1960-05-15 Dead Man's Story

Kevin McCarthy portrays an escaped criminal, a three-time loser, about to become a four-time loser because of a pending charge that will result in his spending the rest of his life in prison. He is eventually presumed dead because he has taken on the identity of someone who died in the sinking of a cargo ship they were on together, which creates a dilemma in this Robert Arthur story. It was previously used on The Mysterious Traveler broadcast of 1950-01-24, and titled The Dead Man’s Story (a recording of that broadcast has not been found).

McCarthy’s character, Larry, was fleeing from the USA with the help of his former wife, Julia. She is married to a wealthy man, but has helped her ex-husband many times in the past. For $2000 from jewelry she sold, she paid off a cargo ship captain to take Larry to South America. She gave Larry $3000 for the trip. (In US$2025 value, that is $22,000 for the payoff, and $33,000 in spending money). When the ship finally arrives at its port, Larry checks in at a bad hotel where he stays for a few weeks. He is dissatisfied with his new freedom because it is constrained by making his money last as long as possible, living with as little daily expenses as possible. One day, there is a knock at the door by a New York police investigator with extradition papers. Larry is so disappointed by his “freedom,” he decides to go back with the officer. As they are on the last leg of the journey, their cargo ship is in trouble: it is sinking. The officer is injured as the ship tosses and rolls. They are trapped in their room, unable to open the door. It may become their final resting place. The ship’s cargo of ore is slipping out, and there is enough trapped air that the ship stops sinking, and comes back to the surface, temporarily. The ship twists as it was rising, and turned enough to allow the door to be opened. It reaches the surface long enough for them to escape on a raft. The officer’s injuries were too severe, however, and he did not survive, but Larry took his identification and passport. Some time passes, Larry eventually ends up in Miami, where he attempts to call his Julia. It turns out that they can’t talk because she and her husband were in a serious car accident and in critical condition. The story takes a very curious turn. Larry has a choice: he has been assumed as dead, one of the casualties of the freighter. If he reveals himself, he will go back to prison, but as a wealthy man because of the provisions of Julia’s will. If he stays hiding in plain sight under an alias, he can experience freedom as a pauper for the rest of his life.

An element of the story regards estate law regarding and simultaneous death provisions. In this story, it is 30 minutes, meaning that the will of the person who is second to die essentially overrides that of their earlier-deceased spouse (assuming they left estates to each other). In most states, however, the default is 120 hours (5 days) to be considered a simultaneous death if there is no will. The length of time can be overridden by a prepared will; the late actor Gene Hackman and his wife had 90 days written into their wills for their deaths to be considered as “simultaneous.” The intent of the provision is to determine the priorities of distribution of assets, but also to minimize the administrative costs of handling the final matters of the estates. Thirty minutes would be considered very short, but having it so fits the ending that scripter Robert Arthur desired.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, May 10, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Two recordings of this episode have survived. The network recording is an aircheck from WROW. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#785) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the much preferred one of the two. The AFRS recording is only recently available and allows better appreciation of the overall story.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600515

THE CAST

KEVIN McCARTHY (Larry), Rebecca Sand (Julia), Sam Grey (Sanders), Joseph Boland (Captain), Richard Kendrick (Werby), Ruth Tobin (Nurse), Guy Repp (Butler)

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1960-05-08 Legend of Robbie

Larry Robinson stars in a Walter Black story as a young, honest supermarket employee named “Robbie” who is persuaded to cooperate with a thug, “Dutch,” in a late night robbery of the store’s receipts for the day. Dutch tells Robbie “the smart guys don’t get caught.” He’s not interested, but a girl he is interested in encourages the idea. “A girl’s gotta look out for herself,” she says, “Money, Robbie, not talk, money!” Robbie really likes her, and her interest in him seems to be based on whether or not he can be a good provider who can more than the $70 a week he currently earns in his job (about $40,000 a year in US$2025). Before Robbie steals the money, his boss tells him what a good and honest employee he is, and he’s getting a raise to $72 a week. Robbie decides to go ahead with the heist, and the deal is that he will get half. His reputation for honesty is so strong that it the staged street mugging he will undergo by the gangster will preclude him for being considered as a suspect. Robbie gets more than he bargained for, however, but he’s prepared, and perhaps too smart for his own good. Robbie turns out to be not-so-honest, and almost outsmarts the thug. Despite Robbie’s newfound interest in thievery that causes his demise, his reputation for honesty will outlive him. Dutch’s pronouncement that “the smart guys don’t get caught” turns out to be true in the strangest of ways. Robbie didn’t get caught, but paid the highest price for his night of dishonesty. His desired girlfriend turns out to be the biggest conniver of all.

The program was recorded on Thursday, April 28, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

The script title is “Legend of Robbie,” but is announced as “The Legend of Robbie.”

The ending suffers from the New York studio’s sound effects lack of realism, but does not detract from the above-average story.

Two recordings of this episode have survived. The network recording is an aircheck from WROW and has an ad for Utica Club beer at its open. The station ID was late and blocked the “And now…” open of the program, but the “ow” of “now” can be heard in the background. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#785) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the much preferred one of the two. The AFRS recording is only recently available and allows better appreciation of the overall story.

Larry Robinson was one of New York’s busiest actors from the time of his childhood. He was a regular on Let’s Pretend and radio soaps, early television and had many appearances in Broadway plays through the 1950s. He became active in the dubbing of movies, animation, and cartoons in the 1960s through the time of his passing in 2006.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600508

THE CAST

Larry Robinson (Robbie), George Mathews (Dutch), Joan Lorring (Sandra), Eric Dressler (Mr. Harris), Walter Black (George)

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1960-05-01 Bitter Grapes

Rita Lloyd stars in a Milton Geiger story about a wife who plots to avenge her husband’s unfaithfulness, which turns out to be wrong. She discovers too late that he is innocent, and was planning something that was good for them, together. She believes that she will soon succumb to a heart ailment, despite the assurances of her doctor. Depressed, she decides to poison her husband to punish him for his affair. She goes to a drug store to use a voice recording booth to create a record with her warning and farewell. Part of the process is that the record will be mailed by the business that owns the recording booth concession at the drug store. It is impossible for her to retrieve the record, so she tries to break into booth’s holding box to get it, and fails. After the record was certain to be mailed she learns that her assumption of an affair is groundless. She makes a frustrating fight against time to save her husband from her poisoning scheme, and to prevent him from hearing her message. She gets a message from him instead, and the tragic marital misunderstanding comes to light, and there is no turning back. The ending implies some hope that there may be a reconciliation for them.

The Geiger story is creative and compelling, and Lloyd delivers a fine performance. The episode has not been appreciated in the past because the recordings have been very low quality and difficult to listen to. A cleaner network recording has been found, and a superb Armed Forces Radio Service recording is newly available.

Geiger was a veteran writer whose credits included variety, comedy, and drama for shows like Royal Gelatin Hour, Columbia Workshop, Inner Sanctum, Cavalcade of America, Molle Mystery Theater, The Doctor Fights, Hollywood Star Time, Adventures of Philip Marlowe, Hallmark Playhouse, Screen Director’s Playhouse, The Line-Up, Lux Radio Theatre, Suspense, Eternal Light, and others. He also wrote for many 1950s and 1960s television series.

One of the programs Geiger wrote for was Frederic W. Ziv’s syndicated series I Was a Communist for the FBI. The series was one of radio’s biggest syndication successes. The sequence about the arcade recording booth in Bitter Grapes was adapted from Geiger’s script for episode 38 of that series, Little Boy Blue...Turned Red. Writers often had scenes in their prior work that they had a special liking for because it was interesting or came out exceptionally well. Sometimes referring to previous scripts helped them get through a period of writer’s block. William N. Robson did that for one of his scripts, Mission of the Betta, which used a sequence from Man Behind the Gun. Unfortunately, Betta remains a missing episode.

Where does the episode title come from? The quotations used in the script are from the Song of Songs / Song of Solomon is from chapter 2, verses 14-15. The King James Version is

14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.

The “spoiled” grapes are bitter or wild, but the “tender” grapes are nurtured and cared for by the keeper of the vineyard. It is not known which Biblical translation Geiger used, whether Jewish or Christian, but the King James was selected here as it is one of the better known translations in the country. Biblical literacy was broader at that time than it is these decades later. Many listeners would have recognized the Geiger usage, and it would not have been considered obscure. There are references in the Song of Songs to wild grapes, and this verse from Isaiah 5:2 can be translated with that wording:

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

Some other translations use “bitter” instead of “wild.” Other translations use “wild berries.”

The point of the title is that the marriage was not cared for, there were secrets, no matter the good intentions, and the wife thought the worst of it, and the husband would not reveal them. It became too late for both of them.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, April 26, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Two recordings of this episode have survived. The network recording is an aircheck, edited down to only its drama, and has a slightly clipped open. It is in listenable sound quality. This is a far better network recording than that which has been in most hobbyist collections. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#784) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the much preferred one of the two. The AFRS recording is only recently available and allows greater appreciation of the Geiger script.

What is a recording booth? These were very popular at carnival events, amusement parks and arcades, boardwalks, and drugstores. If the proprietor allowed one of the booths in their store, the booth owner would share the sales with the location owner. The recordings were not that good, somewhat like a bad phone connection with narrow audio range. It was a novelty item that many people enjoyed for fun, but not used often. This is a 1946 ad from Billboard that shows how it was sold to amusement arcades and other locations:

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600501

THE CAST

Phil Meeder (Warren), Rita Lloyd (Lorna), Arthur Kohl (Pharmacist), John Seymour (Quillen), Teri Keane (Nurse), Edwin Wolfe (Devitt), Edgar Stehli (Voice / Taxi Driver)

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1960-04-24 One More Shot

Joe Julian stars in a very good William N. Robson script about a veteran news photographer, Bernie, who loses his son, Bobby, in what the police consider an “accident,” but he knows was a planned killing orchestrated by a mobster. Bernie had been teaching his son the news photography business from the ground up, from working cameras, choosing subjects, and developing films and making prints. Both of them were motorcycle enthusiasts, so when it came to a local motorcycle race, they were pleased to be working together to cover it. Bernie took a picture at the finishing line, and gave his son the “plates” (that was jargon for film at the time because early photo technology used metal or glass plates.). Bernie asked his son to get on his motorcycle and rush the film to the newspaper office for inclusion in the evening edition. The film never got there. Bernie thinks Bobby was run off the road into a fatal crash. Police believe Bobby was speeding. Bernie refuses to accept the police report. He convinces a police sergeant he knows well to go to the scene where they find indications that it was not accidental. The four plates from the race are nowhere to be found, either. Bernie gathers some more information, as well as pictures taken by other photographers. Enlargements of the photos show a mobster, Rocco Mallatesta, in the crowd. The police sergeant has an insight: motorcycle gangs have been forcing local businesses to pay protection money. Mallatesta is believed to be behind the shakedowns. Because one of the pictures at the race showed the secretive Mallatesta, he likely fingered Bobby to be eliminated, and to get the plates. How can Bernie and the sergeant stop the gangs, and find Bobby’s killer?

BSA Motorcycles are mentioned in the story. They were a long time manufacturer in Birmingham, England. The highly respected company is still in business today, about 120 years after its founding.

Like the movie Call Northside 777, and many movies and television shows over the years, Bernie uses a blow-up of a picture taken at a motorcycle race to track down the killer. Much of the plotline would not be applicable with modern digital photography where images are automatically backed up to cloud services shortly after they are shot.

Some of the sound effects leave a lot to be desired. The Hollywood effects library, and the practitioners, handled more complex productions than New York could. This is one of the reasons why Gunsmoke, which was a very demanding show, was not moved to New York. The New York production teams were more focused on crime dramas and soap operas in the late 1950s. That said, some of the hard turns made by cars and car crashes, are not that convincing.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, April 19, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Two recordings have survived. The network recording is likely a WROW aircheck, has a slightly clipped open, with some parts of the recording having narrow range and the second half also sounding slightly “muddy.” The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#783) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the much preferred one of the two. The AFRS recording is only recently available and allows greater appreciation of the Robson script and Joe Julian’s performance.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600424

THE CAST

Joseph Julian (Bernie), Jim Boles (Rocco), Nat Polen (Quad), Frank Thomas, Jr. (Red), Bill Lipton (Chuck / Operator), Peter Fernandez (Bobbie), Jack Grimes (Shorty), Alan Manson (Morris / Manager), Sam Raskyn (Hymie), William Redfield (Rider)

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1960-04-17 Tonight at Five Fifty-Five

Luis Van Rooten stars in a George Bamber science fiction story in which a nation’s top command considers the authenticity of a warning that a nuclear attack would take place at a specific hour. There are scenes of military discussion and arguments about the veracity of intelligence data, strategy, nuance of words and actions. For some, it may seem similar to the discussions that were had in the Kennedy administration during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

The title is “spelled” out to ensure that it was read and expressed in the manner that Bamber and producer Paul Roberts desired. The specific title was selected because Suspense began its national broadcast at 5:30pm ET. The plot built up to a potential disaster at the end of the show. Affiliates were generally free to air Suspense when needed for their market, however, so the confluence of story title and actual time may not have been the case in many markets. The newspaper listings used “Tonight at 5:55” which readers and editors would have immediately recognized as a clock time, which was one of the points of the story. This indicates that CBS publicity used the clock time in their press releases.

The topic of nuclear annihilation was in the news and entertainment media often at this time. Just two weeks earlier, television’s Playhouse 90 dramatized the Pat Frank novel Alas, Babylon. The telecast received strong reviews, and the book was very influential in its time. Some of Bamber’s writings fit into the genre of “enviro-disaster,” such as his 1971 novel The Sea is Boiling Hot, as this story does. It seems to be a topic that was on his mind and he found as worthwhile to explore.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, April 12, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Three recordings have survived, with two in fine and nearly equivalent sound. One network recording is a WROW aircheck and is in pleasing sound, and is preferred because it was the way the broadcast was first heard. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#782) has a clean, rich sound, and is only recently available. The third recording is also an aircheck, but this is from Chicago’s WBBM. It has a slightly clipped open, has narrow audio range, but includes the complete CBS News broadcast with Robert Trout at the conclusion of the recording.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600417

THE CAST

Luis Van Rooten (The Chairman), Whitfield Connor (Williams), Francine Meyers (Patty), John Gibson (Tice), Larry Robinson (The Marine / Voice 2), Bob Readick (Stinis / Voice 1), Ralph Camargo (Harrison)

The announcing duties for this episode are by Warren Sweeney, substituting for Stuart Metz.

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1960-04-10 Two Horse Parlay

Lyle Sudrow stars in a Walter Black story about a double deception that backfires. Sudrow portrays a young man whose elderly, wealthy and sightless aunt sent him from Chicago to New York to continue piano study for a concert career. He has neglected his studies for quite a while and squandered whatever money she sent to play the horses through a syndicate that permits him to accumulate a $4,000 indebtedness (almost $45,000 in US$2025!). The mob is applying pressure on him for immediate payment. His aunt has always sent him money before, but this may be too large an amount for him to just ask for it. Under this duress, he concocts a scheme to obtain additional funds from her. A woman friend, an accomplished pianist is persuaded to become an accomplice in the plan. His tells her he needs $6,000 because a famous classical pianist has agreed to teach him, and he needs to fly to Europe to do so. The aunt is pleased, but won’t give him the money unless he visits her in Chicago, which he agrees. Since the aunt is blind, they can trick her by having the woman play the piano in the aunt’s apartment, and pretending that he is performing for her. The plan sounds like it may work, and it does, but the aunt has something else in mind. She wants him to play for a local promoter who can arrange a concert performance for him. The deception can’t go on, but a visit from the aunt’s doctor implies that she has a bad heart, and any shock can cause her to have a fatal heart attack. The nefarious mind of the nephew has an alternative plan… to literally scare his aunt, and then inherit the money needed for the gambling debt, and more. It’s a good story with surprises along the way.

The script title is a horse racing term for a bet on two different races. If the bet on the first horse is won, the proceeds from that win are placed on the second horse in a different race. If that horse wins, the bettor collects the total amount the second horse pays. In this case, the “first bet” was won, that they could deceive the aunt successfully about his playing. The “second bet” in this story is a much different matter.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, April 5, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Two recordings have survived. The network recording is a WROW aircheck and is very listenable. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#781) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the preferred one of the two.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600410

THE CAST

Jane Rose (Aunt Meta), Lyle Sudrow (Johnny), Ellen McRae (Eve), Larry Haines (Porco), Walter Black (Dr. Hanna)

Katherine Emmett was originally cast as Aunt Meta. Another character named “voice” was planned to be doubled by Walter Black. That part or dialogue was either given to another role or edited out.

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1960-04-03 A Shipment of Mute Fate

Bernie Grant stars in the second Suspense broadcast of this classic story that was first produced on Escape. A deadly Bushmaster snake, called “mute fate” because it has a similar structured tail as a rattlesnake but does not make noise, is brought on board a cruise ship. Of course, it escapes. The first Suspense production starred Jack Kelly. Details about that and the original short story can be found at

• https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2025/03/1957-01-06-shipment-of-mute-fate.html

• https://archive.org/details/TSP570106 is where recordings can be downloaded and streamed.

The program was recorded on Tuesday, March 29, 1960. Rehearsal began at 3:00pm and ended at 6:30pm. Recording was done from 6:30pm to 7:00pm.

Two recordings have survived. The network recording is a WROW aircheck and is very listenable. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (AFRS#779) has cleaner, richer sound, and is the preferred one of the two.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP600403

THE CAST

Bernard Grant (Chris Warner), Inge Swenson (Mother Willis), Frank Milano (Clara the cat), Ralph Bell (Captain Wood), Bob Dryden (Sanchez / Mate), Frank Thomas, Jr. (Bowman)

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