Bill Lipton stars in a script George Bamber wrote while he was serving in Korea and was assigned to the Armed Forces Korea Network station as an announcer. When his military commitment was completed, he was working at the CBS mail room in Los Angeles, and submitted the script to William N. Robson. It was rejected. Bamber submitted it to Paul Roberts when he became the show’s producer, and Roberts accepted it. This was Bamber’s first radio script. It was performed on his station sometime between 1955 and 1957 with a cast of co-workers who were also assigned there. They produced their own sound effects, including recording some of the trucks they used, since there were no sound effects records at the station.
The story takes place in Korea in the early 1950s. Lipton plays US Army Private First Class Larry Connelly. He has a mystical experience in the course of duty while driving on a lonely highway. He was ordered by his sergeant to drive a truck to Seoul and then return on a cold, snowy Christmas Day. Connelly picks up a hitch-hiker who is out of military uniform. He claims he is a GI and tells Connelly how he spent Christmas Day 1951 on some strange duty with others. Connelly listens to the story and it is soon time to drop the GI off at his destination. He drives along a little while and realizes that the GI left his knapsack in the truck. Connelly tries to return it and experiences an eerie adventure he will never forget. The experience has a special warmth of the best of the Christmas season though he is far away from home.
Keep an ear out for the name of the GI and details about him as they are clues to what is learned at the conclusion to tie it all together.
No script can be found to identify the program recording date.
The surviving recording is a complete network aircheck from WROW in very pleasing sound.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP591220
THE CAST
Bill Lipton (Pfc. Connolly), Lyle Sudrow (Whitey), Phil Meeder (Soldier), Guy Repp (Walker), Larry Robinson (Brownie), Lawson Zerbe (Harry), Alan Manson (Stevens)
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