This episode is entertaining for its nasty self-absorbed characters who are pitted against each other in an implausible plot. The impossible starts early: Baxter’s character insists on soliciting the job of someone who just committed suicide an hour (or whatever) before. This is a signal to listeners to just let things go and get ready for more unlikely things to be coming their way. It’s still a fun listen, but just accept what happens and move on.
We learn the details of an attempted insurance fraud, for that we must suspend some common sense (that’s not the kind of “suspense” we’re looking for). The perpetrators found an innocent ex-employee woman to murder by pushing her out the window. She’s dressed as the boss’ girlfriend and with the identification and personal items that the ruse needed to cover up an embezzlement and various other malfeasances. Someone wouldn’t have noticed these things along the line? Surely some evidence counter to their cover story would come together. Part of the fun of the story is to learn how they tried to make it convincing. It’s an interesting story if you let the finer details go.
This is one of the odder Suspense broadcasts:
Blogger Christine Miller called it a “bizarre episode.” https://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/06/always_room_at_.html
Oldtimeradioreview.com said “even though the episode is utterly absurd, it is also immensely entertaining.” http://www.oldtimeradioreview.com/suspense---a2.html
Eleanor Beeson is the scripter; she also wrote the 1945-07-05 The Last Detail. That, too, needed a little leeway to get the most enjoyment out of the story. The performances are better than the script. Robert Richards adapted the script (or tried to make it better).
Both east and west network recordings have survived. They are practically equivalent in sound quality. The east broadcast teases the latest issue of Suspense Magazine and then urges listeners to stay tuned for The FBI in Peace and War. The west coast only teases Suspense Magazine.
This episode became a photoplay feature in the September 1947 edition of Radio Mirror. A PDF of that article can be downloaded with the audio files. Please note the comments about that feature below, after the episode’s cast information.
This is Anne Baxter’s first appearance on Suspense. She had a fifty year career in stage, screen, television, and radio. Baxter won an Oscar for her supporting role in the 1946 The Razor’s Edge. Her long career is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Baxter Her radio appearances were mainly on movie-related series such as Lux Radio Theatre.
During the closing Roma promo, Baxter gets the basket of Roma Wine and asks which one is best with baked beans. That is a reminder of the kinds of meals that were had during the scarcity and rationing of foods during wartime. Bean casserole was a common Great Depression and wartime meal. Roma sales were not going well, and the return to pre-War availability of foods was one of the reasons why wine sales were down. Family budgets may have been the same, but there were more foods to spread it around and they had to be careful with their spending. From March 1946 to March 1947, the US inflation rate was a whopping 20%. From February 1946 to August 1948, food prices increased 55.2%. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/one-hundred-years-of-price-change-the-consumer-price-index-and-the-american-inflation-experience.htm It is pretty clear how, in just that short period of time, market dynamics could shift wine from a beverage that made the meager meals of scarcity better or more tolerable to being become a luxury as meats and other foodstuffs began to re-appear in family meals.
It’s clear that Roma is struggling with its marketing message. The company is flailing about with messages about how wine is less expensive than believed and how wine can raise stature and enjoyability of basic meals. Wine is a step toward the comforts of better living but was easy on the budget. In wartime, the message was more straightforward. This means that executives are having trouble figuring out how to clearly express the benefits of their product in a manner that fits with the changing consumption patterns of consumers and the economic pressures that are changing their purchase preferences. It’s understandable that they would rather find a way to flail about for less money than Suspense.
Remember, Roma was purchased in 1943 and the new ownership were likely coming to the realization that they overpaid for the company and could not achieve the revenue levels needed to have their acquisition reach their forecasted and desired profitability. Suspense and Hollywood was going to be their means to do grow the business to pay for the financing of their acquisition, and it was not working out. Years later, Suspense would lose the Auto-Lite sponsorship when that company had to cope with the effects of economic recession and changing distribution strategies of their industry.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470220
THE CAST
ANNE BAXTER (Helen Brandt), Cathy Lewis (Marie Harris), Wally Maher (Bill Farrell), Mary Jane Croft (Jean Thornton), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Charlie), Jack Webb (Policeman / Reporter), Paul Frees (2nd Policeman), unknown (Receptionist)
* * *
This episode became a photoplay feature of the September 1947 issue of Radio Mirror. The introductory paragraph states the cast as follows:
SUSPENSE has a large and avid number of listeners would not under any circumstances miss a single program, for it creates in those who listen exactly the sensation which the title implies. It stands far above the average mystery program in story, in direction, in acting. The actors who play the parts in Suspense each week are top Hollywood radio stars who form the Suspense stock company. Here, as on the air, Helen Brandt is played by Cathy Lewis; Jean Thornton is Dolores Crane; Lurene Tuttle is the secretary, Marie Harris; Elliot Lewis (he's Cathy's husband) is Bill Farrel and the two reporters are Wallace Maher and Joe Kearns.
This information is incorrect, obviously. The September publication date means that the issue was on newsstands in late August. That means that the photos for the story were probably taken in April or May, based on typical print publication editorial and production processes in those years. The original cast would have been difficult to re-assemble for a photo shoot, and likely expensive to do so. It was cheaper and easier to assemble members of the regular ensemble cast than call Anne Baxter and others back. This was the original cast of characters and players.
Helen Brandt: Anne Baxter
Jean Thornton: Mary Jane Croft
Marie Harris: Cathy Lewis
Charlie, elevator man: Joe Kearns
Bill Farrel: Wally Maher
Policeman: Jack Webb (double)
Reporter #1: Jack Webb (double)
Reporter #2: Paul Frees
The actors in the Radio Mirror photostory were different. They eliminated the police officers and just had reporters. Perhaps they did not have access to police costume uniforms for the shoot! They changed the actors to the usual and available ensemble players at CBS.
Helen Brandt: Cathy Lewis
Jean Thornton: Dolores Crane
Marie Harris: Lurene Tuttle
Charlie, elevator man: No such character
Bill Farrel: Elliott Lewis
Policeman: No such character
Reporter #1: Wally Maher
Reporter #2: Joe Kearns
Note the inclusion of Dolores Crane. She had not made a documented appearance on Suspense yet, though she would, months later. Wally Maher was “demoted” to being a reporter, while Elliott Lewis is “promoted” to a key role in the story, though he was not in the broadcast.
Was Radio Mirror “lying” to its readers? The magazines usually worked with the information the publicity departments gave them and nothing more. This was not an investigative journalism piece, but a fluff promo piece for a series they knew their listeners loved. They did not ask questions. Adding the actual cast facts to the story might have been considered confusing for such a light piece.
The readers did not have access to the program recording, but we do. We can enjoy the recording again and again and discern the differences between that and this photoplay. Readers could not. For those who heard the program and read about it months later in the magazine, the actual cast would have been a faint memory.
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