Charles
Vanda, CBS west coast program director later admitted: “I was
wrong!”
Forecast
was a 1940 summer series of pilot programs that alternated between
New York City and Hollywood. Vanda always wanted to create a
psychological thriller with “big rich music, big rich stars, with a
big rich budget.” Forecast did that because each production
had more money for a production than audition programs would
typically have. If your concept was going to be given its best shot
at success, this was your chance.
The
big survivor to come out of Forecast was Duffy’s Tavern
with Ed Gardner. Suspense as originally conceived and
presented on Forecast was unfortunately a failure. The
broadcast was confusing in its format, and no advertising sponsor
would go near it after its broadcast when they shopped it around to
the big ad agencies for their clients. The press reviews were not
good. There was skepticism about the commitment of its big-name host.
How did that happen?
When
the show was planned, CBS and Vanda wanted a big name for the series,
and Alfred Hitchcock was recruited. In their discussions, Hitchcock
even gave the series its name! Vanda had been struggling with titles
for a while. After describing the program to Hitchcock and its
stories with mystery and suspense, the name seemed plainly obvious.
Hitchcock said to Vanda: “just call it ‘Suspense’.” And so it
was.
For
the first story, Vanda selected The Lodger, a story which
Hitchcock loved, and just 14 years before was Hitchcock’s first big
film success. Hitchcock worked with Vanda on the Forecast
script revisions and in rehearsals.
Original image from the
Asheville NC Citizen-Times, 1940-07-22
Hitchcock
and movie star Herbert Marshall as they prepared for
The
Lodger; picture taken during a
rehearsal
There
was a problem, however. Hitchcock was a big and successful movie
producer and director, and those movies were his top priority. He was
unexpectedly called to New York City, likely in relation to his movie
Rebecca, and would not be able to appear in the broadcast as
expected.
The
script included Hitchcock, especially at the end, where he would stop
the performance and then lead a brief but entertaining discussion
about who the mysterious “Lodger” was. It was decided to use
British actor Edmond Stevens, working in Hollywood, to imitate
Hitchcock. Before he left for New York, they recorded Hitchcock so
Stevens could develop his impersonation.
Impersonating
newsworthy figures and celebrities on the radio was not new, and had
been established in its series March of Time. It was likely
Vanda and others at CBS thought nothing of it because of the great
success they had with that series. March of Time had numerous
performers, many of whom would have great careers, could be found
imitating FDR (Art Carney, Staats Cotsworth, Bill Johnstone, and
others), Eleanor Roosevelt (Agnes Moorehead, Jeanette Nolan),
European political leaders like Winston Churchill (Maurice Tarplin),
and actors imitating actors (Orson Welles imitated Charles Laughton,
Spencer Tracy and others)!
[Details
on the radio series can be found at Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Time_(radio_program)
]
This
was a myopic decision by Vanda. CBS had one of the most successful
radio series ever, Lux Radio Theatre, on its network. Hosted
by Cecil B. DeMille, the public had developed an expectation that if
a big movie producer was headlining a series, they would hear that
very person. If Suspense was just an audition program that
only industry insiders would hear, a Hitchcock imitator would not be
a big problem. But when it’s a big budget program with big hype,
the substitution becomes a letdown compared to expectations
heightened by the extensive publicity.
The
show was broadcast and Hitchcock listened in a CBS studio in New
York. He made the fateful decision to invite newspaper broadcast
critic Alton Cook of the New York World Telegram to join him.
Alton had questions, since Hitchcock was right in front of him and
the program was promoted as live. Hitchcock told him it was really
him, but it was a recording. That would have required an on-air
announcement to comply with broadcast regulations and practices. CBS
quickly affirmed no recording was played, noting that a double was
used.
1940-07-23 NY
World-Telegram
Alton Cook column explains
Hitchcock was not on Forecast
1940-07-24 NY
World-Telegram
Alton Cook offers yet more details about
Forecast
The
broadcast did not get good reviews. Variety said in its
assessment “Alfy, old boy, don't ever do that to us again.” They
were referring to the open-end nature of the drama.
That
muddled ending and skepticism about Hitchcock’s commitment and
availability spooked advertising executives. No one stepped up to
sponsor the program. It was a flop. Vanda got up off the ground and
kept fighting.
CBS
leader Bill Paley later called Vanda to New York to work on other
programs, including Columbia Workshop. (Alongside March of
Time, CW was one of the most important series on radio in
the development of broadcast, staging, writing, effects, directing,
and production techniques. Both series sent its alumni and knowledge
throughout the industry for decades to come). Another key partner of
Vanda was a young William Spier who also picked up the cause. Paley
wanted to pursue the program, and Vanda worked with Spier to do so,
starting in December 1941. Yes, Suspense became a product of
the war years, helping listeners keep the news about the European and
Pacific fronts and concerns about family, at bay for at least 30
minutes of entertainment.
It
took hard work and persistence to recover from Forecast. The
original concept would be abandoned. But when?
The
Radio Daily of June 25, 1941 had a special advertising insert
by CBS about the new shows that were now available for sponsorship.
There was a listing for Suspense and it is quite revealing.
The reformulation of Suspense had not yet occurred at this
time and CBS was still trying to secure a sponsor for a
Hitchcock-hosted program. Another surprising item in the entry is the
mention that Herbert Marshall would be a continuing star of the show.
Through the decades, “new product directories” have always
offered speculative listings by businesses in the hope that they
could find that one single buyer who might find the offer to be
attractive. The listing reinforces the intent of its content as
envisioned by Vanda from the start. It would have a foundation of the
classic and popular works of famous authors. If CBS did get any
inquiries, they obviously did not amount to anything.
The
publication of this Radio Daily ad insert was a year away from
the actual broadcast debut of Suspense without Hitchcock and
without Marshall. It was sometime after the Radio Daily insert
and Spring of 1942 that the show was re-conceived. Rather than
Hitchcock and Marshall, it used a base of a John Dickson Carr
influenced/selected stories or his own scripts for the anthology.
Carr’s novels and stories were very popular at the time and he was
considered to be popular enough that his involvement would attract an
audience. It was hoped that his name might also attract a sponsor.
Suspense was changed from the original concept, but it would
need to be transformed once more to become the successful franchise.
The
debut of the reformulated Suspense was scheduled for May 1942,
but there were delays. Vanda would eventually bring Suspense to
the air in June 1942, but he would soon exit for military service.
His mission was to build the Armed Forces Radio Service with others
who had broadcasting know-how. He returned to CBS after his duty and
was a successful radio producer.
He
became a prominent independent television executive in the 1950s and
in later years expanded into cable and other ventures. His retirement
was very active and generous in philanthropy to the arts. Despite the
stumble with Forecast, he was the creator of Suspense,
a tremendously successful radio franchise. His role was rarely
acknowledged at the time of the series' heyday. There’s more to the
Vanda and Suspense story ahead, to be told in context of the
programs as they are posted.
It
is very interesting to ponder that had Vanda not been called to
military service, and that John Dickson Carr had not received
permission to work in the information services of Britain during the
war, the direction of Suspense would have been quite
different.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP400722
THE CAST
The
author of the original story was Marie Belloc-Lowndes and it was
adapted for Suspense by Harold Medford. The music was by
Wilbur Hatch. Thomas Freebairn-Smith was the announcer.
The
cast was Herbert Marshall (Mr. Sleuth & Narrator), Edmund Gwenn
(Robbie Bunting), Lurene Tuttle (Daisy), Noreen Gamill (Ellen
Bunting), Edmond Stevens (Hitchcock), others
SPECIAL
THANKS
Film documentarian John Scheinfeld was a college student
when he interviewed Charles Vanda and other Suspense notables
via cassette tape letter or in-person in the 1970s. He provided
access to those illuminating recordings. Researcher Karl Schadow was
able to track down newspaper clips from the New York World
Telegram and has also provided numerous insights into the series.
Don Ramlow has researched Suspense for decades and has been
generous with his insights and research conclusions from his
information and personal discussions with performers and others.
International voice actor and performer Keith Scott has been
researching Suspense and many other series on a long distance
basis from his native Australia. He takes advantage of past a new
trips stateside over parts of five decades to delve into archives and
libraries but also to rub shoulders with actors and writers and
others, and sometimes perform with them. His Suspense and
Escape logs are top-notch, and highly recommended. The
research tools that support the classic radio hobby are incredible:
search engines like Google, the newspapers.com archive,
worldradiohistory.com, and numerous others all had a role in this
blogpost in one manner or another. Special thanks to Cobalt Club
members (especially “lasombra” and “chasedad”), members of
the Knights of the Turning Table, and the Old Time Radio Researchers,
all of whom have provided resources for everyone to find and enjoy
this series.
Images
“colorized” with great thanks
at www.palette.fm
Extra
special thanks to classic radio researcher Karl Schadow for the Radio
Daily article and numerous
(gargantuan?) other contributions to this effort.
