Radio City Playhouse - Five Extra Nooses

The National Broadcasting Company presents Radio City Playhouse Attraction eighteen, Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the director of Radio City Playhouse, Harry W. Junkins, to tell you something of tonight's play.

Thank you, Bob One, ladies and gentlemen.

In response to your many hundreds of letters asking to hear him again, we're very happy to welcome mister John Larkin back to Radio City Playhouse. Two weeks ago he played the part of Lloyd Bruckner in The Door and gave a performance which drew rave notices from all over

Nice jail you got here, Warden?

Yeah?

All these cells empty? Yeah, maybe you got an answer to the housing shortage. Look.

I don't like reporters, and I don't think that was funny.

I'm not a reporter. I write for magazine and I don't particularly care what you think.

This kid's done a murder and he's gonna hang in the morning, and you come nosing around like a dog.

Stick to your job, Warden. You know I got permission from way up top where I wouldn't be here tonight.

All the kids in this cell here, Hi, Jake, it's the writing guy I.

Was telling you about.

What's the type?

Nah, you don't have to talk to this guy if you don't want to see That's what the boss told me.

He said, you don't have to hold it, Bob, hold it. Look, kid, here's the setup. I went to a lot of trouble to get the okay to see you. I want to get in that cell and talk to you a few minutes. I'm gonna write a story. For a magazine.

Was he here before?

No, No, I'm not a newspaper reporter. I just want to talk to you for a few minutes.

Now, you don't have to you don't have to even talk to him if I.

Wait a minute. Look, kid, I got permission from the top guy to come and see you tonight. I'll just come in there and you can well, you can watch me write my story. Did you ever see anybody write a story? Won't do any harm, might do some good for somebody.

I don't know. I guess it'll be all right.

I mean, you don't have the kid open the door and let me. And you heard the kids say it's okay.

Hmm.

Don't go in for space. Not enough room in here to swing a cat. I'll sit on the edge of this cot and get going.

What's that?

What's what?

What you got in a black bag? You're a doctor? Who are you? Anyway?

Take it easy now, that's not a black bag. That's my typewriter in a black case. Hey see, it opens up, that's up on its own legs like this. I've set that baby up on the deck of a battleship and then a tent in Holland and Berlin and Tokyo.

I never seen no typewriter like that. Was you at the war?

Yeah? Yeah, war correspondent fought the Battle of the Space Bar. What were you doing while the war was on? Oh?

Moving around? They said. I wasn't old enough to get in the air force. Hey, you heard anything about but me?

What do you mean?

You know what I mean? Yesterday they told me.

He said, No, Oh, you mean about your sentence. I heard that No, was final tomorrow morning. What's the time now it's about ten thirty. Now, let's get going.

What's the time? I asked you.

Twenty five minutes to eleven, and that's right by radio. Now. Look, I'm here to write a story. I can watch if you like. Tonight, I am sitting on the edge of a prison cot in the cell of a condemned murderer. Between him and the rope which will break his neck and choke the breath from his throat are nine hours of tortured darkness. Soon, the collective hand of society will reach out and pull the lever that will spring the trap and send his feet kicking in mid air in

This is a special court, a most unusual court, sitting tonight in judgment on the ordinary people, you and you, and you.

Who lead what might be called a blame his life.

But now you see a new American law is being past, which reads, in part quote, whereas the state decrees that no one lacking twenty one full years age can now alone be held responsible for any murder. It is ordered that a minimum of six shall then be hanged if one such youth is condemned to die.

Now that's the law.

And suddenly we find that such a youth, coming under the requirements of the Act, is to be hanged tomorrow morning. And so this court's been called to quickly find the necessary five the five additional newses which you wait along with the one society's decreed for the young murderer acting for the state in this emergency, A young man or writing fellow, I believe, will now address the.

Court ur honor. There is little time. The crack of dawns are deadline, and there seems to be a wealth of candidates for those five extra mooses. Your officers are rounding up some prospects. Now I must request a brief recess while I investigate a few and gather evidence to find the next Which do most rightfully? You belong in those five.

Extra belong in those five extra nuss?

What time is it's about?

It's exactly twenty one minutes to eleven.

What's all that stuff you're putting down there?

That's what we call a lead on my story. It's about an imaginary court that doesn't really exist in that Look, kid, you don't need to be afraid of me. I can't do any harm or any good.

I'm not scared of you or anybody. What time is it? Look? Here, you why don't you go away?

Here?

You?

Look kid? Take it easy. Now tell me about where you went to school, things like that?

What four?

Oh, never mind?

What for?

How do you get along with the.

Teacher is okay, except for old lady pastness.

She put me out of class one day, hoson through and nothing, she just jumps me.

Then, the first person we shall call in this imaginary court of mind, this very special court, is the teacher of this boy who is to hang tomorrow a the You're the teacher of the boy who is to hang tomorrow?

What if I was?

Is any reason to haul a president in the public court?

We don't know yet.

We'll see if your indignant neck will fit into one of our five news.

Will our write prosecutor state the facts. You didn't like this boy. You put him out of class one day. That day I think was chapter one in this particular story.

Did six? He was a bad one?

Bad?

I well remember him here bother little girls. If you know what I mean.

Fare is the details, and get on. You tossed him up? What then?

I don't have time at trifle with his type? Do you know what happens when one apple in the basket is not good?

It isn't headline news? Now then, as inspector of this human fruit, how did you dispose of this bad apple? Which I think was only slightly bruised? About that time?

I sent him to the principle and got on with the lessons. I remember I wrote a note. It said I will not have this youth fat in my class.

He is a potential murderer. Did you write that? I know he could not, but he was just a boy the honor. We waste time, I think with her, this teacher is no better and no worse than others. And it's true she has no time to spend on battered fruit. Let's have the principle. I am the principal, and I consider it an imposition to be summoned intercourse. I have more important.

Let's share what the prosecution thinks. We've got to find sun necks for these five newses.

How then did you dispose of this unworthy apple cast out from the perfect company? You mean, this fellow that they're going to hang? Now, let's have no nonsense. I simply strapped him sound adding yet another brules or driving deeper the same blemish. And what then?

I sent him home?

I gave him a sharp note to show his parents. Look, do you know I have six hundred pupils in my school, and there's no time for nonsense with just one. He tore that note to pieces and wandered to a racetrack, where an older fellow told him how to beat this little rap. I did my duty to my pupil and helped the boy to graduate to murder. Your honor, I would say, we have but sympathy for this, and all for work. And under bestowed official who sees his simple beauty,

Additional news is now decreed by our new law. You, sir, the principle, may take your place in the first of these, and may God give you full marks and pass you on.

So we hang the principle. How many were there in your family?

Me, Tom and Harry, and Isabelle and Sarah.

Were you afraid of your father?

Nah?

I wasn't afraid of him or anybody else. He used to come home stinking on Saturday nights. We'd all run out and hide in the dump behind our house.

Did he ever catch you?

Yeah? Mostly he'd go back in the house and pass out.

Has your father been to see you here?

Hah hah. I ain't seen him since the cops ran him out of town.

And so to this imaginary court about which I write, we will summon this youth's parents, his mother and his father. Let them be heard in this strange and special court. First, we'll call upon the mother. Quiet, you are the mother of this youth.

Yes, there you're.

An He was one of mine. I've always done my best, but Jake was too much for me. I looked him all right, proper, but Jake had never bore. He'd stand and kind of shiver as I whack him with a strap.

He never was no good.

But once he stood up to his paw and he was kicking little Sarah I I I kind of liked the way he he heed that rock and hit his paw.

Rana were wasting time with his poor travesy of motherhood. That's the moment when this woman's hands were needed to caress with tenderness and loving care. They were filled with scouring wolves and busy with the corridors in someone else's house and when her understanding might have torn away dark fears, permitting her poor brood to see the light, her mind was occupied with pennies dropping in the jar to pay the rent and buy the jug, the liquid equalizer that

Then, I ain't been in trouble now for years. He ain't got not on me. See I want.

About I'd jake in the papers. I was three hundred miles away from here. I can prove it all. If your small confession for a court which has more time, there are four nooses left to fill. One morning comes so very soon, four nooses.

He what is this?

I ain't never done, no waste in some receiving. You can string up a guy for that.

Now.

Look, I know my rights.

I'm white told the angels not killing you.

You can't mix mean any mode, red.

By some quaint caprice of nature. You are in it. It seems to me that we can save some time here by nominating for a noose. This bright eyed dodging rodent, to whom fatherhood was but an odious consequence of turning in his bed one wretched knight.

He hangs, remove him to the place mark number two, and may God finds something where.

Your soul should be.

What are you putting down all that stuff for? About extra noosis?

He wrote something about my father. He ain't even here, skipper.

It's just a magazine article about a court that doesn't even exist. So you went to industrial school and you worked as an exercise boy at the track. Did you ever get into court, that is before before? Now?

Nah? They didn't catch me, but once that was just a juvenile court. All I had to do was report.

Say where did you learn how to use a gun?

What do you mean? Say? What are you trying to do? Anyway? I don't have to even talk to you, like the warden said.

Hey, okay, I just wondered if he used to practice on a rock or a bottle or something.

Nah.

I never even fired a gun before in my life. I never even seen a real gun before.

When you fired that first shot, did it seem to make a lot more noise than you'd seen in the movies.

Yeah? Yeah it did, and it sort of jumped in my hand.

I'd never seen that neither. And there was a funny burning smell. Hey, what you're getting at huh. I don't have to tell you. I don't even have to cut.

Up, sit down, or even smelled powder. And so we'll call upon a social worker in my imaginary court. You, sir, are a social worker. Let us hear from you.

I do my work, and that's all I know. These theorists who build up pedestals for petty crooks. They talk and talk of recreation centers and flower boarded playgrounds where there is no sin, and boys will all be boys or captains of the local nine. I think if they would step outside and see their precious little heroes happily engage in gouging eyes or picking locks, then they might.

Do some good.

And further all on, my little man, and we'll explain you are a candidate for our next news, and we will see.

How well you fit it. Let's have the evidence. The facts are playing your honor, that this embittered civil servant is employed in juvenile affairs, and thus he specializes in the task of bending the twig so that the three shall grow up fine and straight. I feel that he's not to blame. It's just that he has not the time, the wit, nor the weight for such a monumental task. Take him away. Let's have words with his superior, his legislator.

You call on me.

I represent the people and can say without the fear of contradiction, that I do my duty by those pine upstanding souls who vote for me. O, what is this a farse.

And mockery in the name of justice?

A court without a prisoner, a trial which brings out honest people from their beds.

A politician, We've no time for speeches. Our job is finning news, is not extracting votes. You figure in this piece by having hired such little men as these, who juggled juvenile delinquents and fill out the.

Necessary forms, give us the facts. They are all directed at this man, who was elected by the people who speak up for the rights of all the families in the very district from which our youth in waiting sprung. I nominate him for a noose, your honor, for he did nothing when the need for action screamed out loud

This arrant nonsense? Didn't I applaud the move to build more parks and carry out my promises? Why I even voted for a grant to beautify the waterfront? And if our appointed courts cantled their start, a buck.

Is swiftly, deftly passed along without more time. I'll state sufficient reason why this man should rate a noose. He sees the value of transplanting shrubs and trees to where they'll get more chance. What shuts his eyes and leaves a human being to twist and struggle, and perhaps to rock among the garbage in which fell the sea.

We have no time to belabor our decisions in this court. You take place three and wait until we have the other two. You, the politician, are elected next the man.

Who hatched the murder plot, the one who gave the lesson on the guns. Ah, look, your honor, I'm a movie producer, but radio magazines are all the same guns murder plots. What else? I'm sick to death of amateurs who make a couple of bucks a day and yet can tell me how to run my business. How I make pictures forced our pictures that you see by making up your mind that you will pay to go into the show. I don't drag you in this time. You've

And did you see the picture to my friends?

And did you see the criminal at last waiting, waiting with fear for his reward in jail? And so again crime did not pay what pictures pay. And Bogart lived again, and Robinson and Ladd again next week will swagger with their rods and set a million youthful trigger fingers twitching. Sure you showed the criminal and irons, but in full grease painting, with lights picking the romantic sweat beads on his brow. I'll show you a murderer in a cell

Costs a foe.

Stay here and I'll support the lead In this particular piece. You got a young man started up to where the gun went off. Then He was on his own, no lines, no lights, no pattern. Now you direct him to the end.

Number four now has an eck, And so we move along and hope the critics will approve your closing sequence.

There is but one noose left to fill. Who is this candidate, your honor. He's an average citizen and far removed from any part of crime or sin. Heh you're done right, and I'll have you know. I'd pay my taxes and plenty those. We put an office own enough, why throw out and put some others in. We found him in his slippers by the fire, listening to the radio, and his hand was on the knob so that he could turn it down and air his views in no uncertain term.

You're done right. I'm not a politician. If I were, you'd see some action. You can bet it's crime wave. Now, don't spare the rod.

It's good old fashioned discipline.

We need the lash and things like that.

You're somewhat in coherent, like the headlines, but you study firstily to gain your meager knowledge of your time. Do you know I assisted in the murder for which a youth will hang tomorrow morning. All I know is that we need protection, that the honest may sleep safe within their home. Perhaps there's been too much of this sound sleeping. Perhaps you'd better stay awake and take a look, because, my friend, you figure in this murder. If I may

Oh, enough of this. I have no time for trifling. You know my stand on crime. I'm against it. Still no time, mister, citizens. These men you hire are burden down with matters of great importance. Who is then to turn a hand to helping this fellow He was tossing in that giant stream which flows by your front door.

Now look at it here.

I know you're angled, but I wonder if you've heard about the outfits which go round doing things to help the poor.

We've all seen in the plot of that brave, slim trickle of human kindness which drips so gallantly into an arid, deserted in humanity.

Wait a minute, where's the kid's father. He's the one I always say that crime begins at home. Now you take my two boys.

We know them well. They shine and glow and grow up, all surrounded by the fences which you built to keep them safe from nasty things like crime. Here is the father.

I ain't been in trouble now for years. Jake shot this guy. I was even here in my wrath.

So there, you, citizen. That's how you got another son. Not one so bright or well behaved as those two you have mentioned, but one abandoned, one kicked out, bruised and battered, one not quite so well endowed in the beginning. He is a son of yours, not by an act of father but or love, but by a greater principal example some two thousand years ago. He is your son, your honor. The time is getting on. I say that this citizen should sit the final news that's file. I do agree.

Since he does cries so long and lustily for the rewards which do arise from membership and our fair state, then he must help to.

Put the bill.

With this citizen the fifth and final, hey you and your time's up, come on out, okay, Warden.

Well let's all kid tell and pick this typewriter. And then and how you fix the smokes?

I do smoke? Are you gonna do anything about but me?

No, nothing I can do.

How about how about all that stuff you put down? Was that just just a story?

Yeah, just a story. That's why.

Hey you, yes, you have just heard.

Radio City Playhouse attracts in eighteen five Extra Noises, written by Charles Lee Hutsings and directed by Harry W. Duncan. John Lockin starred as the writer. Others in the cast were Paul Nugent, Jack Lloyd, Adelaide Klein, mart Lawrence, Eugene Francis and Joe Halgerson. The music was composed and conducted by doctor Roy Shield. Radio City Playhouse is supervised for the National Broadcasting Company by Richard P.

McDonough.

This is Harry Juncan again. Next week The Heritage of Wimpole Street.

The story of what happened when the son of Elizabeth Barrett Browning returned to England after his mother's death in Italy. It's a warm and beguiling story and we're sure you'll enjoy it be with us next week for the Heritage of Wimpole Street Attraction nineteen on Radio City

Playhouse, Robert Warren speaking, This is NBC, the national broadcasting company