Richard Beals stars in a George Bamber story as a lab scientist working on human cell structure whose experiment goes quite wrong. Beals’ performance is outstanding. It is tempting to compare this script to the movies The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957 release, and highly regarded) or Attack of the Puppet People (1958 release, not so highly regarded) that were in theaters prior to this production. That would take away from this innovative production.
The Bamber story is based on the search for ways to shrink cancer cells and the project lab work goes wrong. All of the patient’s cells shrink. The script is good, but concept is not ground-breaking and had been done before. When you consider the kinds of special effects and props that were needed for The Incredible Shrinking Man, the synergy of effectiveness of Bamber, and Robson, and especially Beals, do all of that, and more, with effects, music, and acting ability. It becomes an example of how powerful radio drama can be. Beals’ character realizes that his death is imminent. He endures frustrating attempts to warn others, and makes plans for his warnings and remains to be found after his demise. Some may consider this to be schlock sci-fi that was common in the 1950s, but the production rises well above that. Then there’s the professional voice acting challenge that Beals had to meet and exceed.
Richard Beal's wide ranging performance did not require any special effects beyond his vocal skills to produce the high-pitched voices, and have them change to indicate the character’s steadily reducing size. He was interviewed at a SPERDVAC meeting on April 16, 1988. It included this exchange with interviewer Larry Gassman; the text has been edited for clarity:
Richard Beals: The toughest radio show for me was the Suspense show Return to Dust. It was the toughest, toughest radio show I ever had to do. It's the scene where I start out just about my size, three feet tall, from average size down to three feet. And then I keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller. I think I’ve taken a potion of something that is going to give eternal life, but it's just making me smaller. And then in the final scene, I’m so small, the parakeet eats me. [audience chuckles] Getting that voice down that small to sustain it was the toughest radio show I ever had to do.
Larry Gassman: They didn’t speed that up?
Beals: No, no… that was me.
Gassman: You did all that, really?
Beals: No, that was me.
Gassman: I figured they just sped it up.
Beals: No. We did it. We taped it, of course. But it was live on tape. We didn't have any retakes on that.
The one-minute audio clip of the discussion can be found at the same link as the program recordings.
Beals was a fascinating participant of the golden age of radio, animation entertainment, and television advertising. He had a very long and successful career. His voice was affected by, as he explained it, a glandular issue where he did not go through puberty. Wikipedia has an overview of his career and life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Beals
His biography, Think Big, published in 1992, can be viewed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/thinkbig0000beal and can often be found as used copies for $15 or thereabouts. His biography does not mention his performance in Return to Dust.
Thank you again to SPERDVAC’s Barbara Watkins for access to the recording and to Corey Harker, president of the organization, for permission to make the audio clip available.
In his monologue, Robson has high praise for the earlier Bamber script, and refers to it as The Tennis Shoe. The title of that play was actually Like Man, Somebody Dig Me.
The title of the episode comes from Genesis 3:19. The King James Version translates it as “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The Complete Jewish Bible translates it as “You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.”
The original title of the episode was “Specimen.”
The program was recorded on Thursday, January 22, 1959. Rehearsal began at 2:00pm and recording started at 4:30pm. Including in-house edits that session ended at 6:00pm. Production edits were completed by 8:00pm. Music was added at a later time before broadcast.
There are three surviving recordings. There is a network recording that is complete but is in low quality sound with narrow range and some wow and flutter. There is an edited network recording without commercials that is the best quality recording. The surviving Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording is of moderate quality and is complete.
The Incredible Shrinking Man can be viewed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/incredible-shrinking-man-1957 as can be Attack of the Puppet People https://archive.org/details/AttackOfThePuppetPeople1958
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP590201
THE CAST
RICHARD BEALS (James Howard), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Warren Bader), Paula Winslowe (Miss Prichard), George Walsh (Narrator)
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