Ozzie and Harriet Nelson star as... themselves!… in a strange, mostly lighthearted, story about fortune telling and a con artist. It has a marvelous performance by Joe Kearns. He plays Hector Diogenes, who claims to drop his wallet on the street on a regular basis in the quest to find a truly honest man. Well, not really. He’s actually trying to dupe an honest man who will be a sucker for his scheme. The Greek philosopher Diogenes would taunt others of his day by walking around holding a lamp in the daytime, claiming he was searching for an honest man. Diogenes was serious. Mr. Diogenes is serious about being a con man. Ozzie picks up the wallet after getting a fortune card that he will have the most memorable day of his life. Mr. Diogenes has his target.
Mr. Diogenes visits the Nelsons at their home, bringing one of his thugs with him. He’s bribed one of the staff of a radio game show to be sure that Ozzie’s home when they call a contestant to participate in the program. He has to guess the identity of a celebrity who is appearing on the show as “Mr. Hathaway.” Diogenes answers the phone, identifying himself as Ozzie. He gives the correct answer (“Harpo Marx”) and wins the money. With the money delivery pending, his banished to another room. He figures a unique way to get an S-O-S to a neighbor to save the day. The ending seems to be one created to just to end the story. This is in contrast to the beginning of the story which seems better written and more intriguing.
The radio contest follows a theme similar to when Truth or Consequences had the “walking man” contest… who was Jack Benny. The show also ran a contest to identify “Mr. Hush” (boxer Jack Dempsey) and “Mrs. Hush” (actress Clara Bow).
The script was by radio veteran Harold Swanton. It’s not a serious story, and is another Suspense production developed more for the publicity power of popular stars than to present a compelling story. It is entertaining just to hear Joe Kearns get mere inches of the overacting line for the Diogenes role; he does it with great and amusing skill.
Weight scales were popular in numerous kinds of retail environments, especially small markets, drug stores, and others. As an incentive to use the machine, a card would come out with “your fortune.” It was much like getting a fortune or “wise” saying from a fortune cookie. These amusement scales are very rare to find in use today. They’re nostalgia pieces and can sometimes be found for sale on eBay in restored condition. The main manufacturer of the units was Watling of Chicago. They manufactured many amusement arcade devices.
The story plays on the popularity of game shows at the time. They were piling up huge ratings and pushing many previously top-rated shows down on the ratings lists. The prize is $58,000, nearly $800,000 in US$2024. Diogenes was planning to take the money and escape to Cuba with his thug underling. Whoops.
Corruption in game shows became a big deal in the 1950s when the concept moved to television. A summary of the scandals is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_quiz_show_scandals and background about the 1994 movie, Quiz Show, which profiled the best known of the scandals is at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quiz_Show_(film)&oldid=1211314727
Love, Honor, or Murder was the originally planned script for this date. This script was substituted and played on the popular image of the Nelsons instead.
The Nelsons had moved their series from CBS to ABC. This was their first time on CBS since that departure.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500126
THE CAST
OZZIE & HARRIET NELSON (Ozzie & Harriet), Joe Kearns (Hector Diogenes / Signature Voice), John McIntire (Captain Lem Pearson / Eddie), Jeanette Nolan (Mary Pearson), Hal March (Quiz Show Announcer / Man), Sidney Miller (Mordecai Moran / Prize Messenger)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy, Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
