Suspense. And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William N. Robson. Not many of us rob banks, or traffic with a supernatural, or commit murder, or indulge in the other forms of mayhem and madness of which our suspense plays are concocted. Yet most of us are destined to play our parts in one of the most suspenseful dramas man can experience, the birth of a baby. That's what our story is about, that and the Hollywood freeway, that swift and terrifying facility built by man not for the convenience of men, but for the convenience of machines. It is the most heavily traveled road in the world. It knows death intimately, almost daily, and joined in this writhing, lethal mase alliance, it is a blind and callous stranger to life. Listen, listen then, as Mr. Frank Lovejoy and Ms. Joan Banks star in Ivy is a lovely name, which begins in just a moment. Mutual of Omaha, celebrating its 50th year of service, has important news for men and women aged 50 and over. As a special anniversary offer, Mutual of Omaha has just extended its senior security plan to qualified men and women beginning at age 50, at a saving and premium up to 35%. It's an individual policy providing hospitals, surgical, convalescent, and nursing home benefits with a special renewal guarantee provision and a 10-day money back guarantee. This new protection by Mutual Benefit Health and Accident Association is now available in most states. For details, contact your local Mutual of Omaha representative. He's a neighbor of yours and his phone is listed in the yellow pages of your directory. Or write for details to Mutual of Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska. It's the new low-cost senior security protection for men and women aged 50 and over. Write today to Mutual of Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska for details. And now, Ivy is a lovely name, starring Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks. A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. It wasn't as though this was our first baby. Bobby was eight going on nine. It was just that Linda was out of practice and it made her jumpy. We planned this thing like Eisenhower planned the Normandy landings. And yet, every hour on the hour, Linda wanted to run down the checklist. I know it's silly, Tom, but is the car full of gas? To the top. And you called Marion about coming over to stay with Bobby. Yesterday, the day before yesterday, and also today, twice. It's a wonder your sister answers the phone at all. Did you call Dr. King today? Yeah, I called him and I told him he felt fine. You told him I thought I might have to... Yeah, I told him your built-in calculating machine said tonight was the night and he said not to knock it. Mothers-to-be usually had inside information on such things. Oh, please, no jokes. So he gave me the phone number where I could reach him if he wasn't home or at the office. Tom, I'm sorry I'm such a nag about this, but I just don't want anything to go wrong. Oh, honey. I keep reading about people running out of gas on the way to the hospital or losing their way or getting there and not being able to find the doctor. Yeah, I know. I just figure I couldn't take it if something like that happened to me. I guess I'm not much of a mother. Look, you're a wonderful mother. You've done a magnificent job with Bobby and you'll do okay with this new one. Say, where is Bobby? Oh, if we have to leave in a hurry, I don't want to have to start looking all over the neighborhood for him. He's out in the backyard. He isn't climbing the ivy to the garage roof again, is he? Tom, I have asked him not to play in the ivy a hundred times. He says, okay, Mom, and goes right on doing it. Well, I think you ought to speak to him. I mean, you're his father. Oh, now, listen to me. Bobby's an eight-year-old boy. He's a healthy, normal boy with an urge to climb. Every kid has had since boys were invented. That ivy on the garage is as strong and safe as a rope ladder. He's not going to hurt himself. He could fall and kill himself. He could fall. He'd probably bounce right back up again. Tom, I want you to go call him in and I want you to tell him not to climb that ivy anymore. Well, I need it. Okay, baby. I'll call him. Looks like rain anyway. Hey, you know, I just had a great thought. If the new one's a girl, maybe you should name it Ivy. Yeah, Ivy Peterson. That's a pretty name. That's a horrible name and I don't think you're funny. I don't think you're funny at all. Oh, baby, come on now. I was only kidding. All right, I'll go out and get Bobby. Bob. Bobby. Hi, Pop. Where are you? Up here on the garage. Oh, well, come on down. You're not supposed to play on the garage, Roof. Okay. Watch. I'll show you how I can slide down the ivy. Yeah, okay. Okay. You better hurry up. It's starting to rain. I can do it in the rain, Pop. I've done it. Watch. Now, take it easy now. Your mom doesn't like your climbing things. Watch. I can climb right down like a lateral. See? I'm down. How's that, Pop? Oh, that's great, son. But only your mom doesn't want you to do it. You might lose your grip and fall. You'd get very badly hurt. Now, you wouldn't want that, would you? Oh, I fell lots of times and I didn't even hurt myself at all. I can climb easy. Yeah, I know. Well, now, before we go in, I want you to listen very carefully. I don't want you to mention the ivy or the garage to your mother. Okay. No, no. I'm serious about this. Your mom is a little, well, she's not exactly herself. She's nervous. She worries about little things because... Well, she's going to have a baby. Isn't that right, Pop? Yeah, that's right, son. I couldn't have put it better myself. I sure hope it's not a girl. What's wrong with girls? Oh, they cry all the time. They dress in dresses. They can't climb or anything. Well, your mother wants a girl and I kind of like one myself. You're enough boy for one family. Now, come on in the house. It's really beginning to rain. Tom. Yeah, we're here, Linda. Tom, please hurry. What is it, baby? Tom, I think you'd better call Dr. King. I think it's time to go. Oh, okay. Okay, I'll call him right now. Look, Bobby, you can help. Go in your mother's room, get her overnight bag. It's at the foot of the bed. Okay, Pop. You'd better call Marion. Yeah, now take it easy, sweetie. I'll call her first. They've got to call the doc. Then I'll call your sister. Let me see. It's almost dark. We can get out of here, say, in 15 minutes. We should get to the hospital by time. Oh, hello. Hello. Dr. King there. Oh, it's you, Doc. This is Tom Peterson. Linda, my wife... Yeah, Linda. Yeah. Oh, she's fine, fine. But she's going to have the baby and... Yeah. Yeah, well, she thinks we'd better go pretty soon, Doc. She says... Tell him now, Tom. Please tell him now. She says now, Doc. Yeah, I know. I know. Okay. Yeah, I'll drive her over there as soon as we can get away and you'll be there. Okay, and thanks, Doc. Thanks a lot. Did he say go right over to the hospital? Oh, yeah, that's right, baby. He'll be there now. All I got to do is get your sister Marion over here and we can go. You get Marion on the phone and that's the first hitch. She says her husband Gus had their car and it blew a gasket or something and now she's about to have hysterics because she has no way of getting over to take care of Bobby. And you make the only move you can. You tell her to forget it and you'll take Bobby to the hospital with you. Bobby. Yeah, Pop? Now, look, we're going to have to change things a little. You're going with us. Oh, Tom! Well, I can't help it, honey. Your sister got loused up with a car and she can't get over here so we got to do it this way. It'll be all right. Bobby won't be any trouble. Will you, Bobby? No, I won't be any trouble. I promise. Okay. Now, you all set, Linda? Yes. Bobby got the bag? Yep. Car's out front? Yeah. I can do without this rain but you can't have everything. Tom, let's go. Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. We're off. And don't worry, baby. Plenty of time. I know the way to the hospital like a book. Just take it easy and relax and don't worry, okay? Let's go. In a moment, we continue with the second act of suspense. The following message is from American Telephone and Telegraph. So long! Have a nice trip. Don't forget to phone. Getting away at last. It's a great feeling, isn't it? Looking forward to a carefree weekend or vacation, especially if you've planned ahead by long distance. Now, let's see. You did phone about the cabin. Right. What about the Johnsons? I called them too. They're expecting us. Oh, good. Well, I guess that takes care of everything. Yes. A little vacation planning ahead of time by long distance does a lot toward making a holiday carefree and fun. Right now is a good time to call while long distance rates are lowest. Remember, whenever, wherever you go this summer, go first by long distance. And now, starring Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks, act two of Ivy is a Lovely Name. You've gone over the route so many times in your mind you could drive it blindfold, but you hadn't planned on a San Fernando Valley rainstorm. A half an hour of rain and the streets are running knee deep and your windshield is covered with mud and water before the wipers can clear. The only thing that's really on your side is time. Because you had everything ready to go and Linda said she could tell sooner with a second child. Well, that's what she said. Tom, how long will it take to get there? Well, you know we planned it for about 20 minutes, half an hour at the outside. With this rain, I mean. How long with this rain? I don't know, honey. Maybe a few minutes longer than we planned. Oh, please! I thought that car went through a puddle and it splashed us. Puddle? More like a lake. Don't be like this when we get on the freeway. Water doesn't stand on the road there. You think we should take the freeway with the storm? Well, you want me to drive through these lakes all the way to the hospital? Look, we get off this street in about three blocks and we get up on the freeway. From there on in, it's easy sailing. They drive pretty fast on the freeway. Oh, holy mackerel, honey. Will you relax? I drive the freeway to work every day of my life. I know it like a book. We'll get there on time and relax. You make the turn off Laurel Canyon Boulevard and climb the long ramp and you're on the freeway. You hollered right along with the next guy about the crazy mixed up Hollywood freeway system, but right now it looks great. Four wide velvet smooth lanes inbound, four lanes outbound, and a lovely strip divider down the middle. Of course, on this section of freeway, the divider isn't a steel fence like on some. It's sort of a raised parkway, asphalt on top, about 10 feet wide, with boxes every hundred yards or so planted with shrubs. But it keeps you separated from the cars on the opposite lanes. And in a rain like this with the glare from your headlights mixing crazily with the others, it's a comforting feeling just to know it's there. Daddy, are we almost there? Almost. How much further is it? Oh, stop bothering your daddy, Bobby. It's a little ways yet. Bobby, that's the Hollywood Pole over there on the right. You can't see it, of course, but that's where it is. And those are the lights of Hollywood right ahead of the sun. Will we get to the hospital pretty soon? Sure we will, Bobby. We go along the freeway here until we get to the Vermont off ramp, then we go down Vermont a few blocks and we'll be there. Do you know that we're doing almost 60 miles an hour, Tom? I do. Boy, 60! Let's go faster, Pop! Well, 60 is the average speed along the freeway, Bobby. You go faster, you run into the cars ahead of you, and if you go slower, you get clobbered by the cars behind you. There's an awful lot of traffic for this time of night, isn't there? That's nothing unusual. They begin to jam up all the way to the interchange, but they all move. How do you feel? I'm all right, but I wish we'd get there. I thought you said the second ones were, well, a little more predictable. This one's in an awful hurry. Well, I'm sorry, Tom. Oh, come on now, baby. I didn't mean anything. Tom, will you see if you can get us there as soon as you can? I'm all... Oh, please, please, not yet. Honey, just hang on. I'll see if I can. Tom! I'm tired. I'm tired. Tom, we're swerving! We're going up on the divide line. I know. Oh, my God. You all right, baby? Yes. Bobby? I will drive up here, Pop. Why'd you drive up here, Pop? The tire blew out. Oh, we're lucky. No one hit us. We didn't go across the divider and there was a car coming the other way. We're okay. Tom, I can't stay here very long. Take it easy, Linda. Hold on. I'll get out and flag down a car and get them to take us to the hospital. Now, you just sit tight. I'll get you there okay. Hey! Hey, slow down, will ya? We need help! Hey! I won't stop, honey. Or rather, they can't stop. Everybody's going too fast to stop. What are we going to do? Well, I want you and Bobby to stay right here. I can't get across those four lanes of traffic. I'd never make it. I'll walk down along the divider to the next overhead street crossing. Can you get off the divider there? Of course you can. They gotta have some steps up the inside of the big cement post or a steel ladder up the outside. Tom! They probably even have a phone at the base there in a box or something. After all, nobody built a freeway with a divider stripped down the middle of it. With no way off, they'd be completely crazy. Can I go with you, Dad? No, no. I want you to stay here with your mom. I'll be back before you know it. It can't be too far. Please hurry, Tom. I'd be careful. Please. Oh, don't worry, baby. I'll be back in a jiffy. You mean to walk ahead to the next overhead. But then you remember that you passed one back about a quarter of a mile, so you walked back along the divider instead. You walk and you begin to fight a crazy urge. It's like the feeling you had when you were a kid and you used to walk along the railroad tracks, as if you were balancing on a narrow tightrope. And you were going to fall off, step off into space. And then, after what seems like an hour, you're at the overhead crossing. You look at the cement pillar rising 60 feet above you to the road bottom, with the decorative vines climbing thinly up the wet cement. And you look for the stairs of the ladder of the phone. And there are no stairs. There is no ladder. There is no phone. There's just you and the raised divider. You're standing there. And the cement pillar and the jigsaw splashing headlights hurtling by you on both sides, not seeing you, not doing anything about it if they do see. And you've never felt so alone in your life. You've never felt so trapped. You've never felt so scared. In a moment, we continue with the third act of...suspense. Remember the terrible forest fires that threatened whole communities along the Pacific Coast last year? Or have you been in the vicinity of Bar Harbor, Maine and seen miles and miles of beautiful forest land ruined by fire some years ago? Fires that destroy valuable timberland, wipe out whole towns and endanger lives must be avoided. And it is possible, because nine out of every ten forest fires are man-made. Made, that is, through man's carelessness. A match tossed away when it's not quite out. A lighted cigarette butt flicked out of the window of a passing car. The smoldering ashes of a campfire left to burn itself out. These can and do cause costly fires. Summer and early fall are forest fire time. Not so much because trees and underbrush are affected by the intense heat, but because more people are using the woods for hikes, picnicking and camping. And more people are driving near or through wooded areas. This summer and all year long, make it a habit to be careful with fire whenever you're in or near the woods. And now, starring Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks, Act 3 of Ivy is a Lovely Name. You stand on a narrow concrete divider in the rain and you know you have to get off. You've got to get off, if you watch closely and brake for it just right. Yes, that's got to be the trick. Get a brake and run for it. Now! You don't get two feet before the hairdo, you make it back and that's all. Now you know you can't get to help that way. You hurry back through the rain a long quarter mile to the car. Hi, honey. Well? I didn't make it. I'm That's the only thing that I can do. I... Where's Bobby? Why, he's with you. No, I left him with you. I told him to stay with you. But I let him go look for you. I thought I was going to have the baby and I asked him to go get you. I thought... But he didn't get me. I came back to the car, he wasn't on the divider. Well, he has to be. He went the same way. What, back? Back towards Hollywood? No, no, you said you were going forward to the next overhead. Oh, but I didn't go forward. I went back. Linda, Bobby's out alone on that divider somewhere. I'll go get him. Hurry, Tom, please hurry. I can't hang on much longer, I can't. I'll be back, baby, I'll be back as soon as I can. Start off running now, running down that tiny strip of wet-ass water till your life depended on it. And you know it isn't your life, it's Linda's and a little new one and Bobby's. An eight-year-old, he could get bewildered, he could get dizzy and step out into that traffic. You keep running until you reach the overhead bridge and there's no Bobby. Nothing but rain and concrete and headlights and fear. You're just about to make another cry when you run across the traffic, when you hear a siren moving coming along the freeway. Maybe you can stop it. Maybe you can jump out in front of it and stop it. But you know before you even consider it that you wouldn't live long enough to tell them what you wanted. Now you can see it, a revolving red light on the moving car coming up the fast lane. You stand there like a madman, waving your arms and screaming, stop! Hear him, the divider, stop! Stop! You watch it crippled by you and you hate them for not seeing you. You wonder if there is a way off this with this miserable, thin, wet divider. And then you realize the siren is dying down, not fading away but stopping. You look down the divider to see the revolving red light on the top of the police car and it's stopping by your car. It's stopping! And then you run back towards the car, back towards Linda and you'll run and you'll run and you'll run and at last you're there. You're back at the car. There's a policeman with flares standing behind the police car. Inside the car, there are two policemen with Linda. And Bobby is there too. Hi, Pop. Bobby, where were you? Where did you go? I went up the ivy, Pop. I thought maybe you climbed the ivy up to the bridge so I climbed up there to find you. Mom said to go find you. Okay, Bobby, you okay? I guess you're the father here. Mother and child are doing fine. Mother and child? Linda, I... I'm okay, darling. It's a little girl. Bobby brought the policeman back with him. Bobby's quite a boy. Popped up over the edge of the overhead bridge just as we were crossing. I thought I was seeing things. I wouldn't have climbed it, Pop, but I thought you were up there. It's okay, son. You did the right thing. Oh, it was easy. The ivy was just like it is on the garage. Linda? Yes, Tom. I couldn't get off. I couldn't find any way off. I could ride it. If it wasn't for Bobby. I know, Tom, I know. You know something else I know? What? I've changed my mind. I think ivy's a lovely name for a girl. Yeah? Ivy. Ivy Peterson. That is a lovely name. Hi, ivy. Hiya. Hiya. Hiya. Suspense. In which Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks starred in William and Robson's production of Ivy is a Lovely Name, written by Sam Pearce. In a moment, the names of tonight's supporting players and a word about next week's story of suspense. Improved case site tune up, the tune up in a can. Fill it up, sir? Yeah, regular's good. Say, that engine of yours sounds like real tire and iron. Thanks. Improved case site tune up, the tune up in a can. You got a valve stickin' too. What do you get to a gallon? Not much. Improved case site tune up, the tune up in a can. Want a tune job? Haven't got time. You don't need time. How can a tune job not take time? Improved case site tune up, mister. One can in your gasoline and one can in your oil will clean your motor, your carburetor, your plugs. The works. And case site tune up will unstick those valves. Get you more power and smoother performance. Quicker starting too. Okay, but how much? Dollar and a quarter a can. Results guaranteed or double your money back. Would you start her up, please? Still sounds lousy. I haven't added it yet. Improved case site tune up, the tune up in a can. Supporting Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks in tonight's story were Dick Beals, Sam Pearce, and Jerry Hausner. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with Mr. Jack Carson starring in Analytical Hour. Another tale well calculated to keep you in. Suspense. The latest news follows, then Have Gun Will Travel on CBS Radio.
