1962-08-05 Run Faster

Jimmy Blaine stars in a Lois Landauer script about a former Korean War pilot named “Dave” who is bored by his job in a control tower at a remote emergency landing field. There’s just not enough activity to keep him interested in his work compared to his military flying. As the saying goes, “be careful what you ask for, you might just get it.” He certainly got more than he bargained for when a commercial flight has lost contact with traffic control in foggy conditions and was running out of fuel. Dave finally had contact and was working to guide the pilot to a safe landing. Complicating matters was that the control tower was “visited” by a strange man who said he had car problems. Dave tries to help him out by explaining where he can get gas and a tow. The man is odd, becomes irritated, so irritated that Dave looked up a number in the phone book, that he rips the phone book in half with his big, strong hands. (Remember that, because when you find out later that he’s a strangler who escaped from a mental hospital, that’s supposed to send your heart racing). The odd man leaves. While Dave is helping the plane to land, the news that the man was a strangler starts to come into play. He has to warn his wife, but there are phone problems (this is the land line era, not the cellular era), and the phone lines to Dave’s home are out. The phone operator seems overwhelmed. With the phone lines being out, Dave realizes that he let slip to the strangler where he lived in relation to the gas pump and the landing field. Tense, very tense. The plane lands, and Dave rushes home. The strangler is there, but his quick thinking wife, realized the danger, and kept him at bay. She figured out that the man was drawn to her scarf. He was not interested to use it as a means to strangle her. When he held the scarf, a calmness came over him, as if he was longing for the peace of living in a normal home with people he loves, rather than the institution. Dave becomes introspective and realizes that a dull life at the air field might be pretty good. Really. Yes, that’s the story.

Lois Landauer wrote for radio and television in the 1950s and 1960s.

This program was recorded on Thursday, July 26, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.

There are two surviving network aircheck recordings. There is a complete aircheck with its opening commercial that is in very low quality sound. The edited network aircheck is preferred. It is in better sound, but the commercial has been removed. There are other defects in the recording but it is very listenable.

This is the second of two appearances on Suspense for Jimmy Blaine. His military career mirrored that of the character he played in this episode. In WW2, he piloted a B-17 and flew twenty-five missions, mainly to attack Nazi submarine bases along the coasts of France. He was later transferred to Paris and was made commander of the Armed Forces Network station there. He passed away in 1967 at age 42, of a heart attack.

* * *

Just a couple of days after this broadcast, the 1962-08-08 edition of Variety announced the CBS was cancelling Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620805

THE CAST

Bill Lipton (Dink), Jimmy Blaine (Dave), Roger DeKoven (Strangler), Ted Pavell (Hank), Guy Repp (Sheriff), Jimsey Somers (Christine, telephone operator), Bob Readick (Pilot of Mercury Airlines flight 535)

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CLICK HERE for 1962-05-27 That Real Crazy Infinity

The blogpost is not available at this moment. It can be accessed at The Internet Archive  https://archive.org/details/TSP620527 

1962-07-29 Weekend at Glebes

Raymond Edward Johnson opens this Elspeth Eric script about a young American boy at an elite British boarding school. This story could be what might be known today as a syrupy “Hallmark Channel” TV movie where a widowed mother is helped by her child to find true love and marriage once more. Oh, how sweet. This story has an interesting twist to it, but Suspense is the only place where this story could have been presented at this time. It would have been much more appropriate for a series such as Romance or another “lighter” series a few years earlier. That’s not a choice any more.

Johnson plays the school’s headmaster. Mrs. Trowbridge was recently widowed, and is the mother of a twelve-year-old student, Wallace. She visits the school to see her son. The headmaster is a bit confused by this. The records about Wallace are missing. The headmaster recalls, however, that Wallace went to his parents, Lord and Lady Pancoast in Glebes. This is very strange, and obviously a mistake. The story plays out in an interesting way. (Today, Wallace could only do this by hacking into the school’s records and their security system, and editing their video files).

She visits the Pancoasts in Glebes, where Wallace is staying. He keeps referring to his true mother, Mrs. Trowbridge as “Nurse” when he sees her. (If this was real Suspense, she would have grabbed him, threatened everyone to stand back, and get into a waiting getaway car. But, instead…) She meets Lord Pancoast and he gives the full narrative about what is really going on. He is very calm about it all. He explains that he and his wife had lost two sons in the war. Lady Pancoast and Wallace are playing out a fantasy that she is his mother and he is her son. They are doing their best to keep the fantasy up because it fills emotional needs that both of them have.

Lord Pancoast continues to explain that Wallace orchestrated the entire deception. The boy felt abandoned and lonely due to his mother's attempts to hide his existence from a new love interest, William Hines. Mrs. Trowbridge was widowed, and wanted a fresh start. She explained to Hines that Wallace was actually her late sister’s son. Wallace met Lady Pancoast in Kensington Gardens, playing out a Peter Pan fantasy that evolved into her believing he was her son and himself believing she was his mother. Lord Pancoast explains that Wallace stole his own school records to solidify his break from his past. But curiously, Wallace and his friend in America, “Billy,” have been corresponding. Mrs. Trowbridge said he had no such friend, but Lord Pancoast explains that the friend was actually his mother’s love interest, William Hines, himself!

Wallace, acting on his own initiative, calls William Hines in New York, inviting him to Glebes. He will be visiting Glebes to eventually marry Mrs. Trowbridge. The fantasy that Wallace created and Lady Pancoast participated in was ultimately to have his mother be free to start a new life in a new marriage. There was deception all around, on the part of Wallace, the Pancoasts, and Mrs. Trowbridge. Even Mr. Hines kept his true knowledge of Wallace and their correspondence secret. The fantasies and the secrets are about to come to a romantic end, and perhaps Wallace, the Pancoasts, and the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Hines can live happily ever after. (Fade to Hallmark Channel commercial break).

The location of the story is often misspelled as “Gleebes.” “Glebes” is a British English word that relates to land owned by a parish to support its pastor. In this title, it relates to most any building that was built on such land.

In the story, it is explained that Wallace first meets Lady Pancoast at Kensington Gardens, a real place. It is one of eight Royal Parks in London. There is a Peter Pan statue there. The book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens can be found at Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26998/26998-h/26998-h.htm

Wallace was originally planned to be played by Alan Howard and was replaced by Tommy Leap. Twelve-year-old Tommy Leap was appearing on Broadway in The Sound of Music as “Kurt von Trapp” at the time of this broadcast. He worked on television in 1963. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1967, when attempting to save his younger sister from wreckage of a car accident they were in. When he got to her, the vehicle burst into flames, leaving no survivors.

This is Raymond Edward Johnson’s final appearance on Suspense, and his next-to-last known appearance in a radio drama. His last radio appearance would be in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar on 1962-08-12 in The Oldest Gag Matter. Johnson was probably diagnosed with multiple sclerosis around this time. He became a favorite visitor to Friends of Old Time Radio conventions through the years, offering dramatic readings from a wheelchair in the 1970s, and many years later from a hospital bed that was arranged for him at the events. Johnson passed away at age 90, in 2001. He was most famous as “Raymond, Your Host” on Inner Sanctum. He left for WW2 service and had to give up the role.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620729

THE CAST

Raymond Edward Johnson (Headmaster), Tommy Leap (Wallace), Neil Fitzgerald (Burton), Christopher Cary (Lord Pancoast), Hillary Holden (Lady Pancoast), Grayson Hall (Mrs. Trowbridge)

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1962-07-22 The Next Murder

Joe Julian and Lawson Zerbe star in a Joseph Cochran script about two strangers who have an interest in the crime of murder. Julian plays Fred Spung, a drifting man who is renting a room in town for a few days. Lawson Zerbe plays John Cotter, a strange man, who says his interest in murder is getting down to the core reasons why a murder is committed. He believes the usual reasons of passion, money, and the other usual ones, have much deeper reasons for the act. He has studied 98 cases, and is looking for two more to make it 100. He has done a detailed study of each of them and has constructed “tables” of data to that have predictive power to understand the crimes. The two strangers find the topic so interesting, Cotter accepts an invitation to visit Spung at his room and stay there.

While they were at the diner, Spung strikes up a conversation with Amy, a waitress. Their flirtatious banter results in her agreeing to a date to see a movie. You know that with two rootless men with an interest in homicide this is likely to play out in some important manner in the story.

Spung and Cotter’s discussions at the hotel room take an ominous tone the more Cotter talks. It is very clear he is a very odd and knows a little too much about his subject. They start talking about a murder in Springdale, and it starts to sound like Cotter might have done it. The gives Spung the creeps!

Spung and Amy finally have their date and it involves a walk in the park. She was skeptical of him, but they seem to be warming up to each other. It’s warm and she helps loosen his tie. Spung’s mind seems to get into a different gear, and he takes off the tie, and he starts strangling her. He blacks out, and when he comes back to consciousness, Amy is gone and his necktie is missing. He knows he has to leave town, quickly. He’s not sure what happened, but that it was bad, and he might have killed Amy. He heads back to the room, where it is very dark, and it seems Cotter is asleep in his bed. He thinks he can sneak out quietly. He realizes something is wrong when he comes upon a knife and blood on the floor. A guest in the hotel, who had complained about the noise that Spung and Cotter had made before, barges in to complain again. He sees Spung with the knife and blood on his hands. Spung panics and the roomer yells for someone to call the police. Spung ends up at the police. They accuse him of killing Cotter, but he says he did not do it, and that he was scared of him because he was “nuts.” It becomes clear that Cotter committed suicide. The police start asking where Spung was in the evening, and they are fishing for information about a murder in the park. In the closing scenes, the story wraps up and we find out what cases Cotter had for numbers 99 and 100.

The story is occasionally tedious, where you wonder what the point of certain scenes or dialogue might be, even if you know where it is headed. For the New York Suspense, however, it is one of the more interesting ones, but could have been done better at an earlier time in the series.

The program was recorded on Thursday, June 28, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and was completed at 5:00pm.

This episode is often in sub-par sound, but this recording is much better, and provides a better listening experience.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620722

THE CAST

Joe Julian (Spong), Lawson Zerbe (Cotter), Ted Osborne [aka Reynold Osborn] (Man on p.6 of the script [another tenant of the hotel]), Elizabeth Lawrence (Amy the waitress), William Redfield (Cop)

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1962-07-15 Snow on Sixty-Six

Jimmy Blaine and Grayson Hall star in a William N. Robson script about some tourists who want to go to a small town to get away from it all. They are bullied by a frequently intoxicated young man in a hot rod who likes playing dangerous driving games on the highway and making a ruckus as they drive along unfamiliar country roads.

Charlie and Flo are a generally happy couple, taking some time away in the desolate town of Red Mountain, Arizona. While they are on the road, a young hodrodder is taunting them with his horn, driving slow, making them pass, and then passing them, all actions that are the opposite of safe driving. The driver, Leroy, enjoys scaring tourists in the small town, especially with his loud horn that sounds like and is as loud as the train that regularly passes through Red Mountain. Charlie and Flo stop at a local restaurant, and the driver walks in on them and gives them some threatening talk. He might be drunk. Charlie decides to report him to the police, but they’re not interested in doing anything about him. Everyone in town seems to know him and believe he’s not a danger, saying he’s “just a big kid.” Charlie gets very frustrated when he realizes that Leroy let the air out of their tires. He tries the police again, but they are intent on inaction. It’s pretty clear they don’t like tourists complaining about the residents. When Charlie and Flo go outside of the hotel, Leroy starts honking the hot rod’s horn. Flo is always surprised by the horn and sometimes mistakes the train coming through town as Leroy’s horn. (NOTE: remember that) The police officer talks to Leroy and offers to let him sleep off whatever intoxication he has in a cell. The next morning, Charlie and Flo are driving back, happy to leave that little town. It’s snowing, and they can only drive 20 miles per hour because of the slippery road and the poor visibility. Behind them is Leroy, with one bright headlight on… but Leroy is sleeping it off in a cell… so that’s not a car, and it’s not Leroy, so it must be the train passing through town. Charlie and Flo don’t make it across the tracks.

The script is somewhat about road safety, similar to what Auto-Lite used to do for one episode per year of its sponsorship. There’s no safety message in the story, but had it been in the Auto-Lite period, it could have been used that way.

The Robson story includes the name of “Red Mountain,” a reference to his earlier script that was an allegory about his CBS Blacklist exile, Night on Red Mountain that was first broadcast as Nobody Ever Quits. There is a volcanic structure referred to as “Red Mountain” about 25 miles northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona.

The number “66” is spelled out in the title on the script cover as “sixty-six” to ensure that it was read by the announcer in the way desired, rather than saying “six-six.”

The program was recorded on Tuesday, June 26, 1962. The script cover does not indicate the session start or conclusion times.

The surviving recording is missing its introduction and begins mid-way in a Parliament commercial. There have been copies of this episode in circulation with “patched” opens, where a collector who thought they were restoring the program cleverly added the opening segment from a different episode. These recordings can be identified because they are missing the announcement of the episode title and a different Parliament commercial was added.

In the close of the broadcast, Stuart Metz mispronounces the name of the writer of the next week’s episode. He says “Joseph Corcoran” when he should have said “Joseph Cochran.” It is not known if it is his error or if the script had the mistake. It is surprising it was not corrected because the program was pre-recorded.

“Flo” was played by Grayson Hall, who was appearing on Broadway in the David Merrick musical Subways are for Sleeping. She played “Myra Blake.” The show had a big cast that also included Carol Lawrence, Orson Bean, and Valerie Harper. (The underlying story of the play was a Harper’s article about homeless people in New York’s subways. It became an episode of CBS Radio Workshop on 1956-08-30). Hall also appeared in almost 500 episodes of the television series Dark Shadows. Her big movie role was as a supporting actress in 1965’s The Night of the Iguana for which she received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. She was very busy in supporting television and movie roles for many projects.

Jimmy Blaine worked his way up through radio and television in Kansas City and New York. He was mainly an announcer, but was also a singer and an actor. He was a singer for the early 1950s television show Stop the Music. This is the first of two Suspense appearances. He passed away in 1967 at age 42, of a heart attack.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620715

THE CAST

Jimmy Blaine (Charlie), Grayson Hall (Flo), Gwen Davies (waitress / telephone operator), James Dmitri (Leroy), Bill Mason (police officer), Sam Raskyn (mechanic, motel manager)

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1962-07-08 The Sin Eater

Scripter Bob Corcoran presents a culture clash story of a sort, urban versus rural, that takes place in the Appalachian mountains. It is not the best story for Suspense, but it does convey a sense of claustrophobia from being trapped, despite being in the wide open spaces of a rural mountain area.

The custom of sin-eating has appeared in many historical religions through the millennia past, now and then, around the world, and in different cultures. This story is is based on an old Welsh custom. A person in town has a meal over the deceased, comprised of bread and ale, in the desire to take on the sins of the person who has passed away. Typically, a village or community that practiced sin eating, would have designated such a person. The custom was brought to the US in the 1700s, and was common in Wales from the 1600s, and likely before. It generally died out in the late 1800s.

In most cases, the process of “sin eating” is taken on willingly. It is assumed that when that person passes away, there will be someone to do it for them. This was believed especially important if that person had served in this capacity for a while and absorbed the cumulative sins of many people. In the small town of the story, the town’s elderly sin eater is dying and they need to find a replacement before he dies. It just so happens that James and Lucille Read are passing through the area. He is a folk music scholar, his attractive wife is along for the ride through the hill country as a break from hectic city life. James seeks to find singers and songs to consider in his research. At the direction of the old man’s wife, their son and grandson, Paul and Jesse, were to “fetch” an “outsider” to become the new sin eater, even if they had to kidnap them. They spotted James and Lucille, caught up with them and talked to them. They lure them into town as they claim there is a special folk singer that James would find of interest there. Things take a bad turn as Paul and Jesse force the couple to walk with them to the old man’s home. There’s already an open grave in the year, which gives Lucille great pause. James meets the elderly wife, and she breaks the news that he will be the new sin eater. James tells them it is superstition, and they push back and say it is real. Lucille starts mocking them. (That was not a good idea). They explain that James has no choice. If he refuses, he’ll end up in the freshly dug grave along with the old man.

The ritual to create a sin eater and to be one is exhausting, and even more so when that person is under duress and being forced to do so against their will. James is forced to say “For these things given me, I take on all the sins of this soul departed, so help me God.” They think he faints, but James actually dies from the ordeal. Lucille is very distraught, and attempts to escape. She is then trapped by Jesse, the young son. When a police officer arrives, Lucille's hopes for rescue are crushed as he reveals he is kin to the family, implying she is now their captive, destined to become a “native” bride for Jesse.

At 21:20 the police officer arrives, and Jesse says “it’s E-Jack!” Could that be an inside joke reference to famous radio writer E. Jack Neuman?

A comment on Christine Miller’s Escape-Suspense blog https://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/10/suspense---th-2.html mentioned that a Manly Wade Wellman story, Sin’s Doorway, appeared in the January 1946 Weird Tales, might have been an inspiration for Corcoran. It can be viewed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/WellmanManlyWadeWellmanInWeirdTales/page/n445/mode/2up

The program was recorded on Monday, June 25, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.

The surviving recording is a network aircheck. It has very mild defects and is very listenable. It is missing the “And now…” opening.

Sin-eating was in media ten years later in an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. On 1972-02-23, the series televised a story by British mystery writer Christianna Brand as adapted by Halsted Welles, The Sins of the Fathers. It starred Geraldine Page and Richard Thomas (a few years before he would become known for his role on The Waltons). It can be viewed at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/the-sins-of-the-fathers The Brand story was included in a 1968 anthology of her work, but was first published in 1964. The collection, What Dread Hand is available at The Internet Archive and can be found on page 122 https://archive.org/details/whatdreadhandcol0000chri/page/122/mode/2up

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620708

THE CAST

Jim Boles (Luther), Ethel Everett (Maw), Herb Duncan (Jesse), Ivor Francis (Jim Reed), Rita Lloyd (Lucille Reed), Doug Parkhirst (police officer), Guy Repp (Grandpa)

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1962-07-01 Black Death

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS TITLE WAS USED BEFORE ON SUSPENSE. THIS 1962 PRODUCTION IS A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY. THE 1955-08-02 SCRIPT BY LAWRENCE GOLDMAN IS ABOUT THE SEARCH FOR A CAT INFECTED BY BLACK PLAGUE THAT ESCAPED FROM A RESEARCH LAB.

Christopher Cary stars in a Mercer MacLeod story about a couple traveling the English Moors who are seeking shelter from a storm for the night. Perhaps they should have looked harder.

They find a remote house that might be what they need. They start to think otherwise when they realize what a strange house it is and are concerned about the creepy scientist who lives there. He turns them away at first, but when he finds out that Carey’s character in the story is a doctor and therefore a “scientific man,” he invites them in. He is conducting experiments using a “death ray machine” that makes living things disappear. He demonstrates it to them with a mouse and a dog, which they think is a trick. The scientist becomes very belligerent after his serious work is dismissed. The couple becomes quite dismayed with these surroundings and hope to get into town that night, twenty miles away. The weather has cleared and the strange scientist suggests that they take a nearby train, the only one of the day, that also hauls freight overnight but has one car for passengers. It will get them to where they need to be. They go to the train, and get on board, and soon realize the passengers are all dead! The train crashed and then… they realize they back at the house. It was an apparition, created by the scientist, to prove the validity of his work. There has been no train line for years, but there was a fatal accident with the old train a long time ago. They want to get out, and seem to have the help of the scientist’s strange assistant. But are they really leaving? Or are they now perpetually trapped as the crazed scientist moved from using the ray on animals… to humans? He believes Charles and Nora are not his guests, but his next subjects!

The story is a bit strange but is interesting to the extent that you keep listening to figure out how much stranger it might get. The Zirato-Hendrickson period certainly has its share of mad scientists. At least the episode is better than Doom Machine. But not by much.

The surviving recording is an aircheck from WDNC of Durham, North Carolina. There is some mild reception noise here and there, but is a very good and very listenable recording. It is much better than what was in circulation among collectors for the last decades.

Oh how funny it is that Christopher Cary plays “Charles”, and Mary Jane Higby plays “Nora,” as in “Nick and Nora Charles” of The Thin Man stories. Higby starred in a radio soap opera as a different “Nora,” This is Nora Drake.

At this time, Cary was appearing in the Broadway production of Camelot in the role of “Mordred.” He assumed that role in January 1962. The show opened on Broadway in December 1960 and starred Julie Andrews. By the time Cary joined the cast, Richard Burton (King Arthur) and Roddy McDowall (Mordred) had already left the show. Cary was the third actor to play Mordred. Robert Goulet made his Broadway debut in the production, and played “Lancelot Du Lac.” The show was Cary’s sole Broadway appearance as an actor.

Cary was born Christopher Bay Carysfort and came to the US in the mid-1950s to work in television and stage productions. He was in numerous 1960s and 1970s television series. His only regular role was as “Goniff” in the sole season of the ABC WW2 series, Garrison’s Gorillas. He was always working, it seems, playing some supporting role somewhere.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620701

THE CAST

Christopher Cary (Charles), Mary Jane Higby (Nora), Leon Janney (Jacob the assistant), James Ducas (The Master), Frank Milano (animals)

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1962-06-24 With Murder in Mind

Jack Kruschen stars as mind-reader “Anton Tesla” (a/k/a “Tesla the Great”) in an interesting and somewhat complex Irwin Lewis story. Tesla’s ability to read people’s thoughts during his stage act is rather amazing but can cause trouble if he pursues it too far. His wife, Helena, discourages him from doing so, but he feels it is time to display the full extent of his ability. He offends a woman in the audience when he detects that a charm was given to her by someone other than her husband during an affair from many years ago. She protests when it happens, but then wonders to herself how Tesla knew. When Anton and Helena get back to the dressing room, she chastises him for going too far and embarrassing the woman. A police lieutenant who is a fan of their act, visits their room. He expresses his admiration of whatever signal system they are using to perform, saying it is better than other mentalist acts he had seen and studied. Tesla insists he has true abilities and what he does is not an act. Helena, tired from the evening’s performance, decides to head back to their hotel. On leaving, she strangely tells her husband to not let his gift become a curse. She arrives at the night club lobby and she is greeted by a doorman, Saunders, who greatly admires their act. He reminds her to be careful walking in the rain. She is soon in a terrible accident, hit by a car that fled the scene. Anton runs to the street and holds the fallen Helena in his arms. Though she was killed, he seems to be getting messages from her.

Days pass, and Tesla visits the police lieutenant. Tesla is very depressed and not taking care of himself, still angry about the accident and disturbed that the police have made no progress in finding the driver. Tesla believes that the car that hit her was a white convertible and that the right fender was damaged. He “knows” this about the car because of his abilities. His frustration leads him to investigate himself. Tesla presses the doorman for information, and looking into his eyes, gets the message “I must not find out about Joe.” He visits Joe, the parking lot attendant, looking for the white car. Joe claims to have no knowledge of it, but Tesla thinks the car is in the lot, hastily repaired. He confronts Joe. Though no words are spoken, Tesla seems to have gotten a message, that the car belongs to Mr. Hughes, the club owner. He heads to the club, and barges into Hughes’ office. He accuses him of being the hit-and-run murderer. Tesla brings a gun, attempts to shoot him, and a scuffle ensues. Hughes manages to turn the gun away, but it fires and Tesla injures himself. The next scene has Hughes talking to the lieutenant, whom he called after the gun accident. A doctor is at the scene, and reports that Tesla is not likely to survive the trip to the hospital. The lieutenant speaks to the dying man and says that they found a man who admitted to the hit-and-run. It was not Hughes, but he was driving a white convertible that had fender damage, just like Hughes’ car had. Tesla insists it was Hughes in his dying breath. Hughes was not guilty, but he had a few drinks before he drove away and had little recollection of the night after the show ended. Until the lieutenant revealed that someone had confessed, Hughes worried that he might have actually committed the crime! Tesla’s description of the vehicle was correct, but he jumps to a conclusion without additional facts. Coincidence rendered the truth of his prescience to be terribly wrong.

Suspense presented other stories about mentalist stage acts that went wrong, such as A Vision of Death, and The Great Horrell. The episode Lazarus Walks also has similar themes.

The program was recorded on Thursday, June 14. 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded 5:00pm.

The surviving recording is an aircheck from WROW. There is some static from weather interference in the listening area. A weather report precedes the episode and notes that there are storms in the area. The recording is in very good sound, better than what has been in common circulation among classic radio enthusiasts. The recording had a clipped close during the credits. The missing 12-second portion has been patched from a lesser quality recording for completeness. For this reason, the file name includes the word “composite.”

Actor Jack Kruschen is normally considered a Hollywood actor, but at the time of this episode, he was appearing in the Broadway hit play I Can Get it for You Wholesale. He played the character “Maurice Pulvermacher.” Also in the cast were Elliott Gould, Sheree North, and Barbara Streisand, who was making her Broadway debut. It was Kruschen’s only Broadway role.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620624

THE CAST

Jack Kruschen (Anton Tesla), Bryna Raeburn (Helena), Gilbert Mack, Reni Santoni, Jane Ward (Woman), Jim Boles, Jack Grimes (Joe, the parking lot attendant), William Redfield

Roles not announced in the show credits: Hughes, Lt. Clark, Saunders, Varney, Doctor, Officer, Man [likely parking lot attendant])

Actor Reni Santoni was just starting his career, and would later appear in many Carl Reiner projects. He would become better known as “Poppie” in the popular Seinfeld television series.

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1962-06-17 The Lunatic Hour

This broadcast stars George Matthews and Rosemary Rice in a John Roeburt script was first used in the Inner Sanctum broadcast of 1951-05-28. It was titled The Unforgiving Corpse. Some character names were changed, but that was not a matter of protecting the innocent. The Inner Sanctum production was its usual spooky with over-the-top organ music that made that series so memorable and such fun. This script fit that series quite well. As a Suspense episode, however, it is mostly awful and de-spook-ified, and tests listener patience. It does have a surprise ending, but by the time it happens, listeners may not care.

It’s been ten years after a train station manager Tom Morley was involved in a fatal train wreck. Even though he was acquitted by a jury, he is still paralyzed by guilt. He is haunted by visions of the deceased engineer, Gully Reeves, and his fiancée, Jenny. He has spectral encounters with them, and including prophecies of another crash. This drives Tom to the brink of madness. History repeats itself at the end of the anniversary of the wreck. Tom gets a ghostly message to look at the condition of the rails, and as a train approaches, he signals an oncoming train to stop. He believes he has prevented an accident. He later learns that the spectral encounters were really orchestrated by criminals to have the train stop to abduct and kill as prisoner being transported on the train. They knew how fragile his psyche was and how easily manipulated he would be. There… Tom is all better now. Listeners may not be.

The Inner Sanctum episode has survived. That episode’s town of “San Amato” became “San Ventura” for this Suspense episode. “Ben Sears” became “Tom Morley.” “Kirby Willis” became “Gully Reeves.”

This program was recorded on Thursday, June 7, 1962. The times of the session start and end are not available.

Two network aircheck recordings of this episode have survived. The edited network recording has some minor issues, but is the better of the two, and has had its opening commercial (Alpine) edited out. It has a slightly clipped open and a slightly clipped close. The other network aircheck has the same original home recording as the first, but is in lower quality sound with narrow range. It has a slightly clipped open and close, but the commercial is intact. It is hoped that the full recording might be found in the future.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620617

THE CAST

 George Matthews (Tom Morley), Rosemary Rice (Jenny / Sally), Les Damon (Gully Reeves), Donald Buka (Will), Dick Keith (McKale)

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1962-06-10 Formula for Death

Ivor Francis and Walter Greaza star in a Jack Johnstone story (as “Jonathan Bundy”), that involves psychic phenomena and the delivery of a complex mathematical formula from a person who was killed in an accident. It is a very strange story, but it holds some attention despite how implausible the premise is. At this time in the 1960s, there was much interest in ESP in general and there was general awareness that the military was investigating ways of understanding and harnessing it. Overall, this is not Suspense at its best.

Colonel Humboldt, played by Greaza, represents a demanding defense department program involved in celestial observations using guided satellites. They need to develop unique and advanced lens-making technology to work. The project has been delayed, and Humboldt is furious about it. The formula was being developed an eccentric and reclusive scientist, Dr. Hoffman. Humboldt is skeptical about Hoffman because he holds beliefs in supernatural and psychic phenomena (so you, as a listener, are tipped off early on that the “surprise” ending will rely on that). Dr. Fernald (played by Francis) explains that the project has to tolerate his quirkiness because he is the only one capable of developing the complex formula correctly. In the meantime, Hoffman successfully completes the formula, a complex string of mathematical equations, and needs to deliver it. There’s a risk, however: he is paranoid about security, and memorizes the formula rather than writing it down or sharing it with a colleague. Hoffman plans to deliver it in person to Humboldt and Fernald. Since Hoffman is paranoid about security, he goes around the security procedures that Humboldt and Fernald have arranged. Instead, he sets up a deception for his travel to make the delivery. Hoffman disguises his gardener to look like him, and sends him in his car in the security detail to act as a decoy. Hoffman and the assistant use the gardener’s car, without security, and they start heading to the meeting, with Hoffman driving. Hoffman did not count on this: the assistant is a spy, betraying his trust, but also affirming that his paranoia was well-founded. The assistant demands the formula at gunpoint, but Hoffman resists. He decides to drive aggressively, deliberately missing a curve in the road, and heading down a cliff. Hoffman is killed, but the assistant, injured, survives. He is found, later, and brought to the meeting.

News of the crash is devastating to Humboldt and Fernald. The decoy gardener arrives at the meeting and explains what happened. The assistant, found shortly thereafter, suffers from head trauma, but is brought to the meeting. Then there is a strange turn in the story: the assistant is acting and sounding like Hoffman! He starts dictating the complex optical formula, exactly as Hoffman would have done it. The formula makes sense… and seems brilliant and accurate. How can this be? Only Hoffman knew the formula! Once the formula is written down, Hoffman’s personality leaves the assistant, and he admits who he is. He insists he does not know the formula, and never knew it. Humboldt and Ferndal realize there must be some other explanation. They wonder about Hoffman’s beliefs in psychic phenomena were true, and that Hoffman’s spirit facilitated a “thought transference” at the moment of his death. The formula was saved by an inexplicable transfer of knowledge from the dying scientist to his unwitting assistant. Instead of being an assassin who stopped the program, the assistant became the unknowing conduit to move the program ahead.

Jack Johnstone submitted this script to Bruno Zirato, Jr. with a cover letter, dated March 12, 1962. He opined:

Is Walter Greaza still around and working? He could make a damn good Humboldt… if held down from any hamming.

Zirato and Hendrickson followed through, casting Greaza as Humboldt. Greaza was a well-known character actor, and was in the television soap opera Edge of Night from the time of its debut until he passed away at age 76 in 1973. He was in one of the most popular radio mystery series of the late 1930s and early 1940s, Crime Doctor. He was in that series as supporting character “Inspector Ross” for eight years, and also played the crusading newspaper editor “Steve Wilson” in the series Big Town for two years. His Broadway career included many supporting roles from 1927 to 1960.

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 31, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

The surviving recording is an edited aircheck with some minor defects that is very listenable. It is an improvement over what has been in circulation for decades. The opening of the program has some overmodulation defects, but they pass quickly. The close of the recording is slightly clipped.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620610

THE CAST

Ivor Francis (Dr. Fernald), Walter Greaza (Colonel Humboldt), Herbert Duncan (Stephan), Luis Van Rooten (Dr. Hoffman), Guy Repp (Gardener), David Kerman (Sergeant), Robert Readick (Man)

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1962-06-03 Stand In for Murder

Teri Keane and Larry Haines portray an estranged married couple whose husband is too conniving for his own good. He is itching for a divorce and has a mistress, Laura Morgan. He claims he killed Laura, accidentally. He asks his wife to help cover up the crime and pretend to be Laura as part of a ruse that Laura has traveled to Europe. There’s a “problem” that actually becomes part of the husband’s scheme: Laura was a witness to a mob hit. Because the mob knows she saw their killing, they need to eliminate her. Did the husband kill Laura? Or is he demanding his wife imitate Laura, training her to dress and sound like her, in hopes the mob kills his wife? This would let him and Laura live a happily-ever-after life together. The story comes to a rapid close, and the husband’s ruse that seemed so brilliant and possible is suddenly not.

The story is one of the better ones in the final months of the series. It was written by long-time CBS staff writer Gladys F. Gallant. Her work in the 1950s was usually in the background, rarely credited. This was her only Suspense script. Unfortunately, Gallant would pass away in 1965 at age 45.

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 24, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.

The script cover does not hyphenate the title as “Stand-In.”

The surviving recording of this episode is a WROW aircheck, and is in much better sound quality than what has been in circulation among collectors for many years.

This is producer Fred Hendrickson’s first Suspense episode, replacing Bruno Zirato, Jr. Hendrickson was assigned to Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar until the end of the series on September 30, 1962. It's likely that Zirato had some "command presence" over the first few Hendrickson episodes, giving advice on casting and other matters. The first scripts of the Hendrickson run were likely selected by Zirato before he learned of his reassignment to the game show To Tell the Truth.

Hendrickson is too often discounted as "just" a production engineer. He worked for CBS for 30 years, from the time he was 18. He was an electrical engineer, and was Arthur Godfrey's director or producer or other roles for Godfrey's radio and TV at various times, and other assignments. Fred was well-known at CBS and in his community of Mamaroneck (near White Plains and New Rochelle in the Westchester suburbs). He worked in local charitable events, sometimes arranging for CBS celebrities to appear. Unfortunately, he passed away at age 48 in 1965.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620603

THE CAST

Teri Keane (Kay), Larry Haines (Jim), Claire Niesen (Laura Morgan), Toni Darnay (Jiffy Cleaning Services Rep / lady on street), Jack Grimes (Lieutenant Kelly), Ivor Francis (Phil, the actor on tape / Brady, the doorman), Joseph Julian (radio announcer on tape / Captain Blaine), Bob Readick (reporter on phone / Killer), Bill Lipton (man on street)

The original script cover had the role “Operator,” such as a phone operator, but that may have been edited out or changed to a different character. Many thanks to classic radio enthusiast and researcher Karl Schadow for identifying the actors and their roles. They were not noted on the script cover, and they were not announced in the closing credits.

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1962-05-20 Dagger of the Mind

Radio soap opera veteran Claire Niesen stars in a John Roeburt play about a jealous woman who is convinced her husband is having an affair with a young and attractive co-worker.

Vicki Kent is disturbed by her nightmares but a psychiatrist laughs off her fears and attributes them to idleness and “middle age.” She is a jealous sort and imagines situations and motives that are darker than they really are. She believes her husband of twenty years, Walter, and a female associate, Martha, are having an affair. Vicki interprets Walter’s workaholic nature and his last minute changes in plans as indicative of him having a rendezvous with the woman. She interprets her dreams as telling her that Walter has a hidden hatred for her. They are married but she feels very alone. Walter brings Martha home for a business dinner. Martha is an influential figure in the firm, and this dinner might be helpful to Walter’s career. Vicki attributes him having the dinner to flaunt their affair and humiliate her.

It will soon be their twentieth anniversary, and she receives a cold, impersonal gift of a monogrammed cigarette case delivered by an office boy. (She does not know that Walter had much different plans for that, revealed at the end of the story). Walter tells her that he must go on a trip, a cruise ship to Paris, to replace a colleague who developed appendicitis. Vicki doesn’t believe that at all, especially when she learns that Martha will be on the same trip. Vicki goes to the dock and boards the ship (this was a time when it was common for passengers and friends and family to go on board for visits and goodbyes, which has not been possible in the last few decades, especially after 9/11 security measures for all transportation). Vicki confronts Martha, who denies an affair or such intentions, and shoots her. The sound of the gun is masked by the loud activities on board. She returns home and is shocked when Walter arrives shortly thereafter. His colleague’s problem passed and he did not have appendicitis. Martha’s murder eventually hits the news, but there are no suspects named in the news. Vicki is frantic about whether or not she left any clues behind; she thinks she left the cigarette case there! Walter is suspicious about Vicki’s behavior, but he’s really more concerned about her mental state than whether or not she killed Martha. They argue, and she shoots him. Walter lies dying on the floor and Vicky taunts him. She tells him to reach out to Martha, and as he is dying, he realizes what Vicki did and how insane she really has been. He reveals that the “monogrammed cigarette case,” was in his coat pocket. He had taken it to have diamonds and rubies set into it, along with an inscription about their anniversary. Vicki murdered two innocent people based on delusion and paranoia. Now she realizes her husband was always telling the truth.

The title refers to the second act of MacBeth and the scene where he hallucinates a dagger that leads him to King Duncan’s chamber to kill him. The title ties to Vicki’s mental instability and desire to kill Martha and her husband Walter, whom she believed were having an affair, but were not.

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 10, 1962. The session start and ending times are not known.

There are two surviving recordings of this episode. The network recording is of low quality with somewhat narrow range and occasional distortion. The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) recording has much better sound quality. It has some minor sound issues, but is very listenable. It has a slightly clipped ending at the time of the AFRS identification.

This is the first of two Suspense appearances by Claire Niesen. Her radio acting career started when she was 15 years old. Her most important role was as Mary Noble, main character of the series Backstage Wife, which she held for 14 years (1945-1959). She was on many other soaps, as well, and did some theater work early in her career. Niesen was married to Melville Ruick, who also appeared on Suspense. Sadly, she passed away of cancer about 18 months after this performance, at age 43.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620520

THE CAST

Leon Janney (Walter Kent), Claire Niesen (Vicki Kent), Guy Repp (Office Boy), Ralph Camargo (Dr. Randow), Evelyn Juster (Martha Coles / Operator)

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1962-05-13 Hide and Seek

Jackson Beck narrates a Bob Corcoran story about a gambler, “Dandy DeAngelis,” played by William Redfield. It’s a generally good production about a man who picks the wrong time to overcome a paralyzing childhood fear.

Dandy is a well-dressed gambler in deep trouble with Bigelow, the mob boss, for his excessive debt from horse racing. He tries to reason with the gangsters, but he’s lied about his intent to make payments on the debts for a while. They decide they’ve had enough and will “take him for a ride” to a “forest preserve.” This can only mean one thing: they will kill him and bury him there. He tries to get away, jumping out of their car, which only makes the mobsters mad. He runs through the streets and an alley behind buildings. He hides among garbage cans, his obsessive interest in clean and impeccable clothing challenged by the filthy cans and garbage in the alley. The mobsters have a sense of where he is, and taunt him that he can’t hide from them. Then there’s a rat he sees, of which he has a great and paralyzing fear since being bitten in childhood. He has to overcome it now if he wants to survive, and kills it with a milk bottle he found in the garbage, a triumph. It’s a hollow one, which only brings his location to the attention of the tough guys. Dandy may have killed the rat. This was an unfortunate time to overcome his fear. One tough guy says to the other, seeing Dandy stand over the rat, “now it’s our turn.” He referred to Dandy as a rat because he didn’t pay off his debt to the mob.

The Chicago intersection where Dandy jumps out of the car at North Sedgwick and West Blackhawk is just south of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It is about a half mile from the Chicago History Museum.

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 3, 1962. The session began at 4:30pm and concluded at 8:00pm.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620513

THE CAST

Jackson Beck (Narrator), William Redfield (Dandy DeAngelis), Santos Ortega (Bigelow), Larry Haines (Lloyd), Jack Grimes (Herbie), Joseph Julian (Earl)

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1962-05-06 The Second Door

Bob Readick stars in a script he authored as a man named “Gordon Saunders.” He is tired of his daily life and seeks the solitude of a remote house in the northwest. His peace does not last long, however, as a neighbor is engaged in some very strange experiments. Saunders is lured into them with strange visions and illusions. They start with a white house with yellow shutters and a woman in a red dress in a rocking chair. The inhabitants are an odd man, Dr. Ederly, and his daughter Marilla. She turns out to be the woman in the red dress. It all seems real, but it’s not, or is it? Saunders senses that something is really different, where his sensation of physicality is different in the house. He gradually uncovers that Adderley is a reclusive philosopher-scientist who has invented a device that projects hyper-realistic, three-dimensional illusions, including their own house and Marilla herself. (In more modern terms it might be referred to as holographic imaging that creates “holograms.”). The experiments allow the operator to select longitude, latitude, and altitude of a particular place, and a person go there… except for one thing: it is their image that goes to that location, not their physical nature (that’s for Star Trek transporters to do in the future). When Saunders is sent to a place of his childhood, he finds his hand goes through a common farm implement. The story gets a bit bizarre and confusing, but in the end, it is clear that even the doctor and his daughter, and the house are not really with Saunders. They are somewhere else. Ederly has been working on adding the sensation of “touch” to the imaging, and asks Saunders to try it. Marilla kisses Saunders and he says that the touching of the lips seemed real, but the sensation was cold, like death.

These later Suspense shows may have been grasping for a different kind of modern relevance and differentiation from both television dramas. It may be different, but this episode is not particularly engaging.

The program was recorded on Thursday, April 26, 1962. The session’s start and ending times are not known.

The surviving recording appears to have a slightly clipped open. It is more complete, overall, than others that have been in the hobby for decades in that the original commercial is intact. Many prior recordings have had that edited out.

This is the only episode where Bob Readick and his wife Barbara appear in the same episode. It is her final Suspense appearance. “Kasarr” was her stage name, one among a few she used, a contraction of her last name “Kossower.”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620506

THE CAST

Robert Readick (Gordon), Paul McGrath (Dr. Ederly), Barbara Kasarr (Marilla), Robert Dryden (The Farmer)

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1962-04-29 Blackbeard's Ace

Elaine Rost stars in a Jack Buttram story about ESP and spirits and the possibility of messages from Blackbeard the pirate to find his buried treasure. It could be a different story, however, the ESP-skeptical husband suddenly develops an interest in it, perhaps to make her believe, in her words, to “make me think thoughts that don’t belong to me.”

It is a needlessly tedious story and it is easy to lose patience with it. Someone is killed and you’re supposed to wonder if the messages facilitating the act are real or not, and then listeners are supposed to say “oh, that was spooky, I never thought that would happen.” Sorry, this is Suspense. Listeners deserve better than that.

Elaine Rost plays “Margo Reed,” a wife who is haunted by vivid “dreams” that she believes are messages from the dead. She considers them an example of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP). Her husband, Charles, humors her a bit, and decides they need a break from things will help her mental well-being. They will take advantage of an offer from his aunt to a coastal home she owns in the Carolinas. Needing a book to bring along, she picks up a book about piracy and the Spanish Main. (The “Spanish Main” referred to the Caribbean Sea and north coast of South America where Spain had colonies in the 16^th and 17^th centuries). When they arrive in the area, they get a driver to take them to the home in Teach’s Cove. The area is named for the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, who roamed those shores with other pirates in the early 1700s. The driver tells that last year that the previous owner died there from a “terrible cut” that was believed accidental. That death occurred during the “Pirates’ Moon,” which usually refers to the brightest full moon where their nefarious activities, such as burying their treasure (usually stolen), could be done more easily than darker times of the lunar cycle when tides might be too low for them to get far inland by waterways from the shore.

As evening changes into nighttime, Margo feels the need to be in the cabin, locked safely inside. She senses that something is trying to communicate with her. Charles is concerned about the voices she ie hearing. He arranges for the driver to pick them up earlier than they originally planned, fearing that she may be having a relapse of her issues. The driver warns them to avoid “moonlight strolls” along the beach. He says it in a way that he believes some of the pirate legends of the area. It’s a surprise that it’s Charles who opens one of the pirate books, and finds a map of Blackbeard’s travels in the area. He reads that Blackbeard’s favorite weapon was a cutlass, a short, curved sword. He would carry a few of them on his person when engaged in his confrontations. As listeners, we are to start thinking that it was the “terrible cut” that only a cutlass could deliver that killed the person in the cabin in the prior year. Suddenly, they hear a scream outside, and Charles runs out of the house to find out where it came from, and can’t. Margo has an ominous feeling she will hear the scream again the next night. (Part of the Blackbeard legend is that he was guillotined, and his head and body thrown overboard, and the headless body was swimming looking for his head, and those living on shore for years later wouldhear winds on shore that sounded like a man yelling “where’s my head?”).

The next day, Charles finds something sticking out of the sand, which Margo recognizes as a “planchette,” an instrument for communicating with the dead. She knows a lot about it, and tells Charles it is evil. (Today, more people are aware of Ouija boards, and a “planchette” was a precursor to such an instrument. It is a small board supported on casters, typically heart-shaped, its shape like the “heart” symbol in a deck of cards, gives the episode the name “Blackbeard’s Ace” referring to the “ace of hearts”). The planchette has a hole that is fitted with a pencil, and is used for “automatic writing” assisted by a medium whose hand is guided to write by spirits of the deceased, such as in seances.

Charles is fascinated by it, and uses it that night, with no results. Later that night, Margo finds the planchette in the kitchen; she begins to suspect that Charles is trying to send her over the edge again, to “drive her out of her mind” by making her think that Blackbeard put it there for her. The loud scream is heard once more after using the planchette, and they realize the message written is “KILL CHARLES.” There is a scuffle between Margo and Charles, with a bad ending. The next morning, the driver arrives and finds Margo in a state of shock, and Charles is dead. He has a “terrible cut” just like the man who died last year.

Margo wonders if the planchette was real. The driver explains there were many planchettes distributed in the area, the result of a when a gambling ship that sunk there a couple of years prior. They kept washing up on shore, and had little value, and were definitely not antiques. She remains convinced that the planchette she found led to her messages and that those messages were real.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, April 18, 1962. The session start and ending times are not known.

The surviving network aircheck includes network news and sports after the episode. The sports report is clipped during a commercial, and the recording ends there.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620429

THE CAST

Elaine Rost (Margo Read), Bob Dryden (Jed), John Thomas (Charles Read)

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1962-04-22 The Curse of Kamashek

This reworking of an original 5-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar serial may be the lowest or near the lowest quality production of the Zirato era. Except for the title, some character names and the few most basic elements of the YTJD plotline, this Suspense production bears little resemblance to the excellent and intricate YTJD production. The plot elements that make the YTJD serial so good were eliminated in this script. It is good that writer Jack Johnstone used his pseudonym “Jonathan Bundy” so only those who know that Bundy is him will blame him. But, it might have been better as “Anonymous.” The YTJD broadcasts were from 1956-09-03 to 1956-09-07.

Even if you had never heard the YTJD version prior to listening to this episode, and had no expectations the storyline, this would still be very dissatisfying all by itself. But we have heard the YTJD serial, and that makes the disappointment greater. Abridging a longer story does not mean tearing its core mystery away. Instead of Egyptology intrigue, we get a very bad third cousin of W.W. Jacobs short story The Monkey’s Paw.

A wealthy patriarch is tired of his nephew’s archaeological pursuits as frivolous. The nephew defies his uncle to go on an Egyptian expedition and find a lost pharaoh’s tomb. Three months later, a package arrives containing a bone fragment and a letter announcing the nephew’s death. The rich man tries to to discard the bone but is confronted by the museum curator he knows claims the bone carries a deadly curse. The patriarch thinks it’s silly, challenges the curse, so he has a swift and unexplainable death. Of course he does. “Curse” is in the title, isn’t it? Nothing much else matters in the plot. Think of the story as a bad Haunting Hour or Murder at Midnight. Better yet, don’t think of the story at all.

Why couldn’t this be one of the missing Suspense episodes so we could think more highly of it?

The program was recorded on Thursday, April 12, 1962. The session began at 1:00pm and concluded at 6:00pm.

The surviving network aircheck recording has slightly clipped opening and closing, and slightly narrow range.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620422

THE CAST

Ian Martin (Turnbull), Mercer MacLeod (Walden), Guy Repp (Doctor), Raymond Edward Johnson (Brackton), John Thomas (Donald)

The original planned cast was for Bernard Lenrow as “Turnbull,” Bob Dryden as “Walden,” and Joe Boland as “Doctor.”

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1962-04-15 Brother John

Elspeth Eric’s very creative script about an attempted criminal impersonation hinges on the singing of a French nursery rhyme, Frère Jacques. The script is also constructed in the framework of the song when sung as “a round” (explained below). In English, that translates as the episode’s title, “Brother John.” It is a good story, but requires some extra attention to catch the nuances of the impersonation and the details of who knows what and when. It is one of the better scripts of the Zirato tenure, but often discounted because collectors only heard it in lesser quality sound. There is now a fine listenable recording available.

William Redfield plays “Frank,” a stroke patient in a veteran’s hospital. He is recovering. Another stroke patient, Charlie, shares the semi-private room, but is not able to communicate. Charlie is visited by his older brother, John, who once took a prison rap for a wealthy embezzler, Gerald Tremaine. John is the butler for the Tremaine family in return for which he is overpaid, living comfortably on a monthly retainer. He promised John that the payments would last for the rest of his life as payment for his silence. John has been having an affair with Tremaine’s wife. He has a hold over her, too, and can threaten her with telling her husband. John was telling Charlie much of this as he was unresponsive in his hospital bed, and Frank overheard all of it. Over the years, John saved much of the money and now plans to leave it to brother Charlie when he recovers. Charlie’s doctor assured John there he has an excellent chance for recovery, hopes his brother join him soon. Charlie’s recovery is slower than Frank’s. John was told that familiar music could help with Charlie’s recovery of his memory and speech. John tries to sing Charlie’s favorite song from childhood, Frère Jacques. Charlie was raised in France before being sent to the US to join his brother when then parents died. The Tremaines never met Charlie but knew some of the story.

Frank is ready to be released from the hospital and learns that John has been murdered. This is his chance: since the Tremaines have never met Charlie, and he decides to go to the Tremaines, pretend to be John’s brother, and keep the blackmail scheme going.

The Tremaines are startled by Frank’s “faux Charlie” visit. They thought their individual problems were over with John’s murder. They are hospitable, and invite the Frank, the Charlie impostor, to stay in the apartment John used. Frank confronts each of them in conversation that he knows about the embezzlement and the affair. Something happens that he was not expecting: husband and wife confess to each other, but they deny killing John. Frank, still known to them as Charlie, demands $50,000 in extortion, threatening to go to the police if they do not cooperate. Then, another unexpected event: the real Charlie calls from the hospital and he can be heard singing Frère Jacques. Frank’s hoax is revealed, and the scheme falls apart.

The dollar figures used in the story seem low, but once they are adjusted for inflation, the values are very high:

John’s weekly payment was $200; that is approximately $2,125 in US$2025, or $111,000 annually.
John’s savings amounted to $38,000; that is approximately $404,000 in US$2025.
Frank’s blackmail demand for $50,000; that is approximately $530,000 in US$2025.

The title of the episode is from the French song Frère Jacques. The song is about a friar who has overslept and is urged to wake up and sound the bell for the midnight or very early morning prayers for which a friar would be expected to be awake. The traditional English translation changes the order of the original lyric to fit the melody better:

Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping?
Brother John, Brother John,
Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

How curious: the story’s “Brother John” is “sleeping” because he was murdered. “Bells are ringing” because the real Charlie is calling from the hospital to sing the song that John would remember him as knowing in the original French:

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Din, din, don. Din, din, don

The nursery rhyme is often sung as a “round” with a group of singers divided, where one set sings the first line and continues, the second set starts singing the first line when the first set is starting the second. Eventually each line is added until there is a point where all four lines are sung in parallel, and then three, then two, and then a final singer with the last line.

There is audio of the song from Wikipedia played simply on piano. It illustrates how the song is heard as a melody, and is followed with a sample of how the lines of music overlap, in parallel, as a “round.” This brief recording is at the same Internet Archive page as the program recording.

Also curious: The song as a round is found in the plotline. John is at the Tremaines living the good life as a blackmailer. Charlie is recovering the in hospital. John, Frank, and Charlie all have different but key parts of the storyline, and there is a time when all three of their stories, and the Tremaines, are all playing out simultaneously. One drops out at a time. The real Charlie is the last to sing, just like the final singer in a “round.”

Frank can’t speak French, and that is funny, a little irony inserted in the story by Eric. Those who can speak French are “francophones.” Frank’s plans are thwarted by a phone call from a man who speaks French. Frank can’t speak French!

Eric selected interesting the character names, possibly from her background in studying English literature in college.. “Charles” is derived from an Old English word meaning a “free man” who has no debts or obligations, possibly referring to his recovery and how he will be free of the schemes that John created and Frank attempted to perpetuate. Of all people in the story, Charles is the one who gets a clean start, beginning with a fond memory of childhood now that he can recall his favorite childhood song. The name “Tremaine” has a possible derivation from a the Cornish version of English referring to monks and their seminaries, giving it a connection to “Frere Jacques,” or “Brother John,” a monk who has overslept, the subject of the lullaby. The wife’s name, “Constance,” means “steadfast,” which she is, when staying with Gerald after he admits his embezzlement and payoff of John, and she admits her affair. “Gerald” is German in origin for someone “with a spear who rules,” which means some kind of leader. But Eric may selected the name because of Gerald of Mayo, a famous British monk who established a monastery in Mayo, Ireland.

The program was recorded on Thursday, April 5, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620415

THE CAST

William Redfield (Frank [impostor Charlie]), Connie Lembke (Constance Tremaine), Paul McGrath (Gerald Tremaine), Sam Gray (John), Bill Smith (Doctor), Guy Repp (“Voice” [real Charlie on phone])

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