Jackson Beck narrates a Bob Corcoran story about a gambler, “Dandy DeAngelis,” played by William Redfield. It’s a generally good production about a man who picks the wrong time to overcome a paralyzing childhood fear.
Dandy is a well-dressed gambler in deep trouble with Bigelow, the mob boss, for his excessive debt from horse racing. He tries to reason with them, but he’s lied about making payments for a while. They decide they’ve had enough and will “take him for a ride” to a “forest preserve.” This can only mean one thing: they will kill him and bury him there. He tries to get away, jumping out of their car, which only makes the mobsters mad. He runs through the streets and an alley behind buildings. He hides among garbage cans, his obsessive interest in clean and impeccable clothing challenged by the filthy cans and garbage in the alley. The mobsters have a sense of where he is, and taunt him that he can’t hide from them. Then there’s a rat he sees, of which he has a great and paralyzing fear since being bitten in childhood. He has to overcome it now if he wants to survive, and kills it with a milk bottle he found in the garbage, a triumph. It’s a hollow one, which only brings his location to the attention of the tough guys. Dandy may have killed the rat, but this was an unfortunate time to overcome his fear. One tough guy says to the other, seeing Dandy stand over the rat, “now it’s our turn.” He referred to Dandy as a rat because he didn’t pay off his debt to the mob.
The Chicago intersection where Dandy jumps out of the car at North Sedgwick and West Blackhawk is just south of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It is about a half mile from the Chicago History Museum.
The program was recorded on Thursday, May 3, 1962. The session began at 4:30pm and concluded at 8:00pm.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP620513
THE CAST
Jackson Beck (Narrator), William Redfield (Dandy DeAngelis), Santos Ortega (Bigelow), Larry Haines (Lloyd), Jack Grimes (Herbie), Joseph Julian (Earl)
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