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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