Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks star as resort performers in a Richard Chandlee script. The narcissistic husband believes “the show must go on” even if his sentiment puts the audience, and the posh Sea Beach resort where they are playing, in great danger from a massive Gulf Coast hurricane. His wife and dancing partner are having serious marital issues. She liked her husband a lot better when he wasn’t so successful. The money they are earning has gone to his head, and he acts like a bully to everyone. He even gets a popular “dog act” pulled from the resort’s show, forcing the owner to pay that act even though they won’t be performing. In one sense of the story, he’s even a bully to the impending storm. As news comes about the path of the storm, he insists that the resort stay open and that they put on a show. He has an eye for one of the resort guests, and insists on dancing with her, forcing her to comply with his direction. The marriage is on the rocks for sure. When his wife realizes this, she leaves.
Lovejoy’s “Larry Weston” character says the dance team gets $2,000 a week “plus 20%.” That amount is about $24,000 in US$2024. He asks for $3,000 from the Sea Beach resort, which is about $36,000 in current US dollars. The 20% figure may be the portion of the total food and drink revenue during the show. It is easy to imagine how this would inflate Larry’s ego to get this kind of money and not be at a major big city hotel or night club.
Larry Thor has a large amount of narration in the broadcast, detailing the track of the storm and the dangers involved, and increasing the tension of each succeeding scene. The narrative almost sounds like the introductions to Broadway’s My Beat by Morton Fine and David Friedkin that Thor read at the opening of each episode of that series. Chandlee may have had that style in mind as he was writing the script.
At about the 12:22 mark, there is a scratch and disc skip that affects the continuity of the scene. The defect is in all available copies. Editing it out is not possible without disturbing the flow of the dialogue. You may want to stop the recording and read the below before continuing.
Through the assistance of the University of California Santa Barbara Performing Arts Special Collection, we have the missing dialogue! At 12:22, Al (Joe Kearns), the owner of the resort is speaking to Joyce (Joan Banks), the wife of Larry (Frank Lovejoy):
AL: (PAUSE) Have a drink, Joyce?
JOYCE: No, I don’t think so. Thanks.
AL: I know he was kidding, but for a minute… I thought Larry meant that about the hurricane.
JOYCE: Maybe he did. He’s a talented boy, Al.
MUSIC: IN AND UNDER
NARRATOR: The barometer falls and the weather flags hang slack. The night air is damp and barely moves. The human feels unaccountably strange. And the animals, the birds, the insects instinctively feel fear. Then in the early morning hours – rain. (SOUND: RAIN) It drums the rooftops, stops, and then falls again. The wind picks up, then silently dies away. (SOUND: WIND RISES AND FALLS) The sun rises dimly, and just over the roof tops low racing clouds rush tirelessly by. More rain, more gusts of wind. The clouds grow heavier in the haze-filled sky...
There was a section of dialogue edited out after the line “He’s a talented boy, Al.” Mr. Pidet, who has the dog act that was removed from the show because of Larry, stops by. He greets Al and Joyce and compliments Joyce that the dance act was “truly magnifique.” Then he thanks her for the note Joyce sent him, apologizing for Larry’s behavior. Pidet says “...it would have been impossible for the dogs to perform this evening… they act so strangely. I hardly know them.” The implication is that the dogs, like other animals around the resort, are sensing the rapid change in the weather that is coming.
The story may seem to have an open ending, but it is clear what happens. The narration at the conclusion says:
The sun shines once more on a whipped and torn earth. It is over – and those who lived through it, stir humbly...
Those words imply that only “the humble” survived. That is, the people who feared the storm and acted accordingly by seeking shelter and responding to the direction of police, fire, and other services, got through the storm. Lovejoy’s character was not a “humble” person, and did not make it through the hurricane.
Joe Kearns doubles as “Al,” the owner of the resort and later as a fireman. The voicing is too similar and they occur too close in the timing of the story. No, “Al” is not a volunteer fireman in the area. Lewis has had this casting issue in prior episodes and will in upcoming ones.
The rehearsal for this program began at 7:00pm on Tuesday, February 24, 1953. Recording of the dramatic sequences began at 11:30pm and concluded at Midnight.
One day, maybe a clean recording of this episode will be found. The best hope may be the discovery of an Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording. It is suspected that the surviving broadcast recording is an aircheck of some sort because of its lack of full, rich sound. It does not sound like a studio recording. It is still quite listenable.
This story takes place prior to the use of weather satellites. This meant the size and characteristics of hurricanes were very hard to judge and had to be pieced together by surface observations and approaches such as weather balloons and the daring flights of “hurricane hunters.” Because of the lack of information compared to today, the severity of hurricanes were difficult to judge and made it difficult to make proper preparations and predetermine the wisest evacuation routes. Many hurricane events would seem “sudden” and catch geographies unprepared until satellites became available. “The Great New England Hurricane of 1938” is a good example.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP530302
THE CAST
FRANK LOVEJOY (Larry Weston), JOAN BANKS (Joyce), Larry Thor (Narrator), Sharon Douglas (Operator / Betty), Joe Kearns (Al / Fireman), Rolfe Sedan (Pidet), Jerry Hausner (Man), James Nusser (Cop)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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