 From Hollywood by tape Suspense Tonight marks two auspicious occasions on radio's outstanding theater of thrills Tonight suspense begins its 15th season on the air Tonight suspense welcomes as its producer director the distinguished master of mystery and adventure William and Robeson Ladies and gentlemen, mr. Robeson. Good evening On this first program of our new series We are proud to bring you miss patty McCormick the young star of the Warner Brothers picture the bad seed in a play written Especially for her by Peggy Chandler Other stars will follow her in a succession of chilling tales of suspense next week read Hadley in red cloud Mesa based upon the recent Collier's magazine story where the Warriors crossed Then Charles Dickens immortal story of terror the signal man Starring miss Sarah Churchill. This is the shape of things to come in the weeks to come We invite your apprehensive listening We promise never to relax our efforts to chill your blood and fill your sleeping hours with dreams of horror We shall begin now with patty McCormick in the doll a Play well calculated to keep you in suspense Tomorrow's my birthday But I don't think my father remembers He didn't ask me what I wanted for a present like he always used to Before Paula came to live at our house When people forget your birthday Even if it's your father, I Guess that means they don't like you so much anymore Valerie it's your bedtime just five minutes more Paula daddy may I please When it comes to bedtime Val Paula's the boss, but on special nights. I'm always allowed is this a special night Well sort of tomorrow. That'll be enough stalling. I'm not stalling value mustn't shout at Paula Apologize forget it George the child's tired. I'm not Valerie I'm sorry Paula. I apologize. That's better Now tell me you're what's so special about tonight Don't you know what on a bright, don't you? Well, let's see. It's not Christmas Eve or the 4th of July Or the first day of school or I know what she's talking about George her birthday. It's tomorrow. Oh Well, I'm sorry, baby. I guess I forgot. Oh, but I've I've had a lot of things on my mind lately things at the office and Valerie don't look at your father that way. He said he was sorry. Oh, it's okay, dad He I guess I'm too big to care about birthdays anymore Well, then I guess you don't want the present I got for you. Oh, you're wonderful. So they tell me see Val your birthday Wasn't forgotten after all Paula remembered Thank you very much Paula. Don't you want to see your present? Not till tomorrow. We never opened presents ahead of time daddy and me Good night Paula. Good night dear. Good night daddy. I I know I don't deserve it But I sure like a kiss. Okay Good night Thanks for remembering darling if you hadn't we'd have had a family crisis on our hands the poor little kid credit My little black book right after the wedding. I listed all dates the forgetting of which would cause crises You're either a witch or a wonder and I don't care to find out which and no pun intended Come on darling. It's our bedtime, too It's not polite to listen when people are having a private conversation So I ran upstairs and crawled into bed quick and pull the covers over my head It took me a long time to fall asleep But I kept thinking about Was that maybe my father would figure out some way to get me his own present by morning? Now it's tomorrow And I've been waiting downstairs an awfully long time. I Always have to wait an awfully long time before they get up on Sundays Good morning, Val. Happy birthday. Here's your present. Thank you and seven kisses for seven years Well, aren't you going to open it all right a beautiful doll and she has real blonde hair see Same as my mother's That's what color her hair was Blonde now baby Let's not talk about that What are you going to name your new doll? Hennie like my mother But Val that makes two teddy bears Three dolls in a jack-in-the-box all named Hennie Wouldn't it be easier to keep them straight if you gave her a different name? How about Patricia? That's a pretty name her names Hennie Well, I guess that settles that Let me have her a minute Valerie. I want to show you her gadget. I don't want it to have a gadget Oh, you'll have fun with this one give Paula the doll Val Now let's see. Oh, here it is right in the middle of her back under her dress Now you just wind the key up like this Does it hurt her? Of course not just remember to wind her up carefully so you won't break the spring Here now listen What is it? It's her heart beating isn't that fun? She's like a real-life person Here Val Holder What happens if if it stops nothing you just wind her up again. Oh Yes, why didn't you wind my mother up again? Well Val It's not quite the same with people as it is with dolls If you wound her up her heart wouldn't have stopped And she wouldn't be dead But but Val did you want her to get dead so you and Paula could get that's enough You can't wind people up again, and that's all there is to it you could if you really wanted to know Val Not even if you wanted to very very much. I don't believe you Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving. How about some breakfast? I'm for that. Come on Val. You can help flip the pancakes. I don't want to well I'll call you whenever things ready Val. Come on George I'll take care of you, Henny. I won't ever let you get dead. I promise What's the matter with the hotcakes Val don't you like them? Yes, then why aren't you eating them? I'm not hungry Val that racket makes me nervous. It's not a racket. It's Henny's heart. All right. All right But why don't you put the doll in the other room? Her name's Henny. All right Why don't you take Henny into the living room until we finish breakfast? Because I promised her I'd never leave her alone not ever ever No, this is going to be jolly. I don't care and I'm not going to leave her alone Then I'll hardly stop and then she'll be dead just like that's enough Valerie. I take the doll into the living room. No Very well then go to your room George. What's the point in making a scene now? Let us stay There's a whole pile of hotcakes going begging here Daddy, thank you May I please be excused not until you finished your breakfast? I can't I'm not hungry then go and take that That thing with you took any to my secret place down at the end of the garden with a big cool vines make a little house That's all hidden from everyone No one knows about it except me and now Henny Every time her heart starts to slow down. I wind her up again But very carefully so I won't break the spring about Henny and my mother about Henny and me It's sort of like if she stops I'll stop too Funny to feel this way Scary now here comes Paul and my father Have to be very quiet now, so they won't find out about my secret place Why not wait till tonight? She'll have to go to sleep sooner or later When she wakes up the doll can be just one more ash in the incinerator I'll never let them do that to you Henny never I promise We'll run away and I'll never go to sleep. We'll run away and hide in the woods He's scared Henny. He's just fishing you won't hurt us. I don't think he will I said who's there? He was just out for a walk and you decided to come around to scare all the fish, you know I didn't mean to What's making that noise? Henny, it's her heart. I have to keep her wound up all the time forever, so she won't get dead You're a funny kid, aren't you? I don't know. Well, I like funny kids. I was one myself Big ears, pigeon toes, freckles, you know the words. I have braces on my teeth, too. See That's mighty important looking. Do you really think so? You bet. I Never thought of them as being important Can we watch your fish sure if you're quiet, okay? sleepy A little bit I guess Why don't you stretch out there and catch 40 wings? Oh, I couldn't do that or not Well, I told you I have to keep any wound up. I'll tell you what I'll take care of her while you were asleep Well, it would be good to take a nap. I've got a hard day ahead of me, but you go ahead I'll watch her on her bright on her bright All right See the keys right here in the middle of her back and you have to be sure to wind her up before she stops And you have to do it very carefully so as not to break the spring There's an awful lot of instructions, but I think I can manage Thank you. Thank you very much. This is nice soft grass. It feels good the fish Go to sleep. Okay You are listening to miss Patti McCormick in the doll Tonight's presentation on radio is outstanding theater of thrills Suspense Just caught big mouth bass. I bet it weighs five pounds easy You broke your promise. What's the matter? She almost died and you said on her bright. Gee. I'm sorry. I didn't think she'd run down so soon I got this bike here where to go. I didn't know any place that would be safe for Henny and me Where I could keep her from dying So I just held her and kept winding her up and walking around for an awfully long time And now it's starting to rain And that makes everything worse because when it rains at thunders and lightnings Wouldn't be so bad to be home in bed with Henny and pull all the covers up over our heads And I wish I'd eaten breakfast because now I wouldn't be so hungry Maybe I can get some popcorn from that popcorn man Want some popcorn Henny thing is I don't like his mom He looks kind of mean Jumps around so quick How much does it cost I only have a nickel But we're awfully hungry So it costs 10 cents a bag to pop corn can I buy a half a bag? Yeah, what kind of noise is that? It's my doll's heart. Her name's Henny. What's your monkey's name? He got no name Doesn't he get lonely without a name? I tell you what I swap your bag of popcorn for your baby doll with a heart No, you can't have a monkey like her you like her yellow hair You see what the funder scared the monkey to because he let go of henny's hair and we got away and started running through the rain I didn't know where to go or what to do And then I remembered Chris. He'll help me. He's my best friend after run away with Henny This is Henny like my mother You could take care of her when I go to sleep then you could go to sleep and I'd watch her It would be like playing house And then she'll never die Please please from our house Did I guess they're all looking for you with sirens and badges and everything, but I didn't do anything wrong Chris Why did he have to call the police? I don't know I have to go now there. Oh, no Chris Please no your father told me you're missing and all about how you looked and what you're wearing What do they do to us if they catch us? Will they send us to jail? Will they Chris? No, they'll just make it go home. That's all but I can't go home They'll put Henny in the incinerator Paula said so I'm not she's Henny and if she dies something will happen to me I know it. Oh Chris help me, please Chris get me a big box big enough to put Henny in and let me a pair of your jeans in the jacket I'll put them out of the garage, and they won't recognize me and we'll be safe Just get them and throw them out the window and you won't tell anybody you saw me Will you Chris? No, not unless they make me Garage and put on Chris's clothes and fixed Henny up in the box as fast as I could then we started running away Wasn't raining anymore, but it was getting pretty dark. I was scared and all of a sudden I bumped right into somebody It was a policeman. What's the big idea? Well, I'm very sorry about bumping into you Look where you're going. I know I'm sorry Shouldn't you be home having your supper? Well, no, I mean what's your name? Henrietta Henrietta, what? Christopher Henrietta Christopher. It's pretty name. Thank you. What have you got in that box? Well, see that's why I'm not supposed to be home having my supper Because there's a picnic luncheon here, and I'm taking it over to my friend's house, and we're going to eat it there How about a sample? Oh, I don't think you'd care for it. It's just plain old peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches On whole wheat bread. You must have an awful lot of them in there Pretty big box. Oh my friend and I we just love them. Hmm. We're running along now. Have you saved the ball? Doctor and doctor and I didn't know where to go or what to do I couldn't keep walking around because maybe the next policeman might look into the box and see Henny And it was very hard finding hiding places to stop and wind her up I had to go someplace that somebody in the whole world didn't know about except me Then I could sit down and hold Henny in my lap and take care of her and we'd be together forever and ever So I decided my secret place down at the end of the garden would be the best place That's where we are now just hanging me alone The light in my father's room just went out It's awfully dark because there isn't even any moonlight and all the noises of the night sound funny and close Not like when you're asleep in bed And you can hear the clock on the dresser ticking ticking You're up just as fast as I can Henny dear. They know be alive again. I broke your heart, Henny Oh, I didn't mean to Please oh, please don't stay dead. Don't stay dead like my mother did. I'm afraid it is a heart attack a Fatal one doctor. It's too soon to tell Well, of course doctor We've had to be prepared for something like this knowing that she inherited the condition from her mother. Yes, of course the doll brought it on What do you mean surely you must realize it was an ill-chosen gift It never occurred to me doctor. It didn't George really it didn't I Had no idea it was just a silly little doll with a gadget a different gadget from most doll George starred in the doll by Peggy Chandler listen Listen again next week when we return with another play well-calculated to keep you in Suspense suspense is produced directed and taped in Hollywood by William and Robeson The special score for tonight's play was composed and conducted by Lynn Murray Featured in the cast were Richard Beals, Mary Jane Croft, Shepard Menken, Dick LeGrand and Louis Van Rooton Brought to you by radio classics.com all copyrights are the property of their respective owners