This
Lucille Fletcher script is beloved by many Suspense
fans
for many reasons. It has a curious backstory and a speculative
legend, too. A
widowed musician, played
by Vincent Price
befriends
a woman, played by Ida Lupino. They are romantically
attracted
to
each other by
their mutual love of music. As
their relationship develops,
however, she
learns that his
children believe their mother’s body is hidden in
a small room behind
the mechanism of their father’s magnificent
pipe organ. The
instrument
is so
large it is
part
of
the very
structure
of the house.
It’s
a creepy story, made creepier by the fact that children were
involved, and they’re kind of creepy, too.
Suspense blogger
Christine Miller says that this “the
kind of radio horror that only Lucille Fletcher could write.”
That’s
not just from the script plotting and dialogue perspective. Fletcher
also
has
a deep love of music. When she was at Vassar College, she won a
scholarship to study in Spain for a certain musical instrument: the
organ! This
means she
is writing about something she knows quite well. Her early job at CBS
had her working in the music library and also in publicity, which is
how she met composer Bernard Herrmann, whom she later married after a
long courtship. She
was also a music critic for The
New Yorker magazine.
Just
like this story, the music brought Fletcher
and Herrmann
together, too. (It didn’t keep them together, but that’s another
and totally unrelated story for someone
else’s
blog or
book).
It’s
a fascinating story, but it may not be appreciated upon first
listening. It may seem a bit hokey at first, like a B horror movie,
or a TV episode of Night
Gallery, but
listen again. Be sure to listen to the right recording for the best
enjoyment.
Both
the east and west network recordings have survived. The
west recording is better, and not just because of sound quality.
The
east recording is actually good, but
the
west is a better performance. An
Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#54) has also survived. It
was drawn from the east broadcast.
For
many years in
the classic radio hobby, a
version of the west coast program that was circulating
incomplete
and missing its closing “next Monday” that would have identified
it as that specific broadcast. The east recording was complete, but
it seemed
to have missteps
in many respects caused
many
collectors to
believe it
was a rehearsal. Many
collectors had no clue at the time that there were east and west
copies as they only had one recording. They didn’t have the
following details.
These are the big dialogue differences in the two performances
(times are approximate).
East 7:56 They won't...they don't let me play when
they're at home.
West 7:53 They don't want me to play
when they're home.
East 12:06 Please. Please don't start them off Amanda.
West 11:59 Don't start them off again Amanda please.
East 17:26 Why doesn't Papa give us a key? If he'd
only let us .... have it...
West 17:28 Oh, why doesn't
papa give us a key? If he'd only give us a key…
East 17:45 That's where they.. that's where the big
pipes are. And inside it's all dark. But where are the.. but there
are.. there are tunnels... there's a little room... a little room
... that's where she's hiding
West 17:37 That's where
the big pipes are. And inside it's all dark. They.. There are
tunnels in there and little rooms that go all throughout the house
and that's where mama is.
At
the 17 to 19 minute mark of the east broadcast, the child actors seem
to be having trouble with their lines. There are long pauses, and
Lupino sounds like she is being patient, encouraging, and concerned
all at once. They do get through the scene. The
west broadcast is much, much smoother.
One
has to wonder if Spier’s absence from the studio was the reason, or
a reason,
for the problems in the east broadcast. He
was still assigned
to bed rest, recovering
from his heart attack of the week before.
And
now the happy legend. Is it true? Despite many hours of research, and
the viewing of show scripts, this legend
cannot
be affirmed or denied: Joe
Kearns is the organist in the performance. We don’t know if it’s
true or false, but the fan in us wants it to be true, which means we
have to be cautious about believing it. There’s a case for some
valid speculation.
Joe
Kearns is absent from the broadcast, and John McIntire is the “Man
in Black.” If there was a production script that had the details of
the assignments and the casting, we would know for sure; we have only
drama scripts with no production details. If
Kearns was on vacation, he would miss two different script
performances as he does a month later when he misses one performance
each of Search for
Henri Lefevre and
Beast Must Die. He
both
misses Fugue
performances.
There
is a factor in the vacation factor: he also misses the 1944-06-12
Monday performance of Case
History of Edgar Lowndes.
The Thursday performance of 1944-06-08 has not survived to the best
of our knowledge. But there are other factors in favor of the idea.
Kearns
grew up in Salt Lake City and worked at KSL in all kinds of
positions, including acting, writing, announcing, directing,
producing…
almost anything they needed. He was also the organist at the theater,
playing one of those marvelous and big Wurlitzer organs to
great applause.
He would entertain there and at other similar
venues.
When he moved to Hollywood and
built a home, he had a large Hammond organ installed,
according to a 1945 Radio
Life profile.
He would later restore a Wurlitzer, sold after his death in the
1960s.
An
easy question is whether or not Fletcher and Kearns discussed their
love of the instrument and whether on not their conversations
affected her crafting of the story.
The
harder question that plays into legend is whether or not Kearns is
playing the organ in the studio. Was he a member of the musicians
union? There has been no luck in finding out. If he was, and he was
playing in studio, that would explain his absence in a speaking role.
If he was not a
union member,
then he would not be able to play
in the broadcast.
We may never know. But it’s one of those things that we’re trying
to find in newspapers, magazines, documents, and perhaps, one day, we
will find a production script. Until then, it’s a happy legend, and
nothing more.
A
news item in the 1944-08-29 Waterbury
CT Democrat reports
that a five-keyboard pipe organ was used for this performance even
though the music in the program totaled only two minutes! Kearns
would have been very familiar with such a configuration.
Classic radio enthusiast John Eccles had an opportunity to discuss this script with Lucille Fletcher at a Friends of Old Time Radio Convention. She told him that she did not consider Fugue in C Minor to be significant when it was broadcast. She was surprised that modern day radio fans held it in very high regard and could recite details about it. The demonstrates a common pattern that many of the shows and episodes that collectors hold dear could be quite different than those that were contemporary to their broadcast. The admiration came later when enthusiasts could hear them at at time and place of their choosing, and could listen again and again, finding subtleties in the performances that listeners did not have the opportunity to in their time. Radio writing was work, not the creation of art. Fletcher was paid for a good script but could not wait around for accolades. She had to write another script to continue her career and income. Most writers could not view their work objectively in terms of its artful impact until well after the broadcasts. The best feedback to the quality of their work was to be hired again and again. The quality of their work was also affirmed by the talent hired by producers to act in their scripts. If they were getting re-hired and the actors being cast were more prominent, then you were succeeding. Suspense would hold the best scripts aside for the bigger name or more talented actors. Actors could receive immediate accolades in the studio and the next day’s water-cooler chatter in the offices of radio executives and listeners. Writers, on the other hand, did not receive immediate feedback in the same manner. Those accolades could take longer because rising above their anonymity and building a reputation took more time.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/440601
THE CAST
VINCENT
PRICE (Theodore Evans), IDA LUPINO (Amanda Peabody), John McIntire
(Man in Black), Bea Benaderet (Lizzie Cholmley), Mary Lou Harrington?
(Daphne), Tommy Cook? (David)
This
is likely Vincent Price's last broadcast before reporting for
military service, according to newspaper reports.
Researcher
Don
Ramlow and disc
collector John
Tefteller discussed
this episode a
few months ago.
Don was a guest on John’s Good
Old Days of Radio podcast
for commentary and a replay of the episode. They mentioned
that the
inclusion of kids
made the
story very
different from other Fletcher scripts and a bit creepier. I
hadn’t really considered that before until
I heard their exchange.
It’s worth a listen.
https://goodolddaysofradio.podbean.com/e/episode-104-the-best-of-lucille-fletcher-fugue-in-c-minor/
(Here’s a happy behind the scenes hat tip to Daniel Chase, producer
of the successful
2x/week podcast.
It
has
a growing and a younger audience demographic than most classic radio
endeavors).
Special thanks to collector and researcher Andrew Steinberg who
documented the dialogue differences in the east and west recordings.
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