The first episode sponsored by Auto-Lite was The Last Chance and starred Cary Grant. It may have been a casting decision for “good luck” since Grant starred in the first Roma Wines episode almost five years prior. Of course, Grant was a big star and a good radio actor. Unfortunately, no recording of that broadcast has survived, either network or Armed Forces Radio Service. It was a Lou Lusty script, adapted by Larry Marcus, a key figure in the success of The Whistler. Some newspapers indicated the involvement of Les Crutchfield, who wrote many scripts for Gunsmoke and other series. It is believed to be an error, but only hearing the actual credits verbalized at the end of the program may shed light on that, but that is obviously not possible at this time.
Instead, our first taste of Auto-Lite’s sponsorship is this Ray Bradbury story, Summer Night and stars Ida Lupino. It is not a fantasy or sci-fi like much of Bradbury’s work, but a story of interpersonal conflict and a serial killer with a surprise ending. The story was adapted by Robert L. Richards.
“The Lipstick Killer” is panicking a town after two women are murdered. Ida Lupino’s character calls an old friend who was a rival for a particular young man’s affections many years ago. She was spurned, and still holds a grudge over it. He’s back in town, and things take a bad turn when she decides to eliminate the love competition by staging her former friend’s murder to be blamed on the serial killer. Then she realizes too late that the man she had such great desire for is the killer terrorizing the town. Whoops! Be careful what you ask for, you might get it… or worse.
This is the first surviving half-hour produced by Anton M. Leader. It is much better than his initial productions for the hour-long format. He was likely saddled with script sequence they used and it is possible that Montgomery elbowed his way to the foreground of decision-making in those few weeks as Leader tried to figure out what was going on until Montgomery’s departure. The Leader shows that followed were much better. These Auto-Lite shows would be Leader’s clean slate, picking up the best production aspects of the Roma era and conveniently letting the memory hour shows fade away.
The shows open with hokum playlets of people getting ready for the “Auto-Lite Show, Suspense.” That’s clearly the influence of sponsor and ad agency copywriters. They’re cute and classic radio fans eventually just tolerate them. Bill Johnstone is often featured as “Hap,” everyone’s nice uncle or friendly neighbor. The end of this broadcast has an Auto-Lite jingle that Variety panned in their review of the first episode. This second production is the final time it is heard. Who says nobody reads what the critics are saying?
These Leader episodes feature Paul Frees as the signature voice of the series. He is superb in the role.
Summer Night was presented on the Suspense TV series on 1952-02-19. No kinescope has been found. Newspaper plot summaries indicate that some changes were made to the storyline that was presented here.
It is evident that when Paley was negotiating with Auto-Lite that television was an important part of their overall deal. In just seven months, Suspense would make its television debut. The television show was produced in New York, and was largely separate from the Hollywood radio series. When the Auto-Lite sponsorship would end in 1954 for both radio and television, Suspense was highly rated and respected in both media. The recessionary times of the mid-1950s and a change in distribution strategy of Auto-Lite’s products led to a surprising sponsorship cancellation. The radio series changed greatly in the Auto-Lite years with three different producers (Leader, William Spier, and Elliott Lewis) and a wider range of story types. In the meantime, the lone year that Leader produced the series offered some of the best scripts and productions in the twenty-year run of Suspense.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP480715
THE CAST
IDA LUPINO (Anna Macauley), Larry Dobkin (Charles), Sylvia Simms (Miss Welsh, the telephone operator), Frances Robinson (Helen), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Gil Stratton, Jr. (Billy), Ken Harvey (Mike & jingle singer), Frank Martin (announcer)
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