William Redfield and Frankie Thomas star in an Anne Howard Bailey story adapted by Ronald Dawson. “Burt,” played by Thomas, is a key witness to a murder, but his best friend “Randy,” played by Redfield, is the killer. Burt is in a quandary. Randy says he is innocent, but Burt knows he saw Randy running out of the rear entrance of a restaurant one Friday afternoon at 5:45pm. If Burt testifies to that, Randy is certain to be convicted of a murder. It doesn’t look good for Randy, because he had lots of gambling debts and the person killed was his bookie. If Burt, on the other hand, says he did not see Randy on that day, that place and that time, Randy will go free and Burt will perjure himself. Being an accountant, perjury could seriously affect his career. Burt is on the stand and recalls all of the advice he received from everyone involved about friendship and honesty and other factors. He starts to speak and answers questions about what he saw. We soon know what his decision was, concluding an interesting story.
Emmy winner Anne Howard Bailey wrote for numerous television shows in her career, starting in the 1950s, writing for Armstrong Circle Theater and Lux Video Theater. She later became a regular writer for General Hospital, The Doctors and Days of Our Lives. She also wrote librettos and a full opera.
This particular script was originally used on the television series Justice in its 1955-02-10 episode. The program was broadcast live from New York. A kinescope may be in the archives of the University of Wisconsin. The program starred Jackie Cooper. The series was directed by Robert Stevens, who was the director for the Suspense television series. Scripts for the series were claimed to be based on true incidents documented in the files of the Legal Aid Society. Broadcast information can be found at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0618290/
No script cover is available at this time to provide production date and time.
There are two surviving recordings and they both have listenability issues. The network aircheck has a slightly clipped open and very narrow audio range. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (likely AFRS#805) has similar issues, but is slightly better. It is hoped that an AFRS transcription might be found in clean condition to allow a better quality transfer to be made.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP601009
THE CAST
Mary Jane Higby (Kay Stoneman), William Redfield (Randy Stoneman), Frank Thomas, Jr. (Burt Claxton), Ruth Tobin (Linda Claxton), Guy Repp (attorney), Maurice Tarplin (district attorney), Roger DeKoven (Lt. Conover)
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