Leon Ames stars as a business-obsessed man whose doctor prescribes “an evening’s diversion” to get away from the stresses of his daily life and improve his health and overall well-being. He reluctantly does so, and then he lets the excitement of it all lead him to a restaurant frequented by gangsters. He overhears the plans for a murder plot, then trails the murderer to the scene of their desired crime. Along the way we learn that while he’s had a problem getting on board with the idea of getting out for a night every now and then, his wife has had no problem having diversions when he’s been at the office. Whoops! Forgot the spoiler alert, at least for that part of the story. Listen carefully as she keeps asking how long he will be at the office and starts getting very specific about his schedule of late night work. There are still unspoiled parts of the story that still make it worth listening.
Gerald Mohr is in the episode as a gangster. Mohr wasn’t on Suspense that often, seven times as best documented. RadioGoldindex has him in The Whistler cast around 60 times. It’s probably a lot more because about a third of The Whistler episodes are still missing.
Ulcers are part of the justification for taking “an evening’s diversion” to reduce the “stress” that ulcers are caused by. That was the thinking at that time, at least. Reflux is now understood to be what was once diagnosed as “ulcers.” Ulcers are far less common than thought now that there are diagnostic means of identifying digestive problems such as endoscopy using fiber optic devices. The storyline, as usual, reflects the medical understanding of its time, about 80 years ago.
The author of the script is Sanford Schlesinger, announced in the episode as “Stan.” He was a writer for Boston Blackie, Cisco Kid, an Associated Press program Eye Witness News, and War Correspondent. He also wrote for Molle Mystery Theater and Grand Central Station, among others.
There are two network recordings of the episode, east and west. The east is 10 seconds to network ID (“10s”) and the west is 3 seconds (“3s”). The west coast recording is the better of the two, but they are very close in sound quality.
This was the only appearance of Leon Ames on Suspense. He had a long movie and television career that is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Ames Boomers may remember him as neighbor “Gordon Kirkwood” on the Alan Young series Mister Ed. For moviegoers in the 1940s he was one of those character actors who just seemed to be everywhere.
Ames did very little radio once his movie career was established. Wikipedia notes that he was on Grand Central Station in 1942. This means that at the time before he went to Hollywood and was working in New York theatrical productions, he may have had many uncredited roles in New York dramatic radio.
In February 1964, Ames and his wife had a terrifying incident. They were held hostage along with a house guest in their home by a 21-year old intruder who demanded $50,000. The ransom was paid, and the police were able to free them without bodily harm, and the perpetrator, Lynn Wayne Benner, was arrested. The bank had alerted the police. Six years later, Benner escaped from prison and attempted the same thing with a family in Sacramento. A few years later, his cellmate would be Dr. Timothy Leary of LSD fame. They would become friends and talk about a range of things including interstellar travel, UFOs, and ESP. They tried to escape Folsom via levitation (it didn't work).
Around the time of this broadcast, Ames was starting to invest in car dealerships in Southern California. He was very successful in the endeavor, and was known for some of his commercials in support of the businesses.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460704
THE CAST
LEON AMES (Paul Edwards), Cathy Lewis (Lily Edwards), Elliott Lewis (Doctor / Railway officer), Gerald Mohr (Maxie), Wally Maher (Joe, the elevator operator / Old man), Lurene Tuttle (Lois / Phone operator), Jerry Hausner (Cab driver / Desk sergeant), Harry Lang (Maxie’s associate), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Policeman), unknown (Waitress)
In the east coast version, Bill Johnstone stumbles a little on the episode name.
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