The “Lucky Lady” was not a person, it was a cat named “Suzie” that inhabits a boarding house of young actresses. The home is run by a former actress, Leonora Plimm. She promoted the belief that if “Lucky Lady” scratched you, it was good luck for your next audition. Once you get back to the house from that audition after winning a part you would receive the enthusiastic congratulations of your housemates. It’s all great and mutually supportive fun. Then… one of the young women winds up dead… A dull handyman, George, is the sympathetic character in the story who is set up as the target of suspicion of the death. This is Suspense, so we know that’s only to divert our attention while events play out to find out the identity of the real killer.
The script was by Ruth Bartlett Nemec, and is likely her only dramatic network radio script. She’s not a one-hit-wonder scriptwriter, however, but was a radio executive early in her career. The Florida native was active in theater and had a local radio program after her 1938 graduation from Stetson University. She caught the attention of a CBS executive who recommended that they hire her in New York to help develop programming. She was 30 at the time of this broadcast and it was likely she had already left the network by 1942 to live in Florida and raise a family. The Bartlett family was already well known in the Palm Beach area for their charity work and helping found Baptist churches. The Nemecs earned their very own high profile in Palm Beach decades later and became major contributors to Stetson University, where they had met. Ruth Nemec was always active in promoting the arts and philanthropic efforts and wrote many stage plays that were performed locally. She died in 1994.
Many newspaper timetables indicate that the story may have been originally titled “The Case of the Lucky Lady.” It was adapted as “Death at Miss Plimm's” for Suspense Magazine #4. A PDF of the story may be downloaded from the same page as the recordings.
There is much confusion about the network recordings that have survived. For many years, there have been two network recordings, one labeled east, and the other labeled west. They are exactly the same because they have the same missed cue approximately after 25:55. Fay Bainter and Wally Maher step on the other’s line:
BAINTER: I kept telling you George was innocent.
[simultaneously] MAHER: But…But Miss Plimm…
[simultaneously] BAINTER: But after all…BAINTER: ….no, you were right about George, I never should have trusted him. Wasn’t it dreadful what that horrible man tried to do to my cat?
Many different pairs of recordings from different sources were reviewed for comparison. They were all the same. EC and WC had the same exact problem with misread lines.
One different file, originally unlabeled as to coast, was found. It is believed to be the true west coast “(WC)” recording. This is the dialogue in question at approximately 26:10:
BAINTER: I kept telling you George was innocent.
[separately]: MAHER: But Miss Primm...
[without interruption] BAINTER: But, after all, you were right about George. I never should have trusted him. Wasn’t it dreadful what that horrible man tried to do to my cat?
To sum up, the likely EC file has the flub, the likely WC file does not. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#142) has the flub after 23:05. This means that the AFRS file is derived from the likely EC recording. The EC and WC recordings are both in good sound quality; there is a preference for the WC one because the reading of that scene is error-free.
Thank you to classic radio enthusiast John Barker for his important insight and analysis in identifying the different recordings. Along with Barbara Watkins, they have been affectionately known at the Cobalt Club forum as “The C3DS,” the Cobalt Dialogue Difference Detection Squad. They take turns identifying recording differences and quirks. Their work allows for the documented attribution of AFRS recordings to the proper network broadcast and other characteristics that add to the historical record of Suspense. Then they cross-validate each other’s work and share it with others. Their selfless dedication is so greatly appreciated. Cobalt Club is at https://cobaltclubannex.forumotion.com/ and has free registration.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460214
THE CAST
FAY BAINTER (Leonora Plimm), Cathy Lewis (Diane Carver), Elliott Lewis (George Smith), Wally Maher (Police Inspector), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), unknown (Alice), unknown (Jane), unknown (Lady Suzie the cat)
This is the final week of Roma commercials that mention Elsa Maxwell.
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