Vic Perrin stars in the second production of an excellent John Suter script. A postmaster coordinates a tension-filled systematic search through the warehouses, trucks, mailboxes, and carrier packages for a package that holds a bomb set to detonate at 2:30pm. Suter was a highly respected mystery writer who toiled at the typewriter nights and weekends while a full-time chemist for duPont Company.
The notes about the 1951 broadcast with Paul Douglas have details about Suter and a 1949 incident that may have been a springboard for Suter’s concept. These resources are at:
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/05/1951-02-01-fragile-contents-death.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP510201 has recordings that can be downloaded or streamed.
The punctuation of the title is as it appears on the script has a comma after “fragile,” and that was the format used in CBS publicity. The 1951 script used a colon after “fragile” and an em-dash between “contents” and “death.” Some of the confusion about the title, today, is a reflection of computer standards which reserve colons for operating system commands and addresses. Below is an image of the name on the script for the 1956 production.
There are two surviving recordings, with the network one as the better of the two. An Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#851) has slightly muddy sound but is still listenable.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP560522
THE CAST
Victor Perrin (Doug Jordan), Vivi Janiss (Alice Jordan / Operator), Leonard Weinrib (Clerk Hartley), Helen Kleeb (Mrs. Bates), Herbert Ellis (Fox), Ted Bliss (Joe Stewart), John Larch (Ed Williams), Charles Seel (Voice / Sergeant Rock), Frank Gerstle (Driver), George Walsh (Narrator)
###
