1961-12-03 The Luck of the Tiger Eye

Joan Lorring (“Diana”) and Leon Janney (“Henry”) star in a Jack Buttram script that centers around a tiger eye ring that is claimed to have played a role in the great fortune of Diana’s deceased uncle. The ring supposedly brought him great luck, but luck, it is learned, had nothing to do with it. The plotline has the feel of an Inner Sanctum episode, perhaps encouraged by the voice of Raymond Edward Johnson who plays the dead uncle’s butler, Jerold. As best as can be determined, it is an original Suspense script.

Henry and fiancée Diana arrive at the late uncle's isolated mansion to claim an inheritance. The will states that they must say in the home for one night and will receive $250,000. That is $2.7 million in US$2025 value! Henry finds the uncle's diary, and reads that a tiger eye ring was buried with him. Diana tries to discourage Henry from retrieving it. He believes it holds some kind of secret to the accumulation of wealth, just like it did for the uncle. He forces Diana to go to the crypt with him, and as he struggles to get the ring off the finger, the coffin lid falls, barely missing him. Diana thinks it’s a sign; Henry ignores her admonition. Henry shows the ring to another heir to the fortune, Commander Quinn. Henry is so full of himself that he has the ring and shows it to both of them. boasts of having the ring. Quinn and the butler reveal the truth: it's a booby-trapped ring with a poison-tipped spring, a deadly trick. The holder of the ring would turn the ring three times on their finger, and then a tiny spring with poison, would deliver its fatal result. Henry twists the ring three times as instructed in the diary entry. The mechanism operates as Jerold said. Henry becomes the last recipient of the “luck of the tiger eye” and gets a full does of the uncle’s dark humor.

The mythology and meaning about wearing a “tiger eye” gemstone ring covers a wide range of attributes. It can almost mean anything the wearer wants it to mean. The natural aggression of the tiger, and other big cats, are supposedly affirmed in the ring wearing as confidence, courage, and strength. The gemstone is mined in many areas of the world, can have many different colors and is usually from metamorphic rock.

Perhaps one of Hollywood’s curious tiger eye ring legends played a role in the creation of this script. Rudolph Valentino purchased a tiger eye ring that was claimed to be cursed. His career and life took a downturn after he purchased it in San Francisco, and died at age 31. His lover, Pola Negri, fell ill after taking the ring, and her career also spiraled down, too. Then bandleader Russ Colombo had the ring, and he died in a freak gun accident. His friend, Joe Casino, had the ring and died a year later. Casino supposedly never wore the ring, suspicious of its role in the problems of its past owners. The story was in the news decades later at the time this script was written.

The program was recorded on Thursday, November 30, 1961. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

There are two surviving recordings of this episode, and both are in very pleasing sound quality. The network recording is slightly better than the Armed Forces Radio Service one (AFRS#858).

The script was written by Jack Buttram, whose long and varied business career involved radio scriptwriting, broadcasting, acting, public relations, and international relations. He was also a writer for Unshackled.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611203

THE CAST

Joan Lorring (Diane Singer), Leon Janney (Henry Letcher), Raymond Edward Johnson (Jerold), Mercer McLeod (Commander Colby Quinn)

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1961-11-26 Mantrap

Don McLaughlin stars in a John Roeburt story that was originally used on Inner Sanctum on 1950-12-18 as Murder By Consent. It is a good script with good performances by some of the most highly regarded performers in New York radio.

McLaughlin plays “Brick,” the foreman of a highway construction crew, and his second-in-command, Artie, assists him. Brick was once interested in Lola, who later married Artie. There’s always been suspicion that Brick still has eyes for Lola and they might have or already are having, an affair. The project has a regular task of using some dynamite to help clear the next area they will build. This creates an interesting situation: there is heightened tension between Brick and Artie, and Artie dares Brick to detonate the charge before Artie gives the “all clear” signal that could kill him. It’s early in the story, so of course, Artie is killed. Or is he? Was it suicide? Was it an accident? Accusations and facts are hurled in all directions, and we gradually learn of a complicated plot by Artie and Lola to collect Artie’s big $30,000 insurance policy (almost $325,000 in US$2025!). The local sheriff investigating this does not have clean hands in the case. If he finds it is suicide, or fraud, the insurance company will pay 20% of the policy to the department because they prevented a false payment. If it is an accident of some sort, they will pay Lola. She has every reason to keep the investigation focused on Brick and that it was jealousy of Artie that had him murdered. Brick, being an honest man, is tormented by it all. There are so many things that don’t make sense to the Sheriff and Brick. A surprise ending, however, with Brick and a suddenly very much still-alive Artie, that explains it all.

Of course, the name of someone in the building industry would be “Brick.”

Since this was an Inner Sanctum script, there are scenes of ghosts and such sounds, made plausible and legitimate for Suspense by use of a tape recorder in the story. No recording of the Inner Sanctum episode has survived, but it likely that those scenes were played up to be much spookier than they are here along with their signature organ music.

The accepted spelling of the title “Mantrap” is as one word, not two.

There are two recordings that have survived, a network aircheck and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#857). Both are in very pleasing sound. The network recording has fuller range, and is preferred, while the AFRS recording has a slightly narrower range.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611126

THE CAST

Don McLaughlin (Brick Delaney), Ralph Bell (Artie Finch), Joseph Julian (Kelleher), Teri Keane (Lola Finch), Ralph Camargo (Pedro), Lawson Zerbe (Pop Wilkes)

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1961-11-19 The Black Door

Bob Readick stars in a Robert Arthur story that was originally used on 1952-03-18 for the The Mysterious Traveler series. It is a two-person play, with Ralph Camargo as co-star.

Readick’s character is a professor who has received a grant to find the lost “City of the Fire God” in Central America. He gets the assistance of a local man who has a small, ancient Mayan statue that his grandfather claimed to find near the lost city. The professor needs a helpful guide and any plausible leads about the location. The two men make a deal to share whatever treasure they find, and they embark on the search together. A helicopter takes them to a remote volcanic region and start exploring an extinct volcano. They discover the ruins of an ancient city inside. There is a temple filled with gold human-form statues, but they have dog-like heads. The statues have their eyes pointed to toward a black disc in the floor. The professor realizes it is a map of the moon’s mysterious dark side, never seen from the Earth.

The men find a passage, by going through the “black door,” that leads underground. There, they find vast mushrooms, human bones with bite marks, and signs that something is still alive. They hear howling echoes from below and decide to flee. They are pursued by dog-headed creatures that look similar to the statues they saw in the temple. The professor shoots one. The two men escape. The professor fears what might happen if these dog-headed creatures went into the world, and decides to dynamite the tunnel to collapse it. The explosion triggers an earthquake, causing the dormant volcano to erupt, destroying the city. The professor speculates that the creatures were “extraterrestrial refugees” that settled in Central America and Egypt thousands of years ago and devolved into animal-like forms. The conclusion of the story is a warning: when humans explore the moon, especially its dark side, those dog-headed creatures might still be there.

The dark side of the moon was always a matter for sci-fi conjecture and storylines. Because of the combined rotation of the earth and the moon, only about 60% of the surface of the moon is visible from earth. Exploration of the “dark side” did not begin until spacecraft started to photograph it years later. It is rockier than the side visible to the earth.

What makes the story sound very odd to modern audiences is that we know much more about the moon than the listening audience of 1961 did (and even more than the 1952 Mysterious Traveler audience). Less than eight years after this broadcast, humans would land on the moon… and a few expeditions later, one of the astronauts would hit a golf ball as an amusing demonstration of the moon’s low gravity! This was not a particularly good Suspense story as it is so out of place in the series’ tradition. Suspense did present science fiction stories effectively, but this one is a much lesser story compared to those.

The main lesson of the story is to leave such things as searching for treasure in dangerous or legendary places alone, because you’ll probably return empty-handed anyway (and its corollary, “be careful what you ask for, you might just get it”). The episode Door of Gold had a similar pattern. It makes one wonder if Edgar Scott Flohr listened to the original Mysterious Traveler broadcast and used it as a springboard idea for his Suspense script.

The program was recorded on Thursday, November 16, 1961. The session started at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

There are two surviving network aircheck recordings. The better one is likely from WROW. There is a lesser aircheck from WDNC of Durham, North Carolina that has narrow range and some station drift. There are very few recordings from this particular station, but it is clear that there were fans around the country who recorded the shows for convenience and sometimes for preservation.

This is the first appearance on Suspense by Readick since he left the lead role in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar for personal reasons in June 1961. Readick's difficulties with depression would probably been treated more successful today. It is interesting to note that wife Barbara Kasarr's appearances on Suspense and YTJD began after he exited that lead role. Her appearances ended when he returned to Suspense as an actor and a writer. He made ten appearances on Suspense after he returned, only one of them with wife Barbara in the same production.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611119

THE CAST

Robert Readick (Richard Landry), Ralph Camargo (Pedro Ramirez)

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1961-11-12 The Imposters

Ted Osborne and Charita Bauer star in a creative Peter Fernandez script where scammers are scammed by scammers, with a twist. Bauer plays “Angela,” a new housekeeper arriving at an isolated estate owned by a reclusive married couple, the Cromwells, who insist on strict privacy. She is met by the butler, Victor, who has carefully screened her, not just for her skills, but for her specific physical attributes such as age and height and other factors. It is very clear that Victor has something cunning planned, and he finally reveals it to Angela once he is confident enough to do so. His plan is to murder the couple and assume their identities. The Cromwells are wealthy, and have no relatives that Victor knows of who might spoil the plan. He has studied the Cromwells, their habits, the flow of the household in terms of deliveries of food and supplies (ordered by phone and delivered only as far as the front gate), the way they spoke and the phrases they used, and how they protected their identities and minimized their contact with others. Financial and legal transactions are always at arms-length, and never in person. He teaches Angela how to forge signatures as needed to pay bills and other circumstances. They decide they are finally ready to execute the plan, and they poison the Cromwells, and bury the bodies. Then an unexpected event happens: a letter arrives for the butler, from his son. He will be arriving to visit his father. That son has likely met the Cromwells, man years ago, and will likely realize that something is very wrong. It is here that Fernandez’ script takes a surprising turn, several, in fact. It is learned that the people Victor and Angela knew as the Cromwells were not who they said they were… and everything falls apart.

The program was recorded on Thursday, November 9, 1961. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

The script was used again on ABC Radio’s Theatre 5 on 1965-01-21.

There are two network aircheck recordings of this episode. The WROW (Albany, NY) recording is the much better of the two. The WINF (Hartford, Connecticut) recording is very low quality with background noise and station drift.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/611112

THE CAST

Ted Osborne aka Reynold Osborn (Victor Hammersmith), Charita Bauer (Angela), Arline Blackburn (Agnes Cromwell), Melville Ruick (Charles Cromwell), Cliff Carpenter (Police Lt. / Taxi Driver), Bill Lipton (Paul Mason)

This is the first time Ted Osborne used the name “Reynold Osborn” on Suspense. No explanation for his use of that name has been found. Osborne is the only actor who was in both the first and the last episodes of Suspense.

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1961-11-05 'Til Death Do Us Part

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS TITLE WAS USED BEFORE ON SUSPENSE. THIS 1961 PRODUCTION IS A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY. THE 1942-12-15 SCRIPT BY JOHN DICKSON CARR IS ABOUT A BRITISH PROFESSOR WHO BELIEVES HIS WIFE HAS DESIRE FOR A YOUNG AMERICAN DOCTOR. That same script was also used on the 1948-12-12 broadcast of Cabin B13. Other series have used this title multiple times for different scripts.

Sam Gray stars in a Ben Kagen script that was originally used in the Hollywood Star Playhouse broadcast of 1951-08-02 as Until Death Do Us Part. It starred Macdonald Carey, who replaced the originally scheduled Van Heflin.

You know something is just “not right” in the story as it plays out to its Whistler-like conclusion. Gray plays “Paul Vercel,” a man who decides he must get rid of his wife who deserted him ten months ago when he was ill. She suddenly returned, without remorse or apology, and has been back home for the last two months. Paul really won’t let her past absence go, and decides he must act against her. He starts forging pain killer prescriptions, stockpiling pills so he can poison her. No matter what he does, no matter the dose, or combination of other poisons, she shows no ill effects. This drives him crazy, and we eventually learn the surprising truth, expertly held until the last moments by Kagen’s scriptwriting. It is a Whistler-like ending.

This episode was recorded on Thursday, November 2, 1961. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

As noted, this episode’s title was used twice in the series for two different scripts. The script used in this broadcast was first used on Hollywood Star Playhouse for 1951-08-02. It was a very common gimmick. The title ‘Til Death Do Us Part or some variation was a favorite of radio scripters because the typical marriage ceremony included the phrase. It was simplistic irony to title mystery stories involving one spouse working to the detriment or demise of the other. It was used three different times on The Whistler, and they were each different stories:

1944-07-30 Royce Pargill character; the surviving copy is AFRS Mystery Playhouse; the author is not known as there is no network recording and the script is not available in any known archive
1948-04-14 Norman Grayson character, written by John W. Hart and a Joel Malone
1950-11-26 Roy Layton character, written by Joel Malone

An Emil Tepperman script Till Death Do Us Part was presented three times on Inner Sanctum:

1945-10-16 with Larry Haines and Ann Shepherd
1947-10-27 with Mercedes McCambridge and Everett Sloane
1952-09-14 with Mason Adams and Bryna Raeburn

The title or a variation of it was also used for the following series:

Hollywood Theater of Stars 1949-01-12 and 1950-12-15, unknown author
Let George Do It 1949-01-24, script by David Victor and Herbert Little Jr.
Murder at Midnight episode #12, script by Joseph Ruscoll
Mysterious Traveler, 1944-07-30 and 1948-11-11, script by Robert Arthur and David Kogan
Sealed Book episode #17, script by Robert Arthur and David Kogan
Shadow 1949-03-06, script by Edward Adamson
Theatre 5 1965-04-06, script by Raphael David Blau (titled “Until Death Do Us”)
and CBS Radio Mystery Theater 1977-03-11, script by Sam Dann

Sam Gray was active in Broadway, television, movies and radio, usually as a supporting actor. He also appeared in 33 episodes of CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

Two recordings have survived, and the Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#855) is much preferred for its fuller sound and clarity. A surviving network aircheck, likely from WROW, has very narrow range and background noise.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611105

THE CAST

Sam Gray (Paul Vercel), Elaine Rost (Mrs. Vercel), Barbara Kasarr (Girl), Carl Frank (Doctor), Jim Boles (Janitor), Herb Duncan (Druggist), Bill Lipton (Police officer)

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1961-10-29 Death of an Old Flame

Larry Haines stars as a cocktail lounge pianist, Ronnie Warren, who gets involved in a fur robbery to help the wife who deserted him five years ago. It’s a George Bamber script, dripping with a cynical observations about relationships and loyalty; it’s clear that Ronnie’s jaded skepticism about it all was from experience. The robbery is being planned by his estranged wife’s boyfriend, a mobster. How did Ronnie fall for this and think it could turn out okay? Was it the cut of the $500,000 in furs he would get ($5.3 million in US$2025)? Or was it that he could win her back again? No, they play Ronnie for a patsy. The wife will be the beneficiary of the mobster’s life insurance, and Ronnie’s burned body will be found with enough planted evidence to make police believe it was the mobster’s corpse. In the meantime, mobster would head to Mexico, and when the “ex” collects the insurance, she’ll join him. It will be a big payday from fencing the furs and the insurance payout, and they can live happily ever after. Ronnie has other ideas. In the end, it’s Ronnie who survives the devious betrayal.

Special music was composed and performed by Norman Paris. He was a highly regarded pianist and was musical director for many late 1950s television shows, including game shows. While he usually worked for show producers and not networks, he worked on many CBS shows. Producer Bruno Zirato, Jr. was surrounded by music. His father was a musician and worked at the New York Philharmonic supporting numerous conductors and performers. He likely called Paris into this broadcast because they worked together on some of CBS game shows and other television projects starting in the late 1950s.

There is no script cover for this program at this time. Therefore, the date and time of recording is not known.

Ronnie uses a “karate chop” to get out of his difficulties. Bamber would have been familiar with karate skills as hand to hand grappling was part of military training starting with Marines in the mid-1950s. Stationed in Korea, Bamber may have known soldiers who were taking instruction in martial arts there in their free time off base (the main Korean martial arts styles are Tong Soo Do and Tae Kwan Do). Interest in karate grew rapidly in the US through the 1960s as military personnel returned from service in Korea, Japan, and especially Okinawa and open schools in their home towns. It seems odd to have it in the story, but it was both novel and modern for it to be there. Listeners would have been drawn to the mystery around martial arts at that time.

Bamber’s script may have been influenced by the television series Johnny Staccato with John Cassavetes. It ran on NBC in the 1959-1960 season. Cassavetes played a jazz pianist who helped people get out of various difficulties, often trapped in the periphery of criminal activities and threatened by tough guys.

There is a double meaning in the story of “old flame.” It refers to the emotion of a love interest that is no longer felt, and also the person, who dies in an actual fire. In that sense, the title is a spoiler.

Two recordings have survived, and they are both flawed. The better recording is the network aircheck that is likely from WROW of Albany, New York. Another aircheck was recently discovered from WINF of Hartford, Connecticut. That station started broadcasting in 1958, and closed in the mid-1980s. Both recordings have limited range and background noise. It is hoped that a clean Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) transcription can be found in the future.

The story is better known among classic radio enthusiasts for its 1965-05-20 broadcast on ABC Radio’s Theatre 5. It which starred Sammy Davis, Jr.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611029

THE CAST

Larry Haines (Ronnie Warren), Teri Keane (Anna), Evie Juster (The Girl), Robert Donley (Leo), Ralph Bell (Frank)

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1961-10-22 Witness to Murder

Joan Lorring plays a troubled wife on an ocean liner trip. Her husband is acting in a manner to have her declared insane, commit suicide, or to create a circumstance where he can kill her, have it appear to be an accidental. The superb and complex story is by Frances Rickett. There are many details that require close listening to get the full context of the story. The script could easily fit into the glory years of the series.

Lorring’s character is Louise Meredith, who boards an ocean liner bound from Southampton to New York with her husband, Larry. It’s clear that something is just not right. Just three months before she was on that very same ship, staffed with the very same crew members, that transported her to to England. It is implied that the first journey was for rest or treatment for psychological challenges. She had a nervous breakdown on that crossing and she remains greatly embarrassed by it. That feeling is intensified by her husband selecting the very same ship for the return home. He claims it was the only available itinerary, but as we learn more about Larry, it was part of a plan to help push her over the edge into a mania once more. He seems desperate to rid himself of her.

One of her quirky behaviors is that she speaks French when others are not expecting it, and then denying that she did it. This befuddles others as it can happen in mid-conversation. “Code-switching” is common and harmless among multilingual speakers, but her denial of it in the story indicates something deeper is going on. (Joan Lorring may have been selected for this role because it seems she has great fluency in French). Louise begins to suspect that Larry is purposely stressing her to spark this odd behavior, even by having an attendant speak French to her, believing it would force her into French again. He reiterates to others that she is still ill but getting better. She realizes, however, that he would not be able to take her on the trip if doctors had not sent a letter that she was well again and approved her release. She frantically searches for that letter, but Larry interrupts her before she can find it.

At about 15:45 there is an important scene. Louise brought a beach bag on the trip that she seemed to misplace. Larry asks her about it. When she sees it on deck, she rushes toward it. Larry shouts “stay away from that rail” for her to get back from an unsecured railing. Louise realizes that he set up that public incident on purpose. Larry must have placed the bag there, making it appear she was attempting to jump overboard, confirmed by some of the background passenger chatter at the time. Larry saved her, in the eyes of the passengers, which was exactly what he wanted.

The next evening, she brings Larry to a quiet part of the ship, and she reveals that she knows what he did and why he was doing it. Larry tries to throw her overboard, shouting for all to hear “Don’t jump, Louise!” The both go overboard. It is clear that the ship’s crew rescued her, and Larry was never found. It is in her closing monologue that we learn surprising facts that put that incident in different perspective. We learn who the “witness to murder” really is.

Frances Rickett was a TV soap opera writer, but also a mystery novelist. At this time, she may have been in the early stages of writing her first novel, The Prowler. It became a finalist in the 1964 Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards for “Best First Novel.” She would later have two scripts presented on ABC Radio’s Theatre 5 series. Though she did not write many novels, her work was highly regarded. One of her novels was based on events that occurred in her home town in Indiana. There were events planned around book signing and a reading, but they were cancelled because certain people realized a main character was based on an elected official who was still in office. The portrayal, though fictionalized, was not flattering, to put it mildly. One of her earliest scripts was for a 1948 episode of Family Theater.

No script cover for this episode is available. The recording date and time are not known.

There are two surviving recordings. The network aircheck is in very listenable sound and is better than most of the recordings that have circulated for decades. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#853) is the better of the two.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611022

THE CAST

Joan Lorring (Louise Meredith), Leon Janney (Larry Meredith), Bryna Raeburn (Mrs. Blake), Mercer McLeod (Ship’s Doctor), Guy Repp (The Man), Bob Dryden (Captain Woodbridge), Ronald Dawson (Ship’s Steward)

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1961-10-15 Seeds of Disaster

Bernie Grant stars in a David Hill script about a father, named “Les,” whose wife is with him on a combination business and pleasure trip to Puerto Rico. Their young daughter is at a sleepaway camp back home. During their hotel stay, a cat takes a liking to them and visits their room often. The parents are starting to pack to return home while the daughter is at summer camp. As they pack the wife’s belongings, the cat interrupts them and starts playing with one of the souvenirs they had purchased. They try to retrieve it from the cat, it breaks. The cat scurries away. They think nothing of it and the wife heads back home. Les does not hear from her until she sends a message back to the hotel that she arrived home safely.

Soon thereafter, Les looks for the cat which he has not seen lately, and asks the maid to make sure there is milk for it. She sadly reports that the cat died, and may have been poisoned. We eventually learn that the souvenirs were decorated with seeds that were poisonous. Les is very concerned about the souvenirs that his wife brought home because he knows that his daughter has a habit of chewing on pencils and other items that she handles. When he tries to contact her, there is no answer at the house. He realizes that she is probably on the way to the camp to pick their daughter up. Thus begins a frantic effort to find his wife and daughter in time. Amid the panic, he does his best to be systematic and calm, but it is difficult. He does not know the name of the camp, he can’t reach neighbors, but he remembers his wife left the family checkbook with him. Eventually he starts tracking down in which camp the daughter was enrolled. The back and forth of phone calls and wires back and forth between local police and those back home, the piecing together of financial records and letters that were left in the room eventually come together with enough information to direct their efforts. Will he be able to contact them in time?

The script was by David Hill who wrote mainly for 1950s television. The production has a plot elements similar to 1955-10-25 To None a Deadly Drug. It is a good story, predictable as it might be, with details that keep it interesting and engaging. This is one of those stories where modern communications has made key elements of the story obsolete.

It is not known when the program was recorded as there us no available script cover with those details.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611015

THE CAST

Bernard Grant (Les), Guy Repp (The Photographer), Connie Lembke (Pam), Bob Dryden (Garcia), Barbara Kasarr (The Operator), Ralph Camargo (Lopez), Dellie Sonnenberg (The Maid)

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1961-10-08 Dreams

Philip Sterling portrays Robert Kingman, a man plagued by vivid, prophetic dreams. He hasn’t remembered his dreams for a long time, but his recent ones have been quite different. He consults a researcher, Dr. Harris, who is expert in supernatural and extrasensory perception events about the dreams that seem to foretell disturbing real-life events. That doctor is skeptical. Robert is certain that he has killed boss! The dream problems started when Robert was passed over for a promotion. He harbors great hatred for the boss who made the decision, and he had dreams about running him over in a sports car. It is not long after that the boss does die that way, in a hit-and-run accident with such a car. Robert is tortured by guilt, is convinced not just that his dreams foretold it, but that he actually caused it. His obsession with the boss seems to have warped his thinking and his sense of reality. Robert knows that if he was guilty, his punishment would be execution by the electric chair. The doctor wants him to get a second opinion, and sends him to a psychiatrist, Dr. Hagen, for evaluation. He arranges the appointment, and asks Robert to tell the new doctor to call him right away after the appointment. Robert heads to the appointment but never gets there. Dr. Hagen became worried when the appointment was missed; he soon learned what happened. Hagen calls Harris and delivers the tragic news that meant Robert’s final dream about his punishment came true in the strangest way.

The script was by Jack Johnstone under the pseudonym “Jack Bundy.” The story would have fit the format of Inner Sanctum than it did Suspense.

It is not known when this program was recorded as there is no available script cover sheet at this time.

There are three recordings available, and the best is the Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#851). There is a network recording that is in almost as good as the AFRS one. An aircheck from station KCBS of San Francisco has survived, but the first minute is missing. It is in very good sound and station ID is at the end of the recording.

Phil Sterling was a very active performer. Some refer to these actors as “it's that guy... who was in that thing....” because viewers recognize their faces but not their names. He had numerous credits in 1950s stage, radio, movies, and television. Sterling had many supporting television and movie roles through the 1960s through the mid-1990s.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611008

THE CAST

Philip Sterling (Robert), Raymond Edward Johnson (Thaddeus Hagan), Barbara Kasarr (The Girl), Connie Lembke (Janet), Richard Kendrick (Mr. Bolton), Edgar Stehli (Dr. Harris)

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1961-10-01 No Hiding Place

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS TITLE WAS USED BEFORE ON SUSPENSE. THIS 1961 PRODUCTION IS A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY. THE 1958-09-21 SCRIPT BY MORRIS LEE GREEN AND WILLIAM WALKER IS ABOUT A STALKING EX-HUSBAND.

Court Benson and Grace Matthews star in a William N. Robson story about a family’s preparations for a feared nuclear war. They build a fallout shelter in their backyard, and the townspeople and local media make quite a hubbub about it. The opening is pure Robson, much like he did in the time he was the show’s producer. Except this time, it is delivered by announcer Stuart Metz.

The script is a product of its time, where 1961 had much international tension, leading up to the building of the Berlin Wall just weeks after this broadcast. There was much saber-rattling, and concerns about nuclear war were growing in the late Spring and early Summer. Premier Kruschev threatened a nuclear attack if NATO troops did not leave Berlin and the rest of what would become East Germany. On July 25, 1961 (coincidentally the very same day that Suspense returned to the air), President Kennedy promised access to fallout shelters in the event of an attack.

It was around this time that Twilight Zone was in production for its third season, and Rod Serling rushed his own script about these times into production. The episode would become The Shelter, and was broadcast just two days before this broadcast. Serling’s script was very dark, warning viewers in his opening monologue “What you are about to watch is a nightmare.” The plotline showed how supposedly friendly and kind neighbors can could against each other in a crisis in a destructive manner. Robson’s script was also influenced by the current events, but his story is quite different, actually more positive, though it starts so ominously. It is so interesting that the creative process of two people can use a current event as a springboard, and head in opposite directions.

Robson assigned “Happy Valley” as the name of the town, so you know that the opposite sentiment might occur. There is great interest in a town’s family, the Endovers, and how they had built a shelter in their yard. Neighbors, the press, the local television station, and the town’s mayor were making a bit of a spectacle out of it. (Pay attention at about 5:45 as you hear some rain and thunder on its way). It is implied in the dialogue some believe the shelter is a frivolous venture. On a dare, Mr. Endover says he will take the family into the shelter for a weekend to prove how good it is. A weekend should be easy because the shelter has two weeks of supplies. The decision is spur-of-the moment and out of selfish pride, without any warning to his family. It is clear that the reporter has a manipulative personality, and ambitions to turn the story into national news. The family is securely in the shelter, and the newscaster is reassigned to a new scene of breaking news. The station manager tells him that the rain may cause a local dam to break. It is clear that the Robson has created the foundation of key plot elements: the shelter, a dare that can create family conflict, and a looming natural disaster.

There is some levity to the story. The family is confused in the shelter: “what will we do without any TV?” The parents explain that there are books, magazines, and activities for everyone. They need the radio, and not the TV, because that is how they will get instructions for their safety if there was a real nuclear attack. They hear a radio report that Happy Valley was declared as a disaster area because of potential flooding and mudslides. Suddenly, they are confronted by a loss of power, and soon realize they can’t get out of the shelter because they can see signs of the seeping mud around the edges of the door, trapping them inside.

The father emphasizes that they will be okay if they cooperate and concentrate on surviving with what they have. The TV reporter, finished with his duties, is told to take some time off. He realizes, however, that the family may be trapped under the mud. This doesn’t seem like “Happy Valley” any more. This might be an unfolding tragedy that warrants news coverage.

At about 16:35 the family, after singing and talking to keep their spirits up, realizes that this time has been put to good use. They have not talked like this in a long time, and it is a time that should be cherished, and continued once they are able to leave. Their daughter starts to feel a bit woozy with a headache, when it is clear that the mud is blocking the air ventilation system. They need to conserve what little good air they have. The situation may become very dire. They were having so much fun that they forgot to listen to the radio for bulletins. When they turn it on, they hear reports that help is on the way, with volunteers digging them out and bulldozers en route to the scene. Messages of support and reassurance to the family are read by the announcer. They soon hear the workers getting near to the shelter. They soon exit, with many happy voices around them, thankful for the rescue and the help. However reckless his stunt was, it led to the family reconnecting in a manner they hadn’t experienced for a long time. “Happy Valley” fits once more.

The “No Hiding Place” title is a regular theme of Robson’s writing. He often had plotlines or subplots that you cannot hide from fate in a “man plans, God laughs” or “life is what happens when you are planning other things” way. There are factors and events in life that cannot be controlled or anticipated no matter how well you plan. In this case, the shelter that was supposed to protect from a man-made disaster, nuclear attack, could not protect from a natural disaster. Unlike the Twilight Zone story, neighbors and volunteers cooperated and came to the rescue. In this story, the family was had to get out of the shelter. In the TZ story, the family had to protect themselves from their neighbors, and could not do so. The aftermath was that they could never trust their neighbors in the way they did before. In this Suspense episode the family grew closer and could appreciate all the help that came their way.

It is possible Robson may have started his position at the US Information Agency and Voice of America by the time this was broadcast. He was hired by Edward R. Murrow, who recommended him to President Kennedy. It is not clear what Robson’s exact starting date was, but it was in 1961.

Recording dates and times are not known because no script cover is available at this time.

There are two recordings of this episode. The network recording, with CBS news reported Robert Trout. It is followed by an opening clip of the sports report that announces the news about New York Yankee Roger Maris’ 61^st home run. That report by Jerry Coleman, former Yankee player turned broadcaster, details that the home run would not surpass Babe Ruth’s record because of the additional games played that year. Ruth hit 60 in 154 games while the 1961 season had 162 games. Maris’ record became known as “the asterisk” because it was always mentioned he played in a 162 game season. Though factual, it was often used to taint Maris’ achievement in 1961 and through the years that followed in his career.

This recording is likely from a network feed and is not a station aircheck. There is a time gap after Suspense that CBS that allowed for local station ID and/or commercial announcement. Because that was silent, that gap has been shortened in this recording. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#850) is also in very good sound. The recordings are very close in quality, making it difficult to choose which recording is better. The network recording is preferred because it is the way it was originally heard and it has the novelty of the news broadcast that followed it.

The Twilight Zone episode, The Shelter aired on September 29, 1961, and was the third episode of the third season. There are so many opposites in the comparison with this Suspense production. In TZ, outsiders are trying to get into the shelter. In Suspense, they are trying to get out. In TZ, perceived news events send the family in, and for Suspense, it's a foolish dare that does it. The TZ story is about the breakdown in relationships that pit neighbor against neighbor. The Suspense episode is about neighborly care and concern, and the family becomes closer than it was before. The program can be viewed on many services.

The US Department of Defense made plans for shelter construction available to the general public. This document is a combination of many of those designs and plans and can be accessed at https://dahp.wa.gov/sites/default/files/FamilyShelterDesigns.pdf

Episode stars Court Benson and Grace Matthews were radio veterans and were one of New York radio’s most beloved couples. They were frequent guests at the Friends of Old Time Radio Conventions. Court was in numerous programs, and was a featured actor in the kids serial Tennessee Jed. He would perform the opening for the program for the attendees to a round of enthusiastic applause. Grace was a star of the soap opera Big Sister and was one of the actors who portrayed Margo Lane on The Shadow.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611001

THE CAST

Court Benson (Sam Endover), Grace Matthews (Mary Lou Endover), Bill Smith (Mr. Richards), Jimsey Somers (Cindy), Ivor Francis (The Announcer), Leon Janney (The Mayor), Larry Robinson (Sandy), Lee Vines (Charlie Lemmon)

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1961-09-24 The Man in the Fog

With a title like “The Man in the Fog” the program might be expected to be in the era of the character of Sherlock Holmes or Bulldog Drummond. It might even imply that it is a spy story of some sort. It is not. It is about a serial killer, but not about the famous Jack the Ripper. The story does involve murders by knife, but it is not a recreation of the Ripper. It is a different killer with a similar modus operandi. The scripter is Joseph Cochran. The stars are Bob Dryden and Ethel Everett. She occasionally was billed as Ethel Remey in her performances.

The slasher killer is loose in London, and a housewife suspects that it is her husband. The seemingly random murders of women has police baffled, however. The killings typically occur on weekends, leading to speculation that the murderer might be a working man, free only on those days. She is obsessed with the news coverage of the killings, and especially the pattern and location of the crimes. She marks a city map and realizes that the locations approximate a square. When she draws diagonal lines inside the square, they lines intersect near her own block. She suspects the killer lives nearby. After she sends information about her theory to the police, they read it, but are somewhat skeptical. Her husband works in a factory and some evenings he has not been at home, especially on foggy nights. After another murder occurs outside their home block, and not on a weekend, the interest of the police is piqued and they step up their investigation. She learns from a fellow factory worker that her husband missed work on those nights. He insisted to her that he was at work those times. She confronts him, and tells him that she can be an alibi. She decides, instead, to go to the police. By now, the officers are much more interested in what she has to say. They tell her that they need to have him confess to the crimes, because a wife’s testimony against her husband is inadmissible. They contrive a way in the interrogation of the husband to win his confidence, and he soon makes incriminating statements. His motives for the killings indicate significant delusions about what he was doing.

The law in Britain is actually that a wife can voluntarily testify against a husband, and vice versa, but such testimony cannot be compelled. Cochran used this mild misrepresentation of the law in the plot, anyway. He likely realized that the story was better if the husband admitted the crimes himself, and needed a way to set that up.

The title ends up having two meanings. The first indicates the places and times of the killings, at night, in the fog. The second is that the killer is a man who definitely has psychological issues, mentally in a fog and unable to reason properly.

The program was recorded on Thursday, September 21. No session time is noted on the available script cover sheet.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP610924

THE CAST

Robert Dryden (Ben Kast), Ethel Everett (Mamie), Lawson Zerbe (Howley), Mercer McLeod (Britt), Guy Repp (Timekeeper / Officer)

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1961-09-17 The Green Idol

Parker Fennelly and Abby Lewis star as an older couple from Maine on a vacation tour of Saudi Arabia. They are enjoying the sights and sounds of their exotic excursion which included a series of events recounted in this broadcast. They had an encounter with a fortune teller, found a sacred object, and received an ominous prediction of death. The story is by Jack Johnstone under the name “Jack Bundy,” which, along with “Jonathan Bundy,” were used for his Suspense scripts. “Bundy” was the maiden name of his wife.

Seeking a souvenir of their Arabian trip, they visit a curio shop in the holy city of Mecca. The wife sees a small green idol that is very unique; she wants to bring home. The husband, who believes that he is an expert bazaar price negotiator, attempts to purchase it. The shop owner keeps refusing the escalating offers and desperately tries to stop them. He warns them of a terrible curse related to the idol, “the fingers of death.” The husband belligerently buys the idol anyway, dismissing all talk of curses as emanating from ignorant beliefs in magic and superstition. The warnings they receive provide an ominous sense of foreboding that permeates the rest of the story’s events. The couple learns their lesson, too late.

Some geographic and cultural context can help in the appreciation of the story. An important site, Kaaba, is generally accurate as described. According to Britannica, it is “near the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and considered by Muslims everywhere to be the most sacred spot on Earth.”

A curio shop in Mecca run by a Hindu, as noted in the story, was unlikely at this time, just from a demographic perspective. According to Wikipedia, there are over 700,000 Hindus in Saudi Arabia, but Mecca is considered a Muslim-only city. Hindus in Saudi Arabia are mainly from India and Nepal, and are on generally on work permits. Their population in Saudi Arabia has been growing significantly in recent decades, but at the time of this story, it was probably very small, and was definitely below 1%.

A green “Ramkar” idol in the story is considered a symbol of hope, purity, and devotion for Hindus, and might be jade or emerald. The particular green color is sometimes referred to as "Rama Green," similar to sea green or light teal. Lord Rama is considered the seventh avatar (incarnation) of the god Vishnu in Hindu mythology.

There are some cultural references and word pronunciation that were of their time and might be considered offensive or ignorant to modern ears.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, September 5, 1961. The session began at 11:00am and concluded at 2:30pm.

The Green Idol was originally planned for broadcast on September 10, but was rescheduled for September 17. CBS Sports was following the home run totals of Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle as “Battle of the Batters,” a half hour program that was broadcast in place of Suspense on September 10. The network broadcast a similar program on August 13, which also pre-empted Suspense. Both players were chasing the record of Babe Ruth to hit 60 home runs in the 1927 season. There was a difference in this particular year. The American League added two teams for the 1961 season, and extended the number of games from 154 to 162 to accommodate the extra teams. Ford Frick, American League Commissioner ruled that for someone to break Ruth’s true record, those eight additional games would not count toward the record; a player had to do it no later than the 154^th game. At the end of the season, Mantle was hospitalized with a hip infection, but that problem was only developing at the time of this broadcast. Mantle’s other leg injuries slowed his home run pace down. Maris could not break the record by that game, but hit his 61^st home run in game 162. Mantle finished with 54 home runs.

This was Parker Fennelly’s only appearance on Suspense. He was 70 at the time, a professional performer for more than 50 years. It began in 1915, but he became best known on radio as “Titus Moody,” a regular character in “Allen’s Alley” of the Fred Allen Show. You can see him in one of his later “roles,” as a spokesperson for Pepperidge Farms bread products at this YouTube clip https://youtu.be/vH3pR94gMo8?si=AvKhQyjVVeRRjH-f He passed away at in 1988 at age 96.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP610917

THE CAST

Parker Fennelly (Herbert), Luis Van Rooten (Al Hamid), Guy Repp (Fakir), Abby Lewis (Ethel), Mercer McLeod (Dr. Etherington), Ronald Liss (Elevator Boy)

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1961-09-03 The Juvenile Rebellion

Jimsey Somers stars as a junior high student in a social commentary science fiction story about a plot to overthrow the governments of the world through a non-violent revolution. The script is by radio veteran Robert Cenedella. The revolution, however, will be led by children. Well, they’re not really children. They are mutants disguised as children, and are in an international organization of mutants hiding behind the mask of adolescence. The conspiracy is stumbled upon by an English teacher at the local junior high school. He learns of the imminence of the revolution and details of their plot. He tries to warn others, but encounter complete frustration when he tries to tell other grown-ups of his discovery. He begs the mutant leader for more time, and he’s told there’s been enough time… and the revolution starts next week.

Juvenile delinquency was a very big topic at this time in the US, with regular newspaper coverage and Congressional hearings. The title of this episode may have been confusing to listeners when they realized it was a sci-fi story, and a story theme that was common in television dramas such as Dragnet or in movies that were still in memory, such as Blackboard Jungle and Rebel Without a Cause.

Juvenile Rebellion is somewhat stilted and childish sci-fi to modern ears. Suspense had a similar story before, Ray Bradbury’s Zero Hour. There is an innocence and enthusiasm to the kids in that story which makes it more nerve-rattling than this one. Zero Hour seems hold up better over time. There is an anger and arrogance to Juvenile Rebellion. There’s no hook to the story, since they're not kids, they're aliens pretending to be kids, and that’s quite a jump for listeners. There are no aliens, so it is easy to dismiss, unlike the Bradbury premise. Juvenile Rebellion does have “preachy stuff” that makes the closing diatribe of the legendary “worst movie of all time” Plan 9 from Outer Space so hokey. (The movie is on YouTube and this link is cued to start at that scene https://youtu.be/qsb74pW7goU?si=JfJ9zvhm_iyIWiDz&t=3906) It doesn't work all that well, and really it doesn't fit Suspense. Bradbury's Zero Hour is more subtle, while this one tries to be a sledgehammer. The other moralistic Suspense sci-fi stories such as The Voice of Company A, The Outer Limit and Report from a Dead Planet, were somewhat flawed but entertaining and thoughtful. They explored the trends and dilemmas of the times in which they were written, each in a different way.

But there is a curious backstory to this episode that may be more interesting that the production. Research into the career of Robert Cenedella was always confounded by an artist of the same name. They’re related. Robert Cenedella, Sr. was the radio writer. Robert Cenedella, Jr. was his stepson. It was Senior who raised Junior after he was 12. Senior refused a loyalty oath in the 1950s blacklist period because he insisted it was unpatriotic to demand to sign one, a decision which he paid for with erratic employment and income for many years. His stepson remembered growing up in those years and they made quite an impression. They were formative in his art career. Junior became an activist through his art, giving its content a political polarization that often made his work more fascinating whether people agreed with him or not. The breadth of his work was actually wider, however. His work is far ranging, from comical, to cynical, to fanciful, to political, and more. He worked for some notable brands when he was employed by advertising agencies. He sometimes created paintings that were personal and biographical. One was of an imagined boxing match between his biological father and his stepfather. A 1977 painting, Give to Cenedella, was about Senior's plight in the lean years (it can be seen at https://robertcenedella.com/collections/all-artwork/products/give-to-cenedella). This painting shows Senior on a platform in a crowded street scene, standing on a platform, in his undies, asking for money. By the time Juvenile Rebellion is aired, Junior is 21 years old and in art studies. This Suspense broadcast was in 1961, and Senior was still reeling from blacklist years. The news is filled at this time with the Cold War, social tensions, and worries of nuclear annihilation. Senior and Junior likely had lots of kitchen table discussions of what was going on in the world, nation, and the local politics of New York City, where Junior lived with him. The city gave him access to art schools and museums and an immersion in media, as well as the social interactions of opinions and lifestyles that made the city so different from others. The trends and countertrends and cultures and countercultures all coalesced in his art and its many different directions. Those discussions between Senior and Junior are likely reflected in the dialogue of this episode.

The origins of Juvenile Rebellion are interesting when you realize this personal backstory of it. Juvenile Rebellion must have been held in better regard in its time than it is now, more than 60 years later. It was selected to be the first offering of the second week of Theatre 5 on ABC Radio on 1964-08-10. Producer Ed Byron and director Warren Somerville wanted to start that series with their strongest scripts, and this was one of them. The title for that broadcast was changed to Rebellion Next Week.

Junior is still around (as of 2025), now 84, living in Maine, and still working, and letting you know what's on his mind via his paintings. There was a movie made about him and his times. It was released in 2016, and was a winner of many awards at film festivals.

If you’re wondering about teenage mutants and a possible relation to the comic book creation of the X-Men led by Professor X, developed by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, there is none. That series did not start until its first issue was published in September 1963.

Writer Robert Cenedella lived in Milford, Massachusetts before moving to New York City. Tewksbury, and its junior high school mentioned in the story, are not that far away from Milford since I-495 was created.

This program was recorded on Thursday, August 31, 1961. The session began at 11:00am and concluded at 2:30pm.

Jimsey Somers was child and teenage actor on Broadway and early television, appearing in experimental broadcasts in the late 1940s. She was 24 at the time of this broadcast. She appeared on many radio broadcasts in the 1950s. Her IMDb listings end in 1968, indicating she may have left the business.

A 2017 interview of Junior where he talks about his father can be found at the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/cunytv_BUNY12018 

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP610903

THE CAST

Jimsey Somers (Mary Newhall), Court Benson (Ethan Miller), Joseph Boland (Chief Hobbs), Ronald Liss (Frank), Pat Hosley (Helen)

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1961-08-27 Sold to Satan

Kermit Murdock stars as fashion business owner “Frank Wineglass” in a Jules Archer story with an interesting backdrop for the scenes, that evil intent takes hold of the main character. The plotline is driven by blackmail, and a homicide is planned to be its cure. Frank’s evil side narrates the story that shows how his business partner, Harry, has had a dalliance with one of their company’s very attractive advertising models. She demands $200 a week blackmail for the next 10 years to keep quiet and not tell Harry’s wife. Then Frank learns that his son, Douglas, is planning to marry the blackmailing model. It’s not just money between the model and Harry anymore, but now if Harry (or even Frank) warn Douglas about what she’s doing, she will send incriminating photos to Harry’s wife. She has the blackmail noose wrapped tightly around the necks of both Harry and Frank. Harry believes he can buy her off rather than resort to murder. Harry has no money to spare, but Frank will lend it to him. She demands a substantial sum based on the value of the business. She feels entitled because her modeling is one of the reasons why their product line has done well. Harry declines, and Frank’s suggestion of a more permanent solution suddenly seems like a good idea. Alibis are arranged, Frank makes a payoff that is mostly fake money, she objects, and Frank kills her. Frank’s plan is to frame Harry for the murder. He figures that having Harry and the model out of the way so she could not marry Frank’s son is a big advantage to him and the future of the business. Frank’s alibi planning did not go as planned. Harry’s alibi falters, and so does the son’s. What will “Evil Frank” and Frank do now?

The story is adapted by Joseph Cochran. The “Evil Frank” narration gimmick takes a little getting used to, but it is a novel approach to the story that works… if you’re ready for it. Some listeners may have found it confusing at first. There’s a lot of pieces to the story, making careful listening important to catch all the details. It’s worth doing.

Ian Martin is hilarious as the irascible old man Colonel Dover who is an easy target for Frank and Harry’s practical jokes and constant interruptions.

The story first appeared in Dime Mystery Magazine October 1948. The first radio production was on the series Radio City Playhouse broadcast of 1949-07-04. It was re-titled as Murder Is The Easiest Way and adapted by Harry W. Junkin. Archer was not really happy with that adaptation because Junkin changed it to a straightforward mystery story without the “Evil Frank” device. This Suspense broadcast was a new adaptation, and is presumed to be more to Archer’s liking because Joseph Cochran followed the structure of the original short story. Details about the development of original story can be found in Archer’s 1950 book I Sell What I Write which can be accessed at https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/68/mode/2up

The program was recorded on Tuesday, August 22, 1961 in a session that started at 11:00pm and concluded at 2:30pm.

The title may be misleading as in current language it may imply a story involving the occult. The phrase “sold to Satan” and variants of it were more common in conversation at the time of broadcast, and especially decades and decades before when religious observance was more pervasive than today. The phrase means that a person would do anything it takes, even selling their soul, to get what they want, regardless of downside consequences, whether they be temporal or spiritual.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP610827

THE CAST

Kermit Murdock (Frank Wineglass / Satan), Robert Dryden (Harry Feeney), Ian Martin (Colonel Dover), Richard Holland (Douglas Wineglass), Dick Hamilton (Police Officer), Elizabeth Lawrence (Diane Rodell)

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1961-08-20 Murder Is a Matter of Opinion

Phil Meeder stars in a creative and engaging Jules Archer story adapted by Ronald Dawson. Two law students, brothers, are bored with the process of creating a mock trial, a fictional legal case that allows students to learn the processes of preparing and presenting information at a real trial. They, and their deep friendship was well known on campus, and they decide to stage the a fictional but convincing crime that would deepen the interest in the exercise for themselves and other students. Their topic was whether or not a truly innocent person can be accused of a crime, prosecuted, and found guilty. At the time of this story, the risk of execution of a person found guilty was higher than in modern times. Just a brief review of newspapers of that time show that it was often a matter of months before punishment was enforced. Today, it is common for prisoners to be on “death row” for many years for those remaining states that still have capital punishment laws, while others changed laws to allow life imprisonment in its stead. For that reason, this story would had a greater urgency in its topic for listeners. The two stage multiple arguments with each other in crowded scenarios where they would be certain to have many witnesses. When one brother would disappear, it would be clear that there was foul play, until they revealed their ruse. Everything was going along well with their secret plan, until one of the brothers dies, unexpectedly, and the other is arrested. Those witnesses, and the scuttlebutt about their deteriorating relationship, makes it clear that the surviving brother did it.

Spoiler alert: You know the scheme would have a hiccup because it’s Suspense, so there’s no surprise there. A key to the conclusion is a brother’s coughing. It does seem annoying, but once you remember the show was recorded, and if it was an inadvertent cough, you know it would be edited out. It’s part of the story, and that becomes obvious because of its frequency. Despite these issues, it’s still a good story.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, August 1, 1961, starting at 10:30am and concluding at 2:30pm.

The broadcast was poorly promoted by CBS publicity. They promoted Old Boyfriend which was delayed and would not be broadcast until many weeks later. No newspaper had an announcement for this script’s broadcast.

The original Archer story was very popular. It appeared in the Summer 1948 edition of Mystery Book Magazine but the radio rights had already been sold to Molle Mystery Theater for its 1948-02-20 broadcast. It is not known who adapted it for the series; no recording is available. It was used the following year for Radio City Playhouse for its 1949-05-23 broadcast, adapted by Harry W. Junkin. The Canadian series, Curtain Time, not to be confused with the US series of the same name, aired its own version on 1949-10-05 (no recording is available). It was even used on television’s Cameo Theater on September 27, 1950 and starred Freddy Bartholomew. 

In Archer’s 1950 book about writing for a living, I Sell What I Write, he provides an interesting perspective for new writers as he discusses this very story:

Which brings me to an important footnote on making money out of pulp mystery writing. The pulps will hand back radio rights to you upon request. In the case of Murder Is a Matter of Opinion, the radio rights paid off almost eight times as much as I received for the original story in Mystery Book.

It may have been more lucrative than that. I Sell What I Write was likely already published before the television production of Cameo Theater was aired. That broadcast was not mentioned in the book. Archer’s comments about this story can be accessed at https://archive.org/details/isellwhatiwrite00arch/page/52/mode/2up

Phil Meeder stars in the episode. He was working on some soaps at CBS in the late 1950s, but those were cancelled in November 1960. This is an interesting profile of him many years later, published almost 20 years ago https://www.insideannapolis.com/archive/2006/issue2/pmeeder.html

“Judge Jackson” is played by Bernard Lenrow. He’s fondly remembered by classic radio enthusiasts for playing Captain Logan in the Casey, Crime Photographer series.

Ivor Francis, who plays “Mr. Cheney,” was a Broadway actor and radio veteran. He was the father of Genie Francis who came to television prominence in General Hospital in their famous storyline about “Luke and Laura” in the late 1970s. She is married to Jonathan Frakes, “Commander Riker” in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP610820

THE CAST

Phil Meeder (Frank Jackson), Bill Lipton (Bryan Jackson), Ronny Liss (Tom Penson), Maurice Tarplin (Prosecutor), Lawson Zerbe (Dean / Warden), Bob Dryden (Captain / Bixton), Bernard Lenrow (Judge Jackson), Ivor Francis (Mr. Cheney)

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