Broadway's My Beat from Times Square to Columbus Circle,
the guardiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world.
Broadway's My Beat with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover.
The winds of January begin their unraveling, and Broadway shivers in doorways,
submits to the lingering cold touch of their passing without regret,
huddling against it, turning it back to it.
But the wilderness of steel and stone, draped with glitter, whispers on the darkness.
And Broadway tries again, ventures out, digs down, finds the currency of nighttime,
once more lays its bets against the dealers of night.
Neon is the red and black is the shadows and the numbers of rooms.
Three flights up into the hall where a smile waits, for a tear.
It's spinning, kid, make your play. This could be it.
And the dealers pay off in another way, with the man who wipes his hands in a bar apron, offers you one.
You'd ever been here before, you wouldn't say this was the same place, mister.
This time of night, other nights, my little place of business is alive, teeming with frolic.
What changed it tonight?
The frolicers was driven away.
Yeah, I can see that.
Come on, wait what I got for you in the back room. Just wait, the thing to see.
My back room, my cribbage room. Ain't it a shambles, mister?
Who is this man?
Worst shambles of all, ain't he?
Russ Warner, citizen of Chicago. Two years ago, when he dropped by for a visit, he looked in better health.
He dead, mister?
No, a shoulder wound. The bullet almost tore it apart.
He's lost a lot of blood. Why didn't you call an ambulance?
I did, I did. I was laying myself odds who would get here first. You won.
All right, tell me what happened.
Yeah, Russ walks into my place of business. Don't even pass her how to do, just ask for the cribbage room.
I give it to him because no one else was in here.
And maybe an hour later, another man walks in, asks for the cribbage room, I give it to him.
All of a sudden, bing bang, boom, I got a bleeding man and four bullet holes in my plaster.
Look, look, you see, conum as one and another. This one had a water pipe.
Who was the other man?
An utterly complete stranger. Tell me, mister, with personal damages like this, should I go on living?
And a few minutes after that, the men salaried by the city to measure violence, photograph it, calibrated the men from technical,
also the white-coated boys with stretcher and the remarks tailored to fit the occasion.
Havoc and Russ Warner were being handled professionally. So leave there, go home.
And the next morning, back to headquarters, down the hall, into the office. Two men are waiting for you.
Morning, Danny.
Markman.
This is Lieutenant Clover, Russ.
Hi, Ed. I apologize for shaking with the left hand. Sling on the right, courtesy of your medical department.
How are you feeling, Russ?
Fit, fit. Shoulder aches a little, that's all.
Russ says he hardly knows what happened last night, Danny.
All?
Emotions. Like I told Detective Muggerman here, since I was a lad, a bundle of nerves.
You know what a doc once told me I did? I reject. Every time something large happens to me, I reject. My mind refuses to remember.
Imagine. Isn't that interesting, Danny?
However did I get here in this condition, that's what I'd like to know.
I want you to think about it, Russ. I want you to think hard, try to remember.
I re-
Don't talk, Russ. Just think.
Who could have done it? What happened?
Maybe I can help you, Russ.
Gee, I need it.
We can book you on about eight counts, the way I figure.
Because I was shot? Oh, how do you like this memory of mine? It's suddenly like a-
What happened last night, Russ?
As clear as anything. I can tell you to the detail. I walked into this back room, saw a gun on the table.
I picked it up, and being cleanly by nature, I started to clean it. It went off.
Fired four shots into the wall before it got to you?
I couldn't control it. It was alive in my hand.
There wasn't any gun in that room, Russ.
Wonder where it is. Wonder what we can-
Danny?
What do you want, Sergeant?
On searching our records, I have come up some news about this Russ Warner.
Good morning, Mr. Warner. I have some news about you.
Last week, you were in a fight with one Joe Hayden, a street brawl.
What about it, Russ?
Joe's a friend of mine. We were just seeing who was stronger.
You got this Joe Hayden's address, Gino?
Indeed I do. Here.
Thanks. Lock this man up, Gino.
Come along, Mr. Warner, unless you can afford not to do so.
What do you mean, Sergeant?
There has been set for you pending hearing.
Nice round figure, too. $5,000.
Material with this to whatever France spied last evening.
Reach into my pocket, will you, please, Sergeant?
I think you'll find the dough in my wallet.
I carry such sums for emergencies.
And I'm really sorry I caused all of you so much trouble.
Honestly. So long.
Only certain kinds of people knock like that.
And you ain't fat enough to be a bill collector.
This makes you what?
Police.
Bingo. I know it. They got an ear for talent.
Let's kick it around inside, huh, Mr. Hayden?
And a missus is taking her afternoon beauty sleep.
Usually she comes out of it like a cat.
All claws and teeth.
Want to take a chance?
We'll try it, huh?
Brave man, brave, brave man.
Brightens the day when I meet men like you.
Come on in.
Look at her.
She makes us so for a dreamboat.
Waker.
Would never miss us for the world.
Honey. Honey, baby.
Come on, Laurie, wake up.
Come on, hit the deck, honey.
We got a police.
Police?
The magic word. Like a kiss.
Yeah, Laurie, police. Come on.
Well, find him a piece of fruit and send him away.
Mm-hmm. Can't do that, honey.
I got a feeling police want something else.
What?
My Laurie asked it for me.
My baby Laurie.
What do you want?
You know Russ Warner?
A chap named Warner?
Let me freshen it up for you.
You were in a fight with him last week.
Oh, that Russ.
What did he say, Laurie?
What was the fight about?
Tell him, Laurie.
Yeah, sure, honey.
Well, it's this way, man, from the police.
Two old Chicago friends like Joe and Russ.
Two old friends like that meet after two years being apart from each other.
What do they do? Beat each other up.
It's calm and courtesy.
And Russ with a bullet hole in his shoulder, what's that called?
This good thing happened to Russ, nobody tells till now.
Happened last night, Henry's Bar, 3rd Avenue and 12th.
Oh, what do you know?
Where was I last night? I need to miss a thing like that.
Don't you remember, Joe?
With me? You're Laurie all day.
Never left my side.
Sure, sure.
How could I forget a thing like that?
Oh, Laurie, baby.
Laurie's your alibi, huh?
Was there ever a prettier one?
You sound real happy Russ was hurt.
You don't see it eye to eye, you hate him?
I'm full awake now, so I'll tell you.
Russ and my Joe were hoods together once in Chicago,
closest two years ago.
Joe met me, gave it up, because I was better.
I tell them, honey.
Yeah, wait, Joe.
A week ago Russ was standing against a lamppost,
waved Joe over to him, and followed him back into the old days.
They messed with it a while. Joe wanted no part of it.
Joe was the one who walked away. Strong Joe.
Because he had you?
Because he had me.
You know what I did to keep it that way?
No, tell me.
I long-distance the call to chums in Chicago,
thought they'd care to know Russ Warner was loose here.
Looks like they brought along a bullet.
Found Russ.
Huh?
Gotta be, Laurie.
Go back to sleep, baby.
The police is leaving.
You mind letting me have one of those cigarettes with you?
Not at all.
Light?
Mm-hmm.
Thanks.
Why do you think that stuff would be coming over the town type in Chicago?
Oh, that's standby now.
Here it comes.
Uh, Russ Warner arrested for assault, 1935.
Assault with deadly weapon, 1937.
Assault with deadly weapon, 1940.
Released all three counts for lack of evidence.
Known associated with Martin...
What's the trouble?
I don't know what the trouble is, Lieutenant. They just stopped sending.
The fellas play games with each other like this?
That's probably Officer Westfall in Chicago.
He gets the fun of a teletype machine, tries to make a drama out of it.
Oh, here it goes.
Known associated with Martin Cato suspected policy rackets.
Oh, man. That isn't a whole lot.
Oh, wait a minute.
No arrests listed for Joe Hayden of Chicago.
You know, Martin Cato left Chicago four days ago.
New York City by a 1952 red convertible.
Illinois license number Y1647.
Suggest you check whatabouts in your city.
That's Westfall, all right.
He suggests we check.
Someday when you have time, Lieutenant, I'll show you some of the things he said over the teletype.
Thanks, Officer. I don't have the time.
So another name had intruded itself, Martin Cato.
A name with a familiar sound, a name bandied about at crime investigations on reform platforms
and smilingly on the lips of citizens who like to bet a buck against destiny.
Martin Cato was in New York.
Find him. Find out why.
Find out why he was suddenly no longer in Chicago, but in the rough vicinity of a shooting the night before.
He was easy to find, a red convertible, a big grinning man whose face had been in the newspapers often enough to be recognized anywhere.
And a policeman spots him going into the Heath Hotel in Madison.
Go there. Be told Mr. Cato has taken a suite on the ninth floor, so ride nine flights up for a visit.
The door's open, boy. Come on in.
Put the drink right over... Who are you?
My name's Danny Clover. I'm from the police.
Why?
What are you doing in New York, Cato? You come to shoot up a man named Russ Warner?
I come here because I like New York, mister. Don't you try to erase or do things you like, mister?
You're just here on a visit, huh?
Yeah, that's right, a visit. It's been three years I haven't ice skated in Rockefeller Center.
I'm going shopping for blades today. Where's a nice place to shop, huh?
Russ, Russ, don't be crazy.
Cato, Cato.
Russ, Russ, can you hear me?
What's he got under his coat? A gun? It looked like he was...
Not a gun, Cato. For hurt, Russ Warner's dead. Murdered.
You are listening to Broadway's My Beat, written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, and starring Larry Thor as detective Danny Clover.
Like Old Man River, the comedy jazz keeps rolling along every Sunday night when CBS Radio presents Amos and Andy.
Tomorrow night over most of these same stations, the kingfish is sure to be up to his usual monkey business.
And it's sure to make a monkey out of gullible Andy Brown.
Listen for yourself. Don't let one minute of the fun get away.
Tomorrow and every Sunday night at CBS Radio's two and only Amos and Andy.
When it's winter and the chill wind pops down from the river, Broadway is a place of regret.
The new dreams made for the new year show their first fraying.
The golden girls are wrapped in fur coats somebody else could afford.
It's the time of the galosh, the noisy radiator, and the cold linoleum on the bare feet.
The mornings are filled with the numbing hours and dead cigarettes in the bottom of paper cups.
It's January, snow time, roll muffler time, the time to be on speaking terms with relatives in Miami Beach.
And it was a winter's room where I was, chilled by the touch of a man newly dead, a man named Russ Warner.
And standing over him, another resident of Chicago, newly arrived, the big man in the handsome clothes, the hoodlum, called Cato, called Martin Cato.
One thing you have to be sure of, Mr. Twisted, any way you like, I didn't kill Russ.
Oh?
You were right here when he walked in. You'll know as much about it as I do.
Ah, no I don't. What have you been doing all day, Cato?
Sleeping.
All day, huh?
I'm noted for it.
I'm going to tell you something. Unless you show me how I'm wrong, I'm booking you for suspicion of murder.
You think you can make it stick?
I didn't say that. I said I'm going to book you for suspicion.
And I'm going to tell you what I suspect.
That you shot Russ a little while ago and left him for dead, only he didn't die. He came up here to get you, Cato.
Is he wearing a gun?
I'll see.
Yeah, yeah he is.
That makes it pretty tough for me, huh?
I don't know how tough it makes it, Cato. Look, I don't want to repeat myself. It's that thing about suspicion of murder all over again.
Yeah. You want to hear a story?
That's up to you.
Russ worked for me in Chicago. Ran errands for me.
That's a pretty thrilling story. That's a-
Wait a minute, will you? Let me tell you about it.
Hurry up.
I sent Russ on an errand for me to buy something worth a hundred thousand dollars.
To buy what?
A yacht, maybe. I don't remember. He had a hundred grand of mine, and he ran.
And you chased him, caught up with him, and-
I caught him in the back room with that bomb, Mr. Ern teased him.
All right, I put a slug on his shoulder just to tell him the reason I came to New York. To let him know I want my dough.
I didn't kill him.
I'm glad you told me all that, Cato.
You can't book me on suspicion of murder, mister.
Assault with a deadly weapon. Let's try that one, huh? You won't argue that one, will you? Thanks, Cato.
Shrimp boats is a-coming, they're coming tonight. Shrimp boats is a-coming, they're coming tonight. Oh, won't you hurry, hurry, hurry home?
Happy, Gino?
The question, hurry, hurry, hurry home, hurry, hurry home, isabah, isabah.
What makes you so happy?
Questions, questions, questions. Danny, I'm surprised at you.
All right, but I still don't know what makes you so happy.
Well, doesn't it stick out all over me, Danny? Doesn't it stick out I'm happy because one of the nation's major hoodwumas, Martin Cato by name, is now beating his head against the walls of our local pokey. True or false?
True.
Correct. And is it not also true Communications has been flipping its lid with the song of the teletype from our Chicago way?
There's such a tigaro to wit that from the years 1945 through 48, the lonely deceased Roswanna was married to one Laurie Croft, also of shy.
Laurie?
The same Laurie who in the summer of 48 divorced said Roswanna and in the winter promised to love, honor, obey and alibi for one Joe Hayden. The same Joe Hayden who last week beat up Roswanna.
Tell Muggerman, Geno, tell him to meet me downstairs at the squad car.
Of course without saying, Danny.
The effects of Roswanna were gathered, sorted and microscopeed, Danny. No hundred grand was found. Muggerman, Sergeant Tartaglia, get a squad car, meet Lieutenant Clover downstairs. That is all.
Right here, Muggerman.
Okay, are you sure you don't...
Don't worry about it. If I need you, I'll be the first to let you know.
Oh, don't I remember you from out of some deep sleep?
Sure you do. I want Joe, Mrs. Hayden.
Doesn't everybody?
Is he in there?
If he was, I'd go to a head-shrinker and have my head bumps examined for recurrent dreams about a man who is in there.
I'll take a look.
I'll let you do that even if you don't tickle my nose with a warrant. I'll make myself thin so you can pass through the door without us touching.
Thanks.
Oh, you did. Am I surprised? Two rooms. Make it two and a half. Help yourself.
Where is he?
What he told me while running his hand through my hair, pulling it back to my face, was he was all of a sudden called out of town.
You think I should believe a man when he tells me like that?
Tell you before he was going?
Uh-uh. He had me enchanted. So when he says pack me a bag, I pack it for him.
Oh.
Yeah, oh. I take out the cardboard suitcase, toss in his shirts, a few outer garments, a few under.
Dr. West's medium so his teeth will shine bright and pretty at whoever he went to smile at, wherever they are.
Back then, you packed his bag, kissed him goodbye, never asked where a husband was going.
Because I love him so.
Maybe there was another reason.
The girl has to have another reason?
A hundred thousand dollars could be another one.
A hundred thousand?
That's a sweet sound. Tell Arkham I never heard it before.
A hundred thousand Joe killed Russ Warner for.
Russ? That tired boy Russ had money like that?
Took it away from Martin Cato, carried it around New York, lost it to Joe Hayden, abandoned his life.
You think? Oh, no. Oh, you think?
What?
Joe made me pack some bundles wrapped in old newspapers under the shoes.
When I asked him what they were, he kissed my mouth shut.
Said, don't worry about it, baby.
You think my lover boy Joe did that to me?
You know where he is, Laurie? Tell me. It'll be easier for you.
The boy rented a car from the U Drive down the street.
That's all I know, all he told me.
Sick him, police.
Chain him to a wall.
I'll walk back and forth in front of him just to tease.
Sick him, police.
So go down to the corner and question the man who runs the U Drive at Garage.
Sure, you're told. The man you're looking for rented a car a few hours ago.
Here's the make car and license number.
So thank him and leave.
Be all points bulletin, find Joe Hayden, and wait and get lucky.
I picked him up at the airport, Danny.
An off-duty officer was waiting to meet a friend on an incoming plane.
I spotted him. He's being held there.
So get a squad car and ride across the face of a city.
The sound you make is like broken glass slashing against its heart.
You see the terror silent and quick in the blur of crowd making way for you.
And finally you get there, the airport.
There they are, Danny. Over there.
Officer Candles is with them.
Yeah, I see them.
Okay, officer, we'll take it from here.
You almost made it, Joe.
Yeah, almost. It's the story of my life.
Put them on, Muggerman.
Right. Come on, come on. Don't be bashful, Hayden. Just slip these on your wrist.
What happened to your car, Joe?
Ditched it.
You almost threw us off at that, kid.
You see, almost again.
Okay, Muggerman, open his bag.
Sure.
Now what, Danny?
Just make sure the money's in it, then we can get out of here.
Oh, bother messing up the shirts. The door was there, a rat newspaper.
Yeah, you'll find it, Danny.
What?
Nothing in here but shirts, socks, and underwear.
You're crazy. The door, the 100,000, it's gotta be there.
Turn that suitcase upside down, Muggerman. Empty it.
Shirts, socks, and underwear.
That door. I don't know what goes on here, but...
You know what goes on here, Joe. Now you do.
Come on, let's go.
Home sweet home.
Let's make a big surprise. A case in my coat pocket.
I'll get it.
Call your wife, Joe.
Laurie. Laurie Honeybun. Laurie Sweet.
Hi, Laurie.
Joe?
Great to detect this, too.
You know Lieutenant Clover's friend here is Detective Muggerman.
Were you disturbing you, Mrs. Hayden?
I was getting used to being without Joe. What'd you louse it for?
Muggerman, that room Mrs. Hayden came on us in the bedroom.
Take a look.
Right.
They put cuffs on me, Laurie.
That's real tough.
Is that all you got to say?
Oh, my poor Joe. How sorry I am for you.
Look what's become of you. Poor Joe.
Is that what you want me to say?
You're forgetting something, Laurie.
How's it coming, Muggerman?
Give me a chance, Danny.
Detective Muggerman's looking for $100,000, Mrs. Hayden.
Did you hear me, Mrs. Hayden?
Look, all of you, get out of here.
They can't do that, Laurie. You know they can't do that.
That's right. We can't. It's got murder in it.
You got your boy. What more do you want?
Take it easy, Joe.
That's better.
The man said it's got murder in it, Laurie.
What do I care what the man said?
Danny?
Yeah?
Here it is. A sample. $100 bill.
The rest of it's in there. A suitcase.
How are you, Laurie? Dear wife, Laurie.
Loving wife, Laurie.
First time I was here, this place was drenched with love.
What's happened to it?
What's happened to it is what you said, murder.
And now another thing.
Greed?
Yeah. Yeah, that's my Laurie.
My Laurie. Oh, my.
Want to tell us how you got this money, Mrs. Hayden?
Yeah, I'll tell.
An old friend came back to me.
Russ Warner, huh? The man you were once married to.
Yeah. Seems he never forgot the happiness.
He remembered how he missed a few allowances when we were man and wife,
and he thought he'd make it up.
The consideration of the man.
So you knew we weren't about the $100,000.
The last time I was here, you were surprised when I mentioned it.
All that money makes me coy with strangers.
Cut it out, Laurie.
Listen to him.
They know what happened. They figured what happened.
All the way here, they've been telling me.
Who do you want to lie for?
It's not going to do you any good.
What did you tell him, Joe?
He didn't tell us anything. He didn't have to tell us anything.
They know, Laurie. They know.
How Russ showed you the money. He stole it from Cato.
How he wanted you to run away with him. How you...
Laurie.
How you shot Russ, Mrs. Hayden.
That's what your husband's trying to say.
You showed the money to your husband, Mrs. Hayden.
Told him to take the money and go away. You'd meet him later.
You packed his suitcase for him, but somehow it slipped your mind to put the money in it.
Russ knew where the money was.
That's why he went to Cato, to tell him.
Laurie.
You just wanted me to go away, didn't you?
Then you would go someplace with the money without me.
Laurie, why?
Laurie, if you'd have trusted me with the money, I'd have done anything for you.
I would have said I'd kill Russ.
Anything you wanted, I gave it to you. I tried to do it.
Like Russ?
What happened to us, Laurie? What did I do?
Tell me what I was wrong.
Listen to him crying.
Just like Russ, he cried too.
Before I shot him, big tears in his eyes.
That big.
I cried, baby.
Did you ever have a woman have two husbands like that?
It's a street of sounds, this Broadway.
The hissing of the neon through the winter wind.
The faraway echo of a girl's laughter.
The rasping of life deep inside the earth.
The other sounds, the sighs, the whispered pleas that no one hears.
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 Tertaglia, and Jack Crouchon as Morgevin.
The program was produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with musical score composed and conducted by Alexander Courage.
In tonight's story, Mary Jane Croft was heard as Laurie Hayden, and Anthony Barrett as Joe Hayden.
Featured in the cast were Jack Noyles, Hal March, and Herb Butterfield.
Every Sunday night on most of these same stations, Broadway Playhouse brings you exciting, dramatic entertainment.
This is the program on which an established star with national fame lends a hand to a newcomer on his or her way up the ladder towards stardom.
Don't miss Broadway Playhouse Sunday nights on CBS Radio for a great story and for a personal success story as well.
Bill Andrews speaking. And remember, the comedy treat that can't be beat is Jack Bennytime Sunday nights on the CBS Radio Network.