Agnes Moorehead returns to the series for the second performance of the Joel Murcott script as the jealous, selfish, nagging woman who sends chain letters to people associated with her husband’s workplace. The letters result in a death and the breakup of her own marriage.
The original broadcast details and background about chain letters (popular at the time, and were used in political campaigns) can be found at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/03/1950-04-27-chain.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP500427 and is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.
The program was recorded on Wednesday, February 26, 1958. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and finished at 6:00pm. Recording started at 6:00pm and included time for in-studio edits. Further edits were done starting at 8:00pm and concluded at 10:00pm. It was in that session that George Walsh recorded his narrations for this and likely some upcoming episodes.
There are two recordings that have survived. The better recording for listening is a complete Armed Forces Radio Service one (AFRS#970) which replaces prior heavily edited AFRS aircheck recordings in poor sound.
There is a partial network aircheck from station WTOP-AM in Washington, DC that begins with act two. The ads for Rit clothing dye and Ex-Lax are in the recording. The ads for Kent cigarettes and an unspecified allocated ad spot from the beginning of the broadcast and between acts one and two are not because they were broadcast before the recording begins. A very few words of that ad can be heard before Walsh introduces act two. This aircheck recording is preserved for Suspense history purposes. For many years, this partial recording was the only audio of this broadcast.
The ad at the end the aircheck, just before the station ID, is for Sealtest Black Raspberry Royale ice cream. The product was released in 1958, verifying the aircheck recording date.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP580309
THE CAST
AGNES MOOREHEAD (Leonora), John McIntire (George Carpenter), Ellen Morgan (Abbe Reynolds / Operator), Jay Novello (Peter Kerchevski), Herb Ellis (Burt Reynolds), Larry Dobkin (Lt. Marsh), George Walsh (Narrator)
John McIntire and Jay Novello played the same roles in the 1950 broadcast.
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