Ivor Francis stars as “Henry Beckham,” an 1860s shipping broker, in a Jack Johnstone script (written as “Jonathan Bundy”). It is about a sailor who is skeptical about the superstition of bad luck for Friday sailings, especially Friday the 13th. He has a new boat built so every construction step occurs on a Friday, and launches his new boat on Friday the 13th just to prove the superstition wrong. Whoops.
Johnstone uses a persistent legend involving the British Royal Navy as his springboard for the script. The claimed incident has been proven untrue. Sometime in the 19th century, the fable goes, the Royal Navy attempted to stop the Friday superstitions once and for all. A ship named HMS Friday was supposedly commissioned, its keel laid on a Friday, the ship completed on a Friday, and its maiden voyage on Friday the 13th. This all happened, fittingly, under the command of a Captain James Friday. The ship was never seen or heard from again, much to the dismay and embarrassment of the Royal Navy. There has never been any Royal Navy ship of that name. But, legends, even false ones, are always potential plotlines of radio scripts.
He builds out the story, giving it a time and place (1860s England) and removing Royal Navy involvement. The story is instead about a shipping agent who cannot get insurance for a cargo shipment that is bound for Philadelphia. His long-time insurance broker, Edward Etherington, refuses because the sailing date is a Friday the 21st. Etherington recites a long list of wrecks associated with Friday sailings. He goes to another broker, Mr. Archrock, who also turns him down. Beckham becomes so frustrated with the “sheer, stupid superstition” that he decides to buy his own ship. He sells his share of the business to his business partner, Philip Morley, to raise the money. He and makes sure its construction under the supervision of shipbuilder Malcolm MacBaskin flies in the face of superstition every step of the way. The contract is signed on Friday, April 28th, construction beginning on Friday, May 5th , and the start of each construction milestone is a Friday. The ship is christened on Friday, September 22nd. The ship is even named “Friday.” He plans to embark on the worst of all Fridays, October 13th. He hires a captain for the ship, whose last name is “Friday.” The ship leaves port… and Beckham never hears from it ever again.
No script cover is available. The date and time of recording is not known.
In the cast is Hetty Galen, who plays a young girl, Beckham’s niece. This was her only Suspense appearance. She was 33 at the time of the broadcast. Her birth name was Harriet Gutterman. Galen appeared in many CBS radio soaps, especially Whispering Streets. She often voiced teenagers and adults in her advertising, radio, and animation work. She was in 15 CBS Radio Mystery Theater productions. She was the first person whose voiceover for Clairol hair products uttered the famous line “Does she? Or doesn’t she?”
Suspense had another episode, The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, about the true story where a ship was found, adrift but intact, but the entire crew was missing! It was broadcast on 1953-06-08 with Van Heflin, and again on 1955-12-27 with John Dehner. There is no mention if a Friday date was involved.
Classic radio researcher Karl Schadow notes that Jack Johnstone planted an inside joke related to a 5-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. Starting at approx 6:50, after the announcement of the ship that was lost at sea, the Etherington character (portrayed by Bob Dryden) cites other previously ships lost at sea including The Molly K. That series, The Molly K Matter, ran from 1955-10-10 to 1955-10-14. It was written by Les Crutchfield, produced and directed by Johnstone.
There may be another inside reference, which is that Mercer McLeod plays a character named “Captain Friday” in this episode. Jack Johnstone worked with Carleton E. Morse in the mid-1950s on a short-lived soap opera, Family Skeleton. “Captain Friday” was a main character in Morse’s syndicated adventure series, Adventures by Morse.
A sillier reference might be “Mr. MacBaskin,” also played by MacLeod. After checking multiple genealogy web sites, there is no such surname. It could be, however, a mash-up of “McDonalds” and the ice cream shop “Baskin-Robbins.” Both franchise organizations started in southern California, and it is likely there were stores nearby to Johnstone’s home off the busy Santa Monica Boulevard. Some writers will do anything to break writer’s block or to amuse themselves as they come up with character names. Johnstone had the kind of humor to do so.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP620204
THE CAST
Ivor Francis (Henry Beckham), Hetty Galen (Beckham’s niece), Bill Lipton (Insurance agent #2), Herb Duncan (Insurance agent #1), Dave Gilbert (Insurance agent #3), Robert Dryden (Edward Etherington), Mercer MacLeod (Captain Friday, Mr. MacBaskin), William Redfield (Philip Morley), Lawson Zerbe (Mr. Archcroft)
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