NBC BEST PLAYS: The Petrified Forest, originally aired 9-20-1953; remade for Sonic Summerstock Playhouse 2023 by the Narada Radio Company

In the midst of the Great Depression, Alan Squier, a failed writer, now a disillusioned, penniless drifter, wanders into a somewhat frowzy roadside diner in the remote town of Black Mesa, Arizona, at the edge of the Petrified Forest. Here he meets owner Jason Maple, his daughter Gabrielle, and Gramp, Jason’s father, who regales anyone who will listen with stories of his adventures in the Old West with such characters as Billy the Kid. Eventually the diner is overrun by gangsters, headed up by Duke Mantee, who escaped prison and is being chased down by the law.

The Petrified Forest was a 1935 stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, made into a 1936 film that starred the principal actors of the stage play, Leslie Howard (Squier) and Humphrey Bogart (Mantee). 

CAST:

Les Marsden as GRAMP MAPLE

Gino C. Vianelli as BOZE HERTZLINGER

Bobby Vela as the TELEGRAPH LINEMAN

Paul Arbisi as JASON MAPLE

Carole Krohn as GABBY MAPLE

Ebony Rose as PAULA

Chuck Wilson as MR. CHISHOLM

Stephanie Stearns-Dulli as MRS. CHISHOLM

Carl Thomas as JOSEPH

David Ian as JACKIE and the RADIO VOICE

Dana Gonsalves as DUKE MANTEE

Duane Noch as RUBY

Tre’ Minor as SLIM

Frank Guglielmelli as the LEGION COMMANDER

Pete Lutz as ALAN SQUIER

Music was sourced from the public domain.