This is the first of three scripts for Suspense authored by Elliott Lewis. It’s a good one that you think may be so formulaic that it won’t really be interesting, and then you get to a surprising ending. Lewis uses a letter of an elderly woman writing to her niece about how she’s taking the niece’s advice to be more active, perhaps even looking for a job. She gets one, after placing an ad in the local newspaper. It pays $50 a week ($833 in US$2023) but she does nothing to earn it! She finally gets some instructions just as she was about to quit. A publisher wants to use a room her house to sequester one of their authors who is behind on their deadline. They don’t want him to be disturbed so he can finally finish his work. We learn it’s not as innocent as it sounds… and meeting the mastermind of the scheme puts her in great danger.
About four and a half years after this script’s broadcast, Lewis would become the Suspense director and producer. His star and stature was already on the rise in Hollywood radio and it would grow even brighter by the time he took that position.
There is an address mentioned in the story, the intersection of Sierra Madre and Brookside. In the Sierra Madre section of Los Angeles, not far from Pasadena, there is a Sierra Madre Boulevard and a Brookside Lane. The streets are close to each other, but they do not intersect. It is often the case that locations in radio scripts can be inside jokes or “hat tips” to someone in the cast or a family member. In Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, producer Jack Johnstone would sometimes include his street address in stories. It is not known what reference this might be.
There are two recordings of this episode. The west coast network recording is an aircheck of KQW in San Jose, California. The better recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Service (#139). It is derived from the missing east coast broadcast. Times are approximate:
AFRS 1:49 “We ah we have a very small publishing house...”
KQW 2:35 “We have a very small publishing house...”
AFRS 17:27 “Now get the telephone, ask, uh, ask long distance for Crestview 9177 in Los Angeles”
KQW 20:56 “Now get the telephone. Ask long distance for Crestview 9177 in Los Angeles”
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460124
THE CAST
DAME MAY WHITTY (Emily Rogers), Bill Johnstone (Officer Barnes), Wally Maher (Mr. Bruce, alias Paul Stephens), Bret Morrison? (Stephens / Al Newholt), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Mayer)
The presence of Bret Morrison is very doubtful as he was mainly a New York radio actor at this time. It is however, noted in a SPERDVAC catalog of many years ago for this episode. It really seems very unlikely as Shadow responsibilities could not get him from California to New York between Friday and Sunday afternoon in time for broadcast. I doubt they would have allowed that with the nature of air service at that time.
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