Mason Adams stars in an Irwin Lewis story about an old Spanish galleon stranded in the desert, loaded down with a treasure of gold. Adams plays “Harry Turner,” who, with his wife Viola are on the run after Harry embezzled $50,000 from his employer. That is about $535,000 in US$2025. They’re headed to Mexico where they can enjoy the money and avoid the authorities. They turn off the main road to a desert road and find a small cabin in the mountains. An old prospector named Pete lives there. Harry is first attracted to the idea of stealing his Jeep and using that to get across the border. As Harry and Viola talk to him, he offers generous hospitality to let them stay. Pete explains why he is there and describes a lost Spanish galleon that holds gold coins and other treasures that is in the distance. He tells Harry where to go with binoculars and under what conditions he can see it. Harry is convinced he can see it, goes there, and finds it. He digs into the sand and enters the ship, and does find furniture, maps, and treasure. He loses track of the dangers of such a venture, and is trapped inside.
This is one of those typical stories where greed overcomes the most basic common sense. There’s another aspect of the story. The old codger treasure hunter, Pete, mentions to the fugitive couple says how much he likes living alone. Did Pete “plant” the coins so Viola would find them, and lure him into a trap? Did he tell them about the ship because he knew Harry would fail to return? Pete would be guaranteed of being the only person who knows the location. If this happens today, someone like Harry would be able to communicate the exact GPS location, fly drones with cameras over it to survey the scene, and eventually harvest the ship and the treasure. That is, if there really was one.
Mason Adams used the name “Matt Cooper” in this episode. It is not clear why. Both names are noted on the script cover. Adams has extensive monologue in the production, especially as he explores the ship. He delivers that extremely well.
Blogger Christine Miller notes that there is a good Wikipedia page about “The Lost Ship of the Desert” legend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Ship_of_the_Desert The page notes the legends, how they came to be, and how they have been portrayed in media.
The program was recorded on Wednesday, August 22, 1962. The start and ending time of the session is not known.
The surviving recording is quite good, an improvement compared to most circulating copies. It is a network aircheck of WROW. Unfortunately, the end of that recording is clipped, but the good-sounding drama is fully intact. The final approximate 45 seconds, comprised only of cast announcements and the tease for the upcoming show, have been restored from a similar-sounding recording. Therefore, the recording is marked as “composite,” because two recordings were used to make one final recording The overall sound of the one final recording provides very good listening experience.
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mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620826
THE CAST
Mason Adams [Matt Cooper] (Harry Turner), Jean Gillespie (Viola Turner), Bill Adams (Pete Townley)
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