Mason Adams stars in a Peter Fernandez script about a truck driver making his last run as a carrier of explosives. The family needs the extra pay from this very run to afford a nurse for their sick daughter. He promises his wife that this will be last run and he will transport safer cargo after it’s over. He assures his boss that he will not drive faster than 30 miles per hour. So now listeners know the daughter’s care hangs in the balance, he may not live long enough to get an opportunity for that job, and that he’ll be exceeding the self- and cargo-imposed speed limit. These three tension points swirl together when he is forced at gunpoint to pick up a murderer and bank robber. The criminal threatens to shoot into the dynamite unless he is driven where he wants to go and at top speed. The rattled father makes careful decisions about how and where he drives at high speed. He attempts to get police attention while not tipping off his rider who threatened to kill him if he did. It’s a good story and Mason Adams delivers a fine performance.
Adams was a fine radio performer, often heard on Inner Sanctum and other New York shows, but also an exceptional stage, film, and television performer. If the voice sounds familiar, he was the voice of Smucker’s jams and jellies television commercials for many years. He was often on CBS Radio Mystery Theater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_Adams
Peter Fernandez appeared in stage, radio and movies and made his Broadway stage debut with Ethel Barrvmore in Whiteoaks in 1938. He turned to writing radio and TV scripts after establishing himself as an expert in adventure magazine stories in publications such as Texas Rangers, Range Riders, and others. Among nostalgia and anime fans, he was known as the voice of the 1960s series Speed Racer as well as supporting roles for Astro Boy, Gigantor, and others. He was a guest at Friends of Old Time Radio conventions. Fernandez wrote nine Suspense scripts and appeared as a performer eight times, with four of those times in scripts he authored.
Two other Suspense episodes involving hauling of dynamite are 1957-06-23 A Load of Dynamite and 1959-01-18 Ride Down Cajon.
No script can be found to identify the program recording date.
For many years, the only copy of this program was a low quality network aircheck with background noise and narrow range. Now, there is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#764) that is the much better of the two. It has a rich, clean sound.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP591206
THE CAST
Mason Adams (Ben), Larry Haines (Zuckert), Elaine Rost (Kate), Jim Boles (Jake), Robert Dryden (Jardine), Herb Duncan (officer 1), Bill Lipton (officer 2)
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