And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, the story of terror in the streets.
We call it, The Whole Town Sleeping.
So now, starring Miss Jeanette Nolan, here is tonight's Suspense play written by Ray
Bradbury, The Whole Town Sleeping.
It was a warm summer night in the middle of Illinois country.
The little town was deep, far away from everything.
Kept to itself by a river and a forest and a ravine.
In the town, the sidewalks were still scorched.
The stores were closing and the streets were turning dark.
Screen doors whined their springs and banged.
And there was the sound of Grandma Hanlon's swing hammock across the street.
On her solitary porch, Lavinia nebs, age 37, very straight and slim, sat with a tinkling
lemonade in her white fingers, tapping it to her lips, waiting.
Here I am, Lavinia.
Lavinia turned.
There was Francine at the bottom porch step.
She was all in snow white and didn't look 35.
I won't be a minute, Francine.
I'll just lock the door.
All right.
Oh, I do like your dress, dear.
Why thank you, dear.
You look so well in that color.
I'm afraid I could never wear it.
It makes me look sallow.
No, it doesn't.
I'm sure not.
Of course, I've always loved you in white.
Evening, ladies.
Good evening, Mrs. Hanlon.
Good evening.
Where are you ladies going all dressed up so pretty?
To the Majestic Theater, Mrs. Hanlon.
Robert Mitchum's playing in Not as a Stranger.
Won't catch me out on a night like this.
Not with the lonely one strangling women.
Lock myself in with my gun.
That's what I'm going to do.
I wouldn't worry, Mrs. Hanlon.
What about Eliza Ramsell?
You think she's not worrying?
Lock myself in with my gun.
That's what you ladies should do.
So silly.
Silly old woman.
Lavinia, you don't believe all that gossip about the lonely one, do you?
A lot of silly old women who haven't got anything better to do than talk.
Well, just the same.
Hattie McDowell was killed a month ago and Roberta Ferry the month before.
And now Eliza Ramsell disappearing.
Eliza Ramsell walked off with a traveling man, I bet.
The others strangled old Francine.
They reached the edge of the ravine that cut the town in two.
Stood there.
Behind them were the lighted houses.
Ahead, deepness, moistness, fireflies and dark.
The ravine had to be crossed to reach the movies.
Deep and black as a cut under the hills.
Then a creaking bridge to cross over the stream.
Then 113 steps up the steep and bramble bank to the other side.
The ladies stood there, looking down.
It won't be me coming back tonight, Lavinia.
It'll be you.
Oh, I'd never, never walk there alone at night.
Never.
Bosch.
Well, you can say Bosch.
But it'll be you alone on the path, not me.
Oh, Lavinia, I do wish you didn't live on this side.
Don't you get lonely living by yourself in that house?
Old maid loved to live alone.
Come on, we'll take the shortcut.
I'm afraid.
Oh, come on.
Don't be so silly.
I'll hold your hand.
Lavinia, cool as mint ice cream, took the other woman's arm and led her down the dark
winding path into cricket warmth and frog sound and mosquito delicate silence.
Oh, let's run, Lavinia, please.
No.
Why should we?
If Lavinia hadn't turned her head just then, she wouldn't have seen it.
But she did turn her head, and it was there, back among a clump of bushes half hidden,
but laid out as if she had put herself there to enjoy the soft stars.
Lay Eliza Ramseau, her face moon freckled, her eyes like white marble.
Then Francine saw it too, and the women stood on the path for a frozen second, not believing
what they saw.
Lavinia held Francine, and the policemen were all around in the ravine grass.
Flashlights dotted about, voices mingled, and the night grew on toward 8.30.
You didn't move her, ladies.
Of course not.
Oh, no, we couldn't touch her.
How could we?
And there was nobody?
You didn't hear anything?
Sounds?
No, nothing.
It's, it's the lonely one, isn't it?
He did it, didn't he?
Couldn't say, ma'am.
We, we knew her, you know.
She was a friend of ours.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Well, I'll have one of my men walk you across the ravine.
That won't be necessary.
Thank you very much.
We'll be all right.
Oh, Lavinia.
Come along, dear.
And they crossed the ravine, each with her own thing.
The
river, and the creek waters under the bridge whispered, I'm the lonely one.
I'm the lonely one.
I kill people.
Then they were at the top of the stairs and bathed in safe light from the street lamp.
I've never seen a dead person before.
It's only a little after 8.30.
We'll pick up Helen and get on to the show.
The show?
Oh, Lavinia, you don't mean it.
Of course, I do.
We've got to forget that, it's not good to remember.
But Eliza's back there and...
We need to laugh.
We've got to pretend that nothing happened.
But she was our friend.
We can't help her.
There's no good brooding about it.
I'm going to get it out of my mind, and you should too.
Now if we hurry, we won't miss too much.
I thought you'd never come. You're an hour late.
Well, we...
Someone found Eliza Ramselle dead in the ravine.
Oh, no! Eliza...
Who found her?
We don't know.
Oh, how awful. Did you see her? Was it terrible?
Let's not talk about it.
Oh, I really think I should lock myself in my house.
I don't think we'd better go tonight.
Of course we will. It's the last showing today.
Besides, the lonely one can't kill three ladies.
There's safety in numbers. Anyway, it's too soon.
The murder's come a month separated.
Come along, Helen.
Well...
Oh, I'll get a sweater. You wait for me.
Why didn't you tell her about us finding Eliza?
Why upset her?
Time enough tomorrow.
I told you, tonight we've got to forget.
We're going to the show, and let's not talk about it anymore.
Enough's enough.
The ladies walked downtown and stopped at the drugstore,
which was a few doors from the theater.
Lavinia bought a quarter's worth of green mint chews,
and the druggists dropped the mints into a sack with a silver shovel.
You looked mighty cool this noon, Miss Lavinia, when you was in.
So cool and nice, someone asked after you.
Oh?
Yeah, a man sitting at the counter.
He watched you walk out, and he says to me,
Who's that?
Just like that, he says.
Why, that's Lavinia Neb's prettiest maiden lady in town, I says.
Beautiful, he says.
Beautiful.
Where she live.
You didn't give him her address, I hope.
You didn't.
Well, maybe I shouldn't have.
I didn't give him the exact address.
I said over on Park Street, you know, near the ravine.
Kind of casual.
I'm sorry.
What did he look like?
Oh, not much, I guess.
Wore a dark suit, tail, kind of thin.
Probably nothing but a stranger passing through.
I'm sorry, Miss Lavinia.
No charge for the peppermint.
Don't be silly, Mr. Briggs.
Well, I know what we're going to do right now.
We're going straight home.
That man asking after you.
You're next, Lavinia.
You want to be dead in that ravine?
It was just a man, that's all.
It doesn't mean a thing.
That's what I figure.
Nothing to worry about.
I'm not going to miss the movie.
You two can do what you want.
I'm going.
Well, I think we should all go home.
So do I. She's right, Lavinia.
No, she's not.
Yes, she is.
She's not.
They argued for five minutes,
then the three of them went to the theater.
Francine and Helen reluctantly.
Lavinia, head high, self-possessed, cool.
In the auditorium, they sat in the order of ancient brass
polish, waiting for the second show to begin.
And the lights began to fade.
As we came in, a man in a dark suit followed us.
He was thin, and I think he had a pale face.
He just came in, and he's sitting behind us.
What? What?
Oh, Helen.
What man?
The man behind us.
It's the one Mr. Briggs said was in the drug store.
The one behind us now.
Oh, I'm calling the manager.
It's him.
Oh, stop the movie.
Stop it.
Put on the lights.
It's the murderer, the lonely one.
He's here.
Put on the lights.
Lights!
The drug store clocked set 1125.
They'd come out of the theater feeling new,
and now they were laughing at Francine.
And Francine was laughing at herself.
You see how silly it was, all that riot for nothing.
When you went running up the aisle screaming lights,
honestly, I thought I'd die.
Oh, that poor man.
The theater manager's brother from Racine.
Oh, Francine.
Well, I did apologize.
No.
You see what a panic can do, and all for nothing.
We shouldn't have stopped for sodas, though.
Wasn't that a wonderful picture?
Will you ever forget?
The streets were clean and empty.
Not a car or a truck or a person was in sight.
The ladies walked under a flickering neon sign,
buzzing like a dying insect.
The sounds of their heels shot on the big pavement.
First, we'll walk you home, Francine.
Oh, no.
I'll walk you home.
If you walked me home, you'd have to come back
across the ravine alone.
I know you.
If a leaf even fell on you, you'd drop dead.
Well, I could stay the night at your house.
No, it's all settled.
First, I'll take you home, and then Helen.
Lavinia, Helen, stay here with me tonight.
It's late.
Mrs. Murdock has an extra room.
No, thanks.
I don't sleep well away from my own bed.
Oh, please, Lavinia, please.
I don't want you dead.
Now, you've got to stop this.
I mean it.
I promise I'll call you the very minute I get home.
Now, will you?
Will you really?
I promise.
And Helen, you make her promise you to call.
I will.
Well, good night.
Be careful.
Now, I'll walk you home.
The courthouse clock struck the hour,
but the sounds went across a town that was empty.
Emptier than it had ever been before.
Over empty streets and empty lots and empty lawns,
the sound went.
10, 11, 12.
I don't suppose it's any use asking you to stay, Lavinia.
There's no reason for me to.
You've acted so strangely tonight.
I'm just not afraid, that's all.
And I'm curious, I suppose.
Of course, I'm using my head.
I mean, logically, the lonely one can't be around.
Not now, with the police and all.
Did you ever think that maybe your subconscious
doesn't want you to live anymore?
You and Francine, honestly, Helen.
Well, I feel so guilty.
I'll be drinking a cup of coffee just about the time
you get to the ravine and, ooh, that awful bridge in the dark.
You will call us the minute you get home, won't you?
I won't sleep a wink if you don't.
I'll call.
Now good night.
Lavinia Nebs walked down the midnight street,
down the late summer silence.
She saw the houses with their dark windows,
and far away she heard a dog barking.
She thought to herself, in five minutes,
I'll be safe at home.
In five minutes, I'll be phoning Francine and Helen.
They're so silly, like old hens.
Old.
I'm older than either of them.
I'm...
She heard a man's voice singing away among the trees,
and she walked a little faster.
And then coming down the street toward her
in the dimming moonlight was a man.
Well, look who it is.
What a time of night for you to be out, Miss Nebs.
Officer Kennedy.
Oh, I'm so glad it's you.
Is something wrong, Miss Nebs?
No, nothing at all.
I'm just glad it's you.
You know you shouldn't be out now.
I know.
I've been to the movies.
It is late.
Yeah, come on.
I'd better see you home.
Oh, no.
I can make it fine.
Moon's going behind the trees.
Be pretty dark.
I'm not afraid of the dark, Mr. Kennedy.
You sure you'll be all right?
Quite sure.
All right, tell you what.
I'll wait here at U-Cross.
If you need help, just give me a yell,
and I'll come running.
I'll check by your house later on my way back.
Thank you.
Good night.
As she walked away, she thought,
I won't walk in the ravine with any man.
How do I know who the lonely one is?
No, thank you.
Then the ravine.
She stood on top of the 113 steps,
down the steep bramble bank
that led across the creaking bridge 100 yards
and up through the black hills to Park Street.
Three minutes from now,
I'll be putting my key in the house door.
Nothing can happen.
Nothing.
She started down the dark green steps
into the deep ravine night.
Five, six, seven, eight, nine.
The ravine was deep.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen.
The world of safe people and beds.
The locked doors.
The town.
The drugstore.
The theater.
Lights.
Everything was gone.
Only the ravine existed and lived.
Black and huge around it.
Nineteen, thirty, one.
Nothing's happened, has it?
No one around.
The town is there.
Remember that old ghost story you told each other
when you were children?
About the dark man coming into your house
and you upstairs in bed.
Now he's at the first step coming up to your room.
Now he's at the second step.
Now he's at the third.
The fourth.
The fifth step.
You laughed and screamed at the story.
Now the hard man is at the twelfth step
opening your door.
Now he's standing by your bed.
Ah!
What?
What the?
There at the bottom of the steps.
The man under the light.
No.
He's gone.
He's waiting there.
Oh, but there's nothing.
It's empty.
There's nothing.
Nothing on the bridge.
Fool.
It's that story I told myself.
How silly.
Shall I call Mr. Kennedy?
Did he hear me scream?
Or did I scream?
Maybe I only thought I did.
But then he didn't hear me at all.
I'll go back up.
Go to Helen's and sleep there tonight.
No.
It's nearer home now.
Don't be silly.
Wait.
Someone's following me.
Someone's on the steps behind me.
I don't dare turn around.
Every time I take a step,
I feel like I'm being chased.
Every time I take a step,
he takes one.
Officer Kennedy?
Is that you?
Is it?
The crickets were suddenly still.
The crickets were listening.
The night was listening to her.
Then there was a sound.
Only a woodchuck surely beating a hollow log.
But it was Lavinia Nebbs.
It was most surely the heart of Lavinia Nebbs.
She went down the steps faster, faster,
faster, run.
She heard music in a mad way, a silly way.
She heard the search of music that pounded at her.
Rush punching her faster and faster down, down into the pit of the ravine.
Only a little way across the bridge.
Run, run.
Don't turn.
Don't look.
If you see him, you'll not be able to move.
Just run.
And across the bridge,
between the hills,
to the top of the path, the street,
and even with the light, the fear swirled about her, closing in, pressing.
If I get home safe, I'll never go out alone.
I was a fool. Never again.
If you let me get home,
but this, I'll never go out again, alone.
I promise. Please.
Please, let me.
Please, please.
Get me down to get inside and lock the door.
And I'll be safe.
Oh, safe at home.
Safe, safe at home.
Listen.
Not a sound.
Oh, wait.
Oh.
The window.
Why, there's no one there at all.
Nobody.
There was no one following me at all.
Nobody running after me.
How silly.
If a man had been following me, he would have caught me.
I can't run as fast as a man.
I wasn't running from anything except me.
The ravine was safer than safe.
Oh.
It's nice to be home, though.
Home's a really good, warm,
safe place.
The only place.
She had just put her hand out to the light switch
when she heard it behind her in the blackness.
Just a movement.
What?
Who is it?
Beautiful.
Suspense.
In which Miss Jeanette Nolan starred with Paula Winslow,
Eve McVeigh, and Bill Conrad in tonight's presentation of
Ray Bradbury's The Whole Town Sleeping, adapted by Anthony Ellis.
Next week, the story of a fishing cruise and bait
that was a life insurance policy.
We call it Over the Bounding Main.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis.
The music was composed by Lucian Marowick and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Tom McKee, Florence Wolcott,
Tom Brown, and Will Wright.
Thursday night, The Whistler brings mystery on the CBS Radio Network.
The Whistler.