You are about to hear a story based on actual events.
To protect the innocent, names and places have been changed.
Auto Light and its 96,000 dealers bring you Mr. Jeff Chandler in a story taken from life.
Tonight's presentation of Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light presents the Steel River Prison Break.
A story concerning one of the most fantastic prison breaks ever engineered.
Starring Mr. Jeff Chandler.
Hello, Harlow.
Well, starch my sombrero if it's not Sheriff Sam.
I've brought in a rustler, Harlow.
A cattle rustler?
No, for gas rustler.
My car, it uses gas, something awful and bucks like a brown coal.
Well, sounds like spark plug trouble, Sheriff.
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Maybe they just need cleaning or adjusting, Harlow.
Well, your Auto Light spark plug dealer has the special equipment to give you the best
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Yeah, but supposing them critters are dead.
Well then, he'll replace them with a set of standard or resistor type ignition engineered
Auto Light spark plugs.
The spark plugs that are world famous for quality and performance.
So friends, you'll find a page to have your spark plugs checked soon.
See your Auto Light spark plug dealer and remember, from bumper to tail light, you're
always right with Auto Light.
And now, with the Steel River Prison Break and the performance of Mr. Jeff Chandler,
Auto Light hopes once again to keep you in suspense.
It was set for Friday.
I mean set.
We'd thought of everything.
Cronan would be waiting in a speedboat under the wall.
We'd make it during the recreation period.
Some of the boys would start a rhubarb in the far corner of the yard.
We'd be up and over and in the river before the guards missed us.
And Tuesday night, the radio changed everything.
Word has just reached us from Pequot City.
The river is three feet below flood stage at lock seven and rising.
Flood stage is expected at midnight.
Rain is still falling in the upper watershed.
Flood warnings have been issued along the waterfront here in Frickburg.
Elsewhere, rising waters are reported in the upper Allegheny and Monongahela and flood stages
may be expected from New Kensington and Wheeling to Pittsburgh.
We return you to Tuesday reveries with the Steel River Sinfonetta.
That does it.
And what's that?
The flood.
Moish, you hear that on the radio?
Yeah, I heard it.
So it's raining outside.
Yeah, it's raining up the river or it's raining in the mountains.
We're mighty lucky to be nice and warm and a comfy little old presence, sir.
We gotta move up the timetable.
What?
What are you talking about?
We walk out of here tomorrow night, Thursday morning latest.
Well, how come?
Crona won't be here for us till Friday afternoon.
What are you trying to do?
Loss up the detail?
Listen, the river will hit flood stage at lock seven at midnight tonight.
So what?
So lock seven is 80 miles upstream.
Right below it, the Lucinda River runs into the steel.
That means that lock eight at Renton will probably give way by tomorrow morning.
Between lock eight and Frickburg, a half dozen little rivers pour into the steel.
At midnight tomorrow night, the prison will be an island surrounded by the biggest flood
since 1886.
Very interesting.
I don't know much about these things.
We don't ever get much water on the real ground.
Well, I know.
I was born and raised a half a mile from here.
I know floods.
I was raised on them.
Flooded out twice a year when I was a kid.
Every fall and every spring.
By tomorrow night, this cell block will be a swimming pool.
Well, that'll be a change.
Tomorrow night we go.
What about Cronin?
Cronin ain't gonna get here in this flood.
Look, Bragg, I don't think we ought to risk it.
There ain't any risk.
I don't know how it is when there's a flood.
People go crazy.
We get out of here, we act like any other characters trying to get to high ground.
Only we head for my house, we get a change of clothes, and we're on our way.
But be it, Cronin's joint in Youngstown before we ever get started.
I don't know, Bragg.
If you're going with me, you're going, I say so, and I say tomorrow.
But Bragg.
What, Rutt?
I can't swim.
We already had a gun.
No matter how, Cronin got it into me.
I buried it in a can of tallow in a soap plant.
When I put that can of tallow so far back in the corner, it wasn't nobody gonna use
it to make soap.
I broke it out yesterday and hid it behind the tubes and things in my radio.
I got a radio in my cell, because I've been such a model prisoner.
Me.
Wednesday morning before breakfast, Lefty, the headscrew, came into the cell block and
made us a little speech.
Man, we're in for a flood.
Looks like it's gonna be serious.
Water's only a foot below the top of the downtown flood walls right now.
Ain't that too bad?
The Frickburg Disaster Committee's asked every able-bodied man to get down there and help
sandbag those walls.
I'm a stranger to town myself.
That's for citizens and taxpayers.
All right.
How many of you wanna volunteer for the job?
I'll go.
All right.
We'll take off after breakfast, but remember, this ain't no picnic.
Don't try no funny stuff, because I'll be right there with you, me and the rest of my
boys.
Oh, you don't wanna stand out there in the rain all day.
Okay.
That's all.
Breakfast in five minutes.
In five minutes.
Up goes the timetable again.
What?
Don't have to wait for tonight.
We make it this morning.
What are you doing with that radio?
What do you think?
Give me the tape.
Tape?
The tape.
That phony boil you bandaged the other day.
Oh, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Ow.
That hurts.
Oh, you don't take it off that way.
You do it this way.
It tickles.
Shut up.
Boy, that hurt me, Brad.
I taped the sword and the medic on the inside of my leg.
Yeah, we're on our way.
Yeah, Brad?
You all set, Mish?
Set.
When we get down to the river, we keep close together.
Watch me.
Sure, Brad.
Whatever you say.
Old town looks good.
Yeah, what's so good about it?
All those crummy houses all painted the same crummy color.
Yeah, they was once painted different colors.
And how come they're all the same color?
All dingy gray like.
Smoke, cold smoke from the mills.
Oh, I get it.
Like that home.
Houses are all a crummy yellow and a crummy dust.
See down the street?
Third house on the left.
Yeah.
What about it?
That's where we'll be tonight.
That your joint?
Yeah, home sweet home.
Ma still lives here.
Yeah, but any lab'll look for us there?
They do.
Ma'll take care of them.
She got no use for cops.
Ever since my old man got slapped around in the battle of barges up at Homestead.
Oh.
What's the matter?
Oh, that gun was making a little pinch.
You can stand a few more minutes, can't you?
You kidding?
Hey, hey, look at that.
That old red brick building?
What about it?
The Candler School.
That's where I went.
You graduate back?
Ah, no, I transferred to Pine Hill, graduated there.
Pine Hill?
What's that?
State Reformatory.
Hey, what are they slowing down for?
Well, ain't no ways near the river.
Turn into a grass field?
Yeah, but it's a little bit of a
turn into a gravel yard, looks like.
All right, boys, five of you drop off here to fill sandbags.
Ninkowski, Steiner, Anthony, Walton, and Bragg.
Me?
Yeah, you.
Come on, pile up.
All right, what are we going to do?
Nothing, no.
Well, Bragg, there goes the ballgame.
Only one inning.
I knew that gravel yard used to play in it when I was a kid.
There was just three blocks from my old lady's house.
I could have made it easy through back alleys, but I ain't that kind of guy.
I went in with a pen on the same rapid march.
I wasn't going to leave it without him.
A runt.
I liked the bum, a little slow in the upstairs apartment, maybe, but a good guy.
I'd wait, but it was tough.
Filled in sandbags all day in the rain with that tape gun cutting into my leg.
No blood getting to my foot.
At first it hurt, then it was like pins and needles in my toes, and I couldn't feel nothing
at all.
It was real tough because I didn't dare limp.
I couldn't take a chance on any nosy guard asking me what was the matter.
It got tougher.
Towards the end of the day, I was seeing spots in front of my eyes.
I was like to pass out when the truck come by to pick us up.
It wasn't until after chow when we was locked in my cell for the night I could get the thing
off my leg.
Then it all went into reverse.
The pins and needles came back and after them the pain.
That leg looks like you was branded.
God, it feels it.
Moshi and I never expected to see you back here.
You're kidding?
Well, you know.
Turn on the radio and let's see how the flood's doing.
All right.
Tomorrow we got to make sure we stick together.
How are we going to do that?
I don't know, but we got to because tomorrow's going to be our last chance.
Ohio Avenue Bridge, 41 feet, 6 inches and rising.
Holy crap.
That's 4 feet above flood stage.
We'll remain on the air throughout the night to bring you flood bulletins and assist in
directing rescue operations.
Attention please.
The flood wall at Water Street and 4th has given way.
All residents of the Brownsville district are advised to evacuate their homes at once.
Here we go.
What?
Brownsville.
Right here.
Send the boat to 317 California Street.
Hey, Moshi.
Yeah, Brad.
You getting this?
Everywhere.
It won't be long now.
Brad, look.
What?
The flood, the end of the sail block.
What?
A triple of water, I told you.
That means there's a foot and a half or two feet out in the yard.
The boat to 42 Watson Alley.
Hey, the lights went out.
Hey.
The lights went out.
All right, all right.
Let's have a little quiet in here.
Turn on the light.
Now listen to me.
There ain't any lights.
Dynamos flooded out.
We're going to move you men.
There'll be six foot of water in the sail block by morning.
We're moving you out.
Why are you taking us, Wesley?
We're moving you to the Conestoga County Jail.
It's on high ground.
You'll be safe there until the water drops.
You'll be in the drunk tank on the fourth floor.
I have checked.
All right.
Now let's make it snappy.
The water's rising two feet an hour.
I'm going to open the doors.
Form a line and follow me.
No funny business.
All set, look?
Yeah.
Moist?
Hey, you forgot.
No, I didn't.
And you don't tape it to your leg?
Not this time.
It goes into my belt.
I'm going to need it in less than three minutes.
Now stick close to me.
All right, now.
Line up.
Let's go.
All right, come on this way, man.
The buses are right here at the gate.
Come on, man.
Come on.
Keep it moving.
Run.
Yeah.
Follow me by the gate.
I'll take him from behind.
You get his gun.
Right.
I'll take the gun.
You got the gun.
Right.
I got it.
Hey, get back in line.
Make me.
Stand right where you are.
Don't let anybody move.
Get behind me.
Run.
Okay.
Come on and shoot, Lefty.
Fatty makes a good chest protector.
No, no.
Relax, Fatty.
You might not get hurt.
Stop that, man.
Bragg.
And your gun.
You make a pretty good target, Lefty.
They just might drop you.
You know what?
That's what I'm talking about.
I'm not going to let you get hurt.
No, Lefty.
They just might drop you.
You know what?
That'll get you.
Sure.
What's the difference?
One guard or two guards?
It's the same, Hot Seat.
Bragg, we better move.
Every screw in the place will be down here now.
Yeah.
Let's go, boys.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. Jeff Chandler in, the Steel River Project.
The Steel River Prison Break.
Tonight's production in Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Well, you happy sheriff?
Sure am, Harlow.
Happy as a pin-o-pony in pasture.
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Uses less gas and a gophery shatter.
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And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage Mr. Jeff Chandler in Elliot Lewis's production of The Steel River Prison Break,
a dramatic report well calculated to keep you in suspense.
What'd you have to shoot that guard for, Ruff?
I didn't want him taking a chance.
You dumb jerk, breaking out of stores one thing murders another. Come on, this way.
We splashed up Ohio Street and there wasn't no one following us.
Screws were too busy getting the other cons into the buses.
They couldn't have found us anyway because we lost ourselves behind the swinging doors of Harley-Heath Salon where I used to rush the growler for my old man.
We were in pretty good shape. I hadn't used my own gun yet. Run had three rounds left in the guard's gun.
We just stood there in the dark with the water lapping around our knees and watched the buses loaded with stir-bricks pull out one by one for the Conestoga County Jail.
We made it. We made it.
So far. What do we do now, swim?
I can't swim.
We ain't gonna walk, that's for sure.
My house is ten blocks closer to the river. This water's going up, not down.
It stinks.
Sure it stinks. Floods always stink. You ought to smell what it's like when the water drops.
Only way you're gonna be here is smelling.
Wait a minute. Listen.
Yeah.
Where's that radio coming from?
Ah, a rescue boat. All the river men help when there's a flood like this. Not even a radio.
Maybe a rescue, huh?
Yes, but I figured right. Now let me handle it. You two act a little tight.
Hey, hey, Mac! Over this way.
Where were you?
Just stay behind these swinging toys.
Over here, in that hurly!
Now, what are you doing there? You took the last guy out there a half hour ago.
Oh, we were sitting back room with a picture of beer. We're twice as ready to leave yet.
Well, look, I cut through this way. Now that the cons are out of the panacea and panoramic, it's been weird.
You guys might have browned.
Yeah, I guess you remind him.
Oh, here. Touch my hand.
Yeah.
Oh, thanks, mister.
I haven't felt so much pain in my life.
Oh, all aboard?
Yep.
Well, then let's... Hey, what kind of suits is that?
Are you guys a convict or what?
That's right, buddy. I'll take off his windbreaker right now.
What?
Strip him. I want to cover this number on my back.
Oh, yeah, sure. Come on, give me a hand, boys.
Hey, Albright.
Good. Over the side with him.
Huh? Oh, you ain't gonna...
No, I ain't gonna. You are. Over the side.
But that's murder.
Look at this talk. You shot a guard 10 minutes ago. What was that, target practice? Over the side.
Okay, Brian.
All right, Jesus. Hit the deck out of sight. Here we go.
Where we going, Greg?
Marshal.
On Ohio Street now.
Turn left onto Liberty. Eight blocks from there we're home.
Turn off that radio.
Here's Liberty Street now. Hang on.
Take it easy, Greg.
Watch out, Greg. There's a boatload of people up here.
Get down, Rod. Get down!
No, Greg! I can't!
Greg, I can't swim!
Greg, you ran down that boat.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
There were women and kids in it.
That's that tough luck.
We gotta go back.
We can't go back. Where's Rod?
Huh? Rod? Hey, Rod, where are you?
Get down, Mike. Stay out of sight.
He ain't here.
He must have fell out when we hit the boat.
We gotta go back for him.
We can't, Mike.
Yeah, but he's got the gun.
I got the guard's gun. I still got mine with a full clip.
But, Greg, he can't swim.
I know.
Well, maybe the water ain't deep there. Maybe he can walk.
You're kidding. Look at those storefronts.
There's 15 feet of water under us.
We tied up to the front porch roof of Ma's house.
Didn't take long to rip the radio and battery out of that launch,
kick a hole in her bottom, and sink her on Ma's front yard.
We needed the radio.
I wanted to know whether the boys were looking for us or for flood victims.
A boat to 754 Stanton Alley.
Joel, they picked that one up.
Correction.
Disregard 754 Stanton Alley.
Attention all doctors and nurses in Crane Valley, New Thames, and Henry Roy.
Your services are at death's door.
They were looking for flood victims.
With people drowning and typhoid threatening, the water supply cut off,
the phone lines out, and the National Guard and Army called in,
no one was thinking much about three escapees.
I mean, two.
Ma wasn't home much.
She was in old hamper floods.
When that water hits 35 feet at Ohio Avenue Bridge,
Ma always lights up her Aunt Carrie's in Mount Austin, sits it out.
But everything was snug on the second floor, and my room was just like I left it.
So much and I hit the sack hoping the water wouldn't come any higher.
And it didn't.
Hey, Marsh.
Huh?
Come on, rise and shine. Wake up.
Huh?
Hey, what are you doing in my cell?
This ain't a cell, you jerk.
Huh? Where am I?
You're in my Ma's house, remember? We ain't in store no longer.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Come on, come on, get with it. Look out the window.
Hey, I'm hungry.
Oh, wait, look at that.
What?
Stop raining, the water's dropping.
You can see the parlor windows on the house across the street.
So?
So by this afternoon we can move.
I'm hungry.
You're gonna be hungrier.
Ma's kitchen will be three inches deep and muck.
Hey, when the water drops they'll be looking for us.
We won't be here.
By midnight tonight we'll be in Cronin's joint in Youngstown.
How?
You're here, ain't you?
Yeah.
Don't ask how, just take my word for it.
We'll be there.
By five o'clock that afternoon we were plenty hungry.
We could stand a little more of that because the water had drained out of the street.
People were beginning to drift back to their homes,
picking their way through the ankle-deep muck.
It was time for us to move.
Moish and I put on a couple of my best suits while the radio blared on and on.
The bridge to the Ohio Street Bridge is now 32 feet and falling.
The Army engineers report that the flood crest is well past Frickburg
and is expected to reach Toobinville tonight and Cincinnati tomorrow.
Oh, sweetheart, we're in business.
Toobinville and Cincinnati.
The cops over in Ohio will be so busy they'll never see the old points flash.
That mud's gonna ruin your pretty pants.
So turn up the cups and let's go.
Hey, hey, they turned my old school house into a morgue.
Listen.
The correction, that's Mrs. Margaret Bragg.
Moish.
What?
Margaret Bragg.
It's my ma.
Maybe it was a mistake.
Wouldn't be the first time they'd made mistakes like that.
Maybe it was a trick. Maybe the warden put out that flash to trap me.
Maybe it was on the level.
I had to know. I had to be sure.
So Moish and I sloughed through mud up to our ankles,
but not out of the Youngstown road.
I was headed for this schoolhouse.
Moish, well, he's a good kid. He came along.
They were stretched out in the assembly hall, row on row of them on cots covered with sheets.
In the assembly hall were us kids used to pledge allegiance to the flag
and sing America the beautiful.
Hey, uh, I beg pardon.
Yes, may I help you?
Yeah, Mrs. Margaret Bragg.
I heard on the radio you had Mrs. Margaret Bragg here.
Just a moment, please. I'll see if she's listed.
Yes, down that aisle to the right, four or five cots down, you'll find the name on the tank.
Thanks.
Bragg.
Yeah?
Even if they got her here, maybe it's a trap.
I've got to be sure. I've got to see her.
Yeah, I know.
If you want to get out, get, it's okay with me.
No, no, I'm sticking, but keep your eyes open.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
What's that tag say?
Campanelli, Luigi.
I don't know.
These new ones are unidentified.
LaRoy, Sarah, Jean.
I went to school with her father.
Here, pal.
Bragg.
Mrs. Margaret.
Turn down this sheet, will you, Moish?
Yeah, sure.
All right, Bragg, put your hands up.
Bragg, it's lefty to head guard.
Doc, down behind this cot.
Come on, Bragg.
Give yourself up.
Let's not make any more trouble for these people.
They've had enough of it.
I didn't get this far to give myself up in no lousy morgue.
Moish, make your way behind these cots to that door by the stage.
I'll cover you.
Okay.
Okay, Bragg, I got the door open.
Good boy.
Come on, kid.
Where's the sleek?
Just a balcony above the swimming pool.
This way.
Come on, we gotta make it across that catwalk
by the high diving board.
Go ahead, I'll follow you.
All right.
Okay, Moish, come on.
We can get out through here.
Right.
Stand where you are, Moish.
Not until you're lefty.
Hey, Moish!
You're next, Bragg.
Why, you dirty...
You ready to come now, Bragg?
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm ready.
Hold out your hands.
Okay, let's go.
Lefty.
Yeah?
Can I say goodbye to Ma before I go?
Yeah, I suppose so.
How did it happen, Lefty?
How did she drown?
Didn't you read her tag?
No.
Seems the rescue boat she was in was capsized
by an unidentified launch at the corner of Ohio
and Liberty Streets last night.
You're lying.
That's what the tag says.
Sort of a hit and run pilot.
You're lying.
I was running that launch.
Oh, you were.
Well, like you said last night, Bragg,
what difference does it make if you kill two instead of one?
It's the same hot seat, ain't it?
Suspense presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Mr. Jeff Chandler.
Well, Jeff, thanks for an exciting story
and a wonderful performance.
Well, thanks to you, Harlow, and to Auto Light
for inviting me to appear on Suspense.
I hope you'll ask me again soon.
You can be sure we will, Jeff Chandler.
Just as sure as Auto Light is the world's largest
independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment.
Yes, in 28 plants from coast to coast,
Auto Light makes over 400 products
for cars, trucks, tractors, planes, and boats,
including complete electrical systems,
ignition-engineered Auto Light standard
and resistor-type spark plugs,
and the famous Auto Light stay-full battery.
Yes, you can be sure from bumper to tail light
you're always right with Auto Light.
Next week on Suspense, another story based on actual events,
a dramatic report on mediums
and the terrible harm it is in their power to commit.
Starring the First Lady of Suspense,
Miss Agnes Moorhead in The Evil of Adelaide Winters.
In weeks to come, we shall also present
Mr. Charles Lawton and Mr. Tony Curtis.