CBS Mystery Theater Opens 4th Year with Seven O.Henry Short Stories (1979)

December 20, 1976

“CBS MYSTERY THEATER” TO OPEN FOURTH YEAR

JAN. 10 WITH SEVEN O. HENRY SHORT STORIES

Robert Dryden To Star as Author

The CBS MYSTERY THEATER, which began its second year with seven consecutive adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories and its third year with seven from the pen of Mark Twain, will open its fourth year, Monday, Jan. 10, with seven from one of America’s -- and the world’s -- best short story tellers, O. Henry.

Chosen by producer-director Himan Brown from the over 300 O. Henry wrote, the seven stories reflect the experiences the author encountered while living in Texas when the west was the Wild West and during his brief stay in New Orleans, his year-and-a-half in Honduras, his three years in an Ohio penitentiary and his eight years in New York City, which he christened Begdad-on-the-Subway. In their order of broadcast the seven are: “Two Renegades,” “The Passing of Black Eagle,” “Tobin’s Palm,” “Don’t Die Without Me” (originally “The Furnished Room”), “A Departmental Case,” “Cherchez La Femme” and “Jimmy Valentine’s Guilt” (originally “A Retrieved Reformation”).

Veteran radio actor Robert Dryden, who has either starred or been featured in many previous MYSTERY THEATER productions, will take the role of O. Henry in all as Fred Gwynne, Joe Silver, Larry Haines, Paul Tripp, Marian Seldes, Russell Horton, Leon Janney, Bryna Raeburn, Paul Hecht and Jack Grimes. Sam Dann, a writer for MYSTERY THEATER since its inception in 1974, adapted all seven for radio dramatization.


Playdates and synopses of each follow:

Monday, January 10

(Time) -- WXXX, CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, “Two Renegades,” starring Robert Dryden and Ralph Bell, with E.G Marshall, host. O. Henry’s classic short story about a Yankee con man in Panama who, in order to save his neck, takes the oath of the Confederacy.

Bernard O’Keefe, one of the U.S.’s most expert confidence men, is himself conned into leading an army of peasants against Panama’s tyrannical General Pomposo. But it’s an army of deserters and when the charge begins O’Keefe finds himself alone. He is taken prisoner and given three weeks to live. Only a Dr. Milliken can save him, but he is an unreconstructed rebel and O’Keefe must take the oath of the Confederacy before the doctor will lift a finger in his behalf.

CAST:
O. Henry ….....................ROBERT DRYDEN                   Doc Milliken...................Leon Janney
Bernard O’Keefe.....................RALPH BELL                     Rosalia........................Byrna Raeburn
                                                              El Tigre...............Ian Martin

ADAPTED BY: Sam Dann                                 *     *     *


Tuesday, January 11
(Time) -- WXXX, CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, “The Passing of Black Eagle,”starring Robert Dryden and Larry Haines with E.G. Marshall, host. O. Henry’s short story about how a New York City hobo who, through a series of unbelievable circumstances, becomes the most feared outlaw in all of Taxes.

New York City’s foremost panhandler whom everyone calls Chicken, because he looks like one, is a meek fellow when drunk, but when sober has delusions of grandeur. Forced to sober up while wintering in the sunny southwest, Chicken is mistaken by people in Texas for the legendary outlaw, Black Eagle, and is feared by everyone -- until the leader of a band of outlaws decides to challenge him.

CAST:
O. Henry.......................ROBERT DRYDEN               Barkeeper..........................Earl Hammond
Chicken..........................LARRY HAINES                   Faith-Hope Alabaster............Evie Juster

ADAPTED BY: Sam Dann     

Friday, January 14

(Time) -- WXXX, CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, “A Departmental Case,” starring Robert Dryden and Joe Silver, with E.G Marshall, host. O.Henry’s story about a 65-year-old-ex-gunfighter  who challenges a much younger desperado who is allegedly beating his wife.

O. Henry, living in New York, travels to Austin, Tex., to get the full story of why Luke Standifer, 65, now working as Texas’s Commissioner of Insurance, Statistics and History, challenged and shot to death a notorious desperado, one Benton Sharp. Standifer claims he did it because Sharp had been mistreating his wife, the daughter of a Texas hero. But O. Henry soon discovers the story is much more complicated than that.

CAST:
O. Henry...............ROBERT DRYDEN                             Benton Sharp..........Earl Hammond
Luke Standifer.............JOE SILVER                                 Coralee Sharp..........Carol Teitel
ADAPTED BY: Sam Dann

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Saturday, January 15

(Time) -- WXXX, CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, “Cherchez La Femme,” starring Robert Dryden and Bryna Raeburn, with E.G. Marshall, host. O. Henry is persuaded by a New Orleans cafe owner to help retrieve the $25,000 she entrusted to one of her customers.

Madame Ottilie Tibault, owner of a prosperous little cafe in the French Quarter of New Orleans, gives the $25,000 she has been keeping under he mattress to Gaspard Morin, one of her customers, for “investment.” But, before he can tell her what he has invested in, Morin dies O. Henry agrees to help Madame Tibault find out what happened to the money. His most promising clue is the name of a woman Morin uttered just before he died: “Miss Liberty.”

CAST:
O. Henry............ROBERT DRYDEN             Gaspard Morin...........Ian Martin
Madame Tibault......BRYNA RAEBURN         Gumbo Charley..........Bill Griffis
ADAPTED BY: SAM DANN  

Sunday, January 16

(Time) -- WXXX, CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER, “Jimmy Valentine’s Guilt,” starring Robert Dryden and Paul Hecht, with E.G. Marshall, host. O. Henry’s classic story about the reformation of America’s most famous safecracker, Jimmy Valentine.

Jimmy Valentine, whom O. Henry met while both were serving time in an Ohio penitentiary, is released and returns immediately to his chosen profession -- safecracking. Pursued by the feds, he lands in the small town of Elmore, Ark., and prepares to rob its only bank. But when he meets the bank president’s daughter, Annabelle, Jimmy decides to go straight. He opens a shoe store and becomes engaged to Annabelle, hoping, mistakenly, the feds will never find him.

CAST:
O. Henry.................ROBERT DRYDEN                 Mike.........................Court Benson
Jimmy Valentine............PAUL HECHT                    Ben Price..................Ken Harvey
                                               Annabelle Adams...............Catherine Byers
ADAPTED BY: Sam Dann

(Editor: Please consult the CBS Radio Network station in your area for time of broadcast.)

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