1962-02-04 Friday

Ivor Francis stars as “Henry Beckham,” an 1860s shipping broker, in a Jack Johnstone script (written as “Jonathan Bundy”). It is about a sailor who is skeptical about the superstition of bad luck for Friday sailings, especially Friday the 13th. He has a new boat built so every construction step occurs on a Friday, and launches his new boat on Friday the 13th just to prove the superstition wrong. Whoops.

Johnstone uses a persistent legend involving the British Royal Navy as his springboard for the script. The claimed incident has been proven untrue. Sometime in the 19th century, the fable goes, the Royal Navy attempted to stop the Friday superstitions once and for all. A ship named HMS Friday was supposedly commissioned, its keel laid on a Friday, the ship completed on a Friday, and its maiden voyage on Friday the 13^th. This all happened, fittingly, under the command of a Captain James Friday. The ship was never seen or heard from again, much to the dismay and embarrassment of the Royal Navy. There has never been any Royal Navy ship of that name. But, legends, even false ones, are always potential plotlines of radio scripts.

He builds out the story, giving it a time and place (1860s England) and removing Royal Navy involvement. The story is instead about a shipping agent who cannot get insurance for a cargo shipment that is bound for Philadelphia. His long-time insurance broker, Edward Etherington, refuses because the sailing date is a Friday the 21st. Etherington recites a long list of wrecks associated with Friday sailings. He goes to another broker, Mr. Archrock, who also turns him down. Beckham becomes so frustrated with the “sheer, stupid superstition” that he decides to buy his own ship. He sells his share of the business to his business partner, Philip Morley, to raise the money. He and makes sure its construction under the supervision of shipbuilder Malcolm MacBaskin flies in the face of superstition every step of the way. The contract is signed on Friday, April 28^th, construction beginning on Friday, May 5^th , and the start of each construction milestone is a Friday. The ship is christened on Friday, September 22^nd. The ship is even named “Friday.” He plans to embark on the worst of all Fridays, October 13^th. He hires a captain for the ship, whose last name is “Friday.” The ship leaves port… and Beckham never hears from it ever again.

No script cover is available. The date and time of recording is not known. 

In the cast is Hetty Galen, who plays a young girl, Beckham’s niece. This was her only Suspense appearance. She was 33 at the time of the broadcast. Her birth name was Harriet Gutterman. Galen appeared in many CBS radio soaps, especially Whispering Streets. She often voiced teenagers and adults in her advertising, radio, and animation work. She was in 15 CBS Radio Mystery Theater productions. She was the first person whose voiceover for Clairol hair products uttered the famous line “Does she? Or doesn’t she?”

Suspense had another episode, The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, about the true story where a ship was found, adrift but intact, but the entire crew was missing! It was broadcast on 1953-06-08 with Van Heflin, and again on 1955-12-27 with John Dehner. There is no mention if a Friday date was involved.

Classic radio researcher Karl Schadow notes that Jack Johnstone planted an inside joke related to a 5-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Starting at approx 6:50, after the announcement of the ship that was lost at sea, the Etherington character (portrayed by Bob Dryden) cites other previously ships lost at sea including The Molly K. That series, The Molly K Matter, ran from 1955-10-10 to 1955-10-14. It was written by Les Crutchfield, produced and directed by Johnstone.

There may be another inside reference, which is that Mercer McLeod plays a character named “Captain Friday” in this episode. Jack Johnstone worked with Carleton E. Morse in the mid-1950s on a short-lived soap opera, Family Skeleton. “Captain Friday” was a main character in Morse’s syndicated adventure series, Adventures by Morse.

A sillier reference might be “Mr. MacBaskin,” also played by MacLeod. After checking multiple genealogy web sites, there is no such surname. It could be, however, a mash-up of “McDonalds” and the ice cream shop “Baskin-Robbins.” Both franchise organizations started in southern California, and it is likely there were stores nearby to Johnstone’s home off the busy Santa Monica Boulevard. Some writers will do anything to break writer’s block or to amuse themselves as they come up with character names. Johnstone had the kind of humor to do so.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP620204

THE CAST

Ivor Francis (Henry Beckham), Hetty Galen (Beckham’s niece), Bill Lipton (Insurance agent #2), Herb Duncan (Insurance agent #1), Dave Gilbert (Insurance agent #3), Robert Dryden (Edward Etherington), Mercer MacLeod (Captain Friday, Mr. MacBaskin), William Redfield (Philip Morley), Lawson Zerbe (Mr. Archcroft)

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1962-01-28 Please Believe Me

Bob Readick and Joan Lorring star in a two-actor psychological drama by Ben Kagen. Suspense had some exceptional dramas in this genre, but this is not one of them. There is little character depth, and is mainly exchanges of accusations and fears, and an attempt of one to do away with the other. Ho-hum.

Lorring plays “Julia,” an insecure woman who comes from a wealthy family. Readick plays “Tony,” a struggling artist with a drinking problem, who seems to be interested only in her money, especially a monthly annuity payment she receives. They marry only three weeks after their first meeting. It seems their relationship was a very bad idea, a mismatch, with quarreling over trivial matters and suspicions about motives and actions. Julia travels to visit her parents, and Tony refuses to go, expecting his life to be scrutinized and criticized. She returns from the trip, and he accuses her of having an affair, and continuing it on the short trip. When she returns, he accuses her of meeting up with Jim Copeland, an old boyfriend, from whom a letter was delivered while she was away. Tony opened it, of course, and makes all kinds of accusations.

Julia becomes paranoid when she learns that Tony had a book about poisons and read it while she was away. She even calls a pharmacy to be sure that a prescription she has is not poison. Despite their assurance, she believes it is. She calls Copeland, possibly to ask for help, but the call is short. Tony steps into the room and he seems more intimidating than before, and his platitudes to calm her seem very hollow. He gives her a pill to relax, and she refuses. Julia starts to pack her things to leave him. Tony demands an answer as to why she is leaving, and in response he tells her she is suffering from hallucinations about him. Then it is revealed that she eavesdropped on a call he had with a woman named Gina, with whom he is plotting against her. Julia had written a letter to her lawyer that Tony was trying to get the annuity by either killing her or having her declared insane; Tony intercepted the letter before it could be mailed. He gives the letter back to Julia, and presses her further, making her seem trapped. Frustrated, Julia pulls out a gun and shoots, and in the tension of the moment, she is off target. He demands the gun, they scuffle, and she falls from the apartment window. The phone rings… it is Gina… and he tells her he is now free. Their plans have to be delayed, he says, and then he collapses, presumed dead, and that Julia’s shot did actually hit him.

There is no script cover available for this episode. The data and time of recording is not known.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP620128

THE CAST

Robert Readick (Tony Cooper), Joan Lorring (Julia Cooper)

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1962-01-21 2462

Lawson Zerbe stars in a George Bamber script about a totalitarian future where his character (Frank Smith, but known as 108303715) will be euthanized because he has wasted valuable time writing poetry. Society has determined that math- and science-related activities have top priority to deal with the serious problems of the age, 500 years from this episode’s broadcast date.

The story starts with Smith in a prison cell of some sort where he is awaiting time to be judged for the irrelevance of his acts, described there as writing “doggerel.” As it is explained, he will not be found “guilty” or “not guilty,” but as “productive or non-productive, social or anti-social.” He is sentenced to be “processed” by the department of agriculture in the next twenty days. Typically, such a sentence includes a kind of futuristic “sedation” that makes the time pass more quickly. He, however, insists on being fully awake for the days so he can continue to write. They objected, but granted his wish.

Eighteen days pass, and an old a security officer (referred to as “Old Guard” in the script) stops at his cell and tells him that he has been secretly reading the poetry, and likes it. The guard’s time for his termination is coming soon: he is more than 100 years old, and the government requires it. He makes a suggestion that he and Frank change clothes, buying Frank many more days to keep writing. This is possible because the numbers on their foreheads are very similar. The 3s can be easily altered to become 8s, and no one will care or be alert enough to acknowledge the difference when Smith’s number matches the guard’s and vice versa. The guard has an altruistic incentive. He loves poetry, as does his granddaughter, and he wants to make sure that poetry can survive. He cannot imagine a world without poetry. The more Smith writes, the more likely poetry might survive. The final scenes of the story reinforce the guard’s love of the art form in an unusual way in somewhat of a surprise ending.

The name “Frank Smith” might have been selected to remind listeners of 1984’s “Winston Smith.” The concepts behind the story are drawn from an area of literature that can be found in George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and other that offer “dystopian” visions of the future. There is a parallel to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, as even poetry books would be burned as subversive. There is a line of dialogue in the script about a poem that “Frank Smith” wrote. He says “I wrote about the last blade of grass I had seen.” This could be a reference to a lesser known dystopian novel of 1956 by John Christopher, The Death of Grass. It became a movie in 1970, No Blade of Grass. That MGM movie was produced and directed by a Suspense favorite actor Cornel Wilde, who also contributed to the screenplay.

The nine-digit number that was placed on the foreheads in the story is noted as similar to the nine-digit US Social Security number assigned to each worker or taxpayer. It is claimed in the script that one would be assigned at birth. That was not the case at the time of broadcast. Workers were required to apply for a card and number when they started their work life, often around 14 or 15 years old. It was not until the 1980s when there were revisions to various tax laws that it was recommended that children be registered into the system in their earliest weeks and months of life. Listeners would have been surprised at the idea that children and even babies would get numbers. But it was a lot less than 500 years away. People losing their names and being known by numbers would be recognized by the listeners as a reference to the numerical tattoos used in the Nazi concentration camps. Bamber reinforces that human nature and human horrors can be repeated in the future, even if in a different way.

A fascinating aspect of this script of more than 60 years ago are Bamber’s assumptions about technology 500 years into the future. The technology we have today has superleapfrogged his expectations and those of the 1960s audience. The numbers on the foreheads? Why? There are bar codes and QR codes today, and image recognition is actually pretty good today. (Check it out: take a picture of a packaged household good and submit it to a search engine or to Amazon). The codes could be applied in some kind of “invisible” ink rather than wearing the numbers on their heads. There are also biometrics for the identification of persons, such as retinal scans. Bamber was writing in the transistor era, with the integrated circuit technology just getting off the ground. We already use implanted chips to help trace household pets and other animals. He still includes typing and keyboards in the story. He was writing this in the punch card era, and the idea of typing directly into a computer meant you were in some kind of advanced computer environment that was far away in the future as far as most people and enterprises were concerned.

The line of dialogue about the disposition of Smith’s body as being “taken from your cell to the division of agriculture for processing.” There is a modern-day effort to promote “human composting” as part of the “green burial” movement. This is probably the concept that Bamber was referring to.

No script cover is available. The date and time of recording is not known.

This episode was announced as “2461” in the prior week’s announcement. Zirato may have had the script for a couple of months, at least, before scheduling it. The date that it takes place is “November 2462, ten months after the broadcast. It is possible that this was originally expected to be broadcast in November 1961 to make that month exactly 500 years into the future.

There are two “Frank Smith” poems in the story. The first is:

In my treeless, greenless office
Amid the bustling mad despair
I hunger after exile
From the chrome and filtered air.

and the second is:

In the monumental silence
Of a long and pointless strife,
I'm pained at my reluctance
To let go this last of life.
I only ask the place
And time enough to give
Some small meaning to the meaningless
And point to having lived.

The script, like most of his Suspense scripts, was written at a time when Bamber was struggling. He was trying to get some career traction in Hollywood for movies and television. It was a difficult time from many perspectives, and his personal struggle with the uncertainties of freelance writing had him on the verge of seeking to do something more financially return. Just substitute “radio scripts” for “poetry” in the 2462 storyline, and you get the idea. That personal conflict may have been one of inspirations for this script’s core. The poetry used in the story might have emerged from these ruminations. He would leave writing behind a few years later when he started working in public relations and marketing in the paper and wood products industry.

Classic radio enthusiast Ryan Osentowski notes that this episode has similarities to the 1961-06-02 broadcast of The Obsolete Man on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Serling wrote that episode himself, about a librarian (played by Burgess Meredith) who is declared obsolete because there are no more books. The Serling story is far deeper and broader in meaning than 2462. Some of that is from his skillful writing, but the staging of the television broadcast amplifies its storyline. It is likely Bamber drew some measure of inspiration from the broadcast since he was a devoted fan of The Twilight Zone. The episode can be viewed at The Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/the-twilight-zone-02029

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https://archive.org/details/TSP620121

THE CAST

Lawson Zerbe (Frank Smith [108303715]), Rosemary Rice (Court Stenographer), William Mason (Young), Robert Randall (Lieutenant), Robert Dryden (Old Guard)

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1962-01-14 Feathers

Lawson Zerbe stars in a Jack Johnstone episode written as “Jonathan Bundy.” It’s a light story that has a similar plotline and surprise ending gimmick as Banquo’s Chair. A gangster named Feathers Grogan is very upset with one of his “bag men,” Peter Weldon who has stopped collecting money for his loan-sharking operation. Grogan is very superstitious, and makes decisions based on his luck charms such as a lucky horse shoe that hangs on a wall and a rabbits foot that he keeps in his pocket. Since Peter stopped collecting, those charms are failing. Peter wants to return home to Kansas and get out of the racket, which upsets Grogan to the point of killing him. At the opening tease of the broadcast, Weldon is heard telling Grogan that he will regret killing him, and he will haunt him if he does. That sets up an element of the “surprise” ending.

Feathers ends up in custody of the police, but all they have him on is the loansharking charge. They know he killed Weldon, but they can’t prove it. They have to find a way to get him to confess. Peter Weldon’s brother Richard comes to the station, and is a dead ringer for his younger brother, and sounds just like him. The police get the idea of isolating Grogan in a cell and then having Richard say ghostly things over a microphone to work on Grogan’s superstitious mind and drive him into confessing. Of course it works, but police are confused when the ghostly voice cites an incident that only Peter would have known about. They get a call from Richard apologizing for being late and not being able to help them. We knew there’d be a case of the heebie-jeebies! It’s not that big of a surprise that it was Peter’s ghost that returned as he said he would.

No script cover is available. The recording date and time is not known.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP620114

THE CAST

Lawson Zerbe (Peter Weldon / Richard Weldon), Bill Mason (Sgt. Brady), Bob Readick (Feathers Grogan), Ian Martin (Captain Nichols), John Thomas (Lt. Gilroy)

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1962-01-07 Breakthrough

Adelaide Klein and Philip Sterling star in a William N. Robson story that takes place during the construction of the Berlin Wall. The broadcast was about four-and-one-half months after the wall was started on August 13, 1961. As this script makes quite clear, the purpose of the Wall was to prevent East Berliners from traveling into West Berlin without permission.

Sterling plays “Willy,” the son of the elderly Frau Schmidt (played by Klein) who desires to stay in her East Berlin apartment. Willy’s wife and child, however, are already in West Berlin, and he wants to join them with his mother. Security measures are increasing against travel to West Berlin. Their attempt to cross at the Brandenburg Gate is stopped by a border guard and their nosy neighbor, Herr Weiss. When they return to the apartment, a friend, Carl Dietrich, is there. He also failed to cross and wants to attempt it once more. When Willy and his mother had their failed attempt, they saw a fleeing man killed by border guards. That incident removed any doubts, about leaving in Frau Schmidt’s mind. She urges Willy and Carl to find a way to leave. A border guard comes to her home, and he is subdued and killed by Willy and Carl. The man’s uniform will fit Carl, and he will wear it as a ruse to get everyone through security; they decide to leave. Carl pretends to be the officer in front of Weiss as he escorts his “prisoners,” Willy and Frau Schmidt, for interrogation and possible arrest. They leave and head towards the Friedrichstrasse checkpoint. They are challenged by the police yet again, and Carl’s explanations as to why they have permission to cross do not fool the guards. Willy decides to floor the gas pedal and plow through the barricade at high speed. It results in a terrible accident. Only Willy survives, but now he is free, and can join his family, because of the sacrifices of Carl and Willy’s mother.

The production is a bit stilted and preachy, and would have been better with the Suspense music of years before. Some of that might have been the result of the constrained rehearsal time that Suspense had in the austere budgets of the 1960s New York shows. This tragic story of the Berlin Wall and this script could not have been written back in the glory days of Suspense, but this style of story was always done well in that era. The insightful and wonderful orchestral bridges and backgrounds that Suspense used at that time could weak scripts and weak performances. Those resources were not available in this last year of the series, unfortunately.

The oppression in Eastern Europe and Russia were always a concern of Robson, and some of his best broadcasts in the time he was Suspense producer were stories of this type. He often employed performers who had a familial or ethnic tie to those scripts. In this case, he might have recommended Adelaide Klein to producer Bruno Zirato, Jr., or Zirato may have already known Klein. She was a long-time radio actor and also appeared on stage and movies. She was noted for her ability to reproduce over twenty different dialects, making her a valuable resource for many producers and directors. Like Robson, however, her career was negatively affected for a few years by being listed in Red Channels. Her appearance in this Robson script may have been inspired by their mutual experience and the style of casting he used in the past. At the time of this broadcast, Robson was already working at Voice of America.

No script cover is available for this episode. Therefore, the date and time of its recording is not known.

There are two surviving recordings, a network aircheck and an Armed Forces Radio and Television Service recording (AFRS#860). Both recordings are very listenable but have very mild defects. The AFRS recording is the better of the two. The network aircheck is missing the opening words “And now…” and also has a slightly trimmed close that lacks the network ID.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP620107

THE CAST

Adelaide Klein (Mother, Frau Schmidt), Philip Sterling (Willy), Robert Dryden (Weiss), Danny Ocko (First VoPo), Alan Manson (Carl), Luis Van Rooten (Third VoPo), Sam Raskyn (Escapee), Doug Parkhirst (The GI), Guy Repp (Second VoPo)

The acronym “VoPo” stands for Volkspolizei, which translates to “People's Police.” The Volkspolizei was the national uniformed police force of East Germany from 1945 to 1990. They worked closely with the Stasi, State Security, which was somewhat similar to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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1961-12-31 The Old Man

Leon Janney stars in a light and somewhat amusing story built on the traditional depictions of one year coming to a close and a new one ready to begin. In this case, “the old man” is the year 1961. He puts up great resistance to being replaced by the newborn 1962. This Bob Corcoran story is good and creative, but it does drag a bit, and probably could have been wrapped up five minutes or so sooner. We get the point: 1961 was not the greatest of years and the “old man” wants to make it right. His superiors do their best to make it seem like it’s in his best interest, and this was the agreement when he started. He certainly knew what he was getting into, because he replaced 1960, after all.

The year was a tough one with significant international tensions, including the building of the Berlin Wall, a space race that might lead to the militarization of space, nuclear testing that demonstrated the destructive power of such weapons, the building of fallout shelters that seemed certain to be used, the assignment of military advisors to South Vietnam, and social tensions. One could understand why “old man 1961” might want a little more time to smooth things out. But, forced retirement was the rule, and the story has reminders that not everyone experiences the same kind of year. Some people have good years, too. A year is different for every person. There is also the lesson that no matter what happens, time keeps passing, and change will occur whether accepted or not. A new year often holds a promise of starting anew, with a fresh attitude, and an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past.

The crowd in Times Square, a key focus of the story from its opening scene, was celebratory as the clock ticked to become 1962. There was great hope for a happy new year.

In 1961, it was still legal in the US for employers to have mandatory retirement policies applied to their employees. There were always employers who chose not have such rules. It was not until 1986 that mandatory retirement became generally unlawful, with some exceptions. This story may have been a subtle commentary about the topic, with sympathy for some workers who still had much to offer having to leave the jobs they had if their employers had such a rule. In the late 1960s there was legislation making it illegal to discriminate against workers because of their age, especially after age 40. Those laws did not affect mandatory retirement policies.

No script cover page is available for this episode. The recording date and time is, therefore, not known.

The surviving recording is a network aircheck, likely from WROW of Albany, New York.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP611231

THE CAST

Leon Janney (The Old Man), Ted Osborne aka Reynold Osborn (The Director), Larry Haines (The Tippler), Rita Lloyd (Miss Fowler), Ivor Francis (Assistant to Director), Guy Repp (Johnson), Ralph Camargo (The Announcer), Lawson Zerbe (Joe Walston)

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1961-12-17 Yuletide Miracle

Larry Haines stars in a somewhat lighthearted Christmastime script written by John Roeburt. Used twice on Inner Sanctum, CBS publicity for the 1949-12-26 and 1950-12-25 broadcasts referred to it as a “non-spooky ghost story.” Titled The Enchanted Ghost, it starred Frank Sinatra in 1949 and the next year it starred Larry Haines. He repeats his 1950 role in this 1961 Suspense broadcast.

Haines plays Chris D’Angelo, a street-smart parole violator, who slips into a homeless mission to evade his parole officer, Brannigan. Inside, he meets a dying young man named Tommy Simmons, who asks Chris to deliver Christmas presents—a gold watch and nylon stockings—to his mother and blind sister, Linda. Reluctantly, Chris agrees. Just as Tommy dies, Chris is visited by Sir Benjamin, a ghost, who plays the piano invisibly. He encourages Chris to fulfill Tommy’s wish, and if he doesn’t, he’ll help the parole officer find him. He helps Chris hide from Brannigan. Chris travels to Bethlehem, (it could be anywhere, but it likely refers to the Pennsylvania town about 85 miles west of New York City), where Tommy’s family lives. He meets Linda at the train, and Tommy's mother at the house. They welcome Chris with great hospitality, but they were not able to gather common signs of the season, such as a tree, and a turkey for their Christmas meal. Sir Benjamin is a magic-like catalyst for other arrangements to come together. Chris has a joyful Christmas with the Simmons family, and shares the gifts as Tommy wanted. He comes to realize that Sir Benjamin was the father of the household who had passed away, and was looking out for their well-being, and that of Chris. He has a new sense of purpose in his life, decides to stay in Bethlehem and it is implied he becomes one of the family.

Why the name “Chris D’Angelo”? “Chris” is a contraction of “Christmas,” or “Christ,” or “Kris Kringle,” which is one of the names for Santa Claus. “D’Angelo” means of or from angels.

No script cover is available. The date and time of recording is not known.

There was no Suspense broadcast on 1961-12-24, pre-empted for the annual Christmas Sing with Bing broadcast with Bing Crosby.

There are two network aircheck recordings available. The WROW aircheck is the better of the two. The recording begins with an advertisement for Welcome Wagon. The other aircheck is from Dallas, Texas station KRLD. It begins with an advertisement for Republic Bank. There is a station ID and then an eight second gap. The station engineer seems to have neglected to turn up the volume for the network feed. The clipped end of an announcement about CBS News can be heard just before the beginning of the Suspense broadcast. There are very few KRLD airchecks of Suspense or other programs.

Only one of the Inner Sanctum broadcasts has survived, and it is in very poor sound. It is the 1949 broadcast with Frank Sinatra. The recording can be accessed at https://archive.org/details/InnerSanctumTheEnchantedGhostwithFrankSinatra122649

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611217

THE CAST

Larry Haines (Chris), Joe de Santis (Brannigan), Bill Lipton (Tommy), Santos Ortega (Sir Benjamin), Rosemary Rice (Linda), Katharine Raht (Mrs. Simmons)

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