A Message for the Boys Overseas (1940)
"What do you mean I can't perform tonight?" The heart broken voice tinkled through the radio broadcaster's office. "You promised me a whole half hour, Jim."
"I know what I said, Heidi, but I just received notice of a very important broadcast that has to go out tonight. I'm sorry, but it's going to have to take up your time on the air." The man, Jim, was a slouched old fellow with droopy eyes and even droopier ears. He sort of resembled a half melted candle. The girl he was addressing was just the opposite. Everything about her was well formed and youthfully proportioned, and her voice was a heavenly soprano's.
"Jim, isn't there anything you can do to get my show broadcasted? I could care less about the reviews. I just want to sing for my fella over in Germany. I told him that I would sing him a special song every birthday that we were apart. Now I gotta keep my word to him or he'll think I've been infidelitous to him."
The man sighed, "There isn't anything I can do. Your broadcast has been canceled. I'm sorry Heidi. Maybe you should try writing him a letter." With that he slouched down farther into his chair and got to writing something important at his desk.
Heidi stood for a long moment, tears almost welling up in her eyes. Then, without a word she turned on her heel and left the office.
The man in the chair sighed to himself again and shook his head as he prepped the prerecorded message that was due in five minutes. He tested the audio and then moved over to the microphone. With a sudden change in his voice he became the radio host for the night. "Thank you for tuning in with us this fine night. We just heard the great Sully O'Brian and his Big Band perform one of his original hits 'Don't Leave Me'. It's got some really great swing rhythm, and there'll more of that later on. But first, we have an important message from General P. Johnson." He pushed play on the cassette tape and moved back to his desk.
Jim's night progressed fairly normally. After the radio message, the radio program continued as before, song after song, style after style. Until right around midnight.
Eight big men busted down Jim's office door. The leader shouted, "You are under arrest for the broadcast of military secrets and the assist in the murder of American troops!"
Jim, quite shocked, protested but was no competition for the FBI agents. He was roughly handcuffed and bustled down the hall to the van waiting outside.
As he passed an open doorway Heidi stepped out wailing "Oh Jim! What has happened? Where are they taking you?" She squeezed past the big men and got close enough to whisper into Jim's ear, "I never said my boy was American."
And with that, Jim, shocked and disoriented, was shipped of to Washington for interrogation.