And now, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
...suspense.
Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
Ninety-seven years ago, Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, died,
slain by the bullet of the actor John Wilkes.
Many historians feel that if Lincoln had lived,
our history and world history would have been profoundly changed for the better.
With this in mind, we bring you now a strange and unusual drama.
The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln.
This first portion of suspense is brought to you by Alpine Cigarettes.
In a moment, act one of The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln,
starring Court Benson as Tom and Ian Martin as the professor,
and written especially for suspense by Robert Arthur.
What's it like to smoke in alpine?
Well, it's like many fresh little things that please you.
It's like the stirring of leaves when a breeze comes up,
like a weathervane turning in a summer sky,
the way the air feels in the morning when you open the door to get the paper.
That's what it's like to smoke in alpine.
Alpine is nothing at all like the sort of smoking you may be used to.
Alpine is a fresh, freewheeling kind of smoke,
a bright, bracing, even invigorating kind of taste, pack after pack.
If this sounds good to you, try alpine.
There's something more to smoking with an alpine
cigarette.
All right now, Tom, give me the readings on that gauge, please.
It's calibrated in years.
In years? Right.
It says 1914 now,
1913,
1912,
1911,
1910,
1910.
It stopped moving.
Your accumulated tension is too great to overcome, but I'll try greater power.
That's what I was afraid of.
Field coil blew out.
But at least I had it a couple of years.
The projective force went all the way back to 1910.
That's 52 years.
Professor Hodges, what do you intend to call this invention?
Oh, well, I could call it, oh, let's see,
an electronic compressor for transmitting personality patterns across temporal gap.
Time machine would be simple.
Yes, but it wouldn't be accurate.
In one sense, a time machine is a total impossibility, believe me.
But in another sense, everyone travels in time constantly.
I'm not sure I'm following you, Professor Hodges.
All right, what happened on your tenth birthday?
Um, why...
Well, I had a big party.
I got a pony for a present and I rode him all over the lawn.
I can still feel the licking I got for ruining the lawn.
You see, you just traveled back 28 years in time.
Mentally, of course.
Yeah, I did, didn't I?
Exactly.
Now, suppose I connected this apparatus to you.
I would have invested on some special date in history
and at some special point where I knew people were present.
Are you following me?
Yes, I think so, sir.
Now, the electronic circuits would take your memory pattern,
your personality, amplify it millions of times
and push it back into the past,
into the mind of some person at that particular spot at that particular time.
I say...
You'd be able to think with his mind, see with his eyes,
hear with his ears and move about with his body.
Put it that way, it doesn't sound quite so impossible.
Oh, it's very much possible.
Of course, there are difficulties.
I imagine there must be a lot of them.
Oh, the technical difficulties can be overcome, but...
Well, now, for instance, suppose your mind finds itself
inside the mind of a very strong-willed individual who fights you.
Ah, yes, I see the problem.
He might dominate you, make you helpless.
Yes, it's all very uncertain.
Well, uncertainty is one of the natural principles of existence, Professor.
Oh.
Then, would you be willing to take the risk, Tom?
Risk? You mean of a trip into the past?
That's just what I mean.
Now, look, Tom, you're only 38,
but you're already one of the world's
foremost authorities on Abraham Lincoln.
Thank you, sir.
I think I'm pretty well grounded on the subject, anyway.
I've read your books, and I've followed your career
ever since you were one of my students.
I know that you believe Abraham Lincoln's death
at the hands of John Wilkes Booth in 1865
was one of the great tragic turning points in history.
Oh, it was. If Lincoln had lived, Professor,
this would be a different world.
He would have healed the wounds of the Civil War
and left us a great nation decades sooner.
We would have been a world power by 1900.
We would have had the strength to prevent both world wars.
We'd be living in a world so much better that...
I'm letting myself get carried away again,
speculating about suppose Lincoln had lived.
All right, John. Suppose he had lived.
I know, but he didn't.
Tom, today is February 11, 1962.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
Now, almost 97 years ago, on April 15, 1865,
Lincoln was assassinated.
How would you like to go back across those 97 long years
and save Abraham Lincoln's life?
How are you? Comfortable, Tom?
The electrodes I've attached to your head don't hurt.
Oh, I'm fine, Professor. A little excited, that's all.
Even though this is just an experimental jaunt.
Oh, back to the year 1912. 50 years. A half a century.
Now, you see the old public library across the street,
boarded up, deserted, dead?
Yes, I used to take books out of there when I was a boy.
And so did your father.
Yes, he met my mother there.
She was a young librarian, and he went in for a book.
Well, it's family history.
He was so bowled over at meeting her,
he forgot the book and left it behind.
And he also forgot to sign his name on the library card
in the back of the book.
Look, Tom, I have it here.
Henderson's Life of Lincoln.
The same book.
And it looks as if no one's taken it out in the last 40 years.
No one has.
Here's the card.
Here's the line where your father should have signed.
Perfectly blank.
Tom, you were going back 50 years
and signed that card that your father forgot to sign.
I'm going to enter my father's mind 50 years ago?
Exactly. You'll see with his eyes, hear with his ears,
and think with his mind.
Now, remember, you're to change the past.
You're to sign that library card.
Right, Professor.
So concentrate on the time.
Noon, April 10, 1912.
Say it aloud to yourself.
Noon, April 10, 1912.
Noon.
April 10, 1912.
Sir, what is it?
Are you ill?
I...
Where am I?
Why, this is the public library.
And I have the book you requested, The Life of Lincoln.
Why are you staring at me so oddly, sir?
It's 12 o'clock. What's the date?
Why, April 10, 1912.
And today's the first time I ever saw you, isn't it?
Yes.
But you're Mary Andrews from Philadelphia.
You just started working here today.
Yes, but how did you know?
How did I know? Why, I seem to have always known.
That's queer.
It's as if there were a voice in my mind telling me things.
Are you sure you're all right?
Just a little dizzy.
The effect of love at first sight.
Oh, please, sir.
I mean it.
Mary, Miss Andrews, will you have lunch with me?
Why, I...
Good, that's settled. It's lunchtime. Get your hat.
All right, I will.
But this book, don't you want to take it?
Oh, bother the book. Lincoln can wait.
But wait a minute. There's something I'm trying to remember.
Something I have to do.
That's it. I do have to sign the card.
Oh, not if you don't want to?
Yes, yes, I do. I must.
There's something in my mind, something telling me not to fail.
I have to hurry.
I'm feeling a little dizzy. My name...
Tom Morrison.
No, not Tom.
What's wrong with me?
Henry. Henry Morrison.
There. Cards all signed.
Now I...
Mr. Morrison, you're so pale.
Can I get you a drink of water?
Mr. Morrison? Mr. Morrison?
Look, Tom, look. The library card.
Now it's signed. My father's name, Henry Morrison.
Yes, but he started to sign it Tom Morrison.
Then he crossed out Tom and wrote Henry.
That proves that your personality was dominant.
If just for a moment...
I know, but it was all so ephemeral.
But the point is that history was changed.
You proved it can be done.
And if you can do that...
you can go back and save Abraham Lincoln's life.
But first we have more tests ahead of us.
Tom, how would you like to go back and hear the Gettysburg address?
In person.
Hey, hey, hey, you. Take care. You push me.
Oh, I'm sorry. I felt dizzy.
Where am I? This crowd.
Are you crazy? You're in Gettysburg.
And this crowd has come to hear Lincoln's speech, if I...
just as I have, all the way from Washington.
I'll be quiet. He's talking.
Seven years ago...
our forefathers brought forth on this continent...
a new nation...
conceived in liberty...
and dedicated to the proposition...
that all men are created equal.
Now we're engaged in a great civil war...
testing whether that nation...
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated...
can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field...
that those who here gave their lives...
that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But in another sense...
we cannot do this.
Professor, I saw Lincoln.
And I heard him deliver the Gettysburg address.
It's strange. His voice was even higher pitched...
than I'd imagined.
You stayed in the past a full hour. That's tremendous to him.
Now, whose mind were you in?
It turned out to be a farmer named Evans, a simple fellow.
After the first moment, I was completely in control.
I could have done anything I wanted. His mind couldn't have stopped me.
That proves my theory. Now we're ready for the real thing.
We leave for Washington tomorrow.
We'll set up our equipment and instruments...
in the Ford Theater itself.
The Ford Theater?
Yes.
And you are going to return to that fateful night...
and prevent that murderer shot from being fired.
Well, everything seems to be working.
I was afraid the trip by truck might have jarred some of the components.
How still it is here. How hushed.
It's as if not a single sound had been uttered here...
since the night Lincoln was shot.
Yes. The past seems alive.
Oh, they say that time turns back for no one...
but the moving finger writes and having writ moves on.
But you and I will alter the writing in the Book of Fathom.
We can't fail.
We have only this one chance.
I won't fail. Abraham Lincoln is going to live.
Never lose that thought, Tom.
Now, let's work out our strategy.
We have the place to ourselves until tomorrow morning.
I convinced the management I was engaged in some tests...
that need absolute privacy, so we don't have to hurry.
Good. We have to work out where everybody was.
The interior, you know, has been changed around here...
somewhat since this was last used as a theater.
Well, you're the Lincoln expert.
You tell me where and I'll do the rest.
All right. Well, let's see.
Yes, over there was the box office.
And then over here was the entrance into the auditorium.
All this space was the auditorium.
There, of course, the stage.
And up there, Professor, is the private box where Lincoln sat.
Now, at about 9 o'clock in the evening...
President and Mrs. Lincoln entered with two guests.
The play had already started.
A man named Buckingham took their tickets...
and an usher led them up a set of stairs to their box.
Go on, Tom, I'm following.
The exact movements of everyone are very important.
Well, at about 10 after 10, John Wilkes Booth sauntered in.
He spoke to Buckingham.
And then he went upstairs toward Lincoln's booth.
In his pocket, he carried a brass derringer loaded with one shot.
And he struck almost immediately.
Yes, sir.
The president had an armed guard, John F. Parker...
but Parker was criminally negligent.
He left Lincoln unguarded, which gave Booth his fatal chance.
Well, he fired, leapt to the stage, and made his getaway.
Lincoln died the next day.
Tom, son, think of it.
Tomorrow, if we succeed...
the history books will say Lincoln lived.
All history for nearly 100 years will be changed for the better.
We'll succeed. We'll have to.
It'll depend on you, Tom.
You'll have to save Lincoln and probably kill Booth.
Booth.
Now, let's get the equipment set up in the right spots.
Everything's working. How do you feel?
Keyed up. Anxious to get started.
I can't tell you how excited I am.
If, uh...
if anything goes wrong...
it can kill you, Tom.
I'm willing to take the chance, sir.
Also, if anything goes wrong, we won't get a second chance.
I know. So let's recheck now everything that I'm going to do.
First, you plan to send me back into the mind of Buckingham, the ticket taker.
Well, he's the logical choice, and I hope we can count on his being a man...
of no great mental attainments.
Success or failure may rest on that.
Yes, of course. It'd be fatal if I found myself in the mind of someone...
strong and determined whom I couldn't control.
If that happens, son, do nothing.
Will yourself back to your own time. Change nothing.
Under those conditions, we can try again.
Once you've changed anything...
we can never make another effort.
Yes, I understand.
However, I... I don't think anything will go wrong.
Now, we know exactly where Buckingham stood...
and can focus the temporal personality transmitter very closely.
Now, Tom, you... you know it'll take a supreme effort.
Yes, I know, sir.
I think you will have to force the ticket taker Buckingham...
to kill John Wilkes Booth.
Very well. I will, if necessary.
Then... just keep telling yourself...
save Lincoln.
Kill Booth.
Save Lincoln.
Kill Booth. I'll think of nothing else.
Then here you go.
Back to 1865.
Good luck.
Save Lincoln.
Kill Booth.
Save Lincoln.
Kill Booth.
Save Lincoln.
Steady, man, steady.
Hell, you almost fell, then.
What are you mumbling to yourself about?
Drinking again, is that it?
Uh... uh... where... where am I?
Why, this is Ford's Theatre, of course.
If you need the date, it's April 14th, Anne O'Domine, 1865.
What's wrong with you, man?
Just dizzy for a moment.
So I'm here, on the scene...
Ford's Theatre, the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
I'm here.
What's that about Lincoln?
He's here tonight. Everybody knows that.
Yes, of course.
The lobby of Ford's Theatre.
And he hasn't arrived yet.
We've done it, and I can't fail. I won't.
Oh, boy.
You're in a bad way, mumbling to yourself. Staggering.
Now, look, you'd better go home and lie down. Sleep it off.
I'm all right. Yes. Yes, I'm quite all right.
Shh. The play's going on, you know.
You mustn't disturb the President.
No, the President. Yes.
Yes, the President.
He mustn't be disturbed.
I'll see he isn't disturbed.
You're certainly acting strangely tonight.
Acting? Who are you to be a judge of acting?
No, I mean, it's just a temporary lapse, but...
My name...
Am I Buckingham?
Well, that's a good one.
Tell him, Harry, is our friend's name Buckingham?
Well, I doubt it, since your name is Buckingham.
That's right.
Say, how much did you have to drink?
We missed. Somehow we missed.
I'm someone else.
Buckingham, what the doozles he muttering to himself?
It won't make any difference. I'll find him, kill him.
Look, why don't you go in and sit quietly until you're yourself again?
Now, just don't make any noise.
No, no, I can't sit down.
I've got to find someone. But who?
I guess Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth.
Save one, kill the other.
Hey, Buckingham, help me hold him up.
He's staggering. All right.
Dizzy, I've got to concentrate.
Well, Lincoln, Booth, concentrate.
There's no whiskey on his breath. He's ill.
We'd better get him outside.
Come along, old friend.
No, I'm all right.
It's past ten. I have something important to do.
A matter of life and death.
Tell me, have you seen Booth, John Wilkes Booth, the actor?
Have we seen Booth?
Yes, I want to find...
I...
Come over me.
Peculiar dizzy spell, then.
Can't let that happen.
I've got a project to carry out.
That's strange. He's recovered.
Excuse me, gentlemen. I have to go in.
I have a very important engagement to keep tonight.
Yes, very important.
A matter of life and death.
Good night, gentlemen.
This is a night when history will be made.
Well, that was a funny performance.
He wasn't drunk, but he certainly seemed to have something on his mind.
He talked like two different men there part of the time.
Yes.
Well, with him, you never know what he's up to.
Those actors.
A strange bunch.
Just imagine him asking us if we'd seen John Wilkes Booth.
Concentrate.
Feel queer, but concentrate. Kill.
Close the door.
Ah, there you are, Mr. President.
What is it, my good fellow?
What do you wish?
To give you this.
Help!
Sixth and fourth year, Eddie!
What's the matter?
Mr. President! Mr. President!
Are you all right? Mr. President!
Suspense.
You've been listening to The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln,
starring Corp Benson as Tom and Ian Martin as the Professor,
and written especially for suspense by Robert Arthur.
Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zorato Jr.,
music supervision by Ethel Huber.
Featured in tonight's story were Margaret Draper as Mary Andrews,
Cliff Carpenter as Buckingham, Ralph Bell as the Man.
The voice of Abraham Lincoln was created by Jim Bowles.
Listen again next week when we return with The Old Boyfriend,
written by Peter Fernandez.
Another tale well calculated to keep you in.
Suspense.
Get in the game with Phil Rizzuto's Sports Time every night but Sunday
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