1950-11-23 Going, Going, Gone

Ozzie and Harriet play husband and wife at an auction, and buy a trunk full of jewels for $3 (about $40 in US$2024). They soon realize that it may prove to be last purchase of their lives. It’s a big trunk, described as “big enough to hold a body.” A stranger appears at the auction, breathless from running, and shouts “fifty dollars!” He is too late. It is not until the happy couple lug the old trunk home that they make the breathtaking discovery of its contents: jewels! At that moment, the doorbell rings, and it’s the stranger who tried to buy the trunk for $50. This time, he keeps raising the ante until he hits $100,000 (almost $1.3 million in US$2024!), but their answer still is no. Ozzie finally shuts the door in his face, but he remains on the porch, insistently ringing the doorbell. They begin to get scared. It is then that they notice, through their window, the long, black limousine parked just half a block down the deserted street. He comes back and dies in their home… and they “hide” him in their bedroom. The tense, but in the end mostly comedic story builds to a strange but entertaining climax, all unlikely, making it even more of a fun listen.

The script is by Antony Ellis and the story is very loosely based on Going, Going, Gone, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. That story was about a body in a trunk purchased at auction. It follows her main detective series character, Asey Mayo, in tracking down what happened. This script is similar in some respects to that story, but it’s more of a springboard for a different Suspense production. A similar situation happened with 1944-10-12 The Merry Widower that was based on the story Rubber Trumpet. So much of the story was changed to fit the Suspense broadcast that the original story and the story as broadcast bear little resemblance to each other. Antony Ellis is given “on air credit” at the end of the broadcast but Taylor is not mentioned. Taylor was a popular mystery author who has a very successful series of Asey Mayo books that were set in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She was also the creator of the detective character Leonidas Witherall.

In terms of the story’s details, it is another case where today’s technology is quite different than that mentioned in the story and an important part of the plotline. Since it was broadcast about 75 years ago, some explanation is required. A telephone “party line” was an arrangement where multiple people shared a local phone line. They had to wait until the line was unused if they needed to make a call. This was intended to make phone service less expensive and accessible to more people. Party line arrangements started in the 1880s and continued to be available through the 1970s. The arrangement is still used in very rural or remote locations when necessary. As a consumer offering, it was discontinued for all practical purposes in the 1960s.

The change in the value of money since 1950 require some new financial context. Here are the approximate current dollar values mentioned in the story:

• $3 for the trunk is $40, still a deal!

• The $50 bid that was too late at the auction is $650

• $100,000 made as a last offer for the trunk is almost $1.3 million

• The $200 surprise gift from Mexico about $2600

Next week’s episode is announced as “The Thirteenth Apostle.” The name was changed to “The Lady in the Red Hat” prior to broadcast.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP501123

THE CAST

OZZIE NELSON (Wally Pindell), HARRIET HILLIARD (Jen), Junius Matthews (Anton Minchie), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Voice 2 / Mr. Fling), Jack Kruschen (Police Sergeant Dixon), Joe Forte (Merton the auctioneer), Dick Ryan (Spotter / Officer’s Voice), Florence Lake (Woman on party line)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator), Dal McKennon? (Turkey gobble)

###

1950-11-16 On a Country Road

Cary Grant stars in this classic episode that has an interesting history: it’s by a one-hit-wonder writer who became a prominent journalist. Blogger Christine Miller describes it well: “it embodies all of the things at which the radio program excelled.” Grant gives his usual fine performance. The story was disconcerting to many listeners because hitch-hiking was a common practice at the time, and there were always warnings about being careful about picking up riders. Also, stories about a car breakdown as a precursor to a violent crime or attack, was not all that common as plotlines. Those kinds of stories became more common in later decades. Cars were not as reliable as they are in these years, and required constant attention to maintenance, and there was great concern about having a breakdown in an unfamiliar area, far from a pay phone, or some kind of retail business that might be able to call for help. That means, this story generated more shudders in the 1950 audience than it would today with more modern vehicles, GPS-capable smartphones, and phones in general.

Cary Grant portrays a husband and Cathy Lewis plays his wife, as they drive through a small Long Island town. They hear news on their radio about about a tall, broad-shouldered, middle-aged insane woman who has escaped from a hospital and has butcher cleaver. She has killed several persons before her incarceration, and has started again. Police are in the hunt for her before she attacks again. They have set up road blocks to inform the public and request information from drivers who may have seen her. The news is frightening, but frustrated by the traffic, the couple turns off the main highway in hopes of finding a short cut around the traffic. Bad decision. This is the exact area where the crazed woman is believed to be running amuck. Another news bulletin reports that butchered bodies of an elderly couple were just found in their car. Halfway across the supposed short-cut, the car runs out of gas. Then, outside their car window, a flash of lightning illuminates the face of a scared woman running toward them. Panicky now, the husband rolls up his window. The woman pleads desperately for them to let her in, claiming that the insane woman is after her. Is she the threat that they fear? Or is she telling the truth about her plight and needs their help?

The story takes place on Long Island and near the village of Center Moriches. It is pronounced “more-itches,” and pronounced incorrectly by Thor and others who put too much emphasis on the first syllable and not enough on the “itch”. The village is on the south shore of Long Island, and is about 8 miles west of the first of the Hamptons villages. Bazar was likely familiar with the area as the Hamptons and all of the south shore of Long Island were happy getaways for city dwellers, especially for the beaches in summer time. The road with all the traffic he had in mind was probably state route 27, known as Sunrise Highway in the east and Montauk Highway in the west side of Long Island. It ends at the very tip of the South Fork at Montauk Point. Many of the side roads south of 27 are not short cuts at all, and terminate at the shore line. New Yorkers and especially Long Islanders would likely have been yelling at their radios for Grant to stay on Montauk Highway.

Writer Walter Bazar likely wrote the script while he was completing his academic work at Columbia University’s journalism school. Upon graduation, he became a reporter for the New York Journal-American. This was the same newspaper where the notable and sometimes larger-than-life city editor Paul Schoenstein worked. (He was featured in The Big Story). He was the editor who assigned Dorothy Kilgallen to Broadway, originally against her wishes, which then led to her celebrity career. Two months before this episode aired, Bazar married a co-worker in the paper’s advertising department. He would eventually be assigned to Washington, DC where he became a noted reporter covering government, science, and space program news and would occasionally appear on Sunday television news talk shows. This was his only radio script, as best can be determined. He died at age 57 in 1983.

The drama portion of this broadcast was recorded on Tuesday, 1950-11-07. Rehearsal began at 11:00am, and the recording commenced at 2:30pm.

Four recordings of this production have survived, one network and three different Armed Forces Radio recordings:

• Network: This recording is the best of the four.

• AFRS #344: This is an excellent recording, and worth listening to. All of the advertisements have been edited out, per AFRS guidelines.

• AFRTS Mystery Theater: This was a 1970s Armed Forces Radio and Television Service series that put new “wrappers” on the recordings and played the dramas in between. Sometimes, the original recordings were recorded at hire speed up to fit the time slot of 25 minutes.

• AFRTS 1980s: This is a low quality recording in the “strange” format with clips of Suspense openings from its 20-year history; show title and cast information were edited out to make the programs seem less “dated” when played on AFRTS stations.

Of the four times it was presented on the series, this first time with Cary Grant is probably the best. The others, however, had good casting and good performances. Two of them had real-life married couples in the lead roles, 1954-01-04 with Frank and Joan Lovejoy, and 1959-05-10 with Howard Duff and Ida Lupino. The other performance was 1954-12-09 with Harry Bartell and Virginia Gregg.

The story was also presented on the Suspense television series on 1951-03-13 and starred John Forsythe and Mildred Natwick. It can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKT098z1tX8 or https://archive.org/details/Suspense--On_a_Country_Road Television production was primitive in 1951, and the couple is riding around in the foggy, rainy night, in a convertible with the top down, with the windshield washers on. The top had to be down to allow the massive TV cameras to have an angled view, and close-ups of the actors. The bumpy and uneven country road was shown by someone (or multiple studio workers) rocking the car… or perhaps some in-studio contraption was used to accomplish the effect. Natwick was a respected actor who appeared in the radio series once, but was on the TV series twice. A few years earlier, she starred in an experimental TV broadcast of Sorry, Wrong Number that was available only in the New York City area. The casting was first announced to be Hume Cronyn in the lead role. Forsythe replaced him; no reason is known at this time.

A short film adaptation was presented at a 2014 film festival in Maine and starred Kip Weeks and Sharon Smyth. The main character was changed to a taxi driver, and the locale changed to Maine. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/T7Q0LI4HN9g

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https://archive.org/details/TSP501116

THE CAST

CARY GRANT (David), Cathy Lewis (Dorothy), Jeanette Nolan (Nellie), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Policeman), Larry Thor (News Announcer)

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

###

1950-11-09 Blood on the Trumpet

William Holden makes his first appearance on the series as a New Orleans jazz musician who is suspected of murdering his wife. The production features popular trumpet player Ziggy Elman. The odd title is about the forensic evidence that solves a murder. Scripter Richard-George Pedicini referred to this episode as “a turning point in my career.” It’s a superb production with a satisfying surprise ending.

The musician’s wife despises what he loves most, his music. She is always nagging about his failure to get into the big money and the time that he spends away from her. He finds some solace in the company of a young woman who has been frequents the little French Quarter club where he plays every night, just to hear him. He learns that his wife is two-timing him, and decides to leave her. His plan is to run away with the woman at the nightclub who is infatuated with him and his music. He confronts his wife about his plans. She screams at him, insults him, and hits him. He loses his temper and strikes her in self defense. He realizes what he did and is instantly repentant. When he bends down to pick her up, however, she is bleeding and unconscious. She struck her head in the fall. He’s sure she is dead, panics, and runs from her apartment. He is soon arrested, and accused of murdering her… by striking her with his trumpet! But there are details about the police account of the incident that don’t make sense… and he learns his wife was injured, but was still alive when the police arrived. He’s being framed!

Pedicini toiled in post-WW2 Hollywood as an actor and in the CBS continuity and script departments. He had already appeared on Suspense as a supporting actor in the 1947-10-30 Subway and 1947-11-28 Pit and the Pendulum. This script, his first for Suspense, was written and accepted by Elliott Lewis but had not been cast. In a 1996 interview on Same Time, Same Station, he said that he and Lewis had lunch with Holden about his upcoming Suspense appearance. Holden told them he was tired of playing “goody two-shoes” roles and wanted something different, like a seedy down-and-out trumpet player. He described what he wanted… and those elements were already in Pedicini’s script! You can hear Pedicini tell it in his own words. Listen to that 1:38 portion of the interview at the same Internet Archive page as the broadcast recording. Interview participants are Larry Gassman and Keith Scott (who sneaks an impression in), John Gassman, and classic radio collector and transcription expert Ken Greenwald. Pedicini wrote 14 scripts for Suspense, and many of them had musical themes in their plotlines. He wrote for television, was an actor, and eventually worked in advertising. He later left California and moved to Sydney, Australia.

Ziggy Elman had an interesting career with Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and with his own orchestra. His first big hit was in 1939, And the Angels Sing. His fortunes faltered starting in the mid-1950s. His name was Harry Aaron Finkelman. He was called “Ziggy” by fellow musicians because he was often found at Ziegfield shows, and “Elman” as a shortened version of his last name. Many of his recordings are at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/search?query=ziggy+elman&page=4 Other details are at:

• His life and career: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggy_Elman

• Further insights from his son http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/ziggyelman.html

• His trumpet has a respectful home in Texas https://www.trumpetguild.org/content/itg-news/781-ziggy-elman-s-trumpet-finds-a-new-home#:~:text=His%20clear%2C%20strong%20sound%20attracted,a%20%231%20hit%20in%201939

This publicity image was found in an album of photos from radio station CKRC of Winnipeg, Canada, published in 1951.

This was William Holden’s first of four appearances on the series. It was planned to help promote his new movie Union Station. His career had its biggest boost in an earlier film, the classic Sunset Boulevard. A few years later, he would have another hit, Stalag 17, for which he won an Oscar. More details about his career and life can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Holden

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP501109

THE CAST

WILLIAM HOLDEN (Victor), Jack Kruschen (Cassieux), Barton Yarborough (Juno), Cathy Lewis (Sarah / Creole), Eddy Fields (Lou), Alvina Temple (Luana), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Angelini)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Dal McKennon (effect), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1950-11-02 The Victoria Cross

A tale of violence and terror played against the supposedly quiet background of an English public school stars Herbert Marshall in a return performance to the series. The story is about honor, envy, betrayal, truth, and a mainstay of Suspense, a tragic murder. It all swirls together with implications of unsavory behavior that are not plainly stated because the subjects may have been considered as offensive in prime time radio. But they’re undeniably part of the story, inserted by writers Gil Doud and Antony Ellis with great skill. Had they not, the censors or Auto-Lite might have rejected the story. Savvy and cynical adult minds would know what was going on, but others might not and think it’s a simple murder mystery.

It’s a very worthwhile listen, with more attention than usual recommended to appreciate the important details of the story and the many characters. The complex story and its psychological undertones may require multiple listenings to be fully appreciated. It is a blessing to be interested in classic radio today because we can listen to recordings multiple times; the broadcast listeners had only the original 30 minute time window to catch all of the details. There are so many layers to the story and the production that it is likely better appreciated today than was possible then.

Important to the story is the Victoria Cross. It is the highest decoration of the British honors system, awarded for valor in the “presence of the enemy.” More details are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Cross That Victoria Cross, awarded for courage and bravery, has a command presence in the storyline. It is a source of internal conflict for Marshall’s character as his behavior and impulses are contrary to the virtues and standards recognized by the award.

The working title of the script was “Housemaster,” the position of Marshall’s character in the story. Changing the title to the name of the highly respected award for one’s courage in dangerous situations adds to the drama of the story. It is a source of tension and stress for the main character, accentuated by the music of the episode. Both the Cross and the music might as well be considered to be leading characters in the story because of their importance to the plotline. The original script was altered to fit the Lewis format of a brief opening scene to tease the story. Edits were made to the balance of the original script to ensure that context was evident and continuity was maintained. It was complicated, but the revisions made the telling of the story much better.

This is a different production for Suspense in its setting and its contrast of themes. Some of those themes are disturbing, likely more so in 1950. The school years are expected to take childhood innocence mold students, over the years, to have strong moral character. Yet, there is the dark side of a student blackmailer who knows secrets that are dangerous to Marshall’s housemaster character, and there is a murder. An undercurrent of possible past sexual abuse of students lurks in the background. It’s never stated explicitly, but can be inferred as a possibility by the behavior of the students. Marshall’s character has great fear of exposure of his aberrant, or unacceptable behavior in that his career and reputation will be ruined.

The housemaster that Marshall portrays is kept in a state of terror by his past and the threat of blackmail. He is suffering from pretender syndrome and what is currently referred to as PTSD. The blackmailing student, an obnoxious bully, demands special favors and cheats on exams with impunity. He stumbled onto some unfavorable and embarrassing information about the housemaster and is willing to use it to his advantage. Student cheating incidents come to light with the administration and makes the situation even more complex for Marshall’s character.

When he refuses to recommend the student for a Cambridge scholarship, the bullying boy escalates the tension and threatens expose the terrible truth. The housemaster becomes desperate to get out of the situation. A murder confuses the situation yet more, even with the police investigation.

The music composed for the episode reflects the inner turmoil of Marshall’s character. The character received the Victoria Cross for military service, but feels he did not deserve it and cannot live up to it. Perhaps the circumstance of his reward did not occur as was reported and even that was not truthful. Each time his internal conflict begins to boil over, the music becomes louder and more intense, almost overwhelming. There is a drum beat, that is first a call to attention that reminds Marshall’s character of the discipline of the military that becomes a reminder he needs to get in line with expectations, especially those expectations for a Cross awardee. The loudness then borders on excessive, just like his regrets and fears. That increasing volume indicates growing fear that his secrets will be revealed. The pretender syndrome and PTSD are not the only things torturing him. He’s been medicating himself with illegal narcotics, and solicits the paid companionship of a prostitute (who is also a waitress at the Dagger and Drum pub). The drugs and the liaison are the main drivers of the blackmail attempt.

Though the storyline is different, the episode has a similar mood as Patrick McGoohan’s 1974 appearance in NBC’s Columbo episode By Dawn’s Early Light, which takes place at a military preparation school.

At approximately 21:00 the sportsmaster Samuel Jennings says that one of the boys had “… great style at the wicket. Reminded me of Jack Hobbs.” That was a reference to an English professional cricketer who played from 1905 to 1934. His reputation in cricket was among the highest. He was knighted in 1953, the first professional cricketer to be honored in that manner.

In the end, Marshall’s character does the right thing, his brokenness now obvious to all, as his pretenses and false front are shattered.

Researcher and performer Keith Scott notes that Marshall’s pained delivery of his dialogue, typical of his acting style, fits this role well. Marshall sounds cultured and tortured at the same time. He comments that:

A day or so after he enlisted in WW1, Marshall received gunfire injuries bad enough to necessitate the amputation of one of his legs. Although he learned to hide it quite effectively on-screen with his prosthetic limb, it is noted in a biography of Marshall that the prosthetics of that era sometimes caused him some discomfort. He was often seen wincing in pain on a movie set at the end of a long day, basically for his entire post-war life. After studying his voice for many years, I am quite convinced a part of his vocal sound reflected that lifelong intermittent discomfort.

Keith also notes that the cast of this episode includes many of the Hollywood British radio contingent who did many of the Lewis-produced Pursuit shows.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP501102

THE CAST

HERBERT MARSHALL (Vail), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Inspector Forbes), Charles Davis (Giles Bateman), Terry Kilburn (Francis Orde), Eileen Erskine (Maggie Splane / Nurse), Herb Butterfield (Headmaster Walkerly / Man), Alec Harford (Man 2), Philip Friend (Samuel Jennings / Man 3)

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

* * *

In the Variety edition of this date, it was announced that movie executive Daniel O’Shea was joining CBS as a vice president. His duties were not identified with specifics at the time, but it was described as being involved in talent negotiations for the television side of the business. Not long after he joined, his mission became the enforcement of loyalty test rules that the network based on Red Channels and the network’s own investigations. His actions affected the casting of Suspense and other programs, determined which scriptwriters and support staff would be used, and pushed William N. Robson out of the network. Lewis would eventually have a cynical name for O’Shea and others in the initiative as “the vice president of treason.” He found a way to work around their directives as best he could. Eventually, O’Shea would be pushed out of the network, but his actions and obfuscations negatively affected the lives and fortunes of many talented radio artists. O’Shea returned to the movie business like nothing happened, a “Teflon executive” before Teflon was even available.

###

1950-10-26 Too Hot to Live

This episode of Suspense is an often unappreciated one, with some superb acting by Richard Widmark. The story was written by Sam Rolfe who went on to be a highly successful writer of screenplays and teleplays, and received an Oscar nomination.

The plot has Widmark as an unemployed drifter who inadvertently finds himself in a strange town and ends up accused of murder. He is a quiet, embittered war veteran, kicked off a freight train for hitching a ride. His worn-out shoes took him to the small town of Marcus Junction. He met the sheriff who directed him to the town’s shoe repair where he left his broken down shoes and his socks. The sheriff recommended he get a good meal at the nearby diner. It is there that he meets an attractive waitress who invited him to her apartment. Weak from hunger and fatigue, he passed out after a few drinks. When awakened from his sleep, a man was hitting him, brutally, and accused him of murdering her. He sees her body, sprawled on the floor, dead. The police are after him, and he has to escape their pursuit in his bare feet, and find the real killer, too. Who is it? The diner’s jealous cook? The woman’s strange father? Or was it Widmark’s character? Listen for a line that says that it is so hot the newly varnished floors can’t dry properly and stay very tacky. For the paints and finishes of that time, 75 years ago, that was probably right, but would not be so today with their vastly different formulations.

The script has many intense narrative segments and Widmark’s performance is an example of how well such passages can be performed. Lewis considered Widmark one of his best and most reliable actors in the series.

The early scenes of the story in the waitress’ apartment may have raised some eyebrows as it might be as close to the steamy 1981 Lawrence Kasdan movie Body Heat that Suspense could possibly get. Those scenes are end quickly as the story proceeds to her gruesome murder, unlike that movie’s plot course. It’s multiple reasons why Suspense is not for kids.

This script was an important early step in the development of the long, successful career of writer Sam Rolfe. A dockworker (and a dance instructor), he was writing for Sam Spade and Richard Diamond. Just two years later he would be nominated an Oscar for his screenplay for the 1953 western movie The Naked Spur which starred Jimmy Stewart as a bounty hunter. Rolfe was creator of TV’s Have Gun, Will Travel with writer Herb Meadow, and was a writer and producer for The Man from UNCLE.

Marcus Junction might be an inside joke reference to prolific radio writer Larry Marcus.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP501026

THE CAST

RICHARD WIDMARK (Jefferson Casey), Paul Frees (Sheriff Benjamin Maxwell), Howard McNear (Brakeman / Driver), Junius Matthews (Pop Clovis), Mary Jane Croft (Rachael), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Kenny), Jonathan Hole (Hale [Restaurant stranger]), Noreen Gamill (Woman with trash can)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator), Jerry Maren? (Johnny Plugcheck)

###

1950-10-19 The Wages of Sin

Barbara Stanwyck portrays a notorious gangland beauty, a favorite of the local crime reporters. She who comes home one day to find a murdered man on the floor of her apartment, surrounded by police. It is another entertaining offering scripted by John Michael Hayes and E. Jack Neuman. It’s an audio B-movie about gangsters and their distrust of each other. It’s a good script, and performance, with cartoonish gangster cliches worth chuckling over. While not a Suspense classic, it’s a very worthwhile listen, and another example of how Suspense is not for kids because of its violent and nasty (but well-earned) ending.

The title comes from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans 6:23 that begins with “For the wages of sin is death.” Wages are paid for work, and the desire is to be paid fairly commensurate with the nature and quality of the work produced. Paul uses the phrase to explain that there are deeply negative consequences of unethical and selfish acts. (It could be oversimplified as the more current generic phrase “garbage in, garbage out” as applied to life). In terms of the story, it refers to the corrupt behavior of Stanwyck’s character and is its own spoiler alert that she will get her comeuppance in the end.

Her character, Ruby Miller, when arriving at her apartment with the police and the body on the rug is more angry about the blood stain than the man was killed where she resides. Police suspect she was part of the hit. She’s arrested, not her first time down at the police station, but is freed for lack of evidence. The incident in her apartment was part of a plan for a gangland killing. Part of her deal with the mob boss was that she was to leave town after the murder. She gets too smart by half, and believes she has the leverage to make a big score for herself. She was originally promised $1,500 to leave town, but she wants more. Instead of taking the money and running, she decides to blackmail the gangster who set up her deal. She demands a payoff to keep her quiet.

At 18:30, Stanwyck’s character has a vicious tirade against the police, the norms of society and its class structure. It’s quite entertaining and cynical, used to justify her evil tendencies. (The speech probably had them in stitches in rehearsal). It sets up the dramatic turnaround in the conclusion of the story when she realizes she actually needs the police… but doesn’t get their help in time.

The money values mentioned in the story are intended to rattle the audience and grab their attention. In US$2024 value adjusted for inflation:

• Two months rent of $400 pre-paid for the apartment is $5100 in today's value. That’s about 2/3 of the value of the average US home at the time, and more than 50% higher than the average household income

• The deposit to her savings account of $1000 is almost $13,000 in current value

• The $400 paid for clothes and accessories is almost $5180 in value

• The $1500 to leave town is almost $20,000 in today’s terms.

These values show how big and successful the mob operation was to afford to pay her for her cooperation and how important it was.

During the commercial, the “ding” sound was meant to replicate the sound of a gas pump of the era. The sound would occur as each gallon was dispensed. Car owners in the listening audience would recognize the sound and it would reinforce the marketing proposition that spending money on a well-maintained car using Auto-Lite parts would save them money in the long run.

This was Barbara Stanwyck’s only appearance on Suspense. She began in theater work in the late 1920s. Her decades-long and very successful movie and television career is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Stanwyck

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP501019

THE CAST

BARBARA STANWYCK (Ruby Miller), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Victor Sheridan), Lou Merrill (Police Captain Doric Salvatore), John Dehner (Cooper [Man on phone] / Cop), John Hoyt (Clint Fisher), Clayton Post (Voice / Police Sergeant), Charles Calvert (Doctor / Voice 2), Jerry Hausner (Frank)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator), Jerry Maren? (Johnny Plugcheck)

###

1950-10-12 Rave Notice

Comedian and “Mr. Television” or “Uncle Miltie” Milton Berle makes his sole Suspense appearance in a very strong script by Oscar-winner James Poe. Berle had radio experience before, but his slapstick and visual comedy did not play as well as it did in television. Berle’s success was growing rapidly, and the 1950-1951 television season had some of his best ratings. His performance in this episode is quite good. Baby boomers may no longer hold Berle in high regard, but at the period of this broadcast he was at the top of his game. Later generations may know him for his notoriously bad appearance on Saturday Night Live, a broadcast that was withheld from syndication from many years because of problems on the set and with Berle’s performance, embarrassing producer Lorne Michaels. But if you’re curious about what all the Berle fuss was about in the 1950s, this episode shows that he was a talented performer before his career and celebrity began to ebb.

This Poe script is superb and was repeated on Suspense twice more in later years. One starred Hans Conried with Vincent Price in the other. Each of them brought their own special flair to the script. This is such a good story and well-crafted script that all of the productions are good.

An actor becomes angry at a play’s director when he is replaced in the cast. He decides to murder him, then act insane to avoid conviction, incarceration, and execution. When interrogated by doctors and police, he’s given incorrect information to rattle his concocted story and his act. Who are the better actors, now?

The drama portion of the program was recorded on 1950-07-21. It was the first Elliott Lewis production of the series. They knew it would not air until almost three months later. It was likely held until after the Fall television season started to build publicity for the appearance.

Berle gets close to the line of overacting, but is in control enough to keep listeners engaged in the story without dismissing it as silly. Most of the publicity for the show had little to do with the story, but more about Berle’s appearance. While the CBS publicity did not haul out the “there’s a no ad lib clause in the contract” charade that they did automatically each time a comedian was about to step to the microphone, there was an undercurrent to the publicity that people would be surprised at how good Berle is. Remember, however, everyone at CBS had already heard the performance because it was recorded three months earlier. There was no risk to them in saying that they considered Berle’s performance to be good because they already knew it was.

Berle’s character says that his acting is based on the “Stanislavsky system.” That is a standard approach to teaching the craft of acting, and not a name that was made-up for the script. Variations of the system are still used in acting schools today.

The July recording date allowed for a photo shoot during the session. Pictures appeared in Quick magazine, sometime in September 1950. Because of that long lead time, publicity could be planned better. Previously, photos of rehearsals and broadcasts would not appear in magazines until months after they aired.

Two network recordings have survived. One is from the network feed and the other is an aircheck from KNX in Los Angeles. Both recordings are flawed with disc noise and light scratch in some places. They are roughly equivalent in overall sound quality, but the network recording is slightly better.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP501012

THE CAST

MILTON BERLE (Sam), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Norman / Judge), Peter Leeds (Guard), Howard McNear (Doctor / Man 2), Herb Butterfield (Second Doctor / Man [Actor]), Hal March (Shopkeeper / Driver), Hy Averback (Second Guard / Judge), Sidney Miller (Lawyer)

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

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1950-10-05 The Rose Garden

Miriam Hopkins stars in a Sumner Locke Elliott story adapted by Antony Ellis. It’s a fine and often underappreciated presentation. As a listener you’ll start to feel trapped and claustrophobic as Hopkins’ character does.

She plays “Effie,” a newly widowed woman who dies one of the strangest deaths presented on the series. The play begins with cousin Amy giving Effie’s diary to Richards, a policeman. He begins to read from the document and details about how the tragedy unfolded. Three presumably nice, quiet, old ladies live together in a neat, modest little house. Effie has come to live with her cousin, Amy. The third woman is “Miss Bone.” She has rented a room in Amy's house for many years and is always trying to impress people with stories of her travels and first hand knowledge of the world. Bone bitterly resents Effie’s intrusion into her life. Miss Bone frightens Effie with her huge, ill-tempered old cat, to which she is fanatically and strangely devoted.

She terrifies Effie further by announcing that she has a vial of deadly, Chinese poison in her room. Amy is called out of town for a few days. Effie is horrified at the thought of being left alone in the house Bone and her taunting. The stage is set for Effie’s murder by the constant fear of poisoning. Bone, an unrepentant bully to the end, contends was essentially just a joke and Effie took it all the wrong way. When Amy returns and finds Effie dead, and she knows it was murder, no matter what Bone says.

The original title of the play was “Miss Bone.” It was changed to The Rose Garden about 10 days before broadcast.

Story author Sumner Locke Elliott was an Australian novelist and playwright who moved to California to pursue a Hollywood career. He sometimes found himself adapting British plays for radio series like Theater Guild and others because he was more familiar with them and the nuances of their language than his American counterparts. He was very active in 1950s US television writing original plays and continued writing short stories and novels. His best known novel was the much biographical Careful, He Might Hear You, published in 1963 and adapted as a movie in 1983. The Australian film won many awards and was highly regarded by critics worldwide. It is available on many film streaming services. It is currently available on the free Tubi service.

His biographer, Sharon Clarke, in her 1995 doctoral dissertation for the University of Wollongong in Australia, noted that one of his favorite actresses was Miriam Hopkins. Having her appearing in one of his works was a highlight of his Hollywood life: “...the prospect of her performing in his arrangements with a play, Miss Bone, ...assured him that he had once more stepped back through the looking glass, into the world of improbable happenings.”

Byron Kane doubles as Richards and as the mean cat, “Chang”!

The closing credits include a recorded message from Milton Berle teasing the next broadcast, Rave Notice. That clip was recorded when the dramatic portions of that program were performed in July.

Miriam Hopkins appeared on Suspense this one time, and was not on radio often beyond appearing as a guest on variety shows and movie-based shows such as Lux Radio Theatre. Her career began in theatrical productions in the 1920s and in 1930 in Hollywood films. On Broadway, she had the lead in the hit play Jezebel, but when it was adapted as a film of the same name, Bette Davis was selected for the role. This began a feud between them, which the film studios publicized and intensified, often to achieve a higher profile in the gossip columns. She was one of the more prominent television actresses in the 1950s. Some TV sci-fi fans may know her for appearing in the Outer Limits episode Don't Open Till Doomsday. Her long and distinguished career and interesting life is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Hopkins

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP501005

THE CAST

MIRIAM HOPKINS (Effie Trimbal), Jeanette Nolan (Miss Bone), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Doctor), Byron Kane (Richards / Chang the Cat), Irene Tedrow (Cousin Amy Hanson), Jeffrey Silver (Boy)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator), Johnny McGovern? (Johnny Plugcheck)

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1950-09-28 Fly by Night

Joseph Cotten returns to Suspense in a George and Gertrude Fass story adapted by Morton Fine and David Friedkin. The story has problems, but Cotten’s performance rises above them.

He plays a businessman being framed for a murder. He’s been been kept awake by a police interrogator for seventy-two hours (that’s three days in case you didn’t know) to break his resistance to signing a confession. In his fuzzy state he admits to murdering his business partner just to get some sleep. When he awakens, he tries vainly to repudiate and the confession and makes a sudden and successful, break for freedom. There’s a general alarm out for his arrest, his only hope lies in finding the witness who had given false testimony against him, and then find out who paid that witness to lie. He learns where that witness’ office is. But when he gets there, he finds him dead, with bullet hole to his forehead. He realizes that the gun used to kill the witness is his very own, making his framing for murder all the more believable to others and the police.

Even though police had wider latitude to interrogate witnesses at the time of this story, whether ethical or not, it seems like the strangest of interrogations. Not that such things did not happen, but it’s closer to the kind one might imagine being used on war prisoners to find out when and how the enemy will attack next. It seems gangster-like, with thugs trying to crush a cross-town rival by learning their whereabouts and habits. You also know something is up because the interrogation is not conducted in a police station but in a home. It turns out to be fake, a charade, that credibility of the story right from the beginning, just like other Fass scripts. They did so in Mortmain and X-Ray Camera, especially, and also Quiet Desperation. The only redeeming feature is that we get to hear Joseph Cotten as the framed man, anxious to clear himself, but so disappointed to discover that the conspiracy against him includes his wife. [Sometimes spoiler alerts prep you for disappointment; as Tony Shaloub’s character in the Monk television series says after doing something annoying to others, “you’ll thank me later”]. The conclusion of the story includes too many tangled “just so happens” elements. One has to wonder how much Fine and Friedkin had to fix original story to get as presentable as it is. Enjoy Cotten, push the flaws to the background.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP500928

THE CAST

JOSEPH COTTEN (Mickey Manning), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Druggist / Julius Benning), Herb Vigran (Sergeant Kogan / Man), Larry Dobkin (Charlie Borden), Ed Max (Lt. Driscoll), Mary Shipp (Mary Manning), Cathy Lewis (Irene Conway), Peggy Webber (Woman in theater), Billy Halop (Usher), George Baxter (Shreyer / Cop)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-09-21 The Crowd

Dana Andrews stars as a police lieutenant in a compelling episode about a person who appears in the crowd that surrounds accidents and misfortunes of others. He taunts the police into finding him. It is an exceptional Suspense production with fine performances by Andrews and Joe Kearns as the killer.

This murderer enjoys his taunting telephone conversations with the lieutenant. They eventually figure out exactly where he is but it’s always on a busy street. All he has to do is wander a few steps away from a phone booth to become an anonymous part of the crowd. The police suspect that he likes to hang around as to watch each morbidly curious group of spectators gather to stare at the body of his victim, and he hides among them, in plain sight of everyone.

Morton Fine and David Friedkin adapted the original Ray Bradbury story that appeared in the May 1943 edition of Weird Tales. They made major changes to it. It is believed that Bradbury was not pleased with adaptation. He may not have known how much they changed it until he heard the broadcast. To oversimplify it, Suspense changed the intent of the story as commentary about the interest in that pain and suffering of others that draw crowds around scenes of tragedy and transformed it into a story about a serial killer. Bradbury did his own adaptation for cable television in the 1980s Ray Bradbury Theater using his original premise. The idea for the story came from an experience Bradbury had as a boy. He saw the aftermath of a car accident and the crowd of people assembling to surround it. In terms of the entertainment business and control of his work, Bradbury had not yet achieved the stature to demand approval of adaptations of his work. That would obviously change as his career moved on.

Because of the difference in the original story and the adaptation, there is justification to consider them as distinct works. Classic radio enthusiast Elizabeth Tankersley noted at the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook group page that the adaptation sounded "astonishingly like an episode of Broadway Is My Beat with its cynical, moody New York police lieutenant, the detective work, the pacing, and some of the narration and transitions." This is not really surprising, though it was likely unintended. Lewis was producer and director of that series starting in Fall 1949 and Fine and Friedkin were its main writers.

The drama was recorded on Friday, September 8, 1950. It appears to be an early morning rehearsal starting at 8:00am to 12:30pm, with recording from 12:30pm to 1:00pm.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP50921

THE CAST

DANA ANDREWS (Lt. Johnny Stillano), Howard McNear (Doc Gilbert), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Charles Turner), Jerry Hausner (Marty / Smart aleck in subway), Jack Kruschen (Sgt. Riorden), Lou Merrill (Elliott Becker / Voice 1), Bob Bruce (Jones / Burke), Truda Marson (Angry Woman / Voice 2), Lou Krugman (Voice 4 [Man yelling in subway] / Man who confesses), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Shirley), Byron Kane (Voice 3 / Joe the diner proprietor)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1950-09-14 Over the Bounding Main

Dan Dailey returns to the show as a man with employment problems and an unhappy wife who wants some of the better things in life. The household tension leads him to agree to some relaxation time for a weekend to get away from their problems for a brief time. He thinks he’s on a fishing trip with friends, but the friends aren’t there. He realizes his wife and the captain are having an affair, intent on collecting his life insurance by staging an “accident” while at sea. His only hope is the first mate, but the captain has drugged him so he won’t resist his plan. Dailey’s character realizes he is alone. Since the staged “accident” did not work, things are about to take a more deadly turn. It’s a good story and Dailey delivers another fine performance.

The title comes from a late 1800s song that would later be characterized as a children’s song. It is best known for its chorus “Sailing, sailing, over the bounding main; For many a stormy wind shall blow, ere Jack comes home again!” “Bounding main” likely refers to heavy seas.

The story is by Gloria Elmore and Jimmy Barnett. Both were at the relative beginnings of their successful writing careers. Barnett wrote for radio and would later work for Warner Brothers developing some 1950s and 1960s programs as well as freelance writing some teleplays. Elmore’s television work in the 1950s and 1960s includes popular programs such as 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye.

The script was adapted by Antony Ellis, his first credited appearance in any position on Suspense. Under Lewis, Ellis served in a position similar to what Robert Richards had under William Spier. Ellis was in his early 30s, and another multi-talented radio performer, with skills in writing and acting. He would become the producer of Suspense after Lewis left in 1954 and followed briefly by Norman Macdonnell. Ellis would produce one radio’s finest efforts in the late 1950s, Frontier Gentleman.

This episode was pre-recorded but the script does not indicate on which date. It started rehearsal at 6:30pm on whatever day that was and the drama was recorded from 10:30 to 11:00pm. The tease for the next broadcast, The Crowd, is played at the end of the broadcast. That episode was recorded on 1950-09-08, which may imply that this recording of Bounding Main was recorded before that date. That cannot be certain, however.

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https://archive.org/details/TSP500914

THE CAST

DAN DAILEY (Marty Evans), William Conrad (Captain Moran), Tony Barrett (Ignacio), Georgia Ellis (Claire Evans), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice)

COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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