Suspense casts one of Hollywood's oldest stars, Dame Mae Whitty (80), and one of its youngest, Margaret O’Brien (8), in a Mel Dinelli play that involves a dog… and perhaps the ghost of one. It is one of the inspired casting choices that attracted a listening audience and won the hearts of Hollywood studio publicity machines. Dinelli is not known for “cute” stories involving kids, and this is a clear exception. The script was written by Dinelli specifically for this casting event at the request of William Spier.
A little, innocent, English girl (played by O’Brien, in case you were wondering) goes to live with her grandmother (Whitty, of course) after her parents and beloved pet dog, Cricket, are killed in the London blitz. She keeps insisting that Cricket is still alive and continues to talk to him. When the house catches fire in another bombing raid, the child is saved by a dog. She believes it is her deceased pet. Then neighbors report that their dog, also named Cricket, disappeared at the time of the fire, and cannot be found. Efforts to clear up the mystery of the ghost dog provide a surprise climax. Is it the same dog she believed had died?
The publicity came about six weeks after the broadcast in a multi-page photo story in the 1945-05-06 Radio Life magazine. A PDF of the story is at the same Internet Archive page as the recordings (as well as at worldradiohistory.com) or click here. This is an interesting paragraph from the article:
Little Miss O'Brien, who memorizes her radio scripts, astonishes air veterans with her ability to remember her lines, speak them without hesitation and with such feeling that onlookers are moved to tears. She worked with Spier and Dame May Whitty the day before the Suspense airing, received the final revisions the night preceding the show, attended school the following morning, reported at the radio studio at noon with her lines learned.
and more, with an explanation of the storyline…
In the script, at the end of the drama. the little girl in the story finds that her neighbor has a dog named “Cricket” too. Writer Dinelli intended the listener to be left wondering whether or not this dog was the same animal who had supposedly died in the bombing raid. Margaret was sure it was, and between rehearsals, earnestly explained how she had it all figured out. "You see,” she said, “my dog (meaning ‘Cricket,’ the dog in the story) wasn't really burned up in the building, and this man found him and made him well again.” When everyone agreed that that must have been the way it happened, Margaret grinned happily, then resumed her role with heartrending pathos, serene in the knowledge that the ending was a happy one.
There are two surviving recordings, one network and the Armed Forces Radio Service recording. The AFRS recording is drawn from the surviving network one. It is not known if the network recording is east or west, and goes directly to the network ID and is designated as “(dirID).” The network recording is in much better sound than the AFRS one.
This was Margaret O’Brien’s first appearance on Suspense. It took tremendous confidence and reassurance to have O’Brien on live national radio… twice on the same evening… for east and west broadcasts. O’Brien’s successful movie roles prior to Suspense, and her known ability to take direction well, led to this successful casting and performance. It is not clear if there was any extra “dress rehearsal” because of her age and the newness of radio performance experience. Just ten years later, such assurance would come from recording technology. Pre-recording such appearances on tape was less risky as was done in episodes with child actors Isa Ashdown (1955-04-05 Zero Hour) and Evelyn Rudie (1957-12-22 Dog Star). Suspense was shifting to pre-recording dramas in the mid-1950s, anyway, for everyone, not just for the inclusion of child actors. She would appear in Suspense again in 1948. Her Wikipedia page summarizes her career and is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_O%27Brien It includes background about her stolen 1944 Oscar trophy and its successful return many years later.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP450315
THE CAST
MARGARET O’BRIEN (Florence), DAME MAY WHITTY (Mrs. Edney), Esta Mason? (Anna), Raymond Lawrence (Charles / Hinchman), unknown (Peters), Earl Keen? (Cricket the dog), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)
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