AS BROADCAST
THE BIG STORY
PROGRAM 195

CHAPPELL:

PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES present ... THE BIG STORY!

(MUSIC: FANFARE, CHRISTMAS THEME: "HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS," THEN OUT FOR....)

(DOOR OPENS)

EVA:

(ENTERS QUICKLY VERY FRESH, ABOUT 21, WITH A GIRLISH BUT CULTURED VOICE, IN LOVE) We better get moving, darling. Do you know how many days there are left?

JERRY:

(SULLEN, OFF) What?

EVA:

Only 26 days left to Christmas.

JERRY:

(ON MIKE) Sit down.

EVA:

(QUICKLY, DISREGARDING HIS MOOD) I got your present, and I'm not going to tell you about it. But I've got to get something for your mother, my mother and father and --

JERRY:

It's going to be a great, big, merry Christmas, isn't it?

EVA:

(NOT LOOKING AT HIM) What did you say, honey? (THEN SEEING HIM) (GASP) What are you doing with a gun?

JERRY:

Eva, you ever been pistol whipped?

EVA:

What's the matter with you?

JERRY:

This --

(HE STRIKES HER WITH GUN)

EVA:

(CRIES OUT)

JERRY:

You lousy two-timer! This and this and this and this -- (ON EACH "THIS," A BLOW)

(MUSIC: THE CHRISTMAS THEME POISONED, UNDER...)

CHAPPELL:

THE BIG STORY! Here is America, its sound and its fury, its joy and its sorrow as faithfully reported by the men and women of the great American newspapers. Los Angeles, California. The story of a reporter who thought he could spend the great holiday season -- in the spirit of goodwill and peace, and spent it instead, with murder. And for his work, to Joseph Saldana of the Los Angeles Daily News, for his Big Story, goes the PELL MELL Award.

(MUSIC: TURNTABLE)

(OPENING COMMERCIAL)

OPENING COMMERCIAL

GROUP:

Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Enjoy the smooth smooth smoking of fine tobaccos.

CHAPPELL:

Smoke PELL MELL - the cigarette whose mildness you can measure.

HARRICE:

Puff by puff you're always ahead when you smoke PELL MELL.

CHAPPELL:

Remember this - the further a puff of smoke is filtered through fine tobaccos, the milder it becomes. At the first puff by actual measure PELL MELL smoke is filtered further than that of any other leading cigarette. Moreover, after 5 puffs, or 10, or 15, or 17, PELL MELL'S greater length of traditionally fine tobaccos still travels the smoke further - filters the smoke and makes it mild.

HARRICE:

Thus, PELL MELL'S fine mellow tobaccos give you a smoothness, mildness and satisfaction no other cigarette offers you.

CHAPPELL:

Smoke PELL MELL - the cigarette whose mildness you can measure. PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES - "Outstanding!"

HARRICE:

And - they are mild!

(MUSIC: CHRISTMAS THEME, WHICH AS IT GOES BEHIND, AND THE NARRATION PROCEEDS, TURNS TO ITS OPPOSITE, UNDER....)

CHAPPELL:

Los Angeles, California. The story as it actually happened ... Joe Saldana's story as he lived it.

(MUSIC: THEME)

VOICE:

(FLAT, ROUTINE) This coroner's jury is herewith in session. Let all persons (THROWING THIS AWAY) with information proceed to testify under the jurisdiction of the Honorable William B. Lafferty.

NARR:

The eyes were blue, the forehead high, the fine dark blonde hair tied back. A sweet and moving face, but disturbed. And now, as you watched, Joe Saldana, reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, she grew more and more frightened, more and more silent --

COP:

I'm the officer on the beat. I got the call to come up to the house. He was laying on the bed, bleeding in the stomach. She was standing holding the gun. "I shot him," she said. "I killed him, but I didn't mean to."

(MUSIC: IN WITH)

NARR:

The jawline tightens on the smooth, pale, white skin, now bruised by the beating. What little life there was in the eyes seems to go out as the wheels of justice in this coroner's jury room begin grinding fine.

VOICE:

(ROUTINE) All other persons having business with this coroner's jury herewith come forth to give final testimony in this inquest of the people of the State against Eva Lockland. (NO PAUSE) There being none, Honorable William B. Lafferty will herewith pass sentence.

JUDGE:

It is the decision of this jury that Gerald Lockland met his death through fire-arms at the hands of his wife, Eva Lockland, who is herewith remanded to the police authorities to be held for trial for murder in the first degree.

(MUSIC: BRIDGE AND UNDER)

NARR:

Open and shut, open and shut. Like her small, full mouth that seemed to want to say something, but said nothing throughout the proceedings - if you ever saw one, Joe Saldana, here was a life sentence in the making, or maybe a death sentence. So with very little preconceived idea, except maybe that of getting a story, you go see her in the county jail where she now sits --

JOE:

I'm Joe Saldana, of the Daily News, Mrs. Lockland.

EVA:

(POLITE) How do you do, sir.

JOE:

My paper and I and a lot of readers, we'd appreciate it if you'd make a statement.

EVA:

Would that be any good?

JOE:

Sure. How old are you anyway?

EVA:

21.

JOE:

How long were you married?

EVA:

Two years.

JOE:

You want to tell me about it?

EVA:

(EASILY) Sure, I'll tell anybody. I don't want to die.

JOE:

Well, go ahead then.

EVA:

(SHE TALKS VERY EASILY, WITHOUT SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS) (SHE ALWAYS HAS A CULTURED SOUND IN HER VOICE WHICH IS CONTRADICTORY TO THE DETAILS OF HER STORY) I used to love to watch Jimmy Cagney in the movies or George Raft -- how they moved and looked. If you could call it a kind of cross between being passionate and soft and tough too -- Jerry was like that.

JOE:

(SOFTLY, SO AS NOT TO INTERRUPT ALMOST) How long did you know him before you got married?

EVA:

(SHE'S WITH HER JERRY) My family wouldn't put up with it - I knew that. My father teaches at college. (IN ANSWER NOW) Oh -- I knew him about 2 days. But we got married and moved into his house. My folks thought I was away at school. There were always a lot of people there -- friends of Jerry's mostly. Kids our age. And from the beginning, his mother hated me -- just hated me. I overheard her once with Jerry right after we were married.

MRS. L:

(BIG, BUT MOTHERLY, ENVELOPING IN HER VOICE) Jerry, you made a terrible mistake.

JERRY:

Don't start that again, Ma, will you?

MRS. L:

I know the kind -- I know them very well. Slumming, that's what she's doing. Just slumming.

JERRY:

You're wrong, Ma. She's a heck of a good kid.

MRS. L:

I'm telling you here and now she'll louse you up, she'll two-time on you.

(DOOR OPENS)

JERRY:

(SELF-CONSCIOUSLY) Hello, baby.

EVA:

(FLAT, PLEASANT) I just heard what you were saying.

MRS. L:

What're you doing -- sneaking around behind doors?

EVA:

That's not fair, Mrs. Lockland. Why do you say those things to Jerry, I'm not like that.

MRS. L:

You're a tramp. Once a tramp always a tramp. (VIOLENT) Didn't I see her fooling around with Bob?

(PAUSE)

EVA:

(NARRATING) That's how she'd do it. Just leave it hanging in mid-air. Lies. Because Bob Cunningham was one of Jerry's friends, one of the kids in the house all the time. He was one of Jerry's friends and I talked to him, that's all. But she'd leave an idea hanging there and if I'd try to answer it --

JERRY:

(ANNOYED) Don't make an issue of it. Let's just don't make an issue of it, huh?

EVA:

So I hoped maybe it would pass, go away. Then about two weeks before (SOFTLY) the shooting, (UP AGAIN) Bob lost a button from his coat and he asked me to sew one on for him.

(A MAN BEING PUSHED OUT THE DOOR SIMULTANEOUS WITH)

JERRY:

Now just get out and stay out, Bob!

BOB:

Hey, wait a minute!

EVA:

(HORRIFIED) Jerry!

JERRY:

Give me that coat.

(HE THROWS THE COAT)

BOB:

You're all wet, Jerry.

JERRY:

Keep out!

(DOOR IS SLAMMED VIOLENTLY)

EVA:

He asked me to sew a button that fell off --

JERRY:

Don't make it worse than it is. Don't make an issue out of it.

(PAUSE)

EVA:

I should have talked to Jerry, Mr. Saldana, but what could I say? Just a button on a guy's coat. And then I -- Well, it got to be shopping time and I thought I'd get them all presents. It was 26 days left to Christmas and I got him what I knew he always wanted. Cuff links and a tie-clasp, gold, with his initials, and I hid it in one of my bureau drawers.

MRS. L:

What are you doing -- hiding one of the presents for your boyfriend?

EVA:

That's all she said. And the next day when I came in, he sat me down on the bed (THE MEMORY KILLS HER) and he hit me ten times across the face with the pistol. I thought he had gone crazy! And then --

JERRY:

That's just a taste. Here. Here's the gun.

EVA:

Jerry, don't!

JERRY:

Here's the gun! Go ahead. Get me out of the way! Go ahead. Why don't you do what you want to do? Take it in your hand, point it at me.

EVA:

For heaven's sake, leave me alone!

JERRY:

Pull the trigger. Go ahead! You got his present in the drawer. I know!

EVA:

Jerry, you're crazy! It's yours!

JERRY:

You're no good.

EVA:

Stay away! (HYSTERICAL) Jerry, don't hit me again --

(GUN GOES OFF)

(A LONG PAUSE)

EVA:

It took me a half a minute more maybe and then I saw he was lying on the bed - dead. (PATHETIC) I shot him - I killed Jerry.

JOE:

Take it easy, Eva. There's nothing you can do -- maybe nothing anybody can do. But I'm going to try.

(MUSIC: UP AND UNDER)

 

NARR:

But you can see from the way she smiles politely that she doesn't believe you. And, as a matter of fact, you only half-believe yourself. What can you do? Well, one thing -- the trial's in a few days. You can get her the best lawyer there is. Danny Torchin is the best.

JOE:

This much I found out, Danny. The kid -- Jerry, her husband, age 23, on probation for burglary three years ago, suspended sentence for breaking and entering five years ago -- no angle.

DANNY:

(NON-COMMITTAL) The best defense is an offense. What's the other side of the coin -- her side.

JOE:

Good kid, good family. Father's a teacher. Graduated with honors, left college at the end of the second year. Would have made Phi Bet.

DANNY:

What's she hanging around with this kind of kid for then?

JOE:

Why do millions of girls her age think Cagney and Raft are the greatest thing in the world? Will you take the case?

DANNY:

There's no dough involved, is there?

JOE:

Come on. You can't pay your income tax already.

DANNY:

I'm going to need facts. I'm going to need a lot of facts.

JOE:

You're a great guy.

(MUSIC: BRIDGE AND UNDER)

NARR:

Getting Torchin, the best lawyer there is, is fifty percent of the battle. But only with the facts can he do anything. So you start to get them. What about this Bob Cunningham kid?

BOB:

(NICE KID) I've a lot respect for Eva. I've done things in my time - sure. Who hasn't? Had ideas. But I wouldn't put a finger on one of my best friends, would I?

JOE:

I don't know. Would you?

BOB:

You can take it or leave it: I wouldn't. What I can't figure out, I swear, is why the old lady treated her like that. I don't understand that. Why was she so down on her? The first time she laid eyes on her, she had no use for her. I only wish I had met her before Jerry did.

(MUSIC: A TOUCH)

NARR:

Partially established fact of the character of Eva Lockland. Her neighbor comments on her mother-in-law's house.

NEIGHBOR:

A filthy, dirty house. In all the time she lived there, I never saw that Mrs. Lockland lift her finger to do a stitch of work -- never.

JOE:

Anything peculiar going on there?

NEIGHBOR:

Just millions of kids going in and out all the time. Kids 21, 22, 23. And racing around in cars all the time. (SLYLY) And why is it the front blinds were always drawn ever since they lived there?

(MUSIC: A TOUCH...)

NARR:

Little established except one of her neighbors was unnecessarily malicious - or possibly accurate. A garageman two blocks away --

GARAGEMAN:

I don't know. They used to drive around in this big, powerful Oldsmobile. And money? (WHISTLES) Used to get a car painted about 7 times a year. Jerry comes in here once and says, "I want this car painted tonight. I'll give you a 20 dollar bonus you have it by 5 tonight."

(MUSIC: A TOUCH..)

NARR:

A kid Jerry Lockland went to school with --

KID:

I seen lots of guys lose their head, but not like him. Once he had a fight with a guy and knocked him down. Know what he did?

JOE:

You tell me.

KID:

He started to kick him in the head. That's right. I swear, he'd a kicked that guy's brains out if I hadn't stopped him.

(MUSIC: UP AND UNDER)

NARR:

The nature of the girl and the nature of the husband that she shot, something of the nature of the house -- all given to Danny Torchin and then a quiet Danny and a slightly composed Eva (now that she knew something was being done for her), at the trial ---

PROSECUTOR:

(SURE OF HIMSELF) The state will show that the defendant Eva Lockland did, in fact, nag her husband, flaunt her illicit affair, provoke her husband, and did then shoot him in cold blood.

BIZ:

AD LIB COURT REACTION

MRS. L:

Why did you kill my son, you murderess, you! Coming into my home and --

(GAVEL)

DANNY:

I call Eva Lockland to the stand.

NARR:

(IN CLOSE) The same clear, earnest eyes -- the high, troubled forehead, and the straight-forward story.

EVA:

If anybody said to me, "Eva, what would you like to have most in the world -- what one thing?", I should have said, "To be happily married to Jerry Lockland." -- If things had been different, I'd have given everything, everything that I ever hoped to own or have, just to be able to have a little place. Not a lot of money. Curtains maybe, and a picture hanging on the wall maybe, and to be married to Jerry Lockland.

(MUSIC: IN WITH..)

NARR:

Danny Torchin has a certain kind of smile on his face -- that he keeps when things are going well. The jury -- even the women -- are nodding sympathetically as Eva talks. And when they file out, and file back in within 19 minutes, you have a momentary fear --

VOICE #2:

How do you find?

(LONG PAUSE)

VOICE #3:

Not guilty.

(MUSIC: CHRISTMAS THEME COMES UP, SWEETLY AND BACKS...)

 

NARR:

A lovely present, the most precious gift on earth -- freedom -- is given to the girl. And it's a good feeling for you and Danny Torchin, the jury, and the world. And you go out to buy your own family some presents two days later.

(STREET SCENE, A SANTA CLAUS IS TINKLING A BELL)

SANTA CLAUS:

(SING-SONG QUALITY) Put a nickel in the pot and keep it boiling. Put a nickel in the pot and keep it boiling.

NARR:

And in the midst of a half-million people --

JOE:

Ooops! I beg your pardon, Miss.

EVA:

That's all right.

JOE:

Eva!

EVA:

(SOFTLY) Mr. Saldana.

JOE:

Only ten days left before Christmas. I'll bet you're making up the time that you lost.

EVA:

(SADLY) Well, I'm shopping for friends and family and --

JOE:

What's the matter, kid?

EVA:

Nothing, nothing.

JOE:

Hey, come on! This is Joe Saldana.

EVA:

I thought I ought to take a rest maybe and get over it, but I decided work was better -- doing something. I've been to 20 places, Mr. Saldana. People are funny. I nearly got a job yesterday 'til the man realized who I was. You see, they still believe Jerry's mother. Not even what the jury said stops them.

JOE:

You mean after the trial people still -

EVA:

I don't want to bother you.

SANTA CLAUS:

Put a nickel in the pot, miss, for those with troubles.

EVA:

Here.

(COIN)

SANTA CLAUS:

Bless you, miss, and a very Merry Christmas.

(ANOTHER COIN)

SANTA CLAUS:

Bless you, sir. A Merry Christmas.

NARR:

And she's gone in the crowd, lost. Her life's been saved to be ruined. What can you do?

JOE:

(BITTERLY) Ten days left before Christmas!

(MUSIC: UP TO TAG)

 

(MUSIC: TURNTABLE)

 

(MIDDLE COMMERCIAL)

 

MIDDLE COMMERCIAL

GROUP:

Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Enjoy the smooth smooth smoking of fine tobaccos.

CHAPPELL:

Smoke PELL MELL - the cigarette whose mildness you can measure.

HARRICE:

Puff by puff you're always ahead when you smoke PELL MELL.

CHAPPELL:

At the first puff by actual measure PELL MELL smoke is filtered further than that of any other leading cigarette. Moreover, after 5 puffs, or 10, or 15, or 17, PELL MELL'S greater length of traditionally fine tobaccos still travels the smoke further - filters the smoke and makes it mild.

HARRICE:

Thus, PELL MELL'S fine mellow tobaccos give you a smoothness, mildness and satisfaction no other cigarette offers you.

CHAPPELL:

Guard against throat-scratch.

HARRICE:

Enjoy the smooth smoking of fine tobaccos.

CHAPPELL:

Smoke PELL MELL - the cigarette whose mildness you can measure. PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES - "Outstanding!"

HARRICE:

And - they are mild!

(MUSIC: THEME AND UNDER)

HARRICE:

This is Cy Harrice returning you to your narrator and the Big Story of Joseph Saldana, as he lived it and wrote it.

NARR:

Heading back to your office, Joe Saldana, through the holiday shoppers -- 10 days before Christmas, the heart of the happiness goes out of it for you. Because of Eva Lockland, the girl now lost in the crowd. You bump into a few people. They accept your apologies in the spirit of the time. You don't say hello to the elevator operator, you don't nod at the switchboard-girl. But when Night Editor Pete Salt throws a teletype message at you, another problem moves in and displaces the problem of Eva Lockland.

JOE:

"Another wolf-pack robbery." (THEN) What's this "another"?

PETE:

Where've you been? Oh, you been on that Lockland thing. Sure. Just a great little gang of people have come to our fair city. Five weeks ago they stuck up and beat a grocery store man. Described as three kids of under 25, fast car -- in and out.

JOE:

Any shooting?

PETE:

Just the beating. And incidentally (SOFTLY) -- One of the nice boys stepped on the grocer's hand.

(MUSIC: A NEW THEME, REPORTER'S EXCITEMENT, UNDER..)

NARR:

You're a reporter again, involved in another story. You read back on the clips. The first one, the same: big car, fast get-away, and a woman in a drug store slugged. And then, two days later (8 days before Christmas) --

(TELETYPE)

JOE:

(READ, OVER THE SOUND) "Los Angeles Wolf-pack strikes again. Three armed youths robbed Dry Goods Store, injured six Christmas shoppers, leaving proprietor dead from bullet wounds."

NARR:

(CONTINUING JOE'S READING INTERPRETIVELY) Four wild crimes in the space of 12 days. Always fast, always a big car. Identified in the first two crimes as red, in the third as blue, in the dry goods store, green. And slowly -- for no reason, absolutely none, except perhaps for your own wishful thinking --

(MUSIC: THE DISTORTED CHRISTMAS THEME COMES IN)

NARR:

-- You find yourself wondering about a connection.

JOE:

(ALOUD WITHOUT REALIZING IT) Ah, ridiculous! What's the connection?

PETE:

What did you say?

JOE:

Nothing, Pete, nothing.

PETE:

Sonny, you ought to take it easy. I heard you plain as day. You said, "What's the connection?" Now what're you talking about?

JOE:

I'll let you know when, as and if.

(MUSIC: IN MOVEMENT..)

NARR:

It's five days to Christmas and even Detective-Lieutenant Edwards' office shows it: a wreath hanging over the sign "keep out". And a holiday smile on his face, which fades as he listens.

JOE:

Look, lieutenant, one admission I got to make before I say another word. I'm prejudiced. And that's why I decided to take it here, to you, because I don't think you are.

DETECTIVE:

Okay, so you're prejudiced. Go on.

JOE:

You remember the Lockland shooting?

DETECTIVE:

I can always remember back to murder cases two weeks old.

JOE:

And now this wolf-pack gang. Every case, they use the same big, powerful car, it seems. Two witnesses said an Oldsmobile. Every time it was a different color -- red, blue, and green.

DETECTIVE:

Black the last time.

JOE:

That's my point. When I was checking up on Jerry Lockland to find out what kind of a kid he was, a garageman told me -- Well, first of all, all kinds of kids were running around in and out of this house, that age too. No visible means of support, lots of money. And the garageman said he'd plunk down a 20 dollar bonus to have the car painted that same day.

DETECTIVE:

You want this to be Mrs. Lockland, don't you? I heard about you and the girl -- I don't mean that way. Just you're interested.

JOE:

Yeah. I want it to be Mrs. Lockland. What do you think?

DETECTIVE:

I'll tell you. (SLOWLY) No doubt about your being prejudiced -- no doubt.

JOE:

So I guess just forget it?

DETECTIVE:

I didn't say that. What I was going to say was I don't mind how prejudiced a guy is this way, just so long as he makes sense. I think maybe you do.

(MUSIC: BRIDGE AND UNDER)

 

NARR:

You and the lieutenant sit in the car and five plainclothesmen settle down for a watch around the house on Carolton Street, where Mrs. Lockland lives. The blinds are drawn as usual and the sun is shining on the clear, December afternoon. It looks like a bust -- nothing to be seen, nothing to be heard.

DETECTIVE:

Hey! Who's that coming out of the house?

JOE:

That's her. Mrs. Lockland.

DETECTIVE:

What's she carrying?

JOE:

Well, I'll be -- wash! She's carrying wash out!

DETECTIVE:

Well, that's ordinary enough.

JOE:

Not for her, it ain't. Every story I ever heard about that dame she never lifted a finger to do housework in her life! And in this weather?

DETECTIVE:

Watch it!

(CAR, POWERFUL MOTOR, PULLS UP AND SEEMS ABOUT TO STOP, OFF-MIKE)

JOE:

There's two of them in that car!

DETECTIVE:

They're stopping!

(THE CAR, WHICH HAS NEARLY COME TO A STOP, PICKS UP AND TEARS OFF)

JOE:

No, they're not! Now I know about the wash. A signal!

DETECTIVE:

Well, we got signals too.

(A CLICK)

 

DETECTIVE:

Hello. This is Car 74. Send out a 21 call. Black Olds sedan. License California 1619. Let's go!

(MUSIC: IN THE MOVEMENT...)

 

NARR:

You and Detective Edwards race after the fleeing car and within a mile catch up with it. The occupants give up easy and 10 minutes later you're all at Mrs. Lockland's.

(MUSIC: IN THE MOVEMENT...)

 

MRS. LOCKLAND:

(HIGH AND MIGHTY) What do you mean breaking into my house like this?

DETECTIVE:

Oh, I don't know, Mrs. Lockland. Just that these kids seemed kind of apprehensive -- drove up to your place and then drove off. We thought we'd maybe scared them off.

MRS. L:

Don't got fresh with me, mister, just because you've got a police badge in your pocket somewhere. This is a decent house and just because these boys happened to be friends of my dead son--

JOE:

Tell her about the gun, lieutenant. Maybe she ought to know about the gun.

DETECTIVE:

Good idea. One of these friends of your dead son -- he had a gun in the car, under the driver's seat. And I'm laying about 10 to 1, on account of the calibre is the same---- (HARSH NOW) that the bullet that killed the man in the dry goods store came from this gun!

NARR:

There's a silence as she looks from one to the other, wondering how much they've told, how much you, Joe Saldana, and the police know. And in that moment, the door opens--

(DOOR OPENS)

 

NARR:

--and Bob Cunningham, the one Eva was supposed to have killed Jerry Lockland for -- he walks in.

MRS. L:

Outside, outside! We're busy!

JOE:

Let him stay, Mrs. Lockland. This is Bob Cunningham.

MRS. L:

I'm going to have you arrested for false entry! I'm going to have you thrown off that dirty paper of yours! I'll have your badge!

JOE:

What's up -- a little operation we're interfering with, Mrs. Lockland? Is that what Eva did? That's what happened, wasn't it? Was her husband Jerry tied up with these kind of kids and this kind of operation and she was a decent influence and pulling him away from this sort of thing?

MRS. L:

Shut up!

JOE:

And so you screamed out in Court -- "Why did you kill my boy?" Hey, it's beginning to tie up!

MRS. L:

You're a liar, a dirty liar! You can't prove a word of what you said!

BOB:

I can.

JOE:

What, Bob, what?

BOB:

Kids like me -- you'll find them all over -- scared kids. Made an easy buck once, don't know how to get out of it. She's got a setup all right. This is headquarters. She sits and plans the whole works and we do it. She gives us a car, gets it painted, changes the color -- smart operator. (Like when the wash is out, don't come in here because the house is being watched) I only wish I had had the nerve to come and tell you before.

JOE:

That's okay, kid.

DETECTIVE:

Yeah, it's fine. So I think there's a car outside big enough to hold the whole bunch of you.

JOE:

After you, Mrs. Lockland.

MRS. L:

Get out of my way!

(MUSIC: HITS, THEN UNDER...)

 

(PHONE RINGING, ANSWERED ON FILTER)

EVA:

(ON FILTER) Hello.

JOE:

It's me, Eva.

EVA:

Hello, Mr. Saldana.

JOE:

I want to read you something. It's in my paper tomorrow morning. "Mrs. Lockland proven female Fagin. Woman heading juvenile gang runs school for crime." Good?

EVA:

Very good.

JOE:

Then there's a sort of a picture of you, and under it, it says, "Eva Lockland exonerated." (PAUSE) So go out and get yourself any job you want in town. -- and - Merry Christmas. (THERE'S A LONG PAUSE) Didn't you hear me? Hey, did you hear me?

EVA:

I heard you, Joe. And the same to you.

(MUSIC: UP TO TAG)

CHAPPELL:

In just a moment we will read a telegram from Joseph Saldana of the Los Angeles Daily News with the final outcomes of tonight's BIG STORY.

(MUSIC: TURNTABLE)

(CLOSING COMMERCIAL)

 

CLOSING COMMERCIAL

GROUP:

Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Guard against throat-scratch! Enjoy the smooth smooth smoking of fine tobaccos.

CHAPPELL:

Smoke PELL MELL - the cigarette whose mildness you can measure.

HARRICE:

Remember this - the further a puff of smoke is filtered through fine tobaccos, the milder it becomes.

CHAPPELL:

At the first puff by actual measure PELL MELL smoke is filtered further than that of any other leading cigarette. Moreover, after 5 puffs, or 10, or 15, or 17, PELL MELL'S greater length of traditionally fine tobaccos still travels the smoke further - filters the smoke and makes it mild.

HARRICE:

Thus, PELL MELL'S fine mellow tobaccos give you a smoothness, mildness and satisfaction no other cigarette offers you.

CHAPPELL:

Ask for the longer, finer cigarette in the distinguished red package. PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES - "Outstanding!"

HARRICE:

And - they are mild!

(MUSIC: TAG)

CHAPPELL:

Now we read you that telegram from Joseph Saldana of the Los Angeles Daily News.

SALDANA:

Two young men caught in the gang car sentenced to life imprisonment San Quentin. Mrs. Lockland sentenced life imprisonment Tehachapi. And Eva Lockland joined my wife and me in one of the finest Christmases we've ever had. Merry Christmas, and many thanks for tonight's PELL MELL Award.

CHAPPELL:

Thank you, Mr. Saldana...the makers of PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES are proud to present you the PELL MELL $500. Award for notable service in the field of journalism.

HARRICE:

Listen again next week, same time, same station, when PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES will present another BIG STORY - A BIG STORY from the front pages of the Duluth, Minn. News Tribune - by-line Fred Weinberg. A BIG STORY about a reporter who followed a murderer into a trap and wished he had left deeper tracks in the snow.

(MUSIC: THEME WIPE AND FADE TO BG ON CUE)

CHAPPELL:

THE BIG STORY is produced by Bernard J. Prockter with original music composed and conducted by Vladimir Selinsky. Tonight's program was adapted by Arnold Perl from an actual story from the front pages of the Los Angeles Daily News. Your narrator was Bob Sloan, and George Petrie played the part of Joseph Saldana. In order to protect the names of people actually involved in tonight's authentic BIG STORY, the names of all characters in the dramatization were changed with the exception of the reporter, Mr. Saldana.

(MUSIC: THEME UP FULL AND FADE FOR)

 

CHAPPELL:

This is Ernest Chappell speaking for the makers of PELL MELL FAMOUS CIGARETTES .... Right now - get the handsome PELL MELL Christmas gift carton, especially designed to brighten the season. This Christmas give PELL MELL!

THIS IS NBC...THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY.