EachPod

Episode #3

Author: Austin Rich
Published: Mon 07 Feb 2022
Episode Link: https://dimestoreradiotheater.com/2022/02/07/episode-3/

In this episode of “Dimestore Revelations,” we discuss a handful of items that came up in Episode #2, and then discuss the origins of Chandu The Magician!

Artist	Track	Album	Label
Box 13	“Blackmail Is Murder”	5 September 1948	Mayfair Productions
Dan Holiday picks up a message from Box 13 from Suzy, which asks Dan to come to room 718 at the Bradford Hotel, from a woman named Agatha Marsh. He immediately meets with her, a very old woman, and discovers that there’s a dead body of a man named Michael O’Brien in her hotel room, and she’s afraid to call the police for fear of the rumors that will get spread around downtown. Agatha convinces Dan to move the body to the hotel hallway closet, just in time for Lt. Kling to arrive, and find nothing in her room. Kling leaves, and Agatha explains: she got room 718 by mistake when she should have had 817. Her room was intended for Tony Vascari, a local crime lord. Agatha called Kling in the hopes that he would loose any suspicions that might be raised if he searched her room, which worked. Agatha reveals that she wants to solve the case on her own. Dan leaves to go home, only to get a call from Agatha at 2 AM, explaining that she had confronted Vascari, and now someone was trying to get into her room. Dan goes to her room, but only finds a paper airplane on the desk. Dan realizes she’s been taken to the airport, goes to find her and a thug waiting to board a plane. Dan tries to talk his way through the situation, but it doesn’t work, so Agatha stabs the thug with her hatpin, giving Dan a chance to knock out the thug. She & Dan run off, and she explains that Vascari wants her on a plane, to get her out of town. Dan takes Agatha to the police station, where Agatha double crosses Dan, and blames him for everything, and leaves the police station on her own. As Lt. Kling questions Dan, he doesn’t believe Dan’s story, and eventually lets him go, too. Dan goes to the hotel, and finds Agatha in the closet where the dead body had been, put there by the thug that had previously tried to put her on a plane. Lt. Kling shows up, having followed Dan, but there is still no evidence to support Dan’s version of the story. Lt. Kling puts Agatha and Dan back in Agatha’s room, where she reveals to Dan that she was actually the killer, as she was about to bump off Dan. Agatha had just seen, “Arsenic & Old Lace,” and got the funny idea to commit a murder while on vacation. The coda explains that psychiatrists have determined she is, “batty as a loon.” It was her idea to try and pin the murder on Vascari, who then tried to get rid of her via airplane. At the very end, Suzy reveals that she has been fired from her job, and asks Dan to hire her as his secretary.
The Voyage of The Scarlet Queen	“The Spaniard & the Lascar Pirates”	17 July 1947	Mutual
15 Days out from Honolulu, The Scarlet Queen arrives at an Island that was a Japanese base at one point. Now there’s a small collection of houses, and not much else. Phil and Red are immediately met with hostility from a drunk local resident, who shoots Gallagher and tells them to leave. However, the drunk man’s wife, Nora Fairfield, rescues Phil and Gallagher, shoos her husband away, and begins to entertain the two new men, being a little flirty. She explains that there’s a crew of men on the island, from a boat that arrived and was wrecked not long ago. Nora introduces Phil to Captain Ramirez & Dr. Thomas Mitchum, from the wrecked boat. Quickly it becomes clear that Ramirez is a pirate, and plans to take The Scarlet Queen from Phil. Phil takes Gallagher back to The Scarlet Queen, arms the crew with guns, and then returns by boat back to the island, to sit at the dock to keep an eye on anyone who might try to leave the island and take the Queen. Nora arrives and tries to lay it on thick, in an effort to get Phil to want to take her from the Island. Phil slaps her around and then makes out with her, but then she leaves. While Phil is continuing his watch, he is attacked by two men who Chloroform him. While Phil passes out, he hears the men put a boat in the water, supposedly making their way to The Scarlet Queen. Phil wakes up, and finds himself being tended by The Doctor. Phil discovers that his ship has been stolen. The Doctor was supposed to kill Phil to ensure a ride from Ramirez, but instead merely knocked Phil out, which was considered a betrayal by Ramirez, who left The Doctor behind with Phil when it left. Phil climbs the highest mountain on the island to see if he can spot The Scarlet Queen, but the ship is gone. He decides to try and find Nora to get more information about what happened, but instead finds Ramirez, who apparently has been abandoned by his crew. Ramirez says that Nora took the Queen. A huge wind arrives, and Ramirez explains that it is a typhoon, and that they will need better shelter to make it through the storm. They decide to help each other, to survive the storm. The Doctor, and Fairfield (Nora’s husband) all come out to huddle together, to find shelter together. The Doctor gets hurt, and dies. They get past the storm and find a trail that leads to a bay where The Queen is docked. Suddenly, the alliance drops, and Ramirez says he’s gonna take the queen. A fight breaks out, and Ramirez gets beaten up by Phil. Nora tried to con Gallagher into thinking that Phil was gonna take her on, but since Phil was supposed to be dead, she could work on Gallagher, and they could live on the Queen together. Phil decides to leave everyone on the island as he found them, and leaves on The Queen immediately. Phil and Gallagher have a drink and discuss going into Kobe, Japan ASAP.
Music behind DJ: Glen Gray	No Name Jive Parts 1 & 2
Chandu The Magician	“The Psychic Summons”	30 June 1948	Mutual–Don Lee Network
Having discovered that some of Robert Regent’s documents have been stolen from Robert’s secret hideout, Chandu gets a Psychic Summons, where they see in Chandu’s crystal ball a woman, A Princess, that Chandu knows, being confronted by a sorceror named Roxor. Roxor suggests that Robert Regent might be alive. Dot is pretty sure that Robert must be dead, but perhaps not? Chandu believes that traveling to Egypt would allow him to search for the missing documents AND find The Princess from the psychic message. While Dot and the kids will be following Chandu, it happens that a man was listening in to their plans.
Dimension X	“Report on the Barnhouse Effect”	22 April 1950	NBC Radio
George Clinton is filing a report on Professor Barnhouse, who has developed a power that allows him to accomplish strange and catastrophic things with his own mind – dynamo-psychism. Barnhouse illustrates his power by using dice, and rolls 7s over and over again. Barnhouse had made the change from someone who merely looks like he’s thinking deeply about how to change the world, to someone who thinks deeply and changes the world around him. When he uses this power, there’s a small noise just before. It also happens that Barnhouse can accidentally destroy things, if he just idly thinks about it. Barnhouse contacts the government, with the hopes that he can use this power to do some good. Barnhouse is immediately captured, to be used as a tool of the government. He takes issue with the government ideas, as they cost too much, and want to only use him to cause destruction. The experiments are a resounding success, and Barnhouse is more powerful than they thought. But Professor Barnhouse escapes in the confusion of the government tests. According to Clinton, Barnhouse begins to systematically stop all weapons in every country on the planet. Once a weapon is reported and publicly known, Barnhouse destroys it immediately. The government enlists Clinton to find Barnhouse, as they are now concerned that another country will capture Barnhouse and use him against us. The hunt for Barnhouse is on, and Clinton has taken up using Barnhouse’s office as his own, where Clinton is rolling Barnhouse’s dice, too. Barnhouse has been taken by two enemy agents, and while their plane takes off, Barnhouse does destroy the plane, and himself in the process. The force of the explosion somehow hit Clinton. Afterwards, Clinton is filing the report on what happened, and notices that he is only rolling 7s, now, just like Barnhouse was.

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