Late Night Listening

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 767, 2 April 1954, Page 16

Late Night Listening

"THE traditional time for telling macabre or mysterious stories falls in the late hours of the night. Those who listen are supposed to crawl shivering to bed, not forgetting to take a frightened peep in the clothes closet first, Bodies dead or alive, or even half of each, are to be expected in every shadowy corner. Stranger perhaps than any of the possible nameless things under the bed is that a fair proportion of the human race likes to spice its nightmares in this way. networks in America and Australia ‘have found many of their most popular crime serials are those broadcast late at night. For thousands of people a late-night session by the radio has taken the place of "that ten minutes with a book in bed." With the extension of broadcasting hours, New Zealand listeners too are to have a stronger brew of bedtime stories. At 10.30 p.m. on weekdays all ZB stations are’to broadcast quarter or halfhour radio thrillers. The first two scheduled are an American series of selfcontained detective stories entitled Box> 13 and an Australian serial written by the crime writer A. E. Martin entitled Dark Destiny. Probably best-known for the magnificent torso he exhibits so extensively on the screen, Alan Ladd stars in Box

13 as Dan Holliday, a newspaperman with adventure as a sideline. In the classified columns of his paper he advertises: "Adventure wanted; will go anywhere and do anything, Reply Box 13." His first reply takes him to the home of a dowager millionairess, Matilda Courtland, who still lives in the 19th Century, while meddling occasionally in the affairs of the 20th. Holliday’s vow to "do anything" is severely tested when the imFferious old lady demands his hand in marriage. This, she says, would make him her heir and thwart the "gold-dig-ging’ plans of her mnephew’s fiancee Peggy Wright. The scheme goes awry in several respects, but then, the number of Holliday’s box must have some significance .. . Dark Destiny takes listeners to a small island on which are marooned six people: a millionaire, a penniless Negro, an Irish lad emigrating to Australia, a professional gambler, a handsome ex-war hero studying for the ministry, and Bull Davis, a former bos’n who aims to be king of the atoll. The unhealthy competition that develops between these men, especially after an attractive young woman makes her appearance, leads to some ‘dark. plotting, death and _ neardisaster. A. E. Martin, who wrote the

story, has been awarded prizes for stories contributed to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. The two late-night features will start from all ZB stations in the week begin-

ning April 5. Box 13 is scheduled for broadcast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Dark Destiny on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The starting time in all cases wil! be 10.30 p.m.