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DIMENSION X - Marionettes, Incorporated (Ray Bradbury)

DIMENSION X Marionettes, Incorporated August 30, 1951 The original short story, Marionettes, Incorporated, was written by Ray Bradbury and first published in the magazine Startling Stories, March 1949. It was adapted for Dimension X by author, playwright, scriptwriter, and story editor, George Lefferts and aired August 30, 1951. It was also appeared on the radio show X Minus One, December 21, 1955. And later for the fourth season (1958) of the Television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents with the title Design for Loving. Each adaptation of the original Ray Bradbury story made changes that affected the theme just a little. Lefferts, a brilliant Sci-Fi writer in his own right, leans into ethics just a bit in his adaptation of Bradbury's story and gives us a way to see even the antagonist as sympathetic. The story paints a picture of a two men trapped in the 1950s heteronormative status quo who try to use illegal tech to solve their marital issues. HISTORICAL GLOSSARY Walter confides to Henry that shortly after his marriage to Gloria, because she was so bossy and he so meek, he became, "...the laughingstock of the neighborhood. Henpecked Braeling, they used to call me." A hen is a female chicken and chickens have a hierarchy when they live together in a flock. They fight and peck at each other to gain dominance. If a hen gains dominance over a rooster in the flock, then that rooster has been pecked by her and is "henpecked". In human terms, a man who is dominated and controlled by a woman is also called "henpecked." This is an insult both to the man who is said to be henpecked, and to the woman henpecking him. She is essentially being called a "hen" in this context, which (in the 1950s) was a term for an unattractive woman who had nothing to contribute to society but gossiping and getting in people's way. Today calling a woman a hen is not the insult it was in the 1950s. Walter plans to go to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to, as he puts it, spend, "A whole month, Henry, to have a fling." Today if you have "a fling" it describes a sexual liaison that is temporary, just a quick affair with no strings attached. But in the 1950s it meant to just do something for fun, on a whim, the only purpose or agenda being to enjoy yourself. "Goof-off" might be a good synonym for the word the way it is being used in the context of this radio play. When Henry asks Walter for Mr. Zigg's contact information, and Walter hesitates, Henry says, "What do you say, old man? A favor to an old buddy? Fellow lodge member?" Lodges were popular men's clubs in the 1950s. They were usually loosely associated with a union, a charitable cause, or military association. For example, the Lion Club's mission was sight preservation, as in, raising money for those who need eye operations, organizing donation of glasses to the underprivileged, and assisting the blind to connect with resources. There were also the Elks Club, the Moose Club, The Knights of Columbus, Legionnaires, and many more, each of which had a distinct and specific mission. Though lodges were classified as "men's clubs" they included women as members and typically had a family focus. Lodges owned meeting halls for family events and were a social center in many people's lives in the 1950s. There is concern in this story about the "boiler". B-2 says he was down in the basement "making sure the boiler hadn’t exploded" because "The pipes were knocking." And later Gloria asks Walter to check the boiler because, as she says, "He [B-2 as Walter] mentioned that the boiler was acting up, and I’m afraid to go down there again." A boiler is a heater that heats a liquid, either water or oil, until it becomes steam or oil vapor, then it circulates this gas through pipes so that the pipes heat whatever needs heating. That is how old radiators heated a room. The pressure of the vapor could also be used for energy and boilers were part of the technology that ran steam engines. A disadvantage of boilers is that they could explode violently and destroy the house that was using it as a heater, or the ship that was using it to power an engine. Trains too exploded from boilers breaking. So if the boiler was making thumping and knocking noises Gloria's fear of it would be valid. Gloria tells Henry that Walter went down to the "travel bureau" to get tickets for their Rio trip. And then later when he returns and she asks him if he got the tickets, B-2 acting as Walter, says, "Ah, right here in my wallet." In 1950 all airline tickets were paper tickets. You had to physically go somewhere and buy a plane ticket and then present that paper ticket at the airport in order to get on the plane. If you didn't want to go down to the airport and buy a ticket directly from the airline, you would go to a travel bureau, later called a travel agency, that could sell tickets for all the various airlines.