And now, tonight's presentation of Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, we bring you a terrifying study of a pyromaniac.
We call it The Flame.
So now, starring Tony Barrett, here is tonight's Suspense play, The Flame.
Hey, that's a big one.
Boy, what a monster.
Still a lot of people left in the building.
Started on the ground floor, huh?
I guess so.
I don't know.
I just got here.
Hey, you know, mister?
The first floor.
What a mess.
I wonder how it got started.
Some joker in bed with a lit cigarette probably fell asleep.
No.
No, that wasn't the way it started.
Wasn't, huh?
You mean that they...
It'd take more than a little cigarette to start a fire like that.
The whole apartment building's just about gone.
Maybe the guy who owns the building started it.
You know, for the insurance and all.
Well, he didn't have anything to do with it.
Hey, look at it burn, will you?
Makes kind of a pretty pattern against the sky, though.
Doesn't it?
Pretty pattern?
Are you kidding?
Hey, what are you doing?
What?
What are you doing with that paper?
I'm drawing...
Red.
Big now, and it went climbing.
And just, they put it out.
Then there were big, black, ugly clouds of smoke.
But I had the picture I'd drawn of the fire.
Just a pencil sketch.
I colored it when I got home.
Just the way I remembered it.
The reds, oranges, black, and the reds.
And the reds, oranges, black, and the reds.
So I go home.
When I get there, my sister Mary Lee is still up.
She's in her robe.
She should be in bed.
She has to get up and go to work early in the morning.
Why is she up at this hour?
Andy?
Yeah?
Where have you been all night?
I had supper ready.
You promised me you'd be home.
What happened?
I had supper ready. You promised me you'd be home. What happened?
Andy, don't just stand there. I asked you what happened.
Nothing happened. I just went for a walk.
A walk.
What's the matter?
Nothing, nothing. Just leave me alone, Marylady.
You have to nag at me all the time.
I'm not nagging at you, Andy.
I'm just worried and I get nervous when I worry. That's all.
Well, forget it. I'm home and I'm all right.
So just don't worry yourself anymore, okay?
Okay, Andy.
Wait a second. I wanted to ask you for a big favor.
Can't you ask me tomorrow morning, Marylady? I'm awfully tired.
You know Mr Boyajian, the dry goods store man, Andy?
Sure I know him. He's one of my favorite people. What about him?
Well, this morning they took his wife to the hospital.
To the hospital? What for?
Well, she's sick. Very sick, Andy.
Tonight on the way home from work, Mr Boyajian stopped me
and asked me if I'd talk to you about helping him.
Well, sure I will, but how?
Well, he may have to spend some time at the hospital with her.
He doesn't have anybody he can leave in the shop to take care of it
and he thought maybe you'd help him out.
Well, that'd be all right with me, but...
I don't know anything about the dry goods business.
Well, it isn't hard, Andy.
I told him I thought you wouldn't mind at all.
Besides, it'll give you a little something to do to it, to keep you busy.
You won't have to...
Well, go ahead, say it.
You won't have to roam the streets like a bum?
Just like Pa used to yell at me?
All right.
All right, I like Mr Boyajian, Mary Lee.
I'll watch his door for him.
Mr Boyajian was a man who looked like Santa Claus.
He had wonderful small eyes and big red cheeks.
He laughed all the time.
And when he laughed, his small eyes got big and they twinkled,
just like stars.
Or like the flash of flame when you strike a match
and it suddenly flares up with colours and warmth
and you get a funny sensation in your stomach.
Yes, that was Mr Boyajian,
the man who owned the dry goods store on Union Street.
The following morning, Mr Boyajian wasn't laughing.
There was no twinkle in his eyes.
He looked sad sitting behind the counter.
Mr Boyajian?
Huh?
Oh, Andy, it's you.
Hello.
Excuse me, Andy, my mind is not on what is happening.
It is on this music.
I'm far away when I listen.
Music?
Yes.
It is the kind of music that the missus and I used to dance to
when we was like your age.
It's a folk dance, Andy, from the old country.
Oh, it's pretty. I like it.
Uh, Mr Boyajian, part your wife, I'm sorry, she's sick.
Oh, you're sorry.
Everybody is sorry, Andy, the whole neighbourhood.
Everybody tells me how sorry they are.
But me, I am sorry most of all.
Is it very serious?
Yes, very.
Well, don't you worry, they'll take good care of it at the hospital.
I know they will.
I'm sure they will.
She'll have the best there is to offer.
She would if I could afford it.
Afford it?
Yes, you see, this sickness needs special kind doctor.
This special doctor cost extra money.
Oh.
It's kind of money that I, as proprietor of this small dragon store,
do not have.
I wish it was something I could do.
Oh, you're a good boy, Andy.
Good heart.
You know, I wish I could have a son like you.
Thank you, Mr Boyajian.
Thank you.
I don't make the money I used to make.
I can't work as hard.
Sometimes I think I'd be better off if this place should burn down.
I get the insurance money.
Insurance money?
They are from fire insurance company.
I never thought of that.
You never thought of what, Andy?
Oh, what I mean was I never thought of things like fire insurance.
Of course, to do a thing like this, to even wish it, is against the law.
Fire insurance is for the protection.
Of course, of course.
Well, Andy, if you come to stay, I go to hospital.
Yes, yes, you go right ahead, Mr Boyajian.
I'll take care of everything.
Oh, you just leave everything to me.
Mr Boyajian looked so sad and so tired as he walked out the door.
Why did there have to be terrible things like this in the world?
Why couldn't everything be beautiful and good?
Beautiful and good like a nice big fire.
Clean, warm, burning all the evil and hurt.
It was so simple I had to laugh.
I decided I'd use the plumber's candle and the celluloid.
That way all the evidence would be destroyed.
There'd be no way of investigating the claim.
I started to get really excited about it.
I bought what I needed, I went home, I got out Mary Lee's cake tin,
I went into my room and I started to experiment.
Andy, I wondered if you'd go down to...
What are you doing?
What?
What are you doing, trying to start a fire?
No, nothing, Mary Lee, nothing at all.
Just a little gag.
Gag? With my best cake tin?
I'm sorry.
Gag for what?
Well, needles and I, we were...
Needles.
It's not a good idea to have a little gag.
Andy, you've been down to that pool room again, haven't you?
So?
Andy, what's the matter with you?
What do you mean?
I mean other fellas your age, they're out getting jobs, doing things,
but you, all you do is hang around that pool room down by the sound,
take walks at night, draw pictures.
What's wrong with my drawing pictures? Does it offend you?
I don't know, I'm so disgusted, I don't know anything.
You're so right, you don't know anything.
You're just like Ty, you look like him, you act like him,
you don't know anything, just like...
Shut up!
Get out of my room.
Get out before I kill you.
I took a long walk.
I thought about leaving Mary Lee, going away, but I had no place to go.
I found myself down by shipping piers.
I noticed a small barge loaded with crates of some kind.
Wooden crates.
Oh, it looked so beautiful.
The red flames licking against blue sky and blue waters.
I felt better now, I started for home.
I began to make plans for Mr Boyajian's store.
I had the equipment, but I needed his key.
I had to get his key without him suspecting anything.
It wouldn't be good for Mr Boyajian to know what I was going to do.
He might try to stop me.
I was sure he didn't like fires as much as I did.
The next afternoon in the store, just before I was ready to leave,
I asked him about the key.
Key, Andy?
Yes, Mr Boyajian, yes.
But the key, what for, Andy?
Well, I just thought that maybe tomorrow morning
you'd like to get over to the hospital earlier.
I could open up the store for you.
Oh, Andy, already you've done so much for me.
It's nice, but I could...
No, no, no, no, no trouble.
Believe me, Mr Boyajian, no trouble at all.
I'd be happy to do it.
You know, to tell the truth, I would like to get over a little earlier.
Oh, sure you would.
Andy, like I said before, such a good boy there never was.
Good boy with a big heart.
You're the only person who ever said that to me, Mr Boyajian.
Oh, this I know is a joke you tell on me.
Here, I give you Mrs Boyajian's key.
How's that?
That's fine.
Fine, and don't you worry about a thing.
I'll sell out tomorrow.
I'll make you lots of money.
I joked with Mary Lee at dinner that night.
It surprised her, but it put her in a good mood.
The nicest part about the plumber's candle was that I could measure it to
burn to any time.
An hour would be plenty of time.
About 9.30, I told Mary Lee I was going down to the corner drugstore for a few
minutes.
Down on Union, I waited until the block was almost deserted.
Then I let myself into the drag gold store.
Mr Boyajian had a crate of little girls' dresses he just received.
Would be perfect tinder.
I lined the strips of celluloid up and I set the plumber's candle on top of the
crate.
Then I struck a match and lit the candle.
I watched the flame burn for just a moment.
Then I went back to the apartment and I waited.
Mary Lee was darning some socks.
I sat for almost an hour coloring my pictures, getting nervous.
When it was time, I asked her to go get some ice cream with me.
When we got down to the street...
Mary Lee, look, it's a fire.
Come on.
Andy, I hate fires.
I hope it's a false alarm.
No, it's not false.
Look, there's smoke.
Plenty of smoke.
There it is, Mary Lee.
There it is, right over there.
Andy, it's Mr. Boyajian's dry-coat store.
For heaven's sake, what do you know?
Mr. Boyajian's dry-coat store.
Oh, isn't it terrible he hasn't got enough trouble as it is?
Oh, don't you feel sorry for him, Mary Lee?
He's got insurance.
Oh, I know, but how do you know?
We got the talking the other day.
He told me about it.
Hey, Andy, what do you say?
Hot one, huh?
Oh, hello, Needles.
Real hot, huh?
Andy, who's that there carrying out?
Oh, the old man.
Mr. Boyajian.
Somebody said he was passing by on his way home.
He saw the fire rushed inside trying to put it out.
Boy, that was a crazy thing to do.
Is he?
Yeah.
No!
Look at those flames lick up at the sky, Major.
Just like a torch.
A lovely, lovely torch.
Oh, it's beautiful.
You are listening to The Flame, tonight's presentation in Radio's Outstanding,
The theater of thrills, Suspense.
A card shark discovers he isn't as sharp as he thinks when the FBI and peace and war
follow his trail tomorrow night.
Working a three-way racket in the guise of a retired Army colonel with a convenient
wife and son around to add to his aura of respectability, the card shark comes up with
an electronic gimmick that sparks some strange results.
For a highly dramatic demonstration of why crime doesn't pay, don't miss this next
exciting adventure of the FBI in peace and war.
It's yours for the listening over most of these same stations tomorrow night.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. Tony Barrett, starring in
tonight's production, The Flame, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Most everybody in our neighborhood felt sorry about poor Mr. Boyajian.
I wish he hadn't tried to put out the fire.
I didn't go to the hospital with Mary Lee to see his wife, but I did go to Mr. Boyajian's
funeral a couple of days later.
He didn't look worried anymore.
Instead, he looked very peaceful lying in his casket.
I must admit that I did feel some remorse, but the thing that bothered me the most of
all was the fact that I hadn't been able to draw a picture of the fire.
It was the following Friday night that I dropped into the pool room down near the sound.
Needles was all alone.
Hi, hot shot.
Hi, Needles.
Want to play some pool?
Okay.
Where you been?
I haven't seen you around since the funeral.
Here and there?
Go ahead, and do your shoe first.
Hey, good break.
Hey, that was tough about old man Boyajian, huh?
Yeah, too bad.
He shouldn't have tried to put it out.
Yeah.
You know, at first I thought the old guy started himself, you know, to collect the fire
insurance, though, but I guess he didn't.
Mrs. Boyajian will get the money, though, won't she?
Well, you can never tell.
There were some fire insurance coppers around a couple days ago, you know, asking questions.
But I got to investigate before they pay off.
Your shot.
Huh?
Oh.
Oh, yeah.
Hey, nice.
Hey, talked to a lot of people in the neighborhood.
Hey, talked to you, Andy?
Hey, you were working for him, weren't you?
Helping him out so he could go to the hospital.
Hmm.
He'll probably find out if it was a cooked up thing or not.
What?
What do you mean, cooked up thing?
Well, you still can't toss out the idea maybe Boyajian himself started the fire.
He didn't.
How do you know?
He got burned, didn't he?
Hey, maybe he got caught or trapped, couldn't get out.
You shoot again, Andy?
That's ridiculous.
He couldn't have started.
Well, how do you know?
He couldn't have.
He just couldn't have.
Why?
Because.
Yeah?
Because?
Nothing, nothing.
Shoot, Nittles.
Because you started it?
Is that maybe why?
I said shoot, Nittles.
What did you want to do, Andy?
Help the old guy out?
I said shoot.
That was right decent of you, you know that?
And a mighty fine job too.
Hey, how much were you in for?
I wasn't in for anything.
Sure.
Oh, sure.
It's just for the kicks, huh?
Mr. Nittles, don't get me mad.
Put down a cue.
I was only kidding.
You start fires just for kicks, huh?
Oh, boy, that's a laugh, huh?
Oh, sure.
Look, Andy, don't get so...
I was only kidding.
Nittles was the type of guy that got in all kinds of trouble.
I wish he didn't get on my nerves so much.
Later, I got home, opened the door of the apartment,
and I suddenly got a funny feeling.
I don't know what it was, but I was sure it had something to do
with the man who was sitting in the living room with my sister.
And when she introduced him as Inspector Shapiro
of the fire insurance company,
I knew why I had this strange feeling in my stomach.
He's investigating about the fire in Mr. Boyajian's store, Andy.
Oh.
Well, Mr. Boyajian was one of my very best friends.
I was very sorry.
I understand.
I went to the funeral.
Well, before we can pay Mrs. Boyajian the money,
I have to make sure the fire wasn't started purposely.
Purposely?
He means somebody did it just to collect the money.
Oh.
That's right. So far, we haven't been able to learn how it was started.
I see.
Andy, the night of the fire, where were you?
Oh, I can answer that, Inspector.
He was right here in this room with me.
I see.
I remember I was darning some socks and Andy was drawing.
Oh, Mary Lee, he doesn't want to hear about that.
He loves to draw.
Oh? You want to be an artist?
No.
No, no, I just like to draw.
I see.
You worked for Mr. Boyajian while his wife was in the hospital.
At least, that's what your sister here told me.
I did it to help him out. I didn't do it for the money.
Well, did anyone come in while you were there?
Someone who may have talked to him.
Mr. Shapiro, if you're trying to prove
that Mr. Boyajian started the fire himself, you're wrong.
He wasn't that kind of man. I know he didn't start the fire.
Well, I guess you're a blind alley force, too.
I kind of hope that you'd be able to...
Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, but believe me, Inspector,
when I tell you that Mr. Boyajian didn't start that fire,
for one thing, would a man burn himself up in a fire that he starts?
That'd be a crazy thing to do, wouldn't it?
Yes, Andy, that's definitely a crazy thing to do.
Inspector Shapiro was not a stupid man. I could see that.
I was gonna have to be a little more careful for a little while anyway,
until the investigation was over.
I hoped that nothing would go wrong,
that Mrs. Boyajian would get the money.
About two weeks later, I saw Needles was standing
in front of the pool room down near the sound.
He called me over.
He said he had something very important to talk to me about.
So we went into the back room of the pool room.
He closed the door.
Cigarette, Andy?
You know I don't smoke, Needles.
Oh, sure, of course not, pal, of course not.
Well, hot shot, how's fire bugging these days?
Is that supposed to be a cute remark, Needles?
Ah, what's the matter with you? Can't you take a little kid and...
Not that kind!
It's the idea of striking the matches.
Huh? Oh, oh, yeah, it's just a nervous habit.
A nervous habit.
Pretty flame, huh, Andy?
Say what you have to say.
Well, I was thinking about poor Mrs. Boyajian, Andy.
But what if they hold up the claim, huh?
Poor Mrs. Boyajian.
You're not saying anything.
I got a friend. He owns a small warehouse a couple blocks from here, Andy.
He don't make much money with this here small warehouse, and...
He'd like to get rid of it.
One night, this place burns down.
Just like that.
He's very, very sad.
But then he gets happy, because he collects quite a bit of fire insurance.
Fire insurance?
Yeah, fire... insurance.
Now, my friend would pay good money if his warehouse burned down.
Good money.
He would?
Yeah, you could help our poor, poor Mrs. Boyajian, Andy.
I don't know.
I just think it'll be a fine you'll have.
A flame.
And you'll make it.
I'll make it.
That's right, Andy.
Next Friday night, you'll make it.
Friday night seemed a long, long way off.
Couple of times I wanted to go for walks, but then I kept thinking about the big one...
...I was gonna make on Friday night, and I decided not to go for any walks.
I got some money from Needles. I bought all the stuff I needed...
...the celluloid, the plumber's candles.
And then on Thursday, I met Needles' friend, and he took me on a tour of the warehouse.
It was a three-story building.
When I finished going through it, I decided it would be best to start...
...two fires on the third floor, one on the first.
And when I got home, I let myself in, but I didn't close the door...
...because I heard voices coming from my room.
It was Mary Lee and that voice that gave me the funny feeling.
You never bothered to look at this scrapbook?
Why? He draws pictures.
Miss, your brother is a very dangerous man.
I never suspected anything. I never bothered to look at the pictures. He's drawn.
You'll have to be turned over to the authorities.
They'll give him proper medical treatment.
He's a dangerous man with a dangerous sickness.
I had to act now and act fast.
I called Needles, told him we had to burn his friend's warehouse tonight.
Tonight, tomorrow night wouldn't be any good...
...because I'd have to leave Seattle now.
He didn't want to at first because we hadn't planned it that way.
But then he finally agreed.
He met me in front of the warehouse a little before nine.
I set the two fires up on the third floor...
...and then we went down to the first.
And I started another one.
All right. Come on.
No, no. Wait. Let's watch it for a while.
You crazy watch it? This place is going to go up like a tinderbox.
We'll have a good cause.
I said I wanted to watch it for a while. I'm going to draw a picture.
You're nuts.
Now, come on, Andy. Let's get out of here.
You go ahead, Needles. I'll be along in a little while.
Come on, Andy. Come on.
Don't be crazy.
I'm glad I brought my pencil and pad with me.
I think this is going to be a beautiful one.
And it was.
It had wonderful colors. The flames. They were all around me now.
Not an awful lot of smoke here inside the building. Just flames.
Beautiful colors. Just beautiful.
Reds, deep reds and blues and greens and yellows.
I had a feeling this was going to be my best picture, my very best.
The most beautiful flames I'd ever seen.
Thrilling.
And the picture. The picture now just one big flame.
Flame!!!
Suspense.
In which Mr. Tony Barrett starred in tonight's presentation of The Flame.
Next week, we bring you a story of death and eleven roses.
We call it, The Twelfth Rose.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed in Hollywood by Anthony Ellis.
Tonight's story was written by Richard Penicini.
The music was composed by Lucian Morrowak and conducted by Wilbur Hatch.
Featured in the cast were Alan Reed, Joyce McCluskey, Jack Crouchon, Joe Duvall and Herbert Ellis.
If a moratorium were declared suddenly on all crime, accident, sickness and conflict among human beings,
do you know who would be the most surprised man in the world?
The policeman on the beat in a big city because his daily routine is trouble.
An extraordinary situation for anyone else is just part of the day's work for him.
Every Thursday night, 21st Precinct brings you hard-hitting drama,
as realistic as life itself,
about people in trouble, about people who make trouble,
and about the men who help preserve law and order.
Don't miss the excitement of 21st Precinct on the air over most of these same stations this Thursday night.
Stay tuned now for five minutes of CBS News to be followed on most of these same stations by My Son Jeep.
America listens most to the CBS Radio Network.