1951-10-29 The Hunting of Bob Lee

Richard Widmark stars in a story about a feud in post-Civil War Texas. For about four years after the Civil War ended, there were still hostilities in Texas and between families about their support of the North or the South. This particular feud was known as “the Lee-Peacock Feud.”

Widmark portrays a prosperous cattle owner who, goaded beyond endurance bv rustlers, finally takes the law into his own hands to deal with them. A deadly feud is touched off that seems like it will have no end until there is great spilling of blood of both sides. Widmark's character is quite bitter about the everything that brought events and hostilities to this point, and details his decisions and rationale in his first-person narrative.

The original story was written by Charles L. Sonnichsen and adapted by Gil Doud. Sonnichsen was a highly respected writer, screenwriter, and historian, and was a Professor of English at the University of Texas, El Paso. Most of his writings were about Texas and the American Southwest. This particular story was from his critically-acclaimed 1951 book I’ll Die Before I’ll Run. It detailed many of the historical feuds of Texas.

This story, and others that emerged from the “actual events” strategy, are so unlike the foundations of the Suspense franchise, that listeners were likely befuddled by the repositioning. Lewis’ personal curiosity about history, and Auto-Lite’s desire to firmly differentiate Suspense from other programming seem to be working against the Suspense brand of entertainment. This episode almost seems to be an episode of the CBS historical series You Are There… just without the reporters. The productions are well-written with excellent performances by actors, musicians, and effects, but don’t always resonate with the established interests of the audience that Suspense cultivated over its many years.

There is a good summary of the Lee-Peacock Feud at https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-leepeacock/

Many circulating recordings of this broadcast have a clipped open, missing the opening words “You are about to hear a story.” This recording, however, is complete. Like many 1951 broadcast recordings, there is mild wow and flutter from a poorly maintained reel tape deck that is more noticeable near the end of the recording.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511029

THE CAST

RICHARD WIDMARK (Bob Lee), William Conrad (Borden), Cathy Lewis (Corinne / Girl), Lou Krugman (Evans), Junius Matthews (Bier), Harry Bartell (Henry), Byron Kane (Dixon), Joe Kearns (Maddox), Terrea Lea (Vocalist), Larry Thor (Narrator)

COMMERCIAL: Dal McKennon (Johnny Plugcheck), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1951-10-22 The Log of the Marne

Ray Milland returns to the series for an “actual event” story that may be one of the more faithful Lewis-era “semi-documentaries” in terms of details as they were understood at the time. “The Yangtse Incident,” also known as “The Amethyst Incident,” took place in 1949. The event that occurred on the Yangtse River for three months in the summer of 1949, during Chinese Civil War. The Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) denied four British ships a right of passage along the river that they had used for many decades, or longer. The ships were forced to withdraw permanently from Chinese territorial waters.

The event inspired the book on which this episode is based, and other historical and academic works, and a movie. It is still studied by historians and those interested in international and maritime law. Many revelations, decades later, have details about the back channel negotiations between Britain and China that started and ended the incident. They remain the subject of research and debate.

The story requires some attentive listening to keep track of all of the persons involved in the story and the historical background that is provided in the narrative. Milland delivers a fine performance, as he did in other Suspense broadcasts.

This episode is based on the best-selling book Yangtse Incident by historian Lawrence Earl. He was a highly regarded war correspondent for the Montreal Standard and lived in London where he had access to many of the key figures involved in the incident. His book was adapted for Suspense by veteran scriptwriter Gil Doud.

Details about the incident can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst_incident An interesting resource page is at https://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_consort.htm and more details and more recent perspectives. Some of this information was not known at the time Earl was writing his book.

A movie based on Earl’s book was released in 1957. It became very popular and can be viewed at YouTube https://youtu.be/tHM7heoAmlU There is also a British newsreel at YouTube that shows the Amethyst returning to Hong Kong https://youtu.be/_yuyk0WtjbA

The original script title was “The Yangtse Incident,” but that was changed to The Log of the Marne for a reason unknown at this time. Earl may have been in negotiations over movie or other rights for his book. “Marne” is the name of a river in France where there was an important battle in 1914 between Germany and France. It became the name of two British destroyer ships. The first was a launched in 1915, used in the fighting of WW1 and decommissioned in 1921. The other was launched in 1940 and was still commissioned at the time of this story. Why “Marne” was picked is not known, but those familiar with WW1 events would have sensed a certain appropriateness about the name.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511022

THE CAST

RAY MILLAND (Harland), Ben Wright (Fraser), Joe Kearns (Moore), Charles Davis (Winster), Antony Ellis (Alden), Jack Kruschen (Kung / Lamb), Raymond Lawrence (Lillis), Bill Johnstone (Nisbett), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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

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1951-10-15 The Flame

Cornel Wilde stars in another Suspense story about pyromania and arson. This time he commits arson out of his distorted sense of generosity and empathy. Of course, that warped act works out in the exact opposite way intended, to a devastating end, and sets the stage for a turn in the plotline. The script is by Richard-George Pedicini and reflects the legitimate fears of fire of that time. Today’s listener would not be as rattled with this story as one of the 1940s and 1950s. Fires were more common than today. Family members were likely to be related to victims and know others whose lives were affected by fires. It is a far less common experience these many decades later. The fire prevention and detection technologies and procedures that we benefit from today were still being developed at that time and were not yet understood or widely available,

This is a very good story and Wilde is convincing as the mentally unstable perpetrator, menacing while seeming innocent until others finally realize what he has been doing.

Wilde’s character has a fascination with planning and setting fires, but also has a peculiar interest in drawing pictures of the fires when they are ablaze, especially against the night sky. A friendly storekeeper’s wife needs medical attention, but the cost is too high for him. Wilde’s character figures that burning the store and collecting the insurance will eradicate the financial challenge. It was not to be. The storekeeper tragically dies when he is trapped in the building as he attempted to put the fire out and rescue his belongings. While saddened by this bad outcome, the arsonist gets another opportunity for his interest. This time, he is recruited to burn down a money-losing warehouse for the insurance money. Another tragedy results.

Because of the valid concerns about fire, pyromania was an interesting topic for stories in all media, fiction and non-fiction, audio or visual. For Suspense, the topic was part of episodes The Night Reveals and Murder for Marya (which starred Wilde). Over the decades, however, insurance companies, fire departments, and others, shared information that have led to the development of new building materials and construction standards.

The story is “based on actual events,” and definitely not a singular one. This is a general story with the “actual” tease intended to draw the audience in to something that might have actually happened. Fires were so common that a good writer would have enough practical familiarity for plotline creation just by reading newspapers on a daily basis.

The publicity for the episode (and the series) includes phrases that attempt to re-position Suspense and its new strategy in the minds of readers and listeners. Releases state that the series “...brings to the air actual cases based on events selected from law enforcement the world over. Each adventure is complete with details, only substituting names and places in the story of intrigue.” The releases continue to use the hyphenated word “semi-documentary.”

Sadly, ten years after this broadcast, Elliott Lewis and his wife Mary Jane Croft (Elliott and Cathy divorced in 1958) lost their home to the November 1961 wildfires of Bel-Air. All of Elliott’s papers (and presumably hundreds of scripts) were lost in the flames. Almost 500 homes were lost, and about another 200 damaged, in the 16,000 acres that were burned. Incredibly, there was no loss of life attributed to the fires. A 30-minute movie, Design for Danger, was released by the Los Angeles Fire Department in 1962. It described the fires, the devastation, and the fight against it. The film was narrated by William Conrad. The movie can be viewed on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxnC1WW95XE&ab_channel=LAFD Recollections from a fire-fighter perspective can be read at https://www.lafra.org/lafd-history-the-bel-air-fire-november-6-1961-revisited-2/

 Classic radio researcher and modern-day performer Patte Rosebank noted the following on the Old Time Radio Researchers Facebook Group page about a 1943 fire incident:

This was the second time Elliott had been burned out of a home. About 18 years earlier, before he'd married Cathy, and before he was assigned to the AFRS, he was given two weeks' leave from the Army. On his first night at his mother's house, it burned down! He spent his leave helping her find a new home, during the wartime housing crisis.

A Suspense television episode, Mr. Matches, was sometimes assumed to be an adaptation of this episode. It is not. To view that episode anyway, go to https://archive.org/details/Suspense--Mr_Matches or https://youtu.be/JMqDmLyy9mQ It is from season 5 of the television series.

Like many of the 1951 Suspense recordings, this has some mild defects from a poorly maintained reel tape deck that caused wow and flutter issues, especially at the end of the broadcast. These do not affect listening to the drama and other parts of the broadcast in any significant way. In the opening minute or so, there is some mild and quick change in volume and sound that indicates a damaged tape. These are in “all” copies of this broadcast. Some portions may have a sibilance issue (sometimes referred to as “essing”), but this recording has less than most. Many copies of this broadcast have clipped openings that made Larry Thor’s first words incomplete. For that reason, some collectors just deleted Thor’s opening, while others just tolerated the missing five words (“You are about to hear”) and just marked their recordings as “clipped opening.” This recording, however, is complete and is likely the best overall sound for a complete broadcast that has been available.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511015

THE CAST

CORNEL WILDE (Andy), Joe Kearns (Boyajan), Cathy Lewis (Mary Lee), Sidney Miller (Needles), Bert Holland (Ralph / Man), Harry Bartell (Shapiro / Man 2), Charles Calvert (Man 3), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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

###

1951-10-08 Betrayal in Vienna

Herbert Marshall returns to the series in an “actual event” story as the treasonous Alfred Redl of pre-World War One Austria-Hungary. The script was by Silvia Richards, supported by research by well-known historical biographer Dana Lee Thomas.

It is claimed that the date of the story is September 15, 1913. Redl’s suicide was months before, May 25. The story says his “secret life” began two years earlier, but in actuality, he was serving as a spy for the Russians began more than five years prior. Since he was in charge of counter-intelligence, he was a rich target for the Russians because of his ability to direct or thwart any search for Russian spies in the country. In some cases, his “investigations” led to the arrest of others when Redl, himself, was the actual culprit. In this story, the leaked documents were related to the Austro-Hungarian plans to invade Serbia.

The blackmail tool in the story is Redl’s drug addiction, but that seems contrary to the actual story. It is speculated that the real life blackmail was the threat to reveal his private gay life. It seems drug addiction was a top-of-mind problem at in the early 1950s, and was acceptable to use it as a replacement for any story’s situation or circumstance that an advertiser might object to.

Historical background about Redl is available at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Redl

It is mentioned that the Russians had paid him 100,000 Austrian kroner. That is approximately $600,000 in US$2024. There is some counterspeculation that the threat of revealing his personal life played no role in his continuing interest in treason. Redl enjoyed living a very lush life, and payments were needed to support his high style of living.

The finding of the pen knife sheath that helped track Redl to his hotel is historically correct. That Redl was left alone in his hotel room with a gun so he could commit suicide is also correct.

There is an exchange of dialogue that is somewhat curious about Redl’s picking up of a package. The post office clerk asks him if he noticed the weather. Was this an attempt to let Redl know he was being tailed? Or was he asking whether political conditions were changing?

His mail is in opera box number 13. Could it be an inside joke about the radio series Box 13?

This is one of those episodes where it is well-produced from an implementation perspective but is of lesser entertainment value. To those 1951 listeners who were personally familiar with the history of the years leading up to WW1, it may have been considered a worthwhile endeavor. There were still many Americans alive who lived through both World War periods.

Two recordings of this episode have survived, and both are in fine sound. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#382) might be preferred because of its cleaner sound. The network recording has some mild sibilance (also known as “essing,” a slight extra hiss sound with words that start with “s” or “soft c”). Some will prefer the network recording because it is complete as broadcast without the AFRS removal of commercials and other elements. The AFRS recording includes a mid-show announcement to remind its service personnel listeners to follow the necessary bureaucratic process to be able to vote in the 1952 election.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511008

THE CAST

HERBERT MARSHALL (Repl), Joe Kearns (Oscar), Ben Wright (Major), Bill Johnstone (Prince Otto / Zehn), Herb Butterfield (Clerk / Judge), Charles Davis (Aide), John Stephenson (Hotel Clerk / Agent), Byron Kane (Agent 2), Larry Thor (Narrator)

COMMERCIAL: Stanley Smart? (“Baseball’s genial genius”), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

###

1951-10-01 The Case Study of a Murderer

Jeanne Crain stars in a drama about mental illness in a claimed “actual events” broadcast. The opening explains the story as “a factual document from medical reports.” The episode is most likely an original script that is just labeled as an “actual event.” It may be a “personal event” and not a “news” one.

Crain may be the star, but William Conrad steals the show. He delivers a wide-ranging performance that he rarely had the opportunity to give in his best-known roles. It is another Arthur Ross script, and it challenges the capabilities of actors and the listeners to absorb it all.

This script is very “un-Suspense” and so very “Elliott Lewis.” He’s experimenting, taking the program into a different direction of drama for this episode. Suspense was usually a story about people in trouble of their own making and their attempts to get out of it, concluding with how they were punished by their own misjudgments or circumstance, or saved despite them. This episode, however, is about the mental illness of a husband that we hear deteriorate with every minute, and we suffer along with his wife (of only two years) as she comes to terms with his need for psychiatric care. The hope of a happy marriage is crumbling before her.

The writing is excellent. The performances are superb. The only “suspense” in the story is how much worse the husband’s condition will become.

Conrad’s character is as a husband obsessed with all the murder in the news. The husband believes he is responsible for almost all of killings he reads and hears about. He wants to confess to the crimes, but, thankfully, no one believes him. False confessions are a serious problem in the justice system, whether created by interrogation and intimidation, the desire for someone to cover up the actions of a loved one, a desire for attention, or other reasons. They divert and delay the discovery of the truth of a matter and may undermine the capture of the guilty. DNA technology has helped reduce the effects of false confessions, but it is not many decades ago that people making false confessions could easily be wrongly incarcerated. Legal authorities would consider a case closed when a confession was made if it was plausible enough so they could move on to another case in their backlog. In this production, however, it is obvious that Conrad’s character is delusional and needs help.

A sizable portion of the audience was probably quite uncomfortable hearing this broadcast and wondered what they tuned into.

The story also played into a great fear of psychiatric care of the time. This was a time when lobotomies were considered a pioneering treatment (the developer won a Nobel Prize in 1949) and shock treatments we being attempted to cure numerous mental problems. Over the decades, many other treatments became available, notably of a pharmacological nature. There was also a significant stigma to being admitted to a psychiatric facility, and there seemed little hope that the person could ever improve.

Classic radio enthusiast and researcher, and modern-day performer Patte Rosebank offers some insights about the production. (Many thanks for her extraordinary contribution).

• Jeanne Crain's portrayal seems unnatural, that her movie experience of always “looking good in front of the camera” no matter what the scene is comes off as shallow. This is an issue for Crain in this radio production... “even when playing a gritty scene. I keep thinking of how realistically Cathy Lewis would play it.”

• She much prefers the 1955-01-20 repeat broadcast, also with William Conrad, but with Charlotte Lawrence as the wife. “Jeanne Crain's performance really makes the reassuring words seem hollow. But Charlotte Lawrence speaks them from her heart.” She notes that Conrad's performance in that 1955 has subtle differences as he “adjusts his performance to match his leading lady’s, as professional actors do. Acting is about listening and responding to your castmates.”

• She continues about Conrad, stating that he “was known for playing tough guys who were in charge of a situation. This adds to the power of this episode's message: that mental illness can strike anyone, no matter how tough they are. All it takes is one traumatic event, or a succession of stressors that keep piling up, and, sooner or later, even a tough guy like William Conrad can fall apart. It's shocking when that tough guy starts to cry. He's scared; he's in deep emotional pain, and the shame of it hurts him so much more.”

• “As for the story, it's a cautionary tale, warning that you can love a mentally ill person with all your heart, but it won't cure them. They need professional help, and could be a danger to themself and to you, if they don't get it. What's left unsaid is that some people will never respond to treatment. In the 1950s, this was believed to be personal weakness, as was mental illness itself. Today, we know that it's all due to the individual's biology, so mental health treatments are never one-size-fits-all, and it takes careful trial and error to find the most effective [treatment].”

It is odd to consider this as a lesser Suspense broadcast, but it is. How odd that seems, when all of the elements of the drama are so well done. It’s just not right for the series. It is, however, memorable and compelling listening, and should be held aside and considered distinct from the mainstream series. Perhaps doing so will bring more attention to all of the positive elements it has as a dramatic production and for Conrad’s performance. This is not one of those episodes you recommend to someone as for their first experience listening to a Suspense episode.

This episode’s drama portion was recorded on Sunday, September 30, 1951. Rehearsal began at 6:00pm and recording was done from 9:30pm to 10:00pm.

This was Jeanne Crain’s only appearance in the series. She appeared in many popular movies from the mid-1940s and through the 1950s. She was nominated for a best actress Oscar in 1949. An overview of her and career is it Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Crain

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511001

THE CAST

JEANNE CRAIN (Beth), William Conrad (Hank), Howard McNear (Doctor Broughton), Larry Thor (Radio Voice / Narrator)

COMMERCIAL: Hal March? (Sheriff), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1951-09-24 The McKay College Basketball Scandal

The college basketball point-shaving scandal of 1950-1951 is the “actual event” that includes the sole appearance of Tony Curtis on the series. The show opening says the story was “taken from the headlines.” This is an old scriptwriting trick… a headline of nebulous context becomes the basis of the story, the actual story details are ignored, and script details can come from anywhere. The Big Story used this gimmick many times.

In the case of this production, the Fred Hudson character, played by Curtis, is a simplified composite of the athletes involved. He takes money from gamblers to throw the game, his conscience gets to him, returns most of the money to them, then gets back at them by reporting the scheme to the authorities. Hudson was expelled from the college, but elevates his dignity in the eyes of his loved ones because he did the right thing in the end despite the short-term bad consequence. The radio story worked out better that way. In real life, the player who exposed the scandal reported it and never accepted any money.

Gamblers offered Fred Hudson $2000 to throw a game. That is approximately $25,000 in current US$2024 value. His family as portrayed in the story, having difficulty making ends meet, needed Fred to contribute to the household finances. The temptation to participate in the scam was understandable.

The story is by Millard Kaufman who also wrote The Island, which was used on Escape and Suspense. Kaufman’s career took an upward turn with an Oscar nomination for his 1954 screenplay for Take the High Ground! and another for Bad Day at Black Rock. That screenplay also received a nomination for “best written American drama” by the Writers Guild of America. He had a very successful career. (And most importantly, he was one of the creators of the cartoon character “Mr. Magoo.”). The name of the college in the story might be based on Kaufman’s initials: “M.K.”

Joe Kearns plays “Dr. Kellogg” in the story. This is a nod to Manhattan College basketball center Junius Kellogg who was the player who reported the scandal to Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan. When Kellogg was approached by gamblers, he told his coach, then sent him to Hogan. The second time gamblers approached Kellogg to participate in their scheme, he was wearing a wire that gave Hogan and the police what they needed to initiate their investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. Kellogg soon left Manhattan College to serve in the Army in Korea. When he returned, he made up for lost academic time by doubling up on courses and graduated in 1953. He went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. While traveling with teammates in 1954, he was in a car accident, the only player injured. He was paralyzed from the accident and would later become an advocate for paralyzed veterans and wheelchair athletics.

At this time in history, only a little more than 10% of the US population had a college degree (today it is about 25%). There was a sense that college was only for the brightest or the richest. Radio and television programs glamorized college life, often to unrealistic proportions, such as in the radio series The Halls of Ivy. There was great romance about college sports and a sentiment of innocence about such amateur sports. Big broadcasting money had not yet entered college sports in the manner that it has in modern times. That is what made the central involvement of City College of New York in the scandal so interesting to today’s college basketball fans. It is long forgotten that CCNY had a highly regarded team and program at that time. The scandal was in the national news and affected seven different colleges. Thirty-two players were arrested, and one college received a one-year postseason competition ban. Some of the collegiate basketball programs, such as CCNY’s, never recovered.

The scandal is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCNY_point-shaving_scandal

Working titles of the story were “The Losing Game of Frederick Hudson” and “Burton College Basketball Scandal.”

This is one of the worst recordings of the 1951 broadcasts. It has detectable wow and flutter almost throughout, and is the worst during the closing credits. The defect is jarring when it is first heard. Some collectors found it so disturbing they just clipped the end of the recording just before the worst of it begins. This is especially the case with commercial cassette and CD releases of the episode, fearing it would confuse and annoy buyers of the recordings greatly. Some modern-day collectors have attempted to use digital software methods to repair the problem, but they give up because it is too difficult to fix no matter how skilled they are.

The pioneer collectors who originally transferred the discs to tape had every intention of going back and re-recording them, but they never had the opportunity to. It is not known where those discs are. It is hoped that one day an Armed Forces Radio Service recording might be found.

This is the sole appearance of Tony Curtis on the series. Curtis had a wide-ranging career in movies in dramas and comedies, and in television. Two of his memorable roles were in the comedy Some Like It Hot (with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe) and The Boston Strangler about the dangerous serial killer. His career spanned decades and is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Curtis

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510924

THE CAST

TONY CURTIS (Fred Hudson), Martha Wentworth (Mrs. Hudson), Lou Merrill (Mr. Hudson), Joe Kearns (Dr. Kellogg / 1st Voice), Barbara Eiler (Jean), Jack Moyles (Ace), Bill Forman (Sportscaster), Jack Kruschen (Stanley), Gil Stratton, Jr. (French), Leo Cleary (Coach / Barr), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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

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1951-09-17 Neill Cream, Doctor of Poison

Charles Laughton returns to the series in a story that does qualify as an “actual event.” Laughton is marvelous in his portrayal as the evil Dr. Cream. The true story is very gruesome and required an incredible amount of sanitizing to bring it to the air. Neill Cream was a vicious killer, convicted of murder on two continents, and numerous other horrible crimes. In some ways, poisoning was the least of his terrible acts. By limiting the script to the poisoning, the Cream story was easier to tell.

Laughton adds much to the Antony Ellis script. He stumbles over lines now and then in such a way that it can’t be an accident, making the killer’s dialogue so natural, so charming, so innocent, that you come to understand how he could gain the confidence of his victims. Of course, none of his crimes are ever his fault. They were things that needed to be done, in his mind.

His strange life of crime is summarized at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Neill_Cream 

Blogger Christine Miller adds this observation https://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/05/suspense_neal_c.html 

Suspense also chose not to mention that Neill Cream is considered by some to have been Jack-the-Ripper. The problem with that theory is that Dr. Cream was serving time for murder in Joliet Prison in Illinois when the Ripper crimes occurred. After his release from Joliet in 1891, Dr. Cream left America for England and quickly took up his old ways. He was finally caught and sentenced to execution in 1892. Just before he was hanged, Dr. Cream is said to have admitted, "I am Jack..." One theory as to how this could be possible proposes that he had a double who committed the Ripper murders.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510917

THE CAST

CHARLES LAUGHTON (Neill Cream), Charles Davis (Doctor / Edward Bridgman), Betty Harford (Daisy), Joe Kearns (Inspector Worring), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Minns the landlady), Georgia Ellis (Mildred Vickers), Alma Lawton (Joyce Hamilton), Herb Butterfield (Sergeant Diltz), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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

###

1951-09-10 The Evil of Adelaide Winters

Agnes Moorehead returns for the new season in a disturbing but engrossing play about a greedy spiritualist who preys on loved ones of US service personnel who are missing-in-action in the Korean War. She begins her narrative by explaining she has not been able to speak for six years because of a bullet that doctors recently removed.

She explains how the scam works. Prospective victims are selected from the list of casualties and missing soldiers as published in local newspapers. Their families are desperate to know the status of missing soldiers, and whether to grieve or wait in stressful trepidation. If the soldiers are deceased, the psychic will be able to detect their spirit and communicate with them. Joe Kearns plays her long-time co-conspirator and imitates spirit voices as part of the scam. He is getting tired of the hoax, and is having guilt over manipulating the emotions of distraught victims. He wants her to stop. It’s too lucrative for her, and she presses on. This time they choose poorly. The widower whose son was lost becomes obsessed with her process, and the psychic herself, and asks her to marry him to ensure she continues contact with his son. That was her plan, too, so she could take all of his money, but still keep her relationship with Kearns’ character as they perpetuate the hoax. Events take a strange turn, and would soon take a deadly one. Moorehead’s character panics as she realizes things are getting out of control in a trap of her own making.

It is another script by Arthur Ross prior to his successful screenwriting career. Stories with psychics can become tedious and fall into easily predictable patterns, but this does not and has a rather shocking ending. Yet again, a Moorehead character falls with a thump to the floor, but she’s been shot, and survives, as we already know. (Spoiler, but keep reading, anyway). The distraught man commits suicide to join his son in the eternal happiness that her character assured him he was enjoying. Suspense is not for kids, as this ends with a murder attempt and a suicide.

There is a cough during the music that concludes the drama at 26:06. It’s likely Herb Butterfield, since Kearns was finished with his lines a while before and left the microphone. It sounds too deep to be Moorehead. Thor was not due to speak until after the music and would have quietly cleared his throat before getting near the microphone.

As far as “actual events” go, there were numerous warnings about scams and schemes that took advantage of veterans and families. Fake spiritualist schemes were common for decades, but newspaper searches could find no particular event or news pattern that fit this story. It’s just a good story that claimed to fit the strategy.

Like many of the 1951 Suspense recordings, the end of the program suffers from wow and flutter.

At the end of the broadcast it is mentioned that Moorehead was traveling the country with Charles Laughton, Charles Boyer, and Cedric Hardwicke as “The First Drama Quartette” in a presentation of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell. The production of the four actors on a bare stage received excellent reviews wherever it was presented. A recording was released in 1952 and is available at https://archive.org/details/G.B.SHAWDonJuanInHell-NEWTRANSFER

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510910

THE CAST

AGNES MOOREHEAD (Adelaide), Herb Butterfield (Porter), Joe Kearns (McBain), Larry Thor (Narrator)

COMMERCIAL: unknown (Stanley Smart), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1951-09-03 The Steel River Prison Break

Jeff Chandler stars in William N. Robson’s story about prisoners who used the chaos of a local flood to facilitate their jailbreak is one of the best stories of the Lewis era. Robson used a pseudonym, “William Norman,” to disguise his authorship. Why that was necessary is a story in itself, summarized below.

Chandler plays a ruthless convict who engineers and leads a daring escape with two other prisoners. They were planning to escape on a particular date, but when word of impending flooding rains came about, they decided to wait. The disruptions to police coverage and prison guard supervision would give them the best chance to escape without pursuit. The town asked the prison for inmate volunteers to help pile sandbags on the flood walls protecting the area. In the planning of the escape, Chandler’s character had a smuggled gun. He hid it under his uniform to use if needed. They planned to hide in his mother’s home, not far away, and plot their next steps to freedom. Things don’t work out the way they planned, and the surprise ending makes it a very worthwhile listen.

There seems to be no specific “actual event” for this story, but it is likely an extrapolation of what could have happened a few years before, and a combination of other incidents. Some bad Midwest floods in 1937 affected prison buildings in a few areas. Towns had to move their prisoners to other facilities. Other times, there are newspaper references to weather events that tasked prison labor to fill sandbags (within the confines of the prison) to help their localities prepare for floods. It wouldn’t take much to envision a plotline that pieced many of these discrete elements together as a single story.

Robson was from Pittsburgh, and the “Steel River” is a generic reference to the area being the “steel city” known for its iron and steel industry. The town is known for the three rivers, the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and how the two meet to form the Ohio River. The rivers are mentioned in the broadcast. There are many places and event references in the production. The relevance of Robson’s inside references are lost to the past. These are a selected few:

• “The battle of barges” in 1892 was an attempt to unionize the steel industry that turned violent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike (7:30)

• “Pine Hill” reform school may refer to the Thorn Hill School for Boys (8:45)

• Some of the streets and intersections are “real,” but there appears to be nothing special about them, and they could be random.

• Ohio Street is a major one in the city, and there is a Liberty Street. The accident that is a key part of the story is at the Ohio and Liberty intersection. Those roads do not connect at any point in Pittsburgh.

This script was submitted to Suspense by William N. Robson during the chaotic time that CBS and Auto-Lite were trying to make sense of the publication Red Channels. Auto-Lite didn’t want to be associated with anyone listed in that as possible Communists. Robson’s listing in Red Channels was the result of sloppy research, attributing events that his father was involved in as an official of the city of Pittsburgh many years before to him. Despite Robson’s track record as one of radio’s most successful and experienced producers and directors, his Peabody-winning work in the series Man Behind the Gun in support of American troops in the war, and the radio series supporting freedom in Europe, Operation Underground, CBS cut him off from work. CBS’ actions played out over a number of months, and he ended up off the network.

Elliott Lewis knew Steel River was a good script, so Bill Robson agreed to use a pseudonym and be credited as “William Norman” to avoid public scrutiny. His full name was William Northrup Robson, so “Norman” seemed a natural choice. He would submit later scripts as “Christopher Anthony,” comprised of the names of his young sons. That was not acceptable to CBS. He could not submit scripts no matter what name was used. One of his favorite producing assignments was Escape, where he could concentrate on great storytelling; that post was pulled from him. He was banished from the network for about four years.

Robson’s difficulties were mainly the actions of executive Daniel O’Shea. He was a former movie executive for whom Lewis had the private nickname “vice president of treason.” O’Shea operated freely and with little accountability. If someone was turned down for work (referred to as “not cleared”), they would never learn why. Robson’s CBS ordeal is summarized at this page https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion/click-for-home-arrow-for-more/the-blacklist-and-suspense#h.p_I60z386iaLmh That page details a letter Robson wrote to Edward R. Murrow in 1953 asking for help in returning to the network. That letter provides a “Rosetta Stone” perspective about the CBS loyalty system. O’Shea was eventually pushed out as CBS became tired of the mess, especially after Murrow’s own reporting on the Army-McCarthy hearings. Robson would return to CBS and Suspense in October 1956 as producer of the series. Two future Suspense episodes, Nobody Ever Quits (also produced later as Night on Red Mountain) and Date Night, were allegorical productions that he wrote that were related to his blacklist experiences.

The sound quality of this broadcast implies that it might be another aircheck recording though there is not time tone at the open or a station ID at the end or any indication that they were edited out. The recording has some background noise and somewhat narrow range. It is very listenable without any problems. For many years, the surviving copies were incomplete, ending before the credits were announced. That meant there was no announcement of the author, the cast, and other important details. In recent years, the complete recording became available, but that recording sounds like it was from the same original source as the incomplete version. A clean studio recording has not surfaced, nor has an Armed Forces Radio Service copy.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510903

THE CAST

JEFF CHANDLER (Bragg), Charles Calvert (Boatman / Guard 2), Byron Kane (Red Cross / 2nd Con), Billy Halop (Moish), Tony Barrett (Runt), Bill Forman (Radio Voice / Guard 3), James Nusser (Con), Larry Thor (2nd Radio Voice / Narrator), Joe Kearns (Lefty / Guard)

COMMERCIAL: Robert Easton (Sheriff Sam), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

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1951-08-27 Report on the Jolly Death-Riders

William Holden stars in a Richard-George Pedicini script in support of safe driving. It was an annual event for the Auto-Lite series to promote safety before the high traffic Labor Day weekend. The company’s message is that well-maintained vehicles are essential to safety and attentive driving is critical to avoiding fatal accidents.

“Hot-rodding” was of great worry at this time, with many police officers and organizations warning about the dangers of racing and reckless driving on public streets. Many localities arranged hot rod races at safe locations (small airport runways, for example) as a means of getting the races off local streets. These are mentioned in the story.

Newspapers had numerous accounts of accidents in hot-rodding around the country, so it can’t be determined if one particular news event was the inspiration for this story. Combine it with the general topic of juvenile delinquency, a major theme of newspapers at that time, and any single reference to a particular event as the basis of this episode is even less likely.

Auto-Lite sold car parts. Some of their products may have been used in improving the engine performance of hot-rods. It was unlikely that they would come down hard on the sport, but safe driving habits was something everyone could agree on.

The original title of the story was “Report on the Jolly High-Riders.” That is the name of the hot-rodders group in the story. It was considered as a poor show title, so it was changed. “High” in the title could have been misunderstood as just a standalone title listed in a newspaper radio timetable a drug or alcohol reference. Substitution with the word “death” was probably considered to keep the focus on reckless driving and creates a bit of mystery about the title. There is also the meaning of the phrase “high rider” which refers to someone who is very successful, and the story did not want to glamorize reckless hot-rodding. Nothing implies danger and disregard for safety in this context than the word “death.” The change from “high-riders” to “death-riders” in wording is in the opening scene as Holden’s character types his report of the incident.

The original script has the hyphen between “death” and “riders,” maintained here in this summary and the file name. It was sometimes dropped by newspaper listings editors.

Holden has a flub at 5:03 where he says “rod hot” followed by a very brief pause, then continues.

At 5:20 it is claimed that “Mr. Milford” was thrown clear of the crash and survived. It was a belief at that time that such an outcome was possible and even frequent. Some of that belief came from the fear of being crushed or trapped in a car. That sentiment changed dramatically as study of car accidents and seat belt effectiveness became a key part of the car safety movement, and continued to include air bags and other technologies.

Some newspaper listings referring to the “actual events” story theme as “semi-documentary.” That is likely a CBS publicity department description that the papers picked up for press release.

This episode shifts Suspense to Mondays from its somewhat traditional Thursdays.  Radio is already having a different listening pattern as television is adopted in big metropolitan areas. Broadcasts are at 8:00pm Eastern Time, with the west coast getting a that recorded broadcast played back at 9:00pm. The tape recording era is in full swing, but it is not known if the Suspense playback was from a tape or from a transcription. It is likely the latter at this time.

Larry Thor becomes the narrator and “signature voice” of Suspense. Joe Kearns would still appear in the drama cast quite often. Kearns was starting to get a lot of television work at this time, which might have limited some of his availability, and therefore played a role in the change. It was more likely a decision to change the sound of the show opening and have a more authoritative and mildly ominous voice that underscored the change in story strategy.

There is a curious production aspect of this story, noticed by Los Angeles Times broadcast columnist Walter Ames. In the 1951-08-30 edition, he comments about Cathy Lewis doubling in the story:

I wonder how many listeners caught the neat trick pulled by the Suspense show Monday during the Report on the Jolly Death Riders. Cathy Lewis played the role of Gladys, the victim of a hit-run driver. Then, with a change of voice, she reappeared in the second act to portray Wanda, the 17-year-old driver of the accident car—thus becoming her own murderer.

“Steel River” aka “Steel River Prison Break” was originally scheduled for this date. William Holden was the announced star, but this Riders script was substituted. It just may have been considered to be a better script for him. Perhaps the initial scheduling for the Fall 1951-1952 season with Steel River as the season premiere indicates that the Auto-Lite safe driving theme may have not been settled until somewhat later than usual or the script was not ready. Many of the newspaper clippings state that Steel River was the premiere broadcast for the new season. The Auto-Lite renewal was signed in June 1951, so there was no question of their sponsorship for the Fall. There may have been some delays or problems coordinating this particular broadcast date.

The only surviving recording is an aircheck, likely from KNX. It has narrow range and background noise. It is highly listenable, but not as good as a studio recording.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510827

THE CAST

WILLIAM HOLDEN (Harbor), Jack Kruschen (Wally / Sergeant), Cathy Lewis (Gladys / Wanda), Joe Kearns (Warren), Eddie Firestone (Larch), Sam Edwards (Mickey), Edit Angold (Mama), Barbara Eiler (Julie), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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

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1951-06-28 The Case for Doctor Singer

The final episode of the 1950-1951 season has no “guest star.” The excellent weekly ensemble cast members is “the star” this week. There are more actors than usual in this production. The script cover makes light of it, noting that there is “a cast of thousands.” This size of the cast and the humorous cover sheet may imply a post-broadcast cast party to mark the end of the season and Auto-Lite’s renewal for the next season.

Nuclear physicist Dr. Singer is selected to help find out who killed a Russian scientist Dr. Elman. He may have been getting top secret information about their latest experiments from a traitor in Dr. Singer’s research team. Then there’s a conundrum: is the spy Dr. Singer? US counterintelligence spies monitoring the Russian program say they have not heard anything about the US program since the time Dr. Singer was appointed to find the traitor. This fact casts doubt on Singer’s loyalty. The case is broken after investigators realize there is a pattern of medical visits among the team for various maladies. They demand immediate medical exams for each team member to determine if their conditions were real. If not, the spy contact could be a physician or someone working in a medical office. They bug the medical offices the team members visit… and find the traitor.

The payment for the secret information was $3,000, which is more than $36,000 in US$2024.

The script is by Blake Edwards, known mainly at this time for Richard Diamond. He will become best known as the film producer for the “Pink Panther” movies and other works in the 1960s and 1970s. This story may have been inspired by the 1950 arrest of nuclear physicist and spy Klaus Fuchs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs

The original title of this story was “The Secret of Dr. Walther.” It also had another title. The episode was teased in the mid-show commercial on the prior night's Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1951-06-27 The Hatchet House Matter) as The Secret of Dr. Walther’s Private Life.” An audio clip of that tease is included on the same page as the audio file of this Suspense episode.

Baby boomer nostalgia fans will get a special chuckle listening to this episode when they realize that Joe Kearns (the irascible next-door neighbor “Mr. Wilson” from Dennis the Menace) and Howard McNear (“Floyd the Barber” from The Andy Griffith Show) are in a top secret lab, wearing white coats with pocket protectors for pens and their slide rules, collaborating on nuclear weapons development. The exchange begins at about 16:35.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510628

THE CAST

Joseph Kearns (Dr. Singer / Doctor / Signature Voice), Larry Thor (Whiteside), Paul Frees (Mitchell / Announcer), Herb Butterfield (General Busher), Clayton Post (Voice / Charlie), Ken Christy (Evans), Howard McNear (Bromwell / Waiter), Ted Von Eltz (Professor Young), Larry Dobkin (Colonel Mishekoff / Collings), Edgar Barrier (Dentist / Elman), John Stephenson (Farnsworth), Truda Marson (Nurse)

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

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1951-06-21 The Greatest Thief in the World

James Mason and wife Pamela Kellino star in this “actual events” episode. The Antony Ellis script is likely drawn from the exploits of Joseph Grizzard about whom Scotland Yard was well-aware for many years but were never able to bring him to justice… until one last heist which is referred to as “The Great Pearl Heist of 1913.” Grizzard was known for his debonair ways, which is probably why Ellis gave him the name of “The Squire” and the last name “Marriott” in the story. “Marriott” sounds a lot more blue-blood than “Grizzard.” Ellis added other “facts” as needed, making this enterprise “loosely based” to make the story and the people more interesting, including changing the year to 1949 and adding the aftermath of a duel that ended the story. Perhaps the better description is that Ellis was “inspired” by the true story and then went his own way. Grizzard was arrested and found guilty with some compatriots, and died in 1923.

This Suspense production is not as exciting as the typical “people in trouble” storylines, which is one of the downsides of the “actual events” theme. It is still early in the process of developing the strategy.

Details about the robbery, including historical information at the Lloyd’s of London website, are at

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pearl_Robbery

• https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/catastophes-and-claims/great-pearl-robbery

• https://crystalgemstoneshop.com/blogs/stones/the-great-pearl-caper

The closing announcements of the broadcast include a tease for the forthcoming movie Lady Possessed. The film was released in January 1952 and starred Mason and June Havoc. The script was written by Pamela Kellino and Mason. It was based on her 1943 novel Del Palma. The film was directed by William Spier and Pamela’s ex-husband, Roy Kellino. Spier left Suspense to pursue his desire to work in film, but he did not achieve success there. His wife, June Havoc, was already an established film star. The film included Steve Dunne, who replaced Howard Duff in William Spier’s Sam Spade series. The film did not do well from a critical or financial perspective. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Possessed

The sound quality is not full range for about the first two minutes and improves markedly after that. It is likely that there was some disc damage on the outer edge of the first disc.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510621

THE CAST

JAMES MASON (Peter Marriott), Pamela Kellino (Ginny), Joe Kearns (Hyde / Signature Voice), Ben Wright (Man), Eileen Erskine (Joan), Raymond Lawrence (Detective / Waiter), Ted Osborne (Banbridge / Beggar)

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

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1951-06-14 The Truth about Jerry Baxter

Gregory Peck plays a police officer who has great empathy for a young man who has addiction problems. He sees an innate goodness and potential in him, but those were thwarted by a problematic upbringing. Despite his behavior and always “being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people,” Peck’s character stands up for him and puts his reputation on the line to prevent harsh legal penalties and get him treatment that will lead to his recovery from drug use and drug dealing.

This is the first announced production that was officially promoted as “suggested by actual events.” A disclaimer was opened the broadcast, read by Joe Kearns. It was intended to grab the attention of listeners to let them know they would be hearing something quite different than the usual Suspense fare. In fact, the story was so very true and realistic, that the people involved might suffer some harm if Suspense revealed their names. The hope was that such a warning would shock listeners and make them hungry for details, that they were getting some inside information that they had never heard before. It served two purposes. It was a legal protection for the series. It also gave them great flexibility to assemble the details of the story in whatever way they wished, with their concerns about confidentiality giving them license to do so. After all, they didn’t want anyone to “suffer” because of realism or facts.

Suspense had other event-based storylines, with the most recent one being Fragile – Contents: Death, based on a post office bomb event in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Lewis and Auto-Lite had to do something to retain interest in the show, especially since the radio show competed with Suspense television show. That series was available in some major metropolitan areas as TV was rolling out. Ratings for radio Suspense were going down as television penetration was going up. Other programs, such as The Big Story and Dragnet had “fictional but authentic” stories for a while and captured listeners because of it. When Lewis started the current season, television was in 10% of households. By the time he would leave in 1954, it was 50%. Suspense was in about 15% of radio households according to Hooper ratings in 1950; when Lewis left, it was about 7%. For more ratings details, go to https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/05/what-were-ratings-for-suspense.html

It is interesting that this strategy was being used at the end of Lewis’ first season. Auto-Lite was pressing CBS to be let out of their radio sponsorship and retain only the TV one. They did come to a financial agreement that allowed the dual sponsorship to continue. This switch to include “actual event” stories may have been an experiment at the end of the season as they began planning for the Fall series. The strategy was developed by Lewis, the Auto-Lite agency, and Auto-Lite executives. These “actual event” stories would continue, but Lewis expanded them to include historical events, not just “ripped from the headlines” ones. This was the creative difference that Lewis brought to the strategy. You could make the case that his entire Crime Classics series fit this new strategy, with stories that were decades and centuries old.

This may not have been as big a step for the show’s scripters as it might seem. One of the greatest resources for radio authors, especially when they had writer’s block, was the daily newspaper. They would often clip stories that seemed interesting for future story ideas. Suspense may have been using “actual event” stories but never knew it. Many of the scripters and mystery writers were also very familiar with classic literature and plays, and would use those plotlines for basic ideas. The warning at the beginning of the episode was like the shiny object a magician might tell the audience to look at when there was slight of hand out of their view to perform the trick.

The authors of this script were Forrest Barnes and Roxy Roth. Barnes was a well-established scripter for radio and film from the early 1930s and became a very influential member of the Writers Guild. Roxy Roth was an actor and writer from that period as well, and became a writer for Milton Berle and Jackie Gleason. The story was adapted by by Antony Ellis.

There was a rehearsal of this broadcast on June 1, 1951, but no pre-recording was done.

The original transcription discs were damaged and not stored well. There is surface noise and some clicks throughout, but the sound quality is overall very listenable.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP510614

THE CAST

GREGORY PECK (MacIntyre), William Tracy (Jerry Baxter), John Dehner (Sergeant Holly), Clayton Post (Banister), Joan Banks (Peggy / Announcer), Shep Menken (Officer 1), Hy Averback (Officer 2), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Chairman / Harry)

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

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