1950-06-01 A Case of Nerves

Edward G. Robinson appears once more on the series. His character has a plan to murder his wife, and it involves getting enough morphine to carry out the crime. He takes a train to another city, arrives, and hops a trolley, not caring which way it is going, and rides it until it comes to a neighborhood where there are many rooming houses. He rents a room under an assumed name, then suddenly gasps out to the landlady that he is in great pain and wants a doctor immediately. When the doctor arrives, Robinson describes his symptoms as those of Trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve disease. The doctor scribbles out a prescription for morphine tablets to ease the pain. Once he gets the morphine, Robinson quietly leaves, and goes back to his home town. The drug that pill supply will be his murder weapon, who is suffering, incurably, from that actual disease whose symptoms he faked. None of this would be possible today without verification of identity, proof of insurance, and a battery of tests; there are also more controls over the dispensing of morphine and other painkillers. Just go along with the story as it is of its time. The ending is such that it could easily have been adjusted for The Whistler as Robinson’s character became too impatient for what would have happened anyway. Other Suspense episodes have had similar conclusions.

Lawrence Goldman wrote the script. It was his third for the series, with more to come. He became a very successful teleplay writer in the 1950s and 1960s.

Trigeminal neuralgia is an actual neurological condition. Pain killers are now considered to be ineffective and seizure medications are often used instead. In some cases, surgery can relieve the pain if a nerve is being compressed by a blood vessel or other cause. These aspects of the condition were not understood in 1950.

There are three recordings, and of them, the network recording is the best. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#327) which is very close to the network one. There is no Suspense opening on that one, which is the way the program was edited by AFRS production staff. There is a 1980s Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) recording that has many sound problems. As others in those releases, it has a potpourri of snips of Suspense openings and closings from all of the years the series was on the air.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500601

THE CAST

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (Albert Baker), Jeanette Nolan (Nellie / Woman), Larry Dobkin (Dr. Martin), Joan Banks (Pauline White), Virginia Gregg (Louise Baker), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Dr. Vantoor)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-05-25 Very Much Like a Nightmare

Dennis O’Keefe portrays an employee who falls asleep at his desk, sleeps through the end of the workday, and when he wakes, realizes that a burglary is in progress. He had returned to work after some sick days for the flu, and took enough “stay awake” pills to function. He was getting tired as the afternoon wore on and was given a project to finish before the end of the workday. He would take one just one more to make it through to the end of the workday. But then he mistakenly takes a dose of his sleep aid prescription, and falls asleep. He wakes up at 2:15 in the morning!

He tries to make sense of things as he wanders around the dark office. It’s not long before he realizes that a woman is murdered by the burglars. When he tries to call the police, one of the robbers surprises him forces an end the call. His worried wife calls at 3:00am, and the tough guys let him answer in fear that if he doesn’t, someone may come searching for him unless he tells the caller he’s okay. He does his best to convey that he’s in trouble with some small talk that the wife realizes makes no sense. It succeeds as a ruse and does not make the robbers more suspicious than they were. She knows to call for help on his behalf. There’s some gunplay and a scuffle, and (spoiler alert) police sirens can be heard faintly in the background.

The script was written by M. Carl Holman and John Michael Hayes. Both were about 31 years old, and had started their careers in newspapers, though independently. Their careers would take interesting diversions. Hayes’ radio work caught the interest of Universal, and by the end of the 1950s he had written screenplays for four Hitchcock films. Hayes and “Hitch” would have a falling out, but Hayes would continue his writing career. Holman was in academia as a college professor. He earned his masters degree from Yale with the support of a creative writing scholarship. His college teaching career would continue, but he gradually became active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He became a leader in the National Urban Coalition. He served in the organization leadership from its founding until his death in 1988. His work in civil rights won him great acclaim; the organization he helped found is still active today. It is not known how Holman and Hayes were paired for the story, if they knew each other or had common acquaintance, or if someone from CBS writing department or the Suspense staff facilitated the collaboration.

It is not the among the best Suspense scripts, for sure, but it is a good listen. Sound quality may play a role in its enjoyment and appreciation. There are two surviving recordings of this episode, and both are in disappointing sound quality. They have never been available in good sound. Over the years, many collectors have attempted to “fix” the recordings and sometimes did more damage than good. It is hoped that different discs may be discovered at some time so new recordings can be made. The network recordings is slightly better than the Armed Forces Radio Service recording. Both leave a lot to be desired, and require more attentive listening than usual.

Donald O’Connor was originally planned for the starring role, but became unavailable.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500525

THE CAST

DENNIS O’KEEFE (Barclay McClain), Jerry Hausner (Eddie / 1st Man), Yvonne Peattie (Marie Dupree), Joan Banks (Catherine Warriner), Jack Edwards (Farris / Elevator Operator), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Gillman / Police Officer), Mike Barrett (Miss Tyler / Operator), Jay Novello (Joe), Howard McNear (Albert / 2nd Man), John Dehner (Petey)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1950-05-18 Angel Face

Claire Trevor returns to Suspense in a Cornell Woolrich story adapted by Gil Doud and Bob Tallman. She plays a pretty chorus line showgirl, Jerry Wheeler, who risks her life to try clear her younger brother of a murder charge. She has a hard life being the big sister, and she’s working so she and her brother can have a better life. She sensed danger when her brother started running around with a tough dancer, Ruby Rose Red, the moll of a notorious gangster. Her brother is being drawn into the gang because of it. She goes to the dancer’s apartment to try to persuade her to drop the relationship, but she is thrown out. The next day, the police call with the information that the dancer has been murdered, and that her brother has been arrested as the killer. He is tried and convicted. She knows it’s not true, and suspects that the gangster was the real murderer. How does she prove it? She goes undercover and gets a job singing at the mobster’s night club. She has to prove her brother’s innocence, because his execution for the crime gets closer every day. This is real B-movie stuff, so predictable, and so much fun. The story gets wrapped up with some happy surprises.

The gangster’s girl is in an apartment that’s $3,000 a month. That’s just short of $40,000 a month in US$2024. That must be some place!

There’s a great line in the narration that describes the face of one of the cops. He had a “face like one of those cobblestones they tore out of Eighth Avenue when they tore up the trolley tracks.” That work was done in Manhattan as trolleys were replaced by busses, and the subway system had become the preference for much of the borough’s movement of people throughout the city. Once the trolley tracks were removed, the cobblestones were removed, and the streets were then paved with asphalt.

A signet ring, a finger ring with a single letter initial on its face, is part of the story for the “impression” it makes on the face of someone when they’re punched with it. This one has a “W.” This detective story gimmick always leads to a wrong “impression” in the identification of a culprit and it’s usually because the police are looking at the letter in one direction. If only they looked at it the other way, it’s an “M” and not a “W.” It just so happens the first and last names of the gangster begins with “M.” Oh, so obvious, but it plays out in a different way this time, because it can be turned in yet a different way.

There’s a line at about 19:15, she says “she got the ‘message from Garcia’.” That phrase has fallen out of use in recent decades. It came to mean that someone is to take the initiative when carrying out a difficult assignment, or in other words, to seize an opportunity. It originated from an 1899 essay A Message to Garcia about the challenges a soldier faced as he was asked to deliver a message from President William McKinley to “Gen. Calixto García,” the leader of the Cuban insurgents in the Spanish-American War.

This script was originally planned for Ginger Rogers on 1950-03-30. The Rogers production was planned again for 1950-04-06. She would not appear on Suspense until January 1951. The script was used earlier on Philip Morris Playhouse 1948-11-12 with Lucille Ball.

This episode was based on Cornell Woolrich's short story Face Work, was first published in the October 1937 issue of Black Mask magazine. Columbia Pictures bought the rights shortly after it was published and turned it into the 1938 B-movie Convicted starring Rita Hayworth. It did not do well in the box office and there does not seem to be any way of streaming it online.

Many of Woolrich’s stories were also adapted on Molle Mystery Theater. They were always different adaptations with different writers than Suspense. A story with this title was done on that series on 1945-10-05 and 1946-12-20, but it is not this Woolrich story. It is by “Walter Wilson.” That story was originally Murder on Her Mind and appeared in the August 1944 issue Thrilling Detective. The actual name of the author was Benton Braden and “Wilson” was a pseudonym.

Classic radio enthusiast and performer Patte Rosebank noted at the Old Time Radio Researchers group Facebook page that the title of the episode has a deeper and metaphorical connection to the story’s plotline. She said “Listeners would recognize ‘Angel Face’ as a brand of make-up made by Ponds (makers of Ponds Cold Cream). Angel Face powder was high-coverage, and was advertised as being able to change your complexion to suit the color of your clothes, so you could look good in any color. Just as the woman in the story changes herself to investigate the case.”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500518

THE CAST

CLAIRE TREVOR (Jerry Wheeler, aka Fay Angel), Jeanne Bates (Suzette White), Doris Singleton (Rubyrose), Dave Light (Dog), Ted Reid (Chick Wheeler / Doorman), Hal March (Lt. Nick Burns), John Dehner (Sergeant Coley), Jerry Hausner (Rocco), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mac / Police Captain), Larry Dobkin (Milt Miletis)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

Dave Light plays the dog; he is one of the sound effects artists for this season of Suspense.

###

1950-05-11 The Man in the Room

John Lund stars as a mystery writer with a challenging case of writers block. He’s hired a typist, an older woman who has just moved into town. They settle on a price for the work, and he gives her his notes as he develops the story. Then he never sees her any more, he drops off his work, and when it’s completed he has to pick it up at the front desk. He asks the strange elevator operator why, and he always has an excuse for her. (At this time, the elevator operator was usually clued in to all kinds of goings on in small office buildings). He says that she isn't in one time and has a different excuse another time, but the manuscripts are always delivered and returned typed. The operator is so odd, and the circumstance so confusing that he begins to think that his experiences might be the basis for a story, and break his block. All he needs is to come up with some facts around the events, like supposing that the typist was murdered, and that the operator did it. Then he had to figure out why those characters would behave the way they do, and what motives they had. He’s still not getting where he needs to be in the flow of a storyline, so he starts to do a little research on the actual lives and experiences of his characters. When the elevator operator comments on the manuscript that’s been typed… and offers advice for a better story… he wonders if things are even more weird than he first thought. When his storyline speculations start seeming like fact, he realizes he might be in some big trouble. And then there’s the scene at the bottom of the elevator shaft...

Lund’s narrative sections is well-delivered compared to those of other actors whose scripts were similarly structured. Lloyd Nolan had a very difficult time of it in one of his appearances, for example, but Lund’s is exciting and builds interest in the plot. He moves from narrative to dialogue smoothly, especially during the very active scenes where he needs to switch back and forth quickly.

This is not a Suspense classic but it is a very entertaining listen. It’s even better when you just know the elevator operator is the culprit, because the surprise is how odd this man is, not that he commits an evil act. (Oh, spoiler alert, but you should know by now if a story doesn’t include a butler, there’s a good chance it’s the elevator operator in some manner).

There’s a part of the script that might seem unintelligible during the concluding scenes in the elevator shaft. Grecklen, the elevator operator, yells at Lund’s character at the 23:45 mark. A working draft script says “And you were way off on my name. It's really Al Jones!” The final script changed it to “And you were wrong on my name. It's Al Jones!” Al Jones? Yes. No reason for that name selection because of an inside joke or other reason can be found. It’s just a name. (Many thanks for that clarification go to Mary Huelsbeck, Assistant Director at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research where the William Spier scripts are archived).

The script is by “William Idelson” whom we know better in classic radio as “Bill” or “Billy,” and his sister, Mary Castle. She is not the actress Mary Castle, but is Mary Idelson, who was about seven years older than Bill. Her different last name, as best as can be determined, was from a prior marriage but the best guess is that she was divorced at this time because she is referred to in non-radio newspaper clips as “Miss Mary Castle.” Bill was about 31 at the time of this broadcast, and she was about 38 and teaching at a drama school. Bill was a multitalented performer and writer, who had an early career success in radio as Rush in the Vic and Sade series. He was one of the constantly busy and fondly regarded performers in Hollywood, in radio, movies, and television. He also became a director and producer. He is often remembered as a character on the Dick Van Dyke Show. He played the beau of Sally Rogers, “Herman Glimscher.” Rogers was played by Rose Marie, always looking for a marriage prospect; he was always looking for the approval of his mother before he proposed marriage. Idelson was also a teacher and writer of books about the entertainment business and how to write scripts for it.

“The Shortest Way Home,” described as “a thriller” by Christopher Davis in the newspaper listings, was originally planned for this date. No information can be found about this story or this writer (or if the name is a pseudonym). It appears that the story never made it to the air.

Some collectors accidentally confuse the title of this episode with the 1945-08-02 A Man in the House. The stories have nothing in common.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500511

THE CAST

JOHN LUND (Bert Freeland), Wilms Herbert (Gracklen the Elevator Man), Lurene Tuttle (Miss Markham), Joe Kearns (George / Cab Driver / Signature Voice), William Conrad (Policeman)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1950-05-04 Statement of Mary Blake

Joan Bennett makes her second appearance on Suspense in a script written by a media journalist, Shirley Gordon of TV-Radio Life.

Bennett’s character starts working in the private lab of a scientist who is focused on the development of a special chemical. He is so debonair and charming (which of course means he’s played by series regular Bill Johnstone) that she cannot think the man can do anything but good in her eyes. He seems to adore his wife, also working in the lab. She does not realize until it’s too late that he has great hatred for his wife, and is jealous that she may be more brilliant than he could ever be. One night, Bennett’s character is awakened by a tapping on her door. It’s the doctor who urges her to come downstairs and join him and his wife in a quiet little celebration of the completion of the project on which all three have been working. The wife is soon dead. No wonder he was so obsessed with getting the amber color of the poison just right… so it would match the color of her favorite liqueur! The doctor arranges the circumstances so he can frame his assistant for the crime. It works, and she goes to jail… but guilt eventually overcomes him… but how and when he confesses is the surprise ending of the story.

The script was by Shirley Gordon, writer and assistant editor at Radio-TV Life magazine. She also worked in CBS publicity for a time. Gordon also had scripts produced on The Whistler and On Stage. Gordon wrote for 1950s and 1960s television, including The Bob Cummings Show, Bewitched, My Three Sons, and others. In the 1970s she became a successful author of children’s books. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she wrote scripts for The Hollywood Radio Theater and Sears Radio Theater.

There are two surviving recordings, the network broadcast and an Armed Forces Radio Service one (AFRS#324). The network recording is the significantly better of the two. The AFRS recording is very low quality.

Bennett stumbles on the word “challenging” just after 8:45 of the network broadcast, but makes it sound natural.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500504

THE CAST

JOAN BENNETT (Mary Blake), Bill Johnstone (Signature voice / Dr. Gregory Martin), Junius Matthews (Professor Lee / Sentencing Judge), Ruth Perrot (Matron / Lorna Martin), William Conrad (Detective), John Dehner (Judge / Warden), Joe Kearns (Prosecuting Lawyer / Signature Voice), Tudor Owen (Witness / Clerk), Edgar Barrier (Medical Examiner / Foreman)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1950-04-27 The Chain

Agnes Moorehead is a jealous, selfish, nagging woman who sends chain letters to people associated with her husband’s workplace. They’re not getting along, and she does this to get under his skin. She pretends her actions are innocent and he’s making way to much about the consequences. No one expects the story to turn so darkly, not even the regular listeners.

The chain letter that she received was claimed to be “started by a holy man in Tibet to ‘end all evil.’” She forwards it to the two people in the world she hates most: her husband's secretary whom she suspects is stealing her husband’s affections, and to a man whom she was not aware had just experienced a severe personal loss. Her aim was to irritate the people involved and her husband (and also the listeners), but the events she sets into motion go horribly and disproportionately out of control. It’s a good script, and she delivers a performance similar to Sorry, Wrong Number. In that case, her character was an innocent victim; in this case, she is definitely not. In both performances, the mounting fear and panic of her characters is something many actors are not as capable of delivering as she can.

The story is by radio veteran Joel Murcott. His script Six Feet Under was produced just two weeks earlier.

It is somewhat distracting to have one of the characters named “Burt Reynolds.” That’s the name of an actor whose multi-decade television and movie career would rise to high celebrity status starting in the mid-1960s and through the 1990s.

Chain letters were in the news in early 1950, and possibly gave Joel Murcott the spark of the idea for this story. They were being used in a grass roots effort for the political campaign of Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Supporters wanted him re-elected to the Senate to put him in a strong position for presidential candidacy in the 1952 election. He did win re-election, but his third attempt for the presidential nod failed. Dwight Eisenhower became the 1952 Republican nominee. “Lucky” chain letters that promised good fortune or avoidance of personal disaster had been around for decades if not centuries. The letters were socially harmless, for the most part, just sent between friends who got a chuckle about them. The downside was that some of the letters were so persistent that they annoyed postal organizations because of customer complaints. The worst ones were those used as a method of conducting fraudulent schemes. In the early 1990s when the consumer Internet and online services like America Online were new, the equivalent of chain letters were common. They did not last and were quickly replaced by what became known as “spam.”

John McIntire subs for Joe Kearns as the Suspense signature voice. Kearns returns for the next broadcast.

There are two surviving recordings, the network broadcast and the Armed Forces Radio Service release (AFRS#323). The network recording is the better of the two. The AFRS recording was edited by its production staff to us the Paul Frees announcement of the series name “Suspense” followed by the John McIntire opening as heard on the network broadcast. Frees’ last appearance as the signature voice of the series was December 1949. AFRS used whatever clips of prior shows that could to make their editing of network programs easier to get recordings out to their stations as quickly as possible.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500427

THE CAST

AGNES MOOREHEAD (Leonora Carpenter), John McIntire (George Carpenter / Signature Voice), Jeanette Nolan (Abby / Operator), Jay Novello (Peter Koshevski), Robert Gist (Reynolds), William Conrad (Police Lieutenant)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-04-20 Pearls are a Nuisance

Raymond Chandler’s satirical send-up of detective mysteries has Ray Milland starring in the second production of this script. The past production, five years earlier, starred William Bendix as the chaser of the stolen jewels. Milland’s is likely the slightly better performance, but both are good in their own ways. 

Classic radio fans strongly associate Bendix as the star of Life of Riley. It is hard to think differently, even though he did not get that role until later. The same can be said of Lucille Ball. Many new classic radio fans are surprised to know of her Suspense performances when I Love Lucy is so deeply ingrained in media history. This is one of the challenges of OTRdom as we have access to all the performances today, all at once. The sequential nature of shows and careers is not always plain and obvious.

Details about the story, script, and the 1945 Bendix performance are at

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/06/1945-04-19-pearls-are-nuisance.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP450419 is where the recordings can be streamed or downloaded

Bill Johnstone subs for Joe Kearns as the Suspense signature voice.

The original plan for this date was to have Arthur Godfrey star in a new production of Two Sharp Knives. The change was made soon enough that this episode with Milland made it to the tease at the end of the prior week’s program. Godfrey would never appear on Suspense. Louis Jourdan was another pre-announced guest who never appeared on the series.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500420

THE CAST

RAY MILLAND (Walter Gage), Mary Jane Croft (Ellen McIntosh), Jack Kruschen (Manager / Lew Scandesi), Hal March (Henry Eichelberger), John Dehner (Contact Man / Filter), Howard McNear (Roger Gallemore), Bill Johnstone (Sig. voice / Teller)

COMMERCIAL: unknown (Dora), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-04-13 Six Feet Under

Dan Dailey makes the first of his two series appearances. In this Joel Murcott script, he’s a carnival performer whose “act” is being buried alive. (Yes, there were such traveling acts at the time, and decades before). People could see him, 10 hours a day with no breaks, through a peep hole and even talk to him. Then a worker digs him up every night and he goes home to dinner, goes to sleep, and starts it all again the next day.

There’s growing uneasiness with the routine because the man who digs him up at the end of each day is in love with the “buried” man’s wife. His concern grows that there will be some night when his love-rival will “forget” to dig him up, “accidentally,” of course. He overhears a conversation that indicates his wife and the other man have secret airline reservations for the next night. He decides he must act quickly and to make sure his next “burial” won’t be his last. But as he is helpless under the six feet of earth the next day, the pump that brings him fresh air suddenly cuts out. A kid carnival visitor turned the air off… but this is the breaking point… this won’t happen again. (He finds the kid and he hits him; it is a violent scene). That night, he puts his plan against the wife’s suitor for a kind of “preventive revenge” into action. Then, things turn out to be unlike what they were assumed to be.

This seems like a strange story because the carnival stunt seems so weird. Such acts are documented in newspapers of the time and decades before. Stick with the broadcast, the ending is a surprise. It’s yet another story that with a few tweaks could have been used on The Whistler.

The production script notes that the cast was in on the night before from 7:30pm to 11:30pm. It must have been for rehearsal only (desk reads and dress) because it was in a different studio than usual. They came in on the broadcast day for only two hours, 4:00pm to 6:00pm, when they likely had another dress rehearsal with the orchestra in the regular studio. The split time over the two days was not for any pre-recording.

Ether plays a non-critical role in the story. It was used as an anesthetic until the 1960s. It was rather easily available for other purposes, too, usually as a solvent. It is less common now as better and safer anesthetics became available. Use of ether to “knock people out” or subdue them was a common plot device in crime novels, comic books, gangster movies, and stories just like this one.

Dan Dailey started in vaudeville and the stage before appearing in Hollywood musicals. He had a very successful career, which is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dailey

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500413

THE CAST

DAN DAILEY (Jack), John McIntire (Sheriff / Bartender), Hal March (Cliff / Clerk), Joe Kearns (Barney / Old man / Signature Voice), Jeanette Nolan (Anna / Old Lady), Olive Deering (Miriam), Ann Whitfield (Boy), Gus Bayz & Dave Light (Ad-Libs)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1950-04-06 Salvage

Van Johnson stars in a story about an ex-military pilot hired by a deep-sea treasure hunter who has no intention of sharing his discovery with anyone. The script is by Sidney Renthal.

The opening lines preview the conclusion of the story (mild spoiler alert). Johnson’s character, Danny, talks about lighting a cigarette with a piece of paper worth $400,000. That’s $5.3 million in US$2024!

Danny learns about the job from an ex-girlfriend. She recently broke off their relationship to marry an older and wealthier man, but he’s dreadfully annoying and a bully. She is already sick of her marriage and has persuaded him to hire Danny for his latest treasure hunting expedition. He is convinced that sunken Spanish galleons filled with gold are still at the bottom of the Caribbean. He may be looking for riches, but she hopes to get something different. She wants the trip to provide an opportunity to get the husband out of the way... permanently.

The pilot is needed to scout possible search sites as it travels low to the water, ahead of the salvage ship. The plane is stored aboard ship until the suspected treasure area is reached. Early in the voyage, it becomes apparent that they are sailing in the wrong direction and that the diving equipment is obsolete and worthless. This is on purpose. The husband said one thing to convince people to join the expedition, concealed his real plans, and his greed leads him to ensure that those on the project may not survive the trip. This would keep his riches secret and allow him to avoid legal and taxation authorities, and live life of great luxury. The story takes a really dark turn when he kills a crewmember in cold blood. It get even stranger when the wife admits to the pilot that she wasn’t interested in rekindling their relationship, but she planned to run away with the dead crewmember. The husband has what he wants to keep everyone in line: crew and travelers are terrified of him and must comply with his demands and otherwise may not survive the journey.

Cary Grant was originally intended star. This is yet another planned date for the now twice-delayed Angel Face with Ginger Rogers.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500406

THE CAST

VAN JOHNSON (Danny Connor), Georgia Ellis (Gloria), Joe Kearns (Wendell Davis / Signature Voice), Elliott Reid (Scotty), William Conrad (Freighter Captain), Gus Bayz (Ad-Libs)

COMMERCIAL: Jerry Hausner (Cab Driver), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

* * *

Classic radio enthusiast Elizabeth Tankersley of the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook group noticed a great similarity to a Whistler episode also by Sidney Renthal. The episode is Chain Reaction, and it was broadcast on 1948-05-12 on the CBS Pacific Network sponsored by Signal Oil, and also presented on 1948-05-12 for Household Finance Corporation. The Signal broadcast has survived, but the HFC one has not. This is important because the HFC shows often had different casts and the shows had conclusions that were written to the “less harsh” or “less stark” than the Pacific Network broadcasts. Elizabeth notes that this Suspense episode is a re-worked version of Chain Reaction. The stories diverge in the second half, but the foundations of the story are the same in the opening scenes. She notes the following:

The wife sits on the rooming house bed, she’s “still as approachable as a park bench,” as the protagonist looks at her he realizes how love can be as close to hate as the two sides of a thin dime (“of his last thin dime,” in The Whistler). The job has three parts to it: do as you’re told, keep your mouth shut, fly a plane. “How much does the third part pay?” “It's not piecework.” There's something about it the protagonist doesn't like, and when he sees the ship chartered by the corporation he likes it even less. She’s an old tub built back in the 1890s, there's “nothing left of her brightwork,” her varnish is peeling, “she doesn't look safe enough to sail in a fish pond.”....

The scene with the wife saying goodbye has a lot of the same dialogue in both episodes. The composition of the strange crew is the same except that in Suspense the drunkard captain is also mostly deaf. We get some of the same dialogue between the radio operator Scott and the protagonist, and some of the same description and dialogue after the husband shoots Scott and he and the protagonist take off in the plane.

The two stories diverge about the time the protagonist and the husband land in Florida.

In Chain Reaction, Walsh has explained that he's going to get away with it because he planted a bomb on the boat and now the boat is gone and he and Turner are presumed dead. They land to meet Diana, she doesn't come right away, and Walsh tells Turner to wait while he goes ashore -- and he will wait, because Walsh still has the valise of money. The plan is for Turner to fly Walsh and Diana to Mexico and then get paid off in money. Diana comes out of the cottage alone, with the valise, and says her husband is dead, she had to do it. They take the body and dump it out over the Gulf, and fly towards Mexico together with a half a million bucks...

After the break, a coast guard officer and a police lieutenant are talking aboard the salvage vessel. It turns out that Scotty, the innocent kid radio operator, was really in cahoots with Vogel the bomb-maker. Scotty had already dumped the bomb overboard, and was planning to switch bags and take the money. We end on the revelation that Scott drained the extra gas tanks and the plane couldn't have taken them more than a hundred miles out over the Gulf.

In Salvage, Gloria Davis meets her husband and Connor at the beach with a rented car. The plan is for Connor to get paid off right now, in bullets. Davis explains that he’s going to get away with it because he paid the captain to say their plane crashed into the sea. Davis goes to kill Connor, there’s a struggle, and Gloria kills Davis. Connor gets the dazed Gloria into the plane and they fly towards Mexico with the bag... the bag’s a fake, but the money’s at the express office and they have the ticket, so everything’s okay...

In this Suspense version of the story, it turns out that Scotty was really in cahoots with Gloria. Gloria loved Scotty and didn’t care about Connor, and she knows Scotty drained the extra gas tanks so they can only get halfway out over the Gulf. This time instead of presumably dying at the end, they survive the wreck and drift long enough for Connor to lose hope and smoke up the express ticket just before getting picked up.

Elizabeth notes other differences besides the endings and the names:

In Salvage, Davis has an outwardly good-natured, backslapping demeanor, and he delivers a bon mot which originally went to the protagonist. He also gets a couple of new lines generalizing about women.

In Chain Reaction, Scotty’s name is Melvin Scott, he sounds more youthful and uncertain, and (he says) he doesn't know they’re off course until Turner tells him and tells him to report their position accurately. In Salvage, Scott already knows he’s been told the wrong position and talks himself into reporting it accurately (and he isn’t called Scotty until Connor mentions him later).

In Chain Reaction, they're after gold that went down during the war; in Salvage, it's old Spanish gold.

In Salvage, the plane is described as old and in poor shape, like the ship. In Chain Reaction, the plane looks okay but it specifically mentions that it has no radio.

In Chain Reaction, when Walsh asks about the plane getting across the Gulf of Mexico, Turner says he wouldn't figure on setting her down, because the Gulf can get pretty nasty. In bad weather “this plane wouldn't last an hour.” This line isn't in Salvage, where they do survive going down in the Gulf.

Many thanks to Elizabeth for detailing these similarities and differences. Sometimes writers had a great idea that didn’t work out the way they wanted. Sometimes when they plotted out stories they realized they had two good ideas and had to pick one. If they believed a storyline was good at its core, they could re-work the script and give it a second chance to work better or differently. Sometimes it would be an exploration of an idea they liked and wanted to push it out some more. Re-used scripts are not always re-used for convenience or cost. Sometimes they are to allow the writer to take prior work and evolve it further.

Knowing that the script was used in the era when the Signal Oil broadcasts and the Household Finance ones had different scripts, there is a possibility that the Suspense episode could be based on the HFC script. Suspense is a mystery program that holds many mysteries inside its own history.  

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1950-03-30 Blood Sacrifice

Joseph Cotten stars in the adaptation of a Dorothy L. Sayers story that was first published in London’s The Daily Mail on a serialized basis in April 1936. It was included in many later collections of Sayers’ works. The story was adapted for Suspense by Malcolm Meacham. Cotten plays an actor named “Johnny Scales.” His sudden circumstance has him choose a strange murder weapon of opportunity – a blood transfusion – against someone he has grown to despise. Cotten is always so calm and matter-of-fact when his characters are filled with evil, making the portrayal even more diabolical.

Scales is an ambitious young playwright with mounting hatred for the big narcissistic star who butchered Scales’ play to fit his glamour-boy personality. Scales neglected to protect the content of his play in his contract, so the actor could make whatever revisions he wanted without consultation or permission. The hated actor, Garrick Drury, was good at “good cop, bad cop” double-dealing masquerade for his own personal benefit and acclaim, and crushing the hopes and desires of the person he’s doing it to. While he took credit for the success of the play and made annoying unilateral changes to it, he did help negotiate the deal that sold Scales’ play to a movie studio for a very large sum, $200,000 (almost $2.7 million in US$2024). The story opens with their celebration of that deal.

When leaving the theater, the two are involved in an auto accident, and the actor suffers a severed artery. By the time a doctor arrives on the scene, it is clear that an immediate transfusion will be necessary to save Drury’s life. Once back in the theater to get Drury as stabilized as possible, the doctor checks the blood of Scales, hurt in the accident but not in dire condition, and Drury’s valet. He hopes that one of them will have the O “universal donor” blood type. After an emergency test, it is believed that the actor’s blood that is a match, and the life-saving transfusion begins. But… is it really?

At 9:40 there is a key part of the story where the doctor marks a conveniently available dinner plate for a blood test. The plate had the image of a rose on it meant that it could be set in a position that could be noted, unlike a solid color plate. Grabbing any kind of surface would not be done today for fear of some contamination that could affect the test. But it was an emergency situation and whatever was handy was what was used. It is important to recognize that the knowledge of blood types and the intricacies of blood for use in medical situations was still being learned. At the time that Sayers wrote the original story, knowledge was even less than the incredible amount of knowledge was learned to 1950, the year of this broadcast.

The doctor had a sample of blood from each, with one side of the plate for Scales’ blood and the other for the valet’s. Based on what is learned moments later, it was the latter’s O-type “universal donor” blood that should be used for the transfusion. Scales realized that if the plate was turned, the doctor would assume that it was his blood, not the valet’s, that would be determined to be safe. Scales’ incompatible blood would be given to Drury… and Drury’s life would be put in danger because of it.

Scales is in unknown danger through the story, as he has internal bleeding and damage to his spleen. This leads to the justice that Suspense prefers to deliver, where an evil act is rewarded with devastating impact against the perpetrator.

The story bounces from the present to flashbacks, and the time jumping is not always well-defined. The accident and the care of the wounded Drury are always in the present. Everything else explains how it got there.

After 22:00 the doctor says they got almost a full quart of blood! That’s about four times what is current guidelines to be drawn from a 150 lb. person in a 24 hour period for use in blood research. If Sayers was writing this story today, she would need to make many changes to the details to include the numerous discoveries since that time.

The basic understandings about human blood and its ability to be stored and delivered was still comparatively new at the time of this broadcast. The three major blood types were not discovered until 1900, with type AB added in 1902. The first hospital blood bank was not founded until 1937, a year after the story was first published. The blood bank concept spread rapidly. The documentation of the Rh Factor in blood, which explained why there could be complications in transfusions despite donors and recipients having the same blood type was not established until 1939, three years after Sayers wrote her story. Plastic bags for blood did not become available until 1950, which replaced glass bottles. There was much experimentation about refrigeration and freezing of blood which would extend the shelf life of inventories, especially for rare blood types that might have erratic availability. Without blood banks and ability to store and transport blood, transfusions were more common and would sometimes have to be arranged under great time stress, such as depicted in this story. Today, the person would be rushed to a hospital and the proper blood would be waiting for them based on their identification and other details they might carry on their person.

Keep in mind how listeners would have understood the danger of loss of blood and the well-established risks of transfusions. Today, those issues are well-understood by medical personnel and procedures that patients rarely have to consider their lives in danger. To an audience who grew up in the first half of the century that did not have the benefit of what would be learned and institutionalized in the second half of the century, this story would have had an undercurrent of terror (and suspense) that it would not have for listeners today.

Malcolm Meacham was a playwright and actor. This was his only Suspense submission. In 1949, he was arrested for forgery in the passing of bad checks in New York City. It seems very strange, because other information indicates that Meacham was financially secure otherwise. He may have gone to the west coast to leave personal problems behind and get a fresh start. He taught writing for radio and movies in Los Angeles and at times lived in Utah and the Pacific Northwest. He served on faculties and in many regional theater events and plays and dramatic readings, as well as teaching, for many years. Many of his newspaper citations include information about his television writing in the 1950s, yet he does not turn up in IMDb searches.

Angel Face starring Ginger Rogers was originally scheduled for this date.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500330

THE CAST

JOSEPH COTTEN (Johnny Scales), Whitfield Connor (Garrick Drury / Voice 1), Hans Conried (Walter / Critic #4), Tudor Owen (Scotty / Critic #2), John Dehner (The Bobby / Mike the Reporter), Joe Kearns (Doctor / George / Signature Voice), Larry Dobkin (Sheridan / Interne), Jeanette Nolan (Florrie / Critic #3), Vivi Janiss (Mollie)

COMMERCIAL: Joe DuVal (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

* * *

Classic radio researcher and performer Patte Rosebank commented at the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook page on 2024-03-22 as follows:

• Garrick Drury is named for two theatres in London, England.

• The Garrick Theatre is at 2 Charing Cross Road, and is named for the Victorian actor, David Garrick. It opened in 1889. https://thegarricktheatre.co.uk/about-garrick-theatre/

• Theatre Royal Drury Lane is on Catherine Street. It was built in 1812, and is the 4th incarnation there since 1663. I remember it well, because I worked there, in the summer of 1991. https://lwtheatres.co.uk/theatres/theatre-royal-drury-lane/about-theatre-royal-drury-lane/

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1950-03-23 One and One's a Lonesome

Ronald Reagan stars as an unscrupulous young man who has a weakness for a quick buck and attractive women. This is Suspense, so you know those attributes don’t combine well but make a very good story. He’s hired to manage a garage while the owner is on an extended vacation and honeymoon. “While the cat’s away…,” as they say, he converts a couple of back rooms into an illegal casino operation. The owner returns and is understandably quite miffed at what’s happened and demands that the gambling equipment be removed. Not so fast… Reagan’s character threatens to swear to police that he was only following the boss’ orders when he opened the gambling joint. He offers to cut the owner in on the profits, which he refuses, but his new bride is thinks the idea is not so bad. She can't change her husband’s mind, so she makes a play for Reagan’s character and talks him into a plan to murder her husband. (Gosh, that was fast!) She promises that she’ll be with him as they turn the little casino operation into a fortune. The plot to dispose of the husband doesn’t work exactly as planned… and the “payoff for fancy living” that Reagan’s character expected doesn’t work as planned, either.

Spier, Macdonnell, and publicity played around with the spelling of the title a bit, and for a while it was “One and One’s Alonesome” with the combination of the article “a” and the word “lonesome” to coin the word “alonesome.” That would have driven newspaper radio page editors crazy and they would likely “fix” it, making the play on words to have no value.

Writer Nelson Sykes is a Suspense “one hit wonder” writer, with this being the only known radio script he wrote and accepted for prime time broadcast. He was about 25 years old and worked in advertising in Union Carbide’s consumer products division. He left in 1951 to work with the public relations firm that represented Union Carbide, William Esty Company, and he later became a highly influential executive in the advertising industry. He married an opera singer, Martha Moore, and together they managed an opera company and supported the arts through the 1950s and 1960s. She ended up working with ad agency Ogilvy in the 1970s and became a senior VP and general manager of Ogilvy & Mather. After retirement, she became a prominent cultural figure in her native Birmingham, Alabama.

The Suspense TV kinescope of this script’s broadcast of 1950-05-16 has not survived. It starred Robert Emhardt, Nina Foch, Scott McKay, and Meg Mundy. In January, 1950, Mundy starred in Sorry, Wrong Number for an experimental closed circuit color TV broadcast. It was likely seen by less that 500 viewers, all attendees at a broadcasting convention in Washington, DC.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500323

THE CAST

RONALD REAGAN (George Dellack), Cathy Lewis (Marie), Joe Kearns (Henry Grover / Signature Voice), Larry Dobkin (Jim Brandon), Jack Kruschen (Lt. Williams / Train caller)

COMMERCIAL: Joe DuVal, Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-03-16 Motive for Murder

Alan Ladd stars as a police detective whose wife is suspected of murdering a vacuum cleaner salesman. She was found unconscious at the murder scene. None of it makes sense, especially when it’s realized that there’s no vacuum cleaner! Dogged detective work leads to the conclusion that the contents of the vacuum cleaner were the impetus for the crime. Now he has to find the murderer. Imagine the perpetrator’s surprise when he finds out he placed the victim’s body in a cop’s apartment to cover up the crime. That will certainly get your crime a little extra scrutiny. Whoops. The wife recovers and everyone lives happily ever after, it seems.

Ladd delivers his usual good performance. Ignore the fact that no big city cop would be officially assigned or allowed to investigate a crime involving a family member. It is, however implausible, an element of the story that maintains the tension and urgency of the plotline. Once that’s set aside, it’s a better-than-pedestrian story with enough slowly revealed details to keep it interesting. With Ladd’s voice and the storyline, it’s easy to imagine this as an episode of his very successful syndicated series, Box 13.

The original story was written by John and Ward Hawkins and appeared in the October 1938 issue of Thrilling Detective and The Saturday Evening Post edition of November 1, 1947. They were very prolific short story mystery writers. It was adapted for Suspense by E. Jack Neuman. The story was also used on Radio City Playhouse less than a year prior. That was a different adaptation and was produced in New York.

Richard Widmark was originally planned to star in this broadcast. Almost everyone in the supporting cast doubles in the production.

This performance was recorded on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 2, 1950.

The episode received a positive review from Magee Adams, radio critic for the 1950-03-22 Cincinnati Enquirer:

One thing usually lacking in the wide range of crimes show material covered by Suspense is a straight police case. But last week’s Motive for Murder was ample proof that the type can be done well as any other.

Alan Ladd’s acting and tightly written script brought the performance close to the level of Dragnet. And in my book, that's right up at the top.

Taking the police tack might indicate that Suspense is reading the signs of over-psychological crime stuff. Whatever the reason, it’s heartening to have the CBS show putting its skill to work for the cops.

The selection of this story is curious because one of Spier’s script selection guidelines was to avoid crime detection stories. More precisely, it was to avoid typical detection stories. This obviously was believed to be different than the usual “crime fare” typically found on radio at the time.

Door-to-door sales was a common marketing strategy for vacuum cleaners and many other products. The Fuller Brush Company and Avon cosmetics were effective users of the strategy. The only vacuum cleaner company still employing the technique today is Kirby. In the post-WW2 years, it could be a lucrative and respectable job in areas that were expanding in new homes and the baby boom family growth in its early stages. Department stores, especially in suburbs and rural areas, were not yet dotting the landscapes, making the sales strategy a viable one. It faded in the 1970s and 1980s.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500316

THE CAST

ALAN LADD (“Irish” Dave), Joe Kearns (Jock / Father / Signature Voice), John Dehner (Charlie / Eddy), Virginia Gregg (Mary / Woman), Jeanette Nolan (Landlady / Cecilia Breckenbridge), Georgia Ellis (Harrett Blodgett / Elsie), Howard McNear (Richards / Man), Larry Dobkin (Harold Dolph)

COMMERCIAL: Joe DuVal (Remingchester), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-03-09 Banquo's Chair

James Mason stars in a new performance of Banquo’s Chair. A newly retired police officer just can’t let go of a case he could not solve. He brings the suspects together for a dinner party, and a ghostly incident occurs that helps expose the murderer.

The story was used on Suspense twice, and starred Donald Crisp and John Loder for each of those performances. These are the links to the 1943 performance which includes background about the author and the story:

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/02/1943-06-01-banquos-chair.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP430601 is where the audio files may be downloaded or streamed.

The 1944 broadcast details can be accessed at these links:

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-08-03-banquos-chair.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP440803 is where the audio files may be downloaded or streamed.

There are two recordings of the broadcast. They each have flaws but are listenable. There is disc scratch on each. The network recording is the preferred of the two. The Armed Forces Radio Service Recording (#312) has Paul Frees announcing “Suspense!” This was edited in by AFRS production engineers. Joe Kearns was the signature voice of Suspense at this time.

Of the three times of broadcast, the 1944 broadcast may be the best production to listen to.

Hans Conried played the “John Bedford” character in all of the Suspense productions.

This was one of William Spier’s favorite scripts. This is the third time it was performed on Suspense, but he also used it for the 1949-03-25 broadcast of Philip Morris Playhouse. It starred Claude Rains. No other cast information is available.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500309

THE CAST

JAMES MASON (Sir William Brent), Pamela Kellino (Roberta Stone), John Dehner (Arthur Grange / Officer), Colin Campbell (Lane), Norma Varden (Hilda), Gloria Gordon (Aunt Martha Ferguson), Hans Conried (John Bedford), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)

COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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