Dan Dailey makes the first of his two series appearances. In this Joel Murcott script, he’s a carnival performer whose “act” is being buried alive. (Yes, there were such traveling acts at the time, and decades before). People could see him, 10 hours a day with no breaks, through a peep hole and even talk to him. Then a worker digs him up every night and he goes home to dinner, goes to sleep, and starts it all again the next day.
There’s growing uneasiness with the routine because the man who digs him up at the end of each day is in love with the “buried” man’s wife. His concern grows that there will be some night when his love-rival will “forget” to dig him up, “accidentally,” of course. He overhears a conversation that indicates his wife and the other man have secret airline reservations for the next night. He decides he must act quickly and to make sure his next “burial” won’t be his last. But as he is helpless under the six feet of earth the next day, the pump that brings him fresh air suddenly cuts out. A kid carnival visitor turned the air off… but this is the breaking point… this won’t happen again. (He finds the kid and he hits him; it is a violent scene). That night, he puts his plan against the wife’s suitor for a kind of “preventive revenge” into action. Then, things turn out to be unlike what they were assumed to be.
This seems like a strange story because the carnival stunt seems so weird. Such acts are documented in newspapers of the time and decades before. Stick with the broadcast, the ending is a surprise. It’s yet another story that with a few tweaks could have been used on The Whistler.
The production script notes that the cast was in on the night before from 7:30pm to 11:30pm. It must have been for rehearsal only (desk reads and dress) because it was in a different studio than usual. They came in on the broadcast day for only two hours, 4:00pm to 6:00pm, when they likely had another dress rehearsal with the orchestra in the regular studio. The split time over the two days was not for any pre-recording.
Ether plays a non-critical role in the story. It was used as an anesthetic until the 1960s. It was rather easily available for other purposes, too, usually as a solvent. It is less common now as better and safer anesthetics became available. Use of ether to “knock people out” or subdue them was a common plot device in crime novels, comic books, gangster movies, and stories just like this one.
Dan Dailey started in vaudeville and the stage before appearing in Hollywood musicals. He had a very successful career, which is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dailey
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500413
THE CAST
DAN DAILEY (Jack), John McIntire (Sheriff / Bartender), Hal March (Cliff / Clerk), Joe Kearns (Barney / Old man / Signature Voice), Jeanette Nolan (Anna / Old Lady), Olive Deering (Miriam), Ann Whitfield (Boy), Gus Bayz & Dave Light (Ad-Libs)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
