What happens
Gabby, a young woman who works at a roadside barbecue and filling station in the Arizona desert, is drawn to Alan Squire, a weary English-born traveler who stops there for a meal. Her grandfather Maple, who loves to boast of his past, watches over the place. Gabby confides her dream of going to France, the homeland of her mother, and Alan shares his own restless search for meaning. Their talk turns to poetry, painting and a possible future together. This Lux Radio Theatre production of Robert Sherwood's play aired on April 23, 1945, with Ronald Colman and Susan Hayward in the leading roles, with Lawrence Tierney as the gangster Duke Mantee.
A roadside barbecue and filling station called the Black Mesa, near the petrified forest in northeast Arizona, in the 1930s.
Characters: Alan Squire, Gabby, Maple, Boze, Duke Mantee
Listen for: Gabby and Alan's conversation about France, poetry and love, and the arrival of the killer Duke Mantee at the end of the first act.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.