 Suspense tonight suspense brings you an all-star cast of Hollywood's finest radio players in the premiere of a remarkable story by Ray Bradbury called Ria Buschinska but first we'd like to remind you that in hotels restaurants and homes of distinction wherever hospitality is a gracious art the knowing host serves C-R-E-S-T-A-B-L-A-N-C-A Cresta Blanca Cresta Blanca yes the famous name of Cresta Blanca is a symbol of good taste and good living wherever discriminating people gather and when you serve proud Cresta Blanca California wines you pay guests the highest compliment a host can offer so distinguish your table by pouring Cresta Blanca Burgundy or Cresta Blanca Sautern yours to enjoy or gracious dining Shanley's Cresta Blanca wine company Livermore, California and now Shanley brings you radio's outstanding theater of thrill suspense resented by Roma Wines that's R-O-M-A Roma Wines of Fresno, California for your everyday enjoyment tonight's starring Joseph Kearns, Loreen Tuttle, Wally Mayer and Armina Feige and Ria Buschinska a suspense play produced, edited and directed for Shanley by William Spear. Mr. Arkham had a look about him in death as he had had in life a general appearance which might prompt one to say there's a man who will one day be stabbed or shot or booted in the head and although Mr. Arkham had not met his end in any of the aforementioned ways he had been strangled and he was dead dead on the floor of a theater cellar yes Mr. Arkham was deceived and nobody seemed to care nobody but Detective Lieutenant Krovich who'd been sent down to have a look around on a table he saw a small polished bronze box with certain words on the lid which read Ria Buschinska property of John Fabian world's greatest ventriloquist Krovich looked from the box to the three figures standing stiffly before him they were John Fabian ventriloquist Alice his wife and Bernard Douglas Fabian's president as Krovich Lydia Cigar it happened the four people looked with startled eyes at the box on the table then Fabian the ventriloquist stepped forward and spoke earnestly no Ria this is serious business darling you stay where you are if you don't mind Fabian will have the dummy act at another time now let's get this matter clear each of you testify that you don't know who this dead Mr. Arkham is yet he told the stage manager tonight that he knew Mr. Fabian and wanted to see him about something important stop at Fabian pay no attention to her lieutenant her you mean you what is this get together you too give me the key to the box Fabian Krovich stood motionless just looking down seeing Ria Buschinska lying in her box and not believing what he saw he thought there were nights in life when you dreamed and this is what you there were women you saw in life far down the street walking fragile far away unattainable and this tiny figure was one of them there were voices that you heard singing high in a dark church loft voices that made the candle flame shutter and dance to every cadence and this was one of those voices on a summer afternoon you watched a spider gracefully spinning its cloudy web and now that web was real but you can see here now you had heard of honesty and intelligence and frankness and unafraidness all your life and now it looked straight up at you fearlessly shining from a puppet she was so beautiful your throat closed and you were sad because you knew that she was only a puppet John Fabian tenderly picked up Ria Buschinska oh isn't she beautiful she's carved from the finest wood Ria Buschinska is she's appeared in London Paris Rome New York everyone in the world knows her and loves her many people question Ria Buschinska's authenticity they think she's really alive that she's a midget people just cannot believe she's constructed of wood John Fabian's wife Alice did glaring at her husband with a look of pure hatred but he was aware of no one but the life-like figure he held in his arms and speaking to him it said please don't go on about me John Alice doesn't like it Alice has never liked anything about true Ria not here and not now just tell me new tenants how did it all happen I mean about poor Mr. Arkham what is this you best return to your box Ria Buschinska but I don't want to I have as much right to listen and talk I'm as much a part of this murder as Alice or Mr. Douglas E don't drag me into this you little witch and the manner in which he replied made it obvious that real Buschinska was more than an illusion to him for he reacted to her as to a real person it's just that I want the truth to be told and if I'm locked in my brown casket there will be no truth but John Fabian is a consummate liar and I must watch him that's right isn't it John yes I imagine it is John loves me best of all the women in the world and I love him and try to understand his wrong way of thinking we're wasting time if you think you'll interfere with my investigation baby lieutenant I am helpless but she's in your throat no she is in my heart which is much deeper sometimes I'm powerless sometimes she is only herself nothing of me at all sometimes she tells me what to do and I must do it she watches over me reprimands me as honest where I am dishonest ethical where I am wicked as old sin she lives her life I live mine she's raised a wall in my head between herself and me and she lives there ignoring me if I try to make her say improper things but co-operating by suggest the correct words in pantomime so if you intend going on I'm afraid Rhea must be present though locking her up will do no good the town Corvich sat quietly for a few moments then he seemed to make a decision all right all right let us stay maybe maybe before the night's over I'll be tired enough to ask even a ventriloquist dummy questions or suspense roma wines are bringing you Rhea Bushinska roma wines presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theater of thrills suspense radio's outstanding theater of thrills is presented by roma wines that's r.o.m.a. roma wines selected from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines some hosts have a way of making you feel completely welcome whenever you drop in for a visit there's this the kind of hospitality that says come in and make yourself at home well such is the hospitality of millions of Americans who always keep roma california wines on hand for roma wines lend sparkle and companionship to any occasion and there's a roma wine to please every taste for friendly entertaining serve nut like golden amber roma sherry rich red roma port or mellow flame-bride roma muscatel you'll find that these better tasting roma wines add warmth and charm to any get-together brighten those restful stay-at-home evenings with your family tomorrow solve your problem of what to serve when friends drop in with roma wines that r.o.m. roma wines america's largest selling winds and now roma wines bring back to our hollywood soundstage are mine if I gay as now rate her joseph cernes as fabian the ventriloquist and walley mayor as detective crovish in rea buschinska a play well calculated to keep you in suspense once more mr. douglas do you recognize the dead men no he looks somewhat familiar an actor type I believe one of you three is lying from the condition of awkward shoes is worn clothing he needed money are you in love with mr. fabian why I really lieutenant I've been watching you your actions my action yes yes the way you look at real butchinska's box the way you hold your breath when she appears the way you not your your fingers when she talks the way you stare at her if you think for one moment that I'm jealous of a little piece of wood aren't you know I'm not jealous of her you needn't tell him Alice let her they all stare at the figurine even fabian ventriloquist as if her cry had come from an alien throat Alice tell them I I married John seven years ago he said he loved me I loved him and I love rea buschinska too at first anyway but then I began to see that he really paid more attention to her than he did to me I began to feel hatred not for rea butchinska because it wasn't her fault but I felt a terrible hatred for John because I knew it was all his fault his cleverness his sadistic temperament each jealousy on my part was a tribute to the perfection of his art she came out of him like a woman out of a dark god but I don't hate rea she's lovely sweet and honest everything that John isn't tell about mr. Douglas when I got no understanding no love from John I turned to mr. Douglas the dead man was a blackmailer he came to the theater the night to see a husband about you you kill him to prevent that interview I didn't kill him Douglas might have and not told you why kill a man John knew all about it I did indeed the next day lieutenant Krovich was back that's come in Fabian I have something here which might interest you with a tight grin in his face lieutenant Krovich held out the photograph of a woman Fabian stared at the shiny picture before him and then he fell back in his chair he shut his eyes as if with the great ache in his head Krovich turned the picture over carefully and began to read from the typewritten data on the back name Ilya Riemansk weight 100 pounds blue eyes black hair over face born 1914 New York City disappeared 1934 believed a victim of amnesia of Russian slob heritage no you know Fabian it was pretty silly to go through the files for a picture of a ventriloquist tell me they all laughed at it quarters and yet yet here she is Ria butch inska not paper mache not wood not a puppet but a woman who once lived and moved about and disappeared take it from there Fabian you can it there's nothing to it I I saw her picture long ago doctor looks and copied my puppet after her nothing to it huh listen Fabian this morning I went through a stack of billboard magazine staff high in the year 1934 I found an interesting article concerning an act playing the smaller circuits known as Fabian and sweet William sweet William was a little male dummy as usual in such acts there was a girl assistant Ilya Riemansk look at that picture the resemblance between the real woman on one hand and Ria butch inska the puppet on the other is startling she was my assistant but that was all I I simply used her as a model it all starts and ends with Ria butch inska why should you love a puppet so intensely because you love the original woman intensely all right all right in 1934 I was billed as Fabian and sweet William sweet William was a small bald nose little boy dummy I carved years ago I was playing Los Angeles when this girl Ilya Riemansk appeared at the stage door one night she wanted a job I remember it was autumn John Fabian remembered Ilya Riemansk in the half light of the stage alley he remembered how startled he was at her fresh beauty her eagerness the way the rain when it came down through the narrow alley caught in her dark hair and touched her feverish she became his assistant worked in the act and in four short months he who had always denied and scoffed at love became hopelessly lost with this one then there were arguments and things much more than arguments things done and said that were violent and unfair he wanted to marry her she never quite accepted he went into hysterical rages at her once he destroyed her wardrobe that much she had taken but it was somewhat different on that last night when he had shouted at her taken hold of her and slapped her brutally three times across the face Ilya Riemansk vanished that night vanished the police questioned me there was talk of murder but she was gone with no trace a record of her was sent to all the larger cities that was the end of it for the police but not for me the knowledge of her going was too much she might be dead or just run away but wherever she was I knew I needed her one night I returned home more depressed than usual I collapsed on a chair and before I knew it I found myself speaking to sweet William in the totally dark room William William oh this is all over and done I can't go off Howard you can get her back if you want no I can't no I can never get her back yes yes you can think think of a way to get her back think of a way come on you can do it put me away start all over start all over yes begin carving exactly and slowly and lovingly carving make the little arching nostrils just so and cut her black thin eyebrows round and high and make her cheeks in small duplicate hollows and no it's monstrous I I can never do it yes yes you could yes you could and the voice faded away like a water ripple in a dark cave blackness rushed over Fabian his head fell forward he whimpered and sweet William sighed and then and then they both lay silent and solemnly unconscious the next morning John Fabian purchased the best grained piece of wood he could buy but when he reached home despair seized him how could he fashion his warm area from this cold wood how could he shape this dumb block of dead substance into anything faintly approximating her glowing light go on go on sweet William who egged him on you can do it and for 20 weeks he worked he carved her hands into things as natural and beautiful as shells lying in the sun and sweet William lay dust cloaked in his box from time to time feebly caulking some sarcasm some criticism some hint some help but he was dying soon to be untouched in inanimate word as weeks past and Fabian molded and scraped and polished the new word sweet William lay longer and longer in stricken silence and one day as Fabian held the puppet in his hand sweet William seemed to look at him a moment of puzzled eyes and then there was a death and sweet William was gone and now as Fabian carved a fluttering and attempting of speech in his throat began echoing re echoing the sounds of the air ending he was thinned and without money but by then he had searched his stream of consciousness experimented and given the doll all the gracious mannerisms and shy gestures of the real woman and then at last he held ill your romance in his arms again they were together he could talk to her and she could reply and the first thing he made the little creature say was I love you John Fabian I see and your wife Alice she was another of my assistants she did a work well she loved me I don't know why I married her I see what about the dead man I'd never seen him before until you showed me his body in the cellar that's not true don't lie John Fabian Fabian's cheeks drained white and the bones jotted out tensely the puppet spoke looking straight at Krovich John we see the first blackmail letter a month ago it said simply real bushinska born 1914 died 1934 born again in 1930 Fabian seemed paralyzed unable to answer he had a trapped helpless insane expression his lips tremble he searched the room as if seeking some way out for a frustration and a proof did not wait to borrow his way I come to expose me to the world go on I wanted my love where you kept to myself what sort of a love would it be in the future people rarely guess the significance of my carving this figurine the talk moved people would laugh or be disgusted perverted criminal mind they shout ugly horrible revolting and how could I play my love scenes with three anymore when they knew not when with every word I uttered someone in the audience would nudge someone else in whisper she lived once you know disappeared they say he killed her they say he loved her how much did I come one thousand dollars to start with and more later and so you killed no I didn't kill our commitment I paid him one thousand dollars we found no money on him nevertheless I paid him Alice and Douglas must have heard our conversation they wanted to be rid of me for years now I'm not blind Alice all way of ridding herself of me and getting some money to why she's nothing but it just something I wish to say and yet I can't say it grovech turned he saw John Fabian's eyes widen in his head as if a terrible conflict were raging fighting within his throat convulsed again and again and lions cut deep their cheeks and the hollows of his face sank in you heard nothing you're deaf and dumb and blind and lifeless you heard nothing your ears are calm but they hear John dragged Mr. Ockham to the door struck him down the stairs old dressing rooms it hadn't been used in years in Congress so impossible so completely beyond the veil of sanity and reason that Corbett's recoiled even be watched if ever in the time of the world the forces that manipulate men struggled one side against the other this was the time the shocked pallid face of John Fabian wrenching the horrible protrusion of the eye the clenching of the teeth at the center and relaxing again the subtle move of the throat and the high sad and use it if voice of real butchinska leaping from her tiny shining lips Fabian must have known what was happening and yet he did not know there's nothing for us now anyway cause the world will know of us even when you killed him and I lay in my bronze box last night I realized we both realized that these were our last hours because while I've accepted your weaknesses and lies I can't exist in murder it couldn't have gone on no one can live side by side with such knowledge Fabian took her in his arms and held her high into the warm sunlight she looked down at him with her clear honest way of seeing him there were angry helpless tears in his eyes his hands shook and in shaking made her tremble to her mouth closed and open silent gaping and shutting again and again with no words Fabian began to solve he closed his fingers unbelievingly around his own throat his eyes he looked like a man trying to remember something beautiful her voice how it sounded how how to make it sound again how to make her take back all she said that was the truth she's gone she's gone and I can't find her I try but I can't find her she's run off behind the dark wall and so deep down and far away in the night I'll never be able to find her again she's gone Ria Bushinska slipped bonelessly from his limp hand folded over and glided noiselessly down to lie upon the cold dirty floor her eyes closed her mouth gently sealed Fabian didn't even look at her as Krovich led him away so closes real Bishinska starring Armada by gay as narrator Joseph Kerns as Fabian Wally mayor as Provic and Lorraine Tuttle as Ria tonight study and suspense presented by Roma wines that's R.O.M.A. Roma wines America's largest selling wines yes more Americans do enjoy Roma wines than any other wines and this is Truman Bradley to tell you why it's because Roma wines taste better you see Roma selects and presses only the choicest California grapes then with ancient skills and unmatched wine making resources Roma master Vettner's guide this luscious grape pressure unhurriedly to tempting perfection these finer Roma wines are placed with other mellow Roma wines to await later selection for your enjoyment from the world's greatest reserves of fine wines this weekend give your family and friends a surprise serve delicious Roma California sherry Roma sherry is a glorious golden amber wine soft and mellow on the tongue with a delightful nut-like taste that's a perfect invitation to dining pleasure and remember to insist on Roma that's R.O.M.A. Roma sherry because more Americans enjoy Roma wines than any other wines tonight suspense radio play was by Meldinelli from a short story by Ray Bradbury be sure to listen next Thursday same time to suspense produced and directed by William Spear for the Roma wine company of Fresno California CBS the Columbia broadcasting system KNX Columbia Square Los Angeles