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X Minus One - "The Discovery of Morniel Mathaway" (Old Time Radio, 1957) · X Minus One | Old Time Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: April 17th, 1957. NBC Radio's X-1 presented episode 97, The
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Discovery of Morniel Mathaway. Adapted for radio by Ernest Kenoy
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from a William Tenn story, it brings us to a
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: bleaker street studio in Greenwich Village, where painter Morniel Mathaway
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and his poet friend Dave receive Glescu, an art historian
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: from the future. Leon Janney plays Mathaway, with Les Damon
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: as Dave and Wendell Holmes as Glescu. Daniel Sutter directed.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: The original story appeared in the October 1955 issue of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Galaxy Science Fiction, which was credited in the broadcast. Settle
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: in now for a meeting across time and X-1. Here
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: is the original broadcast.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Countdown for blastoff. X minus 5, 4, 3, 2, X
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: minus 1, fire.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: From the far horizons of the unknown come tales of
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the future. Adventures in which you'll live in a million
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: could be years on a thousand maybe worlds. The National
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, presents.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: X minus 1.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Tonight, the discovery of Morniel Mathaway by William Tent.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Everyone is astonished at the change in Morniel Mathaway since
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: he was discovered.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Everyone, that is, but me.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: They remember him as an unbathed and untalented Greenwich Village
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: painter who began almost every second sentence with I.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: and ended every third one with me.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: You see, I understand the change in him, because I
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: was there the day he was discovered. We were talking
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: about his discovery that day. I was sitting carefully balanced
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: on the one wooden chair in his cold little bleaker
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: street studio because I was too sophisticated to sit in
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: the easy chair.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Come on, Dave. Take a comfortable seat. Oh, no, Mornie. Oh, no.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I know about that chair. Now, what do you mean?
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: It's the only comfortable chair in the room. Yeah, I know.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I know. Look at it. Broken down spring. Very high
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: in the front and low in the back. Sure, it
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: conforms with the position of the spine. Yeah, sure, sure.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: And when you sit in it, things begin sliding out
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: of your pockets. Loose change, keys, wallets, anything.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: What do you do, Mornie? Pay the rent on your
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: studio with that easy chair? Well, as a matter of fact,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: it is rather profitable. And that's why I'll sit on
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: the wooden chair, if you don't mind. Oh, now, don't
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: be bourgeois. Well, I notice you always sit on the bed.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: That's because I'm a good host. I see. Well, how's
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the painting going? Oh, great, great, fabulous. You sell any paintings? No.
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: You know, Dave, I can't wait for the day when
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: some dealer, some critic with an ounce of brain sees
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: my work. I can't miss, Dave. I know I can't miss.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: I'm just too good. Sometimes I get frightened at how
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: good I am. It's almost too much talent for one man.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Well, there's always.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Not that it's too much talent for me. I'm big
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: enough to carry it, fortunately. I'm large enough of soul.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, good. I'm glad to hear it. Now, if you
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: don't mind... Do you know what I was thinking about
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: this morning? No, but to tell you the truth, I...
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I was thinking about Picasso, Dave.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Picasso and Rouault.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I'd just gone for a walk through the Pushcart area
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to have my breakfast. You know, the old hand's quicker
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: than the eye. I know. I've seen you do it.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: You're the only man I know who can ask directions
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: to house and street and fill his pockets full of
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: bananas at the same time.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Oh, well, society owes the artist something. Anyway, I started
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: to think about the art of modern painting. I think
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: about that a lot, Dave.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: It troubles me. You do, huh?
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Well, I.
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: I was thinking, who is really doing important work in
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: painting today? Who is really an unquestionable great? I could
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: think of only three names. Picasso, Ruel, and me.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Well, naturally. Just three names, no more.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: Oh, it made me feel very lonely, Dave. Yeah, well,
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: I can see that, but then... And then I asked myself,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: why is this so? Has absolute genius always been so rare?
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Why has my impending discovery been delayed so long? Well,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: I thought about it for a long time, Dave. I
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: thought about it humbly, carefully, because it's an important question,
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: and this is the answer I came up with.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: The End Well, don't bother waiting for the answer that
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: Morniel came up with. It turned out to be a
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: theory of aesthetics I'd heard at least a dozen times
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: before from a dozen other painters in the village. Morniel
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: was a bad painter, there was no question about it.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: I say that not only from my opinion. I've room
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: with two modern painters and I've been married for a
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: year to another, but... Well, for example, a friend of mine,
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: a fine critic of modern art, took a look at
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: one of Morniel's paintings, which he hung over my fireplace
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: in spite of my protest... and just kind of stared slack, Jordan. What, uh,
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: what does he call that technique? Well, he says it's
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: smudge on smudge. Well, I can believe it. Smudge on smudge,
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: white on white, non-objectivism, neo-abstractionism, call it what you like.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: There's nothing there, nothing.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Well, it doesn't even have the interest of those paintings
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: that chimpanzee did a couple of years ago. He's just
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: another of those loudmouthed, frowsy, frustrated dilettantes that infest the village.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Why do you waste your time with him?
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: Well, for one thing, he lives right around the corner,
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: and he's kind of colorful in his own sick way.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: And he does have one great talent. It's not in painting. No, no.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Now, you see, I just get by as far as
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: living expenses are concerned. Things like good paper to write on,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: good books for my library.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I can't touch them.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: And sometimes the earning gets too great. You know, a
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: newly published collection by Wallace Stevens. Well, if I find
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: one I want, I just go over to Morniel's and tell.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Him about it. He doesn't lend you money. Oh, no. Now,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: you see, we go out to the.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Bookstore and we come in separately. And then I start
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: a conversation with the proprietor about some very expensive out-of-print
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: item I'm thinking of ordering. And Morniel just says, don't
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: mind me, I'm browsing. Well, that's the high side.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: I'm browsing. Well, what happens? Well, while I'm keeping the
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: proprietor talking, Morniel snapples the Stevens. isn't that just a
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: little bit, uh... Oh, well, I intend to pay for them,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: of course, as soon as I'm a little ahead. Well,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: why does he do this for you? Oh, well, I
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: pay off. I go through the same routine at.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: An art supply store so Morniel can get canvas and
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: paint and brushes. Of course, I really have to pay
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: for Morniel's browsing. I have to suffer through listening to him,
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: and then my conscience bothers me.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, it does. Yes, you see, I intend to pay
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: for my things, but I know he doesn't, and that's
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: why my conscience bothers me.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: Well, here he was the day he was discovered, sitting
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: in his room, and Morial was running on about his
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: own genius.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Now, I can't be as unique as I feel.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: Other people must be born with the potential of such
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: great talent, but it's destroyed in them before they can
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: reach artistic maturity.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Why? How? Well, let's examine the role that society plays
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: in all of this. Well, let's examine the role that
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: society plays in all of this. What's that? Have you
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: got a hi-fi set? Nonsense. That's a crass materialistic concept
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: that I... Oh, Emma, something is happening. Hey, when did
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: you put the purple lights in? Purple? What's that? Look, look,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: it's shimmering. It's coming right through the wall. It looks
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: like a box. We can't both be having an artistic vision.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: You're not the type. No, I'm not, and I'm not
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: drunk either. Look out!
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: Something's going to happen!
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Mornuel Mathaway? Who are you? Where did you come from?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: You are Mornuel Mathaway? Yes, yes, yes. My name is Glesko.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I bring you greetings from 2487 A.D. Oh, 2487 A.D.
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: I realize this is a difficult phenomenon for you to
• 8:28
  Speaker 6: grasp entirely, but here I am. We will now indulge
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: in the 20th century custom of shaking hands.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Mr. Morniel Mathaway? Oh, well, sure, sure, sure. Shake, yes.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: And you, sir? Yeah, yeah, sure. I don't mind. Shake.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: What a moment. What a supreme moment. Oh, what do
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: you mean, what a moment? What's so special about it?
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Are you the inventor of time travel? Me, an inventor? No, no, no, no.
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: Time travel was invented by Antoinette Ingeborg in... Well, that
• 8:50
  Speaker 6: was after your time. It's hardly worth going into at
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: the moment, especially since I only have half an hour.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Why half an hour?
• 8:56
  Speaker 6: The skin drum can only be maintained at lock. The
• 8:58
  Speaker 6: skin drum is, well, call it the transmitting device that
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: enables me to appear in your period. There is such
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: an enormous expenditure of power required that a trip into
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: the past is made only every 50 years. The privilege
• 9:09
  Speaker 6: is awarded as a sort of gobel. I believe I
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: have the word right. It is gobel, isn't it? The
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: award made in your time? Well, you wouldn't mean Nobel
• 9:17
  Speaker 6: by any chance. The Nobel Prize?
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: That's it! The Nobel Prize!
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: A trip is awarded to outstanding scholars as a kind
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: of Nobel Prize. Once every 50 years, the man selected
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: by the Gardamax is the most preeminent, that sort of thing,
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: you know. Up to now, of course, it's always gone
• 9:30
  Speaker 6: to historians, or they put it away on the siege
• 9:33
  Speaker 6: of Troy, and the first atom bomb explosion at Los Alamos,
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: or the, well, the discovery of America, things like that.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: But this year... Yes? Well, what, uh... What kind of
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: scholar are you? I am an art scholar.
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: My specialty is art history, and my special field in
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: art history is.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: What? What? What? You, Mr. Mathaway.
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: In my own period, I may say without much contradiction,
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: I am the greatest living authority on the... life and
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: works of Morniel Mataway.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: My special field is you. Dave. Dave, did you hear that? Dave. Dave!
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I heard. You mean... You mean that I... I'm famous?
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: That famous?
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: Famous.
• 10:17
  Speaker 6: You, my dear sir, are beyond fame. You are one
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: of the immortals the human race has produced.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: That famous? That famous.
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: Who is the man with whom modern painting in its
• 10:27
  Speaker 6: full glory is said to have definitely begun?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Who is the man whose designs.
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: And color have dominated architecture for the past five centuries?
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: Who is responsible for the arrangement of our cities, the
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: shape of our artifacts, the texture of our clothing?
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: Me. You.
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: No other man in the history of art has exerted
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: such a massive influence over designs.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: To whom can I compare you, sir? To what other
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: artist in history can I possibly compare you? Rembrandt? Da Vinci?
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Rembrandt and Da Vinci in the same breath as you.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: That's ridiculous. They lacked your universality, your taste for the cosmic. Wow. Mr. Glesker,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: excuse me.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: Do you happen to know of a poet named David Danziger?
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Did much of his work survive?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Is that you? Yes, that's me. Dave Danziger? Well, no, no, no.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. The only poet I can remember
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: for this time and this part of the world is
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Peter Tebb. Tebb? Never heard of him.
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: Then this must have been before he was discovered. But
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: you see, I am an art scholar. Well, see, checking
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: my chronometer, I see my time is getting short. But
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: it is an overwhelming delight for me to be standing
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: in your studio, Mr. Mathaway, and looking at you at
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: last in the flesh. I wonder if you would mind
• 11:40
  Speaker 6: obliging me... With a small favor?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, sure, sure. You name it. Nothing's too good for you.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: What do you want?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: I wonder.
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: I'm sure you don't mind. Could you possibly let me
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: look at your painting? The one that you're working on
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: at this very moment.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Well, sure, sure. I have one right over here. Just a... Now, please, around.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: There you are. I intend to call this Figured Figurines No. 29. Hmm? Oh,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: but this... What's the matter? Well, surely this... This isn't
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: your work, Mr. Matherway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's my work,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: all right. Figured figurines number 29. Recognize it?
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: No, I do not recognize it, and that is a
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: fact for which I am extremely grateful.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Could I see something else, please? Something a little later? Well,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: that's the latest. Everything else is earlier. Here, here. You
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: might like this. Now, I call this figured figurines number 22.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's the best of my early period. Oh. Oh, dear.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: Oh, dear.
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: You know, what this looks like, smears of paint on
• 12:42
  Speaker 6: top of other smears of paint.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: Only I call it smudge on smudge. But you probably
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: know all about that, being such an authority on me.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: And now, here we have figurines number 12.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Do you mind leaving these figurines, Mr. Mathaway?
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: I'd like to see something of yours with.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Color and form. Well, I haven't done any real color
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: work for a long time. Oh, wait a minute. Wait.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I have one over here somewhere. An old canvas. I
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: was going to paint over it. Ah, here we are.
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: This is one of the few examples of my mauve
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: and mottled period that I've kept.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, I can't imagine why. It's positively, it's... Oh, oh, dear. Oh, now,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: wait a minute. Let me show you some of my
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: intestinal period. Ah, here. Here's a particularly good one. It's
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: called large intestine rampant. You like it? Oh, please, please, I...
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: You know, I think I'd like to sit down. Well,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: take the comfortable chair.
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: And here's another one, called Small Intestine Incisive.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's rather good, don't you think? I managed to
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: avoid completely any definite line. You notice that?
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: I don't suppose you ever drink of Glafax? Oh, no, no,
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: of course you don't. It hasn't been invented yet.
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: Oh, now, here's one that's bound to be great. It's
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: one of my earlier smudge-on smudges. It's called Fly Ash.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: I painted it by coating the canvas with slow-setting glue
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: and leaving it out on the window for about two
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: and a half hours. No, it's the delicate deposit of soot.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, please. Please, Mr. McElroy, please, please. Oh, I've got
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: lots more. You know, I don't understand this.
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: All these canvases, this is obviously before you discover yourself
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: and your true technique. But I'm looking for a sign,
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: a hint to the genius that is to come, and
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: I find... Well, how about this one?
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Here, here.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, please, please, please, please. Oh, take that away.
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, dear.
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: Oh, dear, no, no. Look, I'll have to leave soon.
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: I don't understand this at all. Let me show you
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: something here, gentlemen.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: Here.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: A pocket edition of the source book. The Complete Paintings
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: of Morniel Mathaway, 1928-1996. Were you born in 1928?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Yep. May 23rd, 1928. Here. Look at the first painting. Well,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: that's beautiful. I mean, the color, that's incredible.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, that stuff... Oh, why didn't you tell me
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you wanted that kind of stuff? You mean you have
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: paintings like this, too? No, no, no, not paintings. One painting.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, I did it last week as a sort of
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: an experiment, but I wasn't satisfied with the way it
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: turned out, so I gave it to the girl downstairs.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Would you like to look at it? Oh, yes, yes, yes.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Very much. Very much.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: Well, here, I'll just toss you a book on the bed.
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: Come on, it won't take a minute or two.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, she isn't home. I thought she'd be home now. Oh,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I did so want you to see that painting.
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: I want to see it. I want to see anything
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: that looks like your mature work. But time is getting short.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: Anita here has a couple of cats that she asked
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: me to feed when she's away for a while. So
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: she's given me the key.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: To her apartment. Suppose I browse upstairs and get it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: Suppose I browse through my room.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: And get it. Get it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: go ahead and browse, sure. Fine, fine, but please hurry. Oh, sure, sure,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I'll hurry. I won't take long browsing.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Well, that was it, the high sign. I'd seen Morniel
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: Mathaway in action too many times as a shoplifter not
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: to understand it. He was going upstairs to lift that
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: book that he'd dropped on the bed. I knew he
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: hadn't ever painted a picture like the one in the book,
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: but he would now. Only he wouldn't paint them, He
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: copied them. Well, I started talking automatically. You paint yourself, Mr.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Gillespie? No, no, no, no.
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: Of course, I wanted to be an artist when I
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: was a boy. I imagine every critic starts out that way,
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: but I found it far easier to write about paintings
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: than to do them. Once I began reading The Life
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: of Morniel Mathaway, I knew I had found my field.
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: Not only do I empathize closely with his paintings, but
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: he seems so much like a person I could have
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: known and liked. That's one of the things that puzzles me.
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: He's quite different from what I had imagined.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, I'll bet he is.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: Of course, history has a way of adding romance to
• 17:15
  Speaker 6: an important figure. Oh, dear, I'm running out of time here.
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: Do you think you'll be back with the key soon?
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: I've practically no time left. I've just got to get
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: upstairs to the time translator. I just can't wait.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I'll have to hurry now. Oh, dear, I did want
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: to see an original Mathaway. I did want to. Mr. Mathaway, I... Oh!
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: What's the matter? The time translator, it isn't here. It's gone.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: The book is gone, too.
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: And Mathaway, he stranded me here. He must have figured
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: out that getting inside and closing the door made it return.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a great figure.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: And he'll probably figure out a very plausible story to
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: tell the people in your time to explain how the
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: whole thing happened. Why should he work his head off
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: in the 20th century when he can be an outstanding
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: hero-worship celebrity in the 25th?
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: This is what will happen if they ask him to
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: paint merely one picture.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Oh, he'll probably tell them he's already done his work
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: and feels he can no longer add anything of importance
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: to it. He'll no doubt end up giving lectures on himself.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Don't worry. He'll make out.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: It's you I'm worried about. You're stuck here, aren't you?
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: Are they likely to send a rescue party after you?
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: No.
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: Every scholar who wins the award has to sign a
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: waiver of responsibility in case he doesn't return. No, I'm
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: stuck here. Tell me, is it very bad living in
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: this period?
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: Well, not so bad. Of course, you'll need a social
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: security card. I don't know how you go about getting
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: one at your age, and Well, the immigration authorities may
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: want to question you since you're sort of an illegal alien.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, dear, dear. That's awful. Wait a minute. It needn't be.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I'll tell you what. Morniel has a social security card.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: He had a job a couple of years ago. He
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: keeps his birth certificate in that drawer along with his
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: other papers. Now, why don't you just assume his identity?
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: He'll never show you up as an imposter.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: But do you think I could? Won't I be... Won't
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: his friends, his relatives... No, he hasn't got any family,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: and I'm about the only friend he's got.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: You could get away with it. Maybe grow a beard
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: and dye it blonde. Naturally, the big problem would be
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: earning a living. Being a specialist on math away in
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: the art movements derived from him wouldn't get you set.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: On an awful lot right now. But I could paint.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: I've always dreamed of being an artist.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: I don't have much talent, but there are all kinds
• 19:24
  Speaker 6: of artistic novelties I know about, all kinds of graphic
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: innovations that don't exist in your time. Surely that would
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: be enough, even without talent, to make a living for
• 19:32
  Speaker 6: me on some third or fourth-rate level.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it certainly was.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: But not on a third or fourth rate level.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Mr.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Glesko, that is Morniel Mathaway. is the finest painter alive
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: today and the unhappiest. After his last wildly successful exhibition,
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: I remember he said to me.
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: What's the matter with all these people praising me like that?
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: I don't have an ounce of real talent in me.
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: All my work is completely derivative.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: I've tried.
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: I've tried to do something, anything that was completely my own.
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: But I'm so steeped in Mathaway that I can't seem
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: to make my own personality come through. And those idiotic
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: critics go on raving about me. And the work isn't
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: even my own.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Well, who knows, is it?
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: Mathaway's, of course. We thought there couldn't be a time paradox.
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: I wish you could read all the scientific papers on
• 20:23
  Speaker 6: the subject. They fill whole libraries because it isn't possible
• 20:26
  Speaker 6: that time specialists argue for a painting to be copied
• 20:28
  Speaker 6: from a future reproduction and so have no original artist.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: But that's what I'm doing. I'm copying from that book
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: by memory. I love Glasgow's. That is, Mathaway, don't knock
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: yourself out. But it's dishonest. No, it isn't.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: You're deliberately trying not to copy those paintings. You're working
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: so hard at it that you refuse to think about
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: that book or even discuss it. As a matter of fact,
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: when I tried to get you to talk about it
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: a little while.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Ago, you couldn't actually remember it. That's true. That's true.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: You're the real Morniel Mathaway, and there's no paradox. You're
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: actually painting those pictures. You're not copying them from memory.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I know in my heart that they're not mine.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: All right, I'll forget it. Anyway, you're a much nicer
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: guy than Mathaway ever was. And besides, a buck is
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: a buck.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: You have just heard X-1 presented by the National Broadcasting
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: Company in cooperation with Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, which this
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: month features Lulu by Clifford D. Simak A story which
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: demonstrates that a spaceship should be a darb, a smasher,
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: a pip, a butte. But man all battle stations if
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: it ever becomes a sweetheart of a ship. Galaxy Magazine,
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: on your newsstand today. Tonight, X-1 has brought you The
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: Discovery of Morniel Mathaway. A story from the pages of
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Galaxy written by William Tenn and adapted for radio by
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Ernest Canoy. Featured in our cast were Leon Janney as Mathaway,
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Guy Repp as the Critic, Wendell Holmes as Glasgow, and
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Les Damon as Dave.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Your announcer, Fred Collins.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: X-1 was directed by Daniel Sutter and is an NBC
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Radio Network production.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: You've heard X-1's The Discovery of Morniel Mathaway. Follow X-1
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: for more classic broadcasts.