Anne Baxter stars in the third Suspense “musical,” based on the centuries-old folk song about love and betrayal, “Barbara Allen.” Why another musical? Lewis is working to expand the storylines of the series to include more kinds of suspenseful situations. Wreck of the Old 97 used a folk song about a train wreck and added a criminal backstory. According to CBS, that broadcast “brought in the greatest flood of enthusiasm fan mail of the year.” The second, Frankie and Johnny was claimed to be a success, but that may have been the appearance of Dinah Shore, whose radio career was still flying high at the same time she was a big star of early television. The story and the presentation are good, but not as captivating as Wreck and no musical star as Frankie. The script was written by Morton Fine and David Friedkin, frequent Lewis collaborators on Suspense and his other series. William Conrad seems to be a bit miscast in his role as “Shawn.”
This folk song goes back even further, to the 17th Century, or earlier, and was popular throughout the English speaking world at that time.
Wikipedia has a history of the song in their entries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Allen_(song)
Its popularity continued as the ability to record music led to many artists including the some in their singles and albums.
A recording by early folk recording artist Vern Dalhart can be accessed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/78_barbara-allen_vernon-dalhart-robison_gbia0086013b
A big band version with Les Brown and Doris Day is at https://archive.org/details/78_barbara-allen_les-brown-and-his-orchestra-doris-day-homer_gbia0382238b
Who is the singer? At first hearing, one might suspect it is Dennis Day, but as the vocal continues, you realize it is not. No credit is given on air, nor is any on the production script. It is Ernest “Ernie” Newton, a mid-1940s vocalist on Bergen & McCarthy and had appearances on Lux Radio Theatre in some of their musical adaptations that required choral or lead singer roles. He was also a backup singer in motion pictures, and the singer whose voice might be used to overdub an actor who was not a capable vocalist. Newton appears on Suspense twice more, and is properly credited those times.
According to the 1952-10-25 Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, Anne Baxter enjoyed the folk music mood so much that she provided some casual entertainment in rehearsals by singing her favorite folk ballads with the cast and crew, if they wanted to join in.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP521020
THE CAST
ANNE BAXTER (Barbara Allen), William Conrad (Shawn), Joe Kearns (Barbara’s father), Jeanette Nolan (Old Woman), Harry Bartell (Will), Louise Lewis (Maurya / Voice), Junius Matthews (Eamon / Voice 2), Ernest Newton (singer), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Ken Christy (Oscar Auto), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
