Frank Lovejoy offers another excellent performance, this time as a larceny-minded bank clerk named “Harry.” He has planned a foolproof way to rob an old man’s safe deposit box. His victim is a wealthy customer who owns a pet shop, Mr. Jensen, who doesn’t trust banks. His pets are his best friends, and he has been storing money in a bird cage. He explains it’s been safe since it was hiding in plain sight. Because of many neighborhood stick-ups, he has finally decided that a bank safe deposit box might be a good idea. He deposits a significant amount of cash, nothing smaller than a $100 bill, in box 234 that Harry assigned to him. Harry has a plan, and part of it is to take box 233. He knows he needs an accomplice from outside the bank to help him pull it off. He hires someone, Gil, to visit the bank regularly to deposit a small amount in the safe deposit box above the shop owner, number 233. After a while, Mr. Jensen says that he is finished with the deposits. Harry cynically tells Jensen he will take care of the money as if it was his own. The regular guard, George, is an alcoholic, and Harry spikes the drink in his thermos to get him out of the way for the day. Jensen comes in, looking strange and bandaged, after being bitten by his favorite bird in the store, and important part of the story. Jensen is in to count his money, yet again, and he is always pleased that it is exactly as he left it. The day has come for the plan to be implemented, and Gil comes in, is given the key for box 234, puts the money into an envelope. At the counter, Harry takes the key and the envelope, and then carefully gives Gil the envelope with $1,000 from Harry for his service. Gil would later get the money he deposited in box 233. The story should be over by then, with Harry able to get away with Jensen’s money. There’s a surprise ending that Harry, and listeners, were not expecting.
There are many times when dollar denominations are mentioned. As of the beginning of 2025, a US dollar in 1959 was worth 11 times what a dollar is worth at this time. The money deposited by Jensen is more than $1 million in US$2025.
The author is identified as “Don Hahne,” but no information about him is available. It could be a “one-hit-wonder” writer or a pseudonym. The name, and various possible spellings of it, do not appear in any periodical, movie, television, radio program data bases, trade magazines, or newspapers in proper time or context. Genealogy sites were also consulted.
The box number is really not all that important to the story. But since most listeners did not have safe deposit boxes, something that “the rich people” had, it added a little extra mystery to the story.
The program was recorded on Thursday, March 5, 1959. Rehearsal began at 1:00pm and recording commenced at 3:30pm. Including in-studio edits, the session concluded at 5:00pm. Further production edits were done and ended at 7:00pm. Music was added at an unspecified date and time.
The surviving recording is a network aircheck with narrow range. The recording is very listenable, and the copy posted here is better than the usual ones in circulation. It does not have the background noise or background whistle common in most of the circulating recordings. The ending announcements and music are clipped. It is hoped that an Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) transcription might be found to hear this production, and especially Lovejoy’s fine performance, in much better sound.
The script title is in complete words, but the CBS publicity used numbers. Scripts were written in a manner to make sure titles or names were pronounced by announcers, narrators, and performers in the way the writer and others desired. The best example is for a different series, The Big Story. The sponsor of the series was Pall Mall cigarettes, but the pronunciation of the name in a particular British English dialect was “pell mell” and was not to sound phonetically like “paul maul.” Therefore, all of the scripts used the phonetic spelling “Pell Mell” in capital letters to virtually eliminate mispronunciation. In the case of this Suspense script, they wanted the number sequence 2-3-4 pronounced consistently as “two thirty four” and not “two hundred thirty-four” or “two hundred and thirty-four” or “two-three-four.” Pronunciation is one thing, readability and editorial space in a newspaper is another. CBS publicity releases to the papers just used the number “234.” Had they spelled the number out as in the script, newspaper editors for radio listings and timetables would have changed it to the numerals for space considerations.
Spoiler alert: The disease mentioned in the story is psittacosis, with the common name of “parrot fever.” The story says there is no cure, but early treatment is essential and successful. The line about Jensen not trusting doctors is very important in laying the groundwork for the conclusion. It is treated with tetracycline and related antibiotics for many weeks. Untreated, it can advance into many difficult conditions, such as heart problems.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP590315
THE CAST
FRANK LOVEJOY (Harry, the narrator), Edgar Stehli (Jensen), Lou Krugman (George / Man), Sam Pierce (Gil), George Walsh (Narrator)
Norm Alden was originally cast to play a character named “Joe,” but it was edited out of the script, likely for time considerations.
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