1946-11-21 Drive-In

This is Judy Garland’s only performance on Suspense. The episode was strongly promoted and received much listener attention. Her celebrity and fan affection made it one of the most popular Suspense episodes for decades among classic radio program collectors, Garland memorabilia collectors, and other nostalgia aficionados.

The story about a young kidnapped waitress by a homicidal maniac was first performed with Nancy Kelly on 1945-01-11. The script was by Muriel Roy Bolton and adapted by Mel Dinelli. Details of the story and the first performance are at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/1945-01-11-drive-in.html and https://archive.org/details/TSP450111

Garland did not perform on radio often, especially in this kind drama. Her appearance was in gratitude to Kay Thompson who was godparent to Judy’s newborn daughter, Liza. (Ira Gershwin was the other godparent). Garland was 24 at the time of this broadcast. Thompson would be a lifelong friend and was a mentor to Liza Minelli throughout her career.

A rehearsal recording was made of the drama portion of the episode. It is likely that Garland was somewhat uncomfortable with a live radio appearance for a drama like this since she was used to working on movie sets which allowed for re-takes. Therefore, a rehearsal recording was made. This likely made her more comfortable with her upcoming performance and allow for some revisions to the script and adjustments to the portrayal to be made. It sounds like it may have been recorded on some dictation equipment, but it could be the result of a poorly stored disc.

The recording was downloaded from a Judy Garland fan site, “The Judy Room,” which is highly recommended. https://www.thejudyroom.com/media/judy-sings-on-the-radio/ The rehearsal recording has been processed for clarity but is still low quality. The result is “less bad.” There are some changes in dialogue compared to the broadcast. (Hat tip: performer, researcher, and classic radio fan Patte Rosebank).

Only one network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. The broadcast goes directly to network ID (“dirID”).

For an unknown reason, Elliott Lewis appears as “Raymond E. Lewis.” This may have been done to ensure that Garland had the publicity spotlight to herself.

In the closing announcements, Alfred Hitchcock is mentioned as upcoming guest; he never appears. Olivia de Havilland is also mentioned as an upcoming guest, but she did not appear. Her 1944 appearance was her sole Suspense performance.

There is an overview of Garland’s career and the struggles of her complex life at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Garland

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461121

THE CAST

JUDY GARLAND (Mildred), Cathy Lewis (Ruth), Elliott Lewis (The Man, alias Dr. Morgan), Bill Johnstone (Highway Patrol cop), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Rene), Peggy Rea? (Rene’s assistant)

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1946-11-14 The One Who Got Away

Hume Cronyn is at the Suspense microphone once more, this time as a blackmailer. The scheme sounds like it could work, at least to his character. He plays a bank auditor who is assigned to do do surprise audits of tellers. He finds a long-term teller whom he discovers has been embezzling for quite a while. Cronyn’s character is thrilled for the wrong reason. He wants to be rid of his nagging wife, so he rather than reporting the malfeasance to the bank, he senses the opportunity of a deal. If the teller signs a confession to his embezzlement, he will hold it and not report the crime. In return, the teller will kill the auditor’s wife. They will trade their individual silence about each other’s crimes with no one the wiser.

The script is by James P. Keene, but there are no other records of an author with this name. That is believed to be a pseudonym of author William Everett Cook who used “James Keene” as a pseudonym. Cook would have been 25 at the time of the broadcast, so that makes sense in terms of age, if it is him. This script would have been an early venture and he might be considered as a "one-hit-wonder" writer if not for writing becoming his successful profession. His career bloomed in the 1950s for his western short stories and novels.

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. At about the 25 minute mark, there is a disc noise that sounds like high frequency hiss. It does not affect the drama’s ending but increases somewhat as the recording ends. It is caused by obvious disc damage. The reason the coast cannot be identified is that the production is running behind time and the closing announcements are rushed as they go directly to network ID. If this was an east coast broadcast, the tease for The FBI in Peace and War would have been skipped because of the time slot pressure.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461114

THE CAST

HUME CRONYN (James Carroll), Hans Conried (Arthur Tillwer), Cathy Lewis (Ethel Carroll), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Dolan / Jury Foreman), Wally Maher (Judge)

Performer, classic radio researcher and fan Patte Rosebank notes that "Hume kept getting cast as bank employees on Suspense. This was an in-joke, because his father (Hume Cronyn, Sr.) was head of several financial institutions in Canada."

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1946-11-07 Easy Money

Jack Carson plays a down-on-his-luck pianist who spurns the marriage desires of his long-term girlfriend. He finally admits he’s married but separated from his wife for 14 years. He has not seen her during that time. He promises to ask his “ex” for a divorce when he learns that she is in town. When he visits her, he realizes his wife is not well and suffering from paranoia. It’s so bad that she feeds her pet macaw samples from her meals to be sure she is not being poisoned. To make a long story short, the wife dies from poisoning by his tampering with her medicine. Her doctor is blamed for the crime. For $50,000 ($700,000+ in US$2023), he will offer a different explanation for the crime that exonerates the doctor, and himself. The doctor’s lawyer quietly pays him, he offers his explanation to the police, and the pianist and his girlfriend head to California, confident of a happy new life together, finally free to marry. This is Suspense, so you just know that this can’t work. The law… and the macaw (that rhymes), follow him to California.

The script is by Sidney Renthal. He was a Chicago-based scripter who wrote for The Whistler, First Nighter, and other series.

Dane Clark was originally planned for this role. He was re-cast for the recent broadcast Till the Day I Die, a more serious role, instead. This script was probably shifted to Carson once he agreed to appear on the series (Suspense was planned out six to eight weeks in advance, with contingent plans for sudden changes in guest availability). Carson was a good choice with competence in drama and also for his ability to deliver the various sarcastic and amusing lines in the script. Spier always endeavored to match the various scripts they selected with the personalities and skills of their guest stars.

The use of the macaw in the story (“voiced” by Paul Frees) led to a line about 25:30 that was “Dr. Ditmars of the Bronx Zoo finally tipped us off.” One might think it was a in-joke about radio composer and musician Ivan Ditmars, but it’s not. It’s a reference to the head of the New York Zoological Society, and the Bronx Zoo, Dr. Raymond Ditmars. He was widely known around the country for decades for his research and his movies about wildlife. What’s really funny is that the script was broadcast in 1946… but Ditmars died in 1942! Is this the germ on an idea for an Inner Sanctum plotline about a famous zoologist whose ghost assists law enforcement to deliver justice from the grave?

East and west network broadcasts of the episode have survived. The recordings can be differentiated by the tease for The FBI in Peace and War at the end of the east broadcast. The west broadcast is the better of the two.

This is comedian Jack Carson’s first appearance on Suspense. This is a publicity photo of Carson and producer William Spier from Suspense Magazine #4.

Carson started in vaudeville and made his way to Hollywood. He played lighter roles in movies in the 1930s but grew into more serious roles as his career developed. He was popular on radio, and is often overlooked in many radio retrospectives. He hosted Comedy Caravan and had his own series for four years before starring in Village Store for a season. His versatile talents led to a successful career that spanned movies, radio, and television. Details about his life and career are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Carson

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461107

THE CAST

JACK CARSON (Paul Bentley), Cathy Lewis (Ellen), Wally Maher (Harrison / Paperboy), Paul Frees (Macaw / Martin / 2nd Paperboy / Cop), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / McNulty / 2nd Cop), Betty Lou Gerson (Martha), Ted Von Eltz? (Robert the butler)

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1946-10-31 Lazarus Walks

This is a much better telling of this story than its original broadcast on 1943-10-19. That presentation starred Orson Welles. More details about the story can be read at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-10-19-lazarus-walks.html and https://archive.org/details/TSP431019

The original broadcast was somewhat unplanned as Donovan’s Brain had to be delayed until May 1944 because of the production and marketing delays of the film based on the original book. Spier and Welles decided to present Philomel Cottage and this new script in place of the two-part Donovan’s Brain production. That first Lazarus Walks staging sounded like it was rushed to broadcast.

This 1946 production with Brian Donlevy is much better and he seems more interested in the part than Welles was. Hans Conried is superb as the man who is the human lie detector, the same role he had in the 1943 production. Even he is more convincing this time around and sounds like he is enjoying the part. The effects and music are better planned and implemented and also benefit from the bigger Roma Wines production budget.

Lazarus Walks is a J. Marion Speed script adapted by Robert L. Richards.

Only the east coast broadcast recording has survived. At this time in the series, Suspense is still maintaining two broadcasts on the same night for east and west coasts to give the biggest possible audience for Roma Wines advertising. Not all program sponsors could afford such a financial expenditure. This meant that the program following Suspense on the east coast would be heard earlier than Suspense on the west coast. This recording has a tease for the listeners to stay tuned to hear the latest episode of The FBI in Peace and War. This indicated that this is an east coast broadcast.

Not all of the east coast broadcasts have this tease because it could be skipped if the Suspense broadcast was running behind in its allotted time slot. But when the message is heard, that is a definitive marker that it is an east coast broadcast. Its absence is not always definitive, however, that it is a west coast broadcast if the FBI tease was eliminated for the east for time considerations.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461031

THE CAST

BRIAN DONLEVY (Dr. Robert Graham), Hans Conried (Roger Holcombe), Cathy Lewis (Isabelle), Wally Maher (Police Inspector), Verna Felton (Aunt Jane), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)

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1946-10-24 Dame Fortune

Susan Hayward plays a singer who offers a song at her own wedding anniversary party. That’s where the innocence of this story ends. (Everything that follows is a spoiler alert). An unsavory ex-acquaintance phones her at the party and says he’s out of jail and they have to meet. Uh-oh. That can only mean one thing on Suspense. Her husband knows nothing about her past life and this makes her a prime candidate for blackmail to keep it quiet. This never goes well and someone always seems to end up murdered. In this case, he wants the rich husband out of the way so he can blackmail his way into grabbing a big chunk of the inheritance. She fesses up to her husband who doesn’t want to delve into her past life but wants to help her deal with the blackmailer. She thinks he’s calling the police, but the husband is calling his own “fixer” instead, a detective named “Mr. Sparks.” The story starts to take a creepy turn: she starts to like the idea of having her husband’s fortune for herself. Perhaps she can frame the blackmailer into killing her husband!

Hayward’s character is pretty resourceful and has knowledge of the mechanical operation of cars from some wartime work she had. She works on the “steering knuckle” to sabotage the car her husband was driving. The phrase may be unfamiliar, but refers to a linking part of a car’s suspension, wheel, and brake assembly. The intent of her sabotage attempt was to frame the blackmailer by causing an accident in which her husband would perish. The accident occurs, her husband survives, and the happy couple goes on vacation to forget about it all… but things eventually go awry. In the end, her scheme backfires and concludes with her husband dead in a hunting accident and the blackmailer committing suicide when the police attempt to arrest him. There’s no one left to alibi her, so she ends up being convicted for a killing she did not do… but she certainly created a circumstance that made it possible.

The bribe money being mentioned doesn’t seem like much. Multiply it by 15 to convert it to today’s US$2023 value. So $1000 then is about $15,000 at the time of this writing.

When Hayward sings “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” it is actually the then-Mrs.-Spier, performer Kay Thompson at the microphone. She is uncredited in the role.

Bill Johnstone sounds “too nice” to be the “fixer” that the husband employs. It’s pretty clear that the husband might be involved in some unsavory dealings because he seems a bit too familiar with Mr. Sparks and the process of “fixing” situations to his liking. Perhaps “being nice” is an important tool of being an effective “fixer.”

There are three recordings of this episode. East and west coast recordings have survived, and there is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording. One network recording goes directly to network ID after the closing announcements (“dirID”) and the other has a two second pause before the ID (“2s”). The AFRS version is derived from the direct to ID version. Times are approximate:

• dirID 2:05 someone says “encore, encore” after Thompson sings I've Got You Under My Skin

• AFRS 1:13 someone says “encore, encore” after Thompson sings I've Got You Under My Skin

• 2s there is no “encore” dialogue

The 2s network recording is the best of the three.

The story is by Max Wilk and E.R. “Ted” Murkland, and adapted by Robert Richards. Wilk and Murkland were screenwriting collaborators for a while, with Wilk having a longer and more notable career. Wilk wrote a book about screenwriting, published in 2004, that sounds quite enjoyable. He interviewed some of the best known screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s and others. The title is Schmucks with Underwoods. Those are the derogatory words studio boss Jack Warner used to describe the screenwriters he employed! There is a long interview of Wilk about his career and the development of the profession and its people at the Television Academy Foundation https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/max-wilk

Wilk and Murkland’s story concept could have started as a screenplay idea. The story has a lot of moving parts and some incidents are explained by a single sentence of dialogue that would take multiple engaging minutes of a film presentation. An example is the suicide of the blackmailer when surrounded by police. There are many other plotline events that could have similar expansion but are condensed in the production. Radio relies on listener imagination for so many aspects of its presentation, and the acceleration of timelines or reference to complex events in matter-of-fact single phrases or sentences without having to stage them is not always recognized as an essential part of the form.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461024

THE CAST

SUSAN HAYWARD (Jean Nicholson), Bill Johnstone (Sparks / Party guest), Wally Maher (Frank Nicholson), Hans Conried (Charlie Prescott), Paul Frees (Olsen), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Doctor), Kay Thompson (Singing voice for Susan Hayward)

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1946-10-17 The Man Who Thought He was Edward G. Robinson

This is a rare “novelty” episode of Suspense that plays on the notoriety of its guest’s typecasting to create a silly but entertaining story that is played mainly for fun.

The script was written by Lesley Raddatz, a worker in the CBS press department and his only script. He had a long career as a successful and well known media writer for TV Guide and Variety.

The plot is purposely unlikely and amusing. A henpecked husband sees Robinson’s famous movie, Little Caesar, and decides to emulate Robinson in his daydreams and his daily interactions. When his wife discovers this personal secret and insults his masculinity, he decides that he must kill her. It “just so happens” that the real Edward G. Robinson will be in town for a lecture about his hobbies, which are nothing like the kind a “tough guy” would do. The man and EGR meet, and the real EGR plays along with the husband’s fantasy then works in the background to prevent the husband from acting on his plans.

How did they get through the broadcast without breaking up in laughter? Spier ran very loose rehearsals so they cast probably got all of their chuckles and guffaws out of their systems around the desk reading and stage rehearsal. Robinson had a difficult task, playing his celebrity self and the man who wants so desperately be the Edward G. Robinson he sees on the screen. After all, the EGR on the screen is exactly the way EGR is in private life, at least in his mind.

Robinson has a tough job and executes it well. Having a lighthearted script makes it a little easier. One must wonder, however, if the performance would have been enhanced in the tape era where the dialogue of the two parts could be knitted more closely together. You can hear EGR pause for a split second as he adjusts from one voicing to the other. In the tape era, which was not far away for Suspense, the pauses would have been tightened and even edited so the man and EGR might have talked over each other since such conversations go on in the man’s head. Remember, Robinson was not a radio novice. He had a lot of experience on radio as the star of Big Town and his appearances in other series. But his roles there and in movie-related radio programs were more straightforward. And, he had to perform this difficult role twice, once for the east, and once for the west. The New York Daily News reported that Robinson gave “a vivid performance.”

The underlying story could also be presented as a dark and dangerous one about a celebrity stalker, becoming a horror story or a police procedural. Creating this particular telling gives us some relief from such topics common in radio mysteries. Having Robinson participate in stopping the delusional subject by cooperating in his apprehension puts him in a role that is contrary to his popular typecasting. Is the bottom line that this story is about the actor’s challenge of typecasting?

In the 1948 performance of the script, the title was changed to The Man Who Wanted to be Edward G. Robinson. That’s a slightly different slant on the story, changing it from a delusion to a misguided aspiration of the man at the center of it.

There are three surviving recordings of the broadcasts. Both east and west networks have survived, and the Armed Forces Radio Service (#177) is derived from the east recording. Times are approximate:

• WC 24:04 “I-I don't think we'll have to, uh, go through with it”

• AFRS 20:14 and EC 23:31 “I-I don't think we'll have to go-go through with it”

The west coast broadcast is the much superior recording. The east broadcast has a PSA about contributing to the Community Chest (which would be renamed in 1963 as the charity “United Way”). The west broadcast does not have that announcement. The east broadcast has skips and might be an aircheck. The AFRS recording has narrow range.

The music of this episode is interesting because it was more serious than the story, adding to the amusement. You can hear a brief and loose variation of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, the music used for The FBI in Peace and War. That program was broadcast after Suspense for the east broadcasts, so there may have been a little inside joke there, and it was familiar to that audience. What’s more interesting is the first hearing of what some refer to as “The Suspense March” which was often heard at the end of Suspense episodes in the 1950s and used as closing filler in AFRS recordings of those programs. You can hear it at approximately 9:35 and 25:10. The history of “The Suspense March” is not known, but it was likely composed by Lucien Moraweck.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461017

THE CAST

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (Homer J. Hubbard), Verna Felton (Ada Hubbard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Ryan), Jerry Hausner (Gun Salesman), Wally Maher (Dinner guest)

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1946-10-10 A Plane Case of Murder

Series editor Robert L. Richards’ story requires some close listening to keep track of how two despicable double-crossers work to double cross each other. The timetable for murdering an ex-girlfriend’s rich husband is developed by an ex-POW played by John Lund. He’s so ticked off that she did not wait for him to marry that he plans to assist in the murder but frame her for its commission. The ease at which he tells lies about himself and his social position are almost unbelievable, but most everyone knows of such a person if they live long enough. She wants the money from the inheritance, and wants to frame Lund’s ex-boyfriend character for the crime. Her love interests are easily swayed by the prospect of wealth, however it is acquired or whoever gets in the way.

The murder plot, the framing plots, and the storyline rely on how and when the characters fly private planes in and out of a private runway to commit the crime. Those movements require the creation of alibis, one of which is how convincing the woman is in feigning engine trouble at another airport with personnel there to establish a counter-timeline. This hero-less story can be a bit complicated, so this is not an episode you just let play in the background and follow along as it goes along. Put your plot concentration headphones on and go along for the flight. Place your seat trays in the upright position and store your carry-on under the seat in front of you.

The title wording is and always was “plane.” Many collectors who just gathered recordings and never listened to the program would “correct” the title to be “plain” in their catalogs and reel contents sheets. The opening scene with Lund’s character in a last statement police interview make the title clear. Spelling it as “p-l-a-n-e” is part of that scene’s dialogue!

What came first? The plotline could easily be achieved no matter what form of transportation is used to execute it. Making private planes the hook for it was an interesting idea. Private aircraft were expensive, and most of the general public had never been on a commercial flight because air travel was considered to be only for “the rich.” That fact would make the attraction and fascination with the story more interesting for listeners who were curious about what flight travel was all about.

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. The program has a 14 second pause to the network ID.

John Lund subbed for the previously announced star Mark Stevens, and the substitution is discussed in the closing comments as the next episode is teased.

This was John Lund’s first appearance on Suspense. When his acting career was beginning, he was in stage productions in New York and had parallel activities in various radio productions as an actor and an announcer, mostly uncredited. Before he moved to Hollywood, he played the lead in the radio serial Chaplain Jim on NBC Blue Network in 1942. That was a “Hummert Factory” serial, so it was likely he was on numerous Hummert shows in that period. No recordings of that series in Lund’s tenure are available. As his career turned from New York to Hollywood and that career grew, he appeared on many movie-related series in promotion of his film roles. On radio, is best known for his time on Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar after Edmond O’Brien left the role. Few classic radio fans are aware of Lund’s early radio experience and assume he was a film actor prior to his radio roles. His career overview is available at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lund_(actor)

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461010

THE CAST

JOHN LUND (Randy Judson), Cathy Lewis (Marian), Hans Conried (Dunn), Jerry Hausner (Scottie), Bill Johnstone (District Attorney / 2nd Doctor), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Doctor)

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1946-10-03 Three Times Murder

Rita Hayworth stars in her only Suspense appearance. She plays a conniving murderess whose life becomes intertwined with a corrupt money-grubbing lawyer.

It all starts when Hayworth’s character is found not guilty of her husband’s murder. The assistant district attorney did his best to convict her of the bathtub electrocution, but fails to do so. He tried to get her to admit she did it by agreeing to throw the trial if she gave him half of the $100,000 inheritance (almost $1.5 million in US$2023!). At this point in the story, the listener is likely on the side of Hayworth’s character as a victim of accident and a corrupt prosecutor. That sympathy won’t last for long. After being found not guilty, she admits to the attorney that she killed him.

The young murderess widow moves to another town and remarries an older man. Time passes, and “it just so happens” that his half-brother shows up one day… and he’s the lawyer who failed to convict her… and knows the truth. If you smell the aroma of blackmail in the air, you’re right. The story gets more twisted than that. Some Suspense reviewers don’t like this story, but it’s a worthwhile listen even with all of the unlikely coincidences. Hayworth’s character and the lawyer are dreadfully awful people. You wonder how one will get the other in the end. It’s not Suspense at its best, but it is entertaining as you find out.

Hans Conried is back from the service and is superb as the corrupt attorney. This is a straight dramatic role. Conried is often in roles where there is some planned opportunity to go “over the top” with some line or characterization. That’s not in this script, and he shows how good an actor he can be in a serious presentation.

The script was by Robert L. Richards and John DeWitt. DeWitt was the scriptwriter for the soap opera David Harum before entering the service. Some of the plot twists in this episode are “soap-opera-like” but take place in about 24 minutes. It is easy to imagine how a network soap opera could have dragged them out for weeks and weeks and weeks of daily episodes!

The husband’s death by electrocution would not work in modern homes because of the modern use of GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlets in bathrooms. This same plot gimmick was part of Post Mortem.

There are two surviving recordings, a network one that goes directly to network ID (“dirID”) with no indication of broadcast coast, and a low quality Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#175) that is drawn from the missing network broadcast. A marker is as follows, times approximate.

• dirID 2:14 “Yes, Robert?” “Laura, where's my electric razor?”

• AFRS 1:28 “Yes, Robert?” “Ah, where's my electric razor?”

The network recording is the preferred one for listening.

This is Rita Hayworth’s only appearance on Suspense. She mentions that she is in a project involving Orson Welles, her husband at that time, and a close personal friend of William Spier. Welles and Hayward had a few months earlier in March 1946. Six months after this broadcast, Welles would make his final appearance on Suspense as a cameo with then-girlfriend Ava Gardner on 1947-05-01. Hayworth and Welles had their divorce filing in October 1947 and it was decreed a month later. The project she mentioned at the end of the broadcast while all of this personal upheavals were in process was Lady from Shanghai. Earlier in 1946, the iconic film Gilda was released. It has been popular among film historians and fans of that era for decades. Hayworth’s career was long and her life complex, but there’s a helpful overview at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Hayworth

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP461003

THE CAST

RITA HAYWORTH (Laura Williams, nee Starling-Morton), Hans Conried (Elmer Garner), Bill Johnstone (Charles Morton), Wally Maher (Robert Williams), Lou Merrill (Radio voice / Jury Foreman), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Judge)

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1946-09-26 Statement of Employee Henry Wilson

Gene Lockhart stars in one of the pre-Roma scripts that now gets the full-budget treatment. Lockhart starred in that earlier performance as well. The blogpost for that performance of 1943-11-02 includes details about the comic book and magazine adaptations. The blogpost is at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/1943-11-02-statement-of-employee-henry.html and the recordings and documents are at https://archive.org/details/TSP431102

The plotline deals with Henry Wilson’s unhappiness about being questioned about his office work. He decides that killing his boss is a solution to the problem. Guess what: it’s not.

There is only one surviving network recording and it is not known if it is the east or west broadcast. The delay to the network ID is 26 seconds (“26s”).

The author is John Shaw, who became a trusted, but not prolific, writer for William Spier on Suspense and also his year producing Philip Morris Playhouse. Shaw left scripting in the early 1950s and took a government job in his native Rhode Island for steadier income despite his obvious potential.

Gene Lockhart was one of the actors whose child also appeared on Suspense, though many years later when they had their own adult careers. There are four such pairings:

• Gene and June Lockhart
• Frank and Bob Readick
• Antony and Georgia Ellis and their son Jonathan (Kaleidoscope, and is the only episode to have all of the family members in the same production)
• Ralph and Claudia Morgan. Claudia appeared in a 1960s New York Suspense.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460926

THE CAST

GENE LOCKHART (Henry Wilson), Cathy Lewis (Mrs. Dodds), Wally Maher (Tom Higby / Lieutenant), Jerry Hausner (Jim, the elevator boy), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Larkin / Judge), Bill Johnstone (Detective Lewis), Ted Von Eltz (Dodds)

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1946-09-19 Till the Day I Die

Blogger Christine Miller has an interesting introduction to the broadcast https://www.escape-suspense.com/2013/09/suspense-till-the-day-i-die.html

In Till the Day I Die, Suspense puts their own spin on the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Dane Clark stars as a hoodlum who discovers that everything he ever wanted ...belonged to the man he murdered.

Clark’s character has committed a successful armed robbery of a store, and wants to start enjoying his ill-gotten fruits. His wife is upset that he killed the store owner. The local paper reports on the murder, the goodness of the murdered man, and publishes a picture of the victim. He looks exactly like Clark’s character! It’s too dangerous to stay in town, so he sends the wife away with plans to meet after some time passes. A chance meeting with the now-fatherless son of the victim results in the boy running up to him as he thinks he is his father. He falls in love with the widow. A tragic story unfolds where he learns that the man he murdered was his twin brother, and they had been separated and raised by different families after their parents died.

The clue to the story is that Clark’s character is named Cane. We learn much later that his murder victim had been adopted by a family named Abel. Spoiler alert… late again. There’s still a surprise ending that means the story has been narrated from the grave! Another late spoiler alert…

This is the fourth script by Michael Ryerson, and it is adapted by Robert L. Richards.

Clark was originally planned as the star of Easy Money on this date. That was held for another six weeks and starred Jack Carson.

There are two network recordings of this episode. They are differentiated by the closing announcements by Joe Kearns. One has “make it a point to listen” and the other has “make it a point to listen, ladies and gentlemen.” The recording that leaves out “ladies and gentleman” (designated as “noL&Gtease”) is the much better recording. There is a skip early in the story at 1:27 that does not affect the storyline but just misses a couple of words at most. Despite the skip, it is still the preferred choice.

Spier appears again to chat with Dane Clark in the closing moments of the broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460919

THE CAST

DANE CLARK (Frankie Cane), Betty Lou Gerson (Barbara Page), Cathy Lewis (Pat Cane), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), Henry Blair (Teddy), unknown (Porter)

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1946-09-12 Hunting Trip

Two men who had affection for the same recently deceased woman go on a hunting trip. One of them loves reading mystery novels, especially ones about murders, and holds anger over the way she was treated. There’s all kinds of near-miss accidental situations that could end up as fatal on the trip. This is a hunting trip in the great outdoors, so you just know there has to be an accidental shooting in the story. But there isn’t, because this is Suspense. That would be too obvious. There’s a poisoning instead. Be certain which cup is yours before you drink from it.

Paul Bernard and Lee Horton created the script and were writers for radio, film, and television. They also collaborated on Murder for Myra, which also starred Lloyd Nolan. The script is okay, Price is very good, Nolan is better than his other appearance. There’s no powerful synergy in their pairing beyond than their notoriety. But it’s Suspense, so it’s better than most things playing on the radio at that time.

There is only one network recording available, and it is not known to which coast it was directed. Nolan has a brief flub in the opening sequence and it is in all available recordings. Some collector recordings are missing the closing network ID.

William Spier makes on of his rare appearances at the end of the program to chat with Nolan and Price about their upcoming projects.

The program was presented again on Murder by Experts on Mutual on 1950-01-09. No recording of that broadcast is available. It starred Chester Stratton and Ralph Bell.

The official and announced title is “Hunting Trip” and not “The Hunting Trip.”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460912

THE CAST

VINCENT PRICE (Eric), LLOYD NOLAN (Stan), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)

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1946-09-05 You'll Never See Me Again

Robert Young stars in a new performance of this Cornell Woolrich story. It was originally presented with Joseph Cotten two years earlier. Details behind that September 1944 broadcast are at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-09-14-youll-never-see-me-again.html and the recordings are at https://archive.org/details/TSP440914.

Newlywed Ed Bliss (the name may be an amusing joke about marriage) and his wife had an argument, and she storms out of the house. He figures she’d cool off and return after she stays at her mother’s home… but she’s not there. Bliss starts looking for her… and the story is not what it seems. Why? Because it’s a Woolrich story on Suspense, that’s why.

Young gives a fine performance though his does not convey sinister undertones in the way that Cotten’s voicing often does.

One network recording has survived and it has a 41 second pause to the network ID (“41s”).

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460905

THE CAST

ROBERT YOUNG (Ed Bliss), Cathy Lewis (Janet Bliss / Mrs. Farley), Bill Johnstone (Farley / Gas station guy), Verna Felton (Mrs. Laura Alden), Wally Maher (Bus Driver / Detective Stillman), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Joe Alden), unknown (Ticket clerk)

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1946-08-29 Blue Eyes

Hume Cronyn delivers another excellent Suspense performance in Blue Eyes, a script by Lewis Reed and Charles Smith. A timid accountant has his eyes on a young woman in the office. His infatuation gets him to consider killing his constantly nagging but ill wife. As he prepares to poison her, he finds an album of pictures and realizes the affection she has for him… and he changes his mind. But some of the plan is in place… and when he finds her in bed and unresponsive, he has to cover his tracks because she died before she took the poison! Could he be convicted of murder when the intended victim is already deceased from natural causes?

The story would be implausible in these times because someone with an incurable disease would never have been able to conceal it from their partner, just because of all of the diagnostic tests that would be done. It’s almost 80 years since this broadcast, and medical diagnostic tests and imaging have made stunning advances, including insurance coverage. Today, the authors would have found some other rationale or set of circumstances that would allow for the Cronyn's character not being aware.

In recent weeks of Suspense planning and announcements of upcoming guest stars, the script was first announced for J. Carroll Naish (who was cast in Commuter’s Ticket instead) and then Cecil Kellaway (who was cast until about two weeks before the broadcast). Cronyn is so good in this part it’s hard to imagine Naish or Kellaway being any better. Kellaway never appeared on Suspense.

Two network recordings have survived, but they are not specified as to region. One of the recordings has a 10 second pause to network ID (“10s”), and the other goes direct to network ID (“dirID”). The “10s” recording is the better of the two. Times are approximate for a dialogue marker that can be used to identify the source of an Armed Forces Radio Service should one be found.

• dirID 27:11 “Because if she committed suicide as she planned, just how would you have been able to prove your innocence, Mr. Littlefield. Just, uh, exactly how?”

• 10s 26:46 “Because if she com-committed suicide as she planned, just how would you have been able to prove your innocence, Mr. Littlefield. Just exactly how?”

The chemical cyanate mentioned in the story is a real chemical used in photographic processing, and is related to cyanide. The drug “maxedrine” mentioned in the story appears to be fictitious.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460829

THE CAST

HUME CRONYN (Oliver Littlefield), Cathy Lewis (Jane), Bill Johnstone (Joe), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Dr. Thacker), Wally Maher (Crowley the postman), Elliott Lewis (Steve / Policeman), Will Wright (Mr. Bevins), Forrest Lewis (Photo Shop clerk), Paul McVey? (Coroner), Mary Jane Croft? (Laura / Librarian)

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1946-08-22 The Great Horrell

Joan Lorring stars in a George and Gertrude Fass script about a woman who believes her mind-reading husband’s grip on her thoughts extends beyond their mentalist stage act and can span a distance half a world away.

The Horrells have a long-strained relationship, and Lorring’s character wants a divorce. Her husband refuses, and decides that some time away and apart will ease tensions. He heads for Australia. She decides to pursue the divorce (for desertion, it is presumed) while he is away so she can marry the man she with whom she has been having an affair. She meets with an attorney but she cannot even utter the words to start the conversation about the topic. Lorring’s character is paralyzed by the belief that her husband can still detect her thoughts and exert control over her behavior though he is so very far away. As the story plays out you realize that Lorring’s character is psychotic and her obsession is getting worse and leading toward murder. Lorring is superb in her performance, and the musical score raises the script to be much better than it really is.

One network recording has survived, and it has a 17 second pause before the network ID (“17s”). It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#169) has survived and it matches the surviving network recording where there is a problem with dialogue; times are approximate:

• 17s 2:01 “The Great Horrell, the marked mentalist…that’s the masked mentalist, jury…”

• AFRS 1:28 “The Great Horrell, the marked mentalist…that’s the masked mentalist, jury…”

The network recording is the better of the two.

Lorring was one of the very small number of actors who were in the 1942 Summer series and in the 1962 final series of Suspense. She was just 20 years old in this starring role, just a few years from her season on A Date with Judy under her true name, Madeline "Dellie" Ellis.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460822

THE CAST

JOAN LORRING (Alma Horrell), Lou Merrill (Martin Horrell), Elliott Lewis (Paul Wilson), Wally Maher (Dr. Emil Hochman), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Jury Foreman / MC), Will Wright (District Attorney), Jerry Hausner (Banning), unknown (Judge), Mary Jane Croft? (Secretary)

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1946-08-15 The Last Letter of Dr Bronson

This script was originally presented on 1943-07-27, but now it gets the big budget Roma Wines treatment. The blogpost for that broadcast is at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/1943-07-27-last-letter-of-dr-bronson.html and the files are at https://archive.org/details/TSP430727

The story is about a doctor who wants to understand what prevents people from the commission of evil deeds. He has a theory which he tests, but he learns the hard way that not all people are the same in their motivations and limitations of their actions.

One network recording has survived, and it is not known to which coast it was broadcast. It has a three second pause to network ID.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/460815

THE CAST

HENRY DANIELL (Dr. Bronson), Cathy Lewis (Dr. Judith Ainsley), Elliott Lewis (Laderne), Norman Field (Dr. Mosher), Wally Maher (Matt Doyle), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice), Junius Matthews (Totten)

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1946-08-08 Dead Ernest

This is the famous episode about a man who has a medical condition that mimics death when he faints or collapses. The malady is so terrifying to him that he carries a note in his pocket about the potential of a cataleptic incident that may end up in a morgue and undergo an autopsy… when he is actually still alive! What he fears happens when he collapses in the street, but his jacket with the note is stolen! Of course, he is taken to… a hospital… and then the morgue. The listener is pulled into the story and mentally cringes as they hear the medical examiner preparing to begin his procedure. You know Ernest is going to be okay… but how far will it go?

This marvelous episode was originally titled “Articles of Death” and was written by radio pros Seeleg Lester and Merwin Gerard. It was rejected by Suspense producer William Spier.

Then-wife Kay Thompson had a habit of flipping through Bill’s rejected pile. She read the script, and suggested he give it another look. He did. He gave it a much, much better name, changing the name of cataleptic Philip Bowers to Ernest. Spier scheduled the broadcast for the Summer when “everyone who was anyone” in Hollywood was on vacation and he would not have to expend time and effort to find a star to commit to an appearance. Who needs a Hollywood movie star when you have skilled artists on the air every week? The performances by the day-to-day radio pros are superb throughout.

In 2022, I was able to have a brief chat with Wally Maher, Jr., who said that this was his father's absolutely favorite episode. The show changed the direction of Suspense history. It was supposed to be a light filler show when listenership was lower than other times of the year. Those low expectations were misplaced when this turned into one of the series' best episodes. It's not often something can be serious, amusing, creepy, and comedic in the span of 25 or so minutes of drama. The end of the story… where Ernest is chastised for being late getting home for dinner is a fine end to the roller coaster ride of a story.

The episode was submitted to the Peabody Award committee and it was a key consideration in Suspense getting the recognition of a 1946 Peabody Award. The award was announced in April 1947. That was just after the time when Roma Wines was breaking the news to CBS about not renewing its sponsorship. For CBS, and the cast, the award could not have happened at a better time. Roma was embarrassed into renewing the series for two 13-week contracts. Despite the Peabody recognition, wine sales remained sluggish, and the sponsorship expired in November 1947.

For such an important show in Suspense history, it is surprising that it wasn't repeated more often. It was presented again as a Peabody victory lap in May 1947, and again with Auto-Lite in March 1949 under Tony Leader. This means that Spier skipped it for his year of Philip Morris Playhouse when he used other Suspense scripts, even Cypress Canyon. Even when Spier returned to Suspense after Leader was not rehired, Dead Ernest was not performed again. The script was passed over by every subsequent Suspense producer: Elliott Lewis, Antony Ellis, Norman Macdonnell, Bill Robson, and the New York crew. How could no one want to bring the Peabody winner back?

There are two surviving versions of the network broadcasts; there is no indication of coast. The better recording has two seconds to network ID (“2s”) The other version is four seconds to ID (“4s”). Times are approximate.

• 2s 26:19 “As for the busy telephone in Dr. Fenton's office...”

• 4s 26:20: “As, uh...as for the busy telephone in Dr. Fenton's office...”

Dead Ernest did make it to the Suspense TV series on 1949-05-03. It's at https://youtu.be/xrBhaBJ3eVw and also https://archive.org/details/Dead_Ernest--Suspense Watching it it proves the power of radio drama in comparison to the television production. TV technology and technique was primitive at the time, but it’s clear that even modern visual arts could not have offered the compelling engagement that the audio production has.

The plot of a cataleptic who seems dead but is alive is not so outlandish. On January 9, 2018, the website Live Science had an article “Man Declared Dead Snores to Life Right Before His Autopsy.” A Spanish prisoner snored just four hours after he had been declared dead by three forensic specialists. https://www.livescience.com/61385-man-declared-dead-really-alive.html This past June, an Ecuadoran woman was found to be breathing during her wake after being declared dead just days before https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/ecuador-woman-who-was-found-alive-during-her-own-wake-dies-101687133321763.html If you’re a cataleptic, be sure to carry a note about it with you, and don’t lose it the way Ernest did!

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460808

THE CAST

Wally Maher (Lt. Steve Healy / Bystander), Walter Tetley (Bobby Minelli), Tommy Bernard (Tommy Stoner), Jay Novello (Minelli / Clerk), Robert Bailey (Officer Abbott), Hal K. Dawson (Tobin / Tony, the second embalmer), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Bystander / Dr. Theodore Weldon), Peggy Rea (Honey the Coroner’s assistant), Verna Felton (Mrs. Brawley, the landlady), Will Wright (Honest Jerry Murdock), Lester Jay (Payne / Officer), Jerry Hausner (Al Beniston, chief embalmer), Elliott Lewis (Henry Prince), Cathy Lewis (Frances Prince / Mrs. Bowers), Junius Matthews (Ernest Bowers)

Yes, that’s Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar’s Bob Bailey in the cast!

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