 by transcription It's national Wheaties week. It's national Wheaties week and Wheaties present Dimension X on stage tonight Dimension X another in the Wheaties big parade of exciting half-hour presentations It's national Wheaties week The week to buy Wheaties and eat Wheaties and enjoy them as never before The time to really find out what difference a good breakfast with Wheaties can make You know, you're getting protein when you dip into a bowl full of Wheaties You're getting whole wheat minerals and vitamins. You're getting whole wheat energy Yep, there's a whole kernel of wheat in every Wheaties flake That's how a better breakfast beginning with Wheaties can help you step lively all morning long And that's why all over this big country folks are celebrating national Wheaties week and stepping lively So how about it? Get out the big cereal bowl and help celebrate breakfast of champion Pour out those golden flakes put on the milk put on the fruit and let's have national Wheaties week. You ready? Let's go Tonight Dimension X presents The Martian Chronicles a Dramatization of the new novel by one of our most brilliant young science fiction writers Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles January in the year 1999 One minute it was Ohio winter with doors closed the panes blind with frost icicles fringing every roof children skiing on snowy slopes and then a long wave of warmth across the small town a flooding sea of hot air William McClellan you come back here. You know, you can't go out in winter without a cold Do you want to catch your death of cold? But it isn't cold. It's warm outside. It's rocket summer rocket summer, you know like Indian summer The rocket lay on the launching field blowing out pink clouds of fire and heat Cracking the icicles melting the snow making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts It seared the faces of the watching crowd and drove them back And then they saw the red fire and heard the big sound as the silver rocket shot up toward Mars and left them behind on an ordinary Monday morning on the ordinary planet Earth They lived in a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea and Every morning you could see Eela eating the golden fruits that grew from the crystal walls Or her husband sitting alone in his room reading from a singing metal book Over which he brushed his hand as one might play a harp Eela and her husband were not old Once they had liked painting pictures with chemical fire Swimming in the canals when the wine trees filled them with green liquors and talking into the dawn together But no more Marriage sometimes makes people old and familiar while still young And Eela was not happy now This morning she sat dreaming between the crystal pillars and wished that somehow a Miracle might happen and then suddenly Did you call no I thought I heard you cry out did I I was almost asleep and had a dream in the daytime You don't often do that strange a very strange I Dreamed about a man a tall man six feet tall Absurd he'd be a giant and this shape and giant I know and yet somehow he looked quite handsome He was dressed in a strange uniform and he came down out of the sky in a long silver craft out of the sky What nonsense he spoke Pleasantly to me in another language But somehow I understood him with my mind Pilepathy I suppose are really ill said I've come from the third planet in my ship My name is Nathaniel York a stupid name who ever heard of a name like that perhaps they have names like that on earth That's ridiculous. Hella. Everyone knows the third planet is incapable of supporting life. It's too much oxygen of their atmosphere I suppose But haven't you ever wondered if Well, wouldn't it be fascinating if there were people there and they traveled through space and some sort of shit really You know, I hate this emotional wailing. Let's get on with our work Evening came the twin white moons of Mars were rising and the house closed itself in like a giant flower a Wind blew among the pillars staring illus russet hair crooning softly in her ear And it was then that she began singing the song Oh With mine you know What's that song? I don't know. What do you mean? You don't know I've never heard it before Did you compose it? No? Yes No, I don't know really. I don't even know what the words are. They're in another language It was part of the dream I had I guess oh You know you haven't been yourself lately It might do you good if we went away to the Blue Mountains for a week or so What did you hear what I said? I'm sorry. I was watching the sky. You're certainly interested in the sky tonight It's very beautiful. Well, what about my suggestion shall we leave for the Blue Mountains in the morning? You mean go away now. Oh, no, no Why not? Why don't you want to go? I don't know I Just don't want to that song You know I'm sick of that silly song. It's late. Let us sleep From the crystal walls poured a soft carpeting of mist to support you know where she lay down to sleep But through the night she tossed restlessly Until just the dawn the dream occurred You know you know wake up what oh What is it? You've been dreaming again. You talked in your sleep. Did I yes, what were you dreaming? Oh? Wish it It came from the sky game and the tall man stepped out and talked with me Telling the little jokes and laughing what else happened and then this this captain York. Oh I can't it's all so silly tell me you said I was beautiful And then he kissed me I thought so What else? Oh, I feel you're so bad tempered. It's only a dream is it You know I can read your mind. You can't keep secrets from me Well, all that happened was this captain York told me Well, he told me he'd take me away in his ship into the sky Take me back to his planet with him It's quite ridiculous really ridiculous is it you should have heard yourself Corning on him talking to him singing with him all night In your dream he landed in Green Valley didn't he please and he told you he was coming today. Yes, but What's come over you? There's only a dream You can't be jealous of that. No. No, I suppose not Forgive me. I'm being childish Yeah, you're sick You've been working too. No, no, I'm all right, but perhaps you're right Maybe I could use a little relaxation. Yes, I think I'll take the morning off and go hunting Hunting. Yes in Green Valley Normally she watched him go to a closet and draw forth an evil looking weapon and then her husband was gone walking toward Green Valley and Eela waited watching the sky for an unknown thing trembling with a nameless fear And then it happened a Worrying rushing sound the warmth is of a giant fire passing in the air the gleam of metal in the sky Through the dream is true the rocket Vanished over the hill the sky was empty again and Trembling Eela waited again looking toward Green Valley and seeing nothing listening for sounds and hearing nothing until a Shot sounded very sharply the sound of the evil weapon Her body jerked with the sound and she wanted to scream and never stop screaming But now she knew the dream Could never come true There was nothing left but the song the strange and fine and beautiful song To me only And I will pledge with mine But still the rockets came the next ship came down from the stars and the black velocities and the silent ghosts of space and landed by night near a Martian city The men made their way to the outer rim of the dreaming city and then Jeff Spender went into reconnoiter While the others watched and waited waited for something to stir in the haunted city some gray form to rise Some voice to break the unearthly stillness Where were the people where were the Martians? Nothing stirred to disturb the silence some tale Oh Oh goes there don't shoot hold it Parker. Let's spend her in this party. They're coming back Captain well over here well Captain We've searched the city People were living here last week people Martians where they now? dead Dead What did they die? You won't believe it captain chicken pox Good Lord. No yes No resistance to an earth disease. I guess so the other rocket did get through to Mars. It looks like it captain God only knows what the Martians did to them But at least we know what they did to the Martians You mean they're all dead. Yes This planet is through Hey Yeah, that guy's we're safe Break out a bottle cookie. Let's have a drink to celebrate stop it. I'll put down that bottle What's eating you spend to the planet's hours now? We got a christner. Don't we I? christening the city of I christen hey Park Hill City All right, that's enough That'll cost you a $50 fine Okay, McClure take care of Park Hill Spender You come with me. All right, Spender. Why did you hit it? I don't know captain. I Was ashamed I guess ashamed of Sam Park Hill in the noise and the spectacle the whole crew is making it's been a long trip It's only natural. They'd want to have the fling. Yes, but where's their sense of what's right? Their respect for what's happened here Captain a race builds itself for a million years Refines itself builds cities like this one does everything it can to give itself respect and beauty and and then It dies of what? Not anything fine or majestic or fitting, but but a dirty little thing like chicken pox And Sam Park Hill wants to celebrate I know spend it But you've got to remember you've a different way of seeing things. I'm seeing things all right I'm seeing what we'll do to Mars. We'll rip it up rip the skin off ruin at the way we've ruined our own planet captain Look at the city It may be the last time you'll ever see it this way Beautiful in the moonlight Yes There's a poem by Byron that describes it And how the Martians would feel tonight If there were any any of them left to feel So we'll go no more a roving so late into the night Though the heart be still there's loving in the moon be still as bright But the sword out wears its sheath and the soul wears out the breast and The heart must pause to breathe And love itself Must rest Though the night was made for loving and the day returns too soon It will go no more a roving by the light of the moon Without a word the earth men stood and looked at the city the bottle lay shattered at Sam Park Hill's feet and The sour stench of liquor filled the cool air The men of earth had come to Mars Dimansion acts will continue in just a moment It's National Wheaties week Yes, the week when everybody tries wheat even an orchestra leader and here he comes from behind the scenes in radio to help celebrate National Wheaties week mr. Von Dexter. Thank you Frank. Hello folks. I understand. This is National Wheaties week I can't get a kick out of that the only breakfast food in the world with a week of its own And I'm here for just one thing to ask you to try Wheaties during National Wheaties week There are a lot of us whose voices you've never heard on the Wheaties big parade of radio programs You know backstage people like musicians right Frank like musicians We get great pleasure from knowing you like these programs well enough to buy a box of Wheaties tomorrow Wheaties are good. They're nice to eat. I like them. I think you will Try them once during National Wheaties week. Will you do that? Von? I think the folks will good. Thank you. Good night The men of earth came to Mars They came because they were afraid or unafraid Because they were happy or unhappy Because they felt like pilgrims or did not feel like pilgrims the government posters screamed There's work for you in the sky see more The men shuffled forward all kinds of men all coming for different reasons The rockets came like drums beating in the night They came like locusts swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke Mars was a distant shore and the settlers spread upon it in waves First the pioneers and builders then the people of civilization Some came because they were afraid of a coming war on earth Some came because they were afraid of nothing some came to escape from the smell of the subways and the cabbage tenements and Some came from houses like the one in Ohio It was a good house the house in Ohio and for six years the family had lived there Contentedly enjoying music and poetry and the rich warm things of life For the house had been built to be lived in in the year 2020 it contained all the latest automatic devices from talking book recorders to singing clocks as The family rose and dressed the beds whirred electronically and made themselves in the kitchen the stove side and Ejected from its warm interior eight eggs sunny side up twelve bacon slices two coffees and two glasses of milk Beside the breakfast table the facsimile machine clacked and deposited the morning paper on the table The headlines today spoke ominously of the danger of a coming war and the man frowned as he read the news Today is August 4th. Gee dad. Are we really going sure to me? Why not? It's raining out. It's not draining where we're going son now run upstairs pack your fishing tackle We're going on our picnic. All right. Okay, then Bill, are you sure we ought to go? Yes, we've seen the headlines this morning looks bad, doesn't it? The rocket's ready. All we have to do is pack and take off. I know but Well flying to Mars. It seems so crazy Well, all right, then we'll go Should we tell the children why we're going? No, not yet. Let them enjoy the picnic The house went on with its appointed tasks Out of the molding darted hundreds of tiny mechanical mice all rubber and metal They sucked up the dust and dirt in the house and pop back into their burrows In the walls Relays clicked memory tapes glided under electric eyes Recorded voices moved under steel needles Evening came in the living room the hearth fire Bloomed out of nothing and the phonograph spoke from beside the fireplace come soft rain the smell of the ground and Swallows circling with their shimmering sound and Frogs in the pool singing at night and wild plum trees in tremulous white Robbins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their wind and a low fence wire and not one will know of war Not one will care at last When it is done Not one would mind neither bird nor tree if mankind perished utterly and Spring herself when she woke up dog Scarcely know that we were gone The phonograph finished the poem But there was no one there to hear For the family had gone to Mars On the Martian Desert beside the highway there rose a blair of red and yellow neon lights that spell the death of Jeff Spender's dream Sam's hot dog stand is what the sign read and Sam of course was the same Sam Park your who had fought with Spender years before 10,000 rockets were reported leaving soon for Mars with a hundred thousand hungry customers and Sam wanted to be ready for them Hey, look up there on my See that green star up there That's all right Good old wonderful Makes you feel almost reverend on it. Yeah Sam me you're hungry and you're starved Something something that's a poem I learned at school Yeah, come on. Oh, it's semi your rockets. He is Sam Park. You're with the only hot dog stand on Mars Sam what if the rockets don't come? What is this a war on there? I don't worry they're coming. All right. He doesn't gonna happen to spoil my plans, baby. I figured it all out He said look up there No, it's catching fire. It's burning No, that campy earth How much they can't do this to me a good all our money I Switch on more lights turn up the music get the hot dogs on the fire There'll be another batch of customers coming along in about a hundred million years. Oh No, I couldn't be what a swell spot for our hot dog stand Let you know a little secret Sam This looks like it's gonna be an off season By morning the shelves of the luggage store were empty and the rockets were blasting off headed back to earth In a few days Everyone was gone and the planet of Mars once more laid deserted and silent And then after all the rest had gone One last rocket landed on Mars a small family sized rocket come all the way from earth It seemed a long way to go for a picnic But dad had suggested a fishing trip and mother thought the whole family would enjoy a vacation Here they were Floating down a Martian canal with Timothy sitting in the back of the boat with dad and mother up front holding Alice the baby And the deserted Martian towns drifting slowly by What is it to me when do we see the Martians you promised we would soon Tim soon But William the last Martians died out years ago. They're a dead race now not quite Don't worry son. I'll show you some real live Martians later on Gee, this is swell. I wish we didn't ever have to go home. How long can we stay? million years a Million years. Yes. It's time. We told you son. We're not going home This is where we live from now on But what about the rocket? What about Ohio? There's nothing there now, but ruins The last earth radio just went off the air that means the war is over and earth is finished We're going to blow up our rocket and start all over see if we can't build a better world up here You mean Mars is going to be our home. Yes. I hope you don't mind too much No, sir But what about the Martians? When do we get to see them? There they are son look down at the water. I Don't see anything there beside the boat look at the reflections in the water But but that's us down there. Just you and me and mom and the baby. Yes, son You see we're the Martians now on silent moment Timmy stared down at the reflections of the family in the waters and The Martians stared back up at him Then he lifted his eyes to the deep ocean sky Trying once more to see earth and the house he had always called home But earth was too far away and the house was now only a heap of radioactive rubble Only one wall remained standing and within the wall a voice spoke again and again and again Not one would mind either bird nor tree if mankind Perished utterly and spring herself when she woke at dawn Would scarcely know that we were gone that we were gone that we were gone that we were gone That we were gone You have just heard the Martian chronicles a Dramatization of highlights from the new novel by Ray Bradbury Your narrator was Norman Rose and featured in the cast were Inga Adams Roger Decoven and Donald Bucca music by Albert Berman engineer Bill Chambers Dimension acts is produced by Van Woodward and directed by Jack Cuny in a moment We'll tell you about next week's show and now here is your Wheaties man Frank Martin go out and get the Wheaties It's national Wheaties week. Yeah, this is the week. Everybody's trying Wheaties See yourself how Wheaties at seven can help at 11 a better breakfast beginning with Wheaties can help make a wonderful Different because there's a whole kernel of wheat in every Wheaties flake So eat happy work happy Wheaties breakfast of champion get yours get yours It's national Wheaties week Next week the strange and chilling story of the parade the parade that suddenly turned into a funeral Possession for the world of tomorrow the world of And this is the Wheaties man Frank Martin inviting you to listen on Saturday That's tomorrow night to Joel McCrae in tales of the Texas Rangers on the Wheaties big parade See you then Remember it's national Wheaties week. Swing your partners right and left. It's national Wheaties week Come on everybody to the Wheaties party eat a lot of Wheaties like the champions do dance together cheek to cheek This is national Wheaties week eat a lot of Wheaties like the champions do Wheaties a breakfast of champion The preceding was transcribed Coming up is Jack late listen for Bill Bendix October 6th on NBC