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On a cool, October night in 1956, Howard and
Betty Slack join the rest of the salesmen of the Waldo Gray Insurance Agency
(Jake, the pseudo-intellectual, Ferdinand, the former clergyman, Wayne, the
bully and Harvey, the loser… along with their wives and the Widow Harwood) who
have gathered at the boss’ home (past the cemetery, almost into the country!)
to enjoy the hospitality of the Grays… Waldo and Marlene, son Timmy and dog
Spot… to eat Lobster Newburg, drink blue champagne and compete with one another
for the position of Waldo’s recently deceased Vice-President Henry Harwood.
After each has made his presentation, dinner is
interrupted by notice of a fire, to which the Grays invariably rush… leaving
their protégés to their own devices.
More champagne is consumed and mischief ensues… infidelity and
backbiting, interruptions by a politician and rented beatnik, a mousetrap. Howard and Betty discover that the champagne
has possibly come from Bad China… a suspicion bolstered by Timmy Gray, who also
shows them a cabinet of vodka and a secret radio, as well as a secret door that
leads downwards into unimaginable depths.
Alarmed, Howard pours the champagne out into the tankful of lobsters but
the guests are drunk already, and the lobsters, growing to vast proportions,
smash through their confinement and begin a course of mayhem and murder that is
enhanced by fire and by the salesmen’s own megalomania.
Escaping down the secret stairwell, Howard,
Betty, Timmy and Spot encounter fugitive slaves, remorseless bounty-hunters and
their hell-hound; leading to a course of perilous adventures brought to a close
only by the return of Waldo Gray for his decision, explanations, cigars and
more champagne.
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Episode Thirty Nine
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