Bait and switch? Perhaps because we’ve seen so many stories about wax museums in a Vincent Price movie, a Twilight Zone episode, a Superman TV episode, and even a Suspense script (The Waxwork). Maybe that’s why some listeners to this episode are disappointed – the wax museum is just in the beginning of the story and it’s “just a place” with not much spooky about it all. But all of those movies and such happened after this episode, and those newer experiences are being projected to the old ones. So it’s not really fair to consider this episode with those later productions. The bottom line: even without the wax museum befuddlement, it’s just an okay story.
It’s really a WW2 espionage story where Brit journalists uncover a German plot to sabotage a factory. They find a secret code in Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. The backstory for one of the actors that might be of more interest.
As for Tussauds (they no longer use the apostrophe), is still going strong with museums around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Tussauds
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP421117
THE CAST
Joseph Julian (Rogers), Ted Osborne (Signature Voice), Alfred Shirley, Stefan Schnabel, others
Alfred Shirley was in theater from the early 1900s and on radio. He played Dr. Watson when actor John Stanley played Holmes in the later 1940s. Stefan Schnabel was a Berlin-born actor who had a long and successful career on stage, radio, television, and movies. Both Shirley and Schnabel were in Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater. Everyone seems to focus on Welles alone. But when you look at the intertwined history March of Time, Columbia Workshop and Mercury Theater which was on stage as well as on radio, and then see the casting of Welles’ movies, you see a cast of highly regarded and highly skilled actors who were successful in multiple media for decades, often together, even after the Mercury Theater had run its course.
Complete cast information is not available for these early programs. Only the lead players are announced and keen listening can help identify those actors with distinctive voices. While we have scripts for many of these programs, they tend to be early in the process of editing and rehearsals, and not the final scripts that list complete casts and production staff.
The script was also used in the BBC’s Appointment with Fear series 1943-11-18.
The 1942-11-28 Billboard review of this episode was not very kind. Nor were the reviews really kind to most of the Suspense performances. They tended to be “ho-hum,” and “just like all the other stuff on the air.”
Such reviews were likely part of the reason and urgency that Spier and CBS had to re-design the show around guest stars in Hollywood. All the other aspects, such as the more effective use of music and more insightful editorial standards for scripts were critical to the series gaining positive audience momentum.
The lead actor, Joe Julian had a long career on stage, radio, and television. Some mistake his voice at first listen for Mason Adams. Both Julian and Adams were on Inner Sanctum quite often.
Julian’s career had him traveling worldwide during WW2 and he was in Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He was often in plays by Norman Corwin. He was a highly respected New York actor, and then suddenly, his career froze when he was listed in Red Channels. For three years, he had no meaningful work. He did his best to sue the publishers of Red Channels for libel, but the suit was dismissed. He eventually returned to work, but not in the higher profile roles he had before. Many of the performers listed in Red Channels had done notable work in support of the war effort, which is what confused so many of them when their work dried up. CBS was among the most vicious of the blacklisters, hiring RKO executive Daniel O’Shea to help build their media business, but then shifted him to be in charge of screening actors and other performers. Elliott Lewis referred to him as “the vice president of treason.”
What is so strange about Julian’s plight is that the loyalty test that CBS used for screening was developed by Bill Paley, head of CBS, and Ed Murrow, dean of the WW2 radio journalists and a news reporting legend. Julian had wartime travels with Murrow so they knew each other and had high respect for each other. Julian still got caught in the undertow. For some reason, Murrow did not or could not help him. Neither could he help William N. Robson, but that story is for later in the series (when the 1950s programs are posted).
It was Murrow’s reporting that brought down Senator Joe McCarthy and ended much of the “Red Scare.” It is important to note, however, that the real action in the “Red Scare,” especially with Hollywood, was happening in the House of Representatives and not in the Senate. McCarthy ended up being the big and obvious target, but there were many others in Congress behind the policies that affected Julian’s career so negatively, who never received scrutiny for their political harassment.
Julian’s autobiography, This Was Radio, does not dwell on those issues, but focuses on his long and successful career and all of the people he met and worked with. It was published in 1974, and is considered a classic. It can be found as a used book, but it is also available as a free PDF at the World Radio History website. It is highly recommended, especially to newcomers to the classic radio hobby.
https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Biography/This-Was-Radio-Joseph-Julian-1975-.pdf
An interview of Julian from the 1970s Golden Age of Radio interview program is also highly recommended.
https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/gaor-66.html
Suspense was more affected by the blacklist than originally believed. If you want to “jump ahead” and see how it played out, go to https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion/click-for-home-arrow-for-more/the-blacklist-and-suspense
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There are multiple versions of this episode in circulation among collectors. This is a verified recording that is unfortunately missing the complete show opening. There are other recordings where a collector, many decades ago, “patched” the opening sequence of Lord of the Witch-Doctors onto a recording of Menace in Wax.
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