Radio: Synopsis

For six months Radioman Allen Funt and a concealed microphone have been catching unsuspecting people with their mouths open. The sometimes hilarious results have been broadcast on ABC’s Candid Microphone (TIME, Aug. 18)—a program (thus far unsponsored) as fascinating as any other form of eavesdropping.

Last week, in a sidewalk interview with a seven-year-old moviegoer who had just seen The Foxes of Harrow, Funt recorded a minor classic of movie reviewing:

Girl: And then uh—he married this other lady and uh—she had a son and he just married her because he wanted a son and then he loved somebody else.

Funt: Oh.

Girl: I couldn’t understand it. He was about to strike his mother when the uh—

Funt: He was about to hit his mother?

Girl: Yes.

Funt: Why?

Girl: No, not him. The father.

Funt: Why?

Girl: Because she found out he was with another lady.

Funt: Oh.

Girl: So then he fell all the way down the stairs and that baby died.

Funt: Oh. Who fell down the stairs?

Girl: The baby boy. Well, he wasn’t a baby but he was old.

Funt: Yeah.

Girl: And then she uh—the mother jumped into the water and she was uh—she took care of the baby.

Funt: Who jumped into what water?

Girl: The-baby-that-fell-down-the-stairs’ father was going to take her away from here and she jumped into the water and she was going to take the son but they got him away from her.

Flint: Did you say he was the-baby-that-fell-down-the-stairs’ father?

Girl: I couldn’t understand it.

Funt: Did it have a happy ending or what?

Girl: Yes.

Funt: And what happened to all these people that jumped into the water and all that?

Girl: They were all dead.