
(102) Magic Island - Comparing Notes
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Narrator
The Magic island is a very real place to Mrs. Gregory and her little party of loyal friends. The finding of her daughter Joan on the island should have brought the story of the 14 year search to a happy ending. But such is far from true. Jerry and Joan, with Mrs. Gregory and the captain, found it comparatively easy to escape from the island. Now their position is much more difficult. 400ft below the surface of the water, 200ft below the spot where the artificial island is hidden in a volcanic crater. The mysterious city of Euclidia, a complete community capable of sustaining life indefinitely, holds our friends tightly in its grip and escape seems far away.
Mrs. Gregory
Come, Mother, we may as well return to our quarters.
Jerry
Sure, Mrs. Gregory, come on.
Joan
I hate to leave Tex without knowing just where he is.
Jerry
We couldn't help him any if we did know.
Joan
I suppose you're right, Jerry.
Mrs. Gregory
He is indeed, Mother.
Joan
Very well, Joan dear. I'll wait quietly for news of the Captain. But why return to our quarters? We may as well continue our inspection tour of this underwater city and learn all we can about it.
Mrs. Gregory
It is time for our lunch.
Joan
Oh, boy.
Jerry
Grub. Grub? Yeah, you know, grub, Chow, vittles, eats foods.
Mrs. Gregory
Jerry hall, if you would only say what you mean I did.
Jerry
You just don't understand English.
Mrs. Gregory
Do you understand it?
Jerry
Do I?
Joan
Please, Joan and Jerry, don't start another of your arguments now.
Jerry
Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Gregory. Come on, let's go to lunch.
Joan
I don't feel that I care for anything.
Jerry
Oh, sure you do. You've got to eat something whether you feel like it or not.
Mrs. Gregory
Yes, Mother. It is foolish to deprive yourself of the nourishment your body needs merely to give your mental depression full sway. Hey, listen, it is indeed time for our lunch and we must hurry to eat it as we will be given only a limited time.
Joan
Very well. Joan. Are you sure which way we go?
Jerry
Oh, that's easy. We take that elevator right over there. One nice thing about this underwater city, they don't hide things as much as they did up in the island.
Mrs. Gregory
That is true, Jerry. We will be able to find our quarters at any time.
Joan
It's very obvious that the Euclideans don't feel it necessary to take any further precautions against our escaping. They know we can't escape.
Jerry
Oh, gee, Mrs. Gregory, quit acting so down and out. We're not licked yet.
Joan
Perhaps you don't realize when you're licked, Jerry, that I feel rather thoroughly beaten.
Mrs. Gregory
We are in no danger, Mother, and we have unlimited time in which to plan. There is still hope.
Jerry
Sure there is. Here's the elevator. I know it's the right one because the girl submarine commander showed it to me.
Mrs. Gregory
We must go quickly or the luncheon will be removed.
Jerry
Yeah, we have to eat just when these fellows want you to, or they take it away from you. Now, hang on tight, Mrs. Gregory. The commander said this elevator was mighty fast.
Joan
If she thought it fast enough to warrant her warning, it would probably be terrifying.
Mrs. Gregory
There are a number of handles which we may grip with our hands.
Jerry
Yeah, and those handles look pretty shiny, like somebody's been hanging on plenty. Well, get set. Here we go.
Mrs. Gregory
Can you operate this, Jerry?
Jerry
Well, I can try. Well, I guess I can run it all right.
Joan
At least we've been shot upwards some distance in almost no time.
Mrs. Gregory
I think this will be where we leave the elevator.
Jerry
I know blame well. It's where I leave it. That was too fast for me.
Mrs. Gregory
We are on the proper level. The section containing our quarters is just ahead.
Joan
You're a good guesser, Jerry.
Jerry
I must be. I sure didn't feel any too sure when that elevator would land us.
Mrs. Gregory
Though we are now walking on the noiseless steel, the corridor outside our quarters is noiseless. I think we are correct.
Joan
Yes, that should be the door right over there.
Jerry
Hey, wait a minute. Sounds like another elevator coming.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Well, well, well.
Joan
Oh, Tex, I'm so glad to see you.
Jerry
Did you come up in one of those rocket elevators?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
I sure did. And when those things take you places, you really get there.
Joan
Where have you been?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Talking to G47. I'll tell you all about his weed. That lunch signal gives only so much time. Isn't that right, Joan?
Mrs. Gregory
That is correct, Captain. We will have only a few hundred seconds in which to enjoy our luncheon.
Jerry
Well, maybe we can eat it in a few hundred seconds, but we sure can't enjoy it much.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
This is our door, isn't it?
Joan
I think so.
Jerry
We're home.
Joan
Home. Oh, Jerry.
Jerry
Oh, I'm sorry.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
What's the matter?
Mrs. Gregory
Mother has been very depressed and Jerry and I have had no success in attempting to Improve her frame of mind.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Oh, forget it, Pat. Now, let's see what these Euclidean wizards have brought us for lunch.
Joan
Oh, boy.
Jerry
Fresh cantaloupe. Well, go ahead, Joan.
Mrs. Gregory
Go ahead.
Jerry
Oh, make your wires crack. Dig up some fancy name that none of us ever heard of for cantaloupe.
Mrs. Gregory
It is not necessary to correct you at this time. Cantaloupe is the proper designation for this form of muskmelon, Though your pronunciation of the name leaves something to be desired.
Jerry
Okay, what is it?
Mrs. Gregory
Cantaloupe. The name being derived from the castle in Europe where this melon was first grown. Cantaloupe.
Jerry
Well, cantaloupe. Cantaloupe. It's swell.
Joan
Indeed it is, Jerry. Ice cold and perfectly ripened.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
I have to hand it to these Euclidean gardeners. They make food taste better than we can. They grow it under artificial light.
Joan
Are you sure this melon was grown here, Tex?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Positive. G47 told me that everything eaten in Euclidea was of their own production.
Jerry
It sure couldn't be any better if it had grown under real sunlight.
Mrs. Gregory
I think you are all making a mistake when you refer to the sunlight of this underwater city as artificial.
Joan
How can we be mistaken, Joan? We're under the ocean. This light doesn't come down through the water. We know it's manufactured here. Therefore it's artificial. Surely there's no argument as to that.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Afraid not, Joan. It just isn't sunlight. Not real sunlight.
Jerry
It does the work all right, though.
Mrs. Gregory
Precisely. It performs all the functions of sunlight. Therefore, it is sunlight. The Euclidean light covers a far larger spectrum than sunlight, particularly in the ultraviolet wavelengths. And when properly controlled by quartz filters, the amount of health giving ultraviolet light may be accurately regulated and not depend on the season of the year, the altitude, condition of the atmosphere, relation of the sun to the zenith, and countless other factors which prevent people in your world receiving a constant amount of the beneficial shorter waves.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
All right, Joan, I give up. These Euclideans certainly look healthy enough, even if they do live under the sea. And if they can do everything with artificial light that we can do with the sun, there's plenty of room for argument over the use of the word artificial.
Joan
There's nothing artificial about this salad either. The celery is so crisp, it sounds like a windstorm when I bite it.
Jerry
No, I haven't heard it bite harder.
Joan
Oh, I think I'm making enough noise, Jerry.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Now, that's better, Pat, that laugh did you good.
Mrs. Gregory
Indeed it did, Mother. You must not allow yourself to become so sad and worried.
Joan
I'll try to Remember that, Joan. After all, we're all in the same predicament. And if the rest of you can be cheerful about it, there's no reason why I shouldn't.
Jerry
Now you're talking. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I don't see how anybody could be anything but cheerful with a meal like this in front of them.
Mrs. Gregory
I would say there was but little of the meal left in front of us at this time.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
That's right, Joan. We've certainly eaten. As if we never expected to get another meal.
Jerry
Looks like we didn't eat this one any too fast.
Joan
Why, the table is sinking through the floor.
Mrs. Gregory
It is indeed. We were late in arriving for our lunch.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
So that's where all this food comes from. I thought of noiseless servants just jumping in and out with huge trays while we weren't watching.
Jerry
This thing works just like a dumbwaiter.
Joan
It seems to. I suppose there is a passageway below this section where food is delivered to the living quarters from the kitchen.
Jerry
Well, I'll bet you're right. But I'll miss my guess. If they call them anything as common
Mrs. Gregory
as kitchens here, you may be sure they do not. On Euclidea, the chambers where the food is prepared are referred to as the dietary laboratories.
Jerry
Uh huh. I knew it.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
These scientists just can't resist dressing everything up in technical terms, can they?
Joan
They do seem to lean that way. But if all our meals are as appetizing as that one was, I'm not at all interested in what they call their kitchens.
Jerry
Me too. I mean, me neither. Oh, no, neither am I. Oh, something.
Mrs. Gregory
Oh, that floor section nearly caught my foot.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
I was watching for it. I knew they wouldn't leave a hole where that table went down. Well, now that we've had our lunch in 200 seconds, or whatever it was. Now let's talk about what we've accomplished so far.
Jerry
Well, we know that the volcano eruption that the scientists put on scared away that fleet of ships. Johnson has come down here to try and rescue us.
Joan
And we know that with them went our last hope of rescue.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
No doubt of that. We'll never be allowed to reach any means of communication here. But there's always the chance of escape.
Mrs. Gregory
I agree with you, Captain. Escape from this city below the sea would seem difficult and may prove an impossibility. But until that is proven, I feel that we should hope and continue to learn all we may about the city.
Jerry
Good girl, John.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
That's the spirit. And Pat, I want you to get in line with the rest of us. We'll get out of this place. If it takes a year or 10 years.
Joan
I'll do my part, Tex. And for myself, I'm not so greatly worried. I've spent over 14 years looking for Joan. And now that I've found her, I can be fairly content anywhere with her and with Utex. But it's Jerry I'm so worried about.
Jerry
Well, gee, I'm all right. Why worry about me? I'm a swell time here, and I can stand anything. The rest of you can wait.
Joan
Isn't that Jerry? Your father will be terribly distressed over your absence. If only we could get word to him that we're alive and well. The poor man must be nearly out of his mind.
Jerry
Yeah, I guess it is sort of rough on dad.
Mrs. Gregory
We will advise your father the instant we are allowed to operate any means of communication.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
We sure will. Now, in the meantime, let's plan and keep thinking.
Joan
Did you learn anything of value to us in talking to G47?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Plenty. But I haven't figured out how we can use it.
Jerry
What was that, Captain?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Well, the one thing I was most worried about as far as our escape is concerned, was the fact that the island is submerged and is going to stay that way for an indefinite period. At least a few months. Until the world has forgotten us completely and given us up for lost. I thought all the submarines, planes, radios and everything we might use for an escape were in the island. But they're not.
Joan
They're not?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
They're not.
Mrs. Gregory
Oh, that is splendid, Captain Bradford. There are means to escape from this city where we may have access to them.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
The means are here. Though our having access to them may be something else.
Jerry
I'll bet it will be. Don't forget, we stole one of their submarines the last time we escaped. And when they got it back after Joan blew it up with those bombs in the Catalina Channel, well, it wasn't anything but a bunch of junk.
Joan
And G47 will be very bitter over the loss of his submarines. Naturally.
Mrs. Gregory
They're expensive beyond belief and difficult to construct.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
I thought of all those reasons for the old boy to be mad at us. And he surprised me plenty when he thanked me for sporting.
Jerry
He did what?
Joan
G47 thanked you for almost destroying that beautiful boat?
Captain Bradford (Tex)
He did, and he meant it.
Mrs. Gregory
But I do not understand that, Captain Bradford. G47 cared more for those submarines than anything on Euclidea.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Right, and that's why he was grateful to us. We showed him that his idol had feet of clay. The submarines weren't as perfect as he thought, or we wouldn't have been able to render that one helpless so easily. He thinks we've done him a big favor in showing up the weakness in that boat. And he's asked me to help him design another, eliminating the faults we found in that one.
Joan
Tex, it's. It's almost unbelievable. G47 has asked you to help him on a new submarine.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
He has?
Jerry
Oh, boy. There's your chance to begin to plan for our escape.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
And more than that, I'm to be allowed to see the rocket ships.
Joan
They actually have rocket ships?
Mrs. Gregory
I told you of the rocket propelled airships.
Captain Bradford (Tex)
Better than that, Joan. They have rocket ships built like submarines which will operate under the water, on the water, or in the air. And those rocket ships are somewhere in this underwater city. Somewhere that we'll finally locate. And when we do, when we do,
Jerry
we'll know how to escape from.
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Date: June 14, 2026
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio
Featured Program: "Magic Island"
This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio revisits the Golden Age radio serial "Magic Island", focusing on an installment where the main characters regroup to compare notes about their predicament in the mysterious underwater city of Euclidia. In this chapter, Mrs. Gregory, Joan, Jerry, and Captain Bradford (Tex) reflect on their situation, discuss their hopes for escape, and share an unusual lunch in their futuristic surroundings—all while grasping for optimism and clues that might help them return to the surface.
The tone blends 1930s sci-fi wonder (with detailed, earnest discussion of advanced concepts) and warm, playful family banter. Characters exchange light-hearted quips (especially Jerry), philosophical musings (from Mrs. Gregory), and pragmatic optimism in the face of dire odds (from Tex).
This “Magic Island” episode serves as both a regrouping chapter and a showcase of early sci-fi radio’s blend of suspense, technical imagination, and heartfelt character dynamics. The group remains trapped, but new hope is sparked by Tex’s unexpectedly cordial conversation with G47 and revelations of advanced technology that might someday set them free.