Betty Grable, film star and wartime
pin-up sensation, stars on Suspense. She was known for her
insured legs ($1 million as a studio publicity stunt, $12.7 million in US$2024) and skeptics
wondered “can she act?” Her performance defied the critics who
believed she was movie eye-candy with meager acting ability. It was
not a demanding script in terms of some Suspense classics, but
the script had long segments of monologue and dialogue. This means
that Tony Leader had some confidence in her abilities and did not
reserve a simpler script for her appearance.
She plays a photographer's model who is
nagged by her sickly mother. Her mother's craving for attention
drives away the model’s male friends who might become romantic
interests and a chance for long-term happiness and independence. This
is Suspense, of course, so there has to be an evil plan to do
away with the mother and escape legal and moral consequences. Mom
does enjoy her tea in the morning… and maybe, she wonders, she
could give her something to help the process along. There is a
surprise ending, like many Suspense stories, that are resolved
with justice in the end but for a very different reason. It’s a
good story with a Whistler-esque conclusion.
The original story was by Los
Angeles Times police reporter John Q. Copeland. It had appeared
in Liberty magazine’s 1937-10-02 edition. These years later,
he sent the story to Suspense for consideration, and it was
accepted. Because no adapter is noted, he may have re-written the
original story into script form himself, and then the usual series
editing process for commercials and flow was applied. He is mentioned
in the credits as “John T. Copeland,” but his newspaper byline
was always with “Q” and not “T.” The script cover sheet has "Q," but the script itself has "T" on page 25, making this a typo. This seems to be his only
radio script submission, but he did have some television scripts
produced in the 1950s.
The original casting plan may have been
to have Barbara Stanwyck in the lead role.
CBS knew that movie fans would be
pleased with the Grable appearance. The 1949-04-21 Fort Worth TX
Star-Telegram had an item in the summary of its radio programming
for that evening and stated:
Casting of Miss
Grable in the role of a murderess was by popular request according to
Producer Tony Leader who said he had received more letters asking for
Miss Grable on Suspense than any other star.
The hiring of Grable was a perfect
opportunity for more publicity about the casting strategy of
Suspense. It was reported that she was paid US$3,500. That's
about $45,000 in US2024$.
The CBS publicity department supplied
the following quote of Grable in press releases, picked up by many
newspapers:
“It sort of took
my breath away when Tony suggested it. I remember I asked him if he
didn't think he'd better write in a song, but now I’m crazy about
the script and am as excited over the whole thing as I was over my
first screen test.”
This additional quote of Leader was
also in many papers:
“Betty always
has been a great performer, in her field, and there's no reason why
she shouldn't try another field. I have a feeling she'll be good --
very good.”
Fans may have been looking forward to
it, but Grable’s appearance was not greeted with cheerful
anticipation in many newspaper radio pages. The 1949-04-17 Port
Huron MI Times Herald radio columnist was not optimistic:
Betty Grable,
whose brand of emoting ranks, in my opinion, with that of Dorothy
Lamour, pays a guest visit Thursday night to the Suspense
thriller entitled The Copper Tea Strainer. In this one, Miss
Grable plays a frustrated actress. She ought to be in character.
But Grable did well. Days after the
broadcast, the usually grumpy and disagreeable but highly respected
syndicated radio critic John Crosby was impressed by her performance:
As this aging,
unhappy model, ridden by a whining invalid mother, speaking a role
which was almost a half hour monologue, in a medium where her voice,
as it were, had to stand on its own legs, Miss Grable was wonderful.
She was surrounded by extremely competent and experienced radio actors
and actresses who normally make monkeys of pretty ladies from the
films, and the fact she could hold her own in that company was a high
accomplishment.
The storyline includes the chemical
strychnine. That was also a plotline element for nefarious use in
1943-02-16 In Fear and Trembling.
Tea bags were available in the time of
the story’s writing in the 1930s and at the time of broadcast in
the late 1940s. But there were many people, especially older tea
drinkers, who insisted on using loose tea and tea strainers to
prepare their favorite drink. Use of tea bags is much more common
today than it was then. The phrase “tea strainer” might not be as
broadly understood today.
The original title of the radio script
may have been “Copper Tea Kettle.”
This broadcast has never been available
in the best quality sound, especially compared to many of the
Auto-Lite and later Roma programs. Today’s classic radio listeners
are accustomed to much better sound for many of the recordings from
this era. This episode was not part of the large cache of discs that
were retrieved from CBS archives over the years. The recording is
therefore from a different collection of discs that probably did not
have the best storage conditions. The recording has slight wow and
flutter from a tape recorder, affecting the audio somewhere along the
line of transferring and copying, that may have had worn belts in its
mechanism. Despite all of those issues, this is likely the best
quality recording that Suspense fans have heard of this
program. Special thanks to Keith Scott for his sharing of this
recording. He remembers getting it from Skip Craig, legendary
collector and VP of production for Jay Ward Productions (Rocky and
Bullwinkle and may other animated features). Skip noted the wow
and flutter issue in his notes and there was always hope that a
different disc transfer would be made using different reel equipment
by Skip’s original source or by another collector. All these
decades later, it is clear that was never done. The problem is
particularly evident in an upcoming broadcast, 1951-09-24 The
McKay College Basketball Scandal. It is hoped that AFRS
recordings may be found of these recordings in the future.
This was Betty Grable’s only appearance on
Suspense. She was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and
biggest box office attractions, making most if her mark in musicals.
She started in movies in 1929 in many uncredited “Goldwyn Girl”
roles through 1932. She worked her way up through background and
supporting roles and had her first starring role in the 1938 movie
Campus Confessions. Her movie career waned after the
mid-1950s, and she moved to Las Vegas productions and Broadway roles.
She was not on radio often, but did appear in many of the movie-based
radio programs and as a variety show guest. She was often on Armed
Forces Radio Services programs such as Command Performance.
She and husband Harry James, famous bandleader, had a radio talk show
in the mid-1950s. More information about her career can be found at
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Grable
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP490421
THE CAST
BETTY GRABLE (Jeannie Dunn), Raymond
Burr (Detective), Bill Conrad (Ted Wark), Marc Lawrence (James
Irwin), Ruth Perrott (Mrs. Dunn), Sidney Miller (Waiter / Harmon the
druggist), Paul Frees (Signature Voice)
COMMERCIAL: Bill Johnstone (Hap),
Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)
###
