1962-05-27 Suspense episode: An historical analysis of the sci-fi script about two jazz musicians and time travel

This is a historical review of the 1962 Suspense radio drama that was broadcast on May 27, 1962 on the CBS Radio Network. The author was Dick W. Dowling and the producer was Bruno Zirato, Jr. 

Jack Grimes and Richard Holland star in an amusing and somewhat endearing Dowling script. It's a time travel story about friendship and a steadfast love of music. They play “Bud” and “Lou” (already a not-so-inside joke related to comedy duo Abbott and Costello) about two down-on-their-luck jazz musicians who don’t have enough money to get out of a small town. They want to get back to a big city where they might get some good-paying gigs. They’re sitting in the local diner having coffee and chatting things up with a waitress when the proprietor of a radio repair shop overhears them. He offers them a chance to make a small amount of money if they help him make a delivery of some electronic equipment. They're so down on their luck that any amount seems attractive to them. They agree, as it won’t take long, will give them plenty of money to leave town. The equipment is headed to a reclusive scientist on the outskirts of town. When they get there, they realize how remote it is, that the equipment is heavy, and there are a lot of stairs. They are dropped off, with the equipment, and the repair shop owner drives away, stranding them!

They are really lost now, but they carry the equipment up to the house and meet Professor Norville Hagen. He’s working on a secret audio project. Some folks in town have heard strange voices, have come to think his house is haunted, and believe that he is very strange. He is working on device that allows him to listen to audio from the past, very far in the past. They hear Julius Caesar making a speech from 46 BC, just like they were listening on a modern day radio! (He says, in Latin, roughly translated, “I am Caesar, your leader, and your king”). One of the time periods they tune into delivers the sound of jazz music from the 1930s. Bud and Lou are thrilled. Professor Hagen loves music, too, but of the classical kind. He invites them to stay and use the machine. Bud and Lou decide that they can record the music from the device and create a secure future for themselves by releasing it to the public as record albums. 

Everything seems to be going well, until Lou realizes he loves the music he’s hearing so much that he starts playing along and doesn’t always record the device's audio onto tape. They learn that Hagen has been working on an enhanced invention, allowing a person to physically travel back to the times they desire. In his case, back to the times of the music he loves. He has long been dissatisfied with the world as it currently is, and is now prepared to make the trip. Lou decides he wants to go, too, but to the jazz era he adores. Bud will have no part of it. Hagen and Lou leave, but the energy of the process stresses the equipment and causes a big explosion. It destroys the Professor’s home, but somehow Bud escapes. Later, we learn that a recording of Lou’s solos as he played along with past jazz masters, has survived, is released, and is a big hit. Bud misses his friend, and hopes he got to where he wanted and “is fine and having a ball in that real crazy infinity.”

It is likely that the scripter, Dick W. Dowling, is actually a pseudonym. More details are at the Internet Archive link below.

This is one of the few science fiction stories that worked on Suspense in the final New York era, and especially under producer Zirato. It’s an entertaining story, and doesn’t take itself too seriously, with interesting characters. The implausibility of the events is easily set aside as fantasy just for the fun of it.

The program was recorded on Thursday, May 17, 1962. The session began at 1:30pm and concluded at 5:00pm.

There are two surviving recordings, with the better or the two from the Armed Forces Radio Service. It has some minor audio defects, but is an enjoyable listen. The AFRS service announcements have been edited out. “The Suspense March” is heard at the end, indicating it is an AFRS recording. The network recording is an aircheck with very narrow range, some volume fluctuation, and overall low quality sound.

This episode was Bruno Zirato, Jr.’s final episode as producer-director. He was reassigned by CBS to the game show To Tell the Truth. He would have a long run as associate producer and later as producer when the show went into syndication. CBS veteran Fred Hendrickson takes over Suspense with the next episode.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620527

THE CAST

Jack Grimes (Bud), Richard Holland (Lou), Robert Dryden (Charlie Olin), Court Benson (Professor Norvell Hagen), Athena Lorde (Jenny), Robert Readick (Max Wesson), Guy Repp (The voice of Julius Caesar)

###

1962-09-30 Devilstone

NOTE: This is the eighth of eight Suspense episodes that Jack Johnstone submitted to the series under the name “Jack Bundy” or “Jonathan Bundy.” All eight were derived from scripts Johnstone wrote for his 1940-1941 Mutual series, Who Knows? Details about that series can be found at the summary of the episode 1961-08-06 Bells.

The final episode of Suspense might be the most scorned and despised broadcast of the series. It does not help that it is the final broadcast of Suspense and the last the radio drama era, so believed at that time. The story, written by Jack Johnstone, does not deserve its negative reputation. Its reputation is unfortunately tainted by its circumstance. It has an interesting history, however. It fits the pattern of many Suspense episodes where the backstory may be more intriguing than the broadcast. The script was originally used on Johnstone’s series Who Knows? and was broadcast on July 11, 1941. He made some small but interesting changes to the script for the Suspense broadcast.

The story

Devilstone introduces listeners to Timothy Martin, played by Christopher Cary, a wealthy man of Dublin. He has just inherited a castle in Northern Ireland, called “Devilstone.” He does not want to move there, but would prefer to turn it into a rental property. His attorney says it will not be possible because it is haunted.

Martin does not believe in such things. He has been pitching rental of the castle to an American couple, the Stokers, who were eager to do sign on. The Stokers go, but return early, very upset. The wife had a terrifying experience there from its haunting. Martin does not believe it, but his curiosity is piqued. He decides to go and see for himself, taking his butler and his dog with him. They visit and have some experiences in the nature of a poltergeist, and hear a ghostly warning that they should leave. That warning leads to another: the dog is dead without any sign of foul play or injury. Martin and the butler experience the sight of a ghost. At one point they see footprints appear, with no visible or physical being making them. They return to Dublin to see the attorney for more details.

He provides Martin with a fuller story. It is revealed that Devilstone was built by Martin’s ancestor, Jason O’Flynn, for his wife. She died on the very day she tried to enter it. O’Flynn, consumed by grief, swore no one else would ever live in the house until his own body “turned to dust.” He disappeared, not to be seen again.

The day after the visit with the lawyer, Martin and the butler return to the castle. They find a hidden trapdoor beneath a wrinkled rug in the very room where they experienced the apparitions. Below, in a crypt-like space, is the perfectly preserved body of Jason O’Flynn! His wrists were cut, indicating a suicide. As fresh air reaches the crypt, after decades of being sealed, O’Flynn’s body rapidly decays and turns to dust. This breaks the curse. It implies that his spectral presence they encountered previously was tied to his perfectly preserved remains. The haunting of the castle ends as the body turns to dust. The Latin words “requiescat in pace” are uttered to conclude the story (and also the radio drama era).

The story behind the story

This episode is a re-use and rebuild of a script written by Johnstone for Who Knows? The similarities of Devilstone and the Who Knows? production can be easily detected. At about 3:00 of the Devilstone broadcast, the text matches the 1941-07-11 script. Listen to the Suspense version and hear how similar it is to the 1941 broadcast script:

JOHNSTONE: Deep under St. Michan’s Church, in Dublin, is a crypt that possesses most amazing properties. In it are scores of bodies, all in a state of perfect preservation, albeit hundreds of years old. They say that it's all due to some form of Black Magic. How about that, Dr. Carrington?

CARRINGTON: Mr. Johnstone, modern chemistry has finally exploded that belief, has shown that certain gases, generated by the unusual composition of damp earth, have produced this strange phenomenon.

Devilstone is mainly a ghost story. It is interesting that producer William Spier, back in the 1940s, issued Suspense script guidelines that stated:

Suspense is not a ghost story broadcast. The most successful shows have been those which were realistic and in which the listener could easily identify himself with the predicament of the main character.

 Oh well, Devilstone is a ghost story. Whoops! The guidelines Spier set were obviously no longer applicable. He violated them himself when he presented HP Lovecraft’s Dunwich Horror. Did Johnstone select Devilstone for submission and secure the agreement of producer Fred Hendrickson for a particular reason? Is there a new, special symbolism or connection relevant to Suspense and its broadcast demise?

Johnstone wrote the first Devilstone script in 1941. When Suspense came under the producerships of Bruno Zirato, Jr. and Fred Hendrickson, the re-working of past scripts helped cope with the paucity of new radio scripts of the time. If there was a gap in the schedule coming up, a prior script could be adapted more quickly than writing a new one. In the late 1950s, the best writers gravitated to the greater financial benefits of television. Johnstone resigned himself to that shortage by deciding to write most of the post-5-part Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar scripts himself and also allowing other writers to adapt their previous scripts for the series. Repurposing and reformatting Johnstone’s own past scripts helped keep both shows on the air from budget and production deadline perspectives. Devilstone may have been written in 1941 to be just a spooky story, but the imagery Johnstone crafted could be re-shaped to the unique circumstances of September 30, 1962. The likelihood of a listener remembering the Who Knows? series and linking it to this Devilstone episode was very small.

Linking the symbolism with broadcast business realities

The castle in Northern Ireland and is haunted by an ancestral ghost. Is that castle Suspense? Is it inherited because Johnstone is one of the show’s main scripters (and also Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar) in the final months months and weeks? (An inheritance is something you get whether you want it or not). Is the “Suspense castle” inherited because he is the author of the scripts that ended both series on that day? Is Suspense haunted by an ancestral ghost of “radio past” and the actors and listeners of the golden age of radio? Or is Suspense a “ghost of itself,” its own heyday long past? Are people listening in 1962 because of what Suspense used to be and not what it became?

The ancestor committed suicide. His body was stored in a manner that it would be preserved and incorrupt. Once exposed to the air, however, the corpse turned to dust. Is that ancestor symbolic of radio the way it was, committing suicide by surrendering all it was over to television? Once radio gave into that medium, it symbolically turned to dust. CBS Radio president, Arthur Hull Hayes, commented in a 1962-10-08 St. Louis Post-Dispatch interview that “if people want drama, television can do it much better.” He continued about the cancellations “we’re only doing what should have been done years ago.”

That “done years ago” comment applies to the story. The corpse was preserved from air, but once exposed, it turned to dust. Does the Hayes comment mean that Suspense and YTJD were “protected” from the actions of the marketplace and maintained by CBS for no good reason? In the story, the curse existed only because the corpse did not get natural airflow around it. If had, there would be no curse. Is that Hayes’ managerial point? Is he saying that clinging to and protecting obsolete radio formats undermined the financial health of the CBS radio division? Was the underperformance of financial health their own self-imposed curse?

The last three words

With the closing words of the Devilstone drama, “requiescat in pace,” radio “gave up the ghost.” Its spirit was gone and could not return, according to Johnstone. Those final words are the Latin phrase meaning “rest in peace,” usually abbreviated “RIP.” It indicates that a person is dead, free from earthly turmoil and enjoying a happier afterlife, and never to return.

That phrase is a significant departure from the conclusion of the Who Knows? script. The 1941 production’s final words were “pax vobiscum.” Why the change?  

 The context and meaning of the two phrases are very different. Pax vobiscum, “peace be with you,” are the words uttered by the resurrected Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Luke and John in this particular and similar forms. The epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, open with a similarly worded expression. It also appears in the early lines of the Book of Revelation. Note that:

• pax vobiscum is a prayer directed to and for the benefit of the living.

• requiescat in pace is a prayer for the benefit of the deceased.

The latter phrase was part of early Christian funeral rituals. It is more widely known for its appearance on tombstones. Its first documented use on such markers, at least discovered so far, is sometime in the Fifth Century. It came into wide common use later and is still used today.

Johnstone was convinced that the broadcast of Devilstone was the certain end of network radio drama programming, and was never to return. Those three last words, requiescat in pace, were his acknowledgment and expression of that sentiment and that certainty.

During a presentation about the Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar series at the September 2025 Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention, author John Abbott related what Jack Johnstone's daughter reported about that day. When Devilstone concluded, Jack turned off his radio, turned to her and said it was “the end of an era.” Days later, he retired from CBS.

Curiosities

• The closing announcements of Devilstone do not declare it as the last episode of Suspense. The only hint of finality is the absence of the tease for the next week’s broadcast.

• It is believed that some affiliates were disgruntled at the prospect of Suspense and YTJD cancellations and that CBS allowed repeats of the New York productions on the network feeds for a few months. If that was the case, for listeners to those stations, Suspense would still be on the air and did not have a final episode, at least for them, on September 30, 1962. Verification of those continuing broadcasts is elusive, but it does appear in many newspaper radio timetables for months and in some cases, years. Suspense was briefly syndicated in the 1970s by Charles Michaelson. His business was a syndication of many other series, but best known for The Shadow.

• The cancellation of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar received practically no news coverage. The November 1960 cancellation of CBS soap operas received far more news attention. Suspense was cancelled at that time, but YTJD was not. Suspense returned at the end of June 1961, replacing Gunsmoke.

• Actor Ted Osborne was in the very first Suspense broadcast in 1942 and this final show, over twenty years later. For reasons unknown, he is billed as “Reynold Osborn” during his later Suspense appearances, and even in summer stock theater. He was the only performer to be in each of the “bookend” broadcasts.

• The character “Stoker” is likely a reference to Bram Stoker, author of the landmark novel, Dracula. This little inside joke implies that if someone named “Stoker” won’t stay at Devilstone because it’s haunted, it must be true! Stoker was not American as the man in the story is, but was of Irish descent, loosely linking the real-life author to the location of Devilstone. This was likely an inside joke of convenience for Johnstone. The famous 1931 Dracula movie that starred Bela Lugosi could still be found in theaters in 1941 (often for late Saturday night horror movie showings). The late 1920s play also remained popular in regional theater productions. The 1941 listeners of Who Knows? were more likely to get the reference than the 1962 listeners were.

• Radio collectors referred to September 30, 1962 as “the day radio died.” This was same way that the February 3, 1959 plane crash in which Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the “Big Bopper” perished was called “the day the music died.” (That phrase was re-immortalized in Don McLean’s 1970s song American Pie). Drama would be back in fits and starts with Theatre 5 by the ABC Radio Network, and other series such as Hollywood Radio Theater (sometimes referred to as Zero Hour), the productions of Jim French in the Seattle area, but especially CBS Radio Mystery Theater. Jack Johnstone could not have foreseen that any success any of these later dramas would even be possible. How paradoxical it was that CBS would bring drama back. CBS Radio Mystery Theater presented 1399 original episodes and was broadcast for parts of nine years. It would inspire a new generation of classic radio fans.

Surviving recordings

The surviving recording is a WROW aircheck. An Armed Forces Radio and Television Service recording (AFRTS#917) is known to exist, but is not available at this time.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620930

THE CAST

Christopher Cary (Timothy Martin), Neil Fitzgerald (Everts), Gilbert Mack (Carney), Walter Greaza (Stoker), Frank Milano (Kim the dog), Ted Osborne [aka Reynold Osborn] (Man’s Voice)

 Ian Martin also appeared in the 1941 Who Knows? broadcast of this script.

###

1962-09-23 At the Point of a Needle

Betty Garde delivers a despicably excellent and loud performance as a toxic narcissistic wife intent on having her way and her way alone over very small matters. Her behavior becomes destructive, and of course, something’s wrong with everyone else, not her. The script is by Joseph Cochran. Blogger Christine Miller, in her Escape and Suspense! blog wrote in 2012:

This show was the second to final episode of Suspense… and one can only wish that the series had ended its twenty year run with this aggressive little episode, and the perfect performance by Betty Garde…

Some listeners may not like Garde’s character and performance because it is so loud and aggressive, but that’s the idea. She’s a horrible and there are times when you feel “I’ve met someone like this” somewhere in your past.

A perpetual complainer, for whom no level of attention or cooperation is good enough, is at a rented beach cottage with her husband. They want to escape the Summer heat. It’s a public beach, but “public” is a concept that is very hard for her to grasp. She considers the beach in the width of the cottage to be private. If anyone is in her line of sight to the water, they are trespassing. She puts up signs, plays loud and obnoxious music, in an attempt to deter people from settling down in whatever spot they choose on the beach. Her selfish efforts go to court against a couple who liked that part of the beach. (How they got a court date so quickly is an impossible part of the plot, but let it go, as she probably heaped verbal abuse on a court clerk to get her way). The judge rules against Myra and George. Of course, the judge is stupid and incompetent, despite his Ivy League law degree, according to her. She continues to belittle and humiliate George. He finally reaches a breaking point and walks to the supposedly offending beach couple, and shoots them. Myra is shocked… but George calmly walks back into the cottage, and calls the police to report a murder. Part of the shocking incident is that he did not turn the gun on himself. He does not turn the gun on Myra, either, too scared to do so. The episode concludes with Myra in voice-over, complaining about George, and how he left her so little money, and how stubborn he had become. Her concluding line is “After I had been such a kind and loving wife, why I didn't even have enough money to buy a decent morning outfit.”

The last name “Petit” of Myra and George may be plays on the words “petty” which the wife certainly us, and “petite,” meaning small, which describes the size of George’s resolve. That is, until he reaches a breaking point does the very wrong and most severe thing at the end of the story. Myra has her footprints all over George’s back until that point, when it turns very dark very quickly and unexpectedly.

The title may have been selected to show how delicately balanced things are in the story, until they fall very apart.

There are two network aircheck recordings. The WROW aircheck is the better of the two, in clear sound. The station engineer missed the cue for the “And now…” introduction. The other is from WDNC in Durham, North Carolina. The somewhat noisy and narrow range recording is fully intact and has more of the closing and after-broadcast announcements.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620923

THE CAST

Betty Garde (Myra Petit), Walter Kinsella (George Petit), Teri Keane (Esther), Bill Adams (Judge), Bob Readick (Bill)

###

1962-09-16 The Golden Years

This William N. Robson story has an odd title, implying that the story might be about people who are retirees or senior citizens. It is not. It is actually about the teenage years, and how important they can be in building relationships and character that young people can take into independent and responsible adulthood.

“Sue,” played by Rosemary Rice, a teenager who is head over heels with her new boyfriend, “Buddy,” played by Peter Fernandez. Buddy wants to take the car for their date, but his stepfather turns him down because he has had some driving issues. Their relationship is tense, and Buddy lashes out, saying that his stepfather is not his “real” father, and he has no right to turn him down. Sue and Buddy meet during the day, and he says their date that evening has to be cancelled. Buddy is so miffed he says that he intends to murder his stepfather, and knows exactly when. The man falls asleep every evening while watching television, waking only to catch a news report. Buddy will sneak in just before the news. Sue dismisses the comments, thinking Buddy is just angry and it will pass, but she starts to think differently. Buddy tries to buy ammunition for his rifle, but the store owner refuses him, noting that the stepfather had prohibited after an earlier transaction. Buddy gets a hunting knife instead. It’s clear this could get vicious and brutal, and Sue brings her worries to a woman for whom she is babysitting. The woman is active in crime prevention in the town, and decides something must be done. There was some confusion about tracking down Buddy’s name because his last name changed when the stepfather adopted him. Sue and the woman figure it out. The woman calls, and Buddy actually answers the phone! The ringing of the phone wakes up the stepfather just in time. He sees Buddy has the knife, and did not have a chance to act. She never revealed her name, but advised the father that he and the son need to come improve their communication and their relationship, saying “That son of yours needs you. He needs your understanding and maybe your help. Try to give it to him, will you? For your own good.”

The program was originally planned to air on September 9, 1962.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, September 12, 1962. The session start and finish time is not known.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620916

THE CAST

The cast: Peter Fernandez (Buddy Birdwell), Rosemary Rice (Sue), Ivor Francis (Buddy's Stepfather [Ralph Karsten]), Elspeth Eric (Buddy's Mother [Mrs. Karsten]), Mary Jane Higby (Mrs. Foster), Ronald Dawson (Mr. Schmidt the storekeeper), Bret Morrison (Sgt. Kenny / Dr. Devins)

NOTE: Pat Hosley is announced in the closing credits, but does not appear in the drama. The original script had a role for a telephone operator. It is likely that Hosley is announced in the credits because she was in the recording sessions for the episode, but her role was eliminated in final editing to meet the allotted time for the network broadcast.

The storekeeper’s name was changed from “Larsen” to “Mr. Schmidt” prior to broadcast. It was likely because “Larsen” may have sounded too close to “Karsten.”

###

1962-09-09 A Strange Day in May

William Mason stars in a Michael Healy story that is ultimately about abduction by alien life forms and their possibly nefarious duplication of humans. Are they planning to take over the world... or is it something else? It’s definitely not your typical Suspense story. It is low-level science fiction at a time when such topics were popular. There were attempts to mimic the success and style of television’s Twilight Zone, even on Suspense. Unfortunately, this production does not come close to measuring up to Suspense standards or that of TZ.

But there’s a twist to the story that makes it a bit creative when it is learned what their real plans are. It modern computer terms, are they making a backup copy of the human race?

Astronaut Thomas Manning is assigned to a space mission to investigate the disappearance of two previous astronauts. His wife, Mary, fears he will also disappear. When his vehicle gets to its desired distance he reports feeling a “blue rapture.” He sees something glowing and his spacecraft is heading toward it, and he loses control. Something must have happened, as he wakes up at the base hospital with a painful headache, exhausted. The reactions of his superiors to him, and especially by his wife, Mary, are strangely wooden, functional, essentially at arms-length. They’ve known him or been with him for so long that it is really odd that they don’t understand everyday little things about him. He realizes something is seriously wrong. He escapes the hospital and heads home where he sees Mary again. She is very cold to seeing him; she treats him like almost like an acquaintance. She warns him to get away, and the military personnel arrive to take him away. He protests… and is carted away. But there is a different Major Manning already inside the house. The man they took away was the real Manning, but it seems everyone in the program has been replaced by aliens studying human life by taking the forms and appearance of individuals involved in the space effort. Why?

The story can be confusing, especially if you are of the deeply-ingrained inclination that stories like this always have aliens wanting to take over the world. If that’s the case, you may miss an important aspect of this production. Classic radio enthusiast and researcher John Barker explains that this is not that kind of story. The last lines of dialogue set it straight.

The aliens are not planning an invasion of earth. They’re making “copies” of the people, “doppelgängers,” and on a separate second Earth. That German word literally means “double-goer.” A person has a doppelgänger when another person looks just like them but are not their biological twin or other genetic relation that would have physical similarities. The true Major Manning landed on a second Earth filled with doppelgängers. He notes that “the aliens in this story are quite benign, and a planned invasion of the Earth doesn't figure into the story at all.” As for why the two astronauts “disappeared” but are still being held on the second Earth and not returned, he states that the aliens “don't want their own existence known and fear the potential for an attempted invasion of their planet by our own Earth,” In the concluding lines of the drama, the second Earth military officers say that our Earth and their second Earth “might need each other” at some time in the future. These and the other explanations rule out invasion as a plotline. Are the two Earths and their doppelgänger populations like a flesh-and-bone computer backup mentioned earlier?

There are many examples of science fiction short stories and novels published throughout the full span of the 20^th Century that involved some kind of “second Earth.” Many of such stories have characters in the one world that are the exact opposite of the way they are in the other. In this story, they are intended to be the same.

Aliens have been meeting earthlings on Suspense since their broadcast of The Outer Limit. The episode Re-Entry did not involve aliens, but it used the plot element about an astronaut who did not return. In that case, it was by choice because of the euphoria he felt on his mission and wanted to experience again. This is similar to the “blue rapture” described in this story.

The alien invasion theme is a common one in sci-fi media, and was used in Twilight Zone. The episodes that involved aliens infiltrating the population are the 1960 episodes The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street and People Are Alike All Over and the 1961’s Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? The classic TZ about alien invasion is To Serve Man. John Barker, however, considers this Suspense episode as most closely resembling a 1963 TZ hour long episode, The Parallel. The episode was written by Rod Serling and has similar elements.

A Strange Day in May was author Michael Healy’s only Suspense script. He might be a “one-hit-wonder” for whom this was his only radio script and there are no indications of other writing in print or other media. Nor are there indications his name is a pseudonym.

Maurice Tarplin of Mysterious Traveler fame plays a newscaster in this story named… Maurice Tarplin.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, September 5, 1962. The start and finish time of the session is not known.

This episode was originally planned to air on September 2.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620909

THE CAST

William Mason (Maj. Thomas Manning), Tony Darnay (Mary Manning), Reynold Osborn [Ted Osborn] (Col. Alvin Marks), Herbert Duncan (Lieutenant, Driver), Maurice Tarplin (Newsman Tarplin), Bill Lipton (Countdown Voice, Guard), Bill Smith (Doctor)

###

1962-08-26 The Lost Ship

Mason Adams stars in an Irwin Lewis story about an old Spanish galleon stranded in the desert, loaded down with a treasure of gold. Adams plays “Harry Turner,” who, with his wife Viola are on the run after Harry embezzled $50,000 from his employer. That is about $535,000 in US$2025. They’re headed to Mexico where they can enjoy the money and avoid the authorities. They turn off the main road to a desert road and find a small cabin in the mountains. An old prospector named Pete lives there. Harry is first attracted to the idea of stealing his Jeep and using that to get across the border. As Harry and Viola talk to him, he offers generous hospitality to let them stay. Pete explains why he is there and describes a lost Spanish galleon that holds gold coins and other treasures that is in the distance. He tells Harry where to go with binoculars and under what conditions he can see it. Harry is convinced he can see it, goes there, and finds it. He digs into the sand and enters the ship, and does find furniture, maps, and treasure. He loses track of the dangers of such a venture, and is trapped inside.

This is one of those typical stories where greed overcomes the most basic common sense. There’s another aspect of the story. The old codger treasure hunter, Pete, mentions to the fugitive couple says how much he likes living alone. Did Pete “plant” the coins so Viola would find them, and lure him into a trap? Did he tell them about the ship because he knew Harry would fail to return? Pete would be guaranteed of being the only person who knows the location. If this happens today, someone like Harry would be able to communicate the exact GPS location, fly drones with cameras over it to survey the scene, and eventually harvest the ship and the treasure. That is, if there really was one.

Mason Adams used the name “Matt Cooper” in this episode. It is not clear why. Both names are noted on the script cover. Adams has extensive monologue in the production, especially as he explores the ship. He delivers that extremely well.

Blogger Christine Miller notes that there is a good Wikipedia page about “The Lost Ship of the Desert” legend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Ship_of_the_Desert The page notes the legends, how they came to be, and how they have been portrayed in media.

The program was recorded on Wednesday, August 22, 1962. The start and ending time of the session is not known.

The surviving recording is quite good, an improvement compared to most circulating copies. It is a network aircheck of WROW. Unfortunately, the end of that recording is clipped, but the good-sounding drama is fully intact. The final approximate 45 seconds, comprised only of cast announcements and the tease for the upcoming show, have been restored from a similar-sounding recording. Therefore, the recording is marked as “composite,” because two recordings were used to make one final recording The overall sound of the one final recording provides very good listening experience.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620826

THE CAST

Mason Adams [Matt Cooper] (Harry Turner), Jean Gillespie (Viola Turner), Bill Adams (Pete Townley)

###

1962-08-12 The Silver Shoe

William Mason stars in a Robert Readick story about a heartbroken sailor, named “Joey,” who sees a young woman who strongly resembles his late fiancée. He sees her in a drug store, and he can’t believe his eyes. She’s just like Corrie in appearance, sound, and mannerisms. He follows her to the nearby Silver Shoe dance hall. He has a picture of Corrie and shows it around, but no one knows her. When he sits down, he spots her across the room. She says that he reminds her of someone, but can’t remember who. He knows she’s not Corrie, but he’s not that sure about it. She asks him to buy some dance tickets so they can spend some time together and not be bothered by the manager of the hall. The story moves from the present to flashbacks and back to the present. His mind drifts to the times he spent with Corrie, and the story eventually turns to his memories and not current reality. As the story develops it is clear something is amiss in reality, as no one knows this young woman. Joey presses them for help, insisting she was there. His pleading does nothing but annoy them. They remember him being alone at a table, and not with anyone else. He eventually ends up in sick bay back at his ship. The doctor reminds him of the stress that he has been under and his sense of loss. A key part of the story is a silver medallion that he gave to Corrie that suddenly appears again, years after he gave it to her.

This is a generally good story, and you sense the frustration and the loss that Joey has. The supernatural ending makes you wonder if the woman was Corrie or not. It is a predictable ending, but the flashbacks and underlying story make listening worthwhile.

This episode was originally planned to air on August 5, 1962.

This program was recorded on Wednesday, August 8, 1962. The start and finish time of the session is not known.

The only available recording of this episode is one from the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS). Its opening service announcement has been edited out, and “The Suspense March” at the close of the recording has been shortened.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP620812

THE CAST

William Mason (Joey), Rita Lloyd (Muriel), Gertrude Warner (Corrie), Ralph Camargo (Counterman / Doctor), Toni Darnay (Corrie as a girl), Richard Keith (Bailey)

###

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)

###

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)

###

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)

###

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)

###