 Family Theatre presents Frank Lovejoy and Chuck Connors. From Hollywood, the mutual network in cooperation with Family Theatre presents The Invasion, starring Frank Lovejoy. And now, here is your host, Chuck Connors. Thank you, Tony Lafranco. Family Theatre's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives. If we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world, Family Theatre urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama, The Invasion, starring Frank Lovejoy as Dave. Most died-in-the-woll reporters don't care much for radio, and when you think about it, the reason's a pretty good one. Radio gets the news out first. You hear story of a news event on the air usually about two hours before it hits the streets on the front page. That doesn't help newsstand sales much. Me? I like radio even though I used to work for a whole chain of newspapers. I wasn't a reporter, though. I was a science editor. And that's why I got the story first. The story about the end of civilization, the way we know it. It began a few days ago. I was sitting at my desk in the city room of the Clarion, reading an article by Willie Lay and the current galaxy when the call came in. Hey, Burn. Yeah? The guy in the phone says he's Alexander Whalen. The Alexander Whalen? That's what he says. You better take it. Oh, wait a minute. Sounds pretty excited about something, but I'll be darned if I can make out the terminology he's using. Yeah, let me have the phone. There's something about some invasion or something. Oh, hello. Oh, hello, Dr. Whalen. How... What was that? You'll have to speak a little more slowly. I couldn't understand you. Yes? Yes? Are you sure? I mean, are you absolutely... Doctor, it's pretty hard to believe. What is it, Dave? Yes, we'll run a story on it right away. Ask him if he called any of the other papers. I'd like to come right out and see you about it first, though. Where do you live? Was it that far? Wait a minute, Doctor. Dave, what is it? Done. Better hold a good spot on the front page. This will be the hottest thing anybody ever printed. Right. What's it all about? The invasion of Earth. That's what it's all about. Invasion of Earth? Cut it out. This is Alexander Whalen, Don, one of the greatest all-around scientists of our time. Invasion of Earth? How do you know it's Alexander Whalen? I've met the man I know, his voice. I'm cranked with a voice like his. We'll make sure of it. Oh, hello, Dr. Whalen. Doctor, it's a pretty big thing you're telling me. You can understand, of course, what it could mean if it isn't true. Well, of course, I believe you, but I have to be sure. Now, I have your number in my file, so suppose you hang up and let me call you. Oh, I remember meeting you, yes, sir, but the city editor insists that I take this precaution. Thank you, Doctor. I'll call you right back. Crank call. Give you two to one. A hundred to one. What kind of an invasion did he say? Well, he said he couldn't be specific, but he knew it was happening. He thinks the people should be warned. He thinks a newspaper chain with a press association affiliation is the best means and the quickest. Sounds like this crank sat down and thought out a scheme. Well, let's hope it's just a scheme. Come on, let's get that phone number. Martian's no doubt. Did he say they were bug-eyed monsters or the usual creatures of vastly superior intelligence? He didn't say. Now, where is that number? That's your file at disorder desk drawer? It ought to be about here. The pipe cleaners just last... Oh, here it is. What's the matter? The address he gave me. It's the same as the one on this paper. The address is probably in the phone book. Any crank could have gotten it. Only one way to find out. Push the phone over here. Raise and verse. Sounds... Yeah, it just sounds hokey. It's like... Operator, will you give me Mountain Glen 465? Yes, thank you. I'll wait. Don, I know it sounds strange, but... If Whalen says it's possible, then believe me it is. He's one man who... Hello, Dr. Whalen, this is... Oh, then you did call me just a couple of minutes ago? No crank? Doctor, I wonder if you could give me a few particulars. It turned out that he could give me a very few particulars. On developing some astronomical photographic plates, he'd noticed a strange pattern of lights which he said were definitely not caused by any heavenly body. He had then taken other pictures only to find a considerably greater number of the lights and to discover that some of them were growing larger, meaning that whatever was making the lights was coming closer. They were traveling in an unnatural formation, meaning a formation which would not occur in nature and at a rate of speed which, according to the doctor, would make them arrive here on Earth in about two hours. Because it was more than a two-hour drive to Dr. Whalen's house, the city editor decided to print the story without further verification. After all, it was possibly the biggest story of the century, maybe even the biggest in history. The clarion carried it in a banner headline and in a type size that hadn't been used since Truman beat Dewey and the pollsters. All the other papers of the press association ran at two and at just about the same time. And the non-press association sheets copied and ran an extra. After all, it was big news and the name of Alexander Whalen was above reproach. An hour and 55 minutes after the call came into the clarion, I arrived at the Whalen house. I parked my car, I went up the steps to his front door, and I knocked on it. I was shaking when the door opened. A little because of the news he'd phoned in almost two hours before and a little because I had just driven two and a half hours worth of mountain roads in less than two hours. You must be David Byrne. Won't you come in? Thank you. You're the doctor's secretary? I'm his daughter. My name's Martha. I'm David Byrne. I know. Yes, of course. If you'll follow me. I certainly. The doctor's daughter didn't help my condition any. Oh, she wasn't what you'd call beautiful and she had only a well-amiddling good figure, but she really was attractive. She had a kind of scrubbed look about her. And as she led me up the stairs toward the doctor's study, I couldn't help thinking how she might have made someone, maybe even me, a good wife. She might have been the mother of some pretty wonderful children if it hadn't been for this invasion business. Somehow the thought of it wrote the end of everything in my mind. Mr. Byrne is here, Father. Huh? Oh, hello, Byrne. You've got here fast. Well, I kind of thought the occasion called for it. It's good to see you again, sir. Come in. Come in. Just getting ready to take my last negatives out of the fix. You too, Martha. Come in. Well, didn't you want me to wait for the man who phoned? Oh, that's right. I'll call you when the pictures are ready, dear. Promise? I promise. Nice meeting you, Mr. Byrne. My pleasure. Of course, we don't really know if we can expect to have dinner, but you're invited to stay if you like. Well, I'd like that very much. Go ahead. Looks like I'm not the only one who figures this is just about the end of the world. Did your paper publish the story? All mine and just about every other paper in the country by this time. Where are the early pictures, Doctor? Over here on the desk. I made prints in case you'd have the chance to use one. I'd like to take a couple back if you don't mind. Eight by ten glasses. Is that all right? That couldn't be better. May I see them? Right here. Wow. Things are pretty clear in this one. Perfect circle of lights. These are the last pictures you took before you called the paper? I took this one here before I called. This one? See. Now, see if you can see anything in this one you didn't see in the last. Well, the lights are eclipsed a little. Makes the light look almost like a corona in a couple. That would be caused by the ship or space vehicle coming between the light and the camera. The lights are definitely pushing something. Doctor, you said something about some pictures you were about ready to take out of the fix. In the dark room. Come on. Want me to turn off the lights? No, it's not necessary. What telescope did you use? The 300-inch. Now, let's see what we've got here. Look, Byrne. Oh, those are spaceships, all right. And look behind them. More rings. What we've been seeing so far, only the first wave. How many more rings? That's what I'd like to know. Well, we'll let this set up and then we'll make a few prints. Maybe we'll be able to see a little better. You know, this is fantastic. What are they? Well, if you want the popular name, spaceships. No, I mean the beings in them. If we only knew something about them. Well, we do know something about them. Probably very much like we are. As a matter of fact. What makes you think so? No matter where they came from, they would have the problem of gravity to think about. That means they would have a skeletal structure. Two possibilities there. They would have their bones either on the outside or on the inside. And if they had them on the outside, they would be crustaceans with three or six legs, tripods. Crustaceans could never balance on two legs. But since nature seems to find them unsuitable for her larger forms, they are very likely something like we are with bones on the inside. They would have a minimum weight at maturity of at least, oh, the very least 34 pounds. They would need that much to have their bodies compatible with their brains. I'm sorry, I don't understand. You don't have to. God had a lot of good reasons when he designed the human body. All of them very practical. Well, that's something to think about right there. What? What will this invasion do to the world's religions? Well, it might deal a mighty blow to the world's vanity. But I failed to see how it could have any effect at all on religion. If there were other intelligent life in the universe, you'd think there'd be some mention of it. In my father's house, there are many mansions. Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. And besides, God doesn't create things without cause, yet he's filled the firmament with suns and set planets to circle them. You know, I thought that, well, I thought you kind of shared my feelings that this might be a great catastrophe for Earth. I do. But you think it might not mean the end for Earth. On the contrary, I think it probably will. You see, I think that other beings in this universe, although until today I really didn't think much about them at all, I think that other beings in this universe might be just as warlike as we are. Now look at these pictures again, Bert. This is an invasion force. According to your timetable, they should be arriving just about now. Maybe we should go look out the windows and forget about these prints. Well, the negatives are in the fix, and we'd better give them a few more minutes. Shall we have a look out the window? Well, let's get out of here anyway. Oh, oh, Father, I was just about to knock. Was there anything new? I mean, the plates, were they... No, not too much. No detail. Just a few more of those formations than in the earlier pictures. Oh. Oh, the man came. What man? Someone called a few minutes before you came, Bert. Martha will fill you in. Of course. Where did you leave him? He's in the living room. I gave him a cup of coffee. Did he give you his name? Brown, I think it was. Be back shortly. I... I don't suppose there's been anything out of the ordinary? I mean, while your father and I were in the dark room. No, nothing. It's strange, isn't it? Well, if you mean standing around waiting for the unknown, yes, that's... that's strange, all right? Makes you kind of wish that you might... well, might just wake up. Find that all of this is just the result of a pre-bedtime snack. That would be nice. So, what about this man? The doctor said you were to fill me in. Oh. Well, about a half an hour before you came, we got this telephone call. Someone we'd never heard of before. Just said not to talk to anyone or give out any information until he arrived. Not to give out any information? Hmm. It's a little weird, isn't it? Why do you suppose anyone would think your father would have any information to give out? What? I just can't imagine. Hmm. Let's go over by the window, huh? You mean just in case? Yeah, just in case. All right. Mind if I open it? Oh, not at all. It's a nice night. Mm-hmm. What are you thinking about? The man who phoned. Doesn't make sense. Something funny? Why, just looking at the sky. All the stars and the moon coming up. Thinking that this might be our last night on Earth. Hmm. And that's funny. No, what's funny is that I should be worried about the man who phoned your father. Here I stand looking out on a beautiful world, the moonlight on a pine forest in the mountains. Hearing the night sounds and in the company of a woman who was beautiful and comfortable to be with. Hmm. That must be crazy to think about phone calls under conditions like these. I can't think of a nicer way to spend what might be my last few moments standing here with you. Thank you, Mr. Byrne. I don't, uh... I usually don't talk like this. Please. Please don't stop. Why? Because I usually don't hear things like this. At that moment when I turned and looked at her, I wondered how I could ever have seen her as anything but beautiful. We watched the sky from the window of the study, but we saw no spaceships. And then when we'd almost forgotten about them and we'd started talking as if the world had a future after all maybe we had a future too. The phone rang. Yes? Oh, yes. All right, Father. About the... Hello? What's the matter? He hung up. Your father? I thought... He was on the downstairs house phone. He just said for us to come down to dinner. Oh. That sounds like a good idea, shall we? Hmm. He sounded a little strange. How so? I don't know. We isn't usually that brisk for one thing. Well, I think this is just a day for worrying. Maybe so, Dave. Well, if you don't believe me, ask him. There he is at the bottom of the stairs. And he looks a little strange too. Father? Father, do you feel all right? Fine, dear. Just fine. I hope you like trout, Mr. Byrne. I like them fine. That's good. Now, a housekeeper makes a rather remarkable sauce. Father, what about Mr. Brown? Yes, that strange caller has got me intrigued. Strange caller? Oh, oh, he's gone. Gone, Dr. Whelan? We were standing at the window. We didn't hear a car drive away. Well, he's gone nonetheless. Nothing so strange, really. And old college chum just dropped in to say hello. That's all. But I thought you said you didn't know him. Well, with a name like Brown, I mean a person might know five or six hundred people named Brown in a lifetime. You know, shall we go into dinner? But, uh, what about the invasion? Invasion? Are you sure you're feeling all right? Fine, just fine, dear. Well, the pictures, I've seen a few pictures of the invasion force, you know. What about it? Oh, that. Well, I have a theory. Let's discuss it after dinner, shall we? I don't think a hundred words were said during that meal. Martha and I exchanged a few worried looks and both of us tried to ask a few questions. But it wasn't until after dinner that Dr. Whalen had anything at all to say about the invasion. And then it was the most cock-eyed theory I'd ever heard. It had me doubting first my own ears and then the doctor's sanity. Are you sure you don't want more coffee? All I want is an answer. Well, I believe that the space ships have landed. Where? Oh, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? Because I believe they've also departed again. And why would they do that? Ladybugs. I beg your pardon. Did you say ladybugs? Before I called you down to dinner, I went out into the garden. I found an extraordinary number of ladybugs. Well, get some DDT. Now, what about it? No, no, no, you don't see what I mean. I believe the ships landed, deposited large numbers of ladybugs, and then left. Oh, father, I think you... No, no, no, I haven't been working too hard, dear. You see, the theory is this. We here on Earth live in a very delicate balance. Life is balanced with all the various factors playing a part. Animal, insect, vegetable life, all playing an important part. Now, anything which would destroy this balance could be used as a weapon. Oh, and ladybugs will destroy the balance. Exactly. They eat other bugs, you know. Given time, they could bring havoc to the world's insect population. Well, just for the record, how much time? Well, they don't breed very fast. I'd say about 20,000 years. Oh, that does it. Dave, I'm sure my father was just joking. Oh, well, he'd better be because if I go back with a story like that, he'll be the most ridiculed scientist in the world. And that won't be all. No, sir, not by a long shot. And that wasn't all by a long shot. My newspaper almost folded. The press association fell apart because all the red-faced subscribers suddenly decided to play a less trusting game. And as for Dave Byrne, well... I found I couldn't even get a job writing under my own name. I finally got a job on a paper in the Bronx using my mother's maiden name. Not just the last part, all of it. I was Norma Rockwell, Specialist in Advice to the Lovelorn. Hey, Norm. Yeah. You read this piece about that scientist who made all the news a couple of months back. What are you talking about? I got it right here, personal interview. You want to read it? It's good for a lad. Now, tell me about it. Well, yeah, I've got a lot of work to get on. Well, it says here, he thinks citrus fruit first came to earth as an invading force. What was that again? Well, you know, lemons, oranges, grapefruit. They had a strategy, blinders first and then take over. Only they never could get organized well enough to carry out the first part. What an imagination. Yeah, it shows you what can happen when a great mind goes, I guess. Yeah, maybe some truth in it. I've sure been squirted in the eye by enough grapefruit. Crazy story. Yeah, crazy story. It was a year later when I'd worked myself up to the exalted position of society editor when I finally learned the truth about the whole thing. The girl at the reception desk told me I had a couple of visitors. I told her to send them in. Martha, good to see you again. It's good to see you too, Dave. It's Norm. I'm using my mother's maiden name for a while at least. I changed the normer to Norman, except for my love Lauren column, of course. I thought you'd still be in the newspaper business? Staying in wasn't easy. Thanks to... Well, why go into that? You know, I think you're even prettier than you were. I'm glad you think so. Hey, didn't that girl say I had two visitors? My father is waiting outside. He wasn't sure you wanted to see him. Well... He had his reasons, Dave. Oh, I'm sure he had. All right, wait a minute. Ruth, could you send my other visitor in, please? There's no use holding a grudge, you know? I actually made a survey to find out if the ladybug population had increased. Oh, no. I'm sorry. Hello, Dave. Come in. Come in. Thanks. I've been trying to find you for a long time. Have a chair, doc. Thank you. I feel that now you can have the explanation I owe you. Well, let's just forget the whole thing. Will you listen? Well, sure, if you want me to. I'd have come sooner, but I had to do a little more thorough job on myself first. What do you mean, doc? Discrediting himself. Oh? You may have been reading a few things about my theories. Well, yes, I... I have. I didn't think that you were that far gone. You see, there really was an invasion that night, Byrne. No ladybugs. No, people. Like you and me. A little different, but not much. People? Where are they now? Oh, they're living around us. Might be a next-door neighbor. There are only a few thousand of them, a million at most. The Mr. Brown who called on me that night was one of them. He came to impress on me the... well, the importance of keeping the whole thing a secret. And the only way of keeping a secret after it's been told is... is to discredit the teller. But why should you keep it a secret? Because they're going to change a few things. You see, they... well, these people don't have a home anymore, so they're going to live here. And they're going to change a few things. They don't want to have to raise their children in a world like this one. So they're going to change it a little. Oh, I don't know why I care for that. Are you happy with the world the way it is? Well, if you were married, had a family in the offing, wouldn't you want to make it a better world? Well, I suppose I would, but still I... Dave. Dave, let him tell you about it. Then make up your mind. Well, that's only fair. Let's hear about the changes, Doc. We talked for about two hours. And I looked at Martha, and I thought about home and children as I listened to Dr. Whalen outline a few of the improvements the visitors were working on. Gradual introduction of solar power, which would give greater but much less explosive energy than the atom. Legislation to make child abandonment as serious a crime is kidnapping. Social reforms to assure the teacher as much security and prestige as the practitioner. Compulsory aptitude examinations for people entering government or the diplomatic service. Oh, there were a lot more, and they all seemed to make pretty good sense to me. Such good sense that the prospect of home and family seems even more appealing to me than it did that summer night. The night that Martha and I stood looking through a window and wondering about the future. This is Chuck Connors again. Not long ago, there was a big to-do in the newspapers about the planet Mars. It seems that the red planet came closer to the Earth than it had in something like 32 years. Needless to say, a lot of people were pretty excited about it. Members, science fiction fans, flying saucer enthusiasts. And I confess, I went out in the backyard and took a look. While I was standing there looking up at that little speck of orange in the night sky, I started wondering. Wondering why there was enough interest in Mars to rate a story on the front page. I think I've got the answer. It's because we, the members of the human race, have yet to reach the stars, and we've set them for a goal. After all, it is a very human trait to set out to attain the seemingly impossible. But it occurred to me that we who live here on Earth, being gifted by God with such persistence and ambition, would do well to use our endowments for another, a rather special purpose. One really much closer to all of us than the attainment of the stars. I mean world peace. We can achieve it through prayer. We can, in a sense, out-talk those who would bring war to the world by taking the problem directly to God. If millions of His children join together, asking Him to keep peace in the world, if we make world peace our ambition, and we're persistent in our prayers, we cannot help but achieve it. If enough of the world's families pray for peace, if enough of us unite admitting our common brotherhood under the fatherhood of God, it will prove what we say from time to time on Family Theater, the family that prays together stays together, and a world that prayer is a world at peace. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood Family Theater has brought you transcribe The Invasion, starring Frank Lovejoy. Chuck Connors was your host. Others in our cast were Lynn Allen, Forte, Jason Johnson, and Peter Leeds. The script was written and directed for Family Theater by Robert Hugh O'Sullivan, with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio who give so unselfishly their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home, and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theater will present... Emergency, starring MacDonald Carey. J. Carol Nash will be your host. Join us, won't you? Family Theater has broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. The Radio Network for All America.