The First Problem - Jacques Futrelle
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The First Problem, by Jacques Futrell. That strange, seemingly inexplicable chain of circumstances which had to do with the mysterious disappearance of a famous actress, Irene Wallach, from her dressing room in a Springfield theatre in the course of a performance, while the echo of tumultuous appreciation still rang in her ears, was perhaps the first problem which was not purely scientific that the thinking machine was ever asked to solve. The scientist's aide was enlisted in this case by Hutchinson Hatch, reporter. but i am a scientist a logician the thinking machine had protested i know nothing whatever of crime no one knows that a crime has been committed the reporter hastened to say there is something far beyond the ordinary in this affair a woman has disappeared evaporated into thin air in the hearing almost in sight of her friends the police can make nothing of it it is a problem for a greater mind than theirs
professor von dusen waved the newspaper man to a seat and himself sank back into a great cushioned chair in which his diminutive figure seemed even more childlike than it really was tell me the story he said petulantly all of it The enormous yellow head rested against the chair back. The blue eyes squinted steadily upward. The slender fingers were pressed, tip to tip. The thinking machine was in a receptive mood. Hatch was triumphant. He had had only a vague hope that he could interest this man in an affair which was as bizarre as it was incomprehensible. miss wallack is thirty years old and beautiful the reporter began as an actress she has won high recognition not only in this country but in england you may have read something of her in the daily papers and if-i never read the papers the other interrupted curtly go on
she is unmarried and as far as anyone knows had no immediate intention of changing her condition hatch resumed staring curiously at the thin face of the scientist i presume she had admirers most beautiful women of the stage have but she is one whose life has been perfectly clean whose record is an open book i tell you this because it might have a bearing on your conclusion as to a possible reason for her disappearance now the actual circumstances of that disappearance miss wallack has been playing in shakespearean repertoire last week she was in springfield on saturday night which concluded her engagement there she appeared as rosalind in as you like it the house was crowded she played the first two acts amid great enthusiasm and this despite the fact that she was suffering intensely from headache to which she was subject at times
after the second act she returned to her dressing-room and just before the curtain went up for the third the stage manager called her she replied that she would be out immediately there seems no possible shadow of doubt that it was her voice Rosalind does not appear in the third act until the curtain has been up for six minutes. When Miss Wallach's cue came, she did not answer it.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:52
2
What mysterious disappearance sets up the story of The First Problem?
7:52–10:05
3
How is Professor von Dusen (the Thinking Machine) first introduced and persuaded to investigate?
10:05–23:01
4
What were the key facts about Irene Wallach’s disappearance from her dressing room?
23:01–29:28