Suspense began as a summer replacement series. The show did not have a lot of publicity prior to its opening, and newspapers did not give it much coverage on a week-to-week basis.
The first episode, The Burning Court received a harsh review in Variety’s 1942-06-24 edition. The show was not considered anything special. Some of the newspaper listings would not even list the episodes as Suspense, but would just generically list it as “play” or “drama.” The show did not have its “brand” yet.
The early shows set the tone as a British-style drama with influence from author John Dickson Carr (who was born in the US, but lived in Britain). This period of the series is not held in high regard by Suspense fans, but everyone realizes that the series was just getting its bearings.
Many of the programs are missing and newspaper information when available is sketchy and often conflicting. Unfortunately, there are only two programs from this short season, the first and the last: Burning Court and Cave of Ali Baba. All of the rest are mysteries as to whether or not they aired, and if so, exactly when they did!
The most common collector listing of that summer’s programs is as follows:
- 06/17/42 The Burning Court
- 06/24/42 Wet Saturday
- 07/01/42 The Life of Nellie James
- 07/08/42 Rope
- 07/15/42 The Third Eye
- 07/22/42 Witness on the Westbound Ltd
- 07/29/42 Philomel Cottage
- 08/05/42 Finishing School
- 08/12/42 Suspicion
- 08/19/42 The Cave of Ali Baba
These listings were likely created by referencing newspaper archives as well as scripts, when available. Newspapers... those references are only as good as the CBS publicity machine could make it. The series had no resources for the kind of campaign that a program with a sponsor would have. As far as the CBS publicity department was concerned, it was a summer series, a filler, until the important Fall 1942 season would begin and get all of the publicity machine's energy.
Producer William Spier’s papers reside at the University of Wisconsin of Wisconsin and can be accessed there. There are copies of certain scripts in the collection. The library’s website lists some script information (click here).
What’s surprising is that the collection even has copies of scripts for programs that he was not assigned to. That’s very helpful. A listing of the Spier holdings indicates the following:
- 06/17/42 NO SCRIPT AVAILABLE
- 06/24/42 Wet Saturday
- 07/01/42 The Life of Nellie James
- 07/08/42 Rope
- 07/15/42 Witness on the Westbound Limited
- 07/22/42 NO SCRIPT AVAILABLE
- 07/29/42 Philomel Cottage
- 08/05/42 NO SCRIPT AVAILABLE
- 08/12/42 Suspicion
- 08/19/42 The Cave of Ali Baba
Note that there is no copy of The Burning Court, but that’s not a problem because there are other sources of information, including the recording, that make it quite clear it was the first program. There are other differences, and it should be stressed that Spier’s papers were likely not available to the creators of the original log. These are the differences:
The log lists The Third Eye as the program for 1942-07-15, while Spier’s papers do not have a program of that title and instead have Witness on the Westbound Limited in that date instead.
There is no script for 1942-08-05 in the collection.
Spier’s papers should be considered as authoritative. Further research by collector Don Ramlow implies that these are scripts that were prior to production, so there were cast changes and other edits that were made later. Mr. Ramlow has had access to copies of many of Harold Medford's scripts from this season with further markups.
It was originally thought that The Third Eye was an adaptation of the Robert Chambers book of that name published in the early 1900s. Chambers wrote the original Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons novel.
Research by Mr. Ramlow and verified by myself and collector Keith Scott has indicated that The Third Eye is a novel by Ethel Lina White. Some may be familiar with the name because she wrote The Lady Vanishes which was adapted into a famous early Alfred Hitchcock movie.
The name was changed by the Suspense producers to Finishing School. This means that there was no Third Eye broadcast. What was thought to be a missing show was never missing at all. It was just performed with a different title.
This next table represents the latest thinking (at least by this author) of the 1942 summer for Suspense. The items in bold italics are believed to be indisputable at this time. The other dates are still requiring research and a bit of luck.
- 06/17/42 The
Burning Court
- 06/24/42 Wet
Saturday
- 07/01/42 The
Life of Nellie James
- 07/08/42 Rope
- 07/15/42 Witness
on the Westbound Ltd
- 07/22/42 Finishing School
-
07/29/42 Philomel
Cottage
- 08/05/42 NO SCRIPT ????
- 08/12/42 Suspicion
- 08/19/42 The Cave of Ali Baba
After The Cave of Ali Baba, Suspense was pre-empted on 1942-08-26 for a special program about the release of the movie Holiday Inn.
The following week, 1942-09-02, was a performance of Lucille Fletcher’s The Hitch-hiker starring Orson Welles. The program had been performed in 1941 on Lady Esther Screen Guild; a partial recording exists (see link below).
Suspense was pre-empted the following week for war news and commentary. Then, starting on 1942-09-16, Suspense had three weekly episodes while its broadcast fate was being decided. Ratings were not exceptional, but the network was receiving more letters from listeners than usual in support of it. After much wringing of hands, it was decided to continue the series even though it did not have a sponsor. The first episode of regular series of Suspense was on October 27, 1942. Since that broadcast, most every broadcast has been preserved and documented in some way.
In many ways, that summer of 1942 remains a mystery. Mr. Ramlow has the best chance of unraveling it all through his continuing and diligent research.
NOTE: After the broadcasts noted above, Orson Welles starred in The Hitch-hiker, which has a special place in Suspense history. See the post https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/01/1942-09-02-hitch-hiker.html for some important background about how the broadcast came about.
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