Bernie Grant stars in a Sam Locke story about a comic strip artist whose work is falling out of favor with readers. He is hungry for ideas, and is tiring of the “Dirk Diamond” character he created. His publisher says he needs more vicious and nasty villains to retain readers and grow the strip’s audience. As a set-up for this plotline’s outcome, the publisher says to the artist “Murder is what people have come to expect from Dirk Diamond.” When asked for a new idea, the artist develops a character from a traumatic childhood memory. Rather than pretending to have an imaginary friend that is a common childhood experience in playtime, he had an imaginary bully named “Freddy.” As he uses the character in the strips, readership grows. The strip’s audience loves it and more newspapers are picking up the feature. The artist is not pleased with the rebound because it means he has to descend into and expand his torturous memory for the strip stories. He starts believing the evil character is real and will to do him great physical harm. He starts seeing Freddy in others around him, and sees Freddy eventually in himself.
The opening of the story has an excellent “hook” to capture listener interest. It sounds like you’re listening to the planning of mob hits, and the word “syndicate” is used. The context makes it sound like a “murder for hire” storyline. You quickly learn it’s a play on words, and not a criminal “syndicate” but a meeting of a syndicator of comic strip features to newspapers. The story hooks the listeners, but the story slowly squanders that interest in the style of a bad Murder at Midnight story. The plotline is somewhat common in pre-code horror comic books (and even some Shadow radio plots) where a person is taken over by a separate and opposite evil personality. It’s not particularly good, and it would be a poor choice to offer it to attract a new listener to the classic radio hobby or Suspense. (NOTE: “Pre-code” in terms of comic books refers to comics published prior to the 1954 founding of The Comics Code Authority 1954 by the comic book publishers as a means to self-manage the content of stories. Starting about 1948, the industry was confronted with accusations that comic books contributed to a rise in juvenile delinquency. In 1954, the publication of Dr. Frederic Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent was a compilation of his speaking and writing about the topic and became a prime factor in the formation of the CCA).
Sam Locke was a prolific television writer of the 1950s and 1960s, especially for comedy programs. This script was re-used from one of his earliest professional efforts. It was produced for a popular early TV series, The Web, and was broadcast on 1951-01-31. Locke was the author of the Broadway play Fair Game which Paul Roberts directed and Ellen McRae made her Broadway debut. It is the play where Roberts met McRae, whom he married months later.
There are two surviving recordings. The network version has narrow range, has a slightly clipped opening but is otherwise complete. It is likely a home aircheck, and is very listenable. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#757) is the much better of the two. It has a rich, clean sound. The recording is new to circulation among hobbyists.
The program recording date and related information is not available.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP591018
THE CAST
Bernard Grant (Mike), Luis van Rooten (Welby), Eric Dressler (Freddie), Ian Martin (executive), Larry Haines (George, conductor), Maurice Tarplin (inker = Mike's assistant), Sam Raskin (fingerprint tech), Frankie Thomas, Jr. (Joe), Ellen McRae (Western Union operator, lady on train), Ruth Tobin (telephone operator)
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