["Alfred Hitchcock" theme music]
- Good evening.
The game of hockey
seems to combine
all the best elements
of ice skating, polo,
and World w*r II.
However, we have found a method
for reducing the fighting
and speeding up the game.
We play over 10 feet of
water on melting ice,
it keeps the players
quite lively.
While dangerous, of course,
occasionally a bobbing head
is mistaken for the puck.
This is most unfortunate
because goals scored in this way
are not counted.
Tonight's tale is called
"Memo from Purgatory"
and is about a young man
who wanted to learn
about youth gangs
by personal experience.
He discovers that viewing
juvenile delinquents
at close range can be
extremely dangerous.
And now we are only a few
seconds away from a commercial
which is as close
as I care to get.
[bright jazz music]
- I have finally made it to
New York to become a writer
with $300 I'd saved from
working in a lithographing shop
I had quite Ohio
State University
and come to find out if
the streets of Manhattan
really were paved with
gold, for me, for Jay Shaw.
I decided to write a novel.
It was to be about
juvenile delinquency.
I wanted to see if I
could get a new view,
a truthful view,
from the inside.
I was gonna join a kid
g*ng, but not as Jay Shaw,
I was going to become
Phil Beldone, delinquent.
This is a street in Brooklyn,
in the section called Red Hook.
I had taken a room
in this neighborhood,
$7 a week.
I shared it with the roaches.
They say Red Hook is 1000 times
worse than Hell's Kitchen,
the police walk
their beat in pairs,
but this could just as easily be
back of the yards in Chicago
or 105th Street in Cleveland
or KC or Pittsburgh
and what happens
here happens there.
I had bought myself a
gravity knife in Times Square
and I practiced long
and hard with it.
I was ready to enter the turf,
the territory a g*ng ruled.
[lively rock music]
I uh,
just moved on the block
and I heard around you gotta
be a Baron to be any good.
- You got a name, cowboy?
- I heard the one to
talk to is called Tiger.
- Someone asks you a
question, cowboy, you answer.
- Hey, now stop, one of
that turmoil in my shop.
- Shut your face.
[glass smashing]
- My name's Phil Beldone.
[clapping]
- Well, you got a Tiger
here or do I talk to myself?
- Or you talk to me.
- No, that would
be the same thing.
- Ha ha ha.
- Everybody freeze.
Don't push him.
I'm Tiger.
- Look, mate,
I didn't come here to bop.
They said get to the Barons
so I'm ready to go
through channels.
- Let go of him, cowboy.
And then we'll talk about
you going through channels.
- Candle, suck your face.
That's my vice president, man.
I'd take it badly
anything happens to him.
- Think how badly he'll take it.
- What do you want?
- You tell King Kong over
here to lay up the blade
and then you and me,
we go someplace and
we talk like people.
- Hey, you gonna let
this thing dump on ya?
- Shut up, man.
I don't want no trouble in here.
Okay, Beldone, we got a truce.
Let go of Fish.
[Candle laughing]
I said cool it!
- You got a thing
coming to you, cowboy.
- Take it up with my agent.
- You made an enemy
of the Candle.
- Excuse me if I don't cry.
- You're something else,
man, I gotta admit that.
It took some real kinda guts
to put Fish and
Candle down like that.
You work that blade
without a button?
- Yeah.
- You're about as
fast with one of them
as anybody we got.
- Yeah, well, used to
be a pretty tough block
where I lived before.
- Where was that?
- Manhattan,
West 32nd Street between
Amsterdam and Columbus.
Yeah, that's rough turf,
I heard.
So, you wanna join the club?
- I hear tell around here
I either join up
or I don't walk.
- This is rough turf too, man.
We can't afford to have
any free agents walking it.
If you own a street you own
it, all of it, no squatters.
Wanna join?
- Um, what about Candle?
- No sweat.
He does like he's told.
He's a Baron.
And there's only one president
and I'm it.
- Well yeah, when and how soon?
- Wednesday.
- What's Wednesday?
- Initiation.
- What kind of
initiation you got?
- Best kind, right Cherry?
- Might hurt ya.
- You'll see, friend.
- Yeah, you'll see.
I'll make sure.
Real sure.
[dramatic music]
[upbeat rock music]
- You been to the hospital?
How's Danny?
- He's sick, real sick.
Flyers really did him in.
- Well, I'm gonna take
care of the Flyers.
[banging bottle]
Okay, okay!
Come on, let's get
this meeting to order.
Bring him in, tell Slats
to bring in Beldone.
Come on, let's get this
meeting to order, clear it.
Cherry, turn that
thing off, will ya?
We got a lot of
business tonight.
Okay, meeting will
come to order.
Slats take off his blindfold.
The vice president, Fish,
has made a suggestion
we skip the formal business
and get right down
to the initiation,
what do you think about that?
[Barons cheering]
Tonight we are to consider
the name of Phil Beldone,
who wishes to become a
member of the Barons.
Is there any members
who do not wish us
to consider this man?
All right, will the prospective
member step forward?
Okay,
you all know this recruit.
What is your name, recruit?
- [Jay] Phil Beldone.
- You ever been a member
of any other rival g*ng
or club in any other
turf besides this one?
- No.
- [Tiger] Do you wish to become
a member in good
standing with the Barons?
- Yes.
- You understand the
initiation has three parts
and you gotta pass
all three parts
before you can actually
become a full member?
- [Jay] Yeah, I understand.
- All right, form up.
The first part of initiation
you gotta make it
past a row of guys.
They'll be swinging on ya
and they've been
working on them buckles,
they're sharp.
Okay, get 'im.
Take him over to the sideline.
- I'm gonna like this.
You're gonna pleasure me, boy.
- Come on, enough talkin',
let's see some action.
[boys goading Jay]
[g*ng clamoring]
[belts snapping]
- Touchdown, he made it.
- Foul!
I call foul!
He was supposed to run down
the middle and he didn't.
- What's a matter, man,
you bugged 'cause he
was too smart for you?
I declare he made it
and passed the first
part of the initiation.
All in favor say aye.
[g*ng cheering]
[knocking]
[gentle jazz music]
- Yeah, who is it?
- You don't know me.
I'm Filene.
Are you gonna let me in?
- Sure, I guess so.
You were at the
initiation, weren't you?
Tiger send you?
- Every Baron's got a deb,
except Tiger, he's president,
he can move around
as much as he likes.
- So Tiger sent
you to be my deb.
- If you want me to be.
- Do you wanna be?
- What's with all the questions,
I don't ask you,
you don't ask me.
Nobody's got a past.
- Look, I don't need a
chick that sticks with me
because somebody told her to.
- I don't do nothing
I don't wanna do,
they coulda sent a lot
of debs, I volunteered.
- How do they find
out what goes on?
I mean, do you tell somebody?
I tell Connie.
She runs the debs, she
tells Tiger or Fish.
They'll ask you too.
- Well, what do you
say we just tell them
what they want to hear?
They don't need to know.
- It's all right with me.
You better turn off the light.
They won't, they won't
believe me if you don't.
- [Jay] How 'bout a cigarette?
- Okay.
- You have nothing
better to do later
maybe we could go to a movie.
- You're funny.
Like old.
- I just want to get acquainted.
- I hope the third
part of the initiation
is as pink as the second.
- The third part is
you rumble with 'em.
They give you a
weapon, you swing.
Guy like you, you
should be careful.
- Why do you say that?
- Because you're
different from the others.
'Cause you don't seem like
you get kicks out of
k*lling somebody else.
If you don't
you get k*lled yourself.
[dramatic music]
but it wasn't the way
I thought it would be.
I wasn't ready for
the kind of cruelty
these kids took as commonplace.
I realized just how
vicious they could get
on the night I was told
to get ready to complete
the third part of my initiation.
[tense music]
- [Candle] All right, let's go.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Tiger's on the way,
shouldn't we wait for him?
- I'm second in command,
I say we roll 'im.
Let's go.
- Hey, hey, hey.
You doin'?
Hey, take it easy.
- The cat's tapped out.
He ain't even got
a subway token.
That's all you are, man,
a filthy old creep.
Give me that tire iron.
- Oh, please, boys,
don't do nothing to me,
I ain't done nothing to yous.
Please, fellas.
- Run, man, run.
- I'm gonna k*ll you.
- Knock it off.
Come on, what's the
matter with you guys?
- This fink grabbed
my arm just as I--
- Can't I even send you out
to pass a guy on his initiation
without you fouling up?
- Me?
Hey, listen, man,
this fink's the one who
messed everything up.
- Shut up.
What happened?
- Nothin'.
We clobbed some old wet brain.
Candle was gonna hit
him with a tire iron.
Then the Lone Ranger
over here gets in the way
and the fleabag runs off.
- That right?
That the way it was?
- Just about.
- I say you don't pass the
third part of his initiation.
I say he's a fink.
I say we bust him up good.
- You know for 10 pounds of
dog meat you talk too much.
- Why--
[laughing] Whose side
you takin' in this?
- You got something to say?
- Yeah, yeah, I got
something to say.
You let this psycho loose
and this club's gonna have
more pain than it can handle.
He's got puddin' for brains.
- Why you slob, I oughta--
- You oughta get hit, baby,
that's what you oughta.
Look,
so we find some old sauce hound
and this nitwit bangs
him around pretty good
and we don't even get
a bean off the guy
and we leave some stiff
for the fuzz to find.
Look, I ain't
puttin' anybody down,
but you start spreading
the landscape with bodies
and there better be more
in it than exercise.
- What're you talkin'--
- Shh.
You got smarts, Phil.
Maybe we oughta make
you our w*r councilor.
- Hey, man, that's my job.
- Pick up your pink slip, hero.
- Come on, let's get outta here,
park's crawling with badges.
- Hey, what's going on?
I'm second in command.
I don't take that.
- Go home, man.
Cool off.
I'll see you tomorrow.
[tense music]
- Beldone?
Beldone?
Shut the door.
Let's take this place apart.
[items clattering]
Hey.
Hey, that fink's loaded.
- Hey, Candle, found something.
"Last night the
Barons had a rumble
"with their rival
g*ng, the Flyers.
"One of the Flyers was k*lled,
"and another hurt.
"On May 27th the
Barons broke into
"the Stuyvesant Rod and g*n Shop
"and made off with some 15--"
- What's this?
Where'd you find this?
- It was in this envelope here.
- There's my name, Candle.
Real name, Emil Shasta.
Candle's been my
enemy from the first.
Not because of any
intent on my part,
because his own p-sy-chosis
keeps betraying him
into clumsiness.
He is a real k*ller.
- Hey, Candle,
hey, look at this.
In case of accident, please
return to Mrs. Serita Shaw,
Trenton, Ohio.
Hey, he's the fuzz, huh, Candle?
He's some kind of spy.
[tense music]
- In case of accident.
That's what it says.
In case of accident.
[laughing]
- What'd your father
say when you told him
you quit high school?
- Nothing, he just told me I
should go to beautician school.
He read somewhere
that beauty operators
make $4 an hour.
What happened?
- Shut the door.
- Must've been Candle.
Your clothes are all ruined.
- Got all the money I saved.
- Look, you tell Tiger,
he's your friend.
He is, he can stomp on Candle.
- Filene, I have
something to tell ya.
- What?
What's a matter, Phil?
- My name isn't Phil
Beldone, it's Jay Shaw.
- So?
Lotsa guys don't use
their right names.
- No, Filene,
I'm a writer, at least
I want to be one.
Came here to write a book
about gangs like the Barons.
I had an envelope here
full of notes I made.
Everything was there.
All the bops and the
raids and initiation.
And the character
sketches, biographies.
Well, Candle must've
found it, it's gone.
- A writer?
You mean you were
takin' everything down?
Even me?
- [Jay] Even you.
- You fink.
You crummy fink.
Look, what do you think I am,
some kind of bug with six legs
that you stick in a bottle
and watch it try and
crawl up the sides?
- It wasn't like that, Filene.
Just try to understand--
- What's there to understand?
You're a square, that's all.
Well you wait until Candle
and them see those notes.
Man, I hope they
stomp on you but good.
And I thought you was different.
Yeah, yeah sure you were.
[sobbing]
- I better get my
things together,
what's left of 'em.
Can't stay here anymore,
that's for sure.
- What did you write about me?
Was it nice?
- Of course it was nice.
How could it be anything else?
- Man, you're some talker.
- Filene.
Filene.
As far as you and
I are concerned
I want you to know--
- I don't want to know.
I don't want to know nothing,
just get out of here.
If they come back and find
you I might just get generous
and be the only one
at your funeral.
[dramatic music]
- We must now split to
enjoy a station break.
I shall remain here on our
turf and watch for the fuzz.
Our rumble will
continue in a moment.
they substituted for living,
their inability to
come to grips with...
Did you write that, Shaw?
Did you write that garbage?
- Yes, yes, I wrote it.
- You pity us?
Is that right, man?
You pity us?
- I wanted to write about you.
I wanted to say
something true about it.
- Yeah.
And spill our names to the fuzz.
Get us all busted.
And break up the club.
Right?
- No, no,
that isn't the way
I was gonna do it.
I wasn't gonna use your names
or the name of the club.
It was gonna be fiction.
- I think you're
conning us, man.
I think you're a
fink for the cops.
I vote we burn him, Tiger.
- Now wait a minute,
just take it easy.
I was suckered by this guy too,
just cool it for a minute.
If this guy's really a writer
and if he's really
writing a book about us
he must've told somebody
he was gonna do it, right?
And they're gonna
know where to look
if he turns up squashed.
- Oh, knock it off, will ya?
It's all an act, book there.
He didn't tell nobody in New
York he was coming down here
because he don't know
anyone in New York to tell.
And he hasn't sold nothing
yet so ain't got an agent,
that's what he said in there.
- I still wanna know, Beldone,
if you wasn't gonna
use our names,
why you got 'em
here in these pages?
- Look, these are
preliminary notes.
I was gonna change the names
when I got into
the actual writing.
- Man, I should hope so.
I don't know if
there's any answer
to what these kids have become
but they can change.
If I needed proof
Filene offers it.
She's changed,
her tough, swaggering
manner is gone
and much of her fear.
She is no longer
like the others,
she is something
clean and lovely now.
[laughing]
- He gave us a phony name.
Why'd he give us a phony name?
- Answer the question, author.
- It's just that the book,
the book ever came out,
I didn't want you to
think of me as a writer,
I wanted you to
remember me as a friend.
- Burn him!
- All right, cool it.
- [Baron] Burn him!
- Hold it down.
- Burn him!
- Burn him!
- Shut up!
[g*ng clamoring]
- Get back, or I'll
burn one of you.
- [Baron] Burn him!
- Shut up! Shut up!
Gotta give this a think.
All right.
I've made my decision.
This Beldone or Shaw,
or whoever he is,
he's a fink and creep and
a liar and we all know it,
but he ain't no cop.
You're a cryin' slob, buddy.
You got some idea you
can come down here
and bawl all over us like we
was basket cases or something.
But we don't need you, man.
And by tomorrow morning you
better be out of this turf
and on your way back to
your old lady in Trenton
or they're gonna mail
you back in an envelope.
- What are you doing, man?
You can't let him go.
He's gotta pay.
He's gotta!
- Are you telling me what to do?
- You oughta read what the
author put in there about you.
- I saw it, he said I
was a natural leader.
- I mean the other place,
there's another place.
Did you see that?
- Where is it?
- It's on the page after--
- Never mind, I got it.
- I think I have discovered
something important about Tiger.
He treats the girls
with contempt,
bordering at time on cruelty.
He is the only
member of the g*ng
without a steady deb,
preferring the much
safer non-commitment
of the right of choice
from among all the girls.
Even so I have seldom seen him
with the same girl
more than twice.
I am becoming convinced
that he's profoundly,
perhaps desperately afraid
of the opposite sex.
Opening you up ain't enough.
- I'm sorry, Tiger.
- You ain't started
to be sorry, friend.
You got a mother in Trenton.
- You can't get to my mother--
- I don't have to, wise mouth,
you can get to her.
If I split you up
then the guys dump
your body someplace
and maybe she never finds out.
But if we get you burned out
in front of the
whole world, man,
then not only you get it,
but maybe your old lady has
something nice happen to her.
Like a heart attack.
- Oh, you lousy--
- You're gonna die a lot more
thinking about your mommy,
friend author.
'Cause I got the best way
of all to put you down.
I'm gonna let the Flyers do it.
[dramatic music]
[g*n firing]
Here's your weapon, k*ller.
- Empty, right?
- You're gonna be
lead off man, author.
You're gonna be
right out in front
when the old troops
hit that line.
You're gonna be out
there like a big target
for every Flyer knife and
shotgun and zip and chain.
They're gonna use you for
target practice, author.
It's an honor, you know?
[laughing]
We'll send your
old lady a medal.
All right.
Candle keeps his weapon
to cover the author.
Everybody else give
your piece to your deb.
They carry to and
from the rumble.
And if we get busted by
the fuzz, just split.
They ain't gonna shake
down a chick on the street.
You know what your deb told me?
You been doing nothing but
holding hands in the movies.
[g*ng laughing]
Now ain't that charming?
You're happy now,
ain't ya, Filene?
All right,
Fish is official w*r
councilor this time out.
And you listen to him.
Go ahead, Fish.
- Trooper, I want your group
to cross the street and wait.
We'll take the other side.
The author goes first
and Candle's gonna
cover him from behind.
Now when we hit stay
out of the author's way.
Then I want you to split in half
and I want you to come at
the Flyers from both sides.
Any questions?
- Yeah.
What happens if the Flyers
don't cool the author?
- Who's worried?
Do I look worried?
[g*ng laughing]
All right, man,
start walking.
[tense, percussive music]
[horn honking]
- Police! Police!
Right, this is a stick up, come
on, give me your money fast.
Come on!
- All right, put your
hands up, get 'em up!
[g*ns firing]
Police!
Operator, operator, give
me the police, quick.
Your friends are
all chicken, punk.
They ran away, left
you holding the bag.
Look, keep those hands
up or I'll use this.
Now I've been held up here
four times in the
past nine years,
I finally caught me one.
I'm gonna make an example of you
this whole neighborhood
will never forget.
- Wait a minute, you
don't understand,
I was faking that stick up
so you'd call the police.
I dropped that g*n on purpose.
- Hello, police, police?
Look, this is the
Ritz Jewelry Repair,
yeah I got me a punk kid
here try to hold me up.
That's right, one
of those Barons.
Thanks, sergeant.
- Look, mister, what
are you trying to pull?
- Get those hand up, get 'em up!
You gave it to me, huh?
Oh boy, wait'll the cops
here that one. [laughing]
[dramatic music]
- Now let's get this straight.
You were picked up with
a g*n pulling a robbery.
Your story is that
you're a writer,
you're doing some kind of
book about JDs, is that right?
You better get that sweater off.
I'm not sure I can get the
judge to believe much of this.
You got money for
bail or a bondsman
in case they slap
you with a stiff one?
- You don't even care
if I'm innocent or not.
You didn't even
ask me if I did it.
Listen, what kind of a,
kind of a lawyer are you?
- Look, kid, I'm
assigned by the court
to a number of hours of
public service down here.
They give me 25 or 30
cases in the morning
and I have to familiarize
myself with each one of them.
Now all I want to know is
have you money for
bail or a bondsman?
- I had some money
but it was stolen.
Now I haven't, not a cent.
- Shaw, Jay Shaw.
- Yeah, here.
- Come with me.
- Where?
- Your girlfriend stood bail
for you, Prince Charming,
you're getting out.
[jazz music]
- [Filene] Jay?
- Filene?
Filene?
Filene.
How did you get the money?
- You paid for itself, author,
remember that
money in your room?
We figured you'd come out
if she bought your bail.
This time you ain't
gonna get away, author.
This time we're gonna
plant you permanent.
You,
watch this.
You got any last words, author?
- Come on, man, words,
that's right in your line.
- I'm sorry, Filene.
I want you to know, I
never meant to hurt you.
- That's enough.
I might break down and cry.
Now it comes, man, now it comes!
- Tiger, no you don't!
- Filene!
- Tiger, let him go, he
didn't do anything to you!
[Filene shouts]
[dramatic music]
- Let's get out of here!
[somber music]
[sirens wailing]
which usually follow our plays.
There are some stories
which do not lend
themselves to levity,
"A Memo from Purgatory"
is certainly one of them.
I regard juvenile delinquency
as one of our nation's most
serious and pressing problems.
And tonight's story was
produced with that thought
uppermost in our minds.
Next week we shall
present another story,
until then, goodnight.
[playful music]
[stirring music]
Welcome to our World! Where we serve you cookies to ensure you get the best viewing experience on our site.
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register
Did you know that you can remove censorship board-wide, use our advanced search functions, be notified when new content is posted, join our memberships, set episodes to show in any order you want & more if you are logged into your account?
Register or sign in here: ucp.php?mode=register