[FONT="]([/FONT][FONT="]I EM DANGER/AMEN DIRGE/[/FONT][FONT="]*RED[/FONT][FONT="] ENIGMA*[/FONT][FONT="]/ARM GEED IN/MEAN DIRGE[/FONT][FONT="]) [/FONT]
Friday, November 15, 1957 7:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time) Beaver:“Gee whiz Wally! Why can’t I go with you guys to Inspiration Point? It’s gonna be real dark ‘cause there’s no moon tonight. I could bring my telescope and I could point out all the stars to you guys that I have written down here in my notebook. C’mon! [FONT="]”
[/FONT] Wally:“ No way Beaver! There is no way that we are bringing you up there! It’s gonna only be me, Eddie, Donna, and Wendy. You would be the fifth wheel. You ain’t goin’ with us![FONT="]”
[/FONT] Beaver:“Aww c’mon guys! If I was old ‘nuf to drive I’d sure as heck bring you along. You bet I would. Maybe with this telescope I can discover some more planets.”
Eddie:“[FONT="]You’re all wet Beaver. There’s no way that your gonna get in that car with the four of us! Why don’cha go take that telescope of yours and go try to discover….ha, ha, some more friends...”Theodore” . [/FONT][FONT="]” [/FONT][FONT="][Happy-go-lucky melody plays on in the background as Theodore “the Beaver” Cleaver, tries to figure a way to hide in the car without anyone noticing him.][/FONT] [FONT="]
[/FONT]Donna Sue:“Wow Wally! It sure was swell of your Dad to let us use the car to go up and [giggle] ‘park’ .”
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[/FONT]Wally: “Aww shucks Donna Sue, my Dad always lets me use the car anytime I want. He knows that I am a sober conscientious motorist. I always keep both of my hands on the steering wheel at all times. Yes, indeedy, I am a defensive driver, I certainly am.”
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[/FONT]Donna Sue:“Well, Wally, do you keep both of your hands on the steering wheel when you go and…’park’ too?”
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[/FONT]Eddie: “The jokes on you Donna Sue. Wally’s never parked before. He always watched other people park. He’s too clumsy and a bit unsure of himself when it comes to parking. Isn’t that right Wally?”
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[/FONT]Wally: “Shut up Eddie! I do so know how to park. I’ve done it many times. Sure, I’ve watched other people “park” but so what? Hey, I’ve thought of everything. I even have the instructions on how to park written down right here in my back pocket. It’s only about six easy steps.”
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[/FONT]Wendy:“Have you ever ‘parked’ before Eddie?”
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[/FONT]Eddie:“Well,….not…exactly. But,….it’s just that, well, Jiminy Crickets, I don’t have a car.”
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[/FONT]Wendy:[Giggling] “Well, Donna Sue and I don’t have a car either but [giggling] that doesn’t mean that we haven’t “parked” before, Eddie.”
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[/FONT]Wally: “Hold on just a gosh darn minute there. Are you two gals saying that………”
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Television Announcer: [/FONT]“We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin. This is a special report from CBS News in New York.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Ernie Pyle with CBS News in New York. Preliminary reports are saying that something has happened in the Soviet Union. We are trying to reach our correspondent who is in Moscow to shed further light on the incident that appears to have happened in the Soviet Capital. At this time we only have sketchy indications that there are allegedly Moscow militia, heavily armed troops that is, who are patrolling the streets of the Soviet Capital. We were first made aware….one second please ladies and gentlemen…..standby…….{facing away from the microphone}; [“Lenny, Lenny,…put a little more ice in it and less soda for Chrissakes!”] Yes,….ladies and gentlemen, our connection is…..has it gone through yet? Good,…. Great,…wait,……I can’t hear anything. I can’t hear him. Hello? Is anyone there? Is anyone on the….ah,…ok, ok. Ladies and gentlemen our correspondent in Moscow is now on the line with us. Walter can you hear me?”
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[/FONT]“Yes, I can hear you Ernie. Thisssss is Walter Cronkite reporting live, from Moscow in the Soviet Union.”
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[/FONT][FONT="]“Walter, can you explain to us,…tell us what seems to be happening over there?”
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[/FONT]“Well Ernie, and to all the folks at home in the Good ol’ USA, there has been an eerie quiet, a,….ah,,,,ah,...a stillness of sorts that is hard to describe even here in the somewhat drab and perpetually subdued capital of the U.S.S.R. There are few if any motor vehicles out and about as one might notice in the U.S., the United Kingdom, any of the cities in Germany, in Fascist Italy, Marshal De Gaulle’s France, the Australian Republic, or even in the Japanese Emp..,er,….“Federation”. The only few motor vehicles driving around besides the ubiquitous Moscow taxi cabs are those belonging to government officials. And neither the legendary Moscow taxis nor the large, bulky automobiles belonging to senior party officials had been seen on the streets at all today which is most unusual for a Friday in Moscow Ernie.”
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[/FONT][FONT="]“Walter, have you, or…have any of your normal contacts…..ladies and gentlemen as you may or may not be aware, Walter Cronkite has been in Moscow covering the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution in Moscow for CBS News. Also, Walter has had the opportunity to interview Marshal Stalin several times during the past few weeks before the 40th Anniversary celebrations took place. Those interviews with Marshal Stalin will be seen next year during a special series of programs that will air on this and your CBS affiliates in March. ”[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT="]“To answer your question Ernie, my contacts here in Moscow are as flummoxed as anyone else. We were at breakfast this morning just around 9:00 AM, local time when our driver, a local Soviet, came in and told us that we, well, everyone including Soviet citizens were to return to our lodgings. This was unexpected since we were going to be traveling around the ring roads of the city filming scenes for the upcoming special program that you have just previously described Ernie. As we left the restaurant and began walking to the front desk, we were stopped, umm, cordially I will add, by several large men wearing suits. We were instructed, politely, to remain in or on the hotel premises here. When we asked the gentlemen what was the reason for this, we were told that it was for our own safety. Moreover, we could see out of the windows that dozens, if not hundreds of Muscovites were hurriedly lining up at the bus stops and many could be seen quickly making their way off of the streets. Stores were closing their doors and shuttering their windows as if they were expecting some sort of storm to come in and hit the city. I would say that by 11:00 AM that the streets here in our area of Moscow were deserted Ernie. Some of our contacts here in Moscow were able to, at considerable risk to themselves, walk here to our hotel by walking through little used alley ways that are to be found all over Moscow. Our sources have noted, and I should mention that many of us here from the US media have noticed that our phone lines here in our hotel had gone dead for several hours two or three times today. This,….is most unusual. Despite all of the other attendant problems one may face here in the Soviet Union, our phone lines here in the hotel have always remained open and available for our use. Even five or six years ago, Ernie, when things were,….were,…well…”
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[/FONT]“Not as comfortable nor hospitable as they are right now. Isn’t that what you were trying to say,….eh, Walter?”
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[/FONT]“Yes, Ernie,, that’ssss[FONT="]…..the way it is.” [[/FONT][FONT="]Goddamn him! Always putting words in other peoples’ mouths! Wait’ll I get back. I’m gonna talk to Bill Paley about thissssss![/FONT][FONT="]][/FONT]
“Walter, what exactly have your sources there in Moscow reported to you on this unusual set of circumstances? And also, to your knowledge, has Marshal Stalin gone on the air to make an announcement as of yet?”
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[/FONT]“Well Ernie, I’ll answer your second question first. So far, Radio Moscow has been silent. The radio went off the air just after 9:30 AM, local, Moscow time, and has not been back on the air since then.”
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[/FONT]“Walter, it’s…uh,…you’re what,…. eight hours ahead of us here on the East Coast?”
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[/FONT]“Yes Ernie, it is just about 10 minutes to four in the morning here in Moscow, so it is now Saturday morning here in the Soviet Union.”
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[/FONT]“Well that explains some of the problems that we may have been experiencing here with our telephone connections. Tell me Walter…”
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[/FONT]“Oh! Hold on there Ernie….we’re just being told…..we’ve just been informed that Radio Moscow is back on the air. They are playing somber music right about now. I cannot place the tune but it sounds like Brahms, I cannot be that certain,…I cannot hear it clearly enough to make it out except that it sounds quite somber.”[FONT="]
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[FONT="]“Are you sure that it’s not Beethoven that they’re playing Walter?”[[/FONT]laughing while covering the microphone with his hand]
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[/FONT]“It sounds to me like Brahms on the radio, Ernie. I don’t know if you can hear it that clearly over the telephone, Ernie, to make such a distinction…..but since I am the one who is here, in my judgement…it-issss-Brahmsssss.”
[FONT="]“ Better you than me, in Moscow, Walter. I’ve already done my time in the trenches. From the Moroccan beachheads to Algiers, from Normandy to Berlin, and from Luzon to Okinawa, I’ve already done my time there,…Waaaaal ter. Oop! Looks like we’ve lost Walter again. We are going to try to remain on the line with our Moscow correspondent Walter Cronkite for as long as we can. Walter is there….hello, hello can you hear me now? Maybe,.... they have Radio Moscow on too loud over there for Walter to hear me. Hello,…hello? Walter are you still there?” [[/FONT][FONT="]I think that we have lost him….see if you can..……Jimmy, ..…Jimmy,…no, no,……I want Lou, no, no I mean Lester to come and fix this….. god…awful connection…..…for Chrissakes! There it goes again! God—darn it!,……..Les! Les!....Who? Huh? Who is it? Mr. Paley?! Oh,… of course yes, yes indeed…….Oh, we do? He is? Thank God. Hold on[/FONT][FONT="] Mr. Paley, we have Walter back with us.…[/FONT][FONT="]] [/FONT][FONT="]"Ladies and gentlemen we have just regained our connection with Walter Cronkite in Moscow. Walter can you hear me?”
[/FONT] “Yes Ernie, I can hear you loud and clear. I hope that you are able to hear me as well.”
“Yes Walter we can hear you clearly in our CBS studio here in New York. You were saying that they were playing solemn music on Radio Moscow?”
[FONT="]“That is correct Ernie. They are playing soft, solemn music on the air now and have been doing so for the past ten minutes or so. My sources here in Moscow have counted upwards of over 100 military trucks full of soldiers and one source claimed that they saw around 35 or 40 tanks parked on the edge of the city’s eastern side with the tank crewmen inside of their tanks just waiting for something or some order to come from somewhere. From our vantage point we can hear but not see vehicles moving throughout the city. In a city such as Moscow with so few motor vehicles one can hear the sounds of motorized machines that are in fact miles away from where you are located. The long boulevards here act like not only wind tunnels but as sound tunnels too. Not only that Ernie, but all flights in and out of the Soviet Union have been cancelled. The airports are closed at this time. My crew and I were scheduled to return home on Sunday, the 17th, but now…our return flight has been postponed.”[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT="]“Well…that is ”Communism” for you, or….”Socialism” if you prefer. Everyone is equal, no one has more than his neighbors,….so all are equal,….without motor vehicle transportation. All are equal….when they wait in line for the bus or the metro. All are equal…..as they wait in line for the black bread that they exist on. All are equal…..as they are forced to wait for official permission to leave the country. And, all are equal…as they are scrupulously searched, like common criminals and thieves at the airport when attempting to leave the “Workers Paradise”. It’ll be a cold day,….. in Hell, my fellow Americans, before that could ever happen here in God’s Country. Ladies & Gentlemen, we here at CBS are going to remain on the line with Walter Cronkite for as long as we can but at this time we are going to return you to your scheduled programs. When there is anymore breaking news coming out of Russia we will interrupt your program at that time. Til then, this is Ernie Pyle, reporting to you from CBS News in New York.”[/FONT]