Mystery Theater - The Oblong Box

The End Now all the stress is out. I have a new system, a new system, a new system, a new system, a new system, a new system, a new system.

But we are not moving anywhere, what a mistake. I heard that you are moving in the middle of the year. So, Vesa has a house in the house. Aha, okay, so it's a little bit of a new system.

So, you don't have anything. I don't care, it's at least in the same place. In the same place. Bealteamasta find out the most valuable valuable than the other one.

It was a question from your project or your project. I'm Shannon Maldonado. The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents... Come in.

Welcome. I'm E.G. Marshall. I invite you now to join your imagination with that of Edgar Allan Poe, so that together you can create a tale of intense horror,

to say nothing of mystery. You would have no better companion for such a joint venture, surely, because in all the world there has never been a more accomplished master of the macabre, the terrifying, the grisly.

Master, did I say? Correction. Genius. And proof of which, listen.

Come over. Let's go to our cabin and get a good night's rest for a change. I'm tired of walking this deck in the farm. Chill to the bone.

I don't want to go to our cabin, but... Well, there's no place else, I suppose. My dearest, you must get over your fear of that oblong box in Cornelius Wyatt's cabin. This wild fancy of yours that it's a coffin.

Well, whether it is or not, I don't like our cabin being directly across from Wyatt's, and I... What is it? There, at the rail. Wyatt and a woman.

And the woman is not his bride, Rachel. No, I can see that. But who is she then? Unless I'm mistaken, Will.

Unless I'm very mistaken. She's the woman. in the oblong box. Our mystery drama,

The Oblong Box, was adapted especially for the Mystery Theater from the Edgar Allan Poe Classic by George Lothar

and stars Richard Mulligan. It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and Sinoff, the sinus medicines.

I'll be back shortly with Act One. You're driving a car you knew you were going to buy the minute you saw it. Skyhawk. Buick Skyhawk. You just knew a car this streamlined would be easy on gas, and you were right.

In published EPA mileage test results, Skyhawk got 25 miles per gallon on the open road and 16 in the city. Skyhawk. It's rakish, it's low-slung, it looks European, but it's a Buick. Living free.

The Marine Corps doesn't offer jobs to women. They offer careers to women. For today's woman, the Marine Corps can be the career corps. Top pay, equal pay, equal opportunity, equal reward.

And you don't have to be one of the boys to get ahead. You can be yourself. A special kind of woman who wants more than a job. A woman who has more to offer.

Some people think we play ping pong all day. They're wrong. The USO isn't all fun and games. Today, the USO has millions of problems like this one in Germany.

My family's going crazy living in a tiny apartment. Where can we live? Today's USO has millions of problems like this one in Asia. I'm hooked on drugs.

Where can I get help? or this problem in Athens. Our marriage is breaking up. Can you help us?

Today's USO has little time for ping pong. We've got serious work to do. We've got lots of new problems here and overseas. The problems are big.

How big? Well, if someone asks you, who needs the USO? Tell them,

we do! We do! Over 5 million American military personnel and their families need today's USO.

And because we get no government funds, we need all your support. Please give to USO through the United Way or local USO campaign. I've brought you in the course of our association many a strange and terror-ridden tale, but, believe me, none that can surpass that which you're about to hear.

It begins aboard the sailing ship Independence in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, in June of 1897. William Hopkins, an attorney of some importance, and his wife, Elvira, are standing by the ship's rail near the gangplank,

watching the arrival of passengers with more than ordinary interest. Well, it's close on departure time. Are you sure Cornelius Wyatt and his bride will be aboard? Oh, it says so in the Charleston Herald yesterday,

and I checked the passenger list, which plainly states Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Wyatt, Cabin C and D. The cabin's directly across from ours.

But why two? One for Cornelius and his wife, and the other for, um, well, very likely they'll have a servant with him.

Oh, Cornelius has gone far since our college days together 20 years ago. He's a world-famous artist now. Do you think he'll remember you?

Oh, my dear Elvira, we were the closest of friends. I must admit, of course, that we didn't keep the friendship up through the years, but... Oh, yes, he'll remember me and well. And there, by heaven, there he comes.

Where? Where? The carriage had just come onto the dock. The man in it is wide, and the woman at his side must be his lovely new bride, Rachel. But what in the world is in that wagon behind him?

Will, it's the coffin. No, Elvira, no. Oh, that oblong box doesn't contain a corpse. It contains a priceless painting, a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper.

Done by a student, Rubini. It's priceless. How do you know all this? The newspapers.

There were several stories about Wyatt buying the painting and having a carefully box for the voyage to New York. Well, it certainly looks for all the world like a coffin to me. Ah, you must remember, dearest, the painting is six feet long and two feet wide

and requires a box of that size. Ah, ah, Wyatt and his brother coming up the gangplank. I can't wait to see his face when he discovers his old friend Will Hoppen's board. All right, mind that.

Handle that box with care, will you? You're heavy with care. I'm anxious to see the face of his bride. That's a pretty heavy veil, she's wearing.

She's beautiful, absolutely ravishing. I will admit her. You know her? No, but I know Cornelius White.

He could never stand an ugly woman, not even a plain one. Oh, no, nothing but the most beautiful of the female sex for good old wife. You fool's cat. I said.

Inconfident idiots. I'll speak to Captain Hardy about this.