Michael O'Shea plays one of those sidewalk photographers that was popular in big cities and tourist destinations in the early-to-mid 20th Century. They stand in the main street sidewalks, holding what now seems like a massive camera and have their supplies bag hanging over their shoulder. They would take your picture and try to convince you to buy a print as a commemoration of your exciting visit. There was no such thing as instant photography then, so they’d have to bring the unexposed film back to their studio darkroom or drop it off at a photo lab at the end of their day. That day could go very long depending on the kind of sights and events tourists had available to them. Many photographers made a good living on it, getting paid on the spot, and agreeing to send copies of the processed photos from their studios a few days later, and they’d be there when you returned home. (As you can imagine, this arrangement could also be used as a scam). Some of them would slip the maître d’ of a popular restaurant some money so they could stop in and offer to take pictures of people at tables where they were having a celebration or important meeting of some sort. It was hard work… you had to hustle… at a time when there were no reliable portable cameras, instant photography, nor the digital photography we so enjoy today. Listeners were quite familiar with this kind of worker, so the story resonated with them.
In this case, O’Shea plays an honest hardworking photographer, trying to make a living of it. All is well until he unknowingly takes a picture that includes a gangster hit in the background. At his day comes to a close, he visits his favorite “pharmacy” on his way home and accidentally leaves his camera there. Some hoods visit him at home, pretending to be policemen. They ask him to help them solve the crime. As listeners, we’re pretty astute at this Suspense stuff, so we know they’re not really cops, but he doesn’t realize it until it’s too late. Where’s his camera? Where’s the picture? It’s a good and enjoyable story with its share of chuckles and smirks. O’Shea seems to be having a great time at the microphone, realizing the story more for fun than serious drama, and delivers a good performance.
The script is by Roy Grandey, who worked in the CBS script department at the time. It was adapted by Robert Richards. Grandey also wrote for Molle Mystery Theater and many other programs. He became involved in television and was a writer and director an early TV series Thrill of Your Life. He moved to the role of program director at KGO radio in San Francisco, and then shifted to a career as a producer of industrial documentaries and education films. He always had a keen interest in photography, knowledge which he leveraged for this particular script. His name is often misspelled in classic radio data bases as “Grandy.” A 1959 profile had an interesting comment from him that is a back door praise of the power of radio drama compared to photography: “As a writer I dream up something almost impossible to photograph.”
There is only one surviving recording and it is in fine sound. It is a network broadcast, coast not known at this time. The time to network ID is 14 seconds (“14s”). O’Shea has a little stutter in a line of dialogue that might help identify a different version if one becomes available.
13:45 ...pretty soon I’m on a bigger road. And themonna... And then I’m on the on the main highway back to town.
Commuter’s Ticket with O’Shea was originally announced for this broadcast. His appearance was changed to this script, and Commuter’s Ticket was broadcast two weeks later with J. Carrol Naish. O’Shea is so perfect for this part it that Spier and others may have realized that as they were prepping the show and decided to save the other script for Naish.
This is Michael O’Shea’s first appearance on Suspense. He had a long and varied career that started in vaudeville and worked his way onto the stage and into movies. He does not have many mentions in RadioGoldindex, but he was active in New York radio in many uncredited roles prior to moving to Hollywood. His career is summarized well at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O%27Shea_(actor)
This is also the first appearance for Ira Grossel, better know later as “Jeff Chandler.”
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460708
THE CAST
MICHAEL O’SHEA (Joe Mooney), Cathy Lewis (Maude), Jerry Hausner (Jake), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice/ first cop), Jay Novello (Harry/ second cop), Wally Maher (The tough guy), Ira Grossel (Frankie), Mary Jane Croft? (Jeanne O’Dea)
This was announcer Truman Bradley’s final Suspense show for 33 weeks. He would be replaced by Ken Niles. It is not known exactly why there was a change. Bradley was a highly sought voice on radio and in movies for narration. He had recently taken a gig as the announcer on the new Don Ameche program. The year was a difficult one for him, with the birth of a baby girl and, what seems to be from newspaper accounts, a difficult period of separation and divorce. Niles would do a very good job, reading the same ad copy that Bradley did. Their styles were notably different when reading the exact same text. Since Roma was “experimenting” with ad formats over past weeks, it is possible they were still trying to figure out what ads and voices worked for them. The post-war wine market was not as strong as one might think, and in early 1947 Roma executives were making it clear they were tiring of the high cost of Suspense and not getting the bump in sales that they wanted or needed.
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