Auto Light and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Frank Lovejoy in tonight's presentation
of Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light presents a story based on fact, terrifying in its truth.
The dramatic report of a man returned home to find he now lives in a frightened city.
Our star Mr. Frank Lovejoy.
Hi, Harlow.
What's the matter?
Hap, I'm in love.
Oh, what's your name?
It's not a her, it's the famous Auto Light Stay Full.
The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
Why millions of drivers go for the Auto Light Stay Full, Harlow.
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Tell other drivers how to meet this lovable battery, Harlow.
All right, friends, your neighborhood Auto Light battery dealer services all makes of
batteries and he will gladly show you the Auto Light Stay Full battery for your car.
To quickly learn his location, call Western Union by number.
And ask for me, operator 25, I'll give you the location of your nearest Auto Light battery
dealer where you can get an Auto Light Stay Full.
The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light presents, The Frightened City, starring Mr. Frank Lovejoy, hoping once
again to keep you in suspense.
The train pulled out of Easton at 1.20 in the afternoon.
It pulled in three minutes earlier.
It was a simple thing I had to do then.
Watch it cross the bridge over the Wabash, watch it grow smaller.
And when it was out of sight, I was finally home.
And home was pick up the barracks bag and walk up the small hill from the depot, down
in a main street on an autumn afternoon.
Train left on Sycamore down three blocks, where the houses are painted white and has
rockers on the porches and wide elm trees in November color.
And the far off sound of a dog barking and the smell of smoldering leaves.
And 595 Sycamore Street.
Up the path, up the steps.
Jane?
Janey?
Who is it?
Janey?
Sis?
Nick?
Oh Nicky, Nicky, Nicky.
How's the baby, Sis?
Oh fine.
He was teething, but he's all right now.
I haven't seen him yet.
Oh he's beautiful.
How's Janey?
How's Janey, Sis?
What?
Janey, how is he?
Your husband, my brother-in-law, Janey, how...
What's the matter with you?
How'd you get my letter?
I was aboard ship the last two weeks, so...
Johnny is dead.
Johnny went walking one night and he's dead.
One night Johnny said he was going to walk down the main street.
He told me he wanted to stop in the police station.
He had something to tell the chief of the police.
Janey, Janey.
He went out and he was walking along, walking along.
Walking along.
Baby.
A car drove by and someone shot a gun at Johnny.
Johnny's dead.
Who?
Who shot Johnny, Sis?
Janey, I'm talking to you.
Who shot Johnny?
Janey.
Come with me, Nick.
There's your nephew.
He's sleeping and he's my son.
He's pink and he's fat and he says mama.
He can say dada too, but it's a word he won't need.
He's a good baby.
I love him as much as a mother can love a child.
Now I want to show you something else.
I've had it here in my apron and I've been wondering what to do about it.
I found it under my door about a week ago, the day after Johnny was shot.
I'll read it to you.
Don't talk to strangers.
What happened to daddy can happen to sonny.
Give it to me.
My little boy is going to grow up.
He's going to play with other boys and laugh and cry when he scrapes his knee on the sidewalk
and go to school.
And live a life.
No.
No, no, Nicky.
These pieces get burned, get forgotten.
It gets forgotten like everything else that's happened.
Who did it, Janey?
You're back from a war.
Let everything be peaceful now.
Look at my son, Nick.
The way he wakes up.
So peaceful.
Then the infinite gentleness as she lifted the child held him close and kissed him.
And the room was stillness and anguish and the bitter fear and the emptiness.
And this was homecoming.
Outside it was November, a long quiet avenue.
And the glimpse of the coat-sweated woman in her backyard, gathering in her wash, feeling
in at the starch of cold autumn wind.
Walk to a cross street and three blocks east.
Police headquarters.
Give a murdered man's name and yours.
Ask for the chief of police.
And in less than an hour be shown into him.
Hello, Mr. Crawford.
Have a seat.
You know why I'm here?
Yeah, yeah, I do.
I just came from my sister.
She's scared.
She, she gets threatening notes and burns them up.
Why?
I don't know.
Who killed her husband?
I don't know.
Now look, you, this happened to my sister and now it's happening to me.
A week ago a man walked down the street.
He was on his way to see you and he got murdered.
Easy, easy, I've got some things to tell you.
Tell me.
Four people saw it happen to your brother-in-law.
That night one of them, a woman, was brutally beaten, tossed into a vacant lot.
Kid playing in the trash found her there.
Two days later another witness got a bomb thrown through his nice new house and almost
killed his wife.
That's two.
The other two won't talk either, like your own sister won't talk.
I'm tired, Mr. Crawford.
I got a lot of things to clear away.
I want their names and addresses.
They'll talk to you, huh?
They'll talk to me.
I want those names.
All right.
Tell the sergeant in the next office I said you can have them.
Mr. Crawford.
What?
Things have changed in this town.
It's different.
Hang around, you'll see.
Hello.
Good evening.
Mr. Osborne?
Mr. Osborne, something I can do for you?
They tell me down at your place of business you'd be home.
It's about Jimmy Stewart.
Mind if I sit down?
Not at all.
Johnny Stewart, a friend of yours?
He was married to my sister.
Your sis?
Oh, then you must be Nick.
Heard a lot about you from Johnny, how you were soldiering.
Welcome home, Nick.
Johnny worked for you, didn't he?
Good accountant, nice guy, Johnny.
One of the best.
You were with him the night he was killed?
That's right, I was with him.
You want to tell me about it?
Johnny was walking by my store just as I was closing up.
I told him to wait a minute.
I'd walk with him.
We walked, we talked.
Got to a corner.
I told Johnny to wait for me while I went into the drugstore to buy some cigarettes.
As I came out, a car turned the corner, shot him down, drove away.
That's how it was.
What kind of car?
I wouldn't know.
Sedan, convertible, old, new?
A week ago they put me through this.
I didn't know then, I don't know now.
Well, he worked for you.
He was your friend.
You knew all about him and me and his wife.
Nick, I like it here on my port swing.
It reminds me I'm alive.
Don't spoil it for me, Nick.
Mrs. Mason, you were sitting right here at your window and you saw it happen.
You saw Johnny killed.
I didn't see it.
What kind of a car?
Just tell me that.
Nothing.
Well the men who beat you up, did you identify them?
There were weeds, dirty old tin cans.
Please.
And they threw me down and kicked me in my throat.
Go away.
What are you doing in my house?
You listen to me, Nick.
I can remember when Johnny Stewart was a kid and he stole penny candy from me, right here
in this same drug store.
Yeah, and he grew up to be shot down right on this corner, right outside this store.
What happened that night, Mr. Nolan?
Nick, I built up a nice business here, twenty years.
What did you see?
Nick, Nicky, it was me had to scrub his blood off the sidewalk.
What did you see?
Nothing.
Nothing, that's what I saw, Nick.
Nothing.
Hi.
Hello there.
Breaking leaves, you can work up a sweat, even in November.
Yeah, big tree, a lot of leaves, Indian summer evening, you sweat.
I know.
You're Tom Rockston, aren't you?
That's right.
I'm Nick Crawford.
Glad to know you.
I'm Tom.
Johnny Stewart was my brother-in-law.
Oh, really?
You got a nice house, Tom.
Thanks.
I understand your wife was almost killed when they tossed a bomb into it.
That's right, Hazel was out back, lucky.
That bomb was tossed into your house because you were a witness to a murder, wasn't it?
House looks OK now.
Got nice neighbors, helped me, we fixed it up ourselves.
No kill, Johnny.
You're scared to death, aren't you?
I've got a pretty good house here, mister, a tract house, GI loan.
Once I had a nice uniform, just like you.
Now what I've got is a wonderful wife and anybody asks me, I'll say Hazel's a wonderful
wife and I love her.
Like I said, scared.
Right now, mostly of you, and whatever you're carrying around with you, I don't want to
rub off on Mia Hazel.
So I'll tell you something, leave me alone.
When I went outside, it was evening in Easton.
The air was chill and the dew was turning to light frost on the lawns.
I walked for a while and I noticed a thing.
The people on the streets, their stares, their looks over the shoulder at me, the whispers
and the turning aside to let me pass.
The word had gotten around that Johnny Stewart's brother-in-law was back in town and he was
asking questions.
I was being pointed out and walked away from.
I'd come home and I'd come home to a frightened city.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. Frank Lovejoy in the Frightened City.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Hey Hap, isn't that wonderful?
Well Harlow, it looks just like an auto light stay full battery to me.
Hap, I'm surprised at you.
Don't you realize that this is the battery that needs water only three times a year in
normal car use?
Don't you know that the auto light stay full is protected by fiberglass retaining mats
around every positive plate to reduce shedding and flaking?
Aren't you aware of its longer life as proved by tests conducted according to accepted life
cycle standards?
Well sure Harlow.
Well then Hap, you'll agree when I say money can't buy a better battery.
So friends, visit your nearest auto light battery dealer.
He services all makes of batteries and he's got an auto light stay full for your car in
case a replacement is needed.
To quickly locate your nearest auto light battery dealer, call Western Union by number
and ask for operator 25.
I'll tell you where you can get an auto light stay full.
The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
And remember from bumper to tail light, you're always right with auto light.
And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood sound stage Mr. Frank Lovejoy in Elliot Lewis's
production of The Frightened City.
A dramatic report well calculated to keep you in suspense.
The next morning in Easton, clear, bright.
Look out the window of an upstairs room where you slept in an almost forgotten bed.
And the glint of sunlight is autumn leaves wet with melting frost.
And three houses down, the man on the bathrobe darting out of his front door to where the
morning paper had been tossed into an evergreen bush.
Watch him stalk it, retrieve it, scurry back.
Trace a design on a pane of steamed window.
And it's almost the way you remembered it.
Almost.
Nikki, you up?
Yeah, come on in.
Hi.
You sleep good?
Yeah.
I heard the kid balling a little while ago woke me up.
He was hungry.
He's all right now.
Nikki.
What?
Got home real late last night.
I waited up a long time then I got tired and went to sleep.
My brother's first night home in three years, you'd think you could have managed to get
home early enough for us to talk.
Oh, what do we talk about, Jane?
You.
What's happened to you in three years?
But Johnny.
Dead Johnny, murdered Johnny.
Your husband, the man you had the kid with.
We don't talk about that, huh, sister?
Shut up.
Janey.
I told you, shut up.
You're going to yell me into keeping quiet, Janey.
I told you.
I don't want my baby killed.
Johnny was enough.
You hate me for wanting to know why Johnny's dead.
You hate me for that, Janey.
My baby gets hurt.
I'll hate you to your grave.
You've got lots of new things in the house, Jane.
New furniture, new carpets.
Looks nice.
Looks expensive.
Are you coming down for breakfast?
How much did Johnny make working as an accountant for Osmond?
Fifty?
Sixty a week?
How much?
Leave me alone.
New sofa, big green leather chair, new carpet.
That costs a lot of money.
How did you get them, Jane?
Installment plan?
Somebody give you a birthday present?
How'd you do it, Jane?
You got a home hobby?
You take telephone subscriptions for latest magazine?
How did Johnny do it?
Is that it?
How?
He steal, he rob, he kill?
Nicky.
Tell me.
Ask Osmond.
Osmond?
Ask him what?
What?
Ask him what?
How we suddenly became rich.
How Johnny left a bank account with $30,000 in it.
What are you talking about?
You said you walked the town last night.
Didn't you see what's happened to it?
See what?
People walking into back rooms.
Shops with no customers, open late.
Men paying newsboys with bills and not taking change.
Or newspapers.
People walking into back rooms.
Card rooms.
Dice tables.
Numbers.
And Johnny was part of it?
Johnny worked for Osmond.
And Johnny got sick of it and was on his way to tell the cop?
Oh, Nicky.
Oh, Janie, what's the matter?
If you tell anybody what I said, I'll swear you're lying.
My baby Nick, my son.
I just died.
That's what you did to me.
It just died.
Hi, Nick.
What are you?
Hey, what's a big idea busting up my office?
I'll tell you the idea, Osmond.
I reached across that desk to grab you by the throat.
And I was going to try to break you in half, but a thing stopped me.
You want to know what stopped me, Osmond?
What's the matter with your neck?
I want you to look at me and I want you to say to yourself, here's a man who's angry.
And you say to yourself, here's a man who might reach across the desk and kill me.
He hasn't made up his mind yet.
On your feet, Osmond.
On your feet!
Why did you kill Johnny?
You're crazy!
Talk to me, talk!
Tell me why did you kill Johnny?
I was walking with him, son.
Walking with him.
How could you set him up as a pigeon?
It's real simple.
Walk with him, then go into a drug store and wait until he's killed.
Now you know how.
Now tell me why.
You talking to your sister, son?
Osborne, you send your boys down to see my sister.
They might live through what happened to them, but I doubt it.
Tough boy.
Soldier boy.
Here's what's else, Osborne.
This town suddenly stinks.
Dice rooms, card rooms, numbers and everything that goes with it.
My brother-in-law gets a shiny garbage disposal, a new grand piano, real fine rugs and a large
bank account on how much a week?
Seventy-five accountants make about that, don't they?
We could start you at about three hundred.
Be polite, Mr. Osborne, to a guy who's talking.
Five hundred.
Polite, Mr. Osborne, that's the word for just now.
I could kill you, Osborne.
Think about it with me.
Here we are in this room, you the man who's got the whole town of Easton so scared that
nobody has a friend anymore.
It takes a powerful man to frighten almost twenty thousand people, but you did it.
If anything happens to me, Nicky boy, you'd get one block from here.
Let's think about that, too, huh?
That's what I'm coming to.
Then there's me in this room and you're afraid of me and that makes me pretty big, too.
But I'm not going to kill you because this is my town and it used to be a pretty good
town.
The uniform and the flag and the fist, that's all you need?
And there's law and there's people who need to know what's happening here.
I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do.
Get proof, Nicky?
How?
At five o'clock tonight, I'm going to take a walk and I'm going to take the same walk
that Johnny did.
And I'm going into that drug store and I'm going to make a phone call.
A long distance call to St. Louis to a newspaper guy I know.
And then it's going to be in the papers about a frightened city and the reporters will come
here and they'll find out, Osborne.
You're getting real scared, baby.
You mean it about taking that walk tonight, Nick?
I mean it.
Maybe we'll bump into each other.
We will.
And on the way home, stop at Lane's Sporting Goods Store.
Buy a gun, buy cartridges.
And Mr. Lane is all business.
No good evenings.
No, how have you been, Nicky?
Just ring it up on the cash register and not look at you and walk quickly away from you
when it was done.
And the walk home.
Small town held in November twilight.
Inside the house, try the new piano.
The room where the baby is.
Play with him.
And Jane comes in and takes him away from you and tells you there's supper in the kitchen
if you want it.
And eat alone, paper propped against water pitcher.
Alone.
From now on, everything alone because the police wouldn't let you be a pigeon.
Glance at the kitchen clock and it's time.
You going out, Nick?
Yeah.
Where?
Just for a walk.
Will you be late?
Don't wait up for me.
Something for you, Nick?
Some change.
I want to use your phone.
Sure, Nick.
Here, Nick.
Thanks.
Long distance.
Oh, long distance.
What's the station to station charge to St. Louis?
Just a moment, please.
That will be a dollar twenty including the tax.
What number do you wish, please?
What number are you calling in St. Louis, please?
Pick a number.
I'm sorry, sir, but you must...
Don't be sorry.
Get anybody you want to talk to in St. Louis.
Have a talk on me.
I will return your money, sir.
Now don't do that.
There's somebody I want to call in St. Louis, but I can't think of who it is.
I will give you information.
No, no.
Just talk to me.
I'm sorry, sir, but I can't do that.
Operator, I've got to talk into this phone for just a little while longer just to let
somebody think I'm not kidding in case somebody's watching.
I don't understand, sir.
Would you like information?
About what?
Do you wish to talk to St. Louis, sir?
Do you think I should?
I'm afraid I'm going to have to return your money.
No, no.
Don't do that.
I've got a number.
It's the, uh, Venden 64373 in St. Louis.
One moment, please.
Nick!
Osborne.
Nick.
Oh, Nick.
Sorry, soldier.
And just think, you could have died on a battlefield, not in your home town.
Osborne didn't die.
He lived quite a long time, five months.
Hospital, trial, confession, sentence.
And in five months it was spring in Eastern.
It was a good spring.
And you know how people are.
They react to the weather.
Hi, Nick.
The tree's starting to bud already.
You notice?
They get friendly and they smile a lot, like winter was a long time, a dark time, and it
was over.
Come on over to the house when you have a chance, Nick.
You'll do that, you hear?
Grass grows in the springtime, but babies grow all the time.
Did you see him?
Nick, he walked.
My son walked.
Sure.
Sure I saw him, sis.
He's growing up.
That happens, sis.
And you know what?
He's lucky.
He's got a good town to grow up in.
Suspense.
And now, we're joined by Auto Light, tonight's star, Mr. Frank Lovejoy.
This is Harlow Wilcox, and here once again is our star, Frank Lovejoy.
This was your first appearance of our new season, Frank, and we wanted to know we enjoyed
every minute.
Thank you, Harlow, and thanks to Auto Light for making it possible.
You had some wonderful shows this season, and next week's promises to be one of the
best.
Ladies and gentlemen, if I may, I recommend that you be sure to listen to Death and Miss
Turner, starring Miss Agnes Moorhead.
Yes, Frank, it should be a great show, brought to you by one of the great names in American
industry, Auto Light, and its family of 98,000 distributors and dealers in the United States,
and thousands more in Canada and throughout the world.
Our family also includes the nearly 30,000 men and women in 28 great Auto Light plants
from coast to coast, and Auto Light plants in many foreign countries, as well as the
18,000 people who have invested a portion of their savings in Auto Light.
The Auto Light product is backed by constant research and precision built to the highest
standards of quality and performance.
So remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
Next week, a new radio play by the originator of suspense, Mr. William Spear.
The story is called Death and Miss Turner, and it will star the First Lady of Suspense,
Miss Agnes Moorhead.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed by Lucian Morawak
and conducted by Ludd Gluskin.
The Frightened City was written for suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin.
And in tonight's cast were Joan Banks, Lou Merrill, Herb Butterfield, Paula Winslow,
Hi Aberback, and Charles Calvert.
Frank Lovejoy appeared to the courtesy of Warner Brothers, whose current release is
Operation Secret.
Remember next week, Miss Agnes Moorhead in Death and Miss Turner.
You can buy Auto Light staple batteries, Auto Light electrical parts, and Auto Light resistor
or standard type spark plugs at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers.
Switch to Auto Light.
Good night.
This is the CBS Radio Network.