Broadway's My Beat, from Times Square to the Lumbered Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway's My Beat, with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. It's into January now, and Broadway's settle down's another year's worth of living. The days have begun to drift backward again, away from you. And it's started all over. Punch the time card, smile at the boss, and the comments made. But the main chunk of dream is still there, and on Broadway it could happen. In the carnival, somewhere in there, in that eddy of a cloud, or that one. Or across the street, where the girl with the yellow hair sees your smile and blows a kiss. It's happened. But no dream's where I was. Long ago dreams revolved into hands full of crumbling plaster and thrown away. This place, empty tenements, abandoned, seen now for two men at very early morning time. Me. You're not going to take me, Copper. And murder suspect. I didn't do anything, Copper. Come on, Don, from there we'll talk it over. I'm coming up after you. I got a gun. I'm going to use it, Copper. All right. Wherever you are, just listen for a moment. Slide your gun toward me on the floor. When you do that, I'll turn on this flash. Then walk toward me with your hands up. After that, I'll listen to what you... You'll get your chance, Copper. You should have... Come on, Don. Come on. Yeah. Try another one, Don. Yeah, that one should do it. All right. Come on, I'll help you. I'm okay, Mark. It's my day for helping. Let me help you. You don't have to be a hero. You don't have to stand up. Wait a minute. I'm all right. You get away? You sure did. Brings your batting average down a little, Danny. What is funny? Well, don't let it worry you. We'll get him... I'm not worried. Everything is... This is an all-points bulletin out on him, Danny. We'll get him. Won't take long. Make you feel better? Yeah, I'm fine. The lady recognized him when he came out of the office. I'm going to go get him. I'm going to go get him. I'm going to go get him. I'm going to go get him. it. Danny? Oh, come on in, Sergeant. My, my. Something hurts you, do you know? You do, Danny. The lump you got there hurts me, if you must know. Thanks. You got something for going. Indeed I do. As soon as I heard of the lump, I called Mrs. P., who prescribed the following folders. Take a square yard of flag. No, Gina, over. Preferably of the clan of. No, Gina, please. Very well, Lieutenant. If you would care to know, there have been no reports on the matter of the old points bulletin on Herbie Lennon. That's what I wanted to know. And various items on the deceased whom Herb Lennon is alleged to have. Just tell me. Deceased named Joseph Brady, 45 years old, address quote, quote, East 48. Good neighborhood. That instantaneous from 38 caliber bullet fired from up close. Sight of death alley between his apartment house and East 47. What else? The preliminary investigation shows the following. The deceased Joseph Brady was well to do living off of royalties from a gadget he had invented. A kind of a bottle opener for the bar trade and home use, which he didn't invent about five years ago. Any connection between him and Herbie Lennon? None, Danny, as far as known as yet. Can you manage, Lieutenant? I am. Danny Clover speaking. This is Herbie Lennon. Where are you, Herbie? Subway phone booth. 34th and Lexington. I'll wait for you, copper. And I'll talk to you. You better hurry before I change my mind. I'll be right there. I'll leave the recipe for the poultice right here on your desk, Danny. Please use it. Remember, I heard too. You. You make it. You're looking for it. Herbie Lennon? In the flesh. Come on, Herb. Yeah. Come on, Herb. Let's get out of here, Herb. Get hurt, mister? Get hurt when I brain you? Yeah, it hurts. Hey, you're passed out. Uh-huh. You're the same like me. It gets too big to handle, I pass out. You gonna listen to me? What? You'll listen, maybe, but you won't believe me. Tell me. I know you're not gonna believe me. Tell you anyhow. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I tapped you on your skull. It wasn't right and I shouldn't have done that. I was. I believe you, sir, Herb. Wait, what are you? For what? I don't know. Just wait a minute, huh? All right. Well, Herb? I'm a drunk. But you can tell that, can't you? Come on. No, no, wait, wait. I'm a drunk. Some things about my type, don't maybe you don't know. Not this year, sir. I told you, wait. Didn't I tell you, wait? You gotta understand the kind of drunk I am. Neighborhood drunk. Got a drunk. Saturday to Monday drunk. If I'm lucky, sometimes in between. And I do things. Like you did last night, Herb. Kill and run. I do things. I black out and people tell me after how I do things. It gets big screams in the neighborhood, the things I do. Sometimes, sometimes, what? Sometimes, right in the middle, I'm doing something. I don't know what. I come to and I say to myself, what are you doing here, Herb? Who is, who is this you with? And another thing, who are you? The questions I ask myself. Like last night. Yeah. Yeah, just like last night. That was one of those sometimes. Sometimes when I come to and there was a gun in my hand and this guy dead by my feet. A guy out of nowhere. So brave is the man you shot. A guy out of nowhere dead at your feet. And a thing like that closes in on you, you know? You get the meanies and you run. Something gets in the way like you did. Come on, Herb. Let's go book you for murder. You didn't understand the word I said, did you? You didn't understand. I'm just a drunk. No killer. All those things people scream laughing over what I did. Not once was that I hurt somebody. I don't hurt nobody. I got enough of my own to last me a billion years. So why go looking to hurt somebody? Kill somebody? I'm a nothing, Herb. I just, I just, I just. Come on, Herb. And up the subway stairs and into another pattern of roar and chill and winter shadows. January day splayed against stone, against pavement, against the crowd. And the woman who slows for a moment considers you, considers the man at your side, smiles, the knowing winter smile, the secret winter smile. And Herbie's mouth shapes an emotion about her and a step quickens, flight in the crowd. The squad car then push Herb into a ride drifting day. And it becomes headquarters and the booking of Herb Lennon for suspicion of murder. And upstairs now in the corridor to your office, the desk pass. Danny. I know, Gino, the poultice I'll do. So quick to jump the false presumptions, Danny, I am surprised at you. Not the poultice? Your health and the lumps that go with it is a private affair after all. Then what? Under your very nose, on my desk, a tumbler full of fresh chameleons. And this is your comment? Oh, they're very nice, Gino. Now, uh. And how it comes to pass that a sergeant is bedesked with a tumbler full of fresh chameleons, this does not occur to you to ask. All right, Gino, how come? Given to me out of the blue by visitor, a doll, a charmer, a lady of refinement and sensitivity who even now waits for you in your office. For you, there was a bachelor button which I have laid neatly across. Who is she? What does she want? I'll be by the name Miss Sally Carr. What she wants is a thing that meant the murder, Joe Brady. And I tell you, Danny, if it were not that my eyes are already fastened on a certain Mrs. Bartaglia, this congly lady. Sally, Gino. Miss Carr. It was the sergeant's whim to lay your flower, the one I brought you across your calendar. He said it would sweeten your day. I thought he'd so delicate of him and I didn't have the- He said it was about Joe Brady. May I place the flower in your buttonhole, Mr. Clover? It's what it was meant for. What about Joe Brady, Miss Carr? Him? Oh, very simple. Something I believe you should know about him. What? That I killed him. It does seem a little shocking, doesn't it? But I did. I really did. I took a gun and I shot him and I killed him. There now, Mr. Clover. How nice you look. You are listening to Broadway is My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover. The new year has rolled out only so many of its nightclubs, and Broadway has already used them. Drained their moonfall, their trumpeting, their whispering, the long night times, quick surge, quick ebb of night times, and a new one coming up. And take your place in line, wait for the new falling of darkness, meet the change of price, and it will come like other Broadway darknesses, explosion, laughter, shock. In the corridor where now walks solitude, wait. At edge of neon dream, wait. Soon there is night. And in the office at headquarters, gray flow of winter twilight, and the twilight woman who had brought convenience for a sergeant's desk, who had placed a flower in your lapel, who had confessed to murder. Such a restful time, such a lovely time. What? The close of day, Mr. Clover, when there's stillness and so much that's beautiful, and so many sweet thoughts crowding in to be heard. Miss Carr. And the planning of kindness, Missy. Such a delicious, wonderful time of day, though I must confess. I know, but you killed me. Oh, that, no, no, my other confession, that I hate darkness. I'm afraid of it. It's silly, I know, but I'm no longer a young girl, Mr. Clover. Forty-five, to be precise, and darkness. Let's get back to the murder of Joe Brady, shall we, Miss Carr? If you wish. You've confessed to the murder of a man. Of course, because I did it. Why did you kill Brady? Miss Carr. So much good left to be done, Mr. Clover, and so many depend upon me for it. At least I, I deceive myself in the way that I do. I'm not a good person, but I deceive myself into believing that they are. Now I've gone and spoiled it for them. Now I... Why did you kill Brady? Please, Mr. Clover. It's her. I took a gun. I shot him in cold blood. Her. And so many other things to think about now. Where did you get the gun? Tell me, Miss Carr. I'm very tired, Mr. Clover. And he was a very evil man, and he deserved the death... You knew Brady that well, that he was that kind of man that he needed you to kill him? That was one of the niceties you do for people, Miss Carr. For Herb, it was. How much he needed what I did for him at that moment. Herb, Herb Blenman? That poor, helpless boy. Like a child in his drunkenness. And that man beating him and cursing him and beating and beating and Herbie crying. And I took a gun and killed that man and told Herb it was all right. He could go home. Yeah. You understand, Miss Carr, we're going to book you for suspicion of murder. If you would only listen to me. How simple I tried to make it for you. You could have done what was needed without all this. Where now, Mr. Clover? And Miss Carr straightens her knitted mittens, gets up from her chair and lays a hand on your arm. Mannerism of gentle lady being led away to jail and remarks about it. After all, the day of the dungeon has passed. And after all, I have committed a crime. So book her on suspicion. Get a copy of her address from the desk, sergeants. Tip your hats, Miss Carr. And leave her. Out into the street, squad car ride to East 37, tenement neighborhood in early January evening. Winter chill against built-in shadows. Yellow pools of light from windows as it spills from a broken bottle and sweats thin. And walkers as solitary and wear their loneliness that tightly around them as their zippered leather jackets. So punch doorbells and ask questions of Miss Carr's neighbors and get answers like the answers Mrs. Taylor gives you. I don't know what you're talking about. All I want to know is whether you think Miss Carr could have killed a man. You're crazy. Look, Mrs. Taylor, she confessed to doing it. You're out of your mind. Suppose you could tell me a little bit about Miss Carr. With the greatest of pleasure, Mr. Because Sally Carr is a blessing to all of us. You know what this neighborhood is. I don't have to tell you. Where kids grow up so you police can assign them numbers. So you... Just tell me about Miss Carr. Someone around here gets sick. Sally Carr is a nurse, doctor, and spy. Organizes things so everyone will have something for Christmas. Organizes things so we women can have our babies in hospitals. Oh. Now tell me something about Herbie Lennon. I'm glad you asked. Because now you know what kind of woman Sally is. Herbie has her pet problem and her pet charity. She closed him, has for as long as she's lived around here. Herbie's a drunk, but it don't make no difference to Sally. Give him a quarter or a dollar. How long has Miss Carr lived around here? Oh, let's see now. About five years, I think. Let me tell you something, mister. If you think Sally Carr killed a man, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to court and say that she was with me at the time of the killing. She confessed it, Mrs. Taylor. Because she's Sally Carr. Sally Carr. You're just covering for that soft baby. Now you get out of here. I don't like what your mouth says about Sally Carr. Danny. I'm talking to you, Danny. So what do you want, Muggerman? Why don't you take a rest and let me walk around the office for a while? I'll forget it. Forget it, he says. Look, I had as much grief as you did today. I talked to some of our neighbors, too. 37th Street formed a block committee and came down in protest. Oh, yeah. Three of them said they were going to take the stand and swear Sally Carr was with them at the time. Yeah, I know, I know. Right now, she's got her whole cell block singing spirituals and four-part harmony. Do you think she killed anybody, Danny? What do you think? They're smuggling Tim. I'm calling for Lieutenant Clover. Release Sally Carr. Right. Right, Danny. Yeah. I'll meet her downstairs with the squad car. Take her home. And full squall of winter night now. And lightning-like storm of winter light. Gleam refraction, phosphorescence, rhinitis. And at your side, the dainty woman. And thin lips and trembling her protest of guilt. I feel it, and you're being very silly. Quite childish about it. And the girls and me in our cell. How well we sang together. The never-end of soliloquy on pitfalls of crime and etiquette of punishment. Did you escort her to her door? Help her shrewdly with the mechanics of key and the lock? And chains of water invasives of... Flowers, blossoms. Were you lonely for me? Go home, where quiet is. And sleep. And morning at headquarters, morning in your office is a man from Brooklyn. Man with identity. Stan, Stan Clamley. Clamley, got it, fella? What can I do for you, Mr. Clamley? What deal, Mr. Clamley? Last night in the paper in front of the handicapper, they noticed picture. Certain lady yelled from murder. Then released. What about her? What about her is pleased to convey to me her home address. As if she is whom I think she is. This lady owes me for a plate glass window to my restaurant, through which she threw my blue plate special of that year. What? Also for the fixtures which she and her boyfriend broke in her toothpicks at the time. My counselor will be very obliged to you. And will extend to you the courtesy, a percentage, that I take from the lawsuit. My deal. The woman you're talking about, Sally Carr, is... Sally Carr, she said. Six years to yesterday. The time of the broken glass, et cetera, in my restaurant. Known to me as Hazel Thomas. The lady boogie man of the neighborhood. Six years, and I'm a lawyer and a... I'll hold it a minute, Mr. Clamley. Yes, it's the procedure. I want you to look at a photograph. Here, take a look. Don't mind. Hey, this of a dead man. Hey, hey! What, Mr. Clamley? This fellow by the pictures, the dead. Sure, Joe. Sure, Joe Brady, the boyfriend of Hazel I was telling you about. This is how he is now. You said this woman you've been looking for was known in your neighborhood. What neighborhood, Mr. Clamley? Comber Prospect Park. From 212th to 218th Street. Corner of Brighton and 215th is my restaurant. Down the street is a bar and grill where there's Hazel was lapping it up before she... Hey. Uh, Hazel Thomas and Joe Brady dead. And I'm worried about our Blake down... Yeah, thanks, Mr. Clamley. Thanks a lot. What are you drinking, friend? Police. Yeah. Hey, Mickey, owe me a buck. Police, I told you. What's yours? I want you to look at a couple pictures. We're trying to find out. Yeah, yeah, you're casing the neighborhood and asking. I know the routine. Let me see them. Hazel Thomas and Joe Brady. You're sure? You showed me and I told you. What do you want me to do, put carrots in your ears and hang onto them and say, Please believe me? Hazel Thomas and Joe Brady, friend. They used to live around here, didn't they? Yes. And when they were blocked with a meat axe, there were a couple of lobs on the table over my last boot over there. So look at it. Notches all around the edge of the table. Then Joe got rich, huh? Yeah, he invented that thing over there in the ginger ale bottle. Dollar item worth 39 cents. Joe, give me one free. Then what? Then what? Well, what happened to Joe after he got rich? He bid Hazel Thomas farewell and left Brooklyn with two black eyes and a snag of tooth. Never come back. Now tell me something about Hazel. She's the worst thing in my life. Probably the worst thing that ever lived. Tell me. Me and that dog, look, like a bum come in and ask her to buy a beer. She'd buy it. Wait for the foam to settle, hand it to the bum, and spill it all over. And then she'd get down on the floor and laugh and kick the floor. She'd laugh so hard. Like you'd be reading the newspaper. Now you don't see it, see? She'd light the paper and get down on the floor again and bang with her heels. That's it, huh? Oh, me, like I said, like the hite people. Little hite. The wife, no good, horrible thing you ever saw. That was Hazel. Danny? Huh? This time of day she's probably having her tea. Nice, sweet lady like her. I'm sorry. Hi, Mr. Clover. What a pleasant surprise. And this gentleman must be a friend of yours. May I present Detective Markham. Charmed and real sure. And so am I. Come in, come in, I'm just having tea. Right in here. Oh, please sit down. I'll pour. No, thank you. Neither. No tea? Miss Carr. Oh, I know. Dandelion wine. I've had some in the closet. Thanks, but we just had some. What? Do you know why we're here, Miss Carr? Why, of course. The time of the day. Calling time. We're old friends now. Try murder. Oh, you've come to take me back. That's right. I've told you all along. Well, you just wait and I'll pack a few things. Well, let's just talk for a little while. How nice. What the lieutenant wants to tell you is that you're not going to stand trial on the basis of your confession. Why, whatever do you mean? Well, if you'd stand trial on that basis, you'd get off. First of all, no jury would believe a sweet lady like you could kill a man. No motive. Secondly, all your neighbors character witnesses. Some of them will even furnish you with an alibi. If you love people, they'll love you back. Just pay attention. The jury would say Sally Carr was covering for Herbie. A quick Sally Carr. Sally Carr could never stand trial again for the murder of Joe Brady. The way you planned it, Hazel. Hazel? That's right. There's no Sally Carr. Your confession wouldn't even be legal. Your name is Hazel Thomas. Why? What are you talking about? We've talked to a lot of people, Hazel, including people from Brooklyn. Yeah, you've really left your mark on Brooklyn, Hazel. Matter of fact, if you'd paid a man for the plate glass window you kicked out, maybe we'd never have caught up with you. Bella. Uh-huh? Why don't you give an old party an even chance? Like what? Give me a running start for that meat act I got from a kitchen. A laugher, huh? I'll show you! Let go of him. Let go. Take it easy, Hazel. You leave me alone with that flop for two more minutes. That scratch on his face landed his toes. Give me a hand, kid. What are you doing? Here. Hazel? Yeah. You killed Brady because he ran out on you? Sure. Makes a gadget and goes crazy. After all the times we had together. You don't know the times when we had together. I heard. You can believe it too. So you tracked him down and moved close by. Changed your name and your personality too. Nurtured a drunk named Herbie. A drunk who blacked out. So when you finally got your old boyfriend in an alley and shot him, you could stick the gun in Herbie's hand. It took five years, but I paid off Brady. Ready, Hazel? Not gonna let me race you to the meat-ach, huh? Ha ha. Sure. I'm ready. Thanks, gal. Godway's sleeping now. The furious avenue of the night is filled. Stretches out in front of you without beginning, without end. The dumping grounds of refuse and ashes and leftovers. The neon words are turned off, but look there where the sidewalk meets the street. It's your name written on water. It's Broadway, the gaudiest, the most violent, the loneliest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat. Broadway's My Beat stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover, with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Crouchen as Muggerman. The program is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. In tonight's story, Paula Winslow with Curtis Hazel, featured in the cast were Martha Wentworth, Sydney Miller, Benny Rubin, and Paul Freeze. Bill Anders speaking. Broadway is My Beat has come to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Music. Music. Music. For the past 55 minutes, you've been listening to the best in radio drama with Theater Five and Broadway is My Beat. Join us again Monday night at the same time, 9.05, when FEN will present Dragnet and X-Minus One. Music.
