extra with the Chicago Theater of the Air, and both Bob Bailey and Firestone
30:00
Junior made some of their earliest radio appearances in Chicago. There's not quite the
30:07
quality or the amount of recordings from Chicago, particularly for dramatic programs, but
30:14
there are some interesting stuff out there, including there was a Chicago based version
30:19
of The Whistler and there actually are two episodes of that program out there.
30:25
And what ultimately inspired me to talk about this, and we've talked about probably
30:30
the four biggest cities for radio dramas, was I was listening to the Big
30:36
Finish podcast. Big Finish I've talked about in a few columns. They make
30:41
adaptations of Doctor Who's from Sherlock Holmes audio dramas, and somebody emailed them to
30:45
ask if they would considered or had consider adapting some American audio dramas, particularly
30:53
those that were made in Detroit. The people at Big Finish are of course
30:59
in the United Kingdom, and the whole podcast premise is just kind of answering
31:04
questions on the fly. So they didn't have any information about old time radio
31:10
coming out of Detroit, and it occurred to me. I hadn't talked about
31:12
it either, but it's something kind of remarkable. It did not have a
31:17
ton of Golden Age radio programs that came out of Detroit, but there were
31:22
three very big programs which did Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, and Challenge of
31:29
the Yukon. All three of these programs began on WXYZ Radio in Detroit,
31:34
and that's a quite remarkable feat for that one station in Detroit to produce three
31:41
radio dramas that would begin in the nineteen thirties and continue well into the nineteen
31:47
fifties. All of them would inspire TV shows, And what makes the shows
31:52
more remarkable is that they didn't really have access to the same talent pool that
31:59
HAUL programs did. So I've neglected to mention Detroit when I've talked in the
32:05
past about cities that produced great radio programs. But you really can't have a
32:12
discussion of those cities which made great radio without talking about Detroit. So I
32:20
just thought I would take a moment to correct that injustice and give you some
32:25
information on where so many of these radio programs came from. All right,
32:30
well, that will do it for today. We will be back tomorrow with
32:34
the Adventures of Philip Marlow. Our listener support campaign continues and you can support
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the show at support dot great Detectives dot net. Among the thank you guests
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we have at the one hundred dollars level, I'll send you a copy of
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Michael Hage's great book on the adventures of Superman over radio and television in the
32:53
nineteen forties and fifties, called Flights of Fantasy. In the meantime, sendra
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comments to Box the thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter
33:02
at Radio Detectives, and but come one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook,
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dot com, slash Radiodetectives. From Boise, Idaho, this is your
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host, Adam Graham signing off.