Raymond Burr stars in the third performance of this William N. Robson script. The great grandson of a pirate thinks he has found the location of hidden treasure, and instead finds a corpse!
The first broadcast starred J. Carroll Naish. Details about that broadcast and how the story ties to the historical pirate Jose Gaspar and the geographical references in the script can be found at:
1952-02-04 J. Carroll Naish
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/07/1952-02-04-treasure-chest-of-don-jose.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP520204 has links to the recordings for streaming or download.
The second broadcast starred Edgar Barrier:
1956-06-26 Edgar Barrier
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/02/1956-06-26-treasure-chest-of-don-jose.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP560626 has links to the recordings for streaming or download.
The program was recorded on Sunday, August 17, 1958. This Sunday session was likely an accommodation for Burr’s schedule in filming Perry Mason episodes for television. Rehearsal began at 10:00am and recording commenced at 1:00pm, concluding with studio edits at 2:00pm. Further production edits and were scheduled for Tuesday, September 2, 1958. This episode was originally scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, September 7. The Man Who Won the War with Herbert Marshall was broadcast instead.
No network recording is known to survive. Of the four ad slots, two were purchased by GMC Trucks and Congoleum flooring. The two other slots were allocated before broadcast.
A “new” Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#695) was found in recent years. It is in superb sound. It replaces Armed Forces Radio station airchecks that were in poor sound and heavily edited. It allows much greater appreciation of Burr’s performance.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP581011
THE CAST
RAYMOND BURR (Gaspar), Joe de Santis (Jeff), Karl Swenson (Tris), Tommy Cook (Steve), Charles Seel (Coffin), George Walsh (Narrator)
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