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)
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