William N. Robson is author of this script, an interesting diversion from the typical Suspense offering. Robson appeared as a guest at the SPERDVAC Tenth Anniversary Convention of November 10, 1984. A recreation of Headshrinker was presented there and starred Joan Banks Lovejoy and Harry Bartell. Robson’s introductory comments put this drama in perspective:
Radio drama of fifty years ago differed greatly from what it became towards the end of the so-called Golden Age. Early on we were producing extravaganzas with symphonic music cues played by full studio orchestras. Our casts included as many movie stars as our budgets permitted, and generally, the result was embarrassing. All that glittered was not golden. Through the years we became more thoughtful, more experimental, and more introspective thanks to Irving Ries, and Arch Oboler, Norman Corwin, and others who cared less for commercial sponsorship and for the opportunity to say what could be said best on this marvelous medium. A Frenchman, whose name escapes me now, once described drama as “two barrels, a plank, and a passion.” For us, radio drama for a long time was a microphone, a transmitter, and very little content, to say nothing of passion. But by the end of the late 1950s, there was a lot of passion and content, and we were exploring subject matter that could never have occurred to the pioneer producers of the 30s. What you are about to hear is such an effort, a Suspense program, first produced in 1958. It is uncluttered with sound effects, no maudlin music to halt the action, leaving nothing but naked passion. It may not be to your liking. It may disturb you, but it's real, and it's true. So I hope you'll enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed creating it.
A small correction to Mr. Robson these 40+ years later: No one is quite sure what the original and exact quotation is about drama. It is usually attributed to the prolific Spanish playwright Lope de Vega (1562-1635), but even that is not certain. It is believed that de Vega wrote about 1800 plays. With productivity like that, he could have worked for the golden age of radio’s Hummert Factory!
Robson’s introductory monologue offers a glimpse into the storyline. The surviving recordings of this broadcast do not have the entire monologue. A portion of the monologue text is underlined: it is not in any of the surviving recordings of this episode. Others are also missing the text marked in bold. This is the complete monologue, as transcribed from the original script:
This by way of explanation. To the dramatist, where there is conflict, there is a play. The conflict, the naked emotions, the tragedy which occurs on the psycho-analysts couch, therefore, is fair game to the playwright. But, there cannot be a play without a protagonist and an antagonist. In the play you are about the hear, the antagonist, the bad guy, happens to be the doctor. But let the AMA and the APA note, we do not wish to imply that all psychiatrists are heavies, nor that psychoanalysis is nonsense. Without psychotherapy, a lot of us would be dead, or worse -- so sick that death be a welcome surcease. So, listen then, listen to Headshrinker starring Miss Nina Foch and Mr. Helmut Dantine, which begins in just a moment.
The story is about a smug and corrupt psychotherapist who had an affair with his patient. Such acts disrupt the therapeutic process, taking it off course, and creating many other issues. In this case, the patient is so upset that she brings a gun and wants to end their personal and medical relationship. It is not an easy story to listen to.
This is a publicity photo for the program with Robson, Foch, and Dantine. We often see photos of Robson that are from earlier in his career. At this time, he is 52 years old. Dantine is 40 and Foch is 34.
Headshrinker is one of those complex stories where you wonder if anyone is really telling the truth or if they even mean anything they say. At the end of the story, you have to wonder if she is “cured” or if she will arrive for the session next week and they both repeat the same interaction all over again. There are patients who are in therapy for years and problems remain unresolved. Is this really the end? Does she need to see another practitioner to recover from what this therapist did? Will this therapist repeat this pattern again with another patient?
The program was recorded on Wednesday, October 15, 1958. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm with recording initiated at 4:30pm. The session and in-studio edits were completed at 6:00pm. Additional production edits concluded at 8:00pm.
This site has some history about the term "shrink" being used for mental health professionals: https://www.online-psychology-degrees.org/why-are-they-called-shrinks/
The beginning of the broadcast is missing, as noted. It is likely that the original network tape (or its surviving copy) was damaged. Current circulating recordings have evidence of an attempted restoration by patching the generic George Walsh opening of Suspense to the most unaffected portion of the Robson’s monologue. Knowing that the Walsh open is not part of the original broadcast, it has been removed. The patched recording has been in circulation among classic radio enthusiasts for nearly 50 years.
The full monologue can found in a repeat broadcast of the script from 1959-08-23 with Agnes Moorehead and Larry Dobkin. It is interesting that the second production of the script was Robson’s last as Suspense producer and the final Hollywood production of the series. It is clear he had a special affection and pride for the script. While the monologue of that broadcast may be intact, it is a heavily edited aircheck recording. This means that there is no complete end-to-end recording of either the 1958 or the 1959 broadcast of Headshrinker.
There are two surviving network recordings. The one marked “network” is the better of the two. The other one is marked “network news at end.” It is a curiosity in that it has a fragment of the news program The World Tonight that followed Suspense on Saturday evenings. The main news stories are school segregation legal developments in Virginia, and the papal conclave in Rome that would eventually lead to the selection of Pope John XXIII.
[Many thanks to classic radio enthusiast and historian, and SPERDVAC member, Barbara Watkins for supplying the audio of Robson. Many thanks to Corey Harker, current president of SPERDVAC for approving the inclusion of this recording in The Suspense Project.]
[Many thanks to John Schneider of the website www.theradiohistorian.org who found the publicity photo in his research materials.]
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP581025
THE CAST
NINA FOCH (Ruth), HELMUT DANTINE (The Doctor), Florence Hawkesworth (Nurse), George Walsh (Narrator)
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