This is one of the most curious
Suspense presentations. The story based on a real-life event.
The script intertwines two first person narratives, which is
innovative for the series. One narrative provides clues to the
thoughts of a wife suffering with mental illness. She is played by
Virginia Bruce. The other narrative is the despair of a husband,
played by Robert Young, who cannot bear to experience her
psychological decline. In the end, these compelling details and
performances are wasted with a clearly sanitized and implausible
sponsor-forced and unsatisfying conclusion.
Listen to the story anyway. Everything
leading up to the conclusion is superb writing and dramatic
performance.
The script was written by Phyllis
Parker and Arnold Marquis. Parker was a scripter for radio (Suspense
and Family Theater) and also some screenplays. Arnold
Marquis, whose birth name was Arnold Malmquist, was the writer and
director of the radio series The Pacific Story, presenting
stories about that region in WW2, and The Fifth Horseman
about the threat posed by nuclear weaponry. He was also a
producer for Cavalcade of America.
There are two recordings, the network
broadcast and an Armed Forces Radio Service (#251) recording. Both
are good recordings, but the network recording is preferred
because of its completeness.
Celebration was based on
an actual event in 1929 that Malmquist covered
when he was a fledgling
newspaper reporter for
the Kenosha Evening News
of Wisconsin.
It was claimed
to be the first major story of
his journalistic career. CBS
publicity noted that Malmquist
was going through some papers and found clippings of the story. He
thought it would make an excellent radio play. The
script was inspired by the actual events he
reported but does not reflect
all them.
The
following text is
from Malmquist’s unbylined report in the Kenosha News
of 1929-06-20
Unable to go on separated in life,
William R. Grote, 45, and Emma L. Grote, 42, both of Chicago, were
joined in death when they stepped into eternity in a suicide pact
near here this morning. Each with a bullet hole in the temple, the
couple was found dead in their automobile one-half mile west of
Bristol road on the Plank road at 6:00 o'clock this morning. Two
shots had been heard a few minutes before the bodied were found.
Malmquist
further wrote
that a devoted husband had
trouble dealing with his wife
as she slowly became insane.
He took her from the
institution where she was being treated for a day out together. He
took her on a tour of
the places they had visited during their courtship and early married
life.
Then
he
parked their car
on a lonely road. They read their old love letters to each other—
and then the man killed
his wife
and himself. The wife had
assisted her husband in
the planning of a
ruse to be let out from the sanitarium so they could be together
again.
She knew what was being
planned.
Malmquist reported that William Grote
prepared a letter to his brother:
Dear Brother,
We can not stand it any longer.
There is only darkness ahead, and it is better this way. Cremate us
together. If possible place us in one casket as I want Emma in my
arms. Place our ashes with Dad's and Mother's. – Will
P.S. Please get Emma's wedding ring
out ot our vault box and have it placed on her finger. Balance of
jewelry in box give to Em's sister, Minnie. All. things in Engve's
attic to be divided between Rose and Min.
The ending of this 1948 production
would not be possible based on the neurological knowledge of the
time. It’s a great leap of faith and relies on an assumed lack of
knowledge of the audience. The audience had to believe that it “just
so happened” that a bullet to the wife’s head was so perfectly
and accidentally placed that it cured her without any damage. It
insults common sense, and some listeners may have been disturbed by
the idea. But it gave the sponsor, Auto-Lite, a happy ending. This
would not be the first time that the sponsor or their ad agency would
meddle in this manner. It could have been that they were unhappy with
the incident occurring in a car, or they may have grimaced at the
idea of a murder-suicide being the end of the story. Good acts or
goodness were supposed to triumph in the end. Would Sorry, Wrong
Number have been approved by a sponsor? How paradoxical it is
that because it was already an established and esteemed story that
sponsors would gravitate toward it. But if it was the initial
broadcast? Objections would have likely been made.
This production was about 75 years ago,
and that must be remembered in assessing it. Neuroscience was
primitive compared to what is possible in the field today. The only
fact in the story that is correct for its time is the reluctance of
doctors to operate in an attempt to cure her. This was a time when it
was believed that lobotomies could be a valuable approach to some
mental illness.
The script would be used again by
William N. Robson for the 1957-05-05 Suspense broadcast. It is
considered “darker” than this production. It is truer to the
facts of the original events that Malmquist reported. It is likely
that Robson found the original script before its Auto-Lite mangling.
One might understand the change for 1948 because Auto-Lite was aware
of Suspense being considered as inappropriate for a younger
demographic. Those years were also a time when the radio in the home
would be heard by a group of family members. Robson’s tenure did
not have the burden of a sponsor, and could present the story as
written without interference. That 1957 audience, however, was
different in another way. Radio had moved from multiple person
listening in the pre-television era to an individual and singular
listening experience. It is easier to have a more intense story to an
individual rather than have to take who might overhear it in a more
open setting.
It is worth listening to both
productions and to read about the original tragic events. As for this
1948 broadcast, it may have been better for the script not to be
selected. If they were going to change it this much, why do so? The
fact that it was used, however, gives us a glimpse into the thinking
of the time.
(Many thanks to collector John Barker
for the initial heads-up that there were differences in the endings
of the 1948 and 1957 presentations.)
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP480923
THE CAST
ROBERT YOUNG (Todd Ward), VIRGINIA
BRUCE (Emily Ward), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Bertha Hallick), Walter
Craig (First Man / Waiter), Ed Colmans (Second Man / Doctor), Paul
Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Ann
Morrison (Operator), Gil Stratton, Jr. (Billy), Frank Martin
(Announcer)
###
