 suspense and the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills the master of mystery and adventure William M. Robeson. Those who know about such things tell us that an engine delivers little more than 50% of the energy potential of its fuel. The rest is dissipated in waste. Waste motion, waste energy, gases, ash. The same can be said of man has been said in fact getting and spending we lay waste our powers. If an average man were trained to use his faculties to the utmost he could be a Superman. If a superior man were so trained what could he not accomplish? The answer is implied in the upcoming story. Listen, listen then as Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lovejoy star in man from tomorrow the last radio play written by the late Irving Reese which begins in exactly one minute. American folklore is filled with legends about men who were as tough as nails like the one about Pekas Bill who went out for a walk one day. Unfortunately a big 10-foot rattler crossed his path. I say unfortunately for the rattler. You see Bill was a mighty fair fighter. Why he gave that rattler the first three bites just to make things even. Then he waited into that reptile and he everlastingly thrashed the poison out of him. By and by that old rattler yelled for mercy and admitted that when it come to fighting Bill started where he left off. Yes that was Pekas Bill a legendary American. Folklore belongs to every nation's legendary past and I guess we Americans have our share of some tall ones like the one about but we'll have to save that one for the next time we travel your way. See you then. And now man from tomorrow starring Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lovejoy a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Even in these days of so-called full employment you'd be surprised how few job opportunities come up for an ex jet jockey. So it was with more than passing interest that I read this ad while I was scanning the classified section of the Sunday paper. It said wanted ex jet pilot unmarried without family obligations must be in perfect health and prepared for rigid tests. Successful candidate will receive good pay and be given opportunity to contribute to daring experiment and world betterment. Applied Tuesday 10 a.m. science associates 126 West Street. Science associates you just got yourself a boy. It turned out there were quite a few boys with the same idea by 10 o'clock Tuesday morning nearly 50 of us were crowded in a windowless air conditioned room in the windowless ultra modern building of science associates. Hi. Hi major. Hi Randy. It's been a long time. Yeah. Some of the faces were familiar guys that have been in the Air Force with me in Korea and afterward. We sat there and waited an hour. Two hours. Nothing happened. I don't know about the rest of you guys but this place is beginning to give me claustrophobia. I'm getting out. Hey. Hey it's locked. Hey we're locked in here. Even before this had a chance to sink in another door opened on the far side of the room. A guy with a white mask on his face came in carrying a Thompson submachine gun. Everybody on the floor except me. I made a dash for the man on the mask but he disappeared as quickly as he'd come. Hey major how come you didn't hit the floor. You tired of living. He was shooting blanks. He was shooting. Couldn't you see that there weren't any bullets chipping anything. Besides I know it was a gag from the way he held that machine gun when those babies are loaded with live ammo you got to fire them from the waist. Well I don't like this. Come on guys let's crash the door and get out of this rat. Save it Randy that won't do you any good. That doors as thick as a bank vault and then something else. Thick black acrid smoke pouring out of the air conditioning vents and a sound from somewhere. All an airplane diving. Every pilot remembers with horror the smell of burning oil from a plane out of control. It hit us way back and deep down and some of the guys got panic. And then the blowers reversed and the smoke was sucked out quickly. Attention please. A loud speaker cut in from nowhere. For the past two hours you have been under close observation as a necessary part of this test. You were warned in advance the test would be rigid. As you file out past the guard you will receive a token compensation for your time and discomfort. We now ask you all to leave except the man who ran for the gunner. The door is now open. Thank you. Well major looks like you got the job also looks like I'm going to shove it right back in their faces. Well I don't blame you met so long so long Randy take it easy. For a moment I was alone in the empty room and then an inner door opened and I wasn't so sure I wanted to shove the job in their faces not in this face anyway. Your name please. Well well I hardly expected to find a blonde at the bottom of this you will come with me please. I'll do nothing of the sort and I don't give me orders Blondie I want to see the guy responsible for this and then I'm getting out of here I take it you have lost interest in contributing to world betterment. Oh yes that's what it said in the end well whatever your lofty purpose I don't like cold blooded cruelty unfortunately we cannot allow personal feelings to interfere with our objectives but then your objectives are wrong you will be better able to judge that when you know what they are I don't think I'm interested and if I may indulge a personal feeling callousness is unattractive enough in a man but in an attractive girl neither your feelings nor mine will matter in this project major I believe you were addressed it was just plain Mr. Mr. Kentman the war has been over for some time Miss Dr. Frost that's appropriate I beg your pardon oh nothing nothing I sometimes mutter to myself the last thing I said to you doctor is that the war is over if it is possible for you to unlock your quite superior intelligence from emotional reactions common to school girls and housewives my senior colleague professor Baird and I will attempt to convince you on the only basis that should appeal to the mature mind facts well you go ahead and try but I doubt you'll be successful the second act of suspense continues in one minute this is Johnny Baker with communism on the spot the communist attitude toward faith in God is based on the statement by Karl Marx that religion is the opiate of the people in keeping with his view the Soviets established as a primary aim the destruction of all religious faiths communism can't tolerate religion which preaches that there is a supreme being who is higher than any human authority for communism itself as a political religion whose high priests are the dictatorial rulers of the Soviet state they'll settle for nothing less than total control of the lives of their subjects they're not only concerned with their victims bodies and minds they seek equal domination over their hearts and souls and now we continue with act two of man from tomorrow starring mr. and mrs. Frank lovejoy a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense it was a big aseptically bare room with an uncluttered desk at one end behind the desk was the cartoonist conception of an egghead a thin bespectacled man whose eyes was so intelligently alive that I couldn't look away from them long enough to mark his other features this was professor Baird keeper of the facts you are asking yourself why we limited our appeal to former jet pilots simple only one man in 10,000 was able to qualify mentally and physically for jet training the Air Force therefore indirectly performed the first of our processes of elimination fact additional eliminations due to flunk outs mortality in training and combat brings the total to one in 20,000 fact the standards we applied during the two hours in which we observed your every action and reaction raises the mathematical incidents of your sensory acuity to approximately one in 100,000 I'm flattered you will have greater reason to be a far experiment proved successful you will be the only man on earth possessed of your powers you will be the man from tomorrow how do you propose to go about that we will first show you how we've trained other individuals doctor frost will you proceed with the demonstration yes professor come in mr. Logan mr. Logan have you ever been in this part of the laboratories before no would you describe it please it's a rectangular room 40 by 20 the ceiling is 18 and a half feet high there's a desk 12 feet from me slightly to my right there are two people seated at it one is just risen that will be all thank you mr. Logan well mr. Kentman hello would be very impressive if any schoolboy with normal vision couldn't do as well agreed but mr. Logan is totally blind looking back now I can hardly believe my own impressions the blind man was followed by a deaf mute and a paraplegic who lost all sense of touch and smell their demonstrations were incredible not one of these persons possessed physical senses above the average mr. Kentman the deprivation of one sense or another in the case of the blind or deaf man stimulated nature's desire to compensate for the loss but what are you trying to prove that man has powers even now that are beyond his comprehension we wish to explore those powers suppose one nearly perfect man with superior sensory perception to begin with could develop the extension of his five senses to the maximum degree we've just observed what do you think would happen I don't know neither do we but it is our conviction that this man would also acquire a new sense a sixth sense that would endow him with a power never dreamed of before don't you think it's a dimension worth exploring maybe but how could anybody accomplish it training by producing the circumstances that surround the blind man the deaf man the handicapped you would have to agree to cut yourself off from the outside world for three years you would spend six months living in a pitch-dark laboratory you would sleep eat function in a world of darkness various sound devices will be used to train and measure your hearing responses after that six months would be devoted to simulating the world of the deaf mute and so on you will be paid twenty thousand dollars at the end of the three years all the necessities of living will be provided during that time then a test will be made and if our predictions are realized you will be signed for an additional five years at twenty thousand dollars per year dr. Frost will be in charge of the training program do you wish to undertake it well it's a that's a pretty serious move I'd like to think about it you have all the facts mr. Kentman we would like a decision now are they feeling might enter into my considerations doctor is that what you're afraid of afraid fear is merely an emotion mr. Kentman I have learned to control all my emotions I wonder I beg your pardon I was muttering again but what I meant to say is I agree to undertake the experiment I was led into a pitch-dark room blacker than the blackest night it was to be my home for six months it had a bed bathroom closets all I had to do was to find I won't waste time telling you what that was like just close your eyes tight and try to find your way around a room that's familiar to you and you'll get the idea I was still stumbling around three days later when I reported for my training with dr. Frost in the adjoining laboratory which was even blacker if possible oh are you hurt you wouldn't care if I broke a leg there's a chair nearby I know I just fell over it we can begin as soon as you're settled lucky it's so dark I don't have to apologize for wearing my pajamas don't you like dressing I love it when I can find my pants today's exercise will be recognition of pure tones here is an example that is 1000 cycles or a thousand vibrations per second stripped of all harmonics now what would you say that was oh 1100 it is 1500 cycles now please tell me when you begin to hear the next tone and what the frequency is I couldn't make the slightest dent in that glacial reserve I tried to match her at her own game for a while but she loved it and I'm human anyway at the end of the six months I could ramble through the whole place and never stub a toe it was amazing how you learn to sense things in the dark and what your ears could do 800 out 4500 out good excellent mr. Kentman your threshold of hearing is 20 decibels greater than the average ear dr. Frost I can't see you but do I detect a note of enthusiasm in your voice satisfaction perhaps mr. Kentman the experiment so far frost have you ever let yourself go mr. Kentman I am not nearly so naive as you assume nor have any of your innuendo's or mumblings for the past six months escaped me I told you in the beginning that neither your personal feelings nor mine would have any bearing on this project you haven't answered my question I am fully aware of the nature of biological stresses in a scientific way of course what distinguishes man from the animal is his understanding of these stresses but mostly his control well control is a traffic cop with a stop sign doctor but eventually the traffic has to go somewhere I can understand the frustration of your masculine ego especially in this enforced loneliness of the experiment thank you we have only begun we have two years or more to go the first phase is highly successful as a scientist I am very pleased strange dot my hearing is so good but I have yet to hear your heartbeat act three of suspense follows in one minute do you know the social security benefits to which you will be entitled when you separate from the service and take a civilian job here's a tip from social security here's one do a yourself project that costs you nothing and won't end up in cuts and bruises the social security administration wants each one of you that pays social security taxes to check up on your account to make sure you are getting credit for every dollar that's coming to you with records of millions of people to maintain it's a pretty big job to catch an error that you or your employer might make in reporting your wages and income you can help by checking every three years to see that your record is correct how easy simply by mailing a special postcard just write to Social Security Department 15 Hollywood 28 California and ask for form 704 mail it and in a couple of weeks you'll receive a notice that will verify the spelling of your name your Social Security number and the wages credited to you for each of the past three years do it tomorrow you'll be glad that you did and now we continue with act three of man from tomorrow starring Mr. and Mrs. Frank Lovejoy a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense now that my hearing was phenomenal they turned off my ears they devised some new fangalier plugs and I began six months of silence six months of being deaf as a doorknob deaf but not quite deaf because I began to see sounds to feel sounds like waves against my skin I began to hear with my body and with my pores have you ever touched the sound have you ever seen thunder you get so you look at sounds and almost see the waves they make trembling in the air have you ever tried silence try not saying a word not uttering a syllable for an hour a day I tried it for six months until all the unsaid words piled up inside my head they clung like unborn sounds at the back of my throat whoever said silence is golden never felt a lump of lit that accumulates inside you silence and then the six months ended the day came when she removed the fancy ear plugs and a little canyon I'd been living in widened into a continent can you hear me now can you hear me not to me or raise your finger when you can hear the sound of my voice I heard you coming down the hall a minute ago were the plugs defective oh no incidentally I take I take that it's all right for me to talk down yes of course have I been a good boy have I done everything that you've wanted so much so mr. Catman that we're giving you a few days rest before we begin your training for taste and touch well can I do anything I want anything within reason well then I'd like to have a drink and strangely enough I'd like to have you join me perhaps that can be arranged all that wonderful sound of the clink of glasses and I cannot tell you how dull a piano sounds when you only look at it you missed the sound of music oh yes music and the sound of a woman's voice or maybe they're the same thing oh incidentally dr. Frost when I say woman I even include female doctors kind of you by the way do you have a first name or are you only a title followed by Frost and followed by a long string of degrees my first name is Jessica Jessica that's more like it Jessica Jessica oh after all that silence it's good just to say a woman's name until the experiment is completely over mr. Catman it had better remain dr. Frost well okay dr. Jessica Frost plus degrees I give you a toast to you you've been very cooperative about all this mr. Catman I want you to know that I I really like you very much well now I'm sure the experiment is a success I've finally developed a sixth sense oh I distinctly heard a lovely lady saying I like you very much and it couldn't possibly have been you I rather enjoyed the touch tests it was one area I'd never realized hell such hidden possibilities after a few months my fingertips knew the difference between crystal and diamonds I could tell if you had a sum tan merely by touching your cheek as for the taste tests food suddenly became a symphony concert sourness had many degrees and sweetness had a range as wide as the spectrum of a rain and then all of my highly developed senses brought on a new perception something over and beyond and added to the rest by the time my training was finished I knew I had acquired a knowledge beyond knowledge sit down mr. Kentman thank you your period of training has been completed you have passed the final tests and we have decided to retain now will you sign the contract please mr. Kentman it's the arrangement has agreed twenty thousand dollars a year for the next five years to Kentman is anything wrong oh no no there's nothing wrong mr. Kentman what are you doing well obviously I'm not signing it but why because I'm afraid what is there to be afraid of myself and what I know now and what I'm going to know in the future what you and Dr. Frost may ask me to do afraid to make contributions to scientific progress I respect science progress I'm for that too but I can see beyond the microscopes and the telescopes and all your theories and experiments and I don't see one important thing I don't see happiness only fear and falling buildings that's what I see coming out of my super sense and you waste this great talent of yours throw it away turn your back on progress I didn't say that I'll look for a new kind of progress slicing an atom sideways or sending a phony moon up into God's skies these aren't the things people are crying for not this year next year or ever they want security dignity and a little peace of mind I suppose then you think that all our work is to end in death and destruction it might that's not fair isn't it but what happens if I sign the contract who makes the decisions these are things I can't honestly and I know and that's what I mean it might be out of your hands then governments would pay billions for me our own country would guard me like Fort Knox I'd be the most valuable thing in the world alive and even more valuable for some people dead a thing not a man uh-uh no that's not going to be for me not that way all this work everything we've done doesn't mean anything then it's all for nothing well I don't know I'm sorry I guess you picked the wrong man for the job what are you going to do now mr. Kentman pack my things and go away I don't know where it doesn't really matter Jessica I probably won't see you again before I go thank you for everything I'm sorry to let you down like this but well so long well that is that oh I was just going to try and talk me out of it no yes I was but not anymore I'm glad you changed your mind will you tell me something what what are you going to do I don't know yet it's kind of funny I'm going out of here almost the way I came in one suitcase one hat one coat the only difference I've got all the knowledge of the world up here and I don't know what I'll do with it I haven't been able to think not clearly I know one thing though there are a lot of things I can try what if a hair of cancer heart disease common cold it doesn't other things man doesn't know anything about yes might not be bad for a start no that's not bad for a start do you think you might need someone to help you yes I might I've talked to professor Baird I think perhaps he understands does he yes it's a little uncomfortable for a woman I'm not supposed to say anything until you do and you already know what I'm thinking don't you well let's be all-fashioned I love you will you come with me yes I love you too I know come on let's go suspense in which mr. and mrs. Frank Lovejoy starred in William and Robeson's production of man from tomorrow written for radio by Irving Reese listen listen again next week when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense supporting mr. Lovejoy and man from tomorrow were Mrs. Lovejoy Joan Banks as dr. Frost John Hoyt as professor Baird Peter Leeds as Randy and Norm Alden as mr. Logan suspense has been brought to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States armed forces radio and television service