Skip Homeier stars in an Arthur Zigouras script about violence and the insensitivity of passers-by to those in need. Thankfully, that scenario can change with the kindness of just one stranger from whom it would not be expected.
Homeier plays a young man, Avery, who is out with some past college friends. They have a long party together, playing poker and drinking, and break up at around 3:00am. Their inebriated state has them behaving badly, including a confrontation with two young toughs in the street. That dissipates, and they break up and head to their homes to get at least a couple of hours sleep before having to go to work. At 5:00, they encounter a man hard on his luck, and Avery gives him some spare change. Avery’s companions belittle the man and Avery for helping him.
Avery goes down into the subway station, has trouble navigating the stairs, tries to buy a token, but can’t find his change to buy one, and misses the train. He goes into the mens room. The same two thugs come upon him and beat him up, likely breaking some ribs. (Then there is a strange high-pitched sound effect at the end of act one that implies he was thrown on the tracks; he wasn’t. The effect seems very out of place.).
At the beginning of the second act, he is on the floor of the mens room again, a homeless man is with him, looking for what he might have on him. He leaves him behind, in serious pain. Avery groggily gets up when he hears a train coming, hoping to find a passenger who might help him. He is turned away. He goes to the token booth, and the attendant does not help him either. A customer comes up and chats with the attendant, and she sees Avery and is convinced he’s hurt. The attendant doesn’t want to call the police because she doesn’t want to cause trouble for him, or for her either. The customer goes away. As more people encounter him, they keep him at arms length, thinking he is a drunk and this is his regular state. They rationalize leaving him as he is because it would be too much trouble, perhaps creating unwanted interactions with police and perhaps newspaper coverage (especially a problem for one couple who are having a secret affair). By the time act three comes things look pretty hopeless. He tries to leave the subway station but can only muster a few steps and has to sit down. He falls asleep. Morning commuters pass by, simultaneously ignoring him while making comments about his condition. Eventually, the very man he gave the change to, the one his friends belittled for him doing so, is back on the scene. He thanked him for his help, and said “I used your dime for a phone call,” which meant he called Alcoholics Anonymous for himself. It took someone who had hit rock bottom in the past, and knew what it was like, to have the empathy to help Avery.
Where is the suspense in this story? This is a different kind of production for the series, but not a different one for Robson. He really enjoyed bringing challenging morality circumstances to his programs.
This is Zigouras’ sole Suspense script. Robson also used a script of his on CBS Radio Workshop. That was Harmonica Solo, 1957-03-24. A graduate of Yale Drama School, Zigouras was mainly a writer and director for the stage, sometimes in smaller cities (Winnipeg was one of them) and also lived for a while in Los Angeles. He also did some acting.
Near the beginning of the story, one of the drunken partiers asks “what’s happened to the elevated?” That refers to the New York subway system’s move from having elevated structures for its trains and stations in its past. Most of the elevated structures were torn down in the 1940s and 1950s and replaced by a combination of train tunnels, roads, and bus service. The party-goers in the story would be of the age to remember when certain streets had “el” service. If they had not been in that spot for a number of years, they would find the removal to be a surprise. Suspense fans also know that the play Sorry, Wrong Number relies on the loud noise of a passing elevated train for its climax.
The program was recorded on Wednesday, April 30, 1958. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm, with recording beginning at 4:30pm. Including in-studio edits, that part of the session ended at 6:00pm. Music was added and other edits were made on Sunday, May 4 from 1:00 to 6:00pm.
No network recording has survived. The advertisers were O’Brien Paints and Rit clothing dye, with two spots that were allocated before broadcast.
The surviving recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS#979) and is in excellent sound. It replaces an Armed Forces Radio home-recorded station aircheck that was in poor sound and heavily edited.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
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https://archive.org/details/TSP580511
THE CAST
SKIP HOMEIER (Avery the Storyteller), Shirley Mitchell (Miss / Honey, Jimmy’s girlfriend), Virginia Gregg (Subway cashier), Barney Phillips (John / Tramp), Bill Quinn (Mike / Jim / 2nd man), Joe de Santis (Bum / Old Man), Tommy Cook (Goober), Jackie Kelk (Din / 3rd Man), Norm Alden (Gruff man / 1st Man), George Walsh (Narrator)
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