Ray Bradbury’s story, adapted by Antony Ellis, about a planned space invasion that recruited children to assist was first presented on Escape on 1953-10-04. The response was quite strong as measured by the volume of letters and phone calls received from listeners, good and bad. Escape was already off the air for almost seven months, and the only program that could re-use the popular script was Suspense.
There are two elements of social context that help create a strong response to the story. The first is that the early 1950s were a time of a large number of UFO sightings and reports, and worries that UFOs might be from outer space, of course, but also be aircraft of enemies of the USA and the Western democracies. The second is that the invasion as staged had a lot of the sounds that the public might associate with the beginning of a nuclear attack. Today’s listeners might easily dismiss these concerns and pass the story off as pure entertainment, but there were enough concerns at that time where some listener might be rattled by this. A third aspect for some of the listeners might be the idea that innocent children could be exploited by a hostile force to undermine society at large. As in the story, such a plot would be dismissed by the adults as imaginative play in which all children participate. Once these cultural aspects are considered, it is easier to understand how Zero Hour could generate negative reactions. But then, so could a lot of the 1950s science fiction movies of that time.
As this Suspense broadcast date was set, it seemed that there was sudden interest by the CBS publicity executives. For many weeks, newspapers had barely any information about Suspense on their pages, usually limited to timetables. It’s clear that the CBS publicity department had other priorities. But this episode was different. This episode demanded special attention because of the feedback that the original Escape broadcast created, and the hope that the broadcast could increase listener attention. Note how the broadcast was positioned in Suspense history:
Two years ago, Zero Hour was presented on CBS Radio’s Escape and an avalanche of phone calls and letters followed, containing several hundred requests for a repeat performance. The chilling tale was compared favorably with the now immortal Sorry, Wrong Number and the equally eerie Donovan's Brain, thus setting the stage for Suspense producer Antony Ellis to schedule it again.
Zero Hour is the strange tale of how the children in the world band together to play the game called “Invasion.” Under the influence of unknown forces from outer space, the children lay plans to obliterate all the grownups in the world. The reality of parental disregard for the naivete of the children’s minds builds Zero Hour to a suspenseful climax.
The Escape broadcast and this one starred Isa Ashdown, a child actor who appeared on radio quite a number of times, especially Lux Radio Theatre. She left performing at the end of the 1950s. One of the roles for which she is remembered by nostalgia fans, is the Superman TV episode, The Birthday Letter, originally broadcast on 1952-10-31. She plays a young girl who needs to walk with crutches, and she is taken for a fly by Superman himself. The episode is not available online but the happy scene is at https://youtu.be/cYDQlb7khZI Background on that episode is written up well at this fan page http://www.jimnolt.com/ashdown.htm
There are three surviving recordings of which the network recording is best. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRTS#748) is very close to the network recording quality, but has some some very minor disc clicks from the AFRTS transcription disc. A third recording, from a likely 1970s reissue as an AFRTS Adventure Theater episode, is of lower quality.
The network recording of this Suspense presentation of Zero Hour is also in better sound than the commonly circulating Escape recording.
Preparation for this broadcast of Zero Hour started weeks before. One the back of a page of the script for The Cellar, broadcast two weeks prior, there was a two-item “to-do” list to get letters about the first broadcast on Escape and to retrieve the original script for Antony Ellis from Helen Phelps. She was the script secretary for the CBS drama production department. Hard copy scripts have many surprises on the reverse side of pages, such as this. Some of the scripts that actors kept have some interesting doodles on them as the sat in on rehearsals or were waiting for the group or staff to assemble.
Some of the drama elements were recorded on tape on Friday, April 1, 1955. Those elements were joined with live elements of music, announcing, and narration for the broadcast on Tuesday, April 5.
Bradbury’s original story can be accessed at https://americanliterature.com/author/ray-bradbury/short-story/zero-hour/
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP550405
THE CAST
Isa Ashdown (Mink Morris), Parley Baer (Henry Morris), Paula Winslowe (Mary Morris), Eve McVeagh (Helen), John Dehner (Narrator), Beverly Hanley (Anna), Larry Thor (Suspense Narrator)
NOTE: The original Escape broadcast also included Winslowe, Ashdown, Dehner, and McVeagh in these same roles.
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