Jack Carson plays a public relations manager who devises a publicity stunt for a local business association at the local airport. He gets a lot more adventure than he bargained for in this Silvia Richards story.
The stunt involves counting all of the passengers and award a free ticket and other prizes to the one millionth arriving passenger. When that passenger arrives, a brass band starts to play, and a celebration ensues. The man who wins does not want any recognition, any photos. Why?
The prizes were a free hotel stay, a visit to a lion farm, lunch with a motion picture star, a meal at a world famous restaurant, many free gifts including a mink cape, two dozen sports shirts, and 2000 cans of dog food. The big prize was a free airline pass to anywhere in the world. The reluctant man is suddenly attentive once he hears about the plane ticket. He’d like to use it to go to Brazil. All seems to be great… until the details about the winner start becoming clear. And, he had elbowed a woman in line who would have been the winner. The stunt runners decide on the spot to award her the various lucky recognitions, too.
Is the man who was a killer in a robbery back in Texas? And if he is, Carson’s character wonders if he can get a portion of the stolen cash. In meeting with the winner, he does not want any of the prizes… he just wants the plane ticket and will do anything to get it. But is the robbery the real reason for the interest in the plane ticket? is it for something else? is the woman the real robber?
It’s a very entertaining story because comedian Carson plays the serious role of the publicity agent with a selfish opportunistic streak so very well. He’s looking out for his clients, of course, but will find a way to take care of himself in the process.
This show has some broadcast format and backroom transitions. Jack Carson is in an opening tease before the first Auto-Lite commercial. They are experimenting on a new show open that can be used in the next season. That’s even though Spier and Macdonnell will not be in charge of the series at that time. The replacement with Elliott Lewis was announced in the Los Angeles Times just two days before this broadcast. Spier would be concentrating on his long-desired goal of becoming a movie producer. He and wife June Havoc were headed to Europe to film a movie based on Pamela Kellino’s novel Del Palma. She was the wife of James Mason, and her ex-husband was the director along with Spier. The movie, released as Lady Possessed, was unfortunately a box office and critical failure. Spier did not return to radio but had many different television ventures and scripts in the years later.
The script was originally used on 1948-12-24 Philip Morris Playhouse and starred Michael O’Shea. It is interesting that some newspapers were referring to that series as “Spier Playhouse.” Some newspapers had an editorial policy of not including sponsor names in series titles. For example, Lux Radio Theatre would be referred to as “Radio Theatre.” This also mean that PMP would appear in timetables only as “Playhouse.” The sentiment, right or wrong from an editorial or reader service perspective, was that the sponsors should not be getting “free” advertising. Calling it “Spier Playhouse,” whether started by the newspapers or by CBS, shows how recognizable his name was.
One of the prizes was a visit to a lion farm. Really? Gay's Lion Farm was in El Monte, California and operated from 1925 to 1942. It was a breeding facility and very popular tourist attraction. The animals were bred, trained, and supplied to the movie industry, zoos, and circuses in addition to being exhibited there. It closed during WW2 because of meat shortages, meaning it would be hard to feed the animals there. It never re-opened.
“Joe” in the title is slang for the word “person” and does not refer to someone’s name. It’s similar to the word “guy.” It has fallen out of use over the decades.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP500622
THE CAST
JACK CARSON (Al Jazant), Howard McNear (Wilder), Doris Singleton (Vera), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Thompson), Harry Bartell (Arthur / 2nd reporter), Sid Miller (1st reporter), Roy Rowan (P. A.), Dave Light, Ray Erlenborn (Ad-Libs)
COMMERCIAL: Ed East (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
Sound effects artists Dave Light and Ray Erlenborn were called upon to do some background crowd ad-libs for the production. Erlenborn became a favorite guest at classic radio fan conventions.
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