[NOTE: This is an extended commentary about this episode and its history. A PDF can be downloaded at the Internet Archive. Click here.]
Richard Widmark stars in an entertaining cynical play about what
goes on behind the scenes in a big-time radio mystery series. It is a
fine story, and you wonder what kinds of “digs” are being
playfully made about directors, producers, actors, and others who
make such enterprises possible. A fired writer for the radio series
“Murder, Please” decides he’s going to get revenge about his
dismissal. He will record conversations with those involved in the
program, especially his producer. That program, as the jilted writer
explains, would conclude with an actual murder.
The behind-the-scenes maneuverings needed to bring A
Murderous Revision to the air are just as
interesting as the script, and have a mystery of their own. The
backstory is so big, it is easy to forget that this is a good
production and
another excellent Widmark performance with the superb Suspense
supporting
cast. Don’t let
the backstory steal
attention away from the
appreciation of this
broadcast.
The script was by S. Lee
Pogostin. He
was born in 1927, and
claimed to be born in 1925 so
he could join the Army. Somehow
his enlistment papers were never matched with his draft card which
had the correct date. He was
not the only one. About
50,000 underage soldiers were discovered by
the War Department and sent
home, but it is estimated that 200,000 underage soldiers slipped
through the system, some with
a wink and a nod.
Pogostin’s post-Army
writing career began with small theatrical productions and radio
scriptwriting for shows such as Grand Central Station.
This is his only Suspense script
and
was adapted by David Ellis. Pogostin’s career would progress
to 1950s and 1960s anthology television series including Lux Video
Theatre, Studio One, The Dick Powell Show, and many
others. He won a Writers Guild Award and was nominated for an Emmy
for an episode of The Chrysler Theatre.
One wonders what the almost 25-year old Pogostin thought. A rising
young author has paradoxically written about a scriptwriter whose
career has taken a swift slip to the downside and is bitter about it.
What gave him the idea for the story? Was he inspired by a writer or
radio producer who had that same fate or caused it? He must have been
thrilled to have his script accepted by Elliott Lewis and for radio’s
top mystery series. Howard Duff was
supposed to be the star, which
only increased the
anticipation. Did
he tell family to get ready to listen in February? Then,
things played out in a strange way, a product of its times. Pogostin
became a helpless bystander when there was backroom in-fighting about
Duff’s role because of his listing in Red Channels.
The original studio recording, January 13,
1951
Howard Duff, former star of The Adventures of Sam Spade
and friend of Elliott
Lewis was signed to star in Pogostin’s “The Twist is
Murder.” Duff and Elliott Lewis were close friends, and worked
together often at the Armed Forces Radio Service where they acted,
announced, and worked in production roles. Their collaboration
continued, even on an informal basis. When Lewis needed someone to
sit in at a Suspense rehearsal because one of the support
actors was busy or could otherwise not attend, he often called Duff
to read the part even if he wasn’t in the cast.
Duff was let go as the lead in Sam Spade
after his name was listed in Red Channels.
That publication was released
on June 22, 1950 and strongly
encouraged advertisers avoid
performers with what they
considered to be questionable
political affiliations. Wildroot
and their ad agency became
nervous about having Duff on the program, or
any actor listed there for
that matter, and
discontinued their sponsorship of
the series. His last
appearance
was 1950-09-17 The Femme Fatale Caper
(no recordings have been
located at this time). Disappointed fans flooded the sponsor with
mail asking for the show's renewal and Duff's return. That
would not happen. The Spade
production company was the
property of William Spier, and he later
convinced NBC to pick up the
show with a new star, Steve Dunne. (NOTE: “Steve” was previously
known as “Michael” and starred in the syndicated and very
forgettable series Danger, Dr. Danfield).
Red Channels was not a
well-researched document. It
had many mistakes, misinterpretations, and poor context. For some
performers, the information was accurate. Once
something is printed,
however, there is an illusion
of equivalent
certainty
about
each and every entry,
accurate or not.
Advertisers were worried, if
not petrified, that hiring any Red Channels actor
or support
staff would be toxic to their brand or their sales. What
is forgotten over time was that one of the goals of Red
Channels was not only
solely
to question
the loyalty of certain performers, but to give
upward support to
those who were not listed… or kept their beliefs to themselves.
Broadcasters were scared
their ad dollars would dry up, so
they had to assure their advertisers that they were good stewards of
their marketing investments and would protect them from bad
publicity. CBS
decided they would re-assure those
who bankrolled their network
with their own proprietary
vetting process.
The Spade
show, however,
had another, larger blacklist issue with the character's creator, the
well-known author Dashiell
Hammett. He was a political activist and his associations were very
public. While Hammett's activities were playing out for
all to see, his characters
were being taken off the air: Sam Spade, Nick and Nora Charles (The
Adventures of the Thin Man), and
Brad Runyon (The Fat Man).
Over time, Hammett
would
not implicate others in court proceedings and
investigations. Duff became
guilty by association by playing a role (Sam Spade) created by an
activist (Hammett). When
Hammett died in 1961, he was
buried in Arlington National Cemetery for his service in both WW1 and
WW2. His political activities
didn’t matter; but
his military service did.
Despite the swirling controversy in Hollywood and broadcasting,
Lewis saw an opportunity to keep Duff on the air by casting him in
this script. He believed that because it was just one episode and not
an ongoing role any objections could be set aside. Duff had been on
Suspense fourteen times in
supporting roles and in the lead for The Kandy Tooth.
That was
a previously aired two-part
Spade show script
to help get the
new hour long Suspense
format off
the ground.
The Pogostin script was good and was planned for a February
broadcast. It went through the usual revision process as it was
prepped for production, but the “right” title seemed elusive. The
other titles were “The Twist is Death” and “The Twisted Murder”
and “This is Murder” and perhaps even “Murder is a Twist.”
The word “twist” was wanted in the title because the script was
about scriptwriting and the search for the right “twist” ending
to keep listeners guessing was part of the story. By the time the
script aired in December 1951 after all of its backroom casting
intrigue, the title became A Murderous Revision (when
the script was used years later on Suspense, it became Murder
on Mike).
The “The Twist is Murder” script was finally ready for
production. The rehearsal and recording session was held on Saturday
afternoon, January 13, 1951 from 1:30pm to 6:00pm for rehearsal, with
the recording from 6:00pm to 6:30pm. The show would air sometime in
February, likely tentatively slotted for 1951-02-22. Orchestra and
commercials would be added live on broadcast day.
The
drama-only recording survives, but it
was never broadcast.
Auto-Lite, its ad agency, and CBS executive Daniel O’Shea would not
allow it. “Vice president of treason” was what
O’Shea
was called in the back rooms
in side under-the-breath
conversations, a one-man
wrecking crew of careers and loyalty enforcement. The loyalty
hurdles that performers had
to pass at CBS were so high that casting directors at other radio
networks almost did
not need any of their own.
When performers sought work at other networks, they were routinely
asked when they
last worked at CBS. If you
were okay for CBS, you could
be hired without further
scrutiny. If
CBS rejected you, it might be hard to get work. If
you were denied, O’Shea and his staff never said why; challenges to
their decisions were met with
silence. And
if you did get work on
another network, you might
not get on-air credit or publicity. (This
was mildly similar to the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters who had
others front their work. Previous Suspense producer
Anton M. Leader did so for his brother-in-law Alfred Palca for
the film Go, Man, Go!)
The O’Shea
decision calculus included
Red Channels and other sources,
but also the answers to a
CBS-designed loyalty
questionnaire. That
document was
created by news legend Ed
Murrow and CEO Bill
Paley. There’s nary a word
about their involvement in
creating that
document and implementing the
process that caused so many
problems. Murrow’s own reporting on McCarthy was what made the
loyalty check process
unravel. At this time in early 1951, the Red Channels
paranoia among advertisers was
at a height.
It was clear that nothing
with Duff was going on the CBS
network. Like
many of the blacklisted
actors and production personnel, it
didn’t matter if they were
staunch supporters of the war effort, or
whether they worked for the Armed Forces Radio Service in support of
service personnel and their families.
The casting issues that led to
the delay of the
Duff broadcast opened that time slot for a repeat performance of Back
Seat Driver. Whenever Suspense
had a scheduling problem, the
file drawer of favorite and proven scripts would be opened and a
selection would be made. Since carjacking serial killers were in the
news (in this case, the recently arrested Billy Cook), it seemed like
a brilliant substitution and they made it seem that
it was intended
to be scheduled that
way all along.
The
drama recording sits on a
shelf… and Duff moves on...
Duff was not pleased. His Red
Channels listing made no sense
to him and to those who knew
him as he had only marginal
interest in politics. Nonetheless, he
was listed there.
Luckily, he had a wise talent agent who helped him manage these
difficult times. That agent’s
press contacts kept Duff
in the news in all the gossip columns, generally in a positive light.
He did break his leg in
November 1950, and
even that was in the news! The
only negative coverage of it was in Jimmie
Fidler’s column where
he stated it was from
a parking lot fight, and not
a fall down the stairs. Others
implied he was tipsy
when he
fell down the stairs at home. That
was the worst of it; there
were no mentions of
his Red Channels listing
and
his being dismissed
from the Spade show
faded.
Somehow the agent got the
friendly gossip reporters to comment more
on the big attention-getting
argyle sock he pulled over
his cast and that various Hollywood starlets were helping him
recover. Among them were
Ava Gardner, Piper Laurie, and Swedish
actress Marta Toren. One
of those was Ida Lupino, mentioned
as living a few doors down, who
would marry him soon once her divorce was final.
(Duff’s
appearance on Suspense would
have had an upside in his recovery since acting on radio could allow
him to sit down while he was performing).
Duff’s agent kept him working, advising him
to take all movie jobs no matter how small they
might be. Throughout his CBS
exile, there was always a movie or several that had Duff’s name in
the newspaper movie listings. As
long as his name was in the movie ads, the strategy was a success.
None of this would have worked if Duff played his Spade loss
badly in public.
He was gracious throughout and he attributed it to the sponsor
needing to adjust their budgets in light of the economy and the rise
of television. Any time he was asked, he was always positive and
diplomatic. He may have been seething inside, but it never showed. He
was disappointed that William Spier continued Spade without
him, but they eventually came to an understanding about it. It
was Spier, at the urging of his then-wife, Kay Thompson, who put Duff
in that role and led to his celebrity and high appreciation of his
talents. Steve Dunne, whom
Spier cast to replace Duff,
later appeared
in Lady Possessed, the
failed movie that
the Spiers (Bill and June Havoc) and the Masons (James and Pamela
Kellino) produced.
We don’t know if Duff would have been involved in that production
if Red Channels had
not happened. Perhaps
his temporary falling out with Spier prevented
him from being invited to be
in a film that
was embarrassing
in its box
office and critical result.
Lady Possessed gave
Dunne
a new opportunity for
obscurity.
As hampered as he was with the Red Channels listing,
Duff salvaged a career in this period while others could not.
An advantage he had in his favor was his romance and subsequent
marriage to Ida Lupino. Her star as an actress was rising, and she
had great business and production acumen. As a studio, if you wanted
to work with Lupino, you couldn’t spurn working with Duff in some
manner. He was often in a supporting role in her movies. She was one
of the most powerful women and executives in Hollywood, and an
important figure in television production. Her influence in that era
is often overlooked today.
Duff would not appear on CBS radio again until December, 1956. The
“vice president of treason,” Daniel O’Shea, was fired a few
months earlier once the public, and CBS, tired of the “Red Scare.”
Murrow’s reporting about Senator Joe McCarthy was the catalyst for
CBS to re-evaluate their system. Suspense benefited
from the O’Shea departure. William N. Robson was appointed
as producer of Suspense in
October 1956, his CBS exile officially ended.
When Duff returned to
the network for Suspense,
it was not with his “tail between his legs.” It
was more of a “success is the best revenge” moment. He returned
because CBS made a big
investment
in a new
TV situation comedy featuring him and Ida Lupino, Mr. Adams
and Eve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Adams_and_Eve
(there are some episodes available on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxfZS-hxExHF9ILKzFAkxMtVqbjdFILQB).
Suddenly, CBS liked being associated with Howard Duff and the success
of that
show. The network worries
about what was might be
“red” turned to...
delight over “green”?
The December 1951 broadcast… with Richard Widmark
Lewis tired of waiting, and when it was clear that Duff would not
be available for the Pogostin script, he went ahead and put it in the
schedule for December 1951. He cast one of his favorite and most
dependable performers, Richard Widmark. The program rehearsal started
at 7:00pm on Friday, November 30, the orchestra reported at 10:00pm,
and the complete drama was recorded for broadcast from 11:30pm to
Midnight. It was done all in one session, no real editing required,
and there was no need for a separate broadcast session with the drama
playing on tape and the orchestra performing live. Just 11 months
before, with Duff’s recording session, the plan had been for a
separate drama tape and a live orchestra at the time of broadcast.
This was the procedure for the 1950-1951 season and before. For this
broadcast, in the 1951-1952 season, however, everyone was in the
studio at the same time. There may have been separate, but
simultaneous, recording of the drama and recording of the orchestra
in case editing was needed.
As for Howard Duff, even if he had permission to appear, he would
not have been available, as he moved on with his life. He and Lupino
were in the process of getting married and taking a short honeymoon.
They were very busy with their various other projects. Lupino was
waiting for her divorce to be official (October 20), and they married
the next day (October 21). Their schedules were so full that they
could not have an extended honeymoon vacation. They took a brief
break in San Francisco, but that trip involved some work there. They
did get away for a little while in Palm Springs, and in December they
learned that Lupino was pregnant. The whirlwind of events in those
weeks would have hindered Duff’s availability.
The episode had various titles over those months of 1951, and was
still in flux even as the broadcast neared. It started as "The
Twist is Death," became "The Twist is Murder," and
also "The Twisted Murder." A Murderous Revision
became the title days before the recording session. It was changed
too late to make it to the newspapers. Though it seems like a good
title, it didn't stick, either. When the script was used again in
1957, it became Murder on Mike. Even that wasn’t certain
until the days got closer. The week before that 1957 broadcast the
upcoming episode was announced as “The Twisted Murder”!
The December 3, 1951 broadcast was done. Widmark delivered another
fine performance as did Suspense regulars
Cathy Lewis, Joe Kearns, Charlotte Lawrence, and Jerry Hausner (who
was the only actor to be in the Duff and the Widmark casts).
That should have been the end of the backstory.
There’s more. The
backstory now turns to the hobby and curiosity of classic radio
enthusiasts.
The mysterious Duff recording…
The drama-only recording with
Duff did survive, but was unused. But there’s another Duff
recording that
has made the rounds of hobbyists,
complete with commercials,
announcements and music and
commercials.
For decades, it
was believed that in October 1951, Lewis supervised the
editing and production of a “no name” guest performance from that
unused Duff drama-recording. He wanted to see if that would be
approved. It was complete with Auto-Lite commercials, but there was
no guest star announcement and no performer credits in the closing
announcements. This was assumed to be an “if the guest star won’t
be mentioned, neither will the supporting cast” situation, a
passive-aggressive act by Lewis. According to prior speculation, the
recording was presented to CBS, Auto-Lite’s marketing executives
and their ad agency, to no avail. They still spiked it. This scenario
was appealing and seemed plausible.
Recent discoveries of notes in recorded tapes of
this program indicate that the speculation is incorrect.
The Duff “broadcast” was prepared after the
Widmark broadcast, and it
may have been assembled many years later.
The Old Time Radio Researchers Group has been transferring the
reel tapes of pioneer collector into digital format since 2020. One
of those pioneer collections is that of Jerry Haendiges. The
collection expanded over the years to include tapes of many other
collectors who passed away and their families gave their reel
collections to Jerry. These included notable collectors of the late
1960s and early 1970s, including Chris Lembesis, Bill Stanley, and
many others.
The Los Angeles area, where Jerry and these other collectors were
located, was a hotbed of classic radio collecting and discovery.
There were thousands of transcription discs that became available,
and there were many collectors with production positions in the
entertainment and media industries. They often had sophisticated
equipment and skills in audio production.
A reel was discovered in the collection that was labeled as such:
This was quite a surprise to find.
A key phrase is at the top of the label: “Suspense
Reconstruction.” This is not a phrase that would have been used if
the recording was done in a professional broadcast studio, but is
the jargon of a collector.
The next line gives the name “This is Murder” and is
followed by the parenthetical “Never Aired.”
The third line gives the date as “01-13-51” which is the
Duff recording date. The fourth line has an important clue “Music
added from Suspense 12-3-51.”
Then finally, the last line is “2 Track” and “7-1/2
IPS” This means that it is not a reconstruction of the Lewis era,
and it was done much later as it is formatted for a consumer reel
deck. The tape decks that were being used in the Lewis era were
usually full track ones. This recording was a stereo left and right
quarter track reel, but the two tracks were exactly the same when
played. This was not, therefore, a tape made contemporary to its
broadcast or Lewis’ time.
There was also a note in the reel box, presumably from the person
who made the reconstruction or who knew the person who created it.
Please note the words that have had underline and bold added for
emphasis for purposes of this discussion:
Howard Duff recorded the drama portion
of this Suspense program titled “A Murderous Revision,”
minus the open, close, and music. The final program would be edited
later. However, before the program could air, Howard Duff was
blacklisted by the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee. The show
finally aired starring Richard Widmark. This program is a
compilation of the Howard Duff recording and the program with Richard
Widmark, which aired
December 3, 1951, a tribute to Mr. Duff, who would not surrender his
rights.
This statement indicates that this was not a Lewis compilation to
get approval for Duff, but a compilation to reconstruct what the
program would have been like had Duff been in the broadcast! It
didn’t exist in Lewis’ time, and therefore there was not an
attempt to get approval for Duff as long as he was not announced as
star.
It is important to clarify some historical items in this note.
Duff was not blacklisted by HUAC. This was a common mistake in
referring to the blacklist era. HUAC, Red Channels,
Senator Joe McCarthy, all swirl together and are treated as one
thing. HUAC began in 1938 as
a temporary committee and became a permanent committee in 1946.
Red Channels was published in 1950. McCarthy’s hearings began in
1953, but his political
rhetoric began a few years
before.
Duff was listed as having
political affiliations of concern in Red Channels in
1950. He was only blacklisted
internally at CBS and was still working at the movie studios. The
Hollywood Blacklist of HUAC was a
list of those who refused to
testify to HUAC when requested or subpoenaed. Hammett
did not testify at a HUAC meeting until 1953, well after Duff lost
Spade and after this
Suspense situation
occurred.
Where the note says
“Howard Duff was blacklisted by the House of UnAmerican Activities
Committee,” it is
incorrect in fact and
timeline. For
Duff, the
Red Channels listing
caused enough problems all
by itself.
Collectors in the early years of
the classic radio hobby did not have access to the kinds of research
resources and tools that are available today, at
their fingertips (and keyboard). It
is so much easier in the Internet Age to gather information from
multiple sources without the
arduous research effort and
time commitments that were required in the 1960s and 1970s.
Those pioneer collectors
were most concerned about saving the recordings and did their best
about gathering the history when they could. And
after a while all of the “Red Scare” events and
“blacklists” just kind of
meld together and are
incorrectly but popularly referred to as “McCarthyism,” even
though McCarthy was really at the tail end of it. It
was a very confusing and politically charged time. Mistaken
attributions should be generously forgiven. They
saved the recordings. That’s what matters today.
Since
the discovery of this reel another recording
from a different pioneer collector was found that is a copy of this
one. It was labeled “special compilation,” indicating that it was
assembled after the
Widmark broadcast. This other collector likely traded with the person
who created it and knew its
origin and proper description.
The
bottom line: This recording originated with a classic radio
collector. The were skilled
in audio editing in the analog tape era or knew someone who was.
It was their
valiant effort to discover what could have been, and to pay some
tribute to Duff. It was not
of the Lewis era.
The surviving recordings
There are three basic recordings for this episode:
1951-12-03 A Murderous Revision,
as broadcast, starring
Richard Widmark;
1951-01-13 drama-only
recording for The Twist is Murder, as
titled on the script, with Howard Duff as the star;
1951-01-13 post-recording
session studio
chatter in which you can
hear Duff and others and
the control room (2
minutes);
The “reconstruction” of
the A Murderous Revision recorded
elements with the Duff The Twist is Murder
drama-only recordings.
Other notes
The broadcast lacks the “actual events” or similar
wording in its opening. The script was held over from the previous
season, obviously, and created before that story strategy and
branding was established.
The 1952-06-17 Los Angeles Evening Citizen News
reported that The Columbia Players Lab received top honors for its
production of “The Twist of Murder.” The “lab” was an
ensemble of CBS employees who produced plays and other
entertainment. CBS used this internal theater group to identify and
develop talent, and as a social activity. They obviously liked the
Pogostin script enough to use it in this venue. (No recording
exists, and it is likely that none was made).
In a private 1970s interview, Lewis denied that he had any
problems with Red Channels and his stewardship of Suspense.
Facts seem quite different. It is likely Lewis did not like talking
about the subject and he had an attitude of “the past is the past”
as he focused on his next project or assignment. In his tenure, he
had to navigate the various directives of CBS executives to keep
Suspense as a thriving and
profitable enterprise. Getting caught up in these outside
matters while he was producing and directing multiple programs would
hamper the accomplishment of his corporate obligations. Speaking
about these issues years later, when there was nothing that could be
done about it, it was not worth his time and wanted to move to a
different subject. He had an earlier run-in with O’Shea and
Auto-Lite regarding actor John Garfield and the episode Concerto
for Killer and Eyewitness. That
script was recorded in October 1950 and not used performed until
after Garfield’s death; it starred Lewis. That backstory will be
provided when that episode is in the chronology.
The letter that William N. Robson sent to Edward R. Murrow in
1953 about his problems with his CBS exile and Daniel O’Shea is a
like a “Rosetta Stone” that demystifies the executive suite
machinations of the era. Details can be found at
https://sites.google.com/view/suspense-collectors-companion/click-for-home-arrow-for-more/the-blacklist-and-suspense?authuser=0#h.p_I60z386iaLmh
The biography of CBS reporter Don Hollenbeck is a highly
recommended account of this era in news and media and at CBS.
Hollenbeck committed suicide in 1954, his act precipitated by his
treatment in the era combined with his personal issues. The 2011
book, CBS’s Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of
McCarthyism, is by Loren Ghiglione and published by Columbia
University Press. Hollenbeck was a fine reporter and a victim of the
era.
A copy of Red Channels can
be viewed at The Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/red-channels-the-report-of-communist-influence-in-radio-and-television
MANY THANKS to the following
collectors who assisted over these many years in understanding
the history of this broadcast: Keith Scott, John Scheinfeld, Patte
Rosebank, Don Ramlow, Karl Schadow, Barbara
Watkins, John Barker, and
many others. There is still
much to be learned about this
episode and the series.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP511203
THE CAST
RICHARD WIDMARK (Chris Turner), Cathy Lewis (Doris / Lois), Joe
Kearns (Ken Avery), Charlotte Lawrence (Harriet Crawford), Jerry
Hausner (“George” / Hank), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia
Simms (Operator)
* * *
The cast for the unaired version recorded on 1951-01-31 is as
follows:
HOWARD DUFF (Chris Turner), Ed Max (Ken Avery), Cathy Lewis
(“Doris” / Lois Avery), Marlo Dwyer (Harriet Crawford), Jerry
Hausner (“George” / Hank)
###
