Marsha Hunt stars in a curious story where her character dares to use poisoning to get an inheritance of her annoying, demanding, and infirm Aunt. But there’s someone else in the house who is good with this poison strategy, too. And there’s another relative who’s after the money, and also after the heart of Marsha Hunt’s character. But how sincere is he, really?
The author of this script was Charmion McGuirk, a Suspense “one-hit-wonder” who may have never submitted another radio script that was accepted again. The script was adapted by Silvia Richards. It is an entertaining story with Verna Felton as the annoying aunt.
McGuirk was 26 at the time of this broadcast. Her father was a newspaper reporter and moved the family around the country wherever his jobs took him. Born in Iowa, she was active in drama programs while in high school in New Jersey and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She moved from New Jersey to California and married in Hollywood to Frank X. O’Connor, a New Yorker, in 1943. This script was submitted under her birth name. Charmion O’Connor passed away in 1993. Other than a 1940 short story she wrote for the New York Daily News, there is no record of her writing under her birth or married name after that story or this script.
There is one surviving network recording which is in fine sound. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording is known to exist (#135) but it is not available at this time. In the 1970s, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service had a special series, AFRTS Mystery Theater which included this episode, with heavy editing and increased playing speed, as episode #254. That recording has survived, and the drama is derived from the surviving network recording.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP451227
THE CAST
MARSHA HUNT (Martha), Verna Felton (Aunt Abby), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Neil), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Bennett), Jim Nusser? (John)
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