1947-11-06 Dream Song

Radio “bad boy” Henry Morgan plays a writer who keeps getting distracted by music coming from another apartment. A neighbor is murdered, and that makes the music all the more curious. Was the music playing to cover up the murder? Then, a second murder occurs… The story’s conclusion becomes fairly obvious as we never really meet any of the other tenants. We know they are there by indirect reference. You can sense the skepticism about Morgan’s character in the reactions of the police and the landlord. The script is not particularly compelling, and Morgan does not have that much to work with.

This is yet another writer’s block episode. It is odd that writers sometimes find that writing about writer’s block helps them break it.

The story is by George Bellak and Ben Kerner. They had good careers as writers of radio, television, and movies. Bellak eventually won a Writers Guild award and an Emmy nomination for television writing. He wrote two Suspense episodes for television; both were for the final season and no kinescopes are available. Bellak wrote for many of the popular TV series of the 1960s and 1970s. He was later involved in the science fiction television series Space: 1999 (but that should not be held against him).

The song Morgan keeps hearing is the 1924 Isham Jones “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” https://archive.org/details/78_ill-see-you-in-my-dreams_isham-jones-and-his-famous-orchestra-curt-massey-isham-jo_gbia0417280a The song was popular for many years and recorded by many vocalists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_See_You_in_My_Dreams_(1924_song) The song is a clue in the story in itself.

Two network recordings have survived, and it is not known to which coast they were broadcast. One recording has an eight second pause to network ID (“8s”). The other has a one second pause (“1s”). The 8s recording is the better of the two.

This was Henry Morgan’s sole appearance on Suspense. The “bad boy” of radio was one of its most creative and difficult personalities, skilled in satire, and annoying to broadcast and sponsor executives. His work led to a 1946 Peabody Award in April 1947, the same season for the award to Suspense. The organization stated:

A special citation in the field of drama goes to Henry Morgan, a humorist who learned radio as an office boy, disc jockey and announcer, and whose skill in burlesque, mimicry and deadpan makes him a delightful one-man show. In going big time, we hope he will not lose the surprise and impertinence with which he started.

He is best known to late baby boomers for his appearances on prime time television game shows, such as I’ve Got a Secret, and his influence on radio humor, disc jockeys (especially the later DJs with silly contests and skits, and by extension the later “shock jocks” such as Don Imus and many others), and other forms of satirical audio. His own advertisers were often belittled by him, always protested, and then realized sales were increasing, but eventually tired of it all,. He occasionally dabbled in radio drama, such as the Corwin Plot to Overthrow Christmas and performed well in it. His up and down and often amusing career is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan_(humorist)

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471106

THE CAST

HENRY MORGAN (Charles Kenyon), Wally Maher (Inspector Sam Fields), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Torsten the janitor), Frank Albertson (Policeman), Grace Gillern (Operator)

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1947-10-30 Subway

June Havoc stars as a struggling actor who happens to find herself standing in the same subway car as a former acting school classmate. She’s just landed a big break as an understudy in a Broadway play. Where Havoc’s character has been scraping by, her ex-classmate’s path was cleared by her family’s contacts and riches. Envy starts to overcome her, and she contemplates stabbing her ex-classmate in a dark alley or empty lot, fleeing, and then working for auditions to take her understudy role. She suggests that the classmate join her for dinner at her apartment. She wondered about how she would execute her plan, and decided that getting off the subway a few stops prior to then real one, and then walking together until she found the right spot to use the scissors she was carrying at the ready. By the end of the story, she re-thinks her plan, and decides that the crime is too demeaning to carry out. She would be better off achieving any future success through hard work and persistence.

This is a demanding role with long monologues that comment on the subway ride and the passing scenery. It is hard to make such reading interesting. Havoc performs it well. The suspense is how and when she will commit the crime… and the surprise ending is that her conscience wins the day. It is an odd story for the Suspense series.

At about 16:00, the classmate asks how “Bill” was. This is likely a brief in-joke about Havoc and Spier’s relationship.

This was Eileen Dugliss Walzer’s only Suspense script. She entered many scripts in the contests run by the Dr. Christian series and had numerous scripts accepted for broadcast. She worked in advertising early in her career. While pursuing family life, she was a freelance writer for magazines and contributed her writing and publicity skills to many civic and non-profit organizations. The script was adapted by Mel Dinelli.

In the cast for crowd noises are CBS sound effects personnel, but freelance scripter Richard George Pedicini takes part in the murmuring of the subway crowds. He wrote many scripts for the Auto-Lite era of the series.

This is a network recording and there are indications that it is a west coast broadcast recording that may been the playing of a transcription of the east coast performance. When inquiring as to the source of the recording, we were advised that this was June Havoc’s personal disc, transferred by Los Angeles area disc experts. The program was believed “missing” until she found it in her belongings. There is no network ID by Kearns, but there is a local announcer that the show was transcribed and then gives the network ID. It could be a delayed broadcast, or it could be that the east broadcast was live, and the west received a transcribed broadcast. It is not known.

There is a poor-sounding AFRTS recording from the late 1970s or early 1980s. It matches the surviving network recording. It seems to be a home tape recording from an AFRS station, likely made by a military service person, a civilian working for the military, or a family member. In the middle of the recording are “commercials” that may be from that AFRS station. These recordings have a smattering of openings from the Suspense series over its years, so they sound somewhat disorienting. AFRTS engineers often edited out credits and sometimes episode titles to make the shows seem “less dated.”

The network recording is the better of the two. There are some slight disc skips in the recording.

Dream Song with Henry Morgan was originally scheduled for this date,

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471030

THE CAST

JUNE HAVOC (Paula Stevens), Lurene Tuttle (Ruth Carney), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Train passenger with cigar), Dolores Crane, Berne Surrey, Richard George Pedicini, Gus Bayz, Bob Young, Bud Widom, Adele Sliff, Naomi Scher (Atmosphere sounds and Crowd Ad-Libs)

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1947-10-23 The X-Ray Camera

This episode’s plotline would never pass muster among today's advertising agency, sponsor, or broadcast executives. Roma Wines (and later Auto-Lite) rejected or changed scripts for less. The murder scheme, though not executed, would be considered a terrorist act because it was planned in a crowded subway, and it included an innocent woman carrying the bomb that she thought was a hidden camera. This George and Gertrude Fass script would definitely be rejected.

Had the Fasses been writing this story in current times, they would have developed a much different plotline or reserved it for one of today's television series or movies that specialized in this type of storyline as its theme, such as NCIS, S.W.A.T., 24, and others, but not an anthology like Suspense. The series Criminal Minds could find a use for some of the story elements. But those story elements are treated in a manner that's is much too light-handed for the effect they could have.

All writers consider the nature and context of their times, even subconsciously, as they build out their story ideas. While the actions of the story would fit a modern terrorism plotline, it would not have as its driving force marital disharmony and severance as the essence of this presentation. Spoiler alerts ahead.

Dennis O’Keefe plays a steadfast liar who ensnares an innocent and gullible department store sales person into a plot to kill his wife. He lies and tells her that he’s a detective, but never tells her what the real purpose of the plan is. All she has to do is take a picture using a secret “x-ray camera” that can help get evidence about people who are suspected of stealing from a diamond cutting firm. The young woman does not know that the women she is supposed to follow with the camera is actually his wife. The supposed camera is rigged with a live WW2 grenade that will blow up when the camera is engaged. The woman is instructed to use it in the subway when she and the wife are underground between stations. After a “rehearsal” of the plan with a box of similar shape of the camera, the woman is ready to take the “real” camera to carry through the plan. The day for the scheme arrives.

Meanwhile, O’Keefe’s character is at work to establish his alibi. He has a mild, staged disagreement with the boss that will be remembered in case he is ever questioned about his whereabouts at the time of the explosion. When he gets home after work, he assumes that the plan was complete. There is, however, a letter in the mail from his wife stating that she wants him back. He panics… because the “x-ray camera” would have already blown up his wife and the sales clerk and others in the subway if everything went according to plan. It turns out that a thief stole the camera from the young woman’s seat in the subway car. It was disguised as a package from the department store, with no external clue there was a dangerous device inside. Not heard in the production was the thief dying in the explosion that he caused by unwrapping the package in an attempt to get access to the contents. Police realized O’Keefe’s character was the source of the bomb because there was a department store receipt stuck in the wrapping paper that was in the explosion’s debris. They tracked him down from there.

It is one of the strangest stories in Suspense, with a deliberate use of an innocent person to commit a crime and be killed in the process. There are always evil people in Suspense stories, but the attackers and victims most always know each other in some manner or act directly and not through an innocent surrogate. This is literally a bad story.

This is another casting-against-type for Suspense because O’Keefe was starring in the 1947 Mr. District Attorney movie that was released earlier in the year. He plays a heroic attorney in that story, but a lower-than-low character here.

Where is the store where he meets and recruits the gullible woman for the plot? The clerk mentions “the 34^th Street side” as an entrance. That area near New York’s Penn Station was where Macy’s and Gimbel’s department stores were located. Those were the big stores in the movie Miracle on 34^th Street. It has always been a very busy and well-known area of Manhattan. There are many subway routes that include Brooklyn through that area. At that time, it was a prime commuting spot for people working in the textile business.

Lucille Ball is mentioned as upcoming guest, planned for a repeat performance of Dime a Dance on 1947-11-13. She would appear for Auto-Lite a year later in A Little Piece of Rope.

Subway with June Havoc was originally scheduled for this date, and delayed again.

This was the first of two appearances on Suspense by Dennis O'Keefe. He was a very busy actor at the time, with rising popularity. His portrayal of “Mr. District Attorney” was released earlier in the year. He also played the role in 1941; that version was written as comedic. O’Keefe’s parents were vaudevillians, and he was in their act as a child. He started in movies in the ealry 1930s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_O%27Keefe

The 1947 movie can be viewed at https://youtu.be/Dy603XWJZVo?si=XdkpJ8t9mf98IdzK

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471023

THE CAST

DENNIS O’KEEFE (John [alias Jim] Lawrence), Cathy Lewis (Anna Lawrence), Lurene Tuttle (Joyce), Wally Maher (Inspector Brodie), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Granger)

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1947-10-16 Self Defense

Marsha Hunt’s character is tired of being married for money. Her husband announces he will be away for three months as he establishes a business office in South America. As her hiatus from him begins, an old boyfriend is in town and they start seeing each other again. She manipulates her charms to convince her smitten ex-beau to participate in a plot kill her rich husband when he returns from the trip. She neglects tell him one important thing: she intends to frame him for the crime and then run off with someone else. In the end, she gets her due because she’s still married at the end of the story as a case of mistaken identity at the worst possible time unravels the murder plot. Spoiler alert… late again.

That “someone else” is played by Gerald Mohr in one of his few Suspense gigs. He’s almost constantly on The Whistler and this script has all the elements of the style and format of the “surprise ending” that made the series so popular.

The story was by Arthur Julian and Howard Leeds. In the 1947-10-19 Akron OH Beacon Journal, radio critic Bee Offineer believed the plot was “too transparent.” It was, but it’s a fun listen despite its obvious direction. (Offineer was a superb critic, her life cut short by cancer at age 34, three years after this broadcast.)

The episode was directed by series creator Charles Vanda. Spier was away for an unspecified reason. Vanda may be uncredited, but he’s in the story dialogue. There’s an in-joke after 21:00 with Kearns saying “We're having dinner with the Vandas tonight” and “Charlie’s very important to me.”

Subway with June Havoc was originally scheduled for this date. It is likely that Spier and Havoc were away together to plan their Spring 1948 nuptials. Gossip columns of this time mentioned the event was in the works.

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. The closing announcements go directly to the network ID (“dirID”).

Louis Jourdan was announced again as an upcoming guest, but it was not to be. Some guest contracts were being cancelled as the Roma contract was coming to an end. This was an economy move; some new scripts would be delayed, too, likely to save them for a new sponsor.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471016

THE CAST

MARSHA HUNT (Barbara Newall), Gerald Mohr (Alex Maynard), Wally Maher (Fred Dexter), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Jonathan Newhall), Lurene Tuttle (Mimi Carlyle)

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1947-10-09 The Man Who Liked Dickens

This episode stars Richard Ney in an Evelyn Waugh classic story. It was adapted by Richard Breen. The story is considered a classic. Stephen King’s novel Misery was partly inspired by Waugh’s original short story. King has been known to like radio drama, and he may have heard either of the radio adaptations.

Richard Ney’s character is injured on a trip to the Brazilian jungle and is helped back to health by a man obsessed with the work of Charles Dickens. It seems he had “helped” others in the past. They were forced to read Dickens stories to him – in fact, the entire library – a few hours a day. It becomes clear they were never able to leave, and Ney’s character fears he may have the same fate.

Blogger Christine Miller makes note that the Suspense adaptation of the story has a more optimistic ending than the Escape version (1952-12-21). The latter was true to the original story’s pessimistic ending, and was adapted by John Meston, known most for his original writing for Gunsmoke. The likely reason for the difference is that Suspense had the interference oversight of a sponsor, while Escape was a sustaining program and did not have to deal with the interference oversight of nervous advertising executives. In Suspense, Ney’s character overcomes his strange captor. In Escape, the character realizes his situation is hopeless. This is a reminder to classic radio fans to never assume that just because the show titles or the short story for the broadcast are the same that the adaptations are equivalent. The style of the adaptor and the constraints of the producer and especially the sponsor can change the nature of the story greatly.

Joe Kearns plays “Mr. Todd” in both the Suspense and the Escape productions and is superb in both. At the beginning of the broadcast he announces himself as co-star “Mr. Joseph Kearns.”

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. It has a 15 second pause before network ID (“15s”).

This was Richard Ney’s first of two Suspense appearances. Ney's movie and television career had sporadic success. He was better known at the time of this broadcast as the former “Mr. Greer Garson.” Their divorce decree was issued just two weeks prior to this broadcast. Garson was 12 years older than Ney, and played his mother a few years before in Mrs. Miniver. That was Ney's biggest movie role, and he never really had a notable role after. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ney

He was an economics graduate of Columbia University and his career gradually moved to investing and as an investment advisor. Ney was eventually more successful as an investor than he was as a performer. A brief overview of his work can be found at http://www.volumespreadanalysis.com/Richard%20Ney.asp His three now out-of-print books can still often fetch “big bucks.” The first was The Wall Street Jungle (1970), followed by The Wall Street Gang (1974), and then Making It in the Market (1975). He would likely be thrilled by today’s availability of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other passive investments. His work seems to be in the same spirit of dissatisfaction with brokerage industry as investing classics like the 1955 Fred Schwed Where are the Customers’ Yachts?, and Burton Malkiel’s Random Walk Down Wall Street (first published in 1973 and constantly updated). Ney's books are dreadfully out of date, but his opinions were part of an important popular movement to undermine the old structure of investing.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471009

THE CAST

RICHARD NEY (Anthony Last), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Todd), Eric Snowdon (Dr. Messinger), Tony Ellis (The stranger), Hans Conried (Missionary)

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1947-10-02 The Story of Markham's Death

Kirk Douglas returns to Suspense in another fine performance. He plays a mystery author plagued with such a bad case of writer’s block that his career is threatened. To break the block, he decides to get away for a refreshing change in scenery, and heads to London. He walks through an area that still shows the effects of war with some homes and buildings in rubble. One of them was a place where Edgar Allan Poe stayed when he visited the city. A box had been found from the rubble by the son of a family that lived across the street. He looks into the box and realizes it has a three-page summary of an unpublished Poe manuscript, one which the author took an innovative approach to mystery writing that he had not used before. He pays the family who found the box £5 and happily returned home. He took Poe’s work, developed his own story following it exactly. He then destroys Poe’s original manuscript to be certain his deception won’t be discovered. His stolen plotline and approach is so good that he wins an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He barely has a chance to bask in the glow of the award and his return to success when a Poe expert suddenly appears. He knows exactly what he has done and threatens to blackmail him to keep the plagiarism quiet and send money to the family in London who found the box. Then the story takes a turn… to murder.

At the beginning of the story we learn that the brother of the love interest of Douglas’ character always wears gloves. It’s such an odd comment that you know it will be used later in the story.

This is yet another Suspense story where justice is served but misapplied.

The Edgar Award for mystery writing is named after Poe. At one time, the organization presented awards for radio mysteries. A list of awardees is at their website https://edgarawards.com/category-list-best-radio-drama/

Suspense won Edgars for 1948, 1950, and 1960. In 1954, the E. Jack Neuman script for The Shot won an award. Sorry, Wrong Number won in 1960, in recognition of its years of durability in the final year of the radio drama category.

Listen carefully at about about the 9:15 mark. In the background. you can hear an Edgar Award being given to Sam Spade for best radio drama with William Spier’s name mentioned. That series won an Edgar a few months prior to this broadcast.

The story is by scripter Bob Platt who also wrote for The Whistler.

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. There is a seven second pause to network ID (“7s”).

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP471002

THE CAST

KIRK DOUGLAS (Phil Martin), Cathy Lewis (Anne Fleming), Wally Maher (Lieutenant John Kirkland / 3rd critic), Eric Snowdon (Dr. Sellgrove), Verna Felton (English Woman), Raymond Lawrence (English Man), Jerry Hausner (Henry), Frank Albertson (Awards host / First critic), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Cab Driver / 2nd critic)

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1947-09-25 The Blue Hour

Claire Trevor returns to Suspense in a story about gangsters, a reporter, and a diamond. Her murdered boyfriend was hiding a famous, valuable diamond and the owner of the Blue Hour nightclub wanted it, and would do anything for it. This is a fun script with some radio veterans, and that includes Claire Trevor who worked on series like Big Town in the 1930s. Suspense blogger Christine Miller made a comment in her description of this episode noting “a number of moments of entertaining dialogue,” which makes the story very enjoyable. Wally Maher is excellent as the reporter in the supporting role to Trevor. Hans Conried is the nightclub owner who wants the gem.

This may be Marty Schwartz’ only radio script. The only reference we have of him is a classified ad he placed in Broadcasting Magazine when he returned from military service in where he says “Before Army produced Oboler and Corwin shows over Columbia station. Experienced in writing commercials, serials, drama.” It is likely he found work in the ad agency business.

One network recording has survived. It is not known to which coast it was broadcast. There is a five second pause to the network ID (“5s”).

Actor Louis Jourdan is announced as a future guest star, but he never appeared on the program. It is around this time that pessimism about another renewal of Roma Wines sponsorship set in. Some upcoming guests were announced but their appearances did not occur, likely an attempt to reduce the amount of spending for appearance fees.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470925

THE CAST

CLAIRE TREVOR (Lois LePaul), Wally Maher (Alec Mahoney), Hans Conried (Anthony Lacatta), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Jason White), Jerry Hausner (First reporter), Dick Ryan (Reporter), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), sound men Berne Surrey & Gus Bayz (Ad-Libs)

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1947-09-18 The Visitor

Donald O’Connor returns to Suspense just a month after his appearance in Smiley. This is the second performance of The Visitor, originally broadcast in May 1944 with Eddie Bracken. The story is about a young man who returns to his home town after he had been presumed dead. Most townspeople are delighted at his return, while others believe he is an impostor who is up to no good. The story was written by Carl Randau and Leane Zugsmith and adapted by Robert L. Richards.

Details about that 1944 broadcast and the story’s history, including its brief run on Broadway, are at

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-05-11-visitor.html

• https://archive.org/details/440511 which is also where the 1944 recordings can be found

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470918

THE CAST

DONALD O’CONNOR (Bud Owen), Cathy Lewis (Ellen Woods), Wally Maher (David Cunningham), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mac Berle), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Joe), Verna Felton (Judith Cunningham), Myra Marsh (Mrs. Callahan), Frank Albertson (Dr. Sterling), Jerry Hausner (Al), Peggy Rea (Mary-Louise)

Much is happening in the Suspense backstory. This was Peggy Rea’s final appearance in Suspense. She was William Spier’s secretarial assistant for four years, and was often in the show in uncredited supporting roles. She left the show to work with Kay Thompson. Kaywas in Las Vegas to establish residency so the divorce with William Spier could be accomplished; she was not sitting idly by. The MGM singer, dancer, musical coach, and choreographer was developing the prototype Las Vegas show at The Flamingo Hotel. Rea left to work with Kay in hopes of furthering a stalled acting career. Rea had many little parts in television and movies through the 1950s and 1960s, but her acting career eventually became “unstalled,” decades later, especially with The Waltons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Rea

The Thompson-Spier divorce became official on 1947-09-23. Their “kitchen table collaboration” on many aspects of Suspense included script recommendations, casting, episode titles, singing and much more. It came to an end, but they remained friendly over the years and did some work in early television. The success story of Suspense in its formative years cannot be told without acknowledging Kay Thompson’s influence and counsel.

Spier had started his relationship with June Havoc months earlier, and they would marry in February, 1948.

(Hat tip and thanks to Keith Scott for many of these details; his episode cast information appears in each blogpost, and many of his disc recordings are included in this project).

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1947-09-11 The Twist

Michael O’Shea plays a cab driver turned comedy writer. His career change came after he met a gag writer in his taxi. O’Shea’s character thinks of comic situations and his partner makes little twists to the many old gag lines he remembered to fit the situation. Their partnership is business-only as they do not get along but need each other’s unique skill to succeed. When his partner announces he’s going to marry a club dancer and leave, he realizes that the lucrative partnership (“a grand-and-a-half-a-week” is $20,000 in US$2023!) will come to a crashing end. Then an idea… the dancer just broke up with a gangster, and perhaps by murdering Julie, he can frame the gangster, and keep the comedy-writing partnership going. The gangster has a different idea. The ultimate twist: guilty parties are each convicted of the wrong crimes, but justice is still served.

Sidney Miller is in the production and has almost as big a role as headliner O’Shea.

The script is by Bafe Blau who wrote for Words at War, Murder at Midnight, Haunting Hour, and others.

One network recording has survived and it is not known to which coast it was broadcast. It has a 10 second pause to the network ID (“10s”). An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#224) has survived; it is from the missing network broadcast as indicated by some Wally Maher dialogue. Times are approximate:

• 10s 26:13 “But like they say, there ain’t no sitchy-ation that can’t take a new twist. Here’s the twist to this one….”

• AFRS 23:01: “But like they say, there ain’t no situation that can’t take a new twist. Here….here’s the twist to this one….”

The network recording is the better of the two.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470911

THE CAST

MICHAEL O’SHEA (Gus Green), Wally Maher (Nick Edwards), Olive Deering (Julie Phelps), Sidney Miller (Van Hauser), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Inspector Martin), Frank Albertson (Voice)

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1947-09-04 The Argyle Album

This episode is a new performance of the Cyril Endfield script that was broadcast in December 1945 with Robert Taylor. This broadcast stars Edmond O’Brien who brings a stronger presence to the role. The script also became a movie, The Argyle Secrets. Details of the script, its history, and Endfield are at the original posts. They can be accessed at:

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/07/1945-12-13-argyle-album.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP451213 is the link to the recordings

This date was originally planned for another performance of John Dickson Carr’s Pit and the Pendulum, with Edmond O'Brien. Something may have happened in rehearsals that made them switch. The change did not make it to most newspapers in time. Pit would be held until the week after the Roma contract expired and broadcast in December.

This is the only recording that is known to survive, with no indication of the intended coast. It is direct to the network ID (“dirID”).

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470904

THE CAST

EDMOND O’BRIEN (Mitchell), Wally Maher (Alan Peers / Haggerty), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Winter, alias Gerald Avery), Lurene Tuttle (Marla / Secretary), Harry Lang (Police Lt. “Horse-lip” Samson), Jerry Hausner (Melvin “Pinky” Pincus), Hans Conried (Jor Brod), Eric Snowdon (Dr. Van Selvin), Joe Granby (Gil), Peggy Rea (Nurse)

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1947-08-28 Double Ugly

Lloyd Nolan returns to Suspense as an unattractive man who finds a woman who will marry him. Then he balks at every attempt she makes to lead a normal life... and he is driven to murder. This broadcast was a new presentation of a George Lloyd script that was originally broadcast on Columbia Workshop 1941-11-30.

The recording is complete with some crackling in the opening minutes. In the past, the only available recording was missing the entire opening. A collector patched the opening of a different Suspense broadcast onto that recording. It was incorrect as it was of a different format and content than what Suspense was using at this time. This is a full and complete recording and has a four second pause to network ID (“4s”).

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470828

THE CAST

LLOYD NOLAN (Matthew Everman, the narrator), June Havoc (Sally Mason / Taunting song / Matthew’s mother), Sandra Gould (Hazel), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Host of Masked Ball), Wally Maher (“Handsome” / Lefty), Jerry Hausner (Plant worker), Frank Albertson (Reporter), unknown (Teenage girl), unknown (Dog)

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1947-08-21 Murder Aboard the Alphabet

John Lund stars in a sea-faring adventure with Joe Kearns as a ship captain with obsessive compulsive disorder. He demands that ship maintenance and operations be performed in alphabetical order. He may be murdering crew members in alphabetical order. Crew members are terrified and look to Lund’s character to keep the captain in line and perhaps lead a mutiny.

Lund is good in his role, but Kearns steals the show as the captain.

Charles Turrell wrote the script. He may be a Suspense “one hit wonder” scripter whose only successful effort for national broadcast was this very episode. He does not appear in any movie or theatrical data bases, nor does he appear in any magazine and pulp data bases, or any industry resources.

Charles Turrell McNair wrote the script. At age 20 he one of the youngest men to be assigned to a command post in the Canadian Navy. At the end of WW2, he was demobilized, but remained with the Navy and became a public relations officer. He had some journalistic experience but also wrote radio plays that were performed on the CBC. He submitted “Murder by the Alphabet” to Suspense and was paid $350. If that was in Canadian dollars, that would be C$5900 in 2024. The equivalent in US$2024 would be about $3900. He had a successful academic leadership career in the growth of Mohawk College. He passed away in 2000. His obituary is at https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/charles-mcnair-obituary?id=41829405 but it is worth seeking some of the more detailed ones online that were published at that time.

Is this Agatha Christie’s ABC Murders on the high seas? Not really, but the gimmick is obviously similar.  

Lund was originally scheduled to perform in “One and One's Alonesome” on this date. That’s not a typographical error and is a play on words. That script was re-titled as “One and One's a Lonesome” and held until 1950-03-23.

One network recording has survived, and it is not known to which coast it was broadcast. You can hear clearing of throat by Joe Kearns during the closing theme prior to the final announcement to listen to next week’s broadcast. It can be heard at about 28:30. This may be a marker to identify the other network broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470821

THE CAST

JOHN LUND (First Mate Marshland), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Captain Godfrey Walker), Raymond Lawrence (Higgins), Bill Johnstone (Chief engineer Alec McTavish), Sidney Miller (2nd mate Harvey Goodrem), Jerry Hausner (Chadwick)

###

1947-08-14 Smiley

Donald O’Connor makes another appearance on Suspense, this time as an ex-con dishwasher who developed a great dislike for women after his conviction for a harassment crime he did not commit. But he’s so evil, you start to think his habit of stalking and murder had been an ingrained aspect of his persona all along. He’s obsessed with his hands… and keeping them nice-looking. Dishwashing, his current profession, and any manual labor thwarts that desire for soft and pristine hands, and his constant commenting about his hands makes him even more menacing.

It’s a good script, though not a top 10 or 25, and the against-type casting of O’Connor makes it quite disturbing. The writer of the episode is Charles Glenn, a prominent figure in the Hollywood flirtation with Communism and Marxism of the time. He was a reporter in Chicago for The Daily Worker and later in Hollywood for People’s Daily World. Hedda Hopper, in her May 30, 1947 column as published in the New York Daily News and elsewhere, had the subheading “Well Red” for one of his activites:

“Contemporary Writers,” which advertises itself in the People's Daily World as a world-wide organization of Marxist and anti-Fascist writers,” held a meeting in Hollywood. Charles Glenn, acting chairman of the chapter here, explained that they're not satisfied with getting material published in magazines like New Republic, New Masses and Mainstream. They want to get into slick such as Collier's -- as well. They also need more scenes plugging their ideology in motion pictures.

Attending those meetings, which included members of some ad agency staffers as well as freelance writers and others, would even be used against the employment of people in the 1960s. An Alabama professor was fired in the 1960s, with his attendance at one of the late 1940s events as noted in a newspaper as one of the justifications.

Glenn was not mentioned in the notorious Red Channels publication, but he didn’t have to be. That publication and its poor, derogatory, and sloppy research and innuendo, was intended to “out” closeted Communists to the public, ruining or derailing careers in the process. Glenn, however, was out in the open, proudly professing his beliefs. And, in what most have seemed very odd, he was in the press gallery of various 1950s public investigations into Communism in Hollywood. He was reporting on it, shoulder-to-shoulder with other journalists, for People’s Daily World… even when some witnesses mentioned him as an acquaintance and a known Communist. Glenn was easy for anyone to name because he was well-known for his beliefs and activities. In this way, anyone nervous about testifying could claim that they cooperated with the committees by mentioning someone the committees already knew about, but minimizing the professional harm to others by not mentioning “new” names. The swirl of post-WW2 crosscurrents of political philosophies is playing out in the background while writers and actors are producing some of their finest work... and some of that is on Suspense. As that famous curse says: "may you live in interesting times."

Two network recordings have survived; it is not known to which coasts they were broadcast. One recording goes directly to the network ID (“dirID”) and mentions several upcoming guests. The other has nine seconds to network ID (“9s”) and mentions only John Lund as an upcoming guest. The “9s” recording is the better of the two.

Sidney Miller is in the cast, and has been on Suspense before as well as many other comedy and drama radio programs. Blogger Christine Miller (no relation, as best we know) notes that Miller and O’Connor were friends who often worked together in movies and other projects for many years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Miller_(actor)

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470814

THE CAST

DONALD O’CONNOR (Gerald “Smiley” Smythe), Lurene Tuttle (Cookie), Sidney Miller (Curly), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Judge), Lucille Meredith (Scared woman), Bill Johnstone (U-Drive man / Bystander), sound men Gene Twombley & Carl Schaele (crowd Ad-Libs)

###

1947-08-07 Quiet Desperation

Walter Abel makes his only series appearance as a bank employee who sees an opportunity for a big score by stealing financial instruments, staging his death by accident, and then fleeing west to start a new life. The plan, which includes his masquerading as his bank’s president, is going along well until he bungles it when his impatience turns him into a murderer. The plot would not be possible today because the idea of “bearer bonds” and similar financial instruments has been regulated away where they are registered automatically and held in accounts. His character would not be tempted in the same way because his plan would not be possible. Let it go and enjoy the story. It turns out the financial instruments were not of the kind he assumed anyway. His myopic view of what else could have great value led to his frustration and the failure of the plan.

We get a clue about it at about 22 minutes into the story. There is a scene where he returns to camp (where he is supposedly relaxing on vacation while he is actually working on his diabolical subterfuge) and talks to Emil, the camp owner. He mentions that he has a hobby of philately, just like the bank president, which is why they are friends. It finally starts to click that the “securities” are actually rare stamps. Many attentive listeners may have figured that out already because of the evasive language in the story about what kinds of financial items were involved. It’s not often you hear “philately” in a radio drama, so you know it will be plot-related.

Scripting veterans George and Gertrude Fass authored this episode, and it’s not one of their best. It’s worth a listen because Walter Abel does a fine job, especially in the character’s solitary moments, keeping the story and his character interesting, even though he’s incompetent and despicable, and the script is somewhat weak.

There is a moment in the story where Abel’s character claims his hobby is to be an avid reader. In a scene where he recounts his actions, he describes his killing time in his hotel room, saying in monologue “for once with all that time on my hands, I didn’t read a book.” Yes, no book... in a hotel… at a time when most hotels had Gideon Bibles in nightstands or desks. It could have been a veiled statement that he had an opportunity to change his plan but he resisted reading that book because of the moral introspection it may have caused. Getting the money was more important than doing the right thing.

There are two surviving versions, and each has a different time to network ID. The intended coast of each recording is not known. These markers may be helpful if that detail becomes known. One recording is 12 seconds to ID (“12s”) and the other is 10 seconds (“10s”). Times are approximate:

• 12s at 9:30 “I gulped down some food at the cafeteria, pic..picked up my bags at home and went to the station”

• 10s at 9:13 “I gulped down some food at the cafeteria, picked up my bags at home and went to the station”

The 12s recording is preferred. The 10s recording has disc damage after the 15 minute mark where the change of discs occurs. There is strong surface noise of that disc, and removing it by audio processing makes the rest of the recording dull and mildly distorted. The 12s recording is not perfect, but its problems are very minimal and still offers enjoyable listening.

This was Walter Abel’s only Suspense appearance. Abel did not appear on radio often, mainly for movie-related series and serious drama series such as Theater Guild. He was a stage actor, making his first appearance on Broadway in 1919 and his final one in the 1970s. In between, his film career, mainly as a respected supporting actor, began in the 1935 and in the 1950s moved him into television. It was a very long and successful career, and it has an overview at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Abel

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470807

THE CAST

WALTER ABEL (Homer Bigelow), Cathy Lewis (Hester Vail), Wally Maher (John Pearson), Will Wright (Corbin Vandergriff), Jerry Hausner (Desk clerk), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Emil), Frank Albertson (Scott)

###

1947-07-31 Mortmain

Two partners in a law firm have similar desires for their careers and their romantic lives but jealousy overcomes one of the partner’s scruples when the other starts to realize his dreams. He frames the successful partner for murder. Then he tries to take all of his successes in career and love for himself. It gets really messy and backfires in the end.

Jerome Cowan stars in his only Suspense appearance. He played a lawyer in a movie before, and that didn’t work out well for him. He was the prosecuting attorney against Santa Claus in Miracle on 34^th Street. He is also known for playing Sam Spade’s ill-fated partner, Miles Archer, in The Maltese Falcon.

The story is by radio veterans George and Gertrude Fass.

What does “mortmain” mean? It is an unfamiliar term but among those in the legal profession it has a special meaning. It refers to the holding of land or other possessions in perpetuity by some kind of entity such as a corporation, church, or another. Centuries ago, wealthy would donate their holdings to a church or religious organization to avoid taxation. They would still be able to enjoy those assets as if they owned them. In a general sense, it can also mean how something that happened in the past has some control over the present. The Latin phrase from which the word originates is likely mortis manus. It can be roughly translated as “the hand of death.”

One network recording has survived and it is not known if it was the east or west broadcast. It has a six second pause to network ID (“6s”). There could be no tease for The FBI in Peace and War because that series was on summer hiatus. Upon its return, the schedule would change and this could no longer be a marker for east broadcasts.

While this was Jerome Cowan’s sole Suspense appearance, the highly regarded actor was in numerous movies and stage plays for almost 50 years. His long career is summarized in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Cowan

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470731

THE CAST

JEROME COWAN (Sam Boston), Cathy Lewis (Alice Perry), Wally Maher (Screed), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / George Perry), Ken Christy (Police Chief Martin), Norman Field (Judge), Dick Ryan (D. A. / Foreman), Jerry Hausner (Court clerk), Junius Matthews (Doctor)

###

1947-07-24 Murder by an Expert

Lynn Bari makes her only Suspense appearance as a dancer who tries to frame her brother-in-law for the murder of her husband, and then wants to run away with her agent and get married. Someone forgot to tell the agent the full extent of what she had in mind. Whoops! Suddenly, she has a desire to confess and drag the agent with her. Bari is good in the role, and Hans Conried plays the soon-to-be-deceased husband.

Jack Webb plays a detective. It was very confusing to hear him as a suspect in You Take Ballistics, so this is less distracting when listening. Bill Johnstone replaced Joe Kearns as the voice of Suspense while he is on vacation in New York.

The author of the script is John Shaw. It is his second script and third broadcast. His Statement of Employee Henry Wilson was performed twice before this new script. Shaw was a freelancer who had success working with William Spier on Suspense and also the year that Spier produced Philip Morris Playhouse. Shaw gave up scriptwriting around 1950 when he was newly married as he felt it was a job more appropriate for a single man. He took a job in Rhode Island government for its steady paycheck and never wrote for radio again.

Only the east broadcast has survived. It includes the tease reminder for The FBI in Peace and War. There is also a public service announcement regarding safe driving, read by Truman Bradley. There is no mention of not drinking and driving. Those kinds of notices were not common in the 1940s.

The broadcast of the prior week, Beyond Good and Evil with Vincent Price, has never been found.

This was Lynn Bari’s only Suspense appearance. She was 34 at the time of the broadcast as she was born in 1913. Many resources have her date of birth as 1919, some as 1917, but those do not make sense in terms of some of the film roles she had in the early 1930s. Her very active movie career slowed at the end of the 1940s and she transitioned to a successful television career. She was usually on radio programs related to movies. Despite the birth date issue, the Wikipedia page is still suggested as an overview of her career https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Bari

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470724

THE CAST

LYNN BARI (Edith Reid), Hans Conried (Bob Reid), Jerry Hausner (Joseph), Wally Maher (George Lee), Sidney Miller (Lieutenant Meldrum), Jack Webb (Detective), Dick Ryan (Jimmy Reid), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Waiter)

###

1947-07-10 Murder by the Book

Silent film legend Gloria Swanson portrays a mystery writer who is asked to investigate the murder of her doctor. Why is she so reluctant to help? Perhaps her subconscious is burying the memory that she did it. She eventually agrees. Spoiler alert… and perhaps a subpar acting alert, too. As Tony Shaloub used to say in the television series Monk, “you’ll thank me later.”

Swanson was not the first guest star to be on Suspense to have problems with lines and expression through voice, and she wasn’t the last. She was living in New York at the time, and she was a “big Hollywood” name Suspense could publicize, especially since her radio appearances were rare.

According to Suspense researcher and film documentarian John Scheinfeld, the script was written by Pamela Wilcox, though not credited. Credit is given to Robert L. Richards, but he adapted the Wilcox script.

The story may have a genesis in an incident with S.S. Van Dine, the creator of Philo Vance. The “Van Dine” name was a pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright. He and his wife used to spend summers on the beach of a New Jersey town. He was made police commissioner there, a light duty job in a small town where nothing ever happened. That is, until something actually did, and he was (technically) unable to solve the case. https://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-pajama-murder-case-s-s-van-dine.html There is always speculation about how mystery fiction novelists would do in real-life investigations. Their plots are their own contrivance, and they often rely on details about real-life investigations for their inspiration and adaptation. The fact that so many crimes are unsolved every day implies that they would be less successful than those whose life is detection and are trained in the latest tools of the craft. The idea of having a writer do an investigation has always been a theme of mysteries and entertainment. Murder, She Wrote is one of the more recent ones.

June Havoc appears in the broadcast. It seems her engagement at the Westport Playhouse in Girl of the Golden West was over by this time. Bill Spier and June headed back to Hollywood, with others, after the broadcast. Joe Kearns stayed in New York for some vacation.

Both east and west broadcasts have survived. The east broadcast is 12 seconds to the network ID after the closing announcements. The west is one second. The east is the better recording. The recordings are likely professional airchecks.

The next broadcast from Hollywood was Beyond Good and Evil. It starred Vincent Price in another performance of this script. It is unfortunately missing. There were reports of a home dictation machine recording of it a few years ago, but it has never surfaced. Perhaps an Armed Forces Radio Service recording will appear at some time.

Swanson was not on radio often. She was in the cast of some early Lux Radio Theatre, and later in some other movie-related shows. She was on a few variety programs as herself. Her line in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard is as legendary as she was: “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. de Mille.” In that film, she had the confidence to play an almost cartoonish forgotten actress of another era. The appearance renewed her celebrity status at that time. Her long life and career are summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Swanson and in a very good article at the Library of Congress website https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2022/03/gloria-swanson-a-woman-of-invention/

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470710

THE CAST

GLORIA SWANSON (Emily Carlyle), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Lieutenant Hahn), Berry Kroeger (Harry Bailey), Julie Stevens? (Cora Wales), June Havoc (Clara), unknown (Store clerk), unknown (Morton the mechanic)

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1947-07-03 Money Talks

Alan Baxter stars as a money-obsessed con-man who patiently works at a bank to find the right situation and angle for a hefty embezzlement. He finds another same-minded bank employee who wants to join his effort so they could run away together and live happily ever after. Little does she know that it’s only the money he cares about, and that her life is in danger. She’s just in the plan because he needs her cooperation, and nothing else. Where some Suspense villains are menacing from the outset, Baxter’s character is a smooth character who knows exactly what to say and how to say it as part of his larger, and ultimately violent plan.

This is an original story and script by Robert L. Richards.

Two network broadcasts have survived and it is not known in which region each was heard. There are very subtle differences in the broadcasts, but one difference is easy to spot. Coming out of the mid-show commercial, Baxter’s dialog is different:

• One is “If you've got a plan...”

• The other is “If you're... cool-headed...’ and sounds like he has some mild trouble getting his thoughts and lines in sync.

The times to ID, one of the ways of differentiation are really too close to be obvious but they can be measured:

• The “If you've got a plan...” recording is 3.2 seconds to network ID

• The “If you're... cool-headed...” recording is 2.6 seconds to network ID

The “If you’ve got a plan…” recording is the better of the two.

What? Joe Kearns on a New York Suspense? He traveled to the Big Apple for some work on Suspense and Sam Spade and stayed behind for some vacation. Suspense isn’t the same without him in the Roma episodes.

Researcher Keith Scott notes that this week is the premiere of Escape on 1947-07-07.

This was Alan Baxter’s only Suspense appearance. He had a very long stage, movie and television career that spanned from the mid-1930s into the early 1970s. A summary of his career is at IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0062667/bio/

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470703

THE CAST

ALAN BAXTER (Cliff Goff, alias Clarence Gage), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Purley), Alice Frost (Anita Willoughby, nee Gorman), Frank Readick (Sam Gorman), Murray Forbes (Detective), unknown (Miss Logan), unknown (Mr. Ambrose)

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1947-06-26 Phobia

Eva Le Gallienne makes a relatively rare appearance on radio (she was best know for her New York theatrical performances and training of stage actors). She plays a wheelchair-bound eccentric, with a few months to live, who covers for her sister’s penchant for stealing valuable items from stores. She pays the store owner for the stolen goods whenever he asks rather than letting him report the sister to the police. Once the owner realizes that Le Gallienne’s character has a fear of touching metal (mettallaphobia), he decides to use that against her to force a marriage so he can inherit her fortune. It’s not your usual Suspense drama, and will not be in a top ten best episode list, but it is a nice change of pace. And… we get to hear New York actors in a Suspense broadcast for the first time in a little more than four years.

Plot hole? If Le Gallienne’s character is allergic to metal, shouldn’t she have a problem with sitting and moving her wheelchair? We have to assume she had a wood frame wheelchair, which were still common at the time. This would make sense considering the age of the character, and that she might have considered a wheelchair as “mobile furniture” in keeping with the style of items found in her home. Steel frame folding wheelchairs started production in the 1930s.

The author of the script was Joal Hunt, whose true name was Joseph Alfred Hunt. He was a freelance scriptwriter for much of his career from the 1930s through the 1950s. For part of the 1950s, he worked in the script department for NBC in Hollywood as a writer and an editor. This particular script was written around Christmas 1946 when Hunt was visiting his sister in Maryland over the holiday. Hunt became ill and had to stay in the house for a few weeks while he recovered. His being housebound led to his writing of this story. Hunt’s career had lots of ups and downs and had numerous problems over the years with the law and alcoholism. He had his shining moments, however, with this script for Suspense and two Night Beat scripts. Both programs had challenging standards for acceptance. Phobia was broadcast again on Mutual’s Murder by Experts series on 1950-09-11 (a recording has not be found) and was adapted as a TV play for a local station in Baltimore on 1949-03-10, and perhaps other stations. No kinescopes are available. Most of Hunt’s radio scriptwriting appears to be uncredited, so we do not know the true extent of his work. (As one might expect, his name “Joal” is often mistaken for “Joel” in various radio references).

One network recording of this episode has survived. It is believed to be a recording of the New York performance (8:00pm ET) that was transcribed (note the “transcribed” announcement at the open) and played for the west coast (8:00pm PT). An 8:00pm west coast broadcast would have required an 11:00pm ET performance to allow for the three hour difference in time. That would have required significant cost and inconvenience for the program in New York, and might have involved union rules requiring extra pay and different staffing for the performers, the musicians, and production staff.

The other two New York broadcasts had separate east and west performances. There is a possibility that a live performance for the west of Phobia was originally planned. The sketchy script documentation that has survived in the Spier-Havoc papers at University of Wisconsin and the KNX script collection now at University of California in Santa Barbara do not have final production scripts that would have the required details.

Eva Le Gallienne rarely appeared on radio, but was somewhat of a force of nature for theatrical productions and training of actors in their craft. Her long, colorful and controversial career and life cannot be summarized here, but details are at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Le_Gallienne One of the notable actors whose career on stage and radio benefited from her training and collaboration was Staats Cotsworth, known mainly for Casey, Crime Photographer, but was one of radio’s busiest and most successful performers.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470626

THE CAST

EVA LE GALLIENNE (Emily Haydon), Nell Harrison? (Grace Haydon), Amzie Strickland? (Anna the maid), Ian Martin (Henry Lane), Ted de Corsia (Scorchy Wood the burglar), unknown (Sergeant Cole), unknown (Police inspector), Berry Kroeger (Signature Voice)

Frank Gallop is the Roma Wines voice and Ken Roberts handles the Cresta Blanca ads for the New York productions. Gallop was a firmly established voice for CBS and the “Hummert Radio Factory” of soap operas. Roberts could be heard on many programs, with many classic radio fans knowing him best for his announcing on The Shadow.

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1947-06-19 Dead of Night

This is the second performance of a Mel Dinelli script about a misunderstanding that leads to a mistaken coverup of what was believed to be a murder… by hiding the body in plain sight on a beach! (Is this Suspense having a brush with the future 1980s movie Weekend at Bernie’s?)

The script was originally presented on 1944-11-16 with the slightly different title “The Dead of the Night.” That production starred Robert Cummings. Details about the background and writer Mel Dinelli can be found at that blogpost at

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/1944-11-16-dead-of-night.html

• The recordings are at https://archive.org/details/TSP441116

Elliott Reid was always scheduled to appear on Suspense on this date, but script selection changed. The story originally scheduled for this date was Smiley, but that was delayed to 1947-08-14 with guest star Donald O’Connor. Reid’s performance in this episode is considered better than the initial broadcast with Cummings.

The logistics of the New York trip for the series (noted in the prior post) necessitated the change in script and streamlining this broadcast. William Spier and musical director Lud Gluskin were on their way or had already arrived in New York. Using an earlier script had advantages. The Hollywood ensemble cast was already familiar with the script. The musical bridges were already written and documented from that prior broadcast, so the orchestra had some familiarity with the pieces.

Charles Vanda took over the production for this broadcast. There is an inside joke with Wally Maher playing a cop named “Slugger Vanda.” That character appears after the 15:30 mark. In the original broadcast the character was named “Red Davis.” Maher played the part at that time..

Both network recordings have survived. The east broadcast includes the tease for The FBI in Peace and War. The west broadcast is the better of the two, but both recordings have enjoyable sound quality.

(NOTE: Escape has an audition program recorded three months earlier with the title Dead of Night. That is a much different story. It is about a deranged ventriloquist. The Escape audition was likely never broadcast).

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470619

THE CAST

ELLIOTT REID (Jimmy Barden), Cathy Lewis (Helen), Wally Maher (Slugger Vanda), Anne Stone (Mrs. Gordon), Colleen Collins (Tough kid), Henry Blair (First boy), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), Berne Surrey, Carl Schaele (Ad-Libs)

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1947-06-12 Stand-In

June Havoc stars as a second level actor whose resemblance to a movie star has her as a stand-in. Her main purpose in the movie shoot is to set up lighting and be used in “long shots” so the big star does not have to be on the set all of the time. That resemblance becomes a key part of the actress’ new (and already disgruntled) husband’s plan to do away with her and run away with the stand-in and live happily ever after. They almost do it. The film and audio on the cutting room floor are examined by the police and they eventually catch the couple before “ever after” comes. It’s an interesting plot with many intricacies in the timetable of the plan. It shows how much can be done in the 24 minutes of drama of a Suspense episode. The script is by Pamela Wilcox and adapted by Robert L. Richards.

Both east and west network recordings have survived. The east broadcast includes the tease for The FBI in Peace and War. The east recording is the better of the two.

So much is happening behind the Suspense scenes. Pamela Wilcox and Bob Richards are heading toward matrimony. Kay Thompson and Bill Spier have filed for divorce and Bill and June Havoc started a romance that will lead to marriage. Kay is about to establish residence in Las Vegas to satisfy divorce requirements needed for the official split with Bill. While she is there, she is being paid a handsome sum to create what would become the model for Las Vegas entertainment shows for decades to come.

In the spirit of Suspense “it just so happens” plotlines, June headed to Connecticut after this broadcast. She would be appearing at the regionally well-known Westport Playhouse in Girl of the Golden West with Robert Stack opening on June 30.

“It just so happens” that Bill, Howard Duff, Sam Spade, and Suspense were headed east, too! They’re all going to New York. Spade is by produced Spier so the program had to follow Duff to New York for the shooting of Mark Hellinger’s famous police procedural The Naked City. He was still able to do the Spade show while he was there. (Unfortunately, none of those episodes have been found). On those quiet evenings, Bill can visit Connecticut, where he has family ties, and also visit June.

The Suspense show was mainly staffed by New York actors, and it is marvelous to hear Ken Roberts doing the Roma commercials. Spier will miss the next Hollywood Suspense and creator Charles Vanda will fill in next week while he is gone. Keith Scott notes that Lud Gluskin made the trip to New York as well. It is likely Spier was meeting with CBS executives about what to do with Suspense and its sponsorship if Roma did not renew again. More details in upcoming posts.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP47-06-12

THE CAST

JUNE HAVOC (Diana Burke), Elliott Lewis (Dennis O’Brien), Hans Conried (Director), Wally Maher (Assistant director / Gate Guard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Crew member), Jerry Hausner (Photographer / Studio guard), Elliott Reid (Jensen / Lieutenant Malone), Henry Blair (Boy), Cathy Lewis (Madame Maggie), Frank Albertson (Michael)

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1947-06-05 Make Mad the Guilty

Hume Cronyn returns to Suspense for the last time. He was excellent in all of his appearances. He’s cast against type here as an over-the-hill Shakespearian actor with all of the over-acting and use of lines of plays he was in that is wonderfully amusing. Cronyn is so good at his craft he can summon his skill to portray an awful actor and be convincing at it! That is, until the plotline takes shape; then the cartoonish aspect of the performance dissipates and Cronyn gets down to evil business. Cronyn’s character tells his wife, and the man she desires to run away with, that he has a deal for them. He’ll fake his death, she can take the house, he can get the insurance money when the company pays off. If they agree, he will go away and they will never see him again. Later, he knows the insurance company paid… but he hasn’t gotten his money. It’s time for him to re-appear and have them abide by the deal.

The original story was by screenwriter Robert Rossen, known most for his 1949 film All the King’s Men. He wrote the screenplay of Robert Penn Warren’s novel and directed and produced the film. It won three Oscars. He also wrote, produced, and directed The Hustler. This Suspense script was adapted by Irving Moore and Robert L. Richards.

The title of the story comes from Hamlet, act 2, scene 2. There are numerous quotes from plays recited by Cronyn’s character. They become grating, and annoying, but you start to wonder what he will say next. That fascination passes quickly, then you want to be rid of him just as much as his wife does. The performance makes you wonder if Cronyn had any of the personalities he met in his acting career in particular mind when he was working on this character.

Cronyn’s character is a reminder of one decades later: “Master Thespian” by Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmZSkWBJwBU

Some great radio voices in here we don’t usually hear on Suspense: Bea Benaderet and Gerald Mohr.

There are two network recordings with no indication of which is east or west. A low quality recording concludes with a Cresta Blanca wine commercial. The better recording does not have that commercial.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP470605

THE CAST

HUME CRONYN (Bert Matthews), Bea Benaderet (Elizabeth Matthews), Gerald Mohr (Longstreet), Jerry Hausner (Checking station guard), Elliott Reid (Florist), Wally Maher (District Attorney / Prison clerk), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Prison guard / 1st cop), Dick Ryan (Judge / 2nd cop), Peggy Rea (Telegram girl), unknown (Jury Foreman)

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