DIMENSION X - Marionettes, Incorporated (Ray Bradbury)
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- DIMENSION X
Marionettes, Incorporated
August 30, 1951
The original short story, Marionettes, Incorporated, was written by Ray Bradbury and first published in the magazine Startling Stories, March 1949. It was adapted for Dimension X by author, playwright, scriptwriter, and story editor, George Lefferts and aired August 30, 1951. It also appeared on the radio show X Minus One, December 21, 1955. And later for the fourth season (1958) of the Television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents with the title Design for Loving.
Each adaptation of the original Ray Bradbury story made changes that affected the theme just a little. Lefferts, a brilliant Sci-Fi writer in his own right, leans into ethics just a bit in his adaptation of Bradbury's story and gives us a way to see even the antagonist as sympathetic.
The story paints a picture of a two men trapped in the 1950s heteronormative status quo who try to use illegal tech to solve their marital issues.
HISTORICAL GLOSSARY
Walter confides to Henry that shortly after his marriage to Gloria, because she was so bossy and he so meek, he became, "...the laughingstock of the neighborhood. Henpecked Braeling, they used to call me." A hen is a female chicken and chickens have a hierarchy when they live together in a flock. They fight and peck at each other to gain dominance. If a hen gains dominance over a rooster in the flock, then that rooster has been pecked by her and is "henpecked". In human terms, a man who is dominated and controlled by a woman is also called "henpecked." This is an insult both to the man who is said to be henpecked, and to the woman henpecking him. She is essentially being called a "hen" in this context, which (in the 1950s) was a term for an unattractive woman who had nothing to contribute to society but gossiping and getting in people's way. Today calling a woman a hen is not the insult it was in the 1950s.
Walter plans to go to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to, as he puts it, spend, "A whole month, Henry, to have a fling." Today if you have "a fling" it describes a sexual liaison that is temporary, a quick affair with no strings attached. But in the 1950s it meant to do something just for fun, on a whim, the only purpose or agenda being to enjoy yourself. "Goof-off" might be a good synonym for the word the way it is being used in the context of this radio play.
When Henry asks Walter for Mr. Zigg's contact information, and Walter hesitates, Henry says, "What do you say, old man? A favor to an old buddy? Fellow lodge member?" Lodges were popular men's clubs in the 1950s. They were usually loosely associated with a union, a charitable cause, or military association. For example, the Lion Club's mission was sight preservation, as in, raising money for those who need eye operations, organizing donation of glasses to the underprivileged, and assisting the blind to connect with resources. There were also the Elks Club, the Moose Club, The Knights of Columbus, Legionnaires, and many more, each of which had a distinct and specific mission. Though lodges were classified as "men's clubs" they included women as members and typically had a family focus. Lodges owned meeting halls for family events and were a social center in many people's lives in the 1950s.
There is concern in this story about the "boiler". B-2 says he was down in the basement "making sure the boiler hadn’t exploded" because "The pipes were knocking." And later Gloria asks Walter to check the boiler because, as she says, "He [B-2 as Walter] mentioned that the boiler was acting up, and I’m afraid to go down there again." A boiler is a heater that heats a liquid, either water or oil, until it becomes steam or oil vapor, then it circulates this gas through pipes so that the pipes heat whatever needs heating. That is how old radiators heated a room. The pressure of the vapor could also be used for energy and boilers were part of the technology that ran steam engines. A disadvantage of a boiler is that it could explode violently and destroy the house that was using it as a heater, or the ship that was using it to power an engine. Trains too exploded from boilers breaking. So if the boiler was making thumping and knocking noises Gloria's fear of it would be valid.
Gloria tells Henry that Walter went down to the "travel bureau" to get tickets for their Rio trip. And then later when he returns and she asks him if he got the tickets, B-2 acting as Walter, says, "Ah, right here in my wallet." In 1950 all airline tickets were paper tickets. You had to physically go somewhere and buy a plane ticket and then present that paper ticket at the airport in order to get on the plane. If you didn't want to go down to the airport and buy a ticket directly from the airline, you would go to a travel bureau, later called a travel agency, that sold tickets for all the various airlines. 
Развлечения
Excellent again, I2R. This was one of the 1st Dimension X rebroadcasts I listened to, in spellbound awe, on late-night AM radio as a child in the 70's. As always, the description, historical glossary & preamble elevate your channel to apex-level OTR. Thanks.
just now seeing this. I, likewise, recall radio rebroadcasts of many shows in the 70s. In the Los Angeles area, 93 KHJ - and yes - after midnight. Dimension X - x - x - x rings a bell, but not until I reheard these, would I have remembered. My siblings and I would borrow records from the library of old radio programs, but most of those were comedies, as I recall.
This was very clever. I enjoyed it immensely.
Agreed.
Fun !
(& the 1950s were an odd era of many wives even w/0 children
sitting home all day
while Mod(ern) Con(venience)s of home appliances + canned food (!!) had reduced the housekeeping workload... )
Oh, my! I know the trope, of course, but for some reason not this particular story. A couple of thrills: I caught the Nettie connection pretty early - woo hoo!; I'm fond of the fantasy moment that $10,000 was taken out of the bank for a $9,000 product . . . what would you do with $1,000 in 1951?: and I had wondered at B-2 . . . was the Braeling actor good enough to voice both roles? I was shocked/pleasantly surprised/enamoured when I saw that Ross Martin played the voice of B-2. I've always enjoyed Martin's acting, introduced to me as the side kick (can't remember the name) to James West in The Wild Wild West. I know next to nothing of Martin's history of acting, but in the Wild West shows, he was always mimicking character roles in the series: sea-salt captains, drunkin' fools, old ladies and such. So the light went on for me - here he is mimicking the voice and style of the hen-pecked Braeling. Brilliant.
Well, I wouldn't kick his performance out of bed for turning on the Resonator once in awhile (but just for, like, 30 seconds at a time).