310302 - Nine Spot

Recording Status:  Recorded, not circulating

Great Northern Railway employee Mark C. Haywood (1888-1973) of St. Paul wrote this night’s story, titled “Nine Spot.” Haywood worked in the GN’s office of the Auditor of Freight Receipts. He was a Corporal in the U.S Army during World War I.

This was not the first story of Haywood’s utilized on Empire Builders. He also wrote the story of the circus train , which aired on May 19, 1930. I’m not aware of the circumstances behind the earlier story. He may have simply approached Harold Sims with his story idea, and it was accepted for use on the radio program. In the case of “Nine Spot,” however, Haywood entered his script and won the GN’s radio story contest, besting other colleagues in the employ of the railroad. The other two winners of that contest, taking second and third place, respectively were: Jesse T. Caffyn, of Great Falls, Montana; and Gordon Sliter, of St. John, North Dakota. Caffyn’s story was called “Gentleman of the Prairie,” while Sliter’s submission was titled “The Big Hole.” As with the renditions of GN’s story contest proffered through the selected radio stations involved, the prizes for this contest were in the amounts of $250, $150, and $100.

 

A newspaper synopsis for this broadcast appeared in the March 2, 1931, Seattle Times:

EMPIRE BUILDER PROMISES REAL RAIL THRILLER

“Nine Spot,” Singing Lumberjack to Be Featured With “Old Timer”

 A thriller is promised on the Empire Builders’ broadcast tonight when the Old Timer tells a story involving a “peanut” telegraph line, a payroll robbery and a No. 9 “Bohemian Girl” opera company over KOMO at 7:30 o'clock. The title role, “Nine Spot,” the singing lumberjack, is taken by the popular juvenile lead of Empire Builders, and the Old Timer, who tells the story, himself has an active part in the drama.

A slightly different report on the broadcast appeared the same day in the Helena (MT) Daily Independent:

EMPIRE BUILDERS TO PRESENT A
NORTHERN IDAHO PLAY TONIGHT

A "peanut" telegraph line, a payroll robbery and a "Bohemian Girl" opera company are all involved in a thrilling story of northern Idaho which the Old Timer relates to the cowboy guides at Glacier Park, on the Empire Builders radio program this evening starting at 8:30, Mountain Standard Time.

 

The title role, "Nine Spot," singing lumber-jack, is taken by Don Ameche, popular juvenile lead of Empire Builders. The star of the "Bohemian Girl" company is played by Lucille Husting. The Old Timer, who tells the story, also has an active part in the drama. Incidental music was arranged by Josef Koestner, conductor of the Great Northern orchestra.

 

 

 

 

The story was the prize-winning manuscript in a radio story contest conducted for Great Northern railway employees last summer. It was written by Mark Haywood of St. Paul.

The radio program opened with the usual and highly realistic sound effects of a train, then transitioned into music by the orchestra (led by Josef Koestner). Ted Pearson read some advertising copy supplied, no doubt, by the GN’s Advertising and Publicity Department. As Pearson reminded listeners about the Great Northern’s advantages to freight shippers, he also extoled the virtues of the railroad’s premier passenger train, the Empire Builder. What he did not mention, as he often had in the past, was the GN’s other marquee train, the Oriental Limited. This particular train would be retired by the end of the month, its service replaced and reduced by the generically-named “Fast Mail.” The Great Northern Railway was one of a number of railroads in the country with a USPS contract to move the mail, so its Fast Mail train was a steadfast staple in the company’s contingent of trains.

It was the dead of winter in Glacier National Park. The air was cold and the snow was deep. The Old Timer called on a group of dude wranglers who were staying warm and dry in their shack, playing cards near a well-fed wood stove. As the cowboys continued their game of “Smear,” a radio was entertaining them with the sounds of an opera, “The Bohemian Girl.” The shack’s assemblage and atmosphere that night was an odd and eclectic mix of rough and earthy cowhands and the more cultured sounds of the opera, with the wizened Old Timer adding his own eccentricities to the brew.

Evidently, the game of Smear is similar to Pinochle, where the ace is high and players can drop costly cards on their opponents who are taking tricks. As the Old Timer watched the boys play cards, one of them was asked “What have you got for low?” The answer was “nine spot.” That referred to one of the four nine’s in the deck.

The response to this was “I’ve got a seven spot and it’s three in the ring for you.” At this, the Old Timer launched into another of his ubiquitous yarns:

OLD TIMER:        Well dog my cats, playing the nine spot for low in a four handed game (Chuckles) – it can’t be done. Reminds me of a story about a young fellow who was rated about the same as a nine spot – he was too high for low and too low for high.

The Old Timer went on with his story, describing this “Nine Spot” fellow as something of an enigma – likable, but a “quiet sort o’ feller [who] never talked much about himself.” He was “kinda ‘Mr. Nobody’ from ‘Nowhere,’” but he was also “quite a singer.”

It was out Idaho way where this story took place, and a travelling opera company was just concluding its finale before packing up to relocate to their next venue. Nine Spot was working in a lumber camp at that time.

 

The Old Timer explained how he had just dropped into “Mother Cassidy’s restaurant” and he found some of the lumberjacks there singing a spirited rendition of “She’ll Be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain.” It seems the lumberjacks were well-toasted with beer or booze, and Mother Cassidy was getting a little tired of their rowdy excesses. She shooed them out.

As the glowing lumberjacks receded into the night, Nine Spot and a friend of his named Jack Fisher arrived. Fisher asked to make use of the piano, and Mother Cassidy was only too glad for them to make music – provided none of the drunks were lured back in.

Jack explained that he had heard a tune the night before, coming from the opera house, and being that he could play tunes by ear, he wanted to have Nine Spot sing it while he played. Nine Spot recognized the tune immediately, and assured Jack he could sing along.

Jack played the song, and Nine Spot launched into his best operatic rendition of “The Heart Bowed Down” from “The Bohemian Girl.”

When the song ended, Nine Spot revealed that he was quitting his job and going to Portland. And they were particularly surprised when they learned why. He was going back to see his little boy. This reclusive fellow had never told anyone in town about his boy, or much of anything else about himself it seems.

Mother Cassidy asked if the boy’s mother was in Portland. Nine Spot said no, she wasn’t there. He hesitated, then elected not to say more.

Jack mentioned that he was driving out to the lumber camp that night, and offered Nine Spot a ride, if he needed to get his things.

In the meantime, the Old Timer got a few dinner scraps from Mother Cassidy to take to his hound dog, January, who was tied up to a large trunk in the railroad depot’s baggage room.

The story switched to the opera troupe performing, and closing the show with a grand finale. A telegram arrived just then for Helen Newton, the opera’s diva. It was bad news (and many an unexpected telegram was). It had to do with her young boy, back in Portland. (Hmmmmmmm…) Helen frantically announced her son was struck by a car, and she had to leave the opera company immediately and rush back to Portland. A friend of hers in the opera troupe, a woman named Sadie, offered to help Helen pack a few things. Then she asked Helen, “Say, Helen – excuse me for buttin’ in on your business, but where’s the old man? Your husband – is he dead?”

Helen explained that she and her husband, Bob, had separated about a year ago. He wasn’t such a bad chap, Helen said, he just couldn’t settle down. She also explained that the two of them had been together in an opera company back east, one that featured him as Thaddeus and her as Arline in “The Bohemian Girl.”

The radio play wound back again to the Old Timer, who resumed his narration of the story to the dude wranglers in their cabin at Glacier Park. He explained how he left Mother Cassidy’s and strolled over to the depot, where he looked in on his dog and spent the evening swapping stories with Hank, the night operator.

Hank told the Old Timer about his son, Dick, who was up at the lumber camp working as an errand boy.  Dick and Nine Spot were pals, and they shared a bunkhouse about a mile from the lumber camp. Hank explained that Dick had hooked up an abandoned telegraph wire that he and his father could use to communicate with between the camp and the depot. This set-up was what the Old Timer described as a “peanut telegraph” line, just a simple arrangement generally designed for limited or personal use. Hank was nervous that company officials might not look favorably on the peanut telegraph, so he hid the wires and equipment in a closet in the depot.

As Hank and the Old Timer continued visiting, the telegraph sounder began to click. Hank explained that it was his son Dick. Hank informed his son that the camp payroll would be arriving soon by train, and it would be delivered to the camp the next day.

The Old Timer then told the cowboys about how a distraught young woman came into the depot while he and Hank were visiting, and asked about the train to Spokane. She broke down sobbing when she learned it had already gone through town. She was desperate to reach Spokane in time to catch the Portland section of the Empire Builder.

As it happened, the Old Timer knew a doctor from Spokane who was driving back that night. He offered to go catch the doctor before he departed and arrange for the young lady to ride back to Spokane. When the Old Timer returned to the depot with the doctor, the gal was gone. More than that, things were clearly amiss. The window of the depot office was broken, and the door was locked. Hank did not respond when the Old Timer called out for him. The Old Timer and the doctor soon found Hank, trussed up and gagged, and knocked out cold. The lumber camp’s payroll was gone! The depot’s telegraph equipment was all smashed, and all the phone lines in the depot were cut, so the Old Timer was unable to call the sheriff.

The Old Timer explained to the cowboys that he realized the thieves wouldn’t try to go to Spokane, but instead would likely head north to the Canadian border. Well, it just so happened that the road to the border ran right past the lumber camp – the same camp where Hank’s boy Dick was located. The peanut telegraph that Hank hid in the depot’s closet was unnoticed and therefore untouched by the thieves.

The Old Timer and the doctor tended to Hank, and when he came to, Hank reckoned there might still be time to send out an alarm to the lumber camp and head off the thieves.

Hank was helped over to the peanut telegraph, where he tapped out an urgent summons to his boy, Dick. Hank tapped out the message that Dick should inform Nine Spot of the situation, and get the lumberjacks to go after the bandits. At this point, Hank passed out again. When Dick hammered out his reply on the telegraph, neither the doc nor the Old Timer could decipher what was being said – not until early the next morning.

Nine Spot, with young Dick tailing along with a lantern, grabbed a revolver and an axe, and charged out after the crooks.

Out on the road to the border, Nine Spot laid up in ambush. He instructed Dick to race back to camp and blow the fire siren, to tell the other men that crooks had the payroll, and to bring their guns. He told Dick he would chop down a tree across the road to stop the thieves, but that the lumberjacks should race back in a car of their own – and that if any car tried to pass them, they were to “shoot it full of holes!” As Dick took the lantern and started back to camp, he and Nine Spot noticed lights approaching in the distance – the crooks were already coming up over the hill and nearing their position. Nine Spot urged Dick to make quick time, while he stayed back to try to stop the crooks on his own.

Nine Spot got the tree down across the road, and then he heard the fire siren off in the distance. With an up swell of heart-pounding music, the bandits pulled up to the tree blocking the road and got out. Great agitated bickering ensued among the bandits as they grumped and grumbled about having to move the tree out of their way. One of their comrades in crime was lagging behind in the car. There were cries of protest from a female voice, and a bandit shouted “hey Spike, get out of that back seat and give us a hand - that dame there ain’t gonna miss you none.”

Just then, Nine Spot stepped out of the shadows and shouted for them all to get their hands up. In the darkness and the confusion, one of the crooks got the drop on Nine Spot and knocked him out. Then another of the lowlifes said they should kill him on the spot. A woman’s voice broke into the conversation and pleaded with the crooks to leave the lumberjack be: “it’s cold-blooded murder, oh give him a chance – you can’t do this!” The girl kept pleading for the lumberjack’s life, and a struggle ensued between the girl and the bandits. Just then, one of the bad guys saw a light coming down the road. With this fortuitous turn of events as a diversion, Nine Spot was able to whisper to the girl that he was only stunned – and she should take his gun.

The courageous gal drew down on the bandits and told them stay put, or she’d shoot the first one who turned around. Nine Spot took her hand and made it up to his knees. He took his gun back, and warned the crooks not to try anything. Well, they were a peppery bunch, and Nine Spot had to drill one of them to establish his position – and to garner a tad more intimidation, if not respect. Fortunately, this was all the delay needed to allow the lumberjacks to arrive and control the bandits.

A long musical bridge gave listeners the idea of time passing. The next scene found Helen and Bob (“Nine Spot”) reunited, and exclaiming their mutual joy about their son’s recovery. Helen said, “say, where’s Buddy?” Bob told her their son was over at the shack, talking telegraphy with Dick (establishing that the happy little family was settled back at the lumber camp together). Bob wondered what was on the radio. He turned it on, and they heard a familiar tune:
HELEN:                 Bob – Bob, listen… “The Bohemian Girl” – and our song.

The radio orchestra came in with the strains of “Then You’ll Remember Me,” and presumably Helen and Bob joined in and sang the song, karaoke style.

 

Ted Pearson came back to the microphone and closed the program.

 

ANNOUNCER:    It’s only a matter of some three short months now until vacation time is here. Have you planned yours yet? Why not begin to think of a vacation this summer in Glacier National Park? A vacation crammed full of adventure, in the mountain country the Old Timer has told you so much about. Think of seeing – meeting personally – genuine Indians: Chief Two Guns White Calf, and his Blackfeet braves; cowboy guides; and last but not least, the Old Timer himself. Think of riding the trail with a happy party to some tiny mountain-bordered lake, where fighting trout live in a fisherman’s paradise. Think of climbing real age-old glaciers in company with a guide who has scaled the Matterhorn. Think of campfires at night, high up under the stars. Think of mountains and lakes, and rushing brooks, of the keen winds singing through the pines, and the scent of coffee and bacon at pink dawn. Isn’t that a vacation to dream of? Ask your local ticket agent for particulars of Glacier Park vacations. Either separate trips or with the Old Timer on his all-expense, personally conducted vacation. Learn how inexpensively you can go to Glacier Park for this year’s vacation – a trip that you’ll remember the rest of your life.

 

That’s where the recording cuts out. There was a time-check beep several seconds before Ted Pearson wrapped up his comments, so it seems they ran just over their allotted time on this broadcast.

 Until next time, keep those dials tune to Empire Builders!