Broadway's My Beat, from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the
lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway's My Beat, with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover.
At one o'clock in the morning, night begins to slip out of Broadway's. Broadway stands
bewildered, staring at its empty hands. Solitude whispers its invitation. The derelicts of
night run from it, beat on a door, plead for a refuge from the offered emptiness. But no
door opens to them. At headquarters, you consider it through a grime-stained window. Turn away
from it. Find on your desk a slip of paper that had been there before. Homicide, it says,
Central Park Lake. And Broadway has finally opened a door. The password, the violent dead.
There's the lake and the facade of the city embracing it. There's a shadow covering a
dead girl with its coat, the puny effort to thaw the veil of frost on the girl's path.
Then the shadow riser shakes its head and its mug of it.
I don't know, Danny. Sometimes it's, uh... You know, Danny, I got a nephew, three years
old. He comes here during the daytime to play, to feed the ducks.
Yeah. Who is she?
We don't know. They're dragging the lake now for any identification she might have had
on her. So far, nothing.
Drowned?
Uh-uh. Come here, I'll show you. See? A knife wound. Where it is, it probably killed her
instantly. Then they threw her in the lake.
Who reported it?
A guy and his girl. They were, you know, smooching. They looked up, saw the body floating in the
water. They reported it at the precinct near their house.
Anything?
We questioned them. Why didn't they report it right away? They had an argument about it,
they said. Didn't want to get into a mess, they said. Then the girl said she told her
boyfriend we better report it, so they did.
Who were they?
Smoochers. Nothing else, Danny. We're positive. You made no comment, Danny.
On what?
The way this girl is dressed. The expensive evening gown, the expensive mink fur coat.
I know it's real mink because my wife talks in her sleep about mink like that.
So?
So a lot, Danny. A girl as expensive, as beautiful as this one. Somebody will come asking for
her. It's the least they could do, huh, Danny?
There wasn't anything to say after that. And from far away, across the stillness, the brief
wild sob of a boat whistled. The sudden flurry of wind through naked branches, the quick
small sounds in places where there's no sun. This was the autumn's night pastoral with
death in it. I turned up my caller and walked away from it.
The next morning it was back to headquarters. Received the report that so far nothing had
been found on the bottom of the lake to identify the dead girl. Go downstairs to the place
where it's never daytime, the morgue, the three people waiting there, the quiet audience
sensing the etiquette of stillness, the presence of the dead.
All right, you, the lady over there. Muggerman?
Uh-huh.
We want you to be sure, ma'am.
I'm sure.
Well?
No, it's not my sister.
That way out, ma'am.
Now the gentleman.
My wife was blonde.
Is this your wife?
Take it easy. I haven't seen Aggie in three years.
This girl is five-six, weight 124, approximately 22 years of age.
Aggie's gonna turn up here one of these days. I'll make book on it. She ain't done it yet.
This ain't Aggie.
Through that door over there, please.
You're next, lady.
Rose! Rose!
Hey.
You're Mrs. Hunter.
What have they done to you?
Paslow!
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
I'm here.
Paslow!
Hey, Paslow!
Yeah?
What do you want?
Why didn't you come home?
Oh, it's her.
Get her out of here, will you?
Yeah, come on, Mrs. Hunter.
If it's so often this happens with Mrs. Hunter, Danny, really identified a daughter here
about five years ago, keeps coming back.
I don't know.
That's all of them, huh?
Lovely young girl, dressed beautifully.
Someone must want to know what's happened to her, where she is.
Someone must know who she is.
Okay, Muggerman, we'll try it another way.
Another way was to check with the men in technical.
Maybe they had something.
They had.
The dress the girl had worn to die in was an exclusive, made exclusively for one woman
in an exclusive shop just off Park Avenue.
The coat, too.
The girl had good taste, they told me, and the money to indulge it and the beauty to
grace it.
Beyond that, all they had was a shrug.
So I packed it, shrug and all, in a cardboard suitcase.
And at the top of it, the portrait of the girl taken in death and closed the cover,
snapped the lock.
At Roderick's Incorporated just off Park Avenue, a man tried to stop me from opening the suitcase.
Maybe I should have been proud.
It was Roderick Incorporated himself.
My good fellow, the hours for salesmen are between nine and 10 in the morning.
They are?
And on Tuesdays and Thursdays of a week.
Now that you've been briefed, you may scurry off.
And take that thing with you.
This could interest you, Roderick.
Why?
Because I'm a policeman.
Don't turn pale, Roderick.
You don't match the color scheme that way.
Whatever would a policeman want with Roderick?
This picture, Roderick.
Look at it.
Stunning girl, but so, so dead.
You know her?
No, no, no.
Oh, but wait, that dress she's wearing, it's mine.
That is, it's a Roderick original.
A Roderick inspiration.
Is it this dress?
Oh, but of course.
And the coat too.
Who else could have molded those lines?
You molded them for this girl?
Oh, no, no, never, never.
Obviously, your dead girl is a thief.
I created these things for Gladys Hampton, the advertising executive.
Surely you've seen her in these things in Harper's.
Where else can I see her?
She has a place on Fifth, a tired mansion.
Kiss her for me when you see her, will you?
Tell her you'd do it for Roderick, eh?
If you don't mind, Mr. Clover, let's get this over as quickly as possible, shall we?
All you have to do is cooperate, Miss Hampton.
Cooperate?
I've just come home from Vermont.
Just this morning, I've got work to do.
Cooperating with police is not on the agenda.
Let me show you something.
These clothes, this coat, this dress.
Where'd you get them?
Have you ever seen them before?
I'll tell you why I have.
I paid a lot of money for them.
They're mine.
What are you doing with them?
Well, look at this.
Go ahead.
Take a look at this picture.
That's Joan.
What's this all about?
Who's Joan?
Joan is Joan.
Joan Fulham, my maid.
What's happened?
Didn't you miss her when you came home today?
No, she didn't know when I was coming back.
What's happened to her?
We found her in Central Park Lake, murdered.
I'm not going to like the publicity about this.
That's how sorry you are.
I don't allow myself those kind of luxuries.
I'm too busy.
Tell me about Joan.
Well, she's worked for me for two years.
She came from Muncie, Indiana.
She was efficient.
She lived here.
I paid her well.
I couldn't tell you more than that.
How is it she was wearing your clothes?
Before I left for the weekend, she said a young man she knew from Muncie was in town.
She wanted to dress well for him.
Would I lend her some clothes?
I would and did.
What young man from Muncie?
How do I know what young man from Muncie?
I suppose Muncie has its share of young men, else eventually there'd be no Muncie.
Did you get a look at him?
Well, he was coming in while I was going out.
He was nice looking.
I'd probably remember him if I saw him again, but I couldn't describe him.
You see, I'm being of no help to you.
Besides, I'm busy.
Please, close both doors to the vestibule as you go out, Mr. Clover.
I did.
I walked out into the street holding the crumbs she'd given me.
The identity of the dead girl.
A girl who had borrowed her employer's clothes to impress a young man from Muncie.
A girl whose final embrace was holding close the bitter waters of a lake.
At headquarters, the routine that is a requiem for the violent dead.
A telegram to Muncie asking for information on Joan Fuller.
The ordered a mug of them to riffle through hotel registers for a visitor from Muncie.
A young man, good looking.
The sifting, the questioning, the break for a cup of lukewarm coffee.
And then another call from mug of him.
Hotel Adams, Danny.
A Johnny Barrett.
Registered with his wife from Muncie.
I looked at him, Danny.
He looks likely.
In the tired room, complete with stained drugs, stained washstand.
The young man at the dresser, manicuring his fingernails.
You are here to present me with the keys to the city?
I'd like that because I'm fond of your city.
To ask you questions, Mr. Barrett.
Now, what would a boy from the country know that would interest a big city man like you?
He might have known a girl named Joan Fuller.
He might have known a lot of girls.
Not one named Joan, though.
That's one he's missed.
How big is Muncie, Mr. Barrett?
Big enough that I could walk its streets, put nickels in slot machines, order a beer,
go alone to movies, and never meet a girl named Joan.
It teases me, though.
I'd like to meet her.
She's dead.
She was murdered.
That makes me sad.
I cry when girls die.
It's a thing with me.
Let's go, Mr. Barrett.
I haven't finished my pinky.
You want to show me the sights?
I want to show you to a woman who says a young man came calling on Joan Fuller, a young man
from Muncie.
That could be a sight.
Get your coat, Mr. Barrett.
Let's go.
Can't wait.
Oh, honey.
Honey, honey.
Honey, honey, doll, come on in.
Enjoy looking at the shop windows?
Jimmy, who is...
A policeman, honey.
He wants to go show me to a lady.
This is my wife, Mr. Clover.
Mrs. Barrett?
It's hard to believe she's my wife, huh, Mr. Clover?
Me being young and, well, honey doll here being...
But we love each other to pieces, don't we, honey doll?
Jimmy, I don't understand.
What's a policeman doing with you?
Don't worry, baby.
I told you.
He wants a lady to look at me so she can identify me as the murderer of some pretty girl named
Joan.
She was pretty, huh, Mr. Clover?
Jimmy...
Go window shopping again, honey doll.
The policeman and I have got a date.
Let's go, Jimmy.
Sure, let's go.
This house.
Nice house.
Have I been here before?
No.
I bet you wish I had, though.
Nice chimes.
Pretty.
Nice.
Funny.
Vestibule doors open a bit.
Miss Hampton liked her doors closed.
Oh, you wouldn't peek, would you?
Yeah, I would.
Stuck.
It'll only open half...
Hey.
Hey, look.
What there was to look at was a vestibule floor, a tile mosaic in a simple block pattern.
Clean, gleaming.
Even the blood that spread across it had a new quality to it.
Miss Hampton's blood.
Miss Hampton lying there.
An elf beside her.
Miss Hampton with a knife in her heart.
Miss Hampton dead.
You were listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin
and starring Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover.
Are you ready to sing it again this Saturday night?
You'll find a whole hour full of the day's popular music by Alan Dale, Bob Howard, Judy
Lynn and the Riddlers.
You'll hear the tuneful riddle songs that lead to Sing It Again's Phantom Voice Treasure
Trove.
$5,000 in cash and 10,000 more in wonderful prizes.
Be listening to Sing It Again this Saturday night when it comes your way on most of these
same CBS stations.
The Phantom's a puzzler, but some CBS listener will win that $5,000 in cash.
When it's November and the winter is a-coming in, Broadway is a place of regret.
The dreams are dying and it's a long time before April will come again.
The orange juice stands put glass doors between themselves and the pavement, serve hot coffee
as a buffer against the wind and loneliness.
Somebody leaves a newspaper on the stool beside you, not very neat, folded badly.
There's a small bit of blackberry pie on the item that tells about a girl who floated face
downward in the lake.
You flip back a page and consider the minor headline concerning a woman named Gladys Hampton,
also murdered.
You flip another one and see how they ran it highly.
You take your time.
Outside it's pavements and outside it's cold.
I didn't have it so good.
I got my coffee out of a paper cup and Sergeant Detaglia had put too much cream in it.
Or as he put it...
Too much cream, huh?
And not enough sugar.
Ah, you always get them mixed up, Danny.
Why is this?
We all have our bad days, Gino.
Well, only I seem to have them more frequent than most.
Have you noticed?
Let's get on with it.
You got anything for me?
Uh, yeah, Danny, yeah.
In the matter of Jimmy Barrett, the young man from Muncie, it has been established by the
coroner that he could not have killed Gladys Hampton since at the moment of her demise,
Jimmy was with you.
What about an alibi for last night when Joan Fuller was killed?
He claims that he was doing the town up with his wife and cannot tell us what time he was
where.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh, what?
He cannot tell us what time he was where, Danny.
How does he like our pokey, Gino?
Not very much.
He's screaming for his wife.
Also, he wrote the little verse on the wild to tell us how much he didn't like it.
It starts off...
Tell me later, Gino.
I'm going out.
Where, Danny?
To see a man's wife.
Oh, it's you.
Where's my husband?
What have you done with him?
He's downtown, Miss Barrett.
We're holding him on suspicion of murder.
Well, don't stand there in the hall making a show of me before the world.
Come in here.
Come in.
Sure, Miss Barrett.
I was just washing out some of my things in the basin.
You live in a dirty city, Mr. Clover.
The dirt eats into everything.
What right have you to do a thing like that to Jimmy?
What right?
Because we think he murdered a girl named Joan Fuller.
The girl I read about?
The girl from Muncie?
Jimmy never knew her.
He never knew anything like her.
Not like her.
You know that much about your husband, Mrs. Barrett?
I'm a middle-aged woman, Mr. Clover.
I know things about my husband that no girl ever knew.
Why did you and Jimmy come to New York, Miss Barrett?
You won't say any of the things people say when I tell them.
Jimmy and I are on our honeymoon.
Mrs. Barrett.
He loves me.
You saw how much he loves me.
The sweet names he calls me.
I saw, Mrs. Barrett.
Took me a long time to bring Jimmy around to me, Mr. Clover, to the things I wanted.
I'm not going to lose him to you.
You'll help us.
Maybe we can give him back.
This is a trick.
If you're trying to trick me, you want me to say something about him that'll
make him dead.
Something that can save him.
What can I tell you that will do that?
Did he ever leave you alone on your honeymoon?
Go off somewhere alone?
Never.
Why, Jimmy waits on me hand and foot.
That's what first attracted me to him back home.
How polite he was.
How considerate.
When he could have had any girl.
Here, Mrs. Barrett, has he left you alone here?
I told you no.
He was alone when I found him.
That was different.
I went window shopping.
I like to do that alone.
I like to come back and tell him the things I saw.
All the useless, expensive, frilly things that are no use to anyone.
Just good to look at sometimes.
You've done that other times?
Back home in Muncie, not here.
One more question, Mrs. Barrett.
Did you know Joan Fuller?
No, I didn't know her.
My husband didn't know her.
I haven't told you anything that'll save him, have I?
But I will.
You will see.
I hired a lawyer.
He's getting a writ.
You'll bring Jimmy back to me.
You'll see.
Wait till I tell Jimmy how you treated me.
Just you wait.
I'll wait.
Don't take Jimmy back home with you, Mrs. Barrett.
We'll want you both here.
Danny?
Come on in, Gino.
Okay.
Just a word to let you know that people questioning around the home of Gladys Hampton had never
seen Jimmy Barrett.
Also, that Jimmy is released on a writ.
Yeah, I was threatened with it.
And to tell you that outside is a gentleman from Muncie, Indiana.
Another one?
Yeah, Danny.
You know, this is the first week in my life I have met two people from Muncie, Indiana,
one on top of the other.
Show them in, Gino.
They're this way in to see Danny Clover, Mr. Fuller.
Sit down, Mr. Fuller.
Thank you.
I'm Jones' father, Mr. Clover.
I see.
I'm very sorry about what...
Thank you, but of course you're not sorry if we mean the same thing by that word.
You're a policeman on homicide and your job's got to do with the dead people.
People get used to death almost as easy as they do to cigarettes.
The sorrow of Jones' death belongs to me, not to you.
Forgive me, I made a speech.
How did you know your daughter was dead?
You notified the Muncie police, they notified me.
I've come to take her home with me.
If I can help...
Find the person who killed her.
We're trying, Mr. Fuller.
I've never been vengeful.
I've always felt sorry for people, even by hate.
Now it's happened to me.
I can understand.
Tell me, Mr. Fuller, do you know a man named Jimmy Barrett from Muncie?
Of course.
Jones knew him too.
Pardon me a second.
Pataglia.
Roger, Danny.
There's a man tailing Jimmy Barrett, isn't there?
Yeah, Danny.
Go and search for him.
Find out where Jimmy is.
Roger.
Over.
We were talking about Jimmy Barrett, Mr. Fuller.
Tell me about him.
Well, Jimmy married a woman somewhat older than he, a rather wealthy woman.
Why do you ask?
He's honeymooning in New York.
How well did your daughter know him?
Valentine's, letters on flowered stationery, holding hands and dances, that much no more
than that.
You see?
What did Joan tell you she was doing in New York?
Hanging in advertising, she said.
Everyone back in Muncie thought that.
I didn't know she was a maid.
I know how you feel.
Forgive me again, you can't possibly know.
Did you have a daughter?
Did you tell her stories?
Did she cry against your cheek?
Did you watch her grow up?
Was she found in a lake?
Was she murdered?
Mr. Fuller, I...
We don't know each other, Mr. Clover.
We're not friends.
Your sympathy doesn't mean anything to me.
Just find my daughter's killer.
Danny?
What is it, Tataglia?
The man we had tailing, Jimmy Barrett, just phoned in.
Jimmy just bought himself a new car five minutes ago, Prango Hudson.
Where?
Tobin's, on 105th Street.
Thanks, Gino.
You're primed to buy a new car, mister.
You're just tantalizing yourself with this new model.
I want to...
Sure you want to.
Everybody wants to.
There's no feeling like the feeling of running your hand over this new old leather upholstery.
Save it.
I'm from the police.
That makes you different?
That gives you desires different from other people's desires?
Look, a man named James Barrett is just...
Oh, I'll never forget him.
He bought a new car off of me not a half hour ago, paid me cash, drove away on a dream.
Cash?
$2,500.
He just took $2,500 out of his pocket and gave it to you?
Well, not exactly.
Let me give you a vivid description of it.
I found it very thrilling.
You thrilled me, too.
He looked at the car, asked me how much it was as I stood there, and I told him.
Then he runs across the street to the bank, runs back with $2,500 clutched in his wet
fist.
So you see why it wasn't exactly.
He pulled it out of his pocket.
He was clutching it in his wet fist.
Bank across the street, huh?
Yeah.
Hey, what's the matter?
He got it from the bank.
It can't be counterfeit, can it?
Don't give me heart failure like that.
Hit me in the face with it.
It's not counterfeit, is it?
Don't you find it funny?
Don't you find it rather interesting, Mr. Clover, that I, Stephen Chase, am working
for the Corn Exchange Bank?
We chasers have a bank of our own, you know.
I know.
And you're the chaser who gave Barrett $2,500.
Precisely that chase.
Does Barrett have an account here?
As of this morning, a rather plump one.
He opened an account this morning and withdrew that much money this afternoon?
I see you don't understand banks.
Oh, explain them to me.
Mrs. Barrett had a letter of credit from a bank in Muncie, Indiana, which she chose to
deposit here with us at Corn.
Go on.
Please.
Therefore, this account was in Mrs. Barrett's name.
However, this morning, Mr. Barrett appeared.
Mr. Barrett, the bearer of a letter from his wife to the effect that her account should
now be a joint account.
Was that all?
Please.
I called Mrs. Barrett to find out whether the letter was valid.
Mrs. Barrett told me to give her husband as much money as he wanted.
All this happened this morning?
Precisely this morning.
Precisely, Mr. Chase.
Oh, hiya, Danny.
Just going out.
Want to go out with us?
No, I'm coming in.
Well, Mrs. Barrett, I see you got all your things packed.
Going back to Muncie?
Oh, no.
We couldn't go back to Muncie until this thing was all cleared up.
We're going to find a nicer place to live.
Yeah, me and the Honeydoll are going to branch out.
Nothing but a ball from now on.
We're really going to live, aren't we, Honeydoll?
You know, whatever you want, Jimmy.
Tell me what you want, Jimmy.
What I want?
Get out of this crummy hole.
New clothes for Honeydoll and for me.
Drapes, double-breasted.
I understand you got a new car.
It's got New York talking, huh?
New York talking about it down at headquarters.
Jimmy, the man said he'd show us the penthouse at 9 o'clock.
It's almost that now.
You heard what Honeydoll said, Danny.
I guess I'm hand-packed, that's all.
Tell me when all this happened, Jimmy.
The last time I saw you, you were happy, right here.
How much are you allowed to meddle in our lives?
What concern is it of yours where we live?
Oh, Honeydoll, don't talk like that to Danny.
He wants to come up for a drink sometime.
He wants to know our address.
Get him out of here.
You didn't answer my question, Jimmy.
When did you make up your mind about all this?
New car, penthouse.
I'll tell you.
Honeydoll and me had a small talk.
We decided we were tired of living like folks, like other people.
Honeydoll wants to support me in the manner I'm itching for.
She can afford it.
Come here, Honeydoll.
Jimmy.
Jimmy, get him out of here.
No, baby, this is Jimmy.
Jimmy with his arms around you.
Stop it!
Okay, okay.
You're supposed to give me anything I want, remember?
You're a little blackmailed, Jimmy.
Huh?
I had a talk with Joan's father.
He said you used to hold hands with his daughter.
If you did that, you lied to me.
You did know, John, you did lie to me.
Danny, so I lied to you.
I was nervous.
It's getting late, Jimmy.
Did you lie to him, Miss Barrett?
Did you know Joan back in Muncie?
No.
But you knew Jimmy knew her.
Jimmy was seeing her while you were here, while you were on your honeymoon, Miss Barrett.
Why not, Danny?
A guy likes to look up old friends, especially an old friend who's made good in the big city.
I got news for you.
Joan was a housemaid.
Those clothes she was wearing belonged to her employer.
I knew that, and I understand why she did it.
To impress me.
To make me hate myself because I married another woman.
Jimmy, you realize what your lying can cost you.
Sure, Danny.
Now, I'm your number one murder suspect.
That's right.
Danny.
Uh-huh.
What's the penalty for murder in this state?
Premeditated.
Premeditated.
Life, the chair, depends on the jury.
And how about for obstructing justice?
Depends, one to ten, maybe.
But for murder, it can be the chair, huh?
That's right.
Did you hear that, honey doll?
You're gonna get the chair.
Jimmy.
You killed so you could keep your husband in you, Mrs. Barrett.
Jimmy.
I'm begging you.
Get him out of here.
You were afraid Jimmy would get blamed for it because Miss Hampton, her employer, could
recognize him.
You had to kill Miss Hampton, too, didn't you?
Jimmy.
That's what you held over your wife, Jimmy.
You knew all this.
She had to give you everything you wanted.
Thought you'd get as soon as you were married, but didn't.
One to ten, huh?
That's the way it was, Danny.
You!
You felt!
I killed my girl!
Killed my girl!
And your felt!
Don't take it so hard, honey doll.
You've lived almost most of your life.
They had a week of it with me.
Let's go.
Both of you.
Honey doll, I promise you this.
When I get out, not spend your money.
I'll be happy.
Just the way you wanted me to.
Broadway looks good now.
It's wearing the funny mask or the funny nose.
The big smile painted in scarlet.
The scarlet you've known in other places and other times.
Don't rip off the mask, kid, because you couldn't stand what you'd see.
It's Broadway, the gaudiest, the most violent.
The lonesomest mile in the world.
Broadway.
My Beat.
Broadway's My Beat stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia.
The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with musical score composed and conducted
by Alexander Courage.
Covered in tonight's cast were Irene Tedrow, Dick Krenna, Bob Bruce, Peggy Webber, Stan
Waxman and Jack Krushen.
This Saturday evening on CBS, Hopalong Cassidy comes riding to the rescue of an old friend
who's suspected of a serious crime.
It's a long tough job Hoppy takes on, literally risking his own neck.
With one of the greatest surprise endings you've ever heard, Hoppy comes through.
Be listening this Saturday and every Saturday evening when the one and only Hopalong Cassidy
starring William Boyd is heard on most of these same CBS stations.
And coverly speaking, this is CBS where yours truly Johnny Dollar brings adventure Saturday
nights on the Columbia Broadcasting System.