Larry Haines stars in a somewhat lighthearted Christmastime script written by John Roeburt. Used twice on Inner Sanctum, CBS publicity for the 1949-12-26 and 1950-12-25 broadcasts referred to it as a “non-spooky ghost story.” Titled The Enchanted Ghost, it starred Frank Sinatra in 1949 and the next year it starred Larry Haines. He repeats his 1950 role in this 1961 Suspense broadcast.
Haines plays Chris D’Angelo, a street-smart parole violator, who slips into a homeless mission to evade his parole officer, Brannigan. Inside, he meets a dying young man named Tommy Simmons, who asks Chris to deliver Christmas presents—a gold watch and nylon stockings—to his mother and blind sister, Linda. Reluctantly, Chris agrees. Just as Tommy dies, Chris is visited by Sir Benjamin, a ghost, who plays the piano invisibly. He encourages Chris to fulfill Tommy’s wish, and if he doesn’t, he’ll help the parole officer find him. He helps Chris hide from Brannigan. Chris travels to Bethlehem, (it could be anywhere, but it likely refers to the Pennsylvania town about 85 miles west of New York City), where Tommy’s family lives. He meets Linda at the train, and Tommy's mother at the house. They welcome Chris with great hospitality, but they were not able to gather common signs of the season, such as a tree, and a turkey for their Christmas meal. Sir Benjamin is a magic-like catalyst for other arrangements to come together. Chris has a joyful Christmas with the Simmons family, and shares the gifts as Tommy wanted. He comes to realize that Sir Benjamin was the father of the household who had passed away, and was looking out for their well-being, and that of Chris. He has a new sense of purpose in his life, decides to stay in Bethlehem and it is implied he becomes one of the family.
Why the name “Chris D’Angelo”? “Chris” is a contraction of “Christmas,” or “Christ,” or “Kris Kringle,” which is one of the names for Santa Claus. “D’Angelo” means of or from angels.
No script cover is available. The date and time of recording is not known.
There was no Suspense broadcast on 1961-12-24, pre-empted for the annual Christmas Sing with Bing broadcast with Bing Crosby.
There are two network aircheck recordings available. The WROW aircheck is the better of the two. The recording begins with an advertisement for Welcome Wagon. The other aircheck is from Dallas, Texas station KRLD. It begins with an advertisement for Republic Bank. There is a station ID and then an eight second gap. The station engineer seems to have neglected to turn up the volume for the network feed. The clipped end of an announcement about CBS News can be heard just before the beginning of the Suspense broadcast. There are very few KRLD airchecks of Suspense or other programs.
Only one of the Inner Sanctum broadcasts has survived, and it is in very poor sound. It is the 1949 broadcast with Frank Sinatra. The recording can be accessed at https://archive.org/details/InnerSanctumTheEnchantedGhostwithFrankSinatra122649
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP611217
THE CAST
Larry Haines (Chris), Joe de Santis (Brannigan), Bill Lipton (Tommy), Santos Ortega (Sir Benjamin), Rosemary Rice (Linda), Katharine Raht (Mrs. Simmons)
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