This episode of the series has importance far beyond its story
elements. A man who leaves the mob and moves to a remote place to
start a new life for him and his family. Mob ties are hard to break,
hence the title, and he is in great danger for his past associations.
Some Suspense observers claim that a later repeat broadcast of
the script under the title Night on Red Mountain was the
inspiration for the 1997 graphic novel by John Wagner, A History
of Violence. The novel was also made into a 2005 film produced by
David Cronenberg. The basic storyline of the radio drama might have
been a springboard for a much more complicated story and movie.
Whether or not Wagner was inspired by this script cannot be verified
at this time. The plot of someone running away from a previous life
to start a new one but is haunted by the prior life is not new.
That’s not what makes this script special, and an important part of
Suspense history, however. This episode represents the
return of William N. Robson to Suspense as a
scriptwriter.
In 1952, Robson was exiled by the CBS Blacklist. It turns out that
this story is not really about gangsters. It’s an allegory about
his forced separation from CBS and his efforts to return to the
network. There was one CBS executive who stood in his way for no
apparent reason. The background details of the situation are
fascinating and are a window into the Blacklist period and CBS
management. A key to understanding the times and Robson’s plight is
a letter he wrote to newscaster Edward R. Murrow asking for his help.
That letter is in Murrow’s papers at Holyoke College. It is
analyzed at a separate web page noted in the below commentary. Be
sure to visit that page.
To get the most out of the recording, listen to the broadcast
first. Then read about the
backstory to catch some of
the allegorical story events. Listen a second time to hear how it all
fits together.
There are two recordings, a network recording and an Armed Forces
Radio Services (AFRS#523). Both recordings are very good, but the
network recording is preferred for its richer sound.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP550308
THE CAST
Tom McKee (Walt Parsons, aka Joey Parino), Peter Leeds (Bat), Joyce
McCluskey (Sally Parsons), Jack Kruschen (Big Pete Parelli), Larry
Thor (Sergeant Dewey / Narrator), Victor Rodman (Dad), Irene Barton
(Las Vegas Operator), Jan Marlowe (Operator #2), Bill Anders (Radio
Announcer)
* * *
Nobody Ever Quits and the Plight of William N. Robson
Bill Robson was at the beginnings of entertainment radio in the
1930s, and was immersed in the development and use of the techniques
and technologies of the time. He was a successful writer, director,
and producer for many different kinds of series. One of his notable
achievements was the WW2 series Man Behind the Gun which gave
a start to many radio careers and was recognized with a Peabody
Award. The series supported causes
of freedom with heroic stories from the European and Pacific fronts
and was an important effort
to sustain confidence in the war effort.
He enjoyed scriptwriting even though his directing and producing
skills were in demand. His problems at CBS began with the 1950
publication of Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in
Radio and Television by a newsletter titled Counterattack.
Along with many entertainment and broadcast personalities, he was
listed as having potential Communist leanings and activities.
He was confused by his inclusion in the book since he had a strong
broadcast record of patriotic programming, that included Man
Behind the Gun and also the light spy drama Man Called X and
many other shows. Nonetheless, networks and advertisers were rattled
by Red Channels and there was pressure to hire talent that was
not listed and therefore assumed to not have any issues that would
cause brands to be harmed in the minds of consumers. Auto-Lite was
one of those worried advertisers. Robson’s career at CBS was
suddenly in jeopardy.
A single CBS executive, Daniel O’Shea, and his staff, was
responsible for enforcement of internal rules that ensured the
loyalty of its talent. He was an entertainment lawyer, and joined CBS
in late 1950 from RKO Pictures. He joined to become involved in
television projects, but somehow his assignment shifted. He ended up
being the executive who enforced loyalty agreements that determined
which performers were permissible to hire. (O’Shea earned the
cynical moniker “vice president of treason” among some of the CBS
staff).
His office would get calls from producers and directors about
casting, and they would do some light investigating and return with
answers of “cleared” and “not cleared,” without any
explanation. O’Shea seemed to take particular pleasure in the
exclusion of Robson from CBS. It may have started as a simple
personality clash that somehow ballooned into shunning. O’Shea was
known for his belief that talent was mostly undifferentiated and
easily replaceable, especially for radio. One Blacklisted talent
could be replaced by an acceptable one, and no one would know the
difference. O’Shea’s actions (really his inactions) became a
nightmare for Robson.
Things seemed to be okay at the beginning. Small changes would allow
Robson’s scripts to be used. His 1951
Suspense scripts
were credited with
pseudonyms. The names “William
Norman” and “Christopher Anthony” were
used to avoid complaints by
the Auto-Lite
advertising staffers. That wasn't good enough, in
the end. He
did not work for CBS for about
four years. He
did find other work, but it was not the work he wanted or the
projects he desired.
It was a sad situation. It was
especially insulting when one
of his lesser known efforts, Operation:
Underground, was
suddenly cancelled. It told
stories of freedom-seeking individuals in post-war Europe as they
sought to thwart the efforts of Communists and totalitarian leaders.
It was a patriotic effort
for which Robson was especially proud. Virtually
no recordings have survived beyond its audition recording, though the
scripts have. It
is one of classic radio’s missing series.
The series
was replaced, in a rush,
by Gunsmoke.
The adult western took over
that timeslot,
and developed into
one of radio’s finest adult dramas of
any genre. Operation:
Underground was quickly
forgotten.
The research behind Red
Channels was sloppy. It
was packed with good information, false information, out of context
information, and there was
no way of discerning what was
reliable. It created
more confusion than it did illumination. Because
it was printed, the
document conveyed an
authority that it did not
consistently have.
Its
many mistakes and misinterpretations haunted performers and writers.
Some were able to rise above the disruptions and financial losses of
their careers. Others were not. Somehow,
Robson was identified as Communist-leaning because of some official
government activities of
his father, a Pittsburgh official with the same name that
were decades earlier.
Robson also supported relief efforts events targeted to assist
impoverished or threatened
Russian citizens caught in
the backlash of the war and Stalin’s oppression. That
was the same Russia that
fought Hitler’s Germany alongside
the US, Britain, and other countries.
Because
Red Channels had
such an effect, and its sloppy research became more
and more apparent, groups
of entertainment and high-profile persons created mechanisms to
“clear” themselves after conducting some basic independent
investigations. Some of
Hollywood’s union leaders were involved in the clearance process in
support of their members but also as a show of their own patriotism.
If slighted performers
testified to their political activities and added context to them
that Red Channels
missed, they would be
reinstated in some manner. It was a very complex time with many
subtleties to the situation. Some
of the listed persons sued, and it took years before any resolution
in their favor occurred. Eventually, some of the supporters of Red
Channels became
disgraced, themselves, a decade too late for those whose
careers were ruined by the haphazard reliability of its
pages.
It’s a fascinating time in
broadcast history that cannot be summarized here. Robson got caught
up in the cross-currents, was cooperative, and was cleared by
the industry’s reputable mechanisms. That is,
except in the mind of CBS executive Daniel O’Shea. No reasons were
ever offered.
CBS’ Blacklist was special,
and was so prominent that other
networks took a “free
ride” on it. They did not have
to spend serious
money or time to have their
own screening process, but
used CBS decisions on a
passive basis. If a
performer or writer could
show that they
recently worked
for CBS, they
could find work
on the other networks.
It slowly started to
crumble, as other
networks became
comfortable using CBS
blacklisted talent where
O’Shea seemed obsessed with it.
The tide turned against
CBS’ activities by its own news reporting when Ed Murrow’s
reporting about the Army-McCarthy hearings took over the news cycle
and turned the tide of the public, and internally. Once that
happened, the internal tide turned against O’Shea. There became a
general dissatisfaction and
realization
of the
fruitlessness of the
Blacklist efforts.
(As an example, Howard Duff
got caught up in Red
Channels undertow,
losing his role as Sam
Spade, for example. By
1957, Duff and his wife Ida Lupino had a big contract with CBS for
their TV comedy series Mr.
Adams and Eve because
of their broad popularity. It was like the Blacklist never happened).
O'Shea was eventually fired
because CBS had enough of the
process and of him.
Changing circumstances and
sentiments made it
irrelevant and his
departure was explained
with the common
“decided to pursue other opportunities” explanation.
He returned
to RKO). CBS
tired of it all, and pushed him aside.
O'Shea went back to the movie business, heading RKO. Some
executives always seem to land on their feet in
top paying jobs, no matter
what damage they cause to others or their organizations. He
seems to have been one of them. It
is rarely mentioned that it was Murrow and CBS
leader William Paley who
helped create the loyalty process, but it is clear that they were the
ones who stopped it, too.
In 1953, Robson had enough. He was
frustrated with his efforts with O’Shea and his staff and
sent a letter to Murrow
that outlined the
situation. He listed everything
he was asked to do and
their outcomes. Yet no
decisions were made and no explanations were ever received. That
letter is one of the most interesting reports of what the CBS Radio
Blacklist was like. The reason he wrote to Murrow was because of his
organizational position at CBS News as well as his larger presence in
the network. They had an acquaintanceship and friendship that dated
back to the earlier days at the network, and especially for Man
Behind the Gun. The
fascinating letter is in
the Murrow archives at Holyoke College. Its
text and context is available at
https://sites.google.com/view/robsonmurrow/home
It is worth reading after listening to the program.
It
is not known how Murrow responded to Robson, but it was likely by
phone and not letter. He probably told him there was nothing he could
do at that time, but that things were slowly changing, and to stay in
touch.
The
CBS Blacklist eventually
began to crumble, and
it took a while for it to end.
O'Shea finally
left in mid-1955, but
Robson was allowed to
submit a Suspense
script, Nobody
Ever Quits,
properly attributed to him, and produced under Antony Ellis. The
fact that it was produced was
a sign that O’Shea no longer mattered. He was still a CBS employee
when the Robson script was broadcast. The
title became more of a testament to Robson’s resolve to return to
the network and the career he loved.
In
the end, the extent of Communist activities within the entertainment
and broadcast industries would not be understood until the glasnost
of Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership of the Soviet Union and the
release of the VENONA papers in 1995 by
US National Security
Agency. Those documents of
intercepted Soviet communications with US government employees and
journalists shed new light on Cold War espionage and other
activities. The documents
are available online. There
was truth to the concerns about Communist infiltration, and
the VENONA papers document many of them, only years later.
There were also paranoiac untruths that led to many broken lives and
careers, and the delayed
exoneration only made that more tragic.
When people are in the real-time swirl of information and
misinformation, they have to find ways to navigate through them, and
often make
mistakes based on what they believed to be true at the time, doing
things they would not otherwise do.
It is now decades later, almost 75 years, and there is still much to
be understood. There are so
many new resources about the period today than there were even a few
years ago.
In
October 1956, Robson became the producer of Suspense
and presided over some of the series’ most interesting broadcasts.
While other radio dramas were being cancelled from season to season,
Suspense and
Robson survived. When
President Kennedy appointed Edward R. Murrow as Director of the US
Information Agency, he recommended that Robson be hired by
Voice of America. He became
chief documentary writer, producer and director, and
remained there until the
end of his career. His projects won four
more
Peabody Awards.
Deciphering Nobody
Ever Quits (and the
subsequent broadcasts
of Night on Red
Mountain)
Finally,
a Robson script is back on Suspense.
It was regarded highly
enough to be used on the series three more times.
Those broadcasts had a
different name, Night on
Red Mountain, itself a
subtle reference to the “Red Scare.” The 1957 and 1959 broadcasts
starred Richard Crenna under Robson's personal
direction. It was produced again under New
York’s Paul Roberts in
1960 with Mandel Kramer and Lawson Zerbe. It's not known how many
people inside CBS, the press, or the listening audience, picked up on
the “biographical” aspects of the script, but it was obviously
considered a good story and worth repeating on that basis alone.
Robson’s letter to Murrow helps
in the deciphering of the script’s situations and dialogue. Listed
below are a
few aspects of the story
that put the script and Robson’s Blacklist
experiences in perspective.
There are likely more that
can be found with additional listening
scrutiny, but there are
also some inside-references
that we may never know that
Robson included for his own satisfaction.
Unusually cold weather in the California mountains with a
looming intense snow storm
The Blacklist had a chilling effect on the natural
give-and-take of talent, casting, direction, and production. It
interrupted careers and daily life. Even without cold weather or
snow, traversing mountains and mountain roads can be dangerous.
Harsh weather can turn regular activities into dangerous ones.
“You sure you were never back east?”
“I don't want to be owing anybody anything...
particularly rats”
This was uttered by the gangster who finds the lead
character (Walt, formerly ‘Pete’ in his prior life) and is out
to blackmail him because of his criminal past. “The rats” is
likely reference to those who testified before the various
government committees and hearings. Many entertainers felt too many
of their peers cooperated with hearings and there should have been
a greater stand for free speech. Others fought to clear themselves
so they could keep working.
“Won't be much more business in this storm”
“They ask an awful lot of questions” and “That man
had me scared, they way he asked questions”
The various loyalty investigations became aggressive and
intrusive. There were Blacklisted persons who were in the Communist
Party for more innocent reasons and later dropped it. Others were
more deeply involved. In terms of Suspense,
this may be a reference to Silvia Richards (who testified)
and Robert Richards (who refused) and were divorced in 1944. Silvia
had concerns about future child support from Robert’s earnings
and her own writing career if she did not testify. Therefore, she
cooperated. She ended up leaving her writing career behind, anyway.
“I'm not a squealer” and “I just want to be left
alone”
Being trapped on the mountain by the weather, and the only
pass down to the town is blocked
This is fairly straightforward. Robson can't get back to the
career he worked so hard to achieve and excel. No matter how hard
he tried, despite Robson’s independent clearance by key Blacklist
players, he was still being blocked by CBS VP Daniel O’Shea, and
perhaps others, without logical explanation.
Various missed phone connections and communications
interruptions in the storm
Gangsters who were hunting down Walt drive off the road
and down a cliff to their death because of carelessness; the danger
is over
This Could refer to “McCarthyism” falling under its own
weight, with Murrow’s help. It could also refer to the tide
turning against Blacklist practices inside CBS.
Driving off the cliff likely refers to O’Shea, though he
was finishing out his CBS employment at the time. Even though
O’Shea was still there, it seems safe and free to work again once
more.
The title’s multiple meanings: “Nobody Ever Quits”
is a crime family phrase; once you join, you can’t get out
1) Relentless suspicions and inquiries no matter what the
facts may be, similar to mobsters making sure that someone may
never escape their influence without penalty.
2) Exoneration cannot stop the negative effects of the
Blacklist; allegations are remembered much more than exonerations
were.
3) Robson kept pressing on to re-gain his desired career, he
had no desire to quit.
Title change to Night on Red Mountain in subsequent
performances
1) “Night” is the darkness of being trapped by Red
Channels
2) “Red” is obvious reference to Red Channels and
Communism
3) Possible reference to “making a mountain out of a
molehill”; blacklist pain and agony yielded no positive results,
diverted attention from real problems and solutions
4) Robson changed the title when he produced the episode
himself in 1957 and 1958 because it may have been too obvious a
reference in the first broadcast under a different producer; he was
treading carefully in 1955 since he just returned
5) Snow on 66 uses “Red Mountain” as a location
in its story. Another Robson script, 1962’s Date Night, has
a lead role of a teenager’s father that is likely
a caricature of Senator Joe McCarthy. The
father’s mind, aided
by alcohol, concocts
all kinds of conspiracy and danger scenarios when his daughter is
out for a date. It is
likely a reference to McCarthy’s own alcoholism as his efforts
fell apart.
###
