▶ "One Step Beyond" Equivalent: The Time Element.

westinghouse first with the future presents the westinghouse desi lou playhouse good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another westinghouse deciduous playhouse tonight we're going to see a story written by rox erlin and starring william pentax our story begins in a doctor's office a patient is sitting there he walked into this office nine minutes ago once upon a time there was a psychiatrist named arnold gillespie and a patient whose name was peter jensen mr jensen walked into the office nine minutes ago it is 11 o'clock saturday morning october 4th 1958 it is perhaps chronologically trite to be so specific about an hour and the date but involved in this story is a time element well mr jensen i think we have some of the facts your age unmarried no physical ailments of any serious nature and no previous visits to a psychiatrist no previous arrests either the only time i ever saw a psychiatrist before was in a cartoon well at best you'll find this helpful and at worst harmless cigarette no thanks now your occupation various part-time unsuccessful bookie car dealer oh i attended bar once just down the street from here a couple of doors andy's place well how do i stack up doctor am i subnormal abnormal or just an average american lad family father and mother both married scranton pennsylvania he was a butcher butcher yeah he was highly successful his thumbs weighed 12 pounds that's a good joke you think so maybe you should see a psychiatrist think i will take one of those cigarettes sure help yourself well you want me to pull up a couch now well not necessarily if you're comfortable here let's start right here you can start by telling me why you came all right nothing shakes you up does it how do you mean i mean everything is calm and cool and you're the boss when i walked in here i could see you making inventory check the cut of the clothes check the language and up there inside your head that's where you mark down all the results and then later on you put the whole thing in pigeonholes this fits here this fits there you got me pegged haven't you no you figure this is some sort of minor league horse player maybe a little hungover maybe a little bugged but either way maybe about 40 degrees tilt my cigarette went out all right pigeon hole this one look if said minor league horse player tells you a half-wooded story can you tell me in one simple statement whether or not i'm off my rocker without dragging in sigmund freud a lot of medical school english can you tell me what's wrong with me i can try i keep having a dream aren't you going to mark it down you keep talking i'll just make some notes on things that i think are pertinent i don't know whether or not any of this will sound pertinent i do know it'll probably sound nuts i know it sounds nuts to me anyway there it is okay tell me about it well i keep having this dream i've i've had it i don't know five or six times now what sort of dream a real one do you ever have any wacky dreams that seemed real oh sure i guess we all have but have they happened over and over again recurred same dream the same dream identical it doesn't change what's it about it always begins the same way i'm asleep i'm sound asleep [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] yes uh this is uh it's 506. tell me i got in pretty late last night didn't i i thank you i i asked you if i got in late last night i really don't know mr jensen i wasn't on duty last night oh okay we got any water you'll find some if you look around oh yeah thank you very much wait a minute uh what do you call this place anyway i ask you the name of the hotel look do you work here or are you just inspecting the kitchen i asked you what the name of the hotel was this is the imperial hawaiian sir oh are you in the right hotel i haven't got the slightest uh yeah yeah i'm in the right hotel oh [Music] december 6th yeah nature do you want me to clean up now no wait a minute yes good morning sir did you sleep well mother that's a mood question all right you want to explain the gag now excuse me sir i asked you if you wanted to explain the gag you tell the guy who put you up to this he's on the threshold of a deep wound you tell him i'm going to take out his teeth one by one this is october isn't it october sir what's october 30 days has october april june and november remember this month it's october isn't it october i don't believe so sir what do you mean you don't believe so is it october or isn't it it's december sir december 6th it's what it's december 6th yeah that's what i thought you said is that december 6th are you all right sir yeah i'm all right except that i have obviously just come down the home stretch of the biggest toot in the history of man you say this is december 6th well last night i was in new york city at the benjamin wood hotel and it was in october you're probably over tired sir maybe you aren't feeling so well why don't i come back later over tired i'm not not feeling so well that is the champion blue ribbon understatement of the year a toot that takes two months and winds up in what's the name of the place what's the name of what place this place it's the imperial hawaiian hotel that's what i mean since when is there an imperial hawaiian hotel in new york city it isn't in new york city sir it's in honolulu well that figures it's in honolulu which leads me to the next question what am i doing in honolulu i don't know sir that's what i thought you said now there's just one more question really sir why don't i come back later come here what sir does this hotel have a bar yes sir it's got a lovely bar and where is the lovely bar downstairs sir off the lobby if i ever have another mother i'd want it to be you come back later honey and we'll dance yes sir absolutely sir [Music] [Applause] honolulu would you like a table sir no i want to sit at the bar but there are no seats left at the bar sir look if the president of the united states came in here i wanted to sit at the bar you'd have a seat for him wouldn't you well of course well i guarantee you he won't be here so i'll just take his seat that seat's occupied you know it i want a dry martini i want it so dry the olive will come up coughing you're the boss [Music] okay tell you what you better do you better just keep them coming i'm on the last lap of the biggest binge in the world rough night huh 30 rough nights would you believe it i fell asleep in new york a month ago and i woke up here this morning dear boy i know the feeling once i fell asleep at the dublin airport and i woke up on a british troop train going into palestine and that's my record 43 days in the arms of morphine well bless you my wife my drink oh i'm sorry oh that's all right there's nothing else have you been married long one day six hours and 12 minutes well i never would have guessed it you from new york born bred and raised good man your wrist [Music] was how's that was a good man yeah that's what i said no you said he is a good man well isn't he he was he's not here today of course he isn't he's in new york where he should be [Music] you know you got a nutsy sense of humor what are you the argumentative type you're looking for an argument buddy is that it no i'm not looking for an argument i just want to tell you that if you're kidding me i'll come behind that bar and in about three minutes i'll be able to scrape you up in a spoon and put you in a cup let me buy you a drink now let me buy you a drink a drink for the newlyweds the newlyweds are drinking champagne give him champagne what do i look like a deadbeat to the bride and groom long may she wave [Music] [Laughter] you off a ship that's your life the best baby afloat the arizona what the arizona the arizona when did they dredge her out of the mud you're talking about my ship she's never been close to the mud she hasn't boy you got a lovely wife and a lousy memory you trying to tell me she wasn't sunk i'm not trying to tell you i'm telling you the arizona's never been sunk in her life she hasn't you know it you know it i don't know it i say she got sunk on december 7th 1941 and that's where she sits today in the mud at the bottom of pearl harbor now what do you think of that [Music] what did you say i said [Music] it's not 1941. it's 1958. [Music] you hear me it's 1958. how could it be 1941 it's 1958. how could it be 1941 it's 1958 1958. and the dream ends there huh no it goes on i see but up to that point you say that each dream is identical identical i even remember going to the door of the bar i look out in the street look at all the cars 39s 40s 41s no fins or anything go on now get this this is probably where i should get on the couch i don't think this is a dream you can make all the chicken tracks you want to this is the goods here i believe you you do well call up the sanitarium tell them we'll take a double room no i mean i understand why you think it's real see some dreams are extremely realistic as often as not they're impossible to distinguish from reality while you're asleep have a cigarette let's run out of fluid done quite a bit of smoking here now where were we you don't get what i'm telling you do you it isn't just that it's real while i'm asleep well i'm telling you this while i'm standing here telling you this it's still real everything that happens in those dreams that's real go on well it spills the beans doesn't it and this is your problem that's some problem a guy who dreams things and thinks they're real well as i told you some dreams are very real oh i've had dreams like everybody else but a week ago when these things started i knew that they weren't dreams you understand they're not dreams well if they're not dreams mr jensen what do you suppose they are what do you suppose they are i wake up in a hotel room in honolulu and it's 1941. but i mean i really wake up and it's really 1941. now wait a minute mr jensen you're not trying to tell me yes i am telling you i'm going back in time [Music] yeah well are you a bookier aren't you okay then this is the bet i picked joe lewis over buddy bear what odds are they give me if i picked around what are you talking about they're not scheduled they will be you're going to fight on uh january 9th yes that's right buddy bear i pick lewis in one round what's the quote 30 to one come on boy come on well that's better okay i'll take 500 right what do you mean how do i know i just know that's all right say wait a minute you got the name right no j-e-n-s-o-n jensen peter jensen that's right i'm at the imperial hawaiians wait a minute jensen's speaking right i'm the guy i'll call you back you want to take a bet on the all-star game for next year i'll pick the american league i spent the next two and a half hours in a kind of paradise making bets on sure things every race every prize fight every football game i can remember happening after december of 1941. i got it figured out that if this crazy stuff goes on at least six more months i'm a shoe-in to collect about 464 000 from a half a dozen soon-to-be impoverished bookies i'm not scared you understand i don't have one idea what i'm doing back here but as long as i'm back i figure i'll put it all to good use come in hi how are you i'm fine how about a drink uh my uh wife asked me to stop by and see how you felt it was nice of her i feel great how about a drink no thanks we're going swimming she was a little concerned my wife i mean about what about me well it's uh just that uh down at the bar when you saw that paper you began oh that well that was well as a matter of fact i was going to give you ring and tell you that i was sorry about that arizona stuff you know the mud and everything it was nothing personal you understand sure okay let's see the uh see i had the all-star game 500. are you sick no i'm all right well what made you say it was 1958 oh i guess i was just a little whirly up here sure well well uh look uh we'll be back about four or five maybe you'd like to have a drink with us then if you feel okay huh you got a deal we'll see you later then fine wait a minute huh what do you do on the arizona oh i'm in the engineering section you work down below huh most of the time good job i like it well i'll see you later then yeah we'll give you a call when we get it all right how is he i think he's okay he seems so lost now he'll be okay said to give him a call when we get in wonderful i remember thinking right at this given moment that these are two nice-looking kids and while i'm watching them the thought hits me that this is an awfully young and pretty kid to be a widow after just two days of being a wife so right at this moment i do the only thing i can do i make a jerk out of myself i want a honolulu newspaper i don't care anyone mr jensen this is mr gibbons the editor well mr gibbons the editor what's with it if this information is so hot why didn't you take it to the army because i figured a newspaper would spread it around a lot quicker besides there isn't time to go to a lot of brass trying to get heard well what about it you're going to print it you're going to get out an extra of course an extra and if you take all this down you dictate to him everything you've got i can give it to him in about three paragraphs but i want to guarantee before i do i want to be sure i'm not going to get stuck in any rubber room with a straitjacket after i finish the story go ahead and you take it all down all right i have information that the japanese are going to bomb pearl harbor tomorrow morning at approximately 8 a.m honolulu time you know this to be a fact as sure as i know the good lord made race horses they're going to come over here at about 30 waves off a bunch of carriers they're going to plaster us while we're still in our beds dreaming about last night pearl harbor oahu scofield barracks the airfield and you name it you got all that down yes sir well what are you going to do about it i'm going to call a commanding general and tell him to get out all available manpower i figured that at least 10 or 11 regiments fully combat equipped should be sent to the beach oh you're talking we're calling the navy too aircraft carriers will be sent to the area i figure there should be at least a thousand planes that's action man that's action then i'm going to recommend to the president of the united states that you lead the troops because you're good officer material now you're talking my all right knock it off cut the gag now you listen to me no you listen because i'm going to tell you something news boy tomorrow morning you're going to be about 4 000 miles away from any kind of laughing and you're not going to be able to say that i didn't warn you because this is no gag you're right it's no gag because we're fed up we've had all we can take for one afternoon now you get out of here peacefully mr johnson or i may have to have somebody escort you out i can walk out by myself and if you try to put anybody at my elbows you're gonna have to call in a hospital staff i don't appreciate that kind of talk oh you don't huh you really don't well what do you appreciate mr gibbons maybe you'd appreciate a good smack and a jaw something to repay me for my trouble in coming over here and trying to get in to see you this is going to hurt me worse than it does you mr jensen believe me i believe you mr gibbons [Music] is he out of his mind appears to be sane enough well i'm sorry to call you down here doctor but this character went for cirque it took the whole office to keep him here i think he ought to be fitted for a jacket you walk on your lower lip one more time big shot and i'll get you out of the newspaper business on a disability pension you've never suffered from delusions have you you do know where you are who you are oh stop it i'm as sane as anybody in this room and a more incriminating statement i'll probably never make the rest of my life what is the date today december 6th and we're we're what we're where we're in honolulu hawaii what did you have to eat today to drink nothing nothing to eat and precious little to drink i've spent the whole afternoon wasting my time with these two kooks who is the president of the united states who's kidding who you're supposed to be finding out if i'm nuts eisenhower who did you think it was u.s grant who who did you say the president was isaac of course it's 1941. fdr franklin delano roosevelt is the president who was the other person you mentioned eisen something i was thinking about something else franklin d roosevelt is the president who else did you mention eisenhower dwight eisenhower he's a light colonel on the general staff in washington how did you know about ike eisenhower who is the vice president mr jensen uh uh garner john nance garner john nance garner was the vice president he isn't any longer oh well wait a minute now i truman harry truman of course it's truman because when roosevelt dies truman becomes a president how's that what's better with you guys don't you know that roosevelt dies and then truman takes over and then eisenhower becomes the president what's the matter with you guys what's it all right fellas i i take it all back you named the vice president and that's who it is i forget i ever mentioned it hold it sit down mr jensen let's you and i talk this over uh-uh any of you guys know what a sputnik is hmm i thought so rock and roll jet stream rocky marciano atomic subs the los angeles dodgers well buy bonds gentlemen something on your mind hanovey no nothing doc except except what there's nothing insane about that man i didn't say there was is yours anaphy you're quite an artist the plane's japanese i suppose not really just doodles that's all you'd better watch yourself i'll be putting you under a light [Music] the best laid plans of mice and men and pete jensen i just struck a blow for law and order and missed so what's left to do simple nothing just sitting the bar feeling that kind of sweet sad glow that comes with realizing that most people aren't as bright as you are the next morning they'd probably all come back and measure me for a brass statue but it would be too late i didn't care anymore but it was kind of a crazy feeling though to watch these kids relax over their dates and their drinks when tomorrow morning there'll be a couple of odd thousand of them taking a miserable route through hell to get to heaven a happy new year to you knock it off i know how it is pal believe me i know how it is once i tied one on the new orleans around mardi gras time and i woke up outside the bleacher section of edwards field on st patrick's day still in costume believe me i know the problems of which you are exposed [Music] all right how about having that drink with us oh yeah it's a pleasure [Music] how many hours is it now 31 hours and 15 minutes and everybody said it wouldn't last [Laughter] [Music] mr jensen pete pete are you all right oh sure i'm all right why well this morning you seemed so sure it was another year did i well i guess i was just a little mixed up that's already i didn't mean anything personal about what i said this morning either i told you to forget that around for all of us tom collins for me same here what about you what are you drinking double scotch double scott double scotch you sure like your scotch don't you sir why you got a grandfather in the bourbon business what's the matter i wasn't kidding this morning i meant what i said the arizona is going to get sunk tomorrow morning are we on that again we're on that again look lieutenant ensign ensign lieutenant it doesn't matter i've got no axe to grind you understand tomorrow morning i've got every intention of going down into the basement and cuddling up to the furnace and spending the whole day listening to the sirens you say you're an engineering officer or something that means you're down near the boilers well i'm telling you that at about 8 20 a.m tomorrow morning there won't be any boilers there won't be any decks there won't be any ship left and that goes for a lot of boilers and a lot of decks and a lot of ships not to mention handsome young ensigns with new brides please don't talk like that i've got to talk like that this is the second half of the story i know what's going to happen tomorrow because tomorrow is december 7th 1941 to you people but it's 17 years ago to me that's right last night i was in new york city it was 1958 it was october it was 17 years after what it is this very minute and i've lived through those 17 years and i know what's going to happen you're nice kids you you're nice young kids i've got no reason no reason in the world to give you grief i'm telling you that tomorrow morning we're going to get attacked and if you're on that ship i'll be on that ship because that's my birth mr jensen you're a nice fellow and all that but if you keep saying crazy wild things like this and making edna worried i'm gonna have to pop you come on honey we'll have our drink at the bar wait a minute hey you i don't want no trouble you want a fight go out and fight a lamppost you shut your mouth all right what are you going to do about it you're going to stand around holding hands and biting earlobes until this boy goes back to his ship because i'm telling you if he goes back to that ship he may not be alive at nine o'clock tomorrow morning repeat he may not be alive tomorrow [Music] i told you i don't want no trouble you hear me you don't want any trouble all right i don't want to give you any trouble i want to give you music uh i sing songs for you songs you never heard before let's remember pearl harbor as we go to meet to fall you want to hear another one praise the lord and pass the ammunition praise the lord and pass the ammunition praise the lord and pass the ammunition and we'll all stay free you hear that that's the song you're all going to be singing you're all going to sing that in about a week because the japs are going to wanna hear another one let's remember pearl harbor as we go to meet the fall [Music] i told you i told you i told you why wouldn't anybody listen to me i told you [Music] i told you i told you i told you i told you i told you why wouldn't anybody listen to me and then that's where i wake up standing by the doors planes coming in low bombs dropping strafing that's just where i wake up it's realistic and very frightening how long has this been going on how often have you had this dream every night for a week and everything is always the same chronologically the same everything everything the ensign and his bride the bar in my room on the phone everything and the moment when i'm standing by those doors and the planes are coming in it's always the same and it's it's real it's not a dream it's real i'm going back in time i know well mr jensen i i won't attempt to analyze that dream now except to say this that very often you dream with a purpose the dreams are usually significant but something deep-rooted in a man's subconscious very often the subjects that you dream about are not really the things that bother you they're only symbols of the things that bother you look doc don't try to outlogic me i'm not trying to pass this off as logic i just know what i know i'm going back in time i can't give you an explanation i thought maybe you could give me one but i'll tell you something else when i'm standing by those doors and the planes are coming in that's where i wake up but even after i wake up and i'm lying in bed thinking about it i know the dream shouldn't have ended there it should have gone on beyond that one of these nights it will go on beyond that and you have no idea what might transpire in that moment beyond that [Applause] all right let's approach it your way let's look at it as if it weren't the dream but let's look at it very practically assume now that it were possible to go back in time now we can assume that you go back in time and you do something let's say you warn people about an accident that you know is going to happen so that the accident doesn't happen but what is it that you're doing by altering the past you change the present look doc this is important mr jensen it's very important that you grasp this let's try this analogy supposing supposing i were able to go back in time i go back and i'm hit well let's say by a taxi now it figures that if i were able to go back in time and were killed i wouldn't be living today not only that think of all the other lives affected i wouldn't have gotten married wouldn't have any children i wouldn't have bought a house now all these things wouldn't exist as they do today because i changed them in the past by being killed so so it's not possible to go back in time we must assume that this is a dream all right try this then all right i've never been in honolulu my whole life before except during that dream so after the first couple of times i dreamed this i take your time well i decided i'd put it to a test i knew the ensign's last name it was in oddwin janoski he told me that he and his girl had come from a little town called white oak wisconsin i placed a call there there was only one janoski in the book a woman answered the phone she told me she was his mother i told her that i was an old friend of his from honolulu and i asked was he there and then and then she told me that her son and his wife were killed in honolulu on december 7th 1941. he went down with the arizona she was shot down near king street by a plane strafing well doctor are you sure you've never been to honolulu yes i was there once when when i'm supposedly having that dream [Music] all right doc tell me i don't hear you talking well at the moment i don't quite know what to [Music] [Applause] say dr gillespie's patient lay on the couch almost in a stupor they'd been talking for hours it was saturday and gillespie had planned to close early and go play golf at that moment he'd forgotten golf he was concerned only with the fascinating and unbelievable story that this man in front of him had told him and then as he looked at him lying there on the couch dr gillespie knew jensen was falling asleep he could tell by the look on the face that he was far from resting though his eyes were closed and he was no longer aware of him [Music] hmm um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] repeat he may not be alive tomorrow i told you i don't want no trouble you hear me mr jensen mr all jensen [Music] i told you i told you i told you why wouldn't anybody listen to me i told you i told you i told you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] try this analogy mr jensen supposing i were to go back in time and i would be hit say by a taxi now it figures if i went back in time and were killed i shouldn't be living today [Music] ripping on the rocks foreign bourbon on the rocks well happy dreams whatever you like drink hardy [Music] something wrong uh no who's the guy in the picture [Music] no the uh the other picture well that's pete jensen he used to turn by hey no jensen [Music] no just look familiar that's all where is he now his daddy was killed at pearl harbor it is october 4th 1958 saturday 12 10 p.m if anyone is remotely interested in the element of time [Applause] [Music] so don't forget next week the westinghouse desilu playhouse will present the special lucy hour show the ricardo's make room for danny with our friends the merchants little ricky and guest stars danny thomas and his television family

Channel: One-Step-Beyond

Views: 557,012

Rating: 4.8433027 out of 5

Keywords: One Step Beyond

Id: csLzUH1M5F0

Length: 51min 50sec (3110 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 28 2016