 For the safety of your smile, use pepsidon twice a day. See your dentist twice a year. Lever Brothers Company presents the pepsidon program. The adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Van Heflin. Pepsidon presents Philip Marlowe. Raymond Chandler's famous private detective. You've seen him on the screen, lady in the lake, murder my sweet, the brasher doubloon and the big sleep. Now pepsidon brings you the adventures of Philip Marlowe on the air and starring MGM's brilliant and dynamic young actor Van Heflin. Now families all over America have named their favorite toothpaste. New pepsidon witharium. New fresh tasting pepsidon with the new cool minty flavor. It's the three-to-one favorite over all other toothpaste. Yes, in a recent test, families from coast to coast compared new pepsidon with other toothpaste at home. And by an overwhelming vote, by an average of three-to-one, these families preferred new pepsidon over all other toothpaste on all these counts. They said new pepsidon tastes better, makes breath cleaner, makes teeth brighter. Yes, on all these points, families three-to-one declared new pepsidon better than the average of all other toothpaste they tried. Get it for your family right away. There comes a certain time in the year when I don't want to see midget auto races. I just want to see midgets. When I prefer sawdust to stardust and popcorn to all other kinds of corn available in Hollywood, the circus was moving in on the grounds at Washington Boulevard and Hill Street. And I was turning in my usual fine job as sidewalk supervisor. It was exciting. It brought back all the sounds and sensations and convictions of childhood. And then someone had me firmly by the wrist and I turned to look into a pair of steady, smoky dark eyes that could be dangerous. Excuse me, sir, but you are a private detective? I'm a detective, but I don't get much privacy. Yeah, my name is Ralph Tassanari. Who told you I was a detective? My feet aren't that flat. Do you know a gentleman named Al-Sikhanofi? Well, I know an Al-Sikhanofi, yes. He pointed you out. He asked me what was the big idea, what was my angle, hiring a private detective? He gave me an idea. I mean, is Al-Sikhanofi had any ideas to spare? Mr. Malo, besides owning one-third of this very fine little circus, I am Tassanari. I'm Tassanari, the sweet and gloriaan, the trafisto, the most brilliant aerial act in the business. I own this circus with gloriaan and the sweet. Well, where does Al-Sikhanofi fit in here? Now, the sweet gets drunk and gambles fantastic sums of money. This circus is worth a quarter of a million dollars. Already, the sweet has gambled away much more than his third of the circus. And a partner may sell out his other partners without even consulting them. Oh, you're afraid the sweet will sell you out to pay for his debts. Yeah, and if he did that, I should not hesitate to. Uh-oh, watch yourself. Al-Sikhanofi has made a claim that the gamblers expect payment immediately now. Would you consider giving us your protection during these days? It was going to be twenty-five dollars a day and expensive, that's the nut. Cheap enough. Yeah, I know, but you see, I'm a sucker for circuses. Yeah? Is this the office of Philip Marlowe? Better still, this is Philip Marlowe. Ralph, tassanari hija this morning, didn't he? Go ahead. This is a partner, gloriaan. I'm in a downtown bar with a sweet and he's terribly drunk. I know this isn't your job, but won't you come down and help me get him sobered up for the night? Please? All right, mother Marlowe will be right down. I found the main street bar where gloriaan said I'd find her and the sweet. The sweet was potted like grandmothers' bedounia and with the help of the bartender and poor professional loafers we got him into my car, I told gloriaan to drive. Ah, let me along, well, no, I'm all right. Well, just take it easy. Where shall I drive, Mr. Marlowe? Georgia Street receiving hospital, I'll stay back here and rassle the sweet for the championship. I'll just let him alone for an hour to do some shopping. I'm telling you something, honey girl, a tassinari makes any more passes at you. I'll beat him brainless. Oh, please don't pay any attention to him, Mr. Marlowe. He thinks everyone in the circus is in love with me. Okay, now back in your seat, madam. Yeah, yeah, and that flip doctor, too. I'll be still. I'm telling you something, honey girl. One of these days I'm going to get absinthe-minded on that trapeze and I'm not going to catch your friend, tassinari. How's that, huh? Don't listen to him, Mr. Marlowe. Well, then tell Marlowe to let go of my ear. Yeah, yeah, perfect crime. Who'd know if it was an accident or not. And then I'd own half a circus instead of just a third. Please, Mr. Marlowe. Please, Mr. Marlowe. He's drunk. Yeah, but drunk or sober, you've got one doozy of an idea there. Drunk or sober. Hey, hey, hey, my wrist. What's that? I knew some interns at Georgia Street receiving hospital who obliged with some money. I knew some interns at Georgia Street receiving hospital who obliged with some oxygen and a mask. A half hour of breathing that oxygen deeply in a swede with stone, cold, sober and back in my car again. He was making certain cagey explanations. Er, Marlowe, you don't want to take that stuff I was mumbling about seriously, you know. I was drunk. I'm second to worse. After all, Gloria is my wife. Oh? Naturally, I don't like other guys giving her the eye. But that screwy talk about me dropping tassanari accidentally on purpose. Oh, but get it. Oh, yeah, the perfect crime. I was only talking, Marlowe. I wouldn't do that to tassanari. Of course not. You'd be all broken up about it, wouldn't you? I sat in a field box that evening at this small, neat circus unwound for the big act. And the big moment arrived with butterflies warming up in my stomach in a pulse. Thumping madly in my neck. This weed came bounding into the arena. And over to the two spidery ladders that zoomed up into the very peak of the big tent. Up there where it was hot, high and dangerous. Two magnificently made men climbing that slim ladder. They're brilliant capes flowing behind them, going up higher, smaller, higher. And then... They were on their tiny platforms, removing their capes grandiose. They turned, faced each other across the board like divers. Not a voice, not a breath, not a sound. I began to perspire. The net was being gathered back. Then suddenly tassanari raised his right arm and smiled. Dropped his arm and the weed shot out into space like a comet. Suddenly waltzing, somehow insane music began. It was all the announcer said, at least to me, daring and terrifying. Whirl and spin and contact. Swing, swing, swing and spin. Spinning and whirling, contact and break hands locked to rosin hands. Contact and break spin, whirl, cartwheel and contact. Swing, swing, swing and leap. Split second timing and a split second split again. With capes, bars flying into place where and when they were needed. I looked away, my head drumming and swimming. And I looked up again. I looked up and the thing that had been tying my stomach in cold, hard notch. The thing I was afraid of happened. Look out! The music played a gait when the clowns poured into the arena, grinning happily. I saw the youngish handsome doctor race across the serve as followed by Gloria. Across the arena, I saw Al Saganoffi get up and disappear into the crowd. I went out too. Outside, I managed to get a shaking match to a quaking cigarette. In my mind, I heard again and again the drunken voice of the flying sweep come back to me. All of these days, I'm going to get absinthe on that trapeze and I'm not going to catch your friend Tassanari. How's that, huh? Only it was all wrong. It didn't add up. Because the body that had plummeted to the ground hadn't been the body of Ralph Tassanari. But of the man who had plotted the perfect crime, Gloria and his husband, the flying swede. Mother! What? Oh! Oh! You were in there? Yes, I saw it, Gloria. I think I could kill Ralph with this. You think Tassanari dropped your husband purpose? What do you think? Look, Gloria, and I took this job, you know why. And all this reminded me of myself when I was a kid reading Tom Sawyer and Hudson and believing him. Well, I still believe in him. I felt the same way about the circus. The last childish allusion. The man holds on to you so he doesn't get too hard. You're not tough at all, are you? I was going to like this job and then he's happy. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes, I'm sorry we failed. Well, look, Gloria, and the swede is dead and you think Tassanari killed him. But it's the perfect crime. You can't prove anything. Well, maybe I didn't love the swede very much. But it was my husband and on the square. Did you love Tassanari? If I did, it's all over now. I'm going to prove to everybody in circus business at least if he killed my husband. Yeah, well, how? You'll see, little boy. Good night. I watched her go back into the big tent and then I drove home and dreamed all night of Al Saganoffe smiling, his yellow smile and disappearing into the crowd. I got up late and went down for coffee and a newspaper. The story was there on page one. Also, a silky, leggy picture of Gloria and beneath it, the caption reading, show must go on, dares high trapeze of Tassanari after mate falls to death. I looked at my watch. It was late, later than I thought. For the daring young dame on the flying trapeze, it was almost too late. You are listening to the Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Van Heflin. Yes, families all over America have named their favorite toothpaste, new pepsidon with invigorating earium foam, new fresh-tasting pepsidon with a new, cool, minty flavor. It's the three-to-one favorite over all other toothpaste in recent home tests. Like families from coast to coast, the James M. Sinclair family, East Second Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma, like new pepsidon better than any other toothpaste. In fact, Mrs. Sinclair says, This new pepsidon's made a big hit for the whole family, especially my son, Jimmy. He's so crazy about that pepsidon's flavor to less of a problem getting him to brush his teeth now. My husband likes the way pepsidon leaves his mouth feeling so much cleaner and his breath fresher, and it's for me. I've never found any toothpaste better for brightening my teeth. Yes, families from coast to coast by an overwhelming average of three-to-one say new pepsidon is better than any other toothpaste they tried. Better for taste, better for cleaning the breath, better for brightening teeth. Remember, this is not just our opinion. It's the honest conviction of the Sinclairs and other families who compared new pepsidon with brands they had at home. So why not have your family try new pepsidon, the only toothpaste containing irioms? Get it without delay. We continue with Adventures of Philip Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler and starring Van Heflin, who appears by arrangement with Metro Golden Mare, producers of The Hucksters, starring Clark Gable. The lion act was going on when I arrived at the circus grounds in practice when Miranda Glory Ann's tent. She was in her tights and cloak ready to go on. Look, Glory Ann, you're kidding. This is a gag. You're not going up there. One minute, little boy. Well, you're out of your mind. I'm going up this path, and now it's a clue to kill the thieves. You had that. My arms are full of bundles. Captain, I agree to go up with him. Why? Why aren't his marriage shattered after yesterday? Because he knows he didn't make a mistake yesterday. He knows he dropped my husband perfectly. And not because of his timing or reactions for a while. Do I make sense? Up to a point. You're thinking he may drop me for pepsidon. And I wouldn't like that. He won't drop me. What makes you so sure? Because Captain, I love him. He won't. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, go to it, little girl. I watched Glory Ann so small and slim and fragile she went up that thin ladder. My throat swelled tight and the butterflies took off in my stomach again. She was on the platform, removing her silk cape, folding it carefully over the rail. They were facing each other, smiling, smiling, dead, sultry silence. Then... For minutes, I sat there, petrified, watching her co-swept channeling down my back. For 10 minutes, I stopped breathing. I died. Once, only once, I had to close my eyes and in that second, I heard the crowd roar. Everyone was standing up, screaming and goggle-eyed. I groped to my feet and there she was. Bowing and laughing and throwing kisses into the crowd and a tassinary in at me. Then she pirouetted and ran up the ramp to her dressing table. I got there with tassinary. Her eyes warmed from the yin and then froze again for tassinary. Come in, little boy. And you, tassinary. Tassinary? Ralph Folser's a name I bear. Today I talk to tassinary. Now what, Mr. Muller, do you hear what I have to say to you? It's just first that I'm through with you. Corianne, look, not because of the accident. Yeah, but because it was not an accident. You don't believe that. May I suggest that maybe Al Sikonofi has a meeting part in this picture? No. Tassinary here killed a swede. Corianne, that's not true. Dr. Stowe seems to think as I do. Ah, yes, Dr. Stowe. I did pass your tent last night after the accident. Accident? I heard you and the catfied unsuccessful doctor speaking together all so intimately. Fair your insult, Tassinary. Speaking together, deciding conveniently, perhaps, that I killed a swede. Richard never accused. Do he only said that? No, he's the one. Richard. Get out. If I wanted to murder a man, it would be easy to take my gun for my trunk and shoot him. Yeah, but that wouldn't be the perfect crime. Why should I want to kill the swede? Because he might have sold you out to pay his debts. Because you'd get half of his share of the circus. Because you were in love with his wife. I see. You think you have a case, huh? I hope not. Corianne knows what I mean. Only perhaps Tassinary better go now. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very sorry, Corianne, for all of us. Good day. Good day, Mr. Marlowe. He padded out softly like a panther, resentment and hatred smoldering in his eyes. That was horrible, little boy. I better lie down now. I left wondering if there'd be a show that night, tradition or no tradition. I walked for a half an hour and then a police squad car came screaming down Washington Boulevard toward the circus grounds. Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun but Marlowe runs in it. I found a small colony of cops in one of the dressing tents. The man on the cot had taken a lot of pulses in his time, and he didn't have a single one to show for it, not even his own. Good-looking, youngish Dr. Richard W. Stowe was dead. Detective Lieutenant Ibarra held out a small automatic to me. Hello, Marlowe. I hear you've been masterminding things around here lately. Ever see this gun before? I may have heard of it. A man named Ralph Tassinary connected with his show has disappeared. Know something about that? He was fresh from a lover's quarrel last year, so I'm... Well, maybe just out walking it off. Possibly. But the dead doctor and Tassinary both went for a pretty little trapeze, a queen named Gloria Anne. Was anything stolen here? No. The circus hand of her, the muffler shot came running before anything could have been taken. Well, they gala, Gloria Anne, how does she feel about this? She's in her tent, heavily committed to a case of hysterics. Marlowe, divvies on any information you get out of her. But, Gloria Anne, you can't go on like this. Now let me get something for you. I'll be all right. Just a sedative to settle your nerves. Oh, no, we never take that thing. It's bad for going up on the trap. No. No, I'll see. That's the best thing. Please. You can't go up there tonight. Anyway, Tassinary's missing. I'll go see what I can find for you. I rummaged through Dr. Stowe's medical bag while he bearer watched from across the tent. I found a small black book. I've leafed through it with my hand still, hidden in the bag. It was a small case history book with sketchy data about his cases, the treatment given the medication prescribed. I very quietly tore out the last page, ponded and slipped in my pocket as I creaked to an approximate upright position. Find anything to quiet the little woman tomorrow? No, not a thing. It's not a thing. I'll try a drugstore. Tablets of cyclodorm grains one and a half. One tablet with warm water for nerves or sleep. What is it? It's a common sedative, but I can't sell you any without a prescription. Well, can you tell me anything about those drugs? Some, but you will find a lot more in Dr. Torrell Solman, textbook on pharmacology. Textbook of pharmacology? It's only in the main library, I think, but it's complete. That'll tell you all you want to know, I'm sure. And Degas was right. The textbook of pharmacology told me all I wanted to know. Also, this was a very limited edition. It was probably the only one of its kind that had on the page devoted to cyclodrome, a smudge of lips stick in the shape of a woman's finger. It was all and more than I wanted to know. And all at once, I was old, very old. From now on, I was going to leave illusions to high school girls and magicians. Hello, boy. Back again. I see you're dressed for work, Lorena. Did Pat and I return? I wouldn't know. But I think I do know who killed the Swede. Pat and I? I gravely doubt that. Well, then who? Not Altegonoffi. Gloria, you're a dainty little thing, and that's a particular reason why you should break yourself of little unsightly habits, like touching your fingers to your mouth to turn back pages and books. Are you all right, little boy? Was the Swede all right when he went up the tassin area last night? Well, of course. Or was he just slightly under the influence of a sedative drug that calms the nerves? Yes, but slows up there reaction time. I don't understand such matters. You admitted to me today that it isn't wise to take such sedatives before you act. But you did get a prescription for such tablets from Dr. Stowe and you said nothing about them. Well, I was upset after the Swede was killed. I needed some. But according to Dr. Stowe's case that you got the tablets before the Swede was killed and you left him at the bar for an hour yesterday while you did a little medical research at the remaining library. And that night the Swede split second timing didn't quite split, did it? Of course you weren't afraid to go up with tassin area today. He didn't miss the Swede. The Swede missed him. I hated him. You didn't want him. You just wanted the circus all of it. So you killed the Swede with his own perfect crime. Only it was too perfect. You couldn't pin the murder on tassin area. You had to think of something more down to earth. Go on, little boy. Make glory and proud of you. Dr. Stowe knew that you hated your husband. He knew that you had those tablets. He knew that the Swede didn't make mistakes. Last night when tassin area heard you and Stowe whispering together he did. Stowe was telling you what he suspected wasn't it. He was a doctor and he is furious at the thought of being used in a murder. You're raising your voice with excitement. No. Well, if you didn't shut up the doctor, he'd talk. So you shot him with tassin area's gun after staging a very nice row with tassin area in front of me. That would pin it on tassin area. You let Stowe take you in his arms to muffle a shot. That was particularly pretty. No, little boy. It was not. No, it was not. Little boy, you've had a big day. Well, it's time that I grew up anyway. That's for my accident. And Gloria. I've sent for the police, Gloria. They'll be here pretty soon. Little boy, I don't know you there. He's waiting the runway across the arena. He came back. He doesn't even know he's wanted, probably. Oh, little boy, I have let you down. Let me make it up a little. Let me go out there. Will you come down again? Yes, of course. By the ladder, I mean. I won't let you down again, little boy. I promise it. We circus people won't disappoint you again. Please. They're waiting. Well, the show must go on, mustn't it? All right, go ahead, lady. They're waiting. She ran out laughing, throwing kisses, and I walked out after her. I stood in the runway watching. I watched the small, delicate figure going up the ladder. Then she was at the platform, rosin on shoes, rosin on the hands and wrists, and sultry silence, not a voice, not a breath. Raising your hand in a gesture of exquisite grace and sureness and smiling and tassanile. Smiling. And there it was. This was it. There. Ghostly packs of small fry from my school days, gaped up with me and shivered with kid delight. I was a kid again, walking up at the circus guy and the circus lady, the daring young dame on the flying crappies, tassanary and glorian, or positively the last performance, anywhere on earth. You have just heard Van Heflin starring in the new mystery series Raymond Chandler's The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, brought to you by the Lieberbrothers Company, Makers of Pepsidens. Van Heflin will return to you in a moment. Have you tried, have you tasted the new pepsidon toothpaste? It's lingering, minty flavor is so fresh and inviting. Families prefer it by an overwhelming average of three to one over all other toothpaste in a recent nationwide test. They said new pepsidon tastes better, makes breath cleaner and makes teeth brighter. Remember, new pepsidon gives you more invigorating earium foam. It sweeps you away. No wonder it's the three to one favorite with families all over America. Get new pepsidon with earium for your family right away. Now here is Van Heflin star of The Adventures of Philip Marlowe. King Leoparty had the hottest trumpet and the coldest eye in show business and he loved yellow silk so they called him the king in yellow. We consider his short eventful life next week when is Philip Marlowe, I have some business with the king in yellow. Tonight's story was written by Milton Geiger based on the character of Philip Marlowe the screen's most famous private detective created by Raymond Chandler. Heard with Van Heflin tonight as Gloria was Lorraine Tuttle. The original music was composed and conducted by Lynn Murray. This is Wendell Niles inviting you to listen again next week at this same time to another exciting mystery on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe starring Van Heflin with a distinguished cast. This is NBC, The National Broadcasting Company.