 Suspense! So light, and its 96,000 dealers present Mr. Joseph Cotton in Blood Sacrifice, a suspense play produced and edited by William Spear. Ap me, boy, here's one that'll rattle the ivory between your ears. What is it that carries water, has plates, gives continuous service, and is associated with a good tip. A waiter? Oh, how dumb can you be? Listen, I'll make it easy. It needs water only three times a year in normal car use, and it's a tough little bundle of potent energy. Now what is it? Uh, camel? Oh, give me strength. Look, slap happy, it's the famous auto light stay-full battery. The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Why, the stay-full has over three times more liquid reserve above the plates than batteries without stay-full features. You caught me with my brains down, Wilcox. Glad to hear you admit it, because the auto light stay-full battery is known from coast to coast as the battery that gives 70% longer average life as compared to batteries without stay-full features. And this is proven by tests conducted according to SAE life cycle standards. You're absolutely right, Harlow. Of course, you're always right with auto light. And now with blood sacrifice and the performance of Joseph Cotton, auto light hopes once again to keep you in suspense. In his dressing room, Gary, his arm through mine, his great beautiful voice purring assuringly in my ear. It's wonderful, Johnny, wonderful, 200,000, why they didn't pay that for Gone with the Wind? You're a success, boy, a success. A success, and well on the way towards being rich. On the marquee above the theory in lights, Garrick Drury in Bitter Laurel and then in slightly smaller lights by John Scales. New clothes, best food, a fashionable hotel, new and fashionable quaintance. And I owed it every bit of it to Garrick Drury. Everyone said that, everyone except Gary. We're just finished seeing the men from the motion picture company. Gary had been charming, courteous, thoughtful, protecting my royalties, protecting his rights, and finally they were gone. Walters, Gary's valid, came into the room. Anything else, Mr. Drury? Not tonight. I'll pick you up in the car at the stage door at five minutes. Yes, sir. Can I see Mr. Scales to his taxi? Sure, I can't drop you anywhere, John. No, no, quite sure. Thanks. Glad to, you know. Oh, well, Walters. Oh, yes, sir. Bring along that play of young, what's his name, Ruggles, Buggles, you know who I mean. I promised Fannie Taylor I'd read it, but, well, it's perfectly useless, of course. We'll be playing Bitter Laurel for another two or three years, yeah? There you are, John. Well, come along. Five minutes, Walters. Yes, sir. Now, look here, John, don't you worry about this movie deal. I've handled these characters before. Before. Before. Oh, listen to that, John, wonderful sound, the empty theater, the empty, echoing, endless theater. John, you know what? Sure. There's a play in it. In the last scene, the actor dies in the empty, endless theater, pouring out his death on eight pages to the ghosts of all the audience who didn't realize how great he was. Alone. His wife's gone to, uh, uh, Hollywood. Perfect. Well, what are we waiting for, Johnny? I'll put you in your taxi, you go home and write it, bring it to me tomorrow night. We'll fix it and there we are. I can read the notices now. It is sensational, aren't there? Garreg Drury does it again, actor's death scene draws Bravo. Sir, Garreg Drury, may be. Well, come on. We'll get you on your way. Good night, Mr. Drury. I thought your performance was exceedingly fine tonight. Thank you. Okay. Waters will be right out. You can lock up. Good night, Mr. Drury. Good night, Scotty. Well, this is his reigning. There's a cab stand right at the corner. We make a run for it. John! Look out! John! Are you all right? Oh, I don't know. Doctor. Doctor, breath out of me. My side. How about you? You all right? No. Here, let me help you. Bye. You are hurt. Oh, no. Just jarred up a little note. Broken bones. Gary! Oh, my Lord! I picked myself up from the curb where the car had thrown me when it hit us. My side hurt in my head real, but Gary! I saw him stagger out from the other side of the car, saw the jagged pain of broken glass in the store window, saw the bright spurts dying the pavement crimson where Gary's right hand clutched his left arm. A policeman came running towards me. Yeah, what happened? It's Mr. Dury, officer. The car skidded over the curb and knocked him through the window. Here. Let's have a look. Catch him. Catch him. He's got a faint. Oh, no wonder. He's got an artery. Hey, you. Call an ambulance. Get a doctor. This man will bleed to death. We're not quick. Are you all right, sir? I hurt the side a little, sir. I feel a bit faint. I'll be all right. Good. We've got to stop this bleeding here now. Help me. You put your hand right here. That's right. Squeeze out. Yes. And keep on squeezing out. Come on. Give us a hand. I'll take his head. You take his feet now. Easy, doesn't it? All right. What happened? Mr. Dury. There's been an accident. Walter, here. Give me a hand. Hang on to the artery now. I'm trying to now. What is it, Mr. Skiddle? An accident. Mr. Dury cut an artery. Here. There's a couch. Mr. Dury is dressing him off. So right around this way. What's the matter? What happened to the light? They're not the lights. He's fainted, Gary. I see. All right. All right. Easy now. Down we go. Now, you get an ambulance and a doctor. All right. My left arm, ain't ya? You suppose I'll lose the use of it? Oh, well, it's lucky it's the arm in the play, isn't it, John? I can always go on, ain't you? Always. The rest of my life. My play. All the rest of his life. No. Maybe it was the blood I had again to be sick. The officer took his strong hand and gripped the artery in Gary's arm above my own shaking fingers. Now, you look peaking. Lie down, Mr. Scales. Let me help. Now, you help rig up a tourniquet. Well, Walt is, whatever your name is. There was someone trying to get a doctor. Just call for the doctor. There's no one on emergency. Everyone's out and so are the ambulances. Then call a private hospital. This man is bleeding to death. Bleeding to death. This was the end, was it? No doctor on duty. And Garrick Drury bleeding to death. And then I came to. I'll find a doctor. But it was 40 minutes before the doctor finally came. 40 minutes while Garrick Drury's life seeped out from the improvised tourniquet. The doctor sat down his bag and took one look. We're still trying to get hold of an ambulance. Don't ever mind. We couldn't move him now, anyway. There's only one thing to do. Give him a transfusion right here. Yes. Well, first, we'll make a decent tourniquet. Now, I'll test his blood for type. Oh, by the by, wait around, all of you. I'll have to find someone among you with type of blood that matches his. Garrick lay on a couch behind a screen in his dressing room. There was a plate on the table. One with a border of pink roses from which, during rehearsals, we'd often eaten hasty sandwiches. Now, there were four round blobs of red on it. Blood. Two blobs of mine and two of Garrick's valid falters. Behind the screen, Walters was blubbering with grief while an intern arrived at last for the ambulance was murmuring fearfully. Doctor, I can't find his pulse. You can't see. But, wait a minute. Here, you ready? Let me see. Yes, of course, sure it is. But we must hurry. We'll be gone. Steady now, Walter. Steady. We know you love him. We're doing all we can. Now, let's go look at those tests. The important thing is to give transfusion as soon as possible. Oh, let me give it to her. Let me give the transfusion as soon as possible. Now, we'll see. I've already told you Drury's blood is type three. Very difficult. Can only give him a transfusion from someone of his own type or a type four universal donor. Anything else would be like giving him prusig acid. I only hope that you or Mr. Scales will do. We'll have to make sure. All right. Now, let me see. The doctor bent over the plate, pouring liquid out of vials onto the red drops. I stood where I'd been standing when he put the blood onto the plate and his voice had cried out, Walter's and the doctor had plunged around the screen to where Gary lay unconscious. I watched while the doctor finished with the vials. Then he picked up a grease pencil from the dressing table and drew a line across the plate, cutting it in half. Then with the pencil he marked the side on which I stood with an S and the side on which Walter's had stood with a W. Now, I will be sure of which is which. It will take a few minutes to see if there's any agglutination. Oh, that's hope. That's all we can do is hope. He disappeared once again behind the screen. It was then that I noticed the one rose on the border of the plate which had been blurred in the firing. I'd noticed it before many times. I'd noticed it today in the last few minutes, looking stupidly at it as you do at such things. But before, before the doctor had marked it, before he and Walter had gone running behind the screen, then hadn't the blurred rose been on the left? My left? But now it was on the right. Might Walters in passing have brushed it and turned it around? I stood and stared at the tiny pool on the side marked W. Little hard purple crystals were beginning to form around the edges. I looked at the side of the plate marked S, my side, supposedly. The blood was clear and bright. But what if the plate had been turned around? And the blood on the other side was mine. It was mine that was forming little purple crystals. I stood staring at the plate as the doctor came around from behind the screen. Let's have a look at this. Hmm, there. Looks as though we're in luck. Is it mine? May I give you the transfusion? Sorry, old man. Not unless you want to murder him. No, no, but Mr. Scales here, it looks as if he were that useful animal, a universal donor. All right, Mr. Scales, let's make ready. What? You're it, Mr. Scales. Oh, there's something I ought... Well, I ought to mention that... You're not frightened, are you? No, not that. There's actually no danger from giving a transfusion, you know, from the donor, that is. No, no, no, I'm not frightened, doctor. Then come around here and let's get busy. We have much time. Doctor, I... Hello, John O. fellow. Gary. What's this? I don't know. Don't be silly. That's a rotten exit. Dying. Egypt. Dying. Not dead yet. Not my long shot. Take off your coat, please, Mr. Scales. Roll up your sleeve. Rotten exit. Rotten rake for you too, John. You'll have to close the play. Close the play. Close the play. I'm ready, doctor. Yes, to be sure. Now, sit down, chair. Hold still. You will hardly notice this. Make a fist. Tight. That's it. Maybe feel a little dizzy for a minute afterward. But in an hour, you'll be as right as rain. No, no, still. Ah, yeah. Not bad, was it? Lie back. That's right. Good old John. Give it... Lord, what a publicity story this will make. Playwright, head actor's bedside, gives blood to save famous star's life. I think it kept quiet. If he'd only... it might not have been too late then. But then I knew... I knew that I would never tell the doctor. I would never tell anyone. I would only wait and see. The revulsion, the contempt, the hatred that had been caged up in me for that smiling, posturing ape on the couch, leaped now, clawing at the bars, howling for revenge. Going all right, Scales? Yes. Yes, perfectly. Thank you, doctor. Autolight is bringing you Joseph Cotton in Blood Sacrifice. Tonight's production in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills. Suspends. Now it's my turn, Wilcox. Riddle me this. What is it that lives a long time, has great power and endurance, and can store water? Well, that's easy, App. An Autolight Stay Full Battery. Oh, no! Yes, yes, that Autolight Stay Full Battery needs no more water than a cactus. Because it has more than three times the liquid reserve above the plates, as compared to batteries without Stay Full Features. Stop that, Wilcox, and answer my riddle. Now, let's see. Now you mentioned long life. The Autolight Stay Full Battery has a fiberglass retaining mat protecting every positive plate. That accounts for its incredibly long life. By recent tests based on SAE life cycle standards prove that Autolight Stay Full Batteries gives 70% longer average life than batteries without Stay Full Features. You're not even getting warm, Wilcox. Why, man, this Autolight Stay Full Battery is tops in batteries. Talk about power, it's phenomenal. Endurance, sensational. And remember, it's the battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Elephant is what I had in mind, Harlow. But I'm right, too, App, because you're always right with Autolight. And now Autolight brings back to our Hollywood soundstage our star, Joseph Cotton, in Blood Sacrifice, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. I lay back there on the chair in the dressing room. The doctor had been right, there was no pain about it. I could feel little tinglings as the blood said goodbye to my body on the way to inhabiting the much bluer veins of a distinguished actor. No, no, I felt nothing. Only a gentle warmth after a while and a lovely serenity. And with it came little visual effects inside my closed eyelids, a kaleidoscope like they use in films to dissolve into flash bags. That was it, yes. I was having a flashback. I hadn't wanted to send the play to Gary in the first place, but I was new in London and good old George Phil Potts who was handling me said he had a hunch about it. Everything began, my boy, nothing to lose. May as well try, you know, can't get her trying. Lord George, Gary Drury, it's just not his kind of play. It's a tragedy, a bitter, cynical, disillusioned tragedy. He may, he just may like it, you know. I'll send it along over to his hotel. We'll see. I've never met Gary until then. Of course, this tremendous charm of his, this flashing, winning, infectious and comparable style of the man, when you talk to him, you will lost. And he did like the play, at least he said he liked it. Oh, yes, wonderful idea. Very strong, perhaps a little grim, but then these are grim times. Of course, there are one or two things that need touching up and we may have to make a change here and there. There's never been a play produced that didn't have to have a certain amount of rewriting during rehearsal. You understand. But I didn't understand. I was still too bewildered to understand. The man had this fantastic charm and it used it. Before I was out of his office, I'd signed a contract giving me a very pretty share of the royalties and Gary, the right to make any reasonable changes. He might be necessary to the script. Reasonable changes. During rehearsals, we'd sit halfway back in the theater. Oh, John, I've been thinking this. The cocktail scene in the first act of Bozeman. It seems out of character. What do you mean? It's a great way to be shocked and hurt and angry at the change in his feelings. He'd have denounced her and left the party. Wonderful scene. And then at the very end, Keith rolls up his uniform tunic with all the decorations on it and lays it under his head for a pillow and lies down on the bench. Oh, wonderful curtain line. He says, I rest upon my laurels. Wonderful. Can you write it, boy? You're not serious. Of course I'm serious. Oh, play. I'm only conservative. That's not the play, Gary. It's all out of key with the rest of it. Oh, yes, that reminds me. I've been a little bothered about the ending, too. Oh, it's very dramatic. Of course, but just at this time, it seems a little bad taste, don't you think? The play altered, butchered, finally opened. We sat up waiting for the morning papers and then they came. I read them and I wanted to run away and couldn't. What are the voices of the critics saying to the public? This broken-back play is only held together by the magnificent acting of Mr. Garrick Drury. Sacraness, it is. Better Laurel provides a personal triumph for Mr. Garrick Drury. Nothing in the play is consistent except the assured acting of Garrick Drury. Mr. John Scales has constructed his situations with great skill to display Mr. Drury in all his attitudes and that is a sure recipe for success. We prophesy a long run for bitter Laurel. And run it dead, there was no stopping it. I caught myself wishing Garrick Drury would die or lose his looks or his voice or his popularity so that the whole thing could be buried and forgotten. Well now, perhaps he was going to die. I watched the blood from my veins fill up the container. I thought of the blurred rose on the plate that might have got turned around. I heard Walter still complaining about something. I listened to the doctor. The blood won't do at all, Walter. Lucky for Mr. Drury that Mr. Scales was around. Good man to have around. Universal donor. Blood mixes with all types. But was it my blood or Walter's that mixed with all types? I didn't know. I couldn't be sure. Yet somehow I was sure that the plate had been turned around and that would mean that if the doctor used my blood for a transfusion it... What was it he'd said? It would be like giving Gary prusik acid. It would be murder. No one would ever know the doctor might guess but he would never dare speak. He would be put down to his own negligence. Came over to me and looked at the level in the container nodded his head approvingly and turned to Gary again. I felt myself pulsing and drifting like a man dozing in a snowdrift. Good evening, Florey. Oh, good evening, Mr. Drury. Looks like rain don't you? It does indeed. But then we can't complain. Well, John, you must let me run. Yes, sir. Take a flower. Thank you, Florey. The show must go on, you know. Bless you. Oh, good evening, Mr. Scales. Florey, may I have a carnation? Yes, sir. Two shillings, sir. Mm-hmm, may I? Can it on for you? Oh, thank you. It's wonderful about your play, Mr. Scales. It's been a wonderful run. But then Mr. Drury does know how to pick them. Yes, yes. It looks as if it might run forever, doesn't it? No matter what he's in, they all come to see him. Not that yours isn't a wonderful play. Mr. Drury gave me a ticket for the second night. Oh, it... He's always so thoughtful. Oh, what'd you think of it? I thought it was lovely. I cried ever so. When Mr. Drury came back with only one arm and found his fiancé with that other fellow at the cocktail party... Exactly. I will rest on my laurels. With a beautiful curtain line you guide in there, Mr. Scales, and the way you put it over. Yes, there's no one like Drury to put over that kind of line. Good evening, Florey. Good evening, Mr. Scales. Better laurel. Oh, good Lord Molly Sheridan. Hello. It's good to see you've been months. Look who's here. New York's rising dramatists. Oh, no, don't, don't. Have you seen it? I sent you tickets. Yes. Kind of you to think of us in your busy life. Yes, we saw the show. I know, I know, but like a fool, I signed a contract without a controlling clause, and by the time Drury and his producer had finished knocking the script around, there wasn't... Oh, John, it's a shame. Now, look, let's forget the play and go have a drink together, shall we? Oh, sorry, Obot. We have to think of our reputations, you know. Good night, John. Come along, Sherry. John, John, it was a good play. How, under any circumstances, could you have let them do this to it? Come along, Sherry. Good night, John. Good night. Good night. Almost full court. That ought to do it. Feel all right, Mr. Scales? Yes. Perfect. Good. Now, we'll fool you out of here and go to work. The doctor hushed me out of the room onto the stage. I saw him disappearing around the screen with a flag in his hands as I closed the door. Just as I thought. There were the reporters waiting. I sat down. I shall weep, not write it to them. Hey, Mr. Scales, how is he? Where did he live, do they think? Well, they think he may. They're giving him a transfusion. With your blood? Oh, what a story. Please don't use that. Oh, yes, we know how you feel. I'm just doing what anyone else would do. He was my friend. I owed him everything. Well, of course, but you're a hero. You don't know how people feel about Gerrit Drury. Don't I? Incidentally, Mr. Scales, we hear you've sold the screen rights of the play. Oh, no, no, not yet. It was, well, we'd been talking it over tonight. But if anything happens to Mr. Drury... You mean you won't sell, huh? If anything happens to Gerrit, Bitter Laurel will never be performed again. My hands were wet and cold, and I could feel the perspiration running down my back. My head was light, and I seemed to be walking on air. The voices of the reporters were distant and indistinct. I felt the sudden need to lie down to rest. Sleep. The door to Gerrit's dressing room opened, and I saw the doctor standing there. His face and his voice were blurred. Scales, I... Will you come, please? What is it? He's complaining of a pain in his back. He did almost immediately. We started the transfusion. He's asking for you. Of course. Don't understand it. I don't understand. We all did our best. So much hemorrhage, shock, cardiac strain. It's always a gamble, you see, when the operation is left so late. Sometimes there is a particular idiosyncrasy. I should have preferred a direct test, so that the patient dies while you wait to make sure. Mr. Drury. Oh, Mr. Drury. What is it? Where's Brandt? Oh, his son. He'll be here in a minute, Mr. Drury. They're waiting. Brandt. That's Brandt. The curtain must go up. Don't understand it. Yes, yes, he's dead. Why did he die, doctor? Blood transfusion, but I don't understand it. This gaze is a type 4 universal donor. Still there are sometimes personal idiosyncrasies. Yeah, I did. I caught Walter's gaze and followed it. He was staring fascinated at the plate, which still stood on the table. The rose. That one there, that smudged from the firing. I remember noticing it was originally on my right. Now it's on my left. Ridiculous. You did it! You turned the plate around because you knew that my blood would save him from the fool, Walter. I lost everything by his death. Why should I want him dead? You hurt him. I've known I've seen it all the time. Because of the plate. You killed him. Don't be a fool. It's too fantastic. What current or current is due... No! What current? It happened. A roaring in my ears, the spastic constriction of my stomach. The room began to teeter in the world. I staggered toward a chair. Now, I can hear the doctor feintless. Go from a long, long way on. What's the matter? What's this game? What is it? Easy now. It's shock. No, no, you know, here. Here, my... my side where the car hit me. Where? Show me. Just here. Good Lord, man. Why didn't you tell us? You're hurt. Walter, tell them to bring in the stretcher from the ambulance quickly, man. Yes, sir. It's ironic. When the car hit me, it was an injury to the spleen. The spleen, think of it. So you see, all the time, I was giving Garrett blood for a transfusion. I was leading to death inside myself. It's ironic, isn't it? Death from shock and loss of blood. They gave me a transfusion, too. Too late. But I wouldn't have to die, they said. I would have lived if... if I hadn't given my blood to kill Garrett Brewery. Spence, presented by AutoLite, tonight's star, Joseph Cotton. Simmer down, Harlow. No more of those explosive riddles. I'm exploding with good news, Hap. The news that AutoLite makes more than 400 products for cars, trucks, planes, and boats in 28 plans, coast to coast. These include complete electrical systems used as original equipment on many makes of America's finest cars. Batteries, spark plugs, generators, coils, distributors, electric windshield wipers, starting motors, bullseye-sealed beam headlights. All engineered to fit together perfectly, work together perfectly, because they're a perfect team. So folks, don't accept electrical parts supposed to be as good. Ask for and insist on AutoLite, original factory parts at your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage, or repair shop. Remember, you're always right with AutoLite. Next Thursday for suspense, our star will be Kerry Grant. The play is called Salvage, and it is, as we say... A tale well-calculated to keep you in... Suspense! Tonight's suspense play was produced and edited by William Speer and directed by Norman McDonnell. Music for suspense is composed by Lucian Morrowek and conducted by Lud Bluskin. Blood Sacrifice was adapted for radio by Malcolm Meacham from the short story by Dorothy Sayers. Joseph Cotton may currently be seen in the Carol Read production The Third Man, a David O. Selznick release. You can buy AutoLite's day full batteries, AutoLite resistor, or regular spark plugs, AutoLite electrical parts at your neighborhood AutoLite dealers. Switch to AutoLite. Good night. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.