Searching for title of story..."Mannequins, Inc."?

[kjps86]

Hello,

I'm searching for the title to a story I've read about. I thought it was by Heinlein and published in the 1940s, but I suppose I am wrong about at least one of those things. In any case, the story takes place in a world in which realistic robot replicas are available, and one man decides to acquire one for the purpose of keeping his wife company while he goes out and enjoys life. He thinks he is fooling his wife, and prepares for a trip to South America, only for his replacement to sabotage him and take the trip for himself.

I wish I could offer more details, but sadly I can't really remember anything else, besides a vague recollection of a subplot dealing with a friend of his who he convinces to do the same thing. I thought the title of the story was "Mannequins, Inc," but Googling this has yielded no relevant results.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[j d worthington]

Not Heinlein, but Ray Bradbury: "Marionettes, Inc.", published March 1949; included in The Illustrated Man. Incidentally, if you aren't aware of it, he wrote a sequel to this, titled "Punishment Without Crime", which is itself quite an interesting twist on the theme....

 

[kjps86]

Thanks for the help! I can finally sleep easy. Definitely interested in the sequel...