The new season of Suspense finally had the program airing nationally on the same day. This made it easier for the program attract Hollywood guest stars and much easier to manage.
That didn’t mean there wasn’t any chaos to navigate. Movie stars had busy schedules and production was always affecting their availability. That was always combined with the challenging logistics of putting on a top-rated program.
The episode for this evening was announced as Joseph Cotten appearing in The Man Who Couldn’t Lose. That story was set aside for “I’ll Never See You Again,” a Cornell Woolrich story (under the name William Irish) adapted by Robert Tallman.
Man Who Couldn’t would be delayed to the next week and star Gene Kelly. Then the Woolrich story’s title was changed to You’ll Never See Me Again, the original Woolrich title, which captures the undertone of the story (the “I’ll” title sounds like it could be a romantic tale). Then they learned that Kelly could not be around the next week, so that was bumped another week, and they slipped in Bluebeard of Belloc for the next week. The show was always shifting scripts and stars and dates to match availability and also the acting range of the guest. Suspense usually had a rolling six week plan, with contingencies mapped out for each week so they would never miss a broadcast.
Cotten, one of Spier’s favorites, plays newlywed Ed Bliss. He and his wife had an argument, and she storms out of the house. He figures she’d cool off and return after she stays at her mother’s home… but she’s not there. Bliss starts looking for her… and the story is not what it seems.
One network recording has survived, and the Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#96) is also available. The network recording is in excellent sound and is best for listening. The recordings are different, one from the east and one from the west, but it is not known which is which.
Surviving network at approximately 4:24 “…it’s the…one, two, three…lemme see…no, fourth driveway on your right”
AFRS “…it’s the…one, two…ah, let me see…it’s the fourth driveway on your right”
The AFRS recording of the prior week’s episode Voyage Through Darkness has a teaser of You’ll Never at its conclusion.
IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT EAST AND WEST RECORDINGS in the single-night Roma era: There are times it is not possible to identify the network coast recordings. There are times when there are clues inside the programs related to announced teaser of the upcoming program in the schedule. Other times, notes from the transfers of the discs were made by the collector from the label of the transcription disc, and those carried forward through the years. A way of identifying recordings until further information is available is by the number of seconds from the final announcement to the network ID (usually “this is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting Network”). For this particular recording it is four seconds, and identified with a “(4s)” in the file name. It has been our experience that this time varied considerably depending on the timing of the performance, but the network identification always had to be given at a designated moment of the clock, regardless of the conduct of the performance. Should another recording become available, this would be one of the first comparisons to be made. Since we know that there is a dialogue difference in the AFRS recording, that comparison to a prospective “new” network recording would be made as well before designating it as the broadcast for the other coast. The two-coast performances ended with the conclusion of the Roma sponsorship in November 1947.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP440914
THE CAST
JOSEPH COTTEN (Ed Bliss), Lurene Tuttle (Janet Bliss), Wally Maher (Bus Driver / Stillman), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), John McIntire (Joe Alden), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Alden), unknown (Ticket Clerk)
Cotten plays "Ed Bliss," which is the name in the original Woolrich story, but they may have been chuckling in the control room with a coincidental inside joke about former Suspense director Ted Bliss. Bliss had just jumped to NBC to produce Eddie Cantor's show and others. So the title and the character name may have brought some wry amusement among the staffers and cast that Bliss would not be back at CBS, in keeping with the “you’ll never see me again” title of the episode. He would return to CBS, however, to produce Ozzie and Harriet a few years later.
Where did the name "Ed Bliss" come from? Perhaps it was Woolrich's own little inside-joke from the popular phrase "wedded bliss" or "married bliss," as in "weddED BLISS."
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