John Lund stars as a reformed ex-con, Bert, who successfully hid his past life from his wife, family, and neighbors. An unfortunate event, that started innocently, changes that. The story is suspected to be by E. Jack Neuman under the pen name “Gordon Christian.”
While innocently tending to a bank errand to sign some papers, thieves enter the bank and announce a hold-up. The voice is familiar: it’s his former partner-in-crime, Pinky. The theft is underway, and Pinky recognizes Bert and they talk. He tells Pinky he has a new life and no interest in returning to the old one. Knowing that Bert is the only one in the bank who recognizes him, Pinky threatens him. If Pinky finds out that Bert identified him to the police, he will go after his children. Bert knows what that means, and takes him very seriously. Bert convinces himself should forget about the incident because Pinky is likely successful in his getaway, and far away. That doesn’t happen. His wife knows something is wrong and he tells her about his situation. Things get worse when they find Pinky is at house because the getaway did not work. Events turn in some unexpected ways from there, and leads to a surprise ending.
The resolution of the plotline hinges on the now-unthinkable plot element of the police giving Bert a gun. That would certainly lead to an internal affairs investigation of some sort, especially if the outcome is bad. That aside, the story is a good. Let that implausible element pass, and enjoy the better aspects of the production.
The program was recorded on Thursday, November 13, 1958. Rehearsal started at 1:30pm, with recording and in-studio edits beginning at 4:00pm. The session ended at 5:30pm and production edits were done until 6:30pm.
No network recording has survived. There were five ad spots and were for Grove Laboratories, Scripto, Tums, Kent cigarettes, and Ex-Lax.
There are two surviving Armed Forces Radio Service recordings, AFRS#701 and another with its number not known. AFRS#701 is the better of the two. The two recordings can be differentiated by the announcement after the Robson introductory monologue:
AFRS#701: Ability of military members to vote in elections
AFRS#unknown: Military Medals
For many years the only surviving recordings were poor-sounding airchecks from and Armed Forces Radio station broadcast. The recordings were heavily edited.
The program was originally scheduled for 1958-11-30 with newspapers listing it as “Old Time’s Sake.” The script indicates that Four of a Kind was announced as the next week’s program, but it was not broadcast until six weeks later.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP581214
THE CAST
JOHN LUND (Bert Winterfield), Virginia Gregg (Helen), Bill Quinn (Lt. Williams / Nelson the Banker / Robber #2), Joe de Santis (Pinky), Bill James, Tom Hanley (Ad-Libs), George Walsh (Narrator)
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