Red Skelton stars in a unique combination crime story and romantic fantasy written by Richard Vodra. Skelton plays a lonely bank clerk who moves into a new apartment and gets a new phone. As soon as it is connected, the phone rings almost constantly. The number was previously assigned to someone else, because he keeps getting calls for “Isabel.” With so many men calling her, he begins to fantasize about what she must be like, and imagines that she is attracted to him and that they have the possibility of a relationship. One of the callers leaves his name and he learns that the wealthy man. Skelton’s character believes the man was one of Isabel’s suitors, dies in a suspicious way that looks like suicide. He starts to believe that Isabel is in trouble, and begins a search to find out where she is so he can save her. He learns that Isabel is somehow tied to a gambling operation and some very ruthless thugs. It breaks his heart to learn that there is no Isabel… the name is a password that clients of the betting operation use when they want to place a bet. He becomes distraught and cannot believe it… but he knows she’s real because he still fantasizes about her, she still visits him with alluring overtures and romantic conversations. You know he’ll always be with her in his fantasies, but also always searching for her in real life.
This is one of the more creative scripts of the series, and is far better than the first Vodra script, The Light Switch. That had many continuity problems and internal inconsistencies.
This broadcast was another instance of the CBS publicity department playing up the “no ad lib” requirement when comedians appeared on the show. Skelton was well known for his ad libs on his own program, and they became an expectation of his audience. There are many rehearsal recordings of his shows that run well past the planned 30 minute final broadcast slot because Skelton and guests would ad lib their way through sketches to get a rise out of the audience and amongst themselves. In some cases, those rehearsal ad lib lines were so good they would end up in the final broadcast. The CBS press release had this line:
Producer Bill Spier says he's loading one of the sound men’s guns with real bullets—just in case Red succumbs to the temptation to say, “I dood it.”
That was one of Skelton’s catch phrases for one of his regular sketch characters “The Mean Widdle Kid.” It was also the title of the 1943 MGM musical comedy in which he starred.
In the closing commercial and announcements, Skelton mentions “Fuller Brushes.” Fuller was a very successful cleaning supplies company that sold their products door-to-door. Skelton starred in the popular 1948 movie comedy The Fuller Brush Man where he was one of the sales persons who becomes a suspect for a murder.
Wilcox has trouble pronouncing Ricardo Montalban’s name in the closing announcements.
There are two recordings available for this broadcast. The network recording is the better one. The other recording is likely an aircheck and includes the pre-show time tone. It is not known from which station it was recorded.
When William Spier liked a script, he often produced it more than once. After he left CBS over behind-the-scenes issues with the hour-long Suspense in February 1948, he produced The Search for Isabel on ABC’s The Clock on 1948-04-22 with Elliott Lewis. Less than a year later, when he was producer of CBS’ Philip Morris Playhouse, he used it again on 1949-01-21 with Eddie Bracken. He realized that different days, time slots, and years, had much different listening audiences and different network competition. If he thought he had a very good script, even if others heard it before, they would probably enjoy hearing it again. The two prior broadcasts of this script have not been found.
This was Red Skelton’s sole appearance on Suspense. Skelton was one of the most popular entertainers of his time, in a varied career that spanned decades. His career took him through medicine shows, burlesque theaters, vaudeville shows, nightclubs, and casinos, and of course movies, radio, and television. He is considered a television pioneer. Skelton was also a successful painter, developing a loyal market for his paintings of clowns as lithographic prints. His long and diverse career is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skelton
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP491103
THE CAST
RED SKELTON (Dick Brown), Cathy Lewis (Secretary / “Isabelle LaRue”), Joe Kearns (Man on phone / Police Lieutenant [Bert] / Max the bartender), Bill Conrad (Tony Desimoney), Jack Edwards, Jr. (Male Secretary / Elevator boy), Jay Novello (Harold Mason / John Worthington the drunk), Sidney Miller (Roy / Gun salesman), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Parley Baer (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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