1959-05-17 Friend of Daddy's

Frank Lovejoy stars as a troubled Korean War veteran in a psychological drama by William N. Robson. It is an unsettling story. Lovejoy’s character, Butch, is starting his life again after being in and out of government hospitals. He goes looking for a friend from the Army days, Pete, and finally is in the neighborhood. Butch goes up to the house, and sees a boy playing cowboy with toy guns in the yard. When he learns the boy’s name is “Butch,” he knows he is in the right place. He goes up to the home and meets Pete’s wife, Louise. After some time together that evening, Pete invites him to live with him and his family. He means to be generous, but Butch’s behavior is unsettling to his wife. Her instincts are correct: it doesn’t go well. He ends up as a menace to Louise, practically stalking her in their own house, making unwanted advances to touch her and especially her hair. Pete asks Butch to leave, which he does, but he seems to have taking the wife’s hairbrush with him. Some time passes, and Butch makes an unexpected and disturbing visit to the house while Pete is at work. He demands that Louise let down her hair and start brushing it, desiring to touch it, with things escalating to his choking her. Luckily, their little son interrupts and Butch collapses, ending the danger. We don’t normally hear Lovejoy playing characters with such despicable behavior, and he succeeds in making Butch creepy with a sense of looming violence.

The ending of the story is set up at about 2:30 in the AFRS recording when the two “Butches” meet.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, April 22, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm with recording commencing at 4:30pm. With in-studio edits, the session ended at 6:00pm, and additional production edits were made, concluding at 8:00pm.

Originally planned for broadcast on May 10, 1959, but was replaced by On a Country Road with Ida Lupino and Howard Duff. The working title of this script was “Friend of the Family.”

There are two surviving recordings. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording is the superior of the two. The network recording is heavily edited, is missing Robson’s monologue, does retain commercials, but is in very low quality sound with noise and narrow range. Some network recordings in circulation had a patched show opening. For many years, only that network recording was available. Now Lovejoy’s performance, and its subtle nature, can be fully appreciated.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590517

THE CAST

FRANK LOVEJOY (Butch Bailey), Dick Beals (Butch Carson), Cathy Lewis (Louise Carson), Bill Quinn (Pete Carson), George Walsh (Narrator)

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1959-05-10 On a Country Road

Ida Lupino and Howard Duff star in the fourth production of a series favorite episode by Walter Bazar. The CBS television comedy series in which they starred, Mr. Adams and Eve, had been off the air for about a year after 66 episodes. At the time of this production they were in between various projects in movies, but were mainly appearing on television. A week after this broadcast, Duff would appear on the Burns and Allen show. Lupino would star in a Twilight Zone episode later in the year.

The prior three productions are listed below. The first broadcast summary has details about the script, author Walter Bazar, and the television production.

1950-11-16 Cary Grant

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/04/1950-11-16-on-country-road.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP501116 has recordings for download and streaming

1954-01-14 Frank Lovejoy and Joan Banks

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/09/1954-01-04-on-country-road.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP540104 has download and streaming resources

1954-12-09 Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/11/1954-12-09-on-country-road.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP541209 has recordings for download and streaming

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 7, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm with recording commencing at 4:30pm. With in-studio edits, the session ended at 6:00pm. Additional production edits were made and concluded by 8:00pm.

There is one surviving recording, a fine sounding Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording. It is complete, and may be new to many collectors. For decades, the only recordings available were heavily edited and in poor sound.

Two of the four ad spots of the network broadcast were taken at the time of recording. They were for Longines-Whittnauer watches and Pepsi-Cola. The other two spots were allocated before broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590510

THE CAST

IDA LUPINO (Dorothy), HOWARD DUFF (David), Jeanette Nolan (The Woman [Nellie]), Norm Alden (Policeman / Announcer), George Walsh (Narrator / newscaster)

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1959-05-03 The Amateur

Jackie Cooper portrays a young man who witnesses a hit-and-run accident. He doesn’t plan to do anything about it. When he is identified as the sole witness in a newspaper report, and finds a license plate with what is likely the victim’s blood on it, he has a choice. Does he go to the police with it? Or, does he, with a little encouragement from one of his neighborhood cronies, to try a little blackmail. He decides to turn the plate over to the driver in exchange for money to keep his mouth shut. It doesn’t work out that way. He soon gets in over his head, and it’s not the license plate that is wanted, but the supply of heroin that was in the car that is suddenly missing. He had no idea, but the gangsters don’t believe him. It’s a basic B-movie style story that fits into the traditional Suspense mold. The script by Robert Juhren won’t be in the top Suspense broadcasts, but it is very entertaining with some light moments that maintain engagement to the end. Cooper delivers a fine performance.

The story is assumed to be in a state, likely New York in this case, that requires cars to have a front license plate. As of this writing, 29 states require front and rear plates, and 21 require only a rear plate.

No recording information is available at this time; no script for this episode has been located.

The surviving recording is an excellent network broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590503

THE CAST

JACKIE COOPER (Jerry), Tommy Cook (Boots), Peter Leeds (Edward Keller), Berry Kroeger (Giacomo / Cop), Norm Alden (Neighbor / Henchman), George Walsh (Narrator)

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1959-04-26 Deep, Deep Is My Love

Lloyd Bridges stars in a Hank Searls story about a diver addicted to the effects of nitrogen narcosis. He so enjoys the narcotic effects of his deep dives and its hallucinations (though he believes they are real). He develops a compulsion to dive alone for the exhilaration and false joy of the experience. His wife suspects something is wrong when he refuses to have her accompany him on a dive. She’s right, but would never suspect he was in search of a mermaid… and that mermaid talks to him. The selfish desire to see her and hear her voice puts him and others in great danger. The story follows the pattern of many addiction stories where a character denies what they are doing, hides it from others, and finds it impossible refrain from self-harming behavior.

Bridges was in his second season of the popular television series Sea Hunt. In a sense, this story was casting against type. His character in the series, Mike Nelson, was a skilled and level-headed diver, hired to carry out dangerous missions, and a long track record of success. In this Suspense episode, however, his character is quite the opposite. He might be skilled at diving, but he lacks judgment about safety and awareness of risks to others.

This is a curious and unique Suspense episode, not one that would be picked to introduce the series or radio drama to a new listener because it is so different. It is well done, with a surprise ending that you only realize at the end that it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, April 8, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:30pm with recording starting at 4:30pm. Including in-studio edits, the session ended at 6:00pm. Production edits continued to 8:00pm.

There are two primary recordings of this episode that have survived. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording is the better one and is complete. This recording is likely new to most collectors. There have been many edited recordings that have survived, many of the likely drawn from AFRS disc transfers, airchecks from Armed Forces Radio broadcasts, and network broadcasts. A network recording exists that has had its commercials edited out, very poorly, and the sound of the first ad spot for Longines-Whittnauer watches can be heard, even for a split second. (Those ads were by KCBS announcer Frank Knight, a well-known voice for radio, voice-overs, and advertising; he was also a pioneer collector in the hobby of collecting radio programs). The recording includes the station ID of WBEN of Buffalo, New York, at the end.

The other ad spot was for Pepsi. There were two additional spots that were allocated before broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590426

THE CAST

LLOYD BRIDGES (Don), Tracy Roberts (Girl), Mari Lynn (Joyce), Bill Quinn (George), George Walsh (Narrator)

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1959-04-19 See How He Runs

Jim Backus stars in a George Bamber story as “Poppy,” the blind owner of a city sidewalk newsstand. He seems innocent enough, but we gradually learn that he has a criminal past, is selling “the numbers” from the stand in cooperation with a local crime syndicate. At the beginning of the episode a mobster leaves the newsstand and while walking away, Poppy tells him he left his umbrella at the stand. The man stops and tells Poppy he never uses an umbrella. That gives mobsters a clear shot at their rival and he is gunned down. Poppy is called in for questioning by the police, but he won’t give them any details about mob activities no matter how they threaten or coerce him. The syndicate, however, now fears that Poppy knows too much, and may have given information to the police. They try to eliminate him. He manages to evade their attempts and starts to figure their next steps. He thinks he has them outsmarted, but he only ends up outsmarting himself.

Backus’ career was hot at this time, and he was considered a “was recently described as a ”seven-threat man” because he was a headliner in radio (playing “Hubert Updyke III, the richest man in the world”) on the Alan Young Show, was on television in series such as I Married Joan, film, night clubs, stage performances, a writer of screenplay concepts, recording artist, and was still riding the popularity of the Mr. Magoo animation series that started in 1949.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, April 1, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm. Recording started at 4:30pm and, including in-studio edits, concluded at 6:00pm. Production edits continued until 8:00pm.

There is one surviving recording and it is from the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS#1020). It is complete and is in fine sound. Prior circulating recordings were heavily edited airchecks with background noise and other problems.

This was the third script by George Bamber for the series. He adapted this script five years later for the ABC Radio series Theatre 5 and changed the title to “Blind Man's Bluff.”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590419

THE CAST

JIM BACKUS (Poppy), Gail Bonney (Mrs. Wells the Landlady), Norm Alden (Ed Barker / 1st hood), Lou Krugman (Carl Raber), Barney Phillips (Al Street), Dick Beals (Bobby), Sam Pierce (2nd hood), George Walsh (Narrator)

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1959-04-12 Too Hot to Live

The final appearance of Van Heflin is in the third performance of an excellent Sam Rolfe script. Heflin plays an unemployed drifter who inadvertently finds himself in a strange town and ends up accused of murder. The police are after him, and he has to escape their pursuit in his bare feet, and find the real killer, too.

1950-10-26 Richard Widmark – these resources have further background about the script and Rolfe

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/04/1950-10-26-too-hot-to-live.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP501026 also has the recordings for download or streaming

1954-06-29 Sam Edwards

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/10/1954-06-29-too-hot-to-live.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP540629 also has the recordings for download or streaming

The program was recorded on March 25, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm and recording began at 4:30pm, including in-studio edits. The session ended at 6:00pm and production editing continued until 8:00pm.

Two recordings have survived, and both are network broadcast airchecks. The better sound recording is from WROW of Albany, New York. The other recording is an aircheck from a different station. It has the CBS network tease for upcoming programs, which is lacking in the other recording, and is in lower quality sound. It is not known what station it was recorded from.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590412

THE CAST

VAN HEFLIN (Jefferson Casey), Doris Singleton (Rachael), Berry Kroeger (Benjamin Maxwell), Charles Seel (Pop Clovis), Barney Phillips (Kenny), Norm Alden (Stranger / Driver), George Walsh (Narrator)

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1959-03-29 John Barbey and Son

John McIntire stars in this second broadcast of Mel Dinelli’s script. He plays a widowed father going on the run as he attempts to prevent his developmentally challenged son from being institutionalized. The situation started to snowball when the son accidentally killed a neighbor’s cat. His father decides to sneak away and prevent the son’s removal from his care. The father and son move from place to place and then the story comes to a strange and surprising ending. Once you hear the ending, you start to realize that the son’s removal may be to get him away from the father because it is the father who is dangerous and not the son.

The original broadcast starred Thomas Mitchell, one of the few performers to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Grammy. He is one of two who appeared on Suspense. The other is Ellen Burstyn, who appeared in the series as Ellen McRae.

Details about the first broadcast are at

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/1945-02-22-john-barbey-and-son.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP450222 and is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, March 18, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm with recording commencing at 4:30, which also included in-studio edits. Production edits were made between 6:00pm and 8:00pm.

There are two surviving recordings are both complete and are roughly the equivalent in their overall pleasing sound quality. The network recording is preferred because it was how it was first broadcast. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording is also a fine choice for listening.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590329

THE CAST

JOHN McINTIRE (John Barbey, alias Wilson), Ellen Morgan (Miss White), Karl Swenson (Mr. Wilk / Frank), Sam Pierce (Clerk), Jack Kruschen (Truckdriver / Detective Bowen), George Walsh (Narrator)

Likely to ensure the story fit into the broadcast time allotment, two parts were edited out of the script, “Woman” and “Carl.” The new role of “Truckdriver” was added to Jack Kruschen’s assignment.

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