 Family Theater presents Ralph Edwards and Victor Moore. Network in cooperation with Family Theater presents the payoff, starring Victor Moore. Ralph Edwards will be your host. Family Theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we're to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theater urges you to pray, pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama, the payoff, starring Victor Moore as Mr. Mary B. An old man slowly makes his way through the busy downtown traffic of a large city. Finally, he stands before the big building housing the Courier Journal, and then slowly moves up the steps through the doors and across the crowded vestibule that adjoins the city rooms. Excuse me, sir, but I wonder if... Sorry. I beg your pardon. Ask for the reception desk. Yeah, everybody's so busy. Oh, the reception desk. Courier Journal, good morning. Oh, good morning. Mr. Johnson is nint just now. Oh, but I'm not looking for Mr. Johnson. Mr., can you just wait until I'm off the line? I can't hear two people at once. Oh, excuse me, you're on the phone. I thought you were talking to me. My eyesight isn't as good as it. Now, can I help you, sir? Yeah, well, my name is... Yes, yes, you can. You see, my name is Mary B. Well, who do you want to see, Mr. Mary B? Well, you used to have a lady named Ms. Wilson, and she wrote stories for your newspaper. She wrote one about me and my birds once. Would that be Ms. Amy Wilson? Yes, yes, that's right. She wrote a story about my birds. All about how I... You have an appointment with her? Well, not exactly, no. It's about the birds. I thought she could help me. I don't know what to do. I don't want to go to the police. Hold on a minute. I'll see if she's in. Well, thank you, thank you. I think she'll remember me. I don't like to bother her, but... Ms. Wilson, there's a gentleman to see you, a Mr. Mary B. Maybe if you mention the birds. Yes, yes, yes. That's the one. Fine, okay. I don't mind waiting. I could come back later. No, she'll see you now. Oh, that's very kind of her. If you want, you can leave that package here at the desk. No, no, I want Ms. Wilson to see it. Okay. It's the evidence. Mr. Mary B. Mr. Mary B. Is someone calling? Over in the archway, it's Ms. Wilson. Oh, oh, my eyes aren't so strong. Mr. Mary B, how are you? Ms. Wilson, fine, fine. I didn't see you. Come on, we'll go into my office. Thanks, Margie. You bet. It's very, very nice of you to let me drop in like this. Nonsense, it's a pleasure. Here, right in here. Oh. Sit down. Thank you. Well, how are the birds, Mr. Mary B? Still feeding them in the park? Oh, yes, yes, they wait for me every afternoon. Even when it's raining sometimes. Wonderful. It's about the birds, the ones in the park that I came to see if you could help me. Well, I will if I can. Oh, here, let me take your package. I'll put it over. No, no, please, I'd like to hold it. Of course. It's about this package, too. I guess it started last spring, right after you wrote that story about me and your paper, about how I was always in the park feeding the birds. What started? These letters here. I have a few of them with me. I thought it was a joke, the first one. Oh, let me see them. Say, Amy, have you got the proofs on the... Oh, beg your pardon. Come in, Stan, it's all right. Mr. Mary B, Mr. Harris, one of our photographers. Well, I didn't know you. How do you do, Mr. Harris? Mr. Mary B, how many of these notes have you gotten all told? Oh, almost 30, I guess, Ms. Wilson, about one every week since I started. Well, look at this, Stan. Tomorrow you get two dead birds like this unless I get the money tonight. Well, I don't get it. Two dead birds like what? Like I have here in this package, a dead sparrow. There's a little pellet from an air gun I found right under his wing. It must have killed him. Well, that's a shame. Oh, what's this about money or they'll kill the birds? Have you been answering these notes? Well, yes, I didn't know what else to do. Then you've been paying out money? Yes, I didn't know what else to do. It was just a little at first. Oh, this is awful. You'll probably think I'm an old fool. I know they're just birds, but I didn't want to see them kill. Now, what kind of a nut would pull a thing like this? I think it's a boy in my neighborhood, a young boy, but I don't know his name. You've seen him? Not close up. I wouldn't recognize him, but he had an air rifle. How much money have you paid him? Oh, five or $10, whatever he asks. For each note? Yeah, almost each one. When I haven't left him money, I didn't have it. Then he kills a bird, like this time. I didn't know what to do. I have lots of birds of my own right here in my house. Remember Miss Wilson, how they used to fly all around the second floor in and out of the window? I remember. I don't cage them up, they fly all around. I started with them when my wife first got sick, Mr. Harris, so she'd have company. Sure. And then after she was gone, I kept them for company. That's how it started. Now they're all I have. How much have you paid this boy, all told? Oh, I'd say about $250. Good grief. Oh, Mr. Merribee, you shouldn't have done that. Well, I didn't want him to kill the birds. Why didn't you go to the police? No, no, I didn't want to do that either. But this is blackmail, Mr. Merribee. This boy's a criminal. Yes, but I don't want to hurt him or make any trouble. I just want him to stop. You're on a pension, aren't you? Well, I had some savings. Now they're gone. Yeah, that's why I came down here today, Ms. Wilson. Not for money, but to see if you couldn't help get the boy to start. And that's the square where you feed the birds now? Yes, I used to go to the Lincoln Park, but it's pretty far these days. Left on Winchester Street? Yes, next corner. I'm the third house on the left, the brown one. Mr. Merribee, you keep saying you don't want this reported to the police, but... No, please, please. I don't want to ruin the boy's life. If you ask me, he's doing a pretty good job of that himself. Well, you can't tell why people do things like that. Maybe he's, I don't know, sick, perhaps. Do you know most of the boys in the neighborhood? Quite a few of them, the teenagers. Then he might be any one of a number. That's possible. Well, here we are. Well, I'm very grateful for the ride home, Mr. Harris. Not at all. I was wondering if you'd mind showing us that place in the vacant lot where you've been leaving the money farm at night. I'll be glad to. It's just down the alley here. Mr. Merribee, there's one thing that puzzles me. Yes? The dead birds that this boy leaves when you miss a payment. Where does he leave them? Well, in the vacant lot there. There's a whole dug there, just a small one, where I put the money in a coffee can for him. When I don't leave any, he puts a dead bird in the hole. Brother. That's the lot over there with all the weeds. The hole in the coffee can is near the middle. Hi there, Mr. Merribee. Oh, hello. Who's the kid coming down the alley on the bicycle? Well, I think it's... No, he looks familiar. Here's your paper, Mr. Merribee. Oh, Tommy, thank you. I thought I'd recognize your voice. This Wilson, this is Tommy Barton. He works for the Correa Journal too. He's a delivery boy. Well, how do you do, Tommy? Hi. And this is Mr. Harris. He's a photographer. Glad to know you, Tom. How do you do? Same, Miss Wilson. You probably don't remember me, but I was one of the 20 news boys you gave the bicycles to at the contest dinner last April. That's where it was. I knew I'd seen you. Yeah, and this is some bike, too. Thanks. Oh, don't thank me. You won it. You live around here, Tommy? Over on Greenwood, a couple blocks down. 1758. Well, I'm real glad to have met you, Mr. Harris. Miss Wilson again. I'll remember you next time, Tommy. OK. Oh, by the way, Mr. Merribee, this is collection day, buck and a quarter. You told me to remind you. Oh, Tommy, I forgot all about it. All I've got is my pension check, and I don't suppose you could cash that. Could you? It's $85. Are you kidding? I can't even count that high. Well, I'm sorry. Well, I'll drop around tomorrow. Don't worry about it. Well, it's a long, folks. Gotta keep hustling. Yeah, I'll be sure to have the money then, Tommy. OK, Mr. Merribee. Bye. Goodbye, Tommy. Bye, Tom, fella. Oh, he's a nice boy. Yeah, he seems to be. Well, we'll drop around some other time, Mr. Merribee. Maybe we can get a line on who this kid might be. I'll appreciate anything you can do. I'll pay him much more tonight. Oh, Mr. Merribee, don't please. It isn't going to stop him. Oh, I know it won't really stop him, but at least he won't kill any more birds for a little while anyway. But you can't afford it. Oh, yeah, I said I don't need much, really. He's killed one bird this week already. Amy, I think I understand how Mr. Merribee feels. Oh, but Stan. Let him handle this his way, until we have something definite. Well, if you both feel that way, I guess they're... He only wants $5 this time. I'd rather give it to him, Ms. Wilson. Can we drop you anywhere to cash your pension check? Oh, no. Thank you. I always go around the corner of the grocery store. I buy everything there, and it must be almost six. They'll close then. I'd rather hurry. OK, Mr. Merribee. We'll be around later. All right. Thank you. Thank you both. You bet. Bye, Mr. Merribee. Bye. Bye, Ms. Wilson. Mr. Harris. Bye. He's quite a guy, huh? Yes. And you too, Mr. Harris. Why did you want him to make another pay off to that boy tonight? He can't afford it. I don't think you'll have to. What was the address for that newsboy Tommy said he lived? Oh, um, Greenwood, um, Greenwood. You called yourself a reporter. 1-7-5-8, come on. You can still back out if you want to, Tom. Oh, I'd like to be in on it, Mr. Harris. I know most of the guys in the neighborhood. I'd like to recognize them. Still no ideas, though, on who he might be? No, I've been thinking that, well, far as an air rifle goes, I know five or six guys who own an air rifle. I got one myself. You ever shoot any birds? Couple of times when I first got it. Now I'm glad I missed them. It's almost midnight, Amy. Suppose we walk up the alley and get settled before Mr. Merribee shows up. I figured on more light in the alley, but that one pole there, that's the whole works. Oh, what's the difference? Mr. Merribee's got to come that way when he brings the money. Yeah, but the boy doesn't have to. Shh, listen, someone's coming up the alley. Keep down, keep down. If you can see anything, yell. Oh, it's Mr. Merribee. Look, he's carrying something. Looks like a coffee can. Look, he's putting something into it. It must be the five. Wait. Who's that? Who's out there? Light, somebody shot it. Stan, Tommy. There he is, running down the alley. I see him, come on. The kid ran into this house. Was he carrying an air rifle? Yeah, let's see what gives. The place looks like a rat's nest. That makes sense. Who's there? We're newspaper people, ma'am. We'd like to talk to your son. I don't have a son. You mean Eddie? Yeah, Eddie. We'd like to see him. He's my nephew. It's a funny time to come call him one o'clock in the morning. We won't keep him long. I don't even know if he's in. I'm gonna do what I tell him out till all hours. He's in? Will you call him? He in some kind of trouble again? No, we just want to talk to him. He's always in some kind of trouble. Eddie, some people here to see you. They know you're in. Did you buy him that air rifle, ma'am? Air rifle. I'm not buying him any air rifles. If he were my sister's boy, I wouldn't even have him here. You want to see me, Aunt Ruby? No, these people do. What kind of a jam you in now? I'm not in any jam. Hi. Hello, Eddie. You know these people? Yeah, I know them. Well, why don't you two say so? All this pity pattern around. I'm going back to bed. Now, don't mess up the living room. You followed me, huh? We followed you. Yeah. I heard you tell Aunt Ruby you were on the newspaper. Why did you do it, Eddie? I... I read about the old guy in the newspapers. That's what made me think of it. I don't know. Aunt Ruby never has any money. For money? I guess so. Then I got afraid to spend it. I still got it, $250. Except what I paid for the gun. Do you like killing birds? I didn't care. They weren't my birds. They weren't anybody's. Like people shoot ducks and geese, I just shoot them, bring them home. You... You feel kind of sorry for sparrows, though. They're so little. Nobody seems to care about them, except the old guy. I never have any money, even for a show. I sent them a couple of birds I just found dead. I didn't shoot them at all at first. Eddie, have you ever met Mr. Merribee? No. But I've got all the money. You can give it back to him after you tell the cops, except for what I spent on the gun. He could sell the gun secondhand, I guess, and get something. You live alone here with your aunt? Uh-huh. She's a waitress over at Demex. Knights. She never has any money. Eddie, we'd like to show you something if you'll come along with us. You don't have to give me that. I've been to the station before for hawking bikes and everything. I don't think the station's what Miss Wilson has in mind, Eddie. Come on, let's take a ride. Don't forget now, Tommy, you and Eddie are friends. Whatever you're saying, Miss Wilson. Well, hello. Good morning, Mr. Merribee. Well, come in. Come in. We know it's late. Oh, I'm glad to see you. You know Tom Barton, Mr. Merribee. Of course. Hi. And this is a friend of his, Eddie Randall. Glad to know you, Eddie. Eddie was there tonight when we ran by you in the alley while chasing that kid with the air gun. That really had me flabbergasted. I didn't know you were there. Did you catch him? Well, uh, not exactly. But we know where he is, thanks to Tom and Eddie. We were wondering, Mr. Merribee, if you'd mind showing us your birds. Oh, I'd be happy to. I used to keep them up on the second floor. But my legs got kind of wobbly. So, well, they're all down here now in this room. There's a lot of them, Eddie. But they're a good company. Ever see this many birds in your life, Eddie? Why, no. No, I was singing. This powder pigeon is... Hello, Mr. Churchill. He's Mr. Churchill, like the English Prime Minister. Oh, yeah. You know all he needs is a cigar. He'd be all set. Yes. These are my hospital cases in these cages. This little fellow, the sparrow broke his leg. You see the splint? Gee, it's no better than a toothpick. Why do you ever get him to lie still while you put a thing like that on their leg? They seem to know you're trying to help them and they lie still. You ought to open a bird hospital. You could get rich. Oh, I thought about it, a bird hospital. But it'd be a lot of work. Well, it wouldn't be so much work if you had someone to help you. Would it, Mr. Marabee? Well, no. Not if it was someone young and strong. But I needed a little capital, money for cages and a sign out in front. Well, that doesn't sound like it would cost much. Oh, it wouldn't, Mr. Harris. They turned this place into a regular pet shop. I could stock up on some more parakeets and maybe carnaries, too. But what about the sick birds? Well, how do you mean, Eddie? I mean, who'd take care of them? Even if you had someone to help, they couldn't learn that, could they? How to take care of the ones that were sick? Oh, sure, they could. Just have to be gentle with them and let them know you love them a little. And that, they're find alone and forgotten, that's all. Gee, they're all such little fellas. Weren't you telling us you had some money you didn't know what to do with, Eddie? Well, yeah, but I... Would you like to go into the bird business, Eddie? Like this? Sure. You couldn't dog around on it. It's a lot of work. Sure, sure, but I like to work. When there's some fun in it. Well, you may even have to stay here, Eddie. Would you mind that? Well, no, no, I'd like to. Sometimes at night, the birds get upset and frightened. Why? I'd be good to them, Mr. Mary B. No kidding. So they'd know they weren't alone. Or think nobody loved them. Are you sure you don't mind putting your money in this, Eddie? Oh, no, Miss Wilson, I... I want to. Well, Eddie, that's wonderful. Knock them over here. I want you to get acquainted with your new family. You met Mr. Churchill, but... Well, here's a sick bird I found on the street the other day. He's still a little mean and suspicious and he picks at you. But I think he'll come around eventually. I've got him so he don't pick at me anymore. Oh, here is your host, Ralph Edwards. I have the good fortune to appear on a television program called This Is Your Life. Now, basically, it's a surprise package. We bring an unsuspecting person up before the TV cameras and much to their amazement, review their entire life, introducing them to friends they haven't seen for years, and reminding them of places and incidents they may have completely forgotten. As you can imagine, it's very affecting and in a way pretty instructive to see how people react to the knowledge that the story being related to them is their life. And I've often thought, how much good it might do us all if just for a short half hour we could have the experience of seeing our life as it looks to others, especially as it looks to the one all-knowing observer who gave us that life. For it's really God we're hearing when the voice of our conscience says, this is your life. Are you leading it well? Unfortunately, we can answer God through prayer. We can get down on our knees and speak to him whenever we're worried or ashamed, just as when we're happy and grateful, and he'll always hear us. This is your life, God reminds us. I have given it to you, and I'll help you guide it along the right path if you will but ask me for that help. Something else too, folks. The family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood, Family Theatre has brought you the payoff starring Victor Moore. Ralph Edwards was your host. Others in our cast were Gene Bates, Ruth Parrott, Barney Phillips, Sam Edwards, and Jeffrey Silver. The script was written by Roderick Peterson with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed and transcribed for Family Theatre by Luex Lansworth. This series of Family Theatre 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 of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theatre stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony LaFranco expressing the wish of Family Theatre that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to be with us next week when Family Theatre will present Journey of the Pegasus, starring Ray Burr. Bob Hope will be your host. Join us, won't you? Now an interlude with the music of Jerome Kern. Two melodies from the musical production Music in the Air. I've told every little star and the song is you. Now another familiar one from Sonny, who? From Hollywood, this has been a brief interlude with the music of Jerome Kern. This program was transcribed. This is the world's largest network, the Mutual Broadcasting System.