Evelyn Rudie, seven year-old actress who received an Emmy nomination for best single performance by an actress for the Playhouse 90 production of Eloise. She stars in a Hank Searls script (using the name “Michael Frost”) in a Christmas-related production. This was her first of two appearances on Suspense.
Rudie portrays a young girl, Julie, who is denied the one Christmas present she wants: a dog. The family dog died when it was hit by a car. She feels guilty that she let the dog out of the yard that day, and misses that dog very much. He parents, however, are against getting another dog. She does get one with some ingenuity. A satellite crashes nearby and Julie and her friend Timmy find a puppy inside! Can she keep it? They decide to hide it. Its name is Chitka, but she starts calling him “Mike,” the same name as the dog she lost. A search has started for him, when it was realized by authorities that the dog was in the crashed satellite. It is clear that the dog is injured when a veterinarian examines it, and determines it should be euthanized from its injuries. Julie is sent home with a police officer. An exchange of phone calls with a Russian official explains the status of the dog (but that’s not really clear what happens to Chitka; it just has to be assumed that the vet did what was expressed). It ends generally well, with Julie getting what she wants in a very special delivery after a special phone call to her father.
The idea of a dog being launched into space was not some wild idea. In the early days of space exploration, the Soviet Union was sending dogs into sub-orbital flights in preparation for future human experiences. About six weeks prior to this broadcast, they launched a spacecraft with “the famous space dog, Laika” (mentioned in the story) to be became the first animal to go into orbit. The dog, unfortunately, died a few hours into flight.
The program was recorded on Tuesday, December 10, 1957. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm and ended at 5:00pm. The drama portion was recorded with some editing from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. Music was recorded and edited in on Friday, December 13.
The surviving recording of this episode is from the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). Details about the recording are not known, but this may have been part of a special package of Christmas programs that AFRS assembled every year. For decades, heavily edited recordings of an AFRS aircheck in poor sound were the only copies available to Suspense fans. This recording is complete, it is still flawed, but is more listenable than previously available recordings.
Advertisers on the missing network show were Kent, Chef Boyardee, Ex-Lax, and Vicks.
Rudie’s Interesting Career and Her Suspense Connections
Evenlyn Rudie was a 6-year old actor when she made a big splash in the Playhouse 90 presentation of Eloise. The character was based on the books by singer-dancer and actress Kay Thompson. She was married to Suspense producer William Spier in the early 1940s. Thompson was a key behind-the-scenes figure in Spier’s years as Suspense producer. Around 25 years after the Playhouse 90 broadcast, ABC Television offered a new treatment of the Eloise character. Kay Thompson passed away five years before the new ABC venture. She was never really fond of the idea of new productions for the character.
Rudie wrote a letter to the New York Times about the ABC production and the reaction to it by a Times critic. The letter was published in the May 25, 2003 edition. She was annoyed about comments the author of a Times article made that mischaracterized something Thompson expressed many years earlier about the Eloise character she played and the overall Playhouse 90 production. In her letter, Rudie mentions television producer Martin Manulis... who was another Suspense connection as he produced Suspense on TV just a couple of years before his Playhouse 90 assignments. Rudie’s story about the cross country plane flight that she and Kay were on -- almost half a day to do it back then – is quite funny. I hope Kay didn't have anything important in her handbag...
To the Editor:
Anita Gates, repeating a now familiar tale, writes that Kay Thompson hated the 1956 Playhouse 90 adaptation of her book Eloise so much “that she vowed that neither movies nor television would ever put their filthy hands on her precious Eloise again” [A Suite and the City: Eloise's New York, April 27].
Here's what really happened. Kay, who wrote the Playhouse 90 version herself and appeared in it as a hotel guest, was also supposed to do the voice of Eloise. Since it was a live show, the little girl playing the part would cover her mouth or turn her head away when she had a line. Kay would crawl near the camera and speak in the direction of the microphone. This was choreographed and practiced for three weeks.
At 1 a.m. the day of the broadcast, the girl's parents got a call from the producer, Martin Manulis. He and the director, John Frankenheimer, had been going around and around all night. “It just doesn't work,” he said. “Do you think your daughter can speak the lines herself?”
There was a dry run that morning, and the little girl did fine (as she would that night). No sooner was the dry run finished than Kay appeared on the set with a cadre of lawyers and piles of new contracts. No reruns, no sequels, no marketing, in her lifetime. The little girl's representatives had to agree that while she could say in her publicity materials that she had played Eloise, she could never say that she was Eloise. “I am Eloise,” Kay said bluntly. “No one else. Ever. Not as long as I live.”
Kay was a fabulous woman, an incredibly talented entertainer and an icon for little girls who grew up to be the liberated teenagers of the 60's and 70's. She was kind-hearted, a good friend and an amazing shopping partner. She loved the cast of that Playhouse 90 production, couldn't speak highly enough of Frankenheimer, was excited by the new songs and choreography she had created and charmed by the little girl she had befriended. She came to her just before airtime and said: “You cannot imagine how difficult this is for me. I love you so much. But I am Eloise. I can't help it.”
I loved Kay Thompson dearly -- from the moment I auditioned for her and was selected to play Eloise. The publicity trip to New York was my first plane ride, 11 1/2 hours with horrible turbulence. As the stewardesses opened the doors and the photographers began shooting, I had to throw up. Kay turned me around, held open her handbag and said, “In here!” We were best buddies from then on.
EVELYN RUDIE
Santa Monica, Calif.
Rudie’s Playhouse 90 appearance is at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/playhouse-90-eloise-1956 and at the time of this writing (Spring 2025), Rudie is still at the Santa Monica Playhouse, where she has been since 1973. https://www.santamonicaplayhouse.com/evelyn-and-chris.html
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP571222
THE CAST
Evelyn Rudie (Julie Roberts), Dick Beals (Timmy), Shirley Mitchell (Ann / Martha the Nurse), Shep Menken (Ray / Dr. Parks), Jack Kruschen (Lt. Swenson / 2nd Russian), Sam Pierce (Announcer / Sergeant Peters), Ben Wright (Professor Goodwin / Agent), Lou Krugman (Motorist / First Russian), Norm Alden (Major / Reporter), John W. James (Dog), George Walsh (Narrator)
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