Episode 86
Broadcast 2/6/49
“Tap the Heat, Bogdan”
Announcer: Quiet Please… Quiet Please
(Theme in & under)
The American Broadcasting Company Presents Quiet Please, which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and which features Ernest Chappell. Quiet Please for today is called “Tap the Heat, Bogdan”
(Theme up and out)
Bogdan: I’m Bogdan! And I can lick any man in the house! I’m Bogdan Petrovich and I’m from Cinegora and I can lick any man in the house! ‘specially Irishers! In Cinegora we lick em all! Irishers, Austrians, everybody! We don’t kid around in Cinegora, Heh you remember a town in Cinegora called Sarajevo? Is my home-town Sarajevo! And when I’m little kid I go to school with Gavrillo! GAVRILLO PRINCHET! Ahhh thought everybody know who is little Gavrillo Princhet with da glasses and da bombs. Ha? Why he blowed up that Archduke Frandacheck Ferdinand in Sarajevo right away they had the big war. We no like people in Cinegora. We don’t like nobody see. (piano begins playing in background) and I don’t like you. (Piano plays for 6 seconds) What’d you say? What means Cinegora? It means “Black Mountains”! Dat’s da kind of mountains we got in Cinegora. Big black mean mountains. Houses hang on side of black mountains; goats climb around. Got Brigands hide in mountains; cut peoples heads off! Wear two big guns in belt; got knife thaaat long. You don’t monkey around in Cinegora. (people start laughing in background) What dem fellows laughing about? They laugh at Bogdan!
HEY YOU FELLAS YOU CUT OUT DAT LAUGHING! I BREAK YOUR HEADS YOU HEAR ME, BOGDAN! YOU BE QUIET! (music stops) Yeah, that’s better. What you drinkin? Beer? Hah, beer’s for babies, bring me slivovitz. Bring me bottle of slivovitz! Dat’s better. Here… you drink some slivovitz. Hahahaha make you choke! You have to me a man to drink slivovitz. Lookee! (sound of glass being set down on bar) See… dat’s how drink slivovitz, boy! Sure I’m strong man, have to be strong. I’m come from Cinegora, drink slivovitz, make steel… kill people! Da? Sure I make steel. Sure I kill people! I’m a MAN; and I hate Irish fellows.
Why? Sure I tell you why. It’s on account of this fellow Magnus O’Dwyer. Ahhh, you don’t know Magnus O’Dwyer, Magnus O’Dwyer dead. Magnus O’Dwyer awful dead. And you know who make him dead. He not ever gonna say some more ‘tap de heat Bogdan’. He always say ‘you Bogdan, you bad word, you tap de heat’. He say ‘you big bad word bohunk you tap de heat!’ He not ever gonna call me bohunk no more, not from where he is. (laughs) No sir not me! You see dis? (sound of something metallic being placed on the bar) You know what dat is. Dat Magnus O’Dwyer. HEY STOP THE MOOSIC! (piano stops playing) Yeah dats better. Sure dat Magnus O’Dwyer. Dat piece steel dat Magnus O’Dwyer. Don’t he look nice. Sure you buy me some more slivovitz, I tell you all about Magnus O’Dwyer. Den how he turn into little piece steel. Dere dat’s de boy I like slivovitz. First I’ll tell you about Maria Vachorek. Maria Vachorek is polish girl from Shamish. Her folks live four down blocks other side commercial avenue. Her father’s name is Casmir. He got one leg shot off in war in 1916, her mudder’s dead. Maria’s got blond hair. Maria’s got bluest eyes I ever see. Maria’s young and got mouth like ripe cherry. And she got littlest feet in south Chicago. Now you know what. I think one time Maria Vachorek is in love with me. Da, I think so I just guess. But ya bug a Maria in love with Maria Vachorek. I say ‘Maria you marry to me.
Maria: Nyet, Nyet, Nyet I’m not going marry you big fellow you.
Bogdan: I say ‘why not you marry to me Maria?”
Maria: Nyet, I’m going to marry speaking man better English that you. You think I want to be married to big bum make steel and drink slivovitz all the time?
Bogdan: And I say ‘I learn good English Maria. I learn say “now-is-the-time-for-all-good-men-to-come-to-the-aid-of-their-par-e”. Heh just like on State Street Maria.
Maria: I’m not going to marry big ugly man that always talk how he kill people all the time!
Bogdan: And I say ‘Maria I only kill four people, and that is back in Cinegora. I forgot their names all but Ivan Krenovich, and if you say so I don’t kill nobody here, Maria Vachorek.’
Maria: (laughing mockingly) I think you are no good big bum, Bogdan.
Bogdan: And you know what? She kiss me on my face. Dat Maria Vachorek! Was I in love. (takes swig of slivovitz and sets glass down on bar) Only I didn’t keep my promise I make to Maria Vachorek. I just killed one man though. Magnus O’Dwyer.
(Music Bridge)
I never see Irisher before. I think he some kind foreigner; he talk funny. Naah, I don’t like him, but he don’t care. He laugh all the time. Sometime he sing songs. He sing pretty good. I go down to Maria’s house dis night. I stand outside. I listen when I hear something through the window. You… you know what I hear’d through da window? I hear Magnus O’Dwyer.
(Organ Bridge)
Magnus: Ah, come on. Give us a kiss, Maria. He’ll never miss one.
Maria: No, No Magnus. I don’t give kisses.
Magnus: Why don’t you ever give kisses to that big lard headed bohunk boyfriend of yours then?
Maria: What lard headed boyfriend I got?
Magnus: That big left footed Bogdan; the one on the electric furnace. (In mocking imitation of Bogdan) I tap da heat but I like nobody [Maria giggles] I tap da heat!
Maria: (laughing) Please don’t talk like that Magnus.
Magnus: Well, you don’t love him, do you now Allana?
Maria: What is Allana (mana?)? [think she's supposed to say "Magnus"... perhaps someone could check this?]
Magnus: That is a term of endearment. It’s frequently indulged in by the people of Erin, my dear, when they’re speaking to the woman they love.
Maria: (in dreamy tone) Allana.
Magnus: Aye, Allana. Also Acushla Macree.
Maria: (quiet giggle) And what is Acushla Macree?
Magnus: Close to me heart Allana. ‘Tis only used in conversation when one’s speakin’ to the woman he loves.
Maria: Do you love me Magnus?
Magnus: And why else would I be askin’ you for a kiss then?
Maria: Don’t you ask others for kiss, Magnus?
Magnus: That I do not. Only them I love. Ah, give us a kiss then.
Maria: No, I’m afraid to Magnus.
Magnus: Afraid!? And what are ya afraid of will ya tell me?
Maria: Bogdan.
Magnus: Bogdan!? Ha! Why I’ll take that big ham handed steel pusher and I’ll twist his square head off with me little finger and I’ll throw it in his face!
Bogdan: Who’s face you gonna throw my head at? You leave my girl loan you Irisher or I’ll bus up up in lil square pieces!
That’s what I said while I was climbin’ through da window. Da. [takes drink of slivovitz and plunks glass down on bar] Well, heh, he don’t throw my head in my face, but he give me two black eyes. He pretty near pull my ears off my head. An you know what? That Maria, she laughed. She laugh at Bogdan! So dat’s why I make up my mind I gonna kill Magnus O’Dwyer. (organ playing in background) Nobody laughs at Bogdan. (Organ crescendo followed by sting)
Emory: Steel is made of Iron to which is added other ingredients. Carbon is the essential ingredient, and is added to the iron ore during the melting process. The mass of molten metal in the furnace is called a heat. And the process of pouring the mass from the furnace to the fired clay lined ladles (organ playing in background) is called tapping the heat.
(organ up, bridge and fade to background)
Bogdan: I don’t work no more in da steel foundry I quit. I used to work in da steel foundry over in Hammond I… I quit I don wanna work no more. Magnus O’Dwyer, he not dere anymore so why I work? Magnus O’Dwyer he dead; ain’t you Magnus! [banging steel ingot on bar] sure [banging steel ingot on bar] dis all dat’s left of beeg strong Magnus O’Dwyer, lil steel ingot weigh maybe two pounds. Ya see, dey don have open-hearth furnaces anymore in steel foundry where I worked. Got big electric furnace; uh not have to have so many men when dey got electric furnace I guess, uh. Or something… I don know. Lots people don like electric furnace, but I like pretty good. I like pro-gress, dat’s da word… sure. Me, Bogdan, I like dis progress. Magnus O’Dwyer he is kind of bruchnik… foreman… hes tell everyone what he gonna do. He fires people all da time and hire more. But he leave me alone, in foundry (chuckle). He beeg strong Irish fellow, but he not big and strong like Bogdan when Bogdan is at work! Bogdan got too many things to hit with (organ stops); billets, steel, hunks limestone, scoop shovel, beeg long steel rod with hook on end (chuckles). Plene things to make Bogdan stonger den Magnus in foundry. So he leave me alone pretty much. Just holler ‘Bogdan, when you gonna tap heat?’ And I tap him when he’s ready see! Dat’s my job! Bogdan taps heat! Hes laugh all time dis Magnus O’Dwyer, when he’s not singin about dark mountains and roses, yeah he sing pretty good. Me? Bah! I don’t sing much. I work, I drink, I fight, dat’s enough! But I’m not satisified my job. I want better job I… I talk one day to Magnus O’Dwyer I say ‘Magnus, you mad on me?’
Magnus: (chuckling) and why would I be mad at ya, Bogdan? I hammered yer face into a pulp and I’m just the boy who could do it again. So why should I be mad at ya?
Bogdan: Well, I thought you was mad on me.
Magnus: When I get mad on you Bogdan, you’ll feel the weight of me fists on your nose. That’s the way you’ll know! Whada ya want den?
Bogdan: WhaI don’t wanna tap da heat no more.
Magnus: (mockingly) Well, would you like to be vice president in charge of, maybe? Or… would you like to be private secretary maybe and run a typewriter, like?
Bogdan: I can’t run no typewriter.
Magnus: (mockingly) Well… maybe you’d like to go to the paymaster’s office and count the shillin’s for us?
Bogdan: I don wanna be no monkey in office!
Magnus: Well, where do ya wanna be a monkey then Bogdan? Maybe you’d rather be a chimpanzee or gorilla!?
Bogdan: (makes sound of disgust)
Magnus: (mocking) Heh! Maybe I could get ya into the zoo in Chi!
Bogdan: I’d…
Magnus: (mocking) Ahh, ya’d be a very neat orangutan if you had a tail!
Bogdan: I’M NOT NO MONKEY!
Magnus: (laughs) Ah yes ya are a monkey, Bogdan! I made a monkey out of ya the other night with your girl!
Bogdan: (in subdued tone) Well… I wanna run electric crane.
Magnus: Ya do?
Bogdan: I can run electric crane.
Magnus: Listen… Dickey McDonak who runs the crane on the day shift was thirty-one years learnin’ how to run it, I’ll have ya know. And Morgan Pemberton, that’s on the night shift, he was twelve years just gettin’ to be an apprentice!
Bogdan: I know how to run electric crane!
Magnus: Not on my floor ya’ll run no electric crane, me boy! Gallopin’ up and down over men’s heads with a ladle full of white hot runnin’ steel, and splashin’ it all over us all!
Bogdan: I can run electric crane!
Magnus: GET BACK TO JOB, BOGDAN-ISHKAWHICH OR WHATEVER YOUR BOHUNK NAME IS! AND DON’T BE BOTHERIN’ ME WITH YOUR AMBITIONS AND SUCH! GO ON NOW! (Organ begins in background) AH, GO TAP A HEAT, BOGDAN! GO AWAY I’M BUSY! SCAT YA… (Magnus fade into background and Organ Bridge)
Bogdan: Nobody gonna talk dat way to (organ begins in background) Bogdan Petrovich, you know dat! You did find dat out; didn’t you Magnus O’Dwyer? Look at Magnus. (banging ingot on bar and chuckles) Magnus just old ingot steel. Just special heat all white hot in big tea kettle; just iron, carbon, limestone, vanadium and MAN! (Slams ingot down on bar) dat’s all he is! Magnus O’Dwyer, dat hit me on da eye and take away my girl, Maria Vachorek, and not let me run electric crane! Better not monkey with Bogdan! (Organ bridge)
Emory: (Organ under) The electric furnace is differentiated from the open-hearth furnace for melting steel is shaped much like a giant tea-kettle. And when the heat is ready to be tapped, the entire furnace is tipped up on trunions and the molten white hot steel is poured from the spout into a ladle in the sulking pit below. (Organ up and Bridge)
Maria: I don’t want to see you never no more, Bogdan.
Bogdan: Whamatter you, Maria Vachorek, Bogdan not good enough for you?
Maria: Bogdan does do bad man for me. Bogdan never gets to be foreman! Bogdan never gets to be nothing! You think I want to be married to poor rochnik all my life!?
Bogdan: You don’t love me no more, Maria.
Maria: I never said I love you, never.
Bogdan: You did, you did yes, you give me kiss.
Maria: What’s a kiss?
Bogdan: You give kisses other fellas, ha.
Maria: I kiss everybody I want to!
Bogdan: You kiss dat Magnus O’Dwyer!?
Maria: ‘tain’t none of your business, I kiss Magnus O’Dwyer!
Bogdan: Is my business!
Maria: Why is your business if I kiss Magnus O’Dwyer?
Bogdan: (in deliberate menacing tone) Because if you kiss him I bet I kill him.
Maria: Ha, Ha you kill him. Shakreb!
Bogdan: I swear Maria
Maria: What difference if I swear? You make me mad. You make me laugh.
Bogdan: Well… don’t say Shakreb.
Maria: I SAY SHAKREB EVERYTIME I WANT!
Bogdan: MARIA, I LOVE YOU!
Maria: Bogdan I don’t love you!
Bogdan: You think you gonna marry this Magnus?
Maria: Yeah, I gonna marry him.
Bogdan: YOU’RE GONNA BE WIDOW!
Maria: You do dat, I gonna call da policeman dey gonna hang you! Oh, I’m not afraid to. You try hurt Magnus, he give you some more black eyes. That’s what he do.
Bogdan: [despairing tone] Maria… please love me.
Maria: [sneering] Nyet… I love Magnus.
Bogdan: I hate Magnus. I kill him!
Maria: [mocking] you better sneak up to him when he’s not looking when you try kill him. It’s only way you can do it. He’s gonna break you in two pieces with hands.
Bogdan: You not gonna marry to me, you not gonna marry to that Magnus O’Dwyer! You wait and see you… (organ in background) you… WIDOW you! (Organ Bridge)
Emory: (organ in background) The temperature of molten steel ranges from three thousand degrees to four thousand degrees Fahrenheit; in which condition it flows like water. Organic matter brought into contact with molten steel simply vanishes in a brief burst of flame and is absorbed into the metal itself. (Organ up and dissolves into).
Magnus: (singing “Rose of Tralee”)
Maria: [applauding] Oh Magnus you sing so sweet.
Magnus: Ah ‘tis a song of me own country Acushla Macree, and it makes me homesick for the dark green mountains of the ravenin waters.
Maria: Dark mountains? Magnus, Dark mountains?
Magnus: Ah sure, with mountains and hills of any kind you can put your mind to, mostly green under da sun and rain, green and tall. And when the shadows of the night fall on tralee, ah the mountains are sure enough black.
Maria: (with a touch of dread in her voice) Black mountains; mountains of death, Magnus.
Magnus: Ah no. Mountains of beauty and… what’s the matter darlin’?
Maria: The black mountains. Bogdan tells of the black mountains in his country too, in Cinegora!
Magnus: Ah, forget Bogdan!
Maria: He hates you Magnus!
Magnus: Ah what can he do to me den?
Maria: Well… when Bogdan taps the heat…
Magnus: yes?
Maria: What do you do?
Magnus: Well I… I stand not too close and watch.
Maria: Does he stand close?
Magnus: Oh he’s not an easily frightened man. He stands close. Why it’s Bogdan that digs out the fire clay plug in the furnace spout, so that the hot steel can pour out. And that’s not a job for a man who’s afraid!
Maria: (almost crying) tell me what it is like Magnus!
Magnus: Well… the great gears grind and the big furnace tips up and the gas flames are lickin’ away at the ladle down in the sulking pit and all…
Maria: And how hot is it!?
Magnus: Well, the temperature of the steel of course; two…two or three thousand degrees.
Maria: (shudder of dread)
Magnus: Now Bogdan stands with a kind of a pick at the spout of the kettle and he picks away at the hardened clay, and soon oft a little red nose of the first flow breaks through. Then there’s a roar and the white hot steel pours down into the ladle!
Maria: (terrified) I’m afraid.
Magnus: And the sparks leap up into the air from the liquid surface of the steel and the fly about and they burn holes in the men’s clothing!
Maria: (sobs)
Magnus: Ah, there’s the smell of burned earth and hot steel, and men stand fascinated each time it happens! Were… well it’s like a glimpse into the mouth of hell!
Maria: (gasps)
Magnus: And no man ever tires of it.
Maria: (nearly in tears) And are they afraid these men, Bogdan?
Magnus: Your Bogdan’s not afraid.
Maria: What if man fall into the steel?
Magnus: It doesn’t happen.
Maria: Never?
Magnus: Well… once in a great, great while.
Maria: And what happens then?
Magnus: I’ve never seen it, but they say there’s a flash of yellow flame and never the sound of a man’s cryin’ out and (makes sound of someone blowing out candle) he’s gone.
Maria: (gasps)
Magnus: Then his people take a little dab of the steel in which he died and that they take and hold the funeral services over the steel. Also, the man is part of it.
Maria: (sobbing) Oh no!
Magnus: Ah now let’s talk of things more pleasant. Or, uh shall I sing you The Rose of Tralee again…?
Maria: (interrupting) And what do they do with the rest of the steel?
Magnus: Well, it’s buried too, for…for the man is part of it and there’s not telling what would happen if the steel were to be used. (in loving tone) Now, shall I sing again Allana?
(Organ Bridge, The Rose of Tralee)
(Rose of Tralee in Background)
Bogdan: What I want is more slivovitz. I don’t feel good. BRING ME MORE BOTTLE SLIVOVITZ. BRING BEER FOR MY SISSY FRIEND HERE. HURRY UP! You ought to drink slivovitz, it’s for man. Man like Bogdan! Dat Magnus O’Dwyer, he married Maria Vachorek. Da… here slivovitz. (glass set on bar) Dere… dat’s better. (slivovitz being poured into glass and drunk) Dere… da… da, da,da he’s married Maria Vachorek and now Maria Vachorek is a widow. Just da same like Bogdan say she gonna be. She widow, and out in cemetery is coffin with lil piece steel inside of it. Lil piece steel like dis lil piece of steel. (bangs ingot on bar a couple of times) And inside lil piece steel is… listen… you hear something? SHADDUP YOU EVERYBODY! (Organ stops) You don hear? Put your ear down by the lil steel ingot there. You still don hear? Why Magnus singing! Magnus O’Dwyer! Hear him just as plain from inside lil steel ingot. Sure I hear him lots times; don scare me. I sing right along wit him, see? (sings drunken version of “Rose of Tralee”). We sing pretty good together, Magnus and me. Magnus said I couldn’t hurt him. Maria said I couldn’t hurt him, but Maria’s a widow. Poor Maria Vachorek. And Magnus? (chuckles) How you like Magnus? You don monkey around with Bogdan! Bogdan pretty smart guy! An he don like nobody! Bogdan don even like Maria Vachorek no more. Da, don even like me! (Organ Bridge)
Emory: (Organ in Background) Magnus O’Dwyer, thirty-three, a foreman in the number one foundry, was instantly killed today when he fell into a fifteen ton ladle of molten steel. The only witness to the tragedy was Bogdan Petrovich, a laborer, who lost three fingers of his left hand. (Organ Bridge)
Bogdan: Da fingers… I pushed him in with my left hand. I bumped my hand against the edge of the ladle; it was hot. (chuckles) Not so hot like da steel that was flowin’ into it from da big teakettle. Not so hot like where Magnus O’Dwyer! (laughs) We tapped da heat! Da big, fat river of steel, it come out of spout, he splash down! You listen, you hear only the gears (organ in background) making noises when dey tip da kettle up higher to get all da steel. You hear whistles (sound effect of whistle) where crane swooping down above our heads to scoop up ladle and make its long pass. You hear all kinds noises in foundry (sound effects meant to represent a foundry in action). You hear Magnus O’Dwyer talk in your ear…
Magnus: Bogdan! You’re awful close to the edge there.
Bogdan: And you hear yourself say, ‘I not scared!’ You hear yourself say, ‘You scared Magnus O’Dwyer?’ And whistles make noise, you look through black goggle at Magnus O’Dwyer. And you see he’s only man and that is steel down there, and you laugh at Magnus O’Dwyer. Magnus O’Dwyer, he holler…
Magnus: WHADA YOU LAUGHIN AT YOU BIG BOHUNK !?
Bogdan: And you hear yourself say, ‘I see something float on top steel down dere!’ And then you look your black goggle, you can see Magnus O’Dwyer lean over see what you point. I put my hand, left hand, on his shoulder and I holler, ‘DERE…SEE?’ And he lean far over. The whistle blows real loud (sound: whistle blowing) and he look up away from me and I just give him little… lil shove and fall (organ bridge dissolves into piano playing in background). Just like a match fella. He go (makes sound of blowing out candle) make flame he’s out. (Repeats sound of blowing out candle). Never see him again. So you hear me holler, ‘HEY HEY! YA BUG MAGNUS FALLS IN STEEL!’ (pounds fist on bar) and all men come running. We shut off boiler and nobody can do nothing. No more Magnus O’Dwyer, not see him at all. Only I can smell him lil bit, the burnt smell of steel and burnt flesh. And of all big noises in foundry, I can hear… listen… put your ear down by steel ingot. Is all dat’s left of Magnus O’Dwyer, see if you hear.
Maria: Bogdan. (piano stops)
Bogdan: Da?
Maria: Come on Bogdan, time to go home.
Bogdan: You go way you old woman you.
Maria: It’s time to go home Bogdan…
Bogdan: I go home when I get ready!
Maria: Come Bogdan.
Bogdan: Fah… You know dis woman, this old woman is? You don ha… heh. You tell the man what is your name old woman!
Maria: Come home Bogdan…
Bogdan: Tell him your name, he wants to know!
Maria: I… I’m Maria Vachorek O’Dwyer Petrovich.
Bogdan: Heh ya see? She say she was never gonna marry to me! I WANT SOME MORE SLIVOVITZ!
Maria: No, no Bogdan, you have had enough for tonight.
Bogdan: I say I want… Het Maria… you said you was MARRIED to me ha?
Maria: (in tone of misery) I said I would marry you.
Bogdan: Now ya knows what happen to Magnus! Though Maria can’t prove it. Heh… can ya Maria?
Maria: But you will die.
Bogdan: Magnus didn’t kill me!
Maria: Magnus will.
Bogdan: HA, HA!
Maria: Magnus will.
Bogdan: (Laughing) you tink dis lil steel ingot gonna kill big strong Bogdan? Ha, Ha…
COME ON MAGNUS! LET’S SING! (sings drunken version of Rose of Tralee and dissolves into Organ Bridge of Rose of Tralee).
Emory: (organ in background) The widow of Bogdan Petrovich, former steel worker, who was killed last Thursday when a small ingot of steel he was keeping as a souvenir, fell from a shelf above his head and crushed his skull, will make her debut tonight at the Idle Hour theater as a singer. Mrs. Petrovich, the former Maria Vachorek, will present a group of Irish songs including the popular ballad Rose of Tralee. Mrs. Petrovich will be remembered as the widow of Magnus O’Dwyer who was killed when… (dissolves to Organ chords)
(Theme in and under)
Announcer: The title of today’s Quiet Please story is Tap the Heat Bogdan. It was written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and the man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell.
Chappell: And Latta Stavisky played Maria, J. Pat O’Malley was Magnus, and Carl Emory told how steel is made. As usual, music for Quiet Please is by played by Albert Berman. Now, for a word about next week, here is our writer-director, Wyllis Cooper.
Cooper: Thank you for listening to Quiet Please. Our story for next week is called “Be Who’s Valentine?”.
Chappell: And so until next week at this same time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell.