This is a Suspense story that has a plan to swap identities with a fire victim… genetic identification methods were not around then, so it was plausible as a story plot. It was made all the more shocking that it was Jimmy Stewart doing it! His character is a doctor in a failing marriage, and he wants to start a new life with the nurse who works in his office. It just so happens that a college friend is visiting town and is trapped and dies in the doctor’s house during a tragic fire. It’s the opportune time for Stewart’s character to enact the nefarious plan to assume his friend’s identity and to let everyone think it was the doctor who perished in the fire.
The title of the original short story was “Revenge.” The authors of the story were Vladimir Pozner and George Sklar, and was adapted by Robert L. Richards. Just a few years later, all three of them fell into the Hollywood Blacklist troubles.
Cary Grant was originally scheduled for a performance of a likely different script for this date. Stewart moved his own Suspense performance to be a week earlier than originally planned. He was paid $4,000 for this performance ($66,000 in US$2023), and was originally scheduled for this performance on 1946-02-28. He would repeat this performance in 1949.
One network recording and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#143) have survived. It is not known if the network recording is east or west, but the AFRS recording is drawn from the missing network broadcast; times are approximate:
Network 1:35 “And -- and that's how it started out, just like that”
AFRS 0:53 “And, so, that's – that's -- that's how it started, just like that.”
Both recordings are fine listening, but the network is always preferred in terms of completeness. The network recording goes directly to network ID at the close.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460221
THE CAST
JAMES STEWART (Dr. Phil Martin), Cathy Lewis (Jo), Wally Maher (Travel Desk clerk / Old man), Verna Felton (Daisy Dooley), Tony Barrett (Ted Wolfe / Radio voice), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Ed), Betty Lou Gerson? (Gwendolyn Martin), unknown (Mrs. Burton)
The website https://jimmystewartontheair.com/suspense-consequence/ has some more background on this episode and has an image of his Suspense contract.
This week is the first week of Roma commercials that do not mention Elsa Maxwell.
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