Charles Vanda, CBS west coast program director later admitted: “I was wrong!”
Forecast was a 1940 summer series of pilot programs that alternated between New York City and Hollywood. Vanda always wanted to create a psychological thriller with “big rich music, big rich stars, with a big rich budget.” Forecast did that because each production had more money for a production than audition programs would typically have. If your concept was going to be given its best shot at success, this was your chance.
The big survivor to come out of Forecast was Duffy’s Tavern with Ed Gardner. Suspense as originally conceived and presented on Forecast was unfortunately a failure. The broadcast was confusing in its format, and no advertising sponsor would go near it after its broadcast when they shopped it around to the big ad agencies for their clients. The press reviews were not good. There was skepticism about the commitment of its big-name host. How did that happen?
When the show was planned, CBS and Vanda wanted a big name for the series, and Alfred Hitchcock was recruited. In their discussions, Hitchcock even gave the series its name! Vanda had been struggling with titles for a while. After describing the program to Hitchcock and its stories with mystery and suspense, the name seemed plainly obvious. Hitchcock said to Vanda: “just call it ‘Suspense’.” And so it was.
For the first story, Vanda selected The Lodger, a story which Hitchcock loved, and just 14 years before was Hitchcock’s first big film success. Hitchcock worked with Vanda on the Forecast script revisions and in rehearsals.
Original image from the
Asheville NC Citizen-Times, 1940-07-22
Hitchcock
and movie star Herbert Marshall as they prepared for
The
Lodger; picture taken during a
rehearsal
There was a problem, however. Hitchcock was a big and successful movie producer and director, and those movies were his top priority. He was unexpectedly called to New York City, likely in relation to his movie Rebecca, and would not be able to appear in the broadcast as expected.
The script included Hitchcock, especially at the end, where he would stop the performance and then lead a brief but entertaining discussion about who the mysterious “Lodger” was. It was decided to use British actor Edmond Stevens, working in Hollywood, to imitate Hitchcock. Before he left for New York, they recorded Hitchcock so Stevens could develop his impersonation.
Impersonating newsworthy figures and celebrities on the radio was not new, and had been established in its series March of Time. It was likely Vanda and others at CBS thought nothing of it because of the great success they had with that series. March of Time had numerous performers, many of whom would have great careers, could be found imitating FDR (Art Carney, Staats Cotsworth, Bill Johnstone, and others), Eleanor Roosevelt (Agnes Moorehead, Jeanette Nolan), European political leaders like Winston Churchill (Maurice Tarplin), and actors imitating actors (Orson Welles imitated Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy and others)!
[Details on the radio series can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Time_(radio_program) ]
This was a myopic decision by Vanda. CBS had one of the most successful radio series ever, Lux Radio Theatre, on its network. Hosted by Cecil B. DeMille, the public had developed an expectation that if a big movie producer was headlining a series, they would hear that very person. If Suspense was just an audition program that only industry insiders would hear, a Hitchcock imitator would not be a big problem. But when it’s a big budget program with big hype, the substitution becomes a letdown compared to expectations heightened by the extensive publicity.
The show was broadcast and Hitchcock listened in a CBS studio in New York. He made the fateful decision to invite newspaper broadcast critic Alton Cook of the New York World Telegram to join him. Alton had questions, since Hitchcock was right in front of him and the program was promoted as live. Hitchcock told him it was really him, but it was a recording. That would have required an on-air announcement to comply with broadcast regulations and practices. CBS quickly affirmed no recording was played, noting that a double was used.
1940-07-23 NY
World-Telegram
Alton Cook column explains
Hitchcock was not on Forecast
1940-07-24 NY
World-Telegram
Alton Cook offers yet more details about
Forecast
The broadcast did not get good reviews. Variety said in its assessment “Alfy, old boy, don't ever do that to us again.” They were referring to the open-end nature of the drama.
That muddled ending and skepticism about Hitchcock’s commitment and availability spooked advertising executives. No one stepped up to sponsor the program. It was a flop. Vanda got up off the ground and kept fighting.
CBS leader Bill Paley later called Vanda to New York to work on other programs, including Columbia Workshop. (Alongside March of Time, CW was one of the most important series on radio in the development of broadcast, staging, writing, effects, directing, and production techniques. Both series sent its alumni and knowledge throughout the industry for decades to come). Another key partner of Vanda was a young William Spier who also picked up the cause. Paley wanted to pursue the program, and Vanda worked with Spier to do so, starting in December 1941. Yes, Suspense became a product of the war years, helping listeners keep the news about the European and Pacific fronts and concerns about family, at bay for at least 30 minutes of entertainment.
It took hard work and persistence to recover from Forecast. The original concept would be abandoned. But when?
The Radio Daily of June 25, 1941 had a special advertising insert by CBS about the new shows that were now available for sponsorship. There was a listing for Suspense and it is quite revealing.
The reformulation of Suspense had not yet occurred at this time and CBS was still trying to secure a sponsor for a Hitchcock-hosted program. Another surprising item in the entry is the mention that Herbert Marshall would be a continuing star of the show. Through the decades, “new product directories” have always offered speculative listings by businesses in the hope that they could find that one single buyer who might find the offer to be attractive. The listing reinforces the intent of its content as envisioned by Vanda from the start. It would have a foundation of the classic and popular works of famous authors. If CBS did get any inquiries, they obviously did not amount to anything.
The publication of this Radio Daily ad insert was a year away from the actual broadcast debut of Suspense without Hitchcock and without Marshall. It was sometime after the Radio Daily insert and Spring of 1942 that the show was re-conceived. Rather than Hitchcock and Marshall, it used a base of a John Dickson Carr influenced/selected stories or his own scripts for the anthology. Carr’s novels and stories were very popular at the time and he was considered to be popular enough that his involvement would attract an audience. It was hoped that his name might also attract a sponsor. Suspense was changed from the original concept, but it would need to be transformed once more to become the successful franchise.
The debut of the reformulated Suspense was scheduled for May 1942, but there were delays. Vanda would eventually bring Suspense to the air in June 1942, but he would soon exit for military service. His mission was to build the Armed Forces Radio Service with others who had broadcasting know-how. He returned to CBS after his duty and was a successful radio producer.
He became a prominent independent television executive in the 1950s and in later years expanded into cable and other ventures. His retirement was very active and generous in philanthropy to the arts. Despite the stumble with Forecast, he was the creator of Suspense, a tremendously successful radio franchise. His role was rarely acknowledged at the time of the series' heyday. There’s more to the Vanda and Suspense story ahead, to be told in context of the programs as they are posted.
It is very interesting to ponder that had Vanda not been called to military service, and that John Dickson Carr had not received permission to work in the information services of Britain during the war, the direction of Suspense would have been quite different.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP400722
THE CAST
The author of the original story was Marie Belloc-Lowndes and it was adapted for Suspense by Harold Medford. The music was by Wilbur Hatch. Thomas Freebairn-Smith was the announcer.
The cast was Herbert Marshall (Mr. Sleuth & Narrator), Edmund Gwenn (Robbie Bunting), Lurene Tuttle (Daisy), Noreen Gamill (Ellen Bunting), Edmond Stevens (Hitchcock), others
SPECIAL THANKS
Film documentarian John Scheinfeld was a college student when he interviewed Charles Vanda and other Suspense notables via cassette tape letter or in-person in the 1970s. He provided access to those illuminating recordings. Researcher Karl Schadow was able to track down newspaper clips from the New York World Telegram and has also provided numerous insights into the series. Don Ramlow has researched Suspense for decades and has been generous with his insights and research conclusions from his information and personal discussions with performers and others. International voice actor and performer Keith Scott has been researching Suspense and many other series on a long distance basis from his native Australia. He takes advantage of past a new trips stateside over parts of five decades to delve into archives and libraries but also to rub shoulders with actors and writers and others, and sometimes perform with them. His Suspense and Escape logs are top-notch, and highly recommended. The research tools that support the classic radio hobby are incredible: search engines like Google, the newspapers.com archive, worldradiohistory.com, and numerous others all had a role in this blogpost in one manner or another. Special thanks to Cobalt Club members (especially “lasombra” and “chasedad”), members of the Knights of the Turning Table, and the Old Time Radio Researchers, all of whom have provided resources for everyone to find and enjoy this series.
Images “colorized” with great thanks at www.palette.fm
Extra special thanks to classic radio researcher Karl Schadow for the Radio Daily article and numerous (gargantuan?) other contributions to this effort.
