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The Player: They Do It In Books

The Player: They Do It In Books

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Long before generations of children knew Paul Frees from his work for Disney and Jay Ward, his extraordinary versatility made him an ideal performer for radio. The Player gave Frees a particularly impressive showcase: a one-man theater in which he portrayed every character.

In “They Do It in Books,” that talent is put to work in an offbeat gangster comedy. sw0138Gang boss Steve Paddy is frustrated with his outfit's lack of success until one of his henchmen discovers an unexpected source of criminal inspiration: classic literature.

Beginning with Hamlet, the gang starts looking to the great books for ideas, soon turning to everything from The Count of Monte Cristo to Machiavelli while baffled investigators try to figure out why Paddy's formerly unimaginative gang has suddenly become so clever.

Written by Jerome Lawrence, who would later co-write Inherit the Wind with Robert E. Lee, “They Do It in Books” combines crime-story conventions with increasingly absurd comedy while giving Frees plenty of opportunities to demonstrate why he became known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices.”

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