Larry Robinson stars in a Walter Black story as a young, honest supermarket employee named “Robbie” who is persuaded to cooperate with a thug, “Dutch,” in a late night robbery of the store’s receipts for the day. Dutch tells Robbie “the smart guys don’t get caught.” He’s not interested, but a girl he is interested in encourages the idea. “A girl’s gotta look out for herself,” she says, “Money, Robbie, not talk, money!” Robbie really likes her, and her interest in him seems to be based on whether or not he can be a good provider who can more than the $70 a week he currently earns in his job (about $40,000 a year in US$2025). Before Robbie steals the money, his boss tells him what a good and honest employee he is, and he’s getting a raise to $72 a week. Robbie decides to go ahead with the heist, and the deal is that he will get half. His reputation for honesty is so strong that it the staged street mugging he will undergo by the gangster will preclude him for being considered as a suspect. Robbie gets more than he bargained for, however, but he’s prepared, and perhaps too smart for his own good. Robbie turns out to be not-so-honest, and almost outsmarts the thug. Despite Robbie’s newfound interest in thievery that causes his demise, his reputation for honesty will outlive him. Dutch’s pronouncement that “the smart guys don’t get caught” turns out to be true in the strangest of ways. Robbie didn’t get caught, but paid the highest price for his night of dishonesty. His desired girlfriend turns out to be the biggest conniver of all.
The program was recorded on Thursday, April 28, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.
The script title is “Legend of Robbie,” but is announced as “The Legend of Robbie.”
The ending suffers from the New York studio’s sound effects lack of realism, but does not detract from the above-average story.
Two recordings of this episode have survived. The network recording is an aircheck from WROW and has an ad for Utica Club beer at its open. The station ID was late and blocked the “And now…” open of the program, but the “ow” of “now” can be heard in the background. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#785) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the much preferred one of the two. The AFRS recording is only recently available and allows better appreciation of the overall story.
Larry Robinson was one of New York’s busiest actors from the time of his childhood. He was a regular on Let’s Pretend and radio soaps, early television and had many appearances in Broadway plays through the 1950s. He became active in the dubbing of movies, animation, and cartoons in the 1960s through the time of his passing in 2006.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP600508
THE CAST
Larry Robinson (Robbie), George Mathews (Dutch), Joan Lorring (Sandra), Eric Dressler (Mr. Harris), Walter Black (George)
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