DIMENSION X - Embassy (Donald Allen Wollheim)

DIMENSION X
Embassy
June 3, 1950
This Radio Play is based on Donald Allen Wollheim's short story Embassy. It was originally published in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction, March 1942 under the pseudonym Martin Pearson. Wollheim used numerous pseudonyms for his short stories but published his novels under his given name, Donald A Wollheim; novels such as The Secret of the Ninth Planet published in 1959. He became a publisher and editor and promoted Science Fiction through The New York Science Fiction League and The Futurians, among others.
There is a Hall of Fame for Sci-Fi writers housed in the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle, Washington. In 2002 they inducted Wollheim and said of him, "For over 50 years, Donald Wollheim was one of the most important editorial influences on science fiction and fantasy literature."
Embassy was adapted into a radio play by George Lefferts, a Sci-Fi author in his own right and a respected writer/producer/director, across genres. His attention to detail and skillful storytelling bring Embassy to life. In the story a typical private detective of the era and his strong man assistant stumble unaware into a conflict that has planet-wide consequences. Can they figure it out in time or will they be, as Helen's friend in the play describes it, "squashed"?
HISTORICAL GLOSSARY
Broderick refers to Doolan several times as "Iron Man" in a jovial way, as though that is a nickname for him. An "Iron Man" was a man who lifted weights, which were stereotypically made of iron. So in this case calling him Iron Man is like calling him Muscle Man.
When Grafius tells Broderick "I came to New York to locate the Martian Embassy," Broderick replies, "Martian? Like in Buck Rogers?" Buck Rogers is fictional character who lived in a world 500 years in the future. The cartoonist Philip Francis Nowlan created him for a newspaper comic strip in January of 1929. The character caught on and like Bat Man and Super Man took on a life of his own and appeared in comic books, Television and movies. He traveled through outer space in a rocket ship, and no doubt met Martians, which is why Broderick makes reference to him when clarifying what Grafius is talking about by saying Martians.
Grafius offers to pay Dolan for his services by presenting a $500 bill which Dolan describes as a, "five-century note." Century denoting hundreds, and note referring to it being a paper bill. Today we don't have five hundred dollar bills in circulation. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve discontinued them in 1969.
Helen's friend responds to Doolan's flirtatious greeting of "Hiya, beautiful," by responding with, "Hiya, flatfoot." To have flat feet is a medical condition in which the arches of the feel collapse and the instep drops so it touches the ground with the rest of the foot when walking. Private detectives do a lot of walking when they do surveillance, or at least they did at that time, and thus may be prone to this condition, so "flatfoot" was a nickname for a private detective. When Doolan asks how she knew he was a detective she says, "Your socks are bagging at the arches," which pushes the double entendre by describing his feet being literally flat.
When Broderick is at the Martian Embassy door he mutters to himself, "If you've got two heads or 10 fingers, I'll drill you like a platoon of rookies." Drill is referring to shooting, and a platoon is a tactical unit in the military that one often thinks of as doing ground combat. If they are rookies, that is, new to their job, then they don't have the experience to take accurate shots and will just shoot repeatedly, and perhaps more than necessary, to get the target. So he is implying he will use excessive force against whomever killed Doolan.
The police officer refers to Broderick as a "lush" because he believes he is drunk. "Lush" is a term used for a person who is habitually drunk. It is not so insulting as other terms and does not necessarily denote an alcoholic.