Betty Grable, film star and wartime pin-up sensation, stars on Suspense. She was known for her insured legs ($1 million as a studio publicity stunt, $12.7 million in US$2024) and skeptics wondered “can she act?” Her performance defied the critics who believed she was movie eye-candy with meager acting ability. It was not a demanding script in terms of some Suspense classics, but the script had long segments of monologue and dialogue. This means that Tony Leader had some confidence in her abilities and did not reserve a simpler script for her appearance.
She plays a photographer's model who is nagged by her sickly mother. Her mother's craving for attention drives away the model’s male friends who might become romantic interests and a chance for long-term happiness and independence. This is Suspense, of course, so there has to be an evil plan to do away with the mother and escape legal and moral consequences. Mom does enjoy her tea in the morning… and maybe, she wonders, she could give her something to help the process along. There is a surprise ending, like many Suspense stories, that are resolved with justice in the end but for a very different reason. It’s a good story with a Whistler-esque conclusion.
The original story was by Los Angeles Times police reporter John Q. Copeland. It had appeared in Liberty magazine’s 1937-10-02 edition. These years later, he sent the story to Suspense for consideration, and it was accepted. Because no adapter is noted, he may have re-written the original story into script form himself, and then the usual series editing process for commercials and flow was applied. He is mentioned in the credits as “John T. Copeland,” but his newspaper byline was always with “Q” and not “T.” The script cover sheet has "Q," but the script itself has "T" on page 25, making this a typo. This seems to be his only radio script submission, but he did have some television scripts produced in the 1950s.
The original casting plan may have been to have Barbara Stanwyck in the lead role.
CBS knew that movie fans would be pleased with the Grable appearance. The 1949-04-21 Fort Worth TX Star-Telegram had an item in the summary of its radio programming for that evening and stated:
Casting of Miss Grable in the role of a murderess was by popular request according to Producer Tony Leader who said he had received more letters asking for Miss Grable on Suspense than any other star.
The hiring of Grable was a perfect opportunity for more publicity about the casting strategy of Suspense. It was reported that she was paid US$3,500. That's about $45,000 in US2024$.
The CBS publicity department supplied the following quote of Grable in press releases, picked up by many newspapers:
“It sort of took my breath away when Tony suggested it. I remember I asked him if he didn't think he'd better write in a song, but now I’m crazy about the script and am as excited over the whole thing as I was over my first screen test.”
This additional quote of Leader was also in many papers:
“Betty always has been a great performer, in her field, and there's no reason why she shouldn't try another field. I have a feeling she'll be good -- very good.”
Fans may have been looking forward to it, but Grable’s appearance was not greeted with cheerful anticipation in many newspaper radio pages. The 1949-04-17 Port Huron MI Times Herald radio columnist was not optimistic:
Betty Grable, whose brand of emoting ranks, in my opinion, with that of Dorothy Lamour, pays a guest visit Thursday night to the Suspense thriller entitled The Copper Tea Strainer. In this one, Miss Grable plays a frustrated actress. She ought to be in character.
But Grable did well. Days after the broadcast, the usually grumpy and disagreeable but highly respected syndicated radio critic John Crosby was impressed by her performance:
As this aging, unhappy model, ridden by a whining invalid mother, speaking a role which was almost a half hour monologue, in a medium where her voice, as it were, had to stand on its own legs, Miss Grable was wonderful. She was surrounded by extremely competent and experienced radio actors and actresses who normally make monkeys of pretty ladies from the films, and the fact she could hold her own in that company was a high accomplishment.
The storyline includes the chemical strychnine. That was also a plotline element for nefarious use in 1943-02-16 In Fear and Trembling.
Tea bags were available in the time of the story’s writing in the 1930s and at the time of broadcast in the late 1940s. But there were many people, especially older tea drinkers, who insisted on using loose tea and tea strainers to prepare their favorite drink. Use of tea bags is much more common today than it was then. The phrase “tea strainer” might not be as broadly understood today.
The original title of the radio script may have been “Copper Tea Kettle.”
This broadcast has never been available in the best quality sound, especially compared to many of the Auto-Lite and later Roma programs. Today’s classic radio listeners are accustomed to much better sound for many of the recordings from this era. This episode was not part of the large cache of discs that were retrieved from CBS archives over the years. The recording is therefore from a different collection of discs that probably did not have the best storage conditions. The recording has slight wow and flutter from a tape recorder, affecting the audio somewhere along the line of transferring and copying, that may have had worn belts in its mechanism. Despite all of those issues, this is likely the best quality recording that Suspense fans have heard of this program. Special thanks to Keith Scott for his sharing of this recording. He remembers getting it from Skip Craig, legendary collector and VP of production for Jay Ward Productions (Rocky and Bullwinkle and may other animated features). Skip noted the wow and flutter issue in his notes and there was always hope that a different disc transfer would be made using different reel equipment by Skip’s original source or by another collector. All these decades later, it is clear that was never done. The problem is particularly evident in an upcoming broadcast, 1951-09-24 The McKay College Basketball Scandal. It is hoped that AFRS recordings may be found of these recordings in the future.
This was Betty Grable’s only appearance on Suspense. She was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and biggest box office attractions, making most if her mark in musicals. She started in movies in 1929 in many uncredited “Goldwyn Girl” roles through 1932. She worked her way up through background and supporting roles and had her first starring role in the 1938 movie Campus Confessions. Her movie career waned after the mid-1950s, and she moved to Las Vegas productions and Broadway roles. She was not on radio often, but did appear in many of the movie-based radio programs and as a variety show guest. She was often on Armed Forces Radio Services programs such as Command Performance. She and husband Harry James, famous bandleader, had a radio talk show in the mid-1950s. More information about her career can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Grable
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490421
THE CAST
BETTY GRABLE (Jeannie Dunn), Raymond Burr (Detective), Bill Conrad (Ted Wark), Marc Lawrence (James Irwin), Ruth Perrott (Mrs. Dunn), Sidney Miller (Waiter / Harmon the druggist), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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