Transcript
Grainger Representative (0:00)
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Paul Harvey (0:30)
Now the rest of the story. Once upon a nightmare, Nate and Ben sat in a federal courtroom in New York City and listened in stupefied silence as the judge handed down his verdict. Guilty, the judge declared. Both Nate and Ben were guilty, and the sentence a year and a day in the federal penitentiary. Both men would remember it always as the scariest moment of their lives. And yet, how innocently the disaster had come upon them. It had all started with Nate's wife, Grace. As a young girl, Grace had been rather seriously burned. Her left arm bore the scars, and to conceal the disfigurement, she wore long sleeved dresses and blouses. Her husband, Nate, had always wished that he could find just the right piece of jewelry, a wide and yet tasteful bracelet which might help Grace hide the scars and permit her to wear shorter sleeves. Then one day Nate called his best friend Ben. Guess what, Nate said. I found the bracelet for Grace. And then Nate told Ben how he had dinner with an acquaintance the night before, a fellow who had brought some jewelry back from overseas. And there was this one particularly wide diamond bracelet that Nate simply had to buy. So he wrote out a check on the spot for $1800. Sounded like a bargain, ben said, and Ben loved bargains. And then Ben asked if the fellow with the jewelry had anything less expensive to sell. Nate said there was a Lovely pin for $350. And even though they were talking on the telephone, Nate could almost feel Ben's eyes light up. And so Ben bought the brooch for his wife. Now everybody's happy. Until several months later when the process server showed up at the homes of Nate and Ben with subpoenas for them to appear in federal court on charges of smuggling. The man who had sold them the jewelry had not paid the proper duty when he had brought the jewelry into the country. And yes, that was smuggling. So Nate and Ben were in possession of smuggled property. Of course, they had not known it, but in this case, ignorance was no excuse. So here they are now, facing a considerable stretch in a federal penitentiary. Well, the first thing they did was hire the best criminal lawyer they could find. And the attorney advised them that their situation was serious. Probably there was no way to get them off, which meant only one thing. A plea bargain. They must plead guilty to a lesser charge and throw themselves on the mercy of the court. And that's just exactly what Nate and Ben did. They did plead guilty, and they were sentenced to one year plus in prison. And although the prison term was suspended, quote, during good behavior, the episode had proved otherwise costly. Tens of thousands of dollars in fines and attorneys fees. And worse yet, because of the unfavorable publicity, Nate lost the sponsor. Nate lost the sponsor for his radio show for Nathan Birnbaum and his wife Grace, you know by names, now legendary in show business, George Burns and Gracie Allen. And George Burns, best friend, his equally unwitting partner in crime, attracted by the prospect of a 350 good deal that wound up cost him more than 60,000. George's thrifty friend, Benjamin Kobelski, who also got a suspended prison sentence in the bargain, you know as Jack Benny. Only now you know the rest of the story.