The 1953-1954 season opens with the famous (at the time) account of an emissary from President McKinley who works to get a message to General Calixto Garcia, a leader of the Cuban insurgents prior to the Spanish-American War. This was a timely and topical story for Fall of 1953 because Cuba was in the news. Fidel Castro and Cuban revolutionaries made a failed attempt in July 1953 to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. The country was in turmoil; Castro would eventually succeed. The story fit Elliott Lewis’ affinity for real-life stories that had elements of suspense and uncertainty.
It is one the curious adventures in American history. Widmark plays Army Lieutenant Andrew Rowan whose assignment it was to make a heroic dash to deliver the message of support and upcoming military intervention to General Garcia. The assignment was suicidal in many ways. The courageous Rowan had to sneak through a hostile Spanish army to tell Garcia that the United States was about to dispatch Army forces to support the Cuban revolt against Spain. The episode opens with a folk song (no, this is not a Suspense musical) that recounts the blowing up of the US battleship Maine. It was that was the incident that precipitated the Spanish-American War. A Cuban patriot in Jamaica assists Rowan to disguise himself as a fisherman and obtain a tiny sailing boat to cross to Cuba. Upon landing there, however, he discovered that he had to cross through virtually the entire Spanish army to reach Garcia. Somehow, the Spanish army learned of his mission and are determined to kill him before he can carry it out.
Special music for the opening and close of the drama was prepared for the episode by Rene Garriguenc in conjunction with the Suspense musical director Lud Gluskin. Garriguenc wrote many pieces for motion pictures and television, especially bridges between scenes and background music.
The broadcast was reviewed in the 1953-09-16 edition of Variety. The review was mildly negative.
Suspense began its eleventh year of broadcasting Monday (14) with a half-hour dramatization of A Message to Garcia, a yarn too weak to most listeners to be “a tale well calculated to keep you in Suspense.” Program made for adequate entertainment, with cast, writer and producer-director all turning in competent jobs. Yarn began with a Calypso singer setting the scene for the ensuing action via a tune relating to the American lieutenant’s efforts to contact Cuba's General Garcia prior to the start of the Spanish-American War. Narrative had Richard Widmark in the starring role of the lieutenant. Program was transcribed. Calypso tune both at the beginning and end of the yarn, gave story added impact. Harlow Wilcox handled the so-so Auto-Lite plugs.
The original story was by journalist Elbert Hubbard and is accessible at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/messagetogarciaa014275mbp/page/n7/mode/2up The Suspense adaptation was by Richard Chandlee.
Hubbard’s background is summarized at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard
The story behind the story and how it grew in popularity is at https://w.wiki/BB3s
The original story was incredibly popular, with 40 million copies printed worldwide, an astonishing number in its time. Hubbard was shocked when requests for copies of the article started to come into his small publishing company. The story was considered to be inspiring, because of Lieutenant Andrew Rowan’s dogged determination to locate Garcia and risk his life at every turn and return with Garcia’s response. A request from the New York Central Railroad for 100,000 copies caught Hubbard by surprise. He told them that it would take two years to produce that many in their company. Instead, he gave permission to them to have copies printed by any means of their choosing by going to printing companies that had proper equipment and quicker turnaround. People from around the world started began see copies of the publication when they visited New York and used the railroad to go around the country. The story began to get international coverage and was translated to many languages once these travelers returned home.
The phrase “get a message to Garcia” came into popular conversation and would have still been known at the time of this broadcast, 40 years or so after the first publication of the story. Many listeners would have remembered it, and even more likely used the phrase even if they had no specific knowledge about its origin. It has since fallen out of general use.
The story was made into a 1936 movie, A Message to Garcia, with Wallace Beery and Barbara Stanwyck. It is available for viewing at YouTube https://youtu.be/a5HuyOsHcIU Some listeners may have had familiarity with the story because of that release.
Biographical information about General Calixto Garcia can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calixto_Garc%C3%ADa
Cuba was in the news in 1953 and the Revolution was in its earliest stages. An overview of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s can be found at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution
At the end of the broadcast, Richard Widmark receives a “Golden Mike Award.” It was his second, this time for the episode How Long is the Night. The awardee was selected by Suspense staff and the show’s regular players. It was intended to bring more news coverage to the series as well as to express gratitude to the selectees.
The rehearsal was on Sunday, August 30, 1953 starting at noon and ending at 4:30pm. The taping of the drama began at 4:30pm and ended at 5:00pm.
At the end of the broadcast, there is an interesting statement that Widmark was in the new movie, The Robe, in Cinemascope, and that there were “no special glasses needed.” There must have been concern that movie-goers would confuse 3-D movies which needed special glasses and Cinemascope, an improved method of filming and projecting movies.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP530914
THE CAST
RICHARD WIDMARK (Lieutenant Andrew Rowan), Joseph Kearns (Carter / Sanchez the Soldier), Lillian Buyeff (Teresa), Anthony Barrett (Ceruasio), Jack Kruschen (Dr. Jose Rubio), Ted de Corsia (Dominguin), Edgar Barrier (General Garcia), Ernest Newton (Vocalist [in style of Calypso singer Sir Lancelot]), Larry Thor (Narrator)
COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
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