[There are important background notes after the episode’s cast listing. They review how Suspense would evolve under the leadership of Elliott Lewis].
The Elliott Lewis era of Suspense begins with with Pat O’Brien in a play about a police detective who learns his son was involved in a hit-and-run killing. The script is by future Hitchcock screenwriter John Michael Hayes and radio writing legend E. Jack Neuman. It’s another “safe driving” production to support the Auto-Lite corporate image and link attentive car maintenance with road safety. Once you get past the preachy and obligatory aspects of the dialogue that weaves in historic statistics about car accidents and deaths, it’s a very good story.
O'Brien portrays a veteran policeman who is about to start a new position to be the head of the police force. His final assignment before that rise in the ranks occurs, is to track down a hit-and-run driver who killed a man. When he finally succeeds in tracing the death car, he discovers to his horror that it belongs to his own son! By the end of the story, you start to feel bad for O’Brien’s character, who realizes he did not trust that his son would do the “right thing” in the end. He has to submit his resignation from the force and cannot experience the professional recognition of a promotion. (Spoiler alert, whoops, forgot again). This is one of the subtle lessons of the highway safety plotline, that car accidents have far-reaching and unforeseeable consequences beyond those of the immediate victims.
The program’s dramatic elements and O’Brien’s closing comments were pre-recorded seven days before (1950-08-24). The orchestra and commercials were broadcast live. Some of the press coverage in Minneapolis noted that O’Brien would be appearing on Suspense at the very same time he was appearing in a night club act there at the Niccolett Hotel (a prime entertainment venue at that time). O’Brien was starting his tour of clubs with an act comprised of storytelling, Hollywood insights, singing, and dancing.
Near the end of the broadcast (about 26:30), O’Brien presents the National Safety Award to Royce Martin, President of Electric Auto-Lite. It was the company’s second award. The first was for No Escape with James Cagney and this second one was for Nightmare with Gregory Peck. The company pushed Suspense producers to find or develop scripts that would enhance the company’s corporate image position, especially before the high volume driving holiday that Labor Day weekend had become. Martin’s message was scripted and pre-recorded in New York. It was sent to the studio prior to the drama recording session. This means that neither O’Brien nor Martin were in studio.
Pre-recording Martin’s acceptance of the award is not a surprise. Suspense and other programs often had bad luck with live announcements from non-actors. One time, Suspense had a problem with a CBS executive who had difficulties reading his announcement. It was on the east broadcast of 1947-05-08 Dead Ernest and actor John McIntire had to portray him in the west broadcast. The advent of tape recording technology made such appearances less of a problem. Martin was more likely to be in New York on business (for the company or meetings with the ad agency or CBS or all of them, for that matter) at some point. It was easier to schedule his segment there.
After the award presentation, Harlow Wilcox’ closing announcements take on a faster than usual pace. This is likely to compensate for the delay in starting the tape of O’Brien’s introduction of Martin. That likely had Wilcox trying to pick up some of the lost seconds of that delay, which he did. The closing announcements resumed their natural pace shortly thereafter.
Technically, this was not Lewis’ first Suspense production. The first was Rave Notice, recorded in July to accommodate Milton Berle’s schedule. That episode would not be aired until 1950-10-12, about six weeks after this broadcast of True Report. Berle even recorded teasers for Rave Notice in the July session to be used at the end of 1950-10-05 Suspense broadcast of Rose Garden. The strategy of pre-recorded teases with the guest star of the following week’s program would be used on a few shows by Lewis.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP500831
THE CAST
PAT O’BRIEN (Inspector Kennedy), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Josti), Peggy Webber (Mrs. Thurston), Edgar Barrier (Voice 2 / Morgue), Leonard Smith (Radio A / Rix), Sam Edwards (Voice / Charles), Hal March (Geiger / Loper), Ed Max (Sergeant / Lab), Irene Tedrow (Alice)
COMMERCIAL: Bert Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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Elliott Lewis was rewarded for his radio talents and commitment by becoming the new producer of Suspense. It was also a private expression of gratitude for his loyalty by William Spier, who recommended him for the position. Spier did not invent Suspense, but he turned the show into a star.
When Spier and CBS parted ways over the backroom double-dealing related to the hour-long version of the series, Spier was quickly hired by ABC to save The Clock. Long a New York production, ABC moved it to Hollywood for what they hoped would transform into a sponsored and profitable series. Nearly every week, if not every week, Cathy and Elliott Lewis were in the cast. The 13-week excursion with The Clock ended, unsuccessful in its attempt to find a sponsor. The Lewises would also often appear on Philip Morris Playhouse for the 1948-1949 season that Spier produced that series. Spier knew Elliott was multitalented from his work on Suspense in the Roma era. He acted, announced, wrote, and contributed in other ways to the series. He also saw his work on Sam Spade, another Spier production, and numerous comedies and dramas through the 1940s. Everyone knew Lewis could act and write. Spier and CBS staffers may have been particularly impressed by Lewis’ productions of Broadway’s My Beat and Pursuit. Those were running concurrent with the Spier-Macdonnell season of Suspense. Spier had no problem recommending Lewis for the Suspense position. The Spiers were ready to move on from radio to different opportunities. They headed off to pursue movie projects first and then television projects later. Lewis, however, was ready for much deeper involvement in radio production and management.
The Lewis Suspense years were at a time of entertainment industry restructuring. Television was being adopted in major cities, but the radio audience was still very large and important. Only 10% of households had TVs at this time. Being in the top metro areas often meant a high technology adoption rate in those areas among concentration of higher-earning households, and that television’s importance in marketing communications was growing in those areas.
Auto-Lite was sponsoring the Suspense TV series, with little involvement of Lewis beyond occasional advice. While the radio audience was large, the 1940s habits of radio listening were starting to change as the post-WW2 population began to spread, suburbs began to grow, and out-of-home listening grew. Lewis had to be a bit more creative to capture and retain a loyal audience. The Fall 1950 season was a traditional one, with script selection and casting were very similar to what preceded it. As the season went on, it was clear he was working to broaden the variety of programs and approaches. He was an experimenter. Some of the efforts fell flat. He was willing to take those risks.
In his second season, the concept of tying scripts to current news or historical events was expressed. This was an effort to make the radio Suspense as distinct from the television version to keep audiences tuned in to both franchises. Some of the show openings would explicitly state the strategy in its opening signature that indicated the story had a historical basis. This was somewhat amusing. Scriptwriters were always getting ideas from the inside pages of newspapers as they reported crimes and curious events. To keep their writing creativity and their incomes going, they were always looking for ideas, especially if they had some “writer’s block.” So many radio scripters would say that if they needed an idea, they’d pick up a newspaper. Some would even keep a clippings files or notebooks of ideas they would find in everyday reading and conversation. The concept was not new. The marketing of it was.
The desire for more aggressive implementation of the concept originated with Auto-Lite marketing executives and its ad agency. They believed it would make Suspense more relevant and not just a collection of pure fiction short stories adapted for audio performance that leveraged Hollywood glamour and notoriety. In that way, Suspense started to differentiate itself from radio's typical offerings and give TV watchers a reason to keep the radio on. Lewis was always open to plainly good original stories. Not every one had what is commonly referred to as a “ripped from the headlines” plot. The true story could be from 100 years ago. The good story could be Othello, which Lewis turned into a two-part production. The goal of Lewis was to attract and retain the audience with a potpourri of surprise.
Hollywood was becoming less dependent on radio for its publicity. You can sense it from the changes in Lux Radio Theatre, not just Suspense. This meant star power of Suspense was no longer a magnet for the stars, agents, and studios. There were still stars on the program, but the publicity hubbub around an appearance was considerably reduced. Just looking at newspapers of the time makes it clear that the amount of editorial space that newspapers were devoting to radio coverage was dwindling. There were fewer columns of publicity teases. Only the schedule of programs presented as a timetable was dependable. By the end of Lewis’ tenure, even the timetables were shrinking in size.
Appearing on Suspense was a strategy for a performer’s career advancement and to demonstrate one’s range of acting abilities. These skills were sometimes pushed to the background by a star’s better-known comedic or musical prowess. A guest slot on Suspense could help land a better role in some future movie or television broadcast.
Spier and Macdonnell realized that pre-recording shows on tape was a means of getting better cooperation of stars and studios to appear on the series. Now, they could schedule weekend or daytime recording sessions to accommodate guest schedules. Pre-recording also meant a much less frantic planning pace, with less disaster preparation with scripts and substitute guests waiting to hear if they might be needed to keep the weekly broadcast commitment intact. Lewis’ first Suspense production was not True Report, the first broadcast of the Fall 1950 season on 1950-08-31. It was Rave Notice with Milton Berle, in July 1950, six weeks before the Fall 1950 season would even begin, and almost three months before that episode would even air.
While the Lewis productions sometimes feel uneven, they are usually technically superb with the growing familiarity and use of the latest tape recording and editing tools. Suspense under Lewis sometimes ventures into experimental productions in the tradition of Columbia Workshop. Some fall flat. The Suspense musicals was one of those experiments that did not do well, except for The Wreck of the Old 97, which was a superb and an exceptional production.
Lewis was always under pressure to keep Suspense thriving and a notch above other programs. There was also an internal competition for ad budget dollars with the television version. At the close of his first season, Fall 1950 to Spring 1951, Auto-Lite attempted to drop their sponsorship of the radio series and fund only the television productions. They knew how television was growing in influence and effectiveness in the big markets where it was introduced. After some hard negotiating, and CBS’ refusal to break apart the sponsorship, the company agreed to continue. Auto-Lite was sponsoring the Suspense franchise, not just a TV show, not just a radio show. It’s likely they won budget concessions from CBS in the process. Lewis likely had to trim production costs. Auto-Lite would bankroll Suspense until Spring 1954, when they would cut sponsorship of both versions in reaction to the recessionary economic environment and changes in their product distribution strategy. CBS and others were surprised when it happened. Lewis believed the there was no future for sustained, unsponsored programs. He left Suspense a few weeks after the final Auto-Lite broadcast. He moved his efforts into television. When he started Suspense, television was in 10% of households. By the time he left, it was in half of them. He kept Suspense vibrant while other radio programs were dropping from the schedules.
Over his years of leadership, there were some very notable productions. He had to navigate a dynamic audience with changing listening habits, new production technologies, competition from new media, the profitable economics of the radio business being sapped to fund television, swirling social changes, and the political undertow of Red Channels and CBS loyalty tests. He referred to CBS executive Daniel O’Shea as “the vice president of treason” because his office that had to approve every casting choice for first-time appearances. Years later, Lewis would dismiss any suggestions that Red Channels and all its emanations affected his ability to cast programs in the way he wanted. We know that’s not true. There were instances where he could not get the casting he wanted. Those are documented in upcoming posts. His dismissal of the Red Channels effects was more likely his lack of desire to talk about the subject and to push conversation to a different topic. Lewis had a personality that considered the past to be past, with little value other than as a springboard to the next program.
All the time of his Suspense tenure, Lewis was the driving force of The Line-Up, Crime Classics, Broadway’s My Beat, On Stage. He delighted in playing the Remley character on the Phil Harris and Alice Faye Show. It was a happy pause from his responsibilities for the other programs. He never made Remley seem like work, it seemed like just plain fun. Somehow, Lewis navigated all that he took on, producing or participating in some of the highest quality offerings of the radio drama era.
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Collector, performer, and researcher Keith Scott adds this comment:
I recently went through my Sam Spade logs and noticed an interesting fact. When William Spier went to NYC in mid-1947 to do the three Suspense and four Spade from Manhattan, he missed one Suspense in Hollywood: 1947-06-19 Dead of Night. As I noted in the log Elliott Lewis directed a Spade episode for 1947-06-15 and Charles Vanda did the 1947-06-19 Suspense. It only now struck me that as early as two years before he became a full-time producer-director for CBS, Lewis was highly enough regarded by Spier to fill in on that Spade show. I also had forgotten that Lewis also filled in for Spier on three 1950 dates for Spade: 1950-06-18, 1950-06-25 and a few weeks later on 1950-08-27, just days before the broadcast of True Report, Lewis’s first aired Suspense episode! And Lewis did a final Spade sub for Spier on 1950-12-29, at NBC!! They were obviously pretty close pals even if they totally different personalities.
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