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Show fc... . . - t Adventurers' 1U Club "Late Broadcast" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter WE'VE got to hold a mass initiation today, boys and girls, for pur latest addition to the club roster is not one fellow, nor two. It's Richard Himber and his orchestra. It's Dick Himber himself who is telling this yarn. After all, he's the leader of the band, so it's up to him to speak up for it. And it was along in the late fall of 1934 that it began to look as if somebody had it in for that bunch of boys of his. At that time Dick's band was playing at the Ritz-Carlton Ritz-Carlton hotel. New York, and also making a series of broadcasts from Jhe N. B. C. Studios. Now, you know, there are a lot of special radio broadcasts i made in the early morning hours when all the stations in the East are off the air. Those broadcasts are made for the Califor-0; Califor-0; nia listeners whose time Is four hours different from ours. Dick Himber's broadcast was on Monday night, and on that night you were liable to see the members of his orchestra entering and leaving the N. B. C. Studios at a pretty late hour. First Joey Nash Was Held Up. The trouble started with Joey Nash, who sang with the orchestra. He and a bunch of friends were on their way to the studio one night when two thugs stepped out of a doorway. One of them, a tall colored man, produced a gun and well Joey and his friends began producing their valuables. While this was going on, the other thug, a thin, nervous white r;man, was keeping a sharp lookout down the deserted street. I Well, those things will happen. The boys kidded Joey a bit and ;Jhen they all forgot all about it. On the following Monday, everyone in vthe band arrived at the studio on schedule and went home the same way. But the week after that, Art Shaw, the first saxophonist, on his way home after that late broadcast, met up with two individuals who mswered the descriptions of the men who had held up Joey Nash. This jtime the big colored man held a gun on Art, forced him to walk up to the "toof of a building on West Forty-eighth street, and there he took lot only Art's cash and jewelry, but Art's pants, too. By that time, Dick says, the boys were beginning to get a little skit-;ish. skit-;ish. What the heck was this anyway? Didn't those two thugs like their ; nusic? Or was some rival band getting jealous and putting up a game ")n them? Dick's boys took to going home in bunches, and walking out n the middle of the street and watching every passerby like a hawk. That is, they all did but Morey Samel. Morey Thought He Was a Detective. Morey Samel is Dick's trombone player, and he is a big two-fisted guy. Morey had always had a hunch that he'd make i just as good a cop as he was a trombone player, and he took " it upon himself to do a little detective work. For three weeks he made it a practice to sort of hang around in i'orty-eighth street after the late broadcast on Monday. For three weeks le loitered in the same neighborhood where Joey and Art had been , leld up and nothing happened. Morey was discouraged. Maybe he ' jrasn't such a hot cop after all. Maybe he'd better stick to his trom-.. trom-.. ione playing and leave all that G-Man stuff to J. Edgar Hoover. The fourth Monday, Morey finished the broadcast and started for lome. He lived at a mid-town hotel, and he was walking across town ii:n Forty-eighth street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, when all ' i a sudden he felt pomething hard jammed into his back and a gruff el;oice was growling, "STICK 'EM UP!" 3C- The skin on the back of Morey's neck began to tingle. He ;i; "stuck 'em up." The man with the gun marched him down a flight f; of steps and backed him up against the door of a basement en-i en-i - trance. And as he did, Morey got a good look at him. He was a huge colored man, and with him was a thin, timid-looking white youth! The pair he had been looking for. Probably the same two who had robbed Joey Nash and Art Shaw. 01 The Little Robber Got Scared. The little white fellow stayed up on the sidewalk, taking his usual ole of lookout. The big colored boy began going through Morey's ockets. And all the time Morey was getting madder and madder. For iree weeks he had been looking for these birds, and they didn't show p And tonight, just because he wasn't looking for them and wasn't ainking of them, they had to come along and catch him unawares. The big thug had one hand in Morey's pocket, and was just about 0 annex Morey's roll, when suddenly the little fellow's head appeared v. t the top of the steps. He looked scared, and he was scared. He said: I can't stand this I'm going to scram." AND THEN THE FIRE- ORKS STARTED. As the little fellow spoke, the big fellow turned his head to look at im. And that was the moment Morey was waiting for. He vung a long, looping right and let the big thug have it. It was a clean hit, , ight on the jaw. The big fellow dropped. His gun went off as he fell, f nd the bullet chipped a piece out of the door against which Morey as standing. The colored boy didn't get up again. He was out cold. The lookout had fled at the first sound of the scuffle. Morey 1 grabbed the colored fellow by the collar and dragged him up to i the sidewalk. He was still standing there, holding the thug's t i revolver in his hand when a policeman came running up. y And as if battling with a stick-up man wasn't enough adventuring r one night, he had to have one more thrill. When the cop saw the un in Morey's hand he thought HE was the thug, and Morey had to d some fast talking before the cop could see things his way. In the end tough, they took the thug to the station house where Morey lodged a 3mplaint against him, and where the cops found that he had more than 'ur-hundred dollars in his ragged clothes. And since then Dick Himber and his boys haven't lost any more " loney, or jewelry or pants. WNU Service. |