Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at The Cafe Tropicale (EP1468)

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Crime and Peter Chambers: Murder at The Cafe Tropicale (EP1468) · 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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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, send it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives dot net, follow us on Twitter at
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook dot com
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Slash Radio Detectives. Before we do get started, I want to encourage you,
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if you're not already, to pick up your copy of my newest ebook,
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All I Needed to Know I learned from Dragon. In it, I
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examined life lessons from seven great fictional detectives and police officers, including yours Truly,
1:07
Johnny Dowler, Joe Friday, Frank Cannon, and Poirot, among others.
1:12
The book is available in the Kendle Store in an all other ebook formats
1:18
to smash words dot com. Now it's time for today's episode of Crime and
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Peter Chambers. The original air in eight June twenty ninth, nineteen fifty four,
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and the title is the Murder at Cafe Tropicov. Crime and Peter Chambers
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created by Henry Kane, transcribed and starring Dane fut private investigator, duly licensed
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and duly sworn pet Her Chambers. You're a private eye. That's your business.
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Anything else that's for labs. It's mida afternoon and you're in a nightclub
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on business. There's nothing more ghastly than a nightclub in the daytime. Reminds
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you of the whitewash inside of an unfinished coffin. Anyway, this one's called
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a Cafe Tropical, and in a nighttime when it's tinsel isn't shown, it's
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considered quite swanky, mister Chambers. Yes, I'm Bruce Eldridge. I'm delighted
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that you could come. Bruce Eldrich, prospective client. He's one of the
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owners of the Cafe Tropical, about thirty five, well dressed and quite good
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looking and quite composed, except his eyes are nervous. I take it.
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Did you know what happened here last night? When you're a partner Paul Maxwell,
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he caught up with a slight case of lead poisoner. He was shot
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to death right here in the club. So I've read in the newspapers,
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observed the architecture of a little nightclub here. Now there's this not a little
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room where the bar is, yeah, not there. There's the archway which
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leads into the club. Properly. That's where we have our entertainment. And
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this stairway right here now that leads upstairs where mister and missus Maxwell have their
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apartment or the guy that was killed, Yes, he and his wife Claire.
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This was well sort of their town apartment, very cozy. Last night
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our entertainment was in full blast. Paul is Paul Maxwell was seated out here
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at the bar alone. He was shopped and killed. He slumps over nobody's
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the wiser, Tobias, the bartender, thinks Paul has grabbed a little catnap.
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And it's definitely established by the police that he was shot from the main
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room through the archway. And what about the gun. Well, so one
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of our patrons, the distinguished book critic, mister Charles Morris, felt something
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strange and it's howevery way. Don't tell me that turned out to be the
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gun. Yes, yes it did, and the rush of the crowd,
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the comfort probably slipped into the first strange pocket he found, which turned out
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to be mister Morris's. And what did this Charles Morse do, Well,
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he turned it over to the management, which in this case was missus Maxwell
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or Claire Maxwell, a new widow. Well, how many people in this
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management? There were three, Paul, myself and Claire equal partners. Claire
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also acted as hostess. So what happened then, Well, mister Morris waited
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for the police told them the story, and that was that the police,
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of course, now have the gun. Okay, Miss Eldridge, where do
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you fit me into this? I have reason to believe that it was my
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gun. What I owned a gun like that. I have a license for
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it. Two days ago it disappeared from my apartment and mister Chambers, I
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want to retain you right now to find out who's toole that gun and who
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murdered Paul Maxwell. Don't you think the cops will attend to that. That's
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just what I'm afraid of. They'll attend to it, and they'll come up
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with me. Guns can be traced, can't they. I see what you
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mean? Five hundred dollar fee in it for you, sir? All right
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now? Just where were you about the time Paul Maxwell was killed? Inside
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the main room? I was seated at the table with Claire Maxwell, Charles
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Morrison, Ruth Benson, who's Ruth bencey sings here in between shows? What
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were you people doing at your table at the time we were watching the show.
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New actor Calvin Cole, wizard on the Afro Cuban drums and a dancer
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Minasa. All right, now, explain to me how a guy can get
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shot from the main room there's by here without anybody hearing the shot or seeing
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the flash. Well, mister Chambers, you see there there was a show.
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Hello, mister Chambers. You know more bartenders? Do you know?
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Tobias? He know, it's a lot of bontenders. HI used to serve
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them, and I worked in Pj's Toby, Tobias lank and thin with a
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shock of hair falling over his foreheady and the wise, old, ageless eyes
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that seemed to be the trademark of bartenders born to be bontender's. Well,
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Toby, would you explain to mister Chambers how a shot can be fired and
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a man killed during our entertainment without anyone being the wiser. It'll be my
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pleasure, mister Eldridge. You know who we got here, don't you,
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mister Chandler. Calvin Cole, they tell me, and his Afro Cuban drums
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and Mannaja and I here's how it works. The lights go out, you
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see, with a small spot on Calvin. He wraps them drums like gunshots.
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Then this Managa comes out in a wild veil dance and they work the
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lights like flashes a lightning around us. So a shot from a real gun.
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It gets covered by Calvin Cole's drum beat gunshots and then flashes a lightning
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around this managa. I get it is missus Claire Maxwell upstairs? H yeah
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she is? Is it okay, Elders? If I go out and see
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her, I don't see why not? Well? Thanks, it's the north
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ahead of the stairs. Yes, mister Eldrids said I could speak with you.
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May I come in you may. She sits down, crosses her legs
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and lights a cigaret. She's blonde, blue eyed, on the sunny side
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of forty, and she's got her points. She's also got a pretty quick
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temperate scene. What does it please. My name is Peter Chambers. I'm
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a private investigator and I've been requested to look into the events of last night.
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So you've been requested. Huh, well listen you private eyes in books,
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private eyes and radio fine a lot of fun. When it comes to
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real life. I don't go for it. You got the police, and
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the police are working on this, and I'm cooperating with him fully. So
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do yourself a favor, young man. Get out of here. You do
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yourself a favorite, and you get you get all the way downtown to police
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headquarters, the office of Detective Lieutenant Louis Parker. Cop gentlemen and good friend.
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Hi Peter Piper, afternoon, Lieutenant. Oh, I detect a real
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sweet note in your voice. Okay, what client is paying you? How
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much for you to find out from us what he could have found out for
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himself? You know the usual prior the private eye confidential? All right,
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John Fellow, what are you working on? I'm working on that shooting last
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night the Cafe Tropical. Did you trace the murder gun yet? No,
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we're working on it. Real interesting case, Pete, How so know the
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details? I know he was shot from the main room all the way out
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to the bar while a drum guy was working the name with the lightning was
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dancing. Yeah. One bullet, one shot that finished him. You know
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anything about trajectory, Pete? An angle of entrance? Hey, them's fancy
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words. I got them from my science boys. Trajectory tells you about the
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flight of a bullet. Angle of entrance, tells you from what direction the
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bullet came. My science boys measured it perfectly. It eliminated everybody in that
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main room except a group around one table, and one table was at the
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one Bruce Eldridge was at. There's no question the bullet came from that room,
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from that table. No powder marks on the body, distance, estimated
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trajectory, angle of entrance perfect everybody. Well, all you had around that
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table where Bruce Eldridge, Claire Maxwell, Charles Morris, and Ruth Benson.
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And one of those is eliminated? Which one? Ruth Benson? She left
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the room while Maxwell was still alive, went upstairs powder room. Well does
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she know that she's eliminated? Yet? No, No, Pete. I
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like to keep them all guessing. You know. Claire Maxwell of wife,
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Charles Morrise, a book critic, and Bruce Elderg's partner. Well, certainly
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narrows him down to what the wife, why should she? She's married to
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a rich man. She's sitting pretty The book critic, why should he?
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If he were the murderer, would he plant the murder gun in his own
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pocket? The partner? Why should he? Paul Maxwell is the brains of
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cafe dropper coal. The operation is making money. I'll have about prints on
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the gun, eh smudges, look, Louie him. Yeah, there's a
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request for a favor coming up. Well, two things. One, I'm
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going up to interview Ruth Benson. Can I tell her that you've eliminated her
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as a suspect. Well, it'll make a real big sherlock out of me
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and it'll make for her cooperation. Yeah. Well you talk me into it,
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Pete. Now I have to break it to all of them sooner or
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later. What is the second favorite? Well, the addresses of the interested
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party. Oh, it's an easy one for a change. So armed with
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addresses and an affectionate pat on the back from Parker, you're riding your white
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horse again, and you're at Ruth Benson's neatly furnished apartment. I'd be glad
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to cooperate this. The Chambers, please make yourself comptable. A brunette with
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listening black hair and listening black eyes and more curves than the Indiana raceways.
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You'll give her Parker's dope about her being eliminated as a suspect, and you
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get what you want. Cooperation, anything, mister Chambers, anything at all.
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Well, well, well, first, uh, Bruce Eldridge, he
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used to own a gun once. That's a joke. I know about that
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gun. Would you break that down for me a little Well, about two
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weeks ago, I was at his place. Bruce writes beautiful music, and
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I'm a singer. You know, I understand. We were out on the
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terrace and he brought out that gun of his and by accident went off and
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guess what, he faded dead away. Guy's got a phobia. As a
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matter of fact, when Paul Maxwell found out I'd been at Bruce's apartment,
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he raised the roof and what he raised the roof about. Oh well,
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Paul and I we sort of had a thing going, and Paul and Bruce
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h was this thing what they argued about? But it's ridiculous. Bruce was
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perfectly innocent of any wrong intentions. Of course. Well, miss Benson,
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thank you very kindly. Not at all. It's the changes. Next stop
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the book lined retreat of Charles Morse in Greenwich Village. I welcome this visitor.
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I've always been keenly interested in the myriad and varied operations of the private
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investigator Charles Morris. Tall, slender, great, templed and distinguished. He's
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sipping brandy from an oversized sniffed glass drink, perhaps, mister Chames, No,
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no, no, thank you. Shall we get on then, mister
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Morris, are you a frequent customer at the cafe? Tropical? Frequent and
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regular? An ardn't patron? Shall we say? Good man? Of your
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intelligence? It's a help. How come you're so good a patron of a
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saloon? Well, so, it's difficult to put it into words, but
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I will certainly try. That's real sporting of you, said, you,
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perhaps chiding me, John and I doing a thing except fishnetting for facts?
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Well about my being a patron of saloons? Let me see now, A
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good many of us, you see in my profession of book critics, are
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frustrated writers, and I'll admit to being one of us. Our creative abilities
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just do not measure up to our desires. So I'm a rather heavy drinker,
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and consequence an excellent customer of watering spots like cow good enough. Do
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you know anything of a scrap between Paul and Bruce Eldridge? No, no,
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I do not. All right then, mister Morris, Thanks for the
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use of the hall, but it was most stimulating mister Chambers, I'm at
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the cafe almost every night, you know, so if you have any further
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need of my assistance in any way at all, please don't hesitate. So
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that night you're back at Cafe Tropical and the joint is jumping like they're featuring
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a strip dancer and handing out binoculars to free You're greeted by Bruce Eldridge.
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Evening, mister Chambers. Hey wow, oh, nothing like a murder the
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jum up business quite Micawber's night, don't you, mister Chippers. Everybody in
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this cast of characters makes with the big words. You that Arlie Morris,
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You mind if I go in a bar and mix with a hoy pel oil
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like Toby Tobias, don't mind the least, mister Chief. Hi Shamus,
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how's the Shamas business? Eh? How's with the bartending business? It stinks
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too that if I play my cards right, I'm getting out of it before
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we go any further than this colloquy point of order. Yeah, Scotch and
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soda coming at you, mister Chambers. And now what's with your imminent retirement?
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Listen hard, mister Chambers, because either I make it or you make
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it look Tobias a little late for riddle. This is a moment of relaxation
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for me. It's about to see a case you're working on. Oh well,
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well, talking up Tobias Malaid. Now, if I spill the dope
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I got, this whole case becomes a hangar for you. So spill.
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I ain't spilling yet, but I got a hunch I know just what this
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thing is all about. That kind of information is good for a little paola
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from a certain party, enough paola for me to retire. So tonight I
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make me play. I'm off tonight at eleven and then I may me little
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old play. If your little old play backfire, I'm calling on you at
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home on the phone, and with the info I got for you, they're
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going to turn out to be a big hero. How much you're asking for
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Toby ten thousand smackers and the party's getting off cheap. Excuse me for now,
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mister Chambers. I gotta go to work and don't forget to be home
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come eleven o'clock. The crowd keeps pouring in like gets bargained at Macy's,
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and the confusion mounts, and you like it because right now you can use
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confusion. It gives you a chance to slip off your barstool and slip upstairs.
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The door to claim Maxwell's room isn't locked. Inside, you do a
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rapid search, and out of address a drawer, you come up with an
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interesting item, an expensive heavy gold medal. On one side, there's an
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engraving across pistols, and beneath that the initials c M Yeah, Claire Maxwell.
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The reverse side says Westchester Target Club Competition, first Prize, June fifteenth,
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nineteen fifty three. You slip the metal in your pocket and you're ready
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for a further gander. When what's going on here? Claire Maxwell? Indignation
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in her eyes and much worse and automatic in her hand, big black,
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deadly. Are you looking for something, miss Chambers? Nothing special, Missus
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Maxwell. Get out of here quickly, please, I'm not finished yet,
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Missus Maxwell, finished, or you will be. Look, I got a
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right to shoot. You're a trespasser here. Now don't kind of step near
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or I'll shoot. Now. I've got the gun and you've got nothing.
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But let's say a guilty conscience because you meant to shoot, Get out,
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Get out a little lesson first, Missus Maxwell. Right here, see see
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this is a safety catch. The gun don't go off or like the safety
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catch is unhooked. That's the next time. For now, I take the
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clip out, throw your gun back to you like so, and I say,
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by now you go home, but you don't go to bed. You
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linger over a cup of coffee like a guy in a cafeteria, killing time
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for a dime. Then at eleven fifteen, Wow, now, mister Chambers.
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Yeah, Toby, Toby, the party give me a pully ache.
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So now I give the party ally ache. Where he at the traffic cow?
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No, I mean to live a broken down saloon on Third Avenue and
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fifty six. I want you to meet me here right away. Oh what
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happened to your retirement plans? Toby, I ha'e gotta retire, but the
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party is the party is gonna retire for good. But I'll come on down
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here, mister Chambers and listen to Toby like a conary. The name of
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this joint. Hello, Toby, Toby, you get the fifty six and
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third fast, but not fast enough because the cops are there already and the
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boss man is Louie Parker. You set them up on the facts and it's
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directly connected with the other thing, right, I couldn't be right, Louis.
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Any idea who that certain party was, no idea at all. Any
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witnesses this shooting? No nothing, he look, Pete, it's late.
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No use, you're knocking yourself out on this one. Go home, go
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to sleep. We'll be in touch. He I think you're right, Louis.
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Oh, by the way, you trace that gun yet? Gun?
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Want you know the gun and the other shooting? The Paul Maxwell? What's
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with guns? What's your interest? Nothing? Nothing? Just asked, Look,
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stop bothering me with guns now, I got work to do. Good
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night dictated. So you're still let's see about Bruce Elders's gun and that,
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after all, there is your real interests. That's what you're going to be
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paid five hundred dollars for. Anyway, you go to sleep, sinks like
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a lot, and the next afternoon you're at the Westchester Target Club, asking
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questions and getting answers. You're back in Manhattan now and ready for the wrap
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up. Put in a call of Parker and comes nighttime you're a saloon goer
19:26
again. Cafe trafic cow any means for me, mister Chambers, throw Ridge
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could we talk somewhere alone? Come on upstairs, Charlie Moss show up yet,
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expect him practically any moment. Do you want to talk to him too?
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Don't mind if I do. All right, I'll leave here it down
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here far? All right? Then, mister Chambers, still Ridge, why
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didn't you tell me there was bad blood between you and mister Maxwell. Well,
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I wouldn't over Ruth Benson wood Well, because I don't believe in washing
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dirty linen in public. Now, look, mister Chambers, I didn't kill
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Paul Maxwell. I was told you people wanted to speak with mister Chambers.
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I said, I didn't kill Paul maxw I know that I'm not accusing you.
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I am, however, accusing him Charles Morris. I am accusing him
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of the murder of Paul Maxwell and Toby Tobias. Have you gone out of
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your mind? Chambers? I'll listen, my dear cultured book critic. You
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see this metal say it, which I found in missus Maxwell's room, Well,
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that set me on the right track. My initials on it are CM.
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I thought it was Claire Maxwell. But this afternoon I learned at the
20:41
Westchester Target Club that CM was for Charles Morris. On the strength of that,
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you're accusing me. Only one of three people could have killed Paul Maxwell.
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That's right. The police have already informed us of that. Bruce Elridge
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no so for gunphobia. Claire Maxwell knows so because she pulled a gun on
20:56
me yesterday and she didn't even know how to flip the safety catch. Plus,
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our murderer had to be a crop shot. He killed Paul with one
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bullet. That my good friend leaves us is all, mister Chambers, my
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compliments. Notice please, I'm holding a gun and as you know now,
21:11
it's in the most competent of hands. And as long as you've got to
21:14
drop on his friend, you may as well complete the story just to satisfy
21:18
our curiosity. All if I will finish it to exonerate Claire Maxwell. She
21:22
had nothing to do with Paul's murder. She had your metal pal and a
21:25
rather expensive one. I loved her and she loved me. We asked Paul.
21:29
We begged Paul for a divorce, but he wouldn't exceed. So I
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figured out the next way. I went to Bias with the big eyes,
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added two and two together and tried blackmail. I was then compelled to dispose
21:38
of Tobias too. And now what kind of chance do you think you have
21:42
now? I don't know that I'll find out. I intend to make a
21:45
run for it. So I backed to the door. And remember, gentlemen,
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Charlie dropped the guy. Charles Mors may have won a medal, but
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Parker has won many metals anyway. In the exchange of gunfire, Morris winds
22:03
up with a leaking shoulder and Parker winds up with a wide smile. And
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the next day, seated in your office, you thank Louie Parker for his
22:11
nick of time heroics, and you're back to your favorite subject, Looie,
22:18
Just for kicks, was that original gun traced yet? No? I got
22:22
it right here my bed is he bought it in the hot shove. Here
22:25
you see, every possible mark of identification has been filed off. Nobody can
22:29
actually trace them. I don't know. I don't know. Some people have
22:33
an intuitive sense. Some people can tell just by looking at things, meaning
22:37
you, that's precisely what I mean, Lieutenant. Look, detective, if
22:42
you can tell me where this gun came from, I'll donate five hundred dollars
22:45
the Damon run In Fund. Fair enough, but if you don't you donating,
22:51
that's a deal. I look, Looie, I got fixed fat news
22:53
for you. I couldn't tell you before, but that gun hasn't Chames,
22:57
mister Chambers, I found my gun. You wants it? Followed behind some
23:02
books in the show and my maiden. What's this? Yeah? But nevertheless,
23:06
mister Chambers, I owe you five hundred dollars and I want to write
23:08
my check for it this very moment. Yeah. Yeah, you write your
23:12
check and make it out to the Damon Runyon Fundle give it to the Lukennant
23:17
here. Well, now, that's very charitable of you, mister Chambers,
23:19
very charitable indeed. And there you've had Crime and Peter Chambers. Dane Clark
23:41
was starred as Peter Chambers. Crime and Peter Chambers was created and written by
23:48
Henry Kane, others in the cask of Bill Zucker heard as Lieutenant Parker and
23:52
Potniak as Claire, ed Peck as Charles, and Nelson Almstead as Bruce.
23:57
It was directed by Fred Way. This is Fred Collins inviting you to tune
24:02
in next week, same time, same station, or Dane Clark in Crime
24:06
and be here a Chamber m HM crime and Peter Chambers has come to you
25:12
through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
26:33
Welcome back. Well, you may have wondered about the Demon Running Hunt,
26:37
and it was named after a great American newspaperman and an author who was very
26:45
well known for his short stories and for the play Guys and Dolls. And
26:51
he created all of these characters in New York with a very distinct way of
26:56
speaking. They were mostly people who who were either from the working class or
27:03
from the underworld. But there would be this sort of stylized stories and they
27:08
tended to feature, rather than menacing criminals, those who were eccentric or occasionally
27:15
those with a heart of gold, and really influenced a lot of literature of
27:19
the era. He died of cancer, and so his friends set up the
27:25
Demon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund, and it was actually the subject of the very
27:30
first telethon back in nineteen forty nine, and the fund does continue to this
27:34
day, and certainly in nineteen fifty four was very well known. Well,
27:40
that will do it for today. We will be back tomorrow with the adventures
27:44
of Philip Marlow. And then be sure and listen to us again next Tuesday
27:48
for another episode of Crime and Peter Chambers from Boise, Idaho. This is
27:52
your host, Adam Grahamson and off