Jack Benny returns to the series in an amusing and cynical role that is quite contrary to the episode’s title drawn from Matthew 25:23. Benny plays a department store office clerk named Harold Fenton. He has planned a workplace theft from the company vault to fund his retirement. His carefully crafted plan, created over his 30 unfulfilling years of employment where he was happy outside but at a slow boil inside, included a hoax of getting locked in the vault, stranded there by masked robbers. He hid $50,000 from the vault in a special compartment of his desk. All he had to do was get it. In a lucky turn of fate, the company gives him his actual desk as a retirement present, unaware that they were actually participating in his theft.
Then things turn in an unexpected direction. (This is Suspense, so it would). An audit finds the the theft was actually $82,000. We learn that one of the owners of the department store, played by Gerald Mohr in a rare Suspense appearance (who could make “hello” sound malicious if a role required it), had a regular practice of skimming cash from the business and figured out that Fenton’s story of the robbery was a hoax. He intimidates Fenton into signing off to the supposed audit results and with an agreement between them to keep their individual embezzlements secret.
This is another entertaining and endearing Benny appearance on the series. CBS publicity offered a funny take on it, using quote from Elliott Lewis. The following appeared in many newspapers:
“It’s a good thing there’ll be no audience for Jack Benny’s guest appearance… an audience would roar at Jack’s serious lines, just because they are used to laughing at him. And they’d really break up on his comedy lines – of which there are quite a few. I’m afraid with an audience we’d have such a long ‘laugh spread’ that we’d have to tell listeners to ‘tune in next week for the finish of this exciting play’.”
There was also a funny quote attributed to Jack Benny:
Jack Benny says he's having Mary Livingston clock the laughs he gets during his Suspense show from a group of neighbors he has invited in for the evening. “If I get more laughs than I do on my own program,” Jack vows, “I'm going to see if I can swap writers with Suspense.”
The script was by Richard M. Powell who wrote many radio comedies. He transitioned to television, writing for such series as Andy Griffith, Hogan’s Heroes, Mary Tyler Moore, and others. He also wrote Plan X, the third and final Suspense episode that starred Jack Benny.
The theft of $50,000 does not seem like much, but its value at this time in US$2024 would be about $600,000. His reciting that he worked at the store “29 years, 11 months, and 29 days” shows how cold and calculating he could be despite his the false front of his harmless demeanor.
Fenton’s job at the store did not pay much, but it did have a small pension. That was announced at the departmental retirement party as $31.68 a month for the rest of his life. That’s $375 per month in US$2024. The average Social Security payment in 1952 was $49.25 per month. That would be about $80 per month in total retirement income, approximately $950 per month in US$2024. If he saved all of the $50,000 and withdrew it according to the rule of thumb of 4% per year, that would be $167 per month, increasing his total retirement income from $80 to $247. That would be about $2900 in US$2024.
In 1952, that $50,000 could be invested without detection by the IRS or any other reporting because the Treasury Department was still selling “bearer bonds” which did not require any registration to a particular owner. They could be paid for in cash. These were popular because they could be easily transferred to others, such as family members in an estate, without any tax reporting. In fact, interest was often unreported, paid in cash by turning in a coupon at a bank window. The US Treasury did not discontinue bearer bonds until 1982. They were considered too risky for theft and too attractive for money launderers… like Mr. Fenton.. and his money-skimming boss.
Fenton buried the money instead. He gives his mother a hint that it’s in the vegetable garden. He tells her “right in between the beets and the radishes there’s a very rich patch of dirt.” And when the embezzlement is discovered, he tells her that going away for two years in prison will be very easy compared to 30 years in the store.
The story would have to be re-crafted today, as department stores have very little cash on hand. Today, there is better security and greater reliance on electronic funds, such as credit cards. Despite nearly sole reliance on cash transactions, a department store in 1952 would not have the same security procedures and precautions as a bank would. The idea that they would have a vault large enough for a person to be stranded in is hard to believe in today’s terms. Security camera technology would be everywhere if this amount and kind of cash was being handled today.
The program had a rehearsal and recording session on May 20, 1952. The session ran from 1:00pm to 5:30pm, with recording of the drama from 5:30pm to 6:00pm. On broadcast day, the recording was combined with live orchestral accompaniment, narration, announcing, and commercials.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP520602
THE CAST
JACK BENNY (Harold Fenton), Norma Varden (Mrs. Fenton), Doris Singleton (Helen Prentiss), Joe Kearns (Waterman), Gerald Mohr (Cartwright), Hy Averback (Lt. Miller), Charles Calvert (Reporter / Wolfe), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Senator), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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