 Now another proudly we hail one of radio's outstanding dramatic half-hour starring Lee Tracy and presented transcribed by your army and your Air Force. From Radio City, New York, here is your star and host on proudly we hail the distinguished Broadway stage, screen and radio star Lee Tracy. Thank you Kenneth Banghart and hello everyone welcome again to proudly we hail. Lee I'm intrigued with the name of our show today what does it mean variations on Melvin Brown? Well can I agree with you when I first saw the script after seeing the name I couldn't wait to get into the story and the story itself is just as intriguing. We'll be ready for the program in just a moment Lee but first I'd like to repeat a very critical message you've probably heard before. The task of building up the defenses of the United States isn't any pushover. Your army and your Air Force need young men and women now so if you're qualified visit an army and Air Force recruiting station, volunteer today. And now with your star Lee Tracy in the role of Dan Emmet your army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production of variations on Melvin Brown. I met Bill Hunter by accident walking along in a crowded part of town. Patten seen him in five years not since the two of us were discharged from the army. He looked about the same old Bill, jolly half a bull always ready with a smile. I suggested the two of us have dinner together that evening. He agreed and later that night over coffee and cigars. Bill happened to remark on the subject of coincidence, springing naturally from our chance meeting that afternoon. You know Danny it's the funniest thing when you stop to consider it. But there I was just passing through on my way from New York to Hong Kong. Never once thinking I'd ever see you again when all of a sudden there you are right in front of me. You mean that but for a matter of a couple of seconds either way we never would have met. Yeah that's it. Crazy coincidence. I mean our being at just that one spot at the same time. You know Bill whenever I hear that word coincidence being loosely used. I'm reminded of a crazy deal fate handed me a few years back. The shuffle was above board and seemed straight enough, but it turned out to be one of the most beautifully stacked decks I'd ever come across. I'd located in the city west of Chicago. It was a fairly large city, a couple of hundred thousand people, two newspapers. I'd set up a small investigation bureau handling mostly insurance and accident cases making out pretty well. Nothing lucrative you understand just so-so. Good place to hang my talents and call home. At the time it happened I was between cases. It was summer and was plenty hot. I'd just gotten home. It was in a cold tub of water when the telephone rang. Just a minute. Okay. Okay I hear you. Yeah. Mr. Emmett, I'm so nervous. My name is Brown. This is Melvin Brown. And my husband is going to murder me tonight. Mr. Emmett, I'm at my wit's end. Hey wait a minute. You say your husband wants to kill you? Yes he's in the next room. You must come right over. A mutual friend gave me your name. He said that you would- Where are you now? I'm at my home. Please hurry the address. Mr. Brown, hello. Sorry, what number was that? Never mind. Give me police headquarters. Just a moment sir. Officer, there's been a murder. A woman named Brown. Mrs. Melvin Brown. What address is that? I don't know the address. Never met her before in my life. She phoned me just a few minutes ago. Claimed her husband was going to murder and then he did. I heard the whole thing right over the telephone. Hey, sounds like some screwball gag. I'll tell you bud, there are about a hundred Browns in this city. Suppose you get in touch with this mutual friend and kind an hour down to one person with one address. And while you're doing that, suppose you stick to Chase's song. Hey, hold on. Wait, wait, wait. What number do you wish? What? Oh, forget it. I couldn't blame him really. The whole thing did sound screwy. I started wondering if maybe someone wasn't pulling a cutie on me. Anyway, I grabbed the telephone directly and thumbed through the bees till I came across a page full of Browns. I looked at the sheet past the Marys and the Martins and I finally found the Melvins. There were only three Melvin Browns and each of them lived in a different part of town. I decided to run the thing down myself. It was 7.30, still light when I crawled into my roadster and headed north to the Terrace Gardens section. I thought I'd visit the Melvin Brown closest to my apartment first and, if necessary, work my way across town. I hoped it wouldn't be necessary. The Terrace Gardens section consisted of two blocks of modern exclusive apartment dwellings, each with a doorman, each with a penthouse. I located the number I wanted and with my best foot forward I walked right past the doorman, past the desk clerk and into the elevator. Mr. Melvin Brown had a premonition that it'd be the penthouse and I was right. I waited a few seconds to make the 16 floors and when we finally got there I found myself in a small foyer facing a solitary door. The nameplate embossed and illuminated said M. Brown. Press the button that caused something to chime in the distance. I wonder if I might have a few words with Mr. Brown. Not exactly, here's my card. I think he'll see me. I gave the butler one of my agency cards and he left. In a few moments he returned, ushered me into one of the biggest living rooms I'd ever seen in my life. The Melvin Brown waiting for me was in his late 50s. Gray, very distinguished looking. But his eyes, his eyes seized at me with unabating fear. So, you're a detective. Yep, that's right, Mr. Brown. What can I do for you? I'll use it with your wife, if I might. With my wife, you... you wasted no time getting here. You didn't think you could get away with it, did you? No, I suppose not. If you don't mind, I'll use your phone. I fell a shiver of success run up my spine as I headed to the telephone. I was about to ring up headquarters again when a note in his voice stopped. No, wait, wait, please. Please listen to me first. I'll put down a receiver and a turn to him. Well, what can you possibly say? I noticed your card. You're a private investigator. You're under no oath to anyone. You're your own master. The fee is all you're really interested in. Well, I've got money. I'll double what you're getting now. I'll triple it. What? Do you really think you can buy my silence? Why not? Why not? No one need no. Can't matter a great deal to you who retains your services as long as you're paid. Wait a minute, mister. In a matter such as this, I'm retained by no one except my own conscience. A terrible crime has been committed, and so help me. I'm gonna see that it's paid for. Your lack of understanding is the terrible crime. Can't you realize that there are extenuating circumstances in these matters? Would you call it a terrible crime if a person had an incurable disease? Is it a crime when a person does things you can't help? There's no control over. Believe me, Mr. Rehmed, I've taken Flora to the best doctors available, and they give me little to hope for. This kleptomania is an incurable disease with her. Kleptomania? If the store insists on prosecuting, everything will be finished for her. I've always paid for everything she's taken before. Why can't I now? Why do you insist on ruining our lives and our reputation? I felt little doubt that this was the wrong brown. Now, look, Mr. Brown, I may have been a little, little, little hasty. I wonder if you'd answer a question. Anything at all, Mr. Rehmed. Well, your wife, usually confiner shopping sprees to one store? Yes, of course. McChelsea's. You're from McChelsea's, aren't you? I mean, you represent them? Well, yeah, yeah. Now, I was going to suggest... Yes? Well, as long as Mrs. Brown does shop exclusively at McChelsea's, why not come to some arrangement with the management there? Why? I never once thought of that. It's so simple. It's perfect. It's perfect. I could deposit a sum of money there to be used. Mr. Rehmed, I don't pretend to understand your change of heart, but believe me when I say that I'm indebted to you beyond measure. Forget it. Now, if you'll just excuse the intrusion, I'll be on my way. And you mean that you'll not report this to... It's forgotten, Mr. Brown. I'm sure everything will turn out okay. Just a moment. Won't you please accept... No, no, no, no, no, no. No, I couldn't. May I shake your hand? Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I felt like the prize boob of 1950 as I left there, got into my jalopy and headed for the next address. On the way, I couldn't help thinking about the guy I just left, the first Melvin Brown. I'd never seen the moral, money doesn't beget happiness, pointed out so beautifully before. I was looking for my pipe in my jacket pocket when I felt it. There was a roll of bills. I stopped the car and counted it. There was over $1,500. Old Melvin must have slipped it into my pocket. I decided not to return it that night. I could send it back to him in the morning. The second Melvin Brown lived in a grab-fetted neighborhood on the other side of the tracks, I located the street and as I slowly proceeded in second, checking the addresses, I suddenly noticed something up ahead that made the blood rush to my temple and my pulse quickened. I saw a small knot of people gathered around an ambulance in front of an ugly tenement. The ambulance was just pulling away and somehow I was sure that this was the right Melvin Brown. Lee Tracy, starring as Dan Emmett in the Proudly We Hail production of Variations on Melvin Brown, will return for the second act in just a moment. But first I have an important message to the young men and young women of America. You are needed now. The United States Army offers qualified men and women the best possible training in many technical fields. There are hundreds of openings in communications, radio, radar, electronics, and similar specialties. All of them offer you wide opportunities to serve your country in these critical times. So visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station and get all the details. Serve your country and yourself by volunteering today. You are listening to Proudly We Hail and now with your star Lee Tracy we present the second act of Variations on Melvin Brown. Yep, I was positive that this was the right place. The people out in front in the departing ambulance could mean only one thing. The tragedy had struck suddenly and swiftly and I was positive that Mrs. Melvin Brown was in that departing ambulance. This was it. No mistake about it. I practically ran into the small dirty vestibule and up a flight of grimy stairs. Didn't know where I was going so I turned around and called out to a fellow standing down on the hallway. Hey, buddy, what number do the Browns live in? All right up there, first door on your left. Thanks. I don't know what I expected to find in there. Anything but what I actually did find, believe me. She was young, about 16 or so, and her eyes were black ebony, set in the perfect oval of a face. But it's impossible to describe her, no sense trying to, so I'll just say she was beautiful. Beautiful and scared and something else. She was sitting in a wheelchair. Excuse me, I didn't mean to... What do you want? Are you one of them? Well, I'm sorry, Miss. I must have the wrong apartment. I was looking for a Melvin Brown. That's my father. They've taken him away. The doctor came and took him away. Your father? You mean... you mean that he was in the ambulance? Yes, but he'll be back. He'll be back. It's only a little operation and he'll be back in a few days so you can't do anything about it. I won't go with you. You can't make me. No, no, no, no. I'm not going to take you anywhere. Please don't cry. I'll even leave if you want. Who are you if you're not here to take me away? Who are you? What do you want? Well, Jess, let's just say I'm a friend. A friend of the family. How can you be? I've never met you before. Well, you know, I'm a good ear older than you. You mean you knew my father? Not exactly. Maybe you knew my mother. Your mother? Did you know her? I never did. She died when I was a child, but Daddy says she was beautiful and wonderful and loved us very much. Did you know her? Beautiful and wonderful. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I knew her. I found out her name was Helen. Seeing her there wasn't hard to know and even see what her mother must have been like. We talked for about an hour, little by little I got the whole story. Helen lived with her father and that shabby flat man and what was more, the two of them were happy. I could feel love all around me. It was in the threadbare furniture, the cracked walls. It was in the very air that I breathed. She lost the use of her legs in an accident a few years before. It seemed that the authorities were all for taking Helen out of that environment and placing her in a home where she might have the care and attention they thought she needed. The two of them together had managed to dodge the issue, but now with her father in the hospital, Helen was scared stiff. She thought I was one of them coming to take her away. I hope you'll forgive me for before, Danny. I mean, I didn't know... Oh, forget it, honey. Tell me something. If you had, well, somebody here to take care of you while your father's away, then these people couldn't bother you, could they? You mean someone like a servant? Yeah. Yeah, some woman to come in here and cook your meals, wash your clothes, and keep the place neat and clean. Danny, we've no money for that. Well, you see, that's what I came here for. I don't understand. Helen, a long time ago, your mother gave me some money. It helped me to do the things I wanted to do, and tonight I came to pay her back. You see, I have the money right here in my pocket, over $1,500. It belonged to your mother. Now it belongs to you. Here. Take it. Danny, here, Danny, take this. This is my mother's greatest treasure, and I know she'd want you to have it. What? Thank you. It was a thin, old volume of poems by long-fellow, beautifully bound in a hand-worked cover. I put it in my pocket, and promising to return the following day I left. On my way to the car, I couldn't help thinking about that $1,500. The whole thing was sort of poetic, a present from the family of Melvin Brown to the family of Melvin Brown. It was a strange coincidence, and I was beginning to feel a little awed by it all. But I shrugged it off, and I headed for the home of the third Melvin Brown. The house was about a mile out of town on a desolate, dark street with a private dwelling, small, shingled, and remote. Quietly, I worked my way around the right side of the house. There was a window through which I could see a chink of light. I could make out that it was a kitchen. Suddenly, it hit me. It was a commonplace odor, a kitchen odor, usually associated with cooking, but it's a deadly odor. Gas. Hurriedly, I sprang on my feet and picking up a large, flat rock. I came through the kitchen window. The window was locked on the inside, but in a moment I got it open, crawled in, took out my handkerchief, held it in my nose, the gas was suffocating. Melvin Brown was sitting slumped and unconscious in front of the open oven. I jumped to the jets, flicked them off, had them inhaled very much I knew, so I dragged him into the living room, placed him on a couch, and threw open all the windows. With a bottle of brandy on a sideboard, quickly I opened it and poured some down his throat, coughing and moaning. He didn't seem to need artificial respiration, so I just sat there. About half an hour and finally, he opened his eyes and looked at me. You're in your own home, on your own couch, and this brandy I'm drinking, that's yours too. Makes no difference who I am, Brown. Where's your wife? What'd you do with her body? I don't know what you're talking about. No, I suppose not. I suppose you didn't kill your wife and then try to end your own just now, did you? Wife? Kill? I... I have no wife. I've been a bachelor all my life. Please, please, what do you want? What do you want? Why? He cried and sobbed for about ten minutes, and I let him. He had quite a lot on his mind, slowly bit by bit, the pieces fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle and I got the entire picture. It had been him and his mother all his life, and when early that year she passed away, it turned out to be a little too much for him. He was shy and retiring, found himself alone in a world of strangers. With his new freedom, he went overboard, he gambled a good deal, and being a teller in a bank, he'd helped himself to funds to cover his losses. Taken over a thousand dollars, and the bank examiners were due the following week. The pressure was just too much for him. Alone, friendless, with prison, staring him in the face, he decided on the easy way out. I... I didn't know what to say. While waiting for him to snap out of it, I've been reading the book of poems Helen had given me. And now it was as if an unseen hand that guided me to one particular fragment of poetry that burned before my eyes. Let our unceasing earnest prayer be too for light, for strength to bear our portion of the weight of care that crushes into dumb despair one half the human race. I looked at him, and where before his eyes mirrored suspicion to spare and abject grief, I now saw a look of peace. It was then that the full impact of the whole evening hit me and hit me hard. There was a design here, a grand design. There's no explaining some things. Fate, or God, seemed to work that night. Here were three Melvin Browns, unrelated except by name, and yet each going through a personal crisis. And there was I, a sort of emissary, an errand boy, paying each of them a visit and helping each of them to help each other. I don't think an offer of money would have done them much for this brown as that poem did. My mind was flooded with the immensity of it all. I told Brown the story about his two namesakes and what had happened to me that night. It's incredible. The coincidence is... I can't think so. I think coincidence ended and something far more powerful took over tonight. And I'm sure that you'll find the help you need financially with the first brown and spiritually with the second. Just as sure as I am that you'll find some way to help them. It's all too perfect, this pattern of crisis. It'll find its own way of completing itself. Well, Bill, what do you think? Well, as Brown said, incredible. Incredible, but true. And I take it everything worked out fine. Yep, there was no stopping it. But tell me, what about that woman who called you the first Mrs. Melvin Brown? Oh, her, yeah. Well, police located her body a few days later. Her husband was booked and he confessed. You know, I never did find out who our mutual friend was. And then she wasn't listed in the phone book. Oh, there. Their phone was listed, all right. But not under Brown. B-R-O-W-N. It was Brown, B-R-A-U-N. You were right, Lee. The story did match the title. We all enjoyed variations on Melvin Brown. Ah, thank you, Ken. Your star, Lee Tracy, will return for a word about next week's special Christmas program in just a moment. Meanwhile, listen to a very special sound. That's the Freedom Bell, heard round the world. It's a rallying sound, but sound isn't enough. It demands action, too. And the young men and women who volunteer and wear the uniform of the United States Army know they're helping to make freedom a fact. The moment you put on the United States Army uniform, everyone will know that you're an active member in the fight for freedom. So visit your nearest U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force Recruiting Station. You'll be a real help to your country. Volunteered today. This has been another program on Proudly We Hail, presented in cooperation with this station by your Army and your Air Force. Proudly We Hail stars, Lee Tracy. Supporting Mr. Tracy and the cast were Helen Christian, Joe DeSantis, Bill Lipton, George Clark, Miriam Wolfe, and Jack Jason. Variations on Melvin Brown was written by Frank DeFelita. The music was composed and conducted by John Guaneri. Proudly We Hail is directed by Charles Wilkes. This is Kenneth Banghart speaking, and here again is your host and star, Lee Tracy. Next week I hope you'll all be our guests when we present the Proudly We Hail Christmas program. It'll be the world famous and beloved the other wise man. Goodbye.