Jackson Beck stars in the second production of the Edgar Allan Poe story published in 1842. The script is by E. Jack Neuman. Roget might be considered an early “true crime” story. Poe’s inspiration was a news story about a young woman, Cecilia Rogers, who was murdered and her body thrown into New York City’s East River. Poe was fascinated with the story, but was far from the scene and constructed his story and perspective about the crime from sketchy newspaper accounts. When the killer was found, the story’s parallels with the actual facts were surprising. Poe had already written such details into his story… but the real-life details, including the identity of the murderer, affirmed his line of thinking… through the Dupin character.
The original production starred Cornel Wilde; details of that and the original Poe story can be found at
https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2024/09/1953-12-14-mystery-of-marie-roget.html
https://archive.org/details/TSP531214 is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.
The program was recorded on Tuesday, February 2, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.
Two recordings have survived. The network recording is a WROW aircheck and is very listenable. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#772) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the preferred one of the two.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600207
THE CAST
Jackson Beck (Dupin), Robert Dryden (The Prefect), Ethel Everett (Dulac), Jim Boles (Anatomist), Abby Lewis (Marie / Madam), Guy Repp (Bouvet), Ronald Dawson (Judge)
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