Larry Haines stars as a cocktail lounge pianist, Ronnie Warren, who gets involved in a fur robbery to help the wife who deserted him five years ago. It’s a George Bamber script, dripping with a cynical observations about relationships and loyalty; it’s clear that Ronnie’s jaded skepticism about it all was from experience. The robbery is being planned by his estranged wife’s boyfriend, a mobster. How did Ronnie fall for this and think it could turn out okay? Was it the cut of the $500,000 in furs he would get ($5.3 million in US$2025)? Or was it that he could win her back again? No, they play Ronnie for a patsy. The wife will be the beneficiary of the mobster’s life insurance, and Ronnie’s burned body will be found with enough planted evidence to make police believe it was the mobster’s corpse. In the meantime, mobster would head to Mexico, and when the “ex” collects the insurance, she’ll join him. It will be a big payday from fencing the furs and the insurance payout, and they can live happily ever after. Ronnie has other ideas. In the end, it’s Ronnie who survives the devious betrayal.
Special music was composed and performed by Norman Paris. He was a highly regarded pianist and was musical director for many late 1950s television shows, including game shows. While he usually worked for show producers and not networks, he worked on many CBS shows. Producer Bruno Zirato, Jr. was surrounded by music. His father was a musician and worked at the New York Philharmonic supporting numerous conductors and performers. He likely called Paris into this broadcast because they worked together on some of CBS game shows and other television projects starting in the late 1950s.
There is no script cover for this program at this time. Therefore, the date and time of recording is not known.
Ronnie uses a “karate chop” to get out of his difficulties. Bamber would have been familiar with karate skills as hand to hand grappling was part of military training starting with Marines in the mid-1950s. Stationed in Korea, Bamber may have known soldiers who were taking instruction in martial arts there in their free time off base (the main Korean martial arts styles are Tong Soo Do and Tae Kwan Do). Interest in karate grew rapidly in the US through the 1960s as military personnel returned from service in Korea, Japan, and especially Okinawa and open schools in their home towns. It seems odd to have it in the story, but it was both novel and modern for it to be there. Listeners would have been drawn to the mystery around martial arts at that time.
Bamber’s script may have been influenced by the television series Johnny Staccato with John Cassavetes. It ran on NBC in the 1959-1960 season. Cassavetes played a jazz pianist who helped people get out of various difficulties, often trapped in the periphery of criminal activities and threatened by tough guys.
There is a double meaning in the story of “old flame.” It refers to the emotion of a love interest that is no longer felt, and also the person, who dies in an actual fire. In that sense, the title is a spoiler.
Two recordings have survived, and they are both flawed. The better recording is the network aircheck that is likely from WROW of Albany, New York. Another aircheck was recently discovered from WINF of Hartford, Connecticut. That station started broadcasting in 1958, and closed in the mid-1980s. Both recordings have limited range and background noise. It is hoped that a clean Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) transcription can be found in the future.
The story is better known among classic radio enthusiasts for its 1965-05-20 broadcast on ABC Radio’s Theatre 5. It which starred Sammy Davis, Jr.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP611029
THE CAST
Larry Haines (Ronnie Warren), Teri Keane (Anna), Evie Juster (The Girl), Robert Donley (Leo), Ralph Bell (Frank)
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