Let George Do It: The Ghost on Bliss Terrace

Standard of California, on behalf of independent chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West, invites you to... Let George do it! The ghost on Bliss Terrace, another adventure of George Valentine. President will notice, danger is my stockin' trade.

If you're crowded into a corner and you can't fight your way out alone, you've got a job for me, George Valentine. Right full details. Dear Mr. Valentine, there's no such thing as a haunted house.

You know that, and I know it. Still a great many people in our neighborhood are convinced that a certain empty house on this terrace is occupied by a ghost. I've persuaded a group of my saiener neighbors to join me in raising a bee so we can prove what's going on.

Once and for all that it's all so much poppycock. You can find me at home any morning. It's side Mrs. Angela McCauley. How haunted house, no less. I know how we can earn that fee in a hurry.

Alright, Angel, I'll play straight man howl. and how just put out a for rent sign or whatever goes to happen to be around would be trampled to death looks like this too likely and this isn't just one person's fanciful when this is a community project headed by a solid citizen named angela mccollie

we can't turn our backs on a civic enterprise like this all right but what standard equipment for a job like this hand-tailed bed sheets old props from an avid and cussello picked up no angel just pride in our work and uh...

normal amount of curiosity And as I've said, Mr. Valentine, although we're ordinary middle-class families, we take great pride in our neighborhood. Yes, you've told us that, Mrs. McCauley. You can't imagine the effect all this talk about the Mitchell House has had.

What do you mean? Oh, it just stands there empty. Nobody will rent it. Nobody will buy it. An eyesore for the whole neighborhood. Well, outside of saying boo to the ghosts, what do you expect me to do?

Since I'm early up to you, Mr. Valentine, we just want you to prove that all those stories about the Mitchell House are full. Well, just what are these stories, Mrs. McCauley? Well there was a milkman Fred Horton. He swears that when he was delivering milk one morning he saw a curtain swing back and a face suddenly appear in the window.

I see. Well is that all that happened? Tommy Canig, that's not the Canig, so do I. He says he saw a face in the window too. Well I think that's two people at some. I certainly wouldn't take Fred Horton's word for anything.

And Tommy, that boy can dream up anything with his imagination. You know, I doubt very much if a group of substantial people like yourself would have asked me in at all just because of milk man.

made a few wayward remarks and a little boy second of the motion. Are you sure you're not leaving anything out, Mrs. McCauley? Not a thing. As I told all the others, this never would have happened if Sam Mitchell hadn't been murdered.

MURDING. Oh, well, this might be the thing you left out. And did you say Sam Mitchell was murdered? Yes, that's right. About a month ago, it was never solved. Why didn't you say that at the beginning?

What a way to tell a story, an unsolved murder is an afterthought. Just because Sam Mitchell was hit over the head by some passing cramp, it doesn't mean the The whole neighborhood should be given a bad name.

Yeah, I know, and I see. Young man, do you or don't you want to accept this assignment? Oh, yes, Mrs. McCall. Yes, I'd like to take it on. Good. I don't know why. Maybe as Ms. Brooks said, it's just the fascinating way you tell a story with murder as an afterthought.

Okay, Valentine, okay, I don't see why this Mitchell case has to be a private nightmare. Hall? Nightmare? Well, what would you call it, Miss Brooks? Sam Mitchell, railroad engineer devoted husband coming up for pension after 40 years of faithful servant.

Hasn't got an enemy in the world? Suddenly we find him beaten to death in the home he worked and paid for. Yeah, we found out that much for coming. There wasn't anything stolen. Everybody loved the guy.

We can't find a murder weapon. How about Mrs. Mitchell, O'Connor? Eh? Oh, well, she was visiting her sister when her husband was murdered. He was hit over the head repeatedly with a blunt instrument by someone who apparently couldn't do the job right the first time.

I'm in a rally. Huh? Yeah? I told you my only job is to prove that the house on Bliss Terrace isn't home. I know, I know. Ghost. Yeah. That day Mrs. McCauley's been in my hair too.

Well what about it, Lieutenant? We've been through that house with a fine tooth comb. We've watched it from the outside. Nobody could have got in or out without a seeing him. Oh, you know how people are when they start talking?

Yeah, ghost. Of all the cock-eyed jobs you've ever taken on Valentine, this is the... You can take it easy. Yaaah! I suppose I look for ghosts and you try to find the murderer. I understand you deliver milk in the neighborhood of bliss terrace, Mr. Horton.

That's right, Mr.. Well, now, just exactly what did you see? Well, like I've been saying, a face in the window, around dawn one morning. Ah, man, or a woman. Oh, couldn't tell. It was a thin face like it was almost all bone Long stringy hair you seen it for a minute Look you believe me, don't you oh sure sure going well not only that one morning

I heard music coming out of the Mitchell house. What's that? Yeah a guitar banjo or something Went something like this and Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. You believe me, don't you? Oh, yeah, every word. I was just modeling it the way you carry a tune. Thanks for the information, friend. Seeing somebody in the Mitchell House, and I'm gonna prove it, too. Okay, Tommy, take it easy. Well, tell us about it, dear. What kind of person was it? Well, lady, it was getting dark. I put my face up to the wind on the porch. But, Cotton, that was another face. I bet that much is known as Karen, do you, Tommy.

Ha, me scared, not me, lady. I just kept looking right back at him. Tried to say it was me who scared the day I thought of him. So it was a man, huh? Golly, I don't know for sure.

He had long hair like a lady, but... Well, anyway, it was real, like Mr. Wharton said. Just wait till I approve it, too. Well, that's a job we both got, son. Only it looks as though you've got a head start on me.

I know it can't be easy for you to talk about this, Mrs. Mitchell, but... I don't mind at all, really, I don't. Oh, that's very nice of you. Tell me, do you like this perfume? It's lilac.

Oh, it's lovely, eh? Do you think I have too much on? I've always used lilac since I was a girl. A Sam used to say, maybe he'd been smaller, more fragile than I am. Yes, now I bought the house, Mrs. Mitchell. You were saying?

I had to say I must've been passed away. I tried to go back, but I couldn't stay there. You see, there's someone there. I felt it. But it's in the night. And once I heard...

Music? How did you ever guess, Mr. Valentine? Oh, I'm sucking on my mother's side. That's nice. It was an old, old song. It reminded me of the days before Sam and I were married, and moved into that house on this terrace.

You know, I was quite a bell, Mr. Valentine. Yes, well, that's easy to imagine, but if... Yes, the mandolin club every Sunday can know that. Oh, those were happy days. I could have married someone more romantic than them, like Paul Hough.

Oh, look, Mrs. Mitchell, I understand you were away at the time of your husband's death. Yes, I would stay in here with my sister. I'm afraid Sam and I had a little treat. Oh, about what? If you care to tell me?

Sam was getting his pension in a few days. He wanted to live quietly on Blis Terrace, but I wanted to use the money to see all the wonderful places I've only read about. Poor Sam.

Now I'd go there. I'd have to do that alone. Yeah. Mrs. Mitchell, I wonder if you'd let me have the key to your haunted house. I'd like to take a look around. No, George, we could sit here in the car and watch that house all night and still not see anything happen.

Yeah, you're so right, Angel. I don't even know what I expect to see you have. Darling? Well, when we went through the house before, I did get sort of a funny feel. Not you too, Brooksie. That's Mrs. Mitchell's private routine.

Well, I kept getting the feeling that I was in a honeymoon cottage that hadn't been changed in 40 years. Oh, honey, I like that. A honeymoon cottage. Bliss, terrorist, and a murder. What a combination.

Oh, George. Maybe I'm imagining things, but isn't the curtain in that window on the porch moving? Yeah. Come on, Brooksie. That's our cue. Brooksie, somebody was moving the curtain in this room. There are no windows open. It couldn't have moved itself.

Oh, nobody seems to be here now. Yeah, well, we're gonna keep right on looking. Come on, we'll start with the dining room. Okay. The light should be here on the wall somewhere. Say where you want.

Ah! George! Okay, you ask for it. Ehhhh! What the... Oh, alright, Tommy, you can put away your machine gun now. Huh? Oh, it's only you guys. Say, how did you get in here anyway? Oh, one of the windows in the back.

You would find the one I haven't overlooked. Well, I had to prove I wasn't lying when I said I saw somebody in here. Now look, Phil, I told you we're both trying to prove the same thing.

How about giving me a break? Well... I know you're better at this sort of thing than I am, but it happens to be my living, my job. So, uh, how about going home? Yes, your mother's probably wondering where in the world you are.

Come on. Hey, I'll be in the kitchen, Brooksie. Oh, what a deal. Mrs. McCauley, why don't you stay out of my life? You and your citizens committee for the prevention a Well, he's a carrot well, don't you believe in light?

Just a childhood habit sprawling out in the kitchen floor what happened you frightened off a remarkably agile ghost I got tapped before I could even turn on the light, but it it can't be this bump is no maple But where did this this thing go couldn't get out? There's no place to hide

Tommy was playing around in here And we were watching the house from the outside. Somebody tried to give me the same kind of scalp massage, Mitchell got it. Oh, what goes on here? Brooks, we're not leaving this Victorian love bar until we find out.

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Well a committee of interested neighbors has you to prove that a certain house isn't haunted. Oh yes, you discover almost accidentally that there's been a murder committed in said house, a brutal unsolved murder at that.

Finally, you have to be not done conscious before you're convinced you're dealing with anything but a ghost. So, just like George Valentine, you change your tactic. Well, let's face it, somebody was right here in the kitchen with me and he didn't have a chance to leave the house.

Oh, we keep going over the same thing. All right, Angel. All right. Let's be very simple. Why should anybody want to jump me like that? Well, I'd say whoever it was didn't want you to find him in the kitchen.

Ah, now you're being very nice and simple. Thanks. Since I took him by surprise, he wouldn't be carrying a shell ailer around in his hand. He probably reached out for something that he knew would be there, something nice and handy.

Something like... Hey... What could be handy? What are you doing, George? This poker hanging on this old-fashioned coal stove. Yeah, could be. Yeah... And Brooksie... It's got blood on it. Yeah, Riley. This is Sam Mills down the lab, Lieutenant.

And about that stove, poker. Well, let's have it. We checked and talked to the medical examiner. That was the weapon used on Mitchell, all right? We're working on the fingerprints now. Well, good. Well, that does it, Lieutenant.

Whoever killed Mitchell was there in the house with us tonight. Now, wait. Don't go jumping at conclusion. What you don't think is just a coincidence that of all the things in the house, he used that stove poker on joy.

He knew just where it was. He used it before. Well, OK, OK. I'm going to buy that. And what's more, I'm going back to that house with you. I don't know what else we can find there.

That's what has me stumped. Well, if I have to, I'm gonna tear that place apart with my bare hands. Sure, John. Sure. We turned all the lights off when we met. Yes, so long. But there's a light in the parlor.

Come on, come on. What in the name of my heavens is that? Sure. Pouring the milk, man. He hummed it to me. He swears he heard somebody playing it on a banjo or something when he passed the house one morning.

Well, let's go inside and find out that this is all about. You think I'm listening here singing to my self-lighter? I thought you were staying at your sister's place, Mrs. Mitchell. Why did you come back here tonight?

Well, let me see. Oh, yes. These two nice young people and I were talking about the old time. Just this afternoon. Yeah, yeah. The songs we used to sing. And that naturally reminded me of the mandolin.

You can understand that, you can. Oh, yes, sure. I... Uh, what mandolin, Mrs. Mitchell? Zee! Mandolin, of course. Oh, I don't give up easily, but this is getting out of hand here. Wait a minute, will you hold up, Lieutenant?

I'm very interested in that mandolin, Mrs. Mitchell. Are you young man? Paul Hock gave it to me when I married Sam. Paul Hock? He was one of your boys, wasn't it? He was so handsome. And he adored me.

No one could play the mandolin like Paul. I'm sure of that. He was leader of our club. I've always felt that Paul gave me that mandolin, so I'd never forget him or the dream. We had to get this.

I don't know why, but let's get back to that mandolin. Now that's just it, Lieutenant. It's gone. It's the only thing in the whole house that's missing. If it was a tram to kill a Sam, why would he just steal a mandoline?

Oh, you'd be surprised how many questions I can't answer, Mrs. Mitchell. Give it an extra room, Valentine. I want to talk to you. Okay. You can understand, Mrs. Mooch. Please, I thought it was a spell.

And it's my name. Valentine, a weird thought just occurred to me. You mean that Mrs. Mitchell might be our ghost and murderer? Well, she had a choir with her husband. The milkman says he heard something that sounded like a mandoline in the old girl.

plays well ordinarily if you wanted to kill somebody with a stove poker just a couple of smacks on the head would have done it lieutenant mrs. Mitchell is small and fragile yeah and it took a lot of blows on Mitchell's head to make her widow now I've kicked that around to lieutenant but if I don't come up with

anything better than that I'm gonna buy me a mandolin and play on street corners well I'm gonna get duck-piled down here police the cops yeah yeah maybe he can get it to make some sense I know I can't do it. You don't mind the others being here? Oh no. No, not at all. All right then we'll go on. A years ago when this house is

built you meant it to be a sort of well dream castle. That's exactly right after. Inch how you should know. But in back of your mind you didn't mean it to be for you and Mr. Mitchell. Oh but you're wrong Doctor. Sam and I lived here for forty years.

What I mean is that you were thinking of someone else all the time. Whether you were willing to admit it to yourself or not. What about that, Mr. Mitchell? You leave me alone. Get away from me.

No, wait a minute. Don't get excited. I can't do it, Doctor. You guessed my feet. Take it easy, Miss. There's nothing to be afraid of. I never let them know how I feel. Oh, yes, we do believe in her.

Just a minute in here, Riley. All right. What do you make of it, found? Well, Valentine, I wouldn't say she's crazy. Well, okay, Doc. What would you say? Doc, what would you say? You've heard of people who stopped growing physically, others mentally.

Well, some stopped growing emotionally. She's one of them. Ah, don't go technical on me. I mean, for some 40 years, that woman has tried to remain a romantic young woman, holding on fiercely to her love she had to turn her back on.

It's a simple and complicated dessert. And one day she couldn't stand it any longer and bumped her husband off, huh? The answer to that lieutenant is your job. I don't think you need me anymore.

Good night. Good night, brother. Well, it's all wrong, Riley. What's all wrong? It finally came to me, a matter of arithmetic. Play around with it all you want. Five never equals six. Oh, listen. Haven't I had to unravel enough double talk here tonight?

Mrs. Mitchell is not even five feet tall, and I'm over six. She couldn't hit me over the head with that stove poker. But it couldn't be anybody else, unless he's hiding behind a molding somewhere.

And if he is, we'll find him. What do you say we really take your advice and start tearing this house apart? But George, we've been through this plot that before. Alright, so we'll look at it again.

What, you're looking for, gentlemen? I might be able to help. Please, Mrs. Mitchell. Wait a minute, wait a minute. That perch up there in the ceiling, huh? That's funny. I never noticed that before. What, that little square? Well, even if it wasn't opening, it wouldn't lead anywhere.

Uh-huh. It couldn't be more than a few feet between the ceiling and the room. Let me have that umbrella. That does open. Well, if somebody could squeeze in and out of that hole, how could he stay up there?

Well, why don't you give me a boost? Maybe I can take a look. Hey, how about that, Lieutenant? Can we borrow your flashlight? Oh, right here. Okay. Up you go, Pussy. Well, what do you see?

Let me get the flashlight on, will you? Yeah, Roxy? Oh, God! Oh, let me down quick! I got you, Angel. What is it? What is it? There's a man crouched up there! Or it's horrible!

Could it be? Tae Valentine! I... Remember, Lieutenant, you're in a hospital, not down at headquarters. Oh... Oh, yes, sure. And the nurse is likely to just throw you out. Well, I'm sorry. But look, Valentine, look good.

You and I are on this case together, aren't we? Well... Well, I just got a confession from this Paulov character. He admits he killed Mitchell. Well, that's that then. Just a minute, Miss Brooks. He must talk some more.

But he keeps freezing up on me. So Valentine, see what you can get out of him. Well, okay, Lieutenant. Valentine, it's so important that someone know I didn't plan it. I didn't mean it to happen.

You sure you want to go on? Oh, yes. Yes. I'm honest. See, I never made anything out of my life. I never knew just what I wanted. Except a few times had come back here to town and passed that house on bliss terrors.

And then I knew what I always wanted, but I never could have. You mean you've been coming back here all these years? Well, they never saw me, but this one time I knew I was getting old and sick.

I went into the house when they were out. I wanted to see what life was like for them, living at the common, so peacefully. And suddenly I heard someone come in. I didn't know what to do. I ran into the closet. There was that opening and the ceiling. Somehow I climbed up there and that's where I've been staying.

But how long? Oh, weeks, I don't know. It's hard to say I don't think I could have stood if I didn't hear her moving about. But Sam Mitchell was your friend once. You could have talked to him.

I thought of that too. But one night when she was away, he walked in and he saw me in the kitchen. And I was scavenging for food just like a tram. He didn't even know who I was.

Don't try to sit up, Mr. House. Suddenly I felt nothing but hatred and envy. I grabbed the stove, pokering. To go, I went on living up there. When you found me in the kitchen last night, you felt I was the intruder and you belonged in that house.

And the thing is, she kept my man's mind for 40 years. That's a long time, isn't it, young lady? Yes, yes, a very long time. Yes, I guess that's hard. I wanted to tell you.

Sorry, but I'm getting to feel very tired. I'll see that the lieutenant gets your story straight. Yeah. And I'll tell Mrs. McCauley there'll be no more ghosts on Blist Terrace. We've finally polished and precision-built engine that gives your car all its gold can't be neglected.

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you'll hear lieutenant riley saying valentine when you tell me there was a girl sitting in this chair when you came in and that she had committed suicide natural curiosity makes me ask where is the bar i don't know lieutenant what she was there Ah, if you ask me, my friend, somebody's taking you for a ride.

And if you ask me, my friend, I'll keep saying it's Marsha Palmer who's been taking for a ride. And, Lieutenant, I intend to find out where and why. Tonight's adventure of George Valentine has been brought to you by Standard of California on behalf of independent chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West.

Let George do it, stars Robert Bailey as George with Francis Robinson as Claire. Wally Mayer appears as Lieutenant Riley. Tonight's story was written by David Victor and Herbert Little Junior and directed by Don Clark.

Also heard in the cast where Sarah Selby as Mrs. McCauley, Virginia Gregg as Mrs. Mitchell, Stanley Parrar as Dr. Farrell, Howard McNier as Paul Huff, and Allen Reed Jr. as Tommy Caney. The music is composed and conducted by Eddie Dunstetter, your announcer, John Heston.

Listen again next week, same time, same station, to let George do it. This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System.