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Welcome to Choice Classic Radio where we bring to you the greatest old time radio shows like us on Facebook, subscribe to us on YouTube and thank you for donating@ChoiceClassicRadio.com.
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Broadway's My Beat From Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world.
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Broadway's My Beat. The exciting drama of people who walk the Great White Way with Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover.
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Afternoon sun strikes glints on Broadway's pavements and the perfumes of summer drift in from meadows never known, from tropic seas that were never sailed. From green hills veiled in mist and imagined in childhood drift and die against neon bled of its color. But the illusion still rides the silken vessel of a girl's summer frock and the season dances in her slow, languid walk and her passing is reflected in chrome and steel. There's crowd between you and her. There's loss. So walk away from it, kid, and order the beer and skim off. The longing summer too will finally pass from Broadway. For the policeman, there's this. The corridor to be walked. The corridor at whose end lie the anonymous dead, the unclaimed dead. Walk it and push open a swinging door that opens onto the city's morgue. Stand for a moment against the stillness and move into it.
D
Over here, Danny.
E
This one.
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What about him? Fill me in, Muggerman.
E
It's a summer's day, Danny, and you and I have.
B
I'm not going to cry about it, kid. Just tell me, huh?
E
Well, this is the one they brought in yesterday, Danny. One those boys and girls found buried in the sand on Coney island when they dug them out. They also found a knife wound in his chest. Made them sad. They turned off the portable radio, stopped dancing.
B
Identify him yet?
E
Yeah, that's why I called you.
B
Why'd you call me?
E
The man was in his beach trunks. No wallet on him, no bundle of clothes, not even a lock of tag.
B
Do you want me to compliment you on how hard you worked for his identity?
E
Yeah, it would be nice. All he had was some numbers tattooed on his arm. The kind they were their sequence. I figured they were Social Security types, so I checked the agency in Baltimore. They had him in their files. He used to work Carney's. Just came in on the teletype.
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Who is he?
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A man by the name of Joey Croft. Now runs a palace of fun down in Coney. Him and a partner. I checked on the partner. They tell me a dish, Danny. A dish by the name of Letty Scott.
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You gonna talk to her?
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Coney? On a nice day?
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Sure you will. And leave the place of the tagged and cataloged dead. The clean and quiet room where death is pigeonholed. Accounts current for homicide. Leave there out into beginning twilight and the drive now to Coney and Coney island on a mild summer's evening is carnival. It's pink cotton candy and things that spin and things that whirl. Coney is 10 shots for a quarter and guess your weight and down rushing rides and carousel giddiness. Laughter Hot dogs, arcades and Little Egypt's oldest granddaughter. Ask a question of a man in a harlequin suit who needed a shave and be directed to some steps and a frosted glass door to an office.
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Come in.
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Hi.
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Hello.
G
Thanks.
B
For what?
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For the stair. What else do you have on your mind?
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I'm from the police. My name's Danny Clover.
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I asked you something.
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Yeah, I did. It's about Joey Croft.
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All right. It's about Joey Croft. Sit down.
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Wait for him.
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Go ahead.
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Do that.
F
I'm his partner. He seems surprised. He sees you sitting in his chair when he comes in. Say, Letty said you were to do that.
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Joey's dead. He was found yesterday on the beach. Ms. Scott. Dead. Stabbed to death. He's in the morgue.
F
Honey. Alone.
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Will you?
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All right.
G
Honey. Alone.
F
Stabbed.
B
That's right. Murdered.
F
What? A fight? An argument with somebody. Joey's temper. How? Who did it?
B
We don't know. What about you?
F
Are you kidding?
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Did you kill him?
F
I'm a girl who used to ride elephants. That makes me kind to all animals and nearly all people. And I was real kind to Joey. I don't go around killing him.
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Where were you yesterday?
F
Here. All day. I was here all day. Mister. Listen you. I can prove it.
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I didn't.
F
What am I yelling for? Ask around. I was here all day.
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Let's assume that. Ms. Scott. Let's assume you were here. You didn't kill Joey. Partner. You must have known him pretty well.
F
You just said it. I was his partner.
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What about it? Then who didn't like him?
F
Listen. I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to get somebody in trouble because I knew Joey pretty well. And I'm going to miss Joey. Find yourself a boy named Fred Moore and I'll tell you where to find him.
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Who's Fred Moore?
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He once worked here in a clown suit. On his way to being a geek. Stole some dough. Joey screamed. They took off Fred's clown suit and dressed him like they do in Dannemora. Fred got three years. Now he's out.
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You said you knew where to find him.
F
Where? Sea Girt. I took a walk down there a
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week or so ago.
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Saw Fred sitting on a porch, rocking in a chair. Hotel there. The Ocean Rest. He waves to me. I waved to him. He got up from his rocker. I walked away fast. Ask him what you asked me. Ask him, did he kill Joey Croft?
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Tell her you'll do that when you find him. And tell her to stay close to her palace of fun. All hers now. No partners. Because you'll want her to be there if there's need to come back and leave her. Leave the taunting that lies close on her lips and changes color as neon spins. And on the ride to Sigurt Carnival ebbs. It sounds muted, its lights flung against the darkening mist laden skies and holes. And at the edge of laughter, the hotel Ocean Rest. Its paint scarred, blistered. On its screen porch, a row of frayed and empty rockers swaying to the tides of night wind. And inside, a woman sweeping the sand leavings of the happy vacation time folk. And be told if you want to know anything, ask of the property owner. The owner? Mr. Zabrowski, a knower of everything. Proper party to ask. Ask in the morning, when Mr. Zabrowski comes back from catching night fish, question her about a guest named Fred Moore. Be told not here, not no more. Checked Be told Zabowski. Everything is Zabraski. So issue an all points bulletin on Fred Moore. Go home, sleep out night, and in the morning come back to Ocean Rest.
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Want me to stay out here, Danny?
H
Yeah.
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Wait.
H
Don't go inside. You what? Out here is better. You're the police. Fell asking around the cleaning woman last night.
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That's right.
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You Mr. Zabroski?
H
I didn't catch no fish. In case you would care to ask. You don't care.
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I'm looking for Fred Moore.
H
Freddy the Geek. Freddie the Guzzler. Freddy the ex con. How a man can do such things to his body? Go fight a geek.
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Your cleaning woman said he checked out. When?
H
Maybe two nights ago. Maybe same two nights ago on day Joy Croft was killed. I read this morning's paper. I say to me, it was this same two nights ago Joey Croft was knifed and Freddy checked out the next night. The police fellow, Freddie killed a man.
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You know where he went?
H
I was strong man once. Police fellow. Look at me. You could believe it.
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Asked you if you knew where Fred
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strong man broke chains across my chest at carnivals. So it does not matter to me where Killers run to hide. I do not care. I go fishing.
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What makes you so sure he's the killer?
H
He told me. He said to me, Zabrowski is Joeycroft wronged me. Put me in prison. Wrong me. I fix him this. He said to me on this porch. I do not argue. I do not discuss with private matters of geeks. I give money to geeks for bulls. I am their friend.
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Why did he say all this to you?
H
First day come here to Ocean Rest. Say, put me on cuff. Soon I have much money. I laugh. How geek can get such money? He told me. He say he fixed Joey Croft. I called Joey, tell him to walk soft because geek is.
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What do you want, Muggleman?
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Just come over the radio. Somebody spotted Fred Moore.
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Citizen spotted in West 16th. Danny in Manhattan.
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Okay, let's go. Hey, hey.
D
You the cops, huh?
H
Who are you?
D
I discovered him, Mac. I'm the kid that found Fred Moore.
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Where is he?
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Up there, second floor. He's in the front.
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Come on, Muggle.
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I was walking down the street out front. Made a purchase at the drugstore, including a newspaper. So right next to the box scores is this picture in the paper. This man wanted for question in connection with murder. Then walking back down the block, there he is into here. And the shades went down from that room there.
H
You've been a big help, mister.
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Now you just walk down the other end of the hall and wait there.
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Hey, now look, I'm the kid that discovered him.
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Sure, sure. Fred, open up. It's the police.
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Lights come in front of the door.
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Try the knob.
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Drunk? Yeah. Smell this, Danny. Pretty lousy bourbon. What's the matter? He's Fred Moore, isn't he? He's the man we were.
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Yeah, he's Fred Moore.
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Not drunk, huh?
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No, He's De.
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Broadway is my beat. Written by morton fine and david friedkin and starring larry thor as detective danny clover.
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The summer day on Broadway is a slow carousel. And the mob walks in dreamtime easy. And stops there to watch the juggler and the pancake spinning in the window. And there the spectacular and death defying act of the jaywalker. And walks again, stops again to drink at the enameled and lighted fountain of eternal orange juice. It's the languid time on Broadway. The easy smile time and its clown and a girl blowing kisses. The end of the fabulous ride that costs only a dime. All of it comes to one corner or another. Turns off ebbs, searches a side street or goes home. And where I was, the house on West 16th, the seeking was over with done death Was here.
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Plugged in the back of the header. Danny.
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Maybe.
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What's with the maybe?
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Fred Moore was beat right here where the blood is. You're not gonna fight me on that, are you?
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You heard me. Just maybe, mug. Go call the boy who spotted Fred.
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Yeah.
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Hey, you.
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Me?
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Yeah.
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Come here.
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In here.
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Here he is, Danny.
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What's your name?
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I wasn't wrong, huh? That's Fred Moore, all right.
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Lieutenant asked you something. What's your name?
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Ray.
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I'm Ray Kendall. Hey, what's the matter with him? What's all.
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Let me out of here. Just take it easy, Mr. Kendall. He hurt bad?
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He dead.
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Anybody else walk in or out of this apartment house while you were standing outside? Sure.
D
Sure, Sure. I guess so.
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You guess so or you know?
D
I'm no cop. I said sure, I guess so because I guess so.
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Describe anybody who went in or out.
D
I don't know who went in that house. I see a wanted guy. I'm supposed to be a deputy or something. I'm supposed to walk up to him and say, hey, buster, no more of that. You're pinched. I'm a guy, that's all. I don't do things like that. Me, I'm scared to death half the time. And you expect me to get.
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Yes.
J
This is the second time I called. Nobody answered. The first time.
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Who is this?
J
I'm Nora Forrest. You're in my apartment.
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Where will I find you, Ms. Forrest?
J
Not far. I'll be in East River Park. One of the park benches on 23rd.
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Stay where you are. I'll be right there.
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That's right.
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It's me you're looking for, Mr. Sir. Don't look no more, Ms. Forrest, huh? Come on, sit down. Sit. You won't believe the frank discussions I had saving a place for you from other fellows. Fresh kids, too. Thanks.
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We found Fred Moore dead in your room.
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That's how I left him. Dead right off. I knew he was dead.
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Tell me about it.
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Right off.
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From the beginning, like, to the tune
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of dear hearts and gentle people. Like that.
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Any way you want.
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You know, that's the first time that's
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been said to me, anyway. Goes back to a vacant lot in Sedalia, Missouri. Even the weeds were burned dry. It's where they set up a carney and I did the hoochie coochie in front of a sideshow team.
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You said any way I want.
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You said that.
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All right. Go on.
G
Thanks. It attracts even Freddy had attracted Freddy the lush. He stood close up front and he cried real tears. Mr. Honestly, memories.
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You went out with him?
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Couple times. Girl said to me, nora, baby, what are you building?
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What's the percentage in a sure thing?
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Geek. That's how they talked to you when you were crazy enough to go out with Freddy. They didn't know I'd seen this lush cry.
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You saw him after that?
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A couple more times. Till I couldn't stand it no more. Then.
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Well, then what?
F
Then the Connie lost them.
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After a while, they lost me, too. Then I read in Billboard, Freddy's up in Dannemora on a larceny ramp. Three years without booze. Say it'd do the kid good.
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Did you write to him, keep in touch with him?
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No.
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But he found you, knew where you were.
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He found me, all right. Took him a day. Took him till Sunday night. That's when he comes beating on my door with a bottle of booze. It's Sunday night. All dressed up, no place to go. So I let Freddy in.
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How did he die, Nora?
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My own way. I let Freddy in, and even though he's drunk, there's something different about the lad. Not like he was there in the world. Like he'd done something big. Even came through the Hazer Bourbon. Be nice to me, Nora, he said. Be nice while you got the chance. There's others standing in line. He said that? Dannemora does things.
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How did he die?
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First he dance real nice. Real turns, box step. Then he passes out on the couch. This morning he wakes up, goes out to buy more hooch. Comes back in five minutes and turns the radio on real loud and gets fancy. Opens the bottle, tries to pour some down my mouth and spills it on my shoulders. And I push them away. You fall. Head hits the sink pipe. Right to the beat of the music. Like it was a drama. Something like.
B
Well, if it was like that, why did you run away?
G
He was dead, so what could I do for him?
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So take it as city jail. Hold her as material witness. Then leave her. Back to my office, order the coffee and the ham sandwich and sit there. Think about it. A man found dead Saturday on Coney beach, identified as Joey Croft. Sunday. And a lead as to his killer. A man named Fred Moore. Fred Moore? An ex con with a motive for murder. And find him Monday dead. And think about it some more. And it all gets mixed up with the carnival sounds. Roller coaster and hawkers and calliope. Mixed up with a strong man gone to fat and two carnival women in the middle of all of it. A door opens and Sergeant Tatagli interrupts.
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Here, Danny. Coffee and a Ham sandwich on white.
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Told you, no mayonnaise. Gino, don't knock it.
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It don't cost extra. Eat, Danny, eat. The way you're holding the sandwich, you're gonna drop the lettuce.
B
I told you, no lettuce. Gino.
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Danny, Mama Tiglia had a proverb. She used to tell us unmet food. It went like this. Do rabbits get scurvy?
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No.
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Thing with the lettuce. The way Mama said it, it rhymes.
B
Thank you, Gino. Next time, no lettuce, huh?
I
As is your won't. Now to work.
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Mayonnaise. No mayonnaise either.
I
You're interrupting, Danny. On the way up from the delicatessen, I stopped at my desk to pick up several items for your perusal.
B
Let me have them.
I
Eat, Danny. So eat already. I'll tell you about them. Item 1. A memo from Gordon of technical to wit, flecks of blood found on drain pipe near head of deceased Fred Moore. More or less bear out the story of Miss Nora Forrest.
B
Go on.
I
An examination of Miss Forrest by our own Dr. Sinski reveals several bruises such as might be inflicted in a tussle of the type she described for you.
B
Is there anything there on the record of Fred Moore?
I
Indeed, Danny. Fred Moore, in between jail sentences for petty theft, assault and the like, worked around Cooney. His last jail sentence was for three years. Philosophy and thereby hangs a tail. Oh, indeed. The deceased, Fred Moore, was a model but lonely convict in all of his three years there, Danny. No visitors. In spite of the amount of letters he wrote to everybody he ever knew. No visitors except Letty Scott.
B
Letty? Uh huh. She was Joey Croft's partner.
I
Be that as it may, Danny, she visited Fred in the pokey twice the last week he was in prison and the week before. And this is all I have.
B
Thanks, Gino. All in all, you did very well.
F
Come on in, Danny. Hi again. I recognized your shadow behind the glass door. You two men know each other?
H
I meet him this morning. I speak with him.
B
How are you, Mr. Zabrowski?
H
Good, good.
F
Savvy. Used to be a strong man in the sideshow. Did he tell you that, Danny?
B
Yeah. Yeah, he did. What are you doing here?
H
She. Her. This one. Laddie. She said come here.
F
I got lonely.
B
I can understand it. Everybody's dying.
F
Everybody does.
H
Take from the bottle. Police fellow. Enough here for everybody.
F
Baby. Honey. Sabi, that's not right. That's not right at all. I'm giving this party for you. Don't you remember? I told you.
H
Police fella. You better go. Is my party no More is my party, laddie.
F
Yours, honey.
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See?
B
Gonna have to wait. You know that, don't you, laddie?
F
I heard you've been asking around, talking to people. Cop talk.
B
Cop talk? That's right. About murder. Joey Crofts.
F
I heard Fred Moore's dad, too. Now, you can't ask him about Joe.
H
You. You go now, huh?
B
With her.
F
Hi, Zabby.
H
You stay here with me.
F
Anything you say, sugar.
B
Let's talk some more about Fred Moore, shall we?
F
Long as Abby can stand you.
B
His death was an accident. Fred was drunk. He tried. Tried something. Wound up on the floor with his head near a pipe.
H
Geek. Geek is geek. Way to die.
B
What did you think of Fred Letty for Daddy? Why did you visit him at Dannemora?
H
My little girl don't visit Geek twice
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just before he was released. Why, Letty?
F
Business.
H
What business?
F
Oh, don't worry about it, sugar. Just you and I, one minute from now.
B
You got real tired of your partner, Joey Croft, didn't you?
F
Yeah, I got real tired of Joey Croft. It happens to me. Don't you worry about it.
G
Savvy?
F
It takes a long time.
B
Man like Fred, no friends, in prison for three years. A girl like you, a beautiful girl, comes to visit him.
F
Something, huh? Second time I was there. The boys in cell block 8 beat their cups against the bars. Sure, I went there. Danny had a talk with Fred.
B
It impressed him, made him promises and got him to kill Joey.
F
Zabby, how long can you stand this? Sugar?
E
Wait, wait.
F
All right, sugar. I'll tell you the rest. Dad, Fred killed Joey Saturday when he got out. Then Fred came to me and I gave him a bottle of booze for his trouble. When I sent him away, he felt like a man. That's how drunk he was.
B
Then wandered over to see a girl he'd known a long time ago. Nora Forest. He could face her now. He'd accomplished something. He died. Let's go.
H
Let him sit there, honey baby. You police fellow. Letty don't go with you. She do nothing.
B
She bought herself a murderer.
H
You do that, Letty.
F
Get him. Break him for me, Zabby. Like he used to do to chains. Yeah, he's spoiling your party, Zabby. Get him.
H
Such thing to do to Geek.
D
Get him.
H
You're not pretty anymore. Take her away. Police fella.
B
It's the happy time on Broadway. It's after the movies. Nobody wants to go home. It's a place strung against the night like a phosphorescent alley. And they're heaped there. The golden girl, the bright eyed kid. The man with promises and the guy who believes him. It's Broadway, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world. Broadway. My Beat.
C
Broadway's My Beat is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed and conducted by Alexander Courage. The program is written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin and stars Larry Thor as Detective Danny Clover, with Charles Calvert as Tartaglia and Jack Crucian as Mugaban. In tonight's story, Alvina Temple was heard as Letty, lou Merrill as Mr. Zabrowski, Paula Victor as Nora Forrest and Herb Vigren as Ray Kendall.
B
It. Sam.
Podcast: Choice Classic Radio Detectives | Old Time Radio
Host: Choice Classic Radio
Episode: Broadway Is My Beat: The Joey Croft Murder Case
Original Air Date: June 23, 1952
Podcast Release Date: May 13, 2026
This classic radio episode follows Detective Danny Clover as he navigates the electric, melancholic streets of Broadway and Coney Island to solve the murder of Joey Croft. Set against the vibrant yet lonesome backdrop of New York, the story winds through carnival scenes, faded dreams, and the grim corridors of the city morgue, revealing a tale of betrayal, desperation, and revenge among circus folk and ex-cons.
“The man was in his beach trunks. No wallet on him, no bundle of clothes...All he had was some numbers tattooed on his arm.”
— Muggerman (02:40)
“Did you kill him?” — Danny
“I'm a girl who used to ride elephants. That makes me kind to all animals and nearly all people. And I was real kind to Joey. I don't go around killing him.”
— Letty Scott (05:06)
“Freddy the Geek. Freddie the Guzzler. Freddy the ex con. How a man can do such things to his body?”
— Mr. Zabrowski (08:21)
“That's the first time that's been said to me, anyway. Goes back to a vacant lot in Sedalia, Missouri... It's where they set up a carney and I did the hoochie coochie in front of a sideshow tent.”
— Nora Forrest (15:09)
“Yeah, I got real tired of Joey Croft. It happens to me. Don't you worry about it.”
— Letty Scott (23:05)“She bought herself a murderer.”
— Danny Clover (24:10)
Broadway’s Poetic Description:
“Broadway's My Beat from Times Square to Columbus Circle, the gaudiest, the most violent, the lonesomest mile in the world.”
— Narrator (00:26)
Letty’s Carnival Philosophy:
“I'm a girl who used to ride elephants. That makes me kind to all animals and nearly all people.”
— Letty Scott (05:06)
Mr. Zabrowski’s Strongman Lament:
“I was strong man once. Police fellow. Look at me. You could believe it.”
— Mr. Zabrowski (08:51)
Letty’s Ruthlessness Unveiled:
“Yeah, I got real tired of Joey Croft. It happens to me. Don't you worry about it.”
— Letty Scott (23:05)
Detective Clover on Broadway:
“It's the happy time on Broadway. It's after the movies. Nobody wants to go home. It's a place strung against the night like a phosphorescent alley...”
— Danny Clover (24:58)
This episode stands as a shining example of Golden Age radio drama, blending evocative narration with tense, character-driven storytelling. "The Joey Croft Murder Case" uses the backdrop of Broadway and the carnival world to explore themes of loneliness, betrayal, and manipulation. Listeners are taken on a moody journey through a noir tapestry where the city's glitter and grit intermingle, anchored by the melancholic wisdom of Detective Clover and the poetic rhythm of old New York.