George Bamber offers another science fiction story, but this one has an amusing background. At the time he was writing this, he was very unhappy with the way his life and career were going. He hated the noisy apartment that he had trouble paying the rent, had money problems from slowness of work, and a nasty case of writer's block. It was compounded by a nasty upstairs neighbor. He would often arrive home drunk and verbally abuse his wife. Bamber never went into the neighbor's apartment, but his mind and imagination wandered. He wondered what it would be like and what he would learn about them. The writer’s block started to break, and he built this wild story about a strange situation where he goes into the apartment and finds odd creatures on a special mission.
CBS publicity explained the story as:
A down-at-the-heels writer for a pulp magazine, lonely and broke, is fascinated by the exquisite voice of the woman upstairs and decides to meet her. When he knocks at her door, he is greeted by her unpleasant husband who says that his wife is dead. Not content with this information, the writer is determined to find things out for himself — with rather astonishing results.
“Lorelei” refers to a German legend of a beautiful maiden who lured sailors to their doom with her singing while she was at the top of a large rock in the Rhine River.
In this story, the main character, Roger (or in this case, a fictional Bamber), tries to get into the apartment and the husband, Mr. Steinmetz, refuses. He even refutes the claim that there is singing going on and that he heard nothing. He knows that’s wrong. Later, he makes another trip, and knocks on the door; he can hear breathing on the other side. They don’t let him in. He thinks of a scheme to borrow the building’s master key from the landlady; he makes a wax impression of it while she is not looking. He convinces a locksmith to make a key, against his better judgment. The story takes its mysterious turn at 14:00. Roger knocks on the apartment door again, and there is no answer, so he quietly enters the apartment. He sees a picture on a table, and it is not of people, almost reptilian. There is a coffin, empty. He goes through the apartment, and sees her, a wax-figure-like lifeless body. He calls the police, and Roger’s story is too crazy for them to believe. All Steinmetz wants, he tells the police, is to be left alone. That night, he hears the singing again, and Steinmetz arguing with a woman. Roger barges into the apartment and is shocked by what he sees: a massive lizard and a green snake, but they suddenly change into the shape of the husband and wife as soon as they realize they are being seen. The story concludes with the kind of Twilight Zone-like ending that Bamber enjoyed using.
It’s an odd story, and if you’re hearing it “cold” without context, it can be somewhat disappointing. If you are aware of the backstory, and that the ending will have a sci-fi flavor, you are likely to find it enjoyable. That backstory offers an insight into a writer’s life, how small things can yield ideas, and the things they do to break writer’s block.
The program was recorded on Thursday, November 3, 1960. Rehearsal began at 4:30pm and ended at 8:00pm. Recording started at 8:00pm and concluded at 8:30pm.
The surviving recording is a network aircheck, likely from WROW. At about 23:05 or so, the recording jumps to the phrase “another tale well calculated” which is out of place. For some years, it was considered to be a “patch” made by an early hobbyist. Instead, it seems to be bad editing in the CBS studio, as it is missing the announcer saying “listen again next week, when we return with…” followed by the name of the upcoming episode. It might be the case that there was a change in plans as to what the upcoming episode would be, and that section was just edited out.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP601106
THE CAST
Robert Readick (Roger Adams), Herb Duncan (Officer), Ellen McRae (Lorelei), Elizabeth Lawrence (Mrs. Snyder), Bill Smith (Locksmith), John Gibson (Mr. Steinmetz)
Edgar Stehli was originally cast as the Locksmith.
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