Frank Lovejoy offers another excellent performance, this time as a
larceny-minded bank clerk named “Harry.” He has planned a
foolproof way to rob an old man’s safe deposit box. His victim is a
wealthy customer who owns a pet shop, Mr. Jensen, who doesn’t trust
banks. His pets are his best friends, and he has been storing money
in a bird cage. He explains it’s been safe since it was hiding in
plain sight. Because of many neighborhood stick-ups, he has finally
decided that a bank safe deposit box might be a good idea. He
deposits a significant amount of cash, nothing smaller than a $100
bill, in box 234 that Harry assigned to him. Harry has a plan, and
part of it is to take box 233. He knows he needs an accomplice from
outside the bank to help him pull it off. He hires someone, Gil, to
visit the bank regularly to deposit a small amount in the safe
deposit box above the shop owner, number 233. After a while, Mr.
Jensen says that he is finished with the deposits. Harry cynically
tells Jensen he will take care of the money as if it was his own. The
regular guard, George, is an alcoholic, and Harry spikes the drink in
his thermos to get him out of the way for the day. Jensen comes in,
looking strange and bandaged, after being bitten by his favorite bird
in the store, and important part of the story. Jensen is in to count
his money, yet again, and he is always pleased that it is exactly as
he left it. The day has come for the plan to be implemented, and Gil
comes in, is given the key for box 234, puts the money into an
envelope. At the counter, Harry takes the key and the envelope, and
then carefully gives Gil the envelope with $1,000 from Harry for his
service. Gil would later get the money he deposited in box 233. The
story should be over by then, with Harry able to get away with
Jensen’s money. There’s a surprise ending that Harry, and
listeners, were not expecting.
There are many times when dollar denominations are mentioned. As of
the beginning of 2025, a US dollar in 1959 was worth 11 times what a
dollar is worth at this time. The money deposited by Jensen is more
than $1 million in US$2025.
The author is identified as “Don Hahne,” but no information about
him is available. It could be a “one-hit-wonder” writer or a
pseudonym. The name, and various possible spellings of it, do not
appear in any periodical, movie, television, radio program data
bases, trade magazines, or newspapers in proper time or context.
Genealogy sites were also consulted.
The box number is really not all that important to the story. But
since most listeners did not have safe deposit boxes, something that
“the rich people” had, it added a little extra mystery to the
story.
The program was recorded on Thursday, March 5, 1959. Rehearsal began
at 1:00pm and recording commenced at 3:30pm. Including in-studio
edits, the session concluded at 5:00pm. Further production edits were
done and ended at 7:00pm. Music was added at an unspecified date and
time.
The surviving recording is a network aircheck with narrow range. The
recording is very listenable, and the copy posted here is better than
the usual ones in circulation. It does not have the background noise
or background whistle common in most of the circulating recordings.
The ending announcements and music are clipped. It is hoped that an
Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) transcription might be found to
hear this production, and especially Lovejoy’s fine performance, in
much better sound.
The script title is in complete words, but the CBS publicity used
numbers. Scripts were written in a manner to make sure titles or
names were pronounced by announcers, narrators, and performers in the
way the writer and others desired. The best example is for a
different series, The Big Story. The sponsor of the series was
Pall Mall cigarettes, but the pronunciation of the name in a
particular British English dialect was “pell mell” and was not to
sound phonetically like “paul maul.” Therefore, all of the
scripts used the phonetic spelling “Pell Mell” in capital letters
to virtually eliminate mispronunciation. In the case of this Suspense
script, they wanted the number sequence 2-3-4 pronounced
consistently as “two thirty four” and not “two hundred
thirty-four” or “two hundred and thirty-four” or
“two-three-four.” Pronunciation is one thing, readability and
editorial space in a newspaper is another. CBS publicity releases to
the papers just used the number “234.” Had they spelled the
number out as in the script, newspaper editors for radio listings and
timetables would have changed it to the numerals for space
considerations.
Spoiler alert: The disease mentioned in the story is psittacosis,
with the common name of “parrot fever.” The story says there is
no cure, but early treatment is essential and successful. The line
about Jensen not trusting doctors is very important in laying the
groundwork for the conclusion. It is treated with tetracycline and
related antibiotics for many weeks. Untreated, it can advance into
many difficult conditions, such as heart problems.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590315
THE CAST
FRANK LOVEJOY (Harry, the narrator), Edgar Stehli (Jensen), Lou
Krugman (George / Man), Sam Pierce (Gil), George Walsh (Narrator)
Norm Alden was originally cast to play a character named “Joe,”
but it was edited out of the script, likely for time considerations.
###
