Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers present Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light brings you Mr. Dennis O'Keefe in Very Much Like a Nightmare, a suspense
play produced and edited by William Spear.
Harlow.
Yeah?
What spectacular event heralds the approach of summer?
By getting an Auto Light Stay Full Battery, the battery that has three times as much liquid
reserve above the plates as batteries without stay full features.
The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
Come on now, Wilcox.
I mean for fun, for pleasure, for excitement.
Well, so do I, Hap.
What could be more fun than driving a car that has an Auto Light Stay Full Battery to
give you extra starting dependability?
What can give you greater pleasure than the knowledge that your Auto Light Stay Full Battery
needs water only three times a year in normal car use?
And what excitement when you find out that SAE Life Cycle Standard Tests show that Auto
Light Stay Full Batteries give 70% longer average life than batteries without stay full
features.
The circus is what I had in mind, Harlow.
You should have seen the menagerie.
Every kind of animal.
Camels?
Naturally, wouldn't be a circus without camels.
Well, no camel can teetotal water like the Auto Light Stay Full Battery that needs water
only three times a year in normal car use.
Just remember, friends, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now with very much like a nightmare and the performance of Dennis O'Keefe, Auto Light
hopes once again to keep you in suspense.
It started out like nothing more than a small freakish accident.
The kind of thing you could tell a little sheepishly as a joke on yourself.
By the time it was over, it was very much like a nightmare.
A dream you wake up from drenched in cold sweat, shaking all over with the clock pointing
at 3 a.m. and the covers on the floor.
It was only my second day back on the job after a short bout with the flu germ and I'd
been up practically all night working on a job my boss old hard rock Gilman had been
kind enough to save, especially for me.
As I walked into the lobby of the Nugent building, my biggest worry was simply whether the little
pills my pharmacist mate, Hermione, had given me would keep me alive and jumping through
a rather long day.
Eddie, the hawk faced kid who ran the elevator, was just about to take it up as I came in.
Hold it, Eddie.
Oh, hi, Mr. McClane.
Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. DuPré.
Didn't see you.
Good morning.
Good morning, Mr. DuPré.
How are you?
Anybody for three?
Down to the guys seeing you around lately, Mr. DuPré.
No, I'm playing hooky.
Lucky you.
Bye, Eddie.
Have I ever let you off in the other place?
Mr. DuPré, though not precisely my type, was one of the rare plus qualities to be discovered
in the Nugent building.
She was one of the few girls I've seen around office buildings who actually looked as though
they belonged in somebody's penthouse apartment.
She usually tagged along with Farris, a cocky-looking character who also worked at Circassian Brothers
importers up on five.
Five?
Watch your step.
Thank you, Eddie.
Mr. DuPré.
Yes?
Is everything all right?
What?
Oh, yes, I think so, Eddie.
But maybe you'd better check with Mr. Farris.
He may want to send out for a sandwich around 11.
Okay.
Seven, Mr. McClain.
Watch your step.
Thank you, Eddie.
The morning went slowly, even with Hermes' pills to help, but at noon I resumed a pleasant
custom which had been temporarily interrupted by my illness.
Out of having lunch with Miss Catherine Warren, a delightful young lady on whose future I
had very definite, if not especially dark, designs.
Now for the gruesome lecture.
What time did you go to bed last night, boss?
Who, me?
Last night?
Well...
All right, then.
It was this morning.
It was this morning, wasn't it?
Such a charming girl to be so snoopy.
Would you like to hear about a very interesting conversation I had going down on the bus this
morning with a young man named Herman?
Hermes?
How a guy like that can run a prescription shop beats me.
What would the doctors do if they knew he went around blabbing professional secrets?
It's you, not Hermes, I'm concerned about.
And I'd like to know what makes you think it's smart to start taking dope.
Dope?
Oh, that Hermes and his melodrama.
All he gave me was something to...
Something to keep you from getting the sleep you ought to be getting.
At this rate, you'll be back in bed again before you know it.
Ah, they're just little white pills.
Perfectly harmless if you don't try to swallow the whole box.
Why, Hermes says, here.
Well, let's take a look for yourself.
That's a...
That's a wrong box.
What do you mean, wrong box?
All right.
So, I'm a fugitive from a drug counter.
These are the...
One of the other ones.
The other ones?
Well, the fact is, darling, at first I was as leery about these stay-awake things as you
are.
I started worrying.
Suppose the stuff was slow-wiring off or suppose I developed insomnia or something like that.
Now, Hermes said he doubted that that would happen, but just to make sure, he fixed me
up with these sleeping pills.
More dope.
Oh, look, honey.
It's not Yeoman I'm doing this for.
You know that.
It's us.
I wouldn't have tried to come to work if I...
I know, I know, but I'm sorry.
Forget it.
Shall I call you tonight before I tuck myself in?
If you don't, I'll come over and toss tear gas through your window.
I made my way back toward the Nuget building, wedged as very appropriately near narrow dead-end
street.
About halfway down the block, I heard footsteps behind me and then a voice familiar enough.
McClane.
It was Ferris, Marie Dupree's boyfriend.
Hi, McClane.
Haven't seen you around lately.
Been out of town?
Oh, just had to stay in for a few days.
How's it with Sir Christian Brothers?
Never better, never better.
And with you?
No complaints.
Say, something was said in the elevator this morning, you know, Eddie, about him picking
up a sandwich for you around 11.
I was wondering if that's just an arrangement with the people...
Sandwiches?
I don't get it, Mr. McClane.
Eddie's never picked up any sandwiches for me.
Somebody's kidding.
Well, here we are.
Coming up.
Oh, hi, Mr. Ferris.
Mr. McClane.
Howdy.
Eddie, what's this about some sandwich service you've got?
Been holding out on me?
Well, I...
Well, Eddie, I just thought I overheard you and Mr. Dupree say something about handing
out for a sandwich, so I...
Oh, no, no, that was...
No, you got us wrong.
I never said that.
I told Mr. McClane, Eddie, that it was probably some kind of kidding you and Mr. Dupree were
carrying on.
That goes to show you should never kid on the job.
Yes, sir.
That's a good motto for Eddie, huh, Mr. McClane?
Never kid on the job.
The three of us stood silently in the rising elevator.
It seemed to me that Ferris had pushed the sandwich topic a little farther than necessary.
Eddie was pretty upset.
Why would he?
Oh, well, hell, it wasn't any of my affair.
I went back into my cubbyhole and waited till 3 o'clock, the hour for which Gilman had called
the conference with Fisher, Barton, and Fisher, our big accounts.
And it was in this conference that the sleep I hadn't got started creeping up on me.
Out of a fleecy fog, I suddenly heard Gilman barking at me.
McClane!
Yes, huh?
Heavensake, what's the matter with you?
You didn't get out of bed too soon, did you?
Oh, no, no, I'm all right, Mr. Gilman.
Oh, good.
I'd appreciate your getting Mr. Fisher's brief finished up for me.
I hate to ask you this, but I wonder if you'd mind getting it done before you go.
I managed an apology and stood up.
My eyes burned and my neck muscles seemed to be dragging my head down as I went back to my office.
It had been 10, maybe 12 hours since I had taken the last couple of stay-awake pills.
If I could borrow enough energy for the next 45 minutes, I told myself I could clean up this last job
and the whole blessed night would be mine for sleeping.
This time I'd cut the dose in half, only take a single pill, so...
I shook one of the pills out of the little box and followed it with a glass of water.
Then I sat down at my desk and unclipped the sheets that Gilman had given me.
I don't know when it was that I noticed that the words had started running together.
I looked at the papers and it was like peering through water.
The bell was bonging somewhere far off in the distance and I seemed to be lying across a bed.
Slowly I forced open my eyes and blinked while reality swam into focus.
For a moment I really didn't know where I was and it was just silence
and the lost feeling of being in the wrong place.
Then suddenly I realized the bed I had seemed to be lying across was my office desk.
I couldn't quite get it clear. What was I doing here?
The outer office was nothing but darkness.
Stiff and cramped, I stood up, I looked at my watches.
2.15. 2.15? That's impossible.
Only a few minutes ago I looked at my watch and it was...
Oh, no. It couldn't have been a few minutes ago when Gilman was here then
and Miss Tyler and the others at... What can't be two in the morning?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, bright boy McClane. Hermes' pills.
For the second time I'd made a stupid mistake about the pills.
When I went into the washroom I'd taken the wrong pills with me.
The sleeping pills. The others were still in my top coat.
I laughed again but this time I knew I was wrong.
I laughed again but this time I didn't like the sound so much.
Somehow it seemed too hollow and then suddenly standing there in the middle of the floor
seven stories up in an empty office building, the darkness moved in on me.
I got that funny feeling as if the darkness wasn't all,
as if I had something worse to contend with like in blind man's buff when you're a kid
and you shrink back and hold your breath while the hand fumbles past you in the darkness.
Weird as it seemed all of a sudden it was like being on the island again
with the Japanese somewhere near you and not daring to let a match
and holding your breath for the darkness so thick it choked you.
Holding your breath because that over-loud breath might be your last.
Auto Light is bringing you Dennis O'Keefe in very much like a nightmare.
Tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Hello, one of the circus men told me that elephants drink ten gallons of water a day.
Ten gallons a day, wow.
And an auto light stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
It's a super battery that has three times as much liquid reserve as batteries without stay full features.
Yes, but the elephant is a mighty powerful critter, Wilcock.
Well, talk about power. Man, the auto light stay full battery is amazing.
You see, there's a fiberglass retaining mat at every positive plate to hold the power producing material in place.
That gives you advantages like extra long life, extra starting dependability.
You know, Wilcock, the elephant lives a phenomenally long life.
Yes, but half think of the life span of the auto light stay full battery.
Why, according to SAE life cycle standard tests, it gives 70% longer average life than batteries without stay full features.
And the auto light stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
So friends, see your friendly auto light battery dealer.
Remember, you're always right with auto light.
And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage our star, Dennis O'Keefe in very much like a nightmare.
A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I felt my way out into the darkness beyond the door.
The hall stretched out like a cave to the stairs and the faint red glory the exit lights.
The angle of the stairs at the landing there was a window and I pressed my face against the cool of the glass.
I had to wake up.
And suddenly a light fanned out over the loading platform down below.
Somebody must have opened the door down there.
I saw a truck and three or four men dwarfed by the distance.
Light from the door was gone, but I still see the stabbing beams from a couple of flashlights.
It was working out this hour. Why?
And then I heard the whistling.
Eddie, Eddie, the elevator boy.
What are you doing here at this weird hour?
Two o'clock in the morning in an empty building with no passengers.
Lead footed, I moved down one flight and waited there on the sixth floor.
Straining every cell to hear the whistling again, but I didn't.
Instead I heard something from the fifth floor and I felt my way down toward it.
Sure, I'm laughing, Shelby, because I know Marie and I know that when she talks like this she's not even half what she's saying.
And then we've been drinking, drinking.
I haven't been drinking that much.
We feed him everything he asks for, lined up so that all he's got to do is walk in.
And even before the stuff is out of the plane he's ready to cheat us out of what he promised.
Marie.
So we get for letting ourselves get mixed up in a bunch of...
Now wait a minute.
Shut up.
Now I tell you something, Miss Dupree.
You don't know your friends, do you?
You start calling names and you're going to get hurt worse, much worse.
You...
You're hurting me.
Yeah, yeah, I hit you and that ain't all.
You figure you don't get enough for what you do.
You figure you're being cheated out of your cock, but I tell you something now.
You open your mouth the wrong way, I handle it myself.
No way, Joe.
You think we're so scared of you, we'll stand for anything, don't you?
Well, if I get nothing, you get nothing too.
Open my mouth, I'll open my mouth, all right?
We never should have... Get out of my way.
Where are you, Marie?
Marie, let me go. Let me go. Let me go. Let me go.
I told you to keep your mouth shut.
What was this nightmare I'd stumbled into?
If I hadn't been groggy and I looked down on the platform from seven,
I would have been tipped off by the flashlights.
Sir Kissian would never have had his workmen stumbling around in that sketchy light
with stuff costing a small fortune.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
The sketchy light with stuff costing a small fortune.
The elevator.
Eddie was in on a two, handling something a little hotter now than sandwiches.
But after the doors opened, I noticed that the whistling stopped
like being cut in two by a knife.
The longer I stood there, the more unhealthy my position became,
and then I wondered about Albert, the night watchman.
Where was he? He had a gun, but suddenly I...
I wanted to get out of there more than anything in the world. Just get out.
My dash for the stairs to the fourth floor was like a slow motion dream.
Hermione's sleeping pills.
I plumped to the floor just out of range of the nearing light
as the elevator dropped toward me.
Suddenly there it was.
A nakedly lighted little room suspended in space.
I was staring through its fourth wall at Eddie.
His face looked sick and green as he hugged the corner there at the controls.
If nothing could make him look behind at the rear of the car
where a big man I hadn't seen before held something in his arms.
Something like an oversized doll whose legs dangled limply.
The panic was fighting my fogginess as I stood there trying to think.
Then I remembered the telephone.
There was a perfectly good phone in my office.
But that was five flights up, five long flights.
I think there had been a phone on one of the other floors, a base station.
I fought my way upward again and found it. I found it on the third.
I remembered not to close the door of the booth completely
because if I did that the little light would flash on
and light was the last thing I wanted.
I broke the phone off the hook, took a deep breath and...
Coins sounded louder than a fire bell on a dead of night.
Plumsly I dialed the operator.
Number please. Number please.
The dope. The words wouldn't come out.
Number please.
Police. I want the police.
My palms were sweaty.
I was listening with half an ear down the hall.
I thought I heard a slight scuffling sound but I couldn't be sure.
Why was it taking so long?
Police department.
Hello. I'm calling from the Nugent building on 3rd Street North.
There's a robbery going on here. A robbery.
A girl's been killed.
What's that address? Who's calling?
My name's McClane. Bartley McClane.
I work in this building. The address is...
All right, mister. Hang up that phone.
A sudden glare of the flashlight struck across my face like a fist.
I shriveled and nothing inside it.
And I saw the man behind the gun.
It wasn't Joe. It wasn't any other man I'd expected.
It was the guy I'd almost written off as gagged and tired to death.
Albert! Albert, the night watchman.
Hang it up.
Albert, I was looking for you a while ago.
It's all right. I'm McClane. Bart McClane, remember?
Duman and Company up on the 7th floor.
Hang up that phone, Mr. McClane.
Hello, would you repeat?
Look, you don't understand. You don't know what's going on.
I know what's going on, honor.
Will you take that gun out of my face?
I tell you, there's a gang of crooks in this building.
You never should have been here tonight, Mr. McClane.
What?
Come on. We're going to see him.
Him?
Joe. Come on.
Walk.
That was a trick we'd practiced a hundred times for combat use,
but I never tried it before when it really counted.
So I came to the head of the stairs, I whirled and chopped down hard with my right hand.
I heard the gun go clattering, but my timing was way off.
My lever and life never got into the play.
Albert had me by the throat and two of his pitch down the steps towards the landing.
Locked together with a couple of residents, but it was Albert who took the brunt of the fall.
His heart was still beating. He was just knocked out for how long?
I suppose it was someone that had heard us.
They must have heard us. The gun fall, too.
The gun up at the top of the stairs.
I had to get it. I had to get that gun.
I had the gun in my hand. I didn't feel so naked now.
I headed upstairs for Gilman and company's quarters fast.
The door was still ajar the way I'd left it. I slipped in and closed it behind me.
I knew that maybe I had only a matter of a few minutes to get out of final S.O.S.
Albert would come to it and start talking.
I stumbled over to my desk and put the gun down and started to reach for the phone.
All right, fellas, just stay where you are.
When I tell you, Ferris, I knew our boy would be coming back to see us.
Let's go in and visit Petey.
Okay, guys, move out where we can see you.
Petey, Ferris, at least three of them, and everything was in their favor.
My hands moved even before I thought the desk door was open.
I slid the gun into it and moved in front of the door.
Okay, Mac, or whatever your name is.
Petey, look him over.
Yeah, sure, Joe.
Ain't you hanging around here a little late, Mac?
I went down the hall for a minute. I had some work to do.
I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, I just wanted to find out what time it was.
Hey, mister, I think you'd pick a bad night to work late.
Petey, you wait in the hall and keep your eyes open.
In five minutes, we'll be out of this dump.
You stay here with this guy, Ferris.
You're no good to us downstairs, and I'm tired of looking at you.
Petey, I tell you what.
I think maybe we better make it easy for Ferris.
Oh, no, look, Joe, I mean...
What are you talking about? What are you talking about?
I mean, suppose we take this guy's time, make a nice handcuff for him.
Then these two businessmen can sit down and talk business until we're ready to go.
In a few seconds, not only were my wrists locked together,
but I was sitting in the chair facing the door while Ferris slumped in the seat I wanted to have.
The chair at the desk, inches away from the gun in the drawer.
Ferris didn't look at me at all. Silence ticked behind ages.
I shifted a little in my seat, testing Ferris, seeing if he'd notice.
I got no reaction. It's that queer look on his face.
The elevator would be bringing bad news in a matter of heartbeats.
Hey, hey, who's that?
Huh? What?
The phone, the telephone.
Oh, the phone. Well, it's my wife, I guess.
You see, I told her I'd be working late.
She's probably calling to say that she's on her way down to pick me up.
Why is she coming down here?
Look, you don't want nobody else butting in down here.
I don't want her down here any more than you do, but...
With the phone ringing and ringing like that,
she'll just figure I've dozed off and come on down.
Yeah, but Joe might...
Hey, Ferris, don't you think you should cry a better answer?
Come over here, mister.
Talk to her. Tell her, uh...
Hello?
Tell her she don't have to pick you up.
Hello, Bart?
Hello, darling. I figured it was time you were calling.
Oh, it is you, Bart, darling. I've been worried out of my mind.
It's three o'clock in the morning. Hermy and I have tried to...
Oh, yes, dear, yes. I've just about wound up the work for the Warren people.
I figured you were just having a little trouble putting Junior to bed.
Listen, tell her not to come down.
What is it? What are you talking about? Who is Junior?
And the Warren people.
Yes, darling. Put the car back in the garage.
Hermy is here. He's gonna drive me home.
Hermy? Bart, Hermy's here with me, don't you...
Bart, is something wrong?
You'll be right, dear. Absolutely.
Oh, Bart, Bart.
All right, don't talk all night.
Goodbye, darling.
Bart!
Who is this Hermy?
He's a friend of mine.
Sometimes we both work late and he drives me home.
I had to tell her something, she'd believe.
I didn't want her calling back.
Yeah, well, we'll fix that.
So he pointed me back to my chair and took the receiver off the hook.
All the time, we might have been pictures on the wall
that Ferris took in us.
Then he went back out in the hall and when Ferris did speak,
it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of my skin.
And his face.
I suddenly remembered when and where I'd seen her look
like the one on Ferris' face.
Funny thing.
All this time I never knew you were married.
Oh, yes, yes, I married three years ago.
Marie and me, we...
That's what we had in mind all the time.
We figured we could make it work.
We were gonna get married.
But you know how it is sometimes,
you run up all you make on clothes and cars.
Bill said no rough stuff.
Marie just got excited.
He didn't have to.
All right, Ferris, here they come. Let's roll.
Ferris, Ferris, listen to me.
The desk drawer in front of you, there's a gun in there.
A gun.
A gun?
Joe's coming back.
There's not much time, Ferris. Right in front of you.
In a desk drawer. Open it.
Get the gun.
Joe, he's the boy who went out to find what time it was.
Smart boy. Can't keep his nose out of people's business.
Well, we're gonna fix all that up.
Oh, look, Joe...
Shut up.
We found the watchman, white guy.
But one little thing we didn't find.
You don't find the gun you took off of him.
Now, you're gonna tell me where that gun is.
I got something figured out for that little gun.
Okay, where is it?
Come on.
Ask me why don't you, Joe.
Is this what you're looking for?
Help!
Wait a minute!
The first shot, Ferris buckled, sweeping the lamp off the desk.
I went to the outer office.
Petey was in my path, but he was through stopping anybody.
When I got to the window there at the first landing,
I didn't waste motion this time in the lock,
especially with my hands done up the way they were.
I kicked twice.
Pain was out of the window, and then I was out.
Fire escape was rickety, but it had a railing,
and the cold, wonderful night air was smacking me in the face.
Then...
Just as I realized that the throbbing in my left arm
meant that not all the stray lead had missed me,
I heard the music that I had been waiting for.
Bless her.
Bless my Catherine.
Well, I'm not in the Nugent building anymore,
and here at Predison Miles,
I managed to exercise such talents and training as I have
without putting too great a strain on my blood pressure.
A situation which not only pleases Mrs. McClain,
a girl named Catherine,
but also meets with the unreserved approval of her husband.
Aside from an aversion to little white pills
and a tendency to sneak frequent looks at his watch
long about closing time each day,
said husband is reputed to have only the normal number of faults.
His greatest strong point remains his memory,
which is convenient equipment for anniversaries.
It will also ever be cherished for reminding him
that the look on the face of a fellow named Ferris
was a carbon copy of the expression he had last seen
the day one of the men in his outfit disobeyed orders
and wiped out half a dozen belligerent nymphenies.
Ferris got only two,
while a man who was protesting what had happened to his brother
got twice that many.
But it is possible that he died just as happy.
Personally, I...
Oh, good Lord. Look what time it is.
Where's my briefcase?
Go on down.
Hold it, Johnny. Make room for one more.
Suspense.
Presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Dennis O'Keefe.
Harlow, you just can't beat the circus for real thrills.
The suspense is terrific.
The circus sings out,
ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
Auto Light makes more than 400 products
for cars, trucks, planes and boats
in 28 plants coast to coast.
These include complete and perfectly,
work together perfectly because they're a perfect team.
So, friends, don't accept electrical parts
supposed to be as good.
Ask for and insist on Auto Light, original factory parts,
at your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage,
or repair shop.
Remember, you're always right with Auto Light.
Next Thursday for Suspense, our star will be Mr. Edward G. Robinson.
The play is called A Case of Nerves.
And it is, as we say, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
Tonight's Suspense play was produced and edited by William Spear,
directed by Norman MacDonald.
Music for Suspense is composed by Lucian Morrowek
and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
Very much like a nightmare, it's an original play written for radio
by M. Carl Holman and John Michael Hayes.
Dennis O'Keefe may soon be seen co-starred with Ann Sheridan
in the Howard Welch production, Woman on the Run.
In the coming weeks, you will hear such stars as Charles Boyer,
Broderick Crawford and Jack Cartman.
Don't forget, next Thursday, same time,
Auto Light will present Suspense starring Edward G. Robinson.
You can buy Auto Light staple batteries, Auto Light resistor
or regular spark plugs, Auto Light electrical parts
at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers.
Switch to Auto Light. Good night.
This week marks the 16th annual observance of World Trade Week.
Every one of us has a stake in the commerce our country carries on
with the rest of the world.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.