1946-03-14 No More Alice

A psychiatrist picks up a hitchhiking man who escaped from prison and hides him. He says he wants to “study him.” Well, he really has another idea. He wants to exert his psychological influence on the man so he will kill the doctor’s wife and free him of his unhappy marriage. But the convict makes a mistake and murders someone else… uh oh. The plan just isn’t working. Nothing good will happen next. You know the doctor will only dig himself deeper into trouble.

This is the second and last Martin Ryerson script on the series.

George Brent was the originally announced star of this episode, and Paul Henreid substitutes for him. Very few newspapers had the new casting, indicating it decided just a few days before broadcast. Brent never appeared on Suspense.

The surviving network recording has a two second delay to network ID; it is not known if it is east or west. There is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#146) that is derived from the missing network broadcast. A marker of difference is in the first line of the drama:

• AFRS “In the car, I had the radio on.”

• Network “Driving along there, I had the radio on.”

The surviving network broadcast is the recording in the best sound.

This story was included in Suspense Magazine #1; a PDF can be downloaded from the same page as the recordings.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460314

THE CAST

PAUL HENREID (Dr. Warren Reiss), Cathy Lewis (Alice Reiss), Elliott Lewis (Police radio voice / D. A.), Wally Maher (Frank Tattam), Peggy Webber (Eliza Waters), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Policeman / Fight commentator)

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1946-03-07 The Black Path of Fear

This is a new production of the Cornell Woolrich story, adapted by Robert Tallman, that was originally aired on 1944-08-31 with Brian Donlevy. This time it stars Cary Grant. He delivers a fine performance.

The basic plot is that as gangster’s ex-chauffeur runs away to Central America with the gangster’s wife. Of course, the gangster’s henchmen track him down. He has problems with the local police that complicate matters, greatly.

The original blogpost is at https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-08-31-black-path-of-fear.html and the recordings of that first broadcast are at https://archive.org/details/TSP440831

The Lonely Road with Grant was originally planned for this broadcast. That script was used two weeks later and starred Gregory Peck.

The only complete copy of this broadcast is an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#145). The first half of a network recording has recently been found (many thanks to collector Harvey Tow). It differs from the AFRS recording; times are approximate:

• AFRS 1:47 “It was like a football scrimmage when you moved in.”

• Network 2:29: “It was like a football scrimmage when you move.”

This means the AFRS is drawn from the missing network recording. It is not known if the second half of this network recording will be found, or if the other network one that was the source of the AFRS copy has survived.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460307

THE CAST

CARY GRANT (Bill Scott), Cathy Lewis (Eve Spinelli), Elliott Lewis (Driver), Jay Novello (Inspector Acosta), Wally Maher (Spinelli), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), unknown (Midnight), unknown (Photographer / Clerk at Sloppy Joe’s)

This script was adapted as a 1946 movie, The Chase, and starred Robert Cummings. It can be viewed online https://archive.org/details/thechase1946_202002

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1946-02-21 Consequence

This is a Suspense story that has a plan to swap identities with a fire victim… genetic identification methods were not around then, so it was plausible as a story plot. It was made all the more shocking that it was Jimmy Stewart doing it! His character is a doctor in a failing marriage, and he wants to start a new life with the nurse who works in his office. It just so happens that a college friend is visiting town and is trapped and dies in the doctor’s house during a tragic fire. It’s the opportune time for Stewart’s character to enact the nefarious plan to assume his friend’s identity and to let everyone think it was the doctor who perished in the fire.

The title of the original short story was “Revenge.” The authors of the story were Vladimir Pozner and George Sklar, and was adapted by Robert L. Richards. Just a few years later, all three of them fell into the Hollywood Blacklist troubles.

Cary Grant was originally scheduled for a performance of a likely different script for this date. Stewart moved his own Suspense performance to be a week earlier than originally planned. He was paid $4,000 for this performance ($66,000 in US$2023), and was originally scheduled for this performance on 1946-02-28. He would repeat this performance in 1949.

One network recording and an Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#143) have survived. It is not known if the network recording is east or west, but the AFRS recording is drawn from the missing network broadcast; times are approximate:

• Network 1:35 “And -- and that's how it started out, just like that”

• AFRS 0:53 “And, so, that's – that's -- that's how it started, just like that.”

Both recordings are fine listening, but the network is always preferred in terms of completeness. The network recording goes directly to network ID at the close.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460221

THE CAST

JAMES STEWART (Dr. Phil Martin), Cathy Lewis (Jo), Wally Maher (Travel Desk clerk / Old man), Verna Felton (Daisy Dooley), Tony Barrett (Ted Wolfe / Radio voice), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Ed), Mary Lansing (Gwendolyn Martin / Mrs. Burton)

The website https://jimmystewartontheair.com/suspense-consequence/ has some more background on this episode and has an image of his Suspense contract.

This week is the first week of Roma commercials that do not mention Elsa Maxwell.

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1946-02-14 The Lucky Lady

The “Lucky Lady” was not a person, it was a cat named “Suzie” that inhabits a boarding house of young actresses. The home is run by a former actress, Leonora Plimm. She promoted the belief that if “Lucky Lady” scratched you, it was good luck for your next audition. Once you get back to the house from that audition after winning a part you would receive the enthusiastic congratulations of your housemates. It’s all great and mutually supportive fun. Then… one of the young women winds up dead… A dull handyman, George, is the sympathetic character in the story who is set up as the target of suspicion of the death. This is Suspense, so we know that’s only to divert our attention while events play out to find out the identity of the real killer.

The script was by Ruth Bartlett Nemec, and is likely her only dramatic network radio script. She’s not a one-hit-wonder scriptwriter, however, but was a radio executive early in her career. The Florida native was active in theater and had a local radio program after her 1938 graduation from Stetson University. She caught the attention of a CBS executive who recommended that they hire her in New York to help develop programming. She was 30 at the time of this broadcast and it was likely she had already left the network by 1942 to live in Florida and raise a family. The Bartlett family was already well known in the Palm Beach area for their charity work and helping found Baptist churches. The Nemecs earned their very own high profile in Palm Beach decades later and became major contributors to Stetson University, where they had met. Ruth Nemec was always active in promoting the arts and philanthropic efforts and wrote many stage plays that were performed locally. She died in 1994.

Many newspaper timetables indicate that the story may have been originally titled “The Case of the Lucky Lady.” It was adapted as “Death at Miss Plimm's” for Suspense Magazine #4. A PDF of the story may be downloaded from the same page as the recordings.

There is much confusion about the network recordings that have survived. For many years, there have been two network recordings, one labeled east, and the other labeled west. They are exactly the same because they have the same missed cue approximately after 25:55. Fay Bainter and Wally Maher step on the other’s line:

• BAINTER: I kept telling you George was innocent.

• [simultaneously] MAHER: But…But Miss Plimm…
  [simultaneously] BAINTER: But after all…

• BAINTER: ….no, you were right about George, I never should have trusted him. Wasn’t it dreadful what that horrible man tried to do to my cat?

Many different pairs of recordings from different sources were reviewed for comparison. They were all the same. EC and WC had the same exact problem with misread lines.

One different file, originally unlabeled as to coast, was found. It is believed to be the true west coast “(WC)” recording. This is the dialogue in question at approximately 26:10:

• BAINTER: I kept telling you George was innocent.

• [separately]: MAHER: But Miss Primm...

• [without interruption] BAINTER: But, after all, you were right about George. I never should have trusted him. Wasn’t it dreadful what that horrible man tried to do to my cat?

To sum up, the likely EC file has the flub, the likely WC file does not. The Armed Forces Radio Service recording (#142) has the flub after 23:05. This means that the AFRS file is derived from the likely EC recording. The EC and WC recordings are both in good sound quality; there is a preference for the WC one because the reading of that scene is error-free.

Thank you to classic radio enthusiast John Barker for his important insight and analysis in identifying the different recordings. Along with Barbara Watkins, they have been affectionately known at the Cobalt Club forum as “The C3DS,” the Cobalt Dialogue Difference Detection Squad. They take turns identifying recording differences and quirks. Their work allows for the documented attribution of AFRS recordings to the proper network broadcast and other characteristics that add to the historical record of Suspense. Then they cross-validate each other’s work and share it with others. Their selfless dedication is so greatly appreciated. Cobalt Club is at https://cobaltclubannex.forumotion.com/ and has free registration.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460214

THE CAST

FAY BAINTER (Leonora Plimm), Cathy Lewis (Diane Carver), Elliott Lewis (George Smith), Wally Maher (Police Inspector), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice), unknown (Alice), unknown (Jane), unknown (Lady Suzie the cat)

This is the final week of Roma commercials that mention Elsa Maxwell.

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1946-02-07 Too Little to Live On

A dentist with a failing practice, played by George Murphy, and his wife, played by Nancy Coleman, are having a frustrating time taking care of his infirm Uncle Ed as they had promised to do. They would be thanked by becoming the inheritors of his estate. They never thought Ed would last as long as he had, and each day grates on all of them. The dentist, who has the legal authority to write prescriptions as Uncle Ed requires, chooses pill medications that look very similar in appearance. Of course, this is Suspense, so it’s pretty clear that a mix-up in the prescriptions will become part of the plot to get rid of the cranky uncle. He’s more cunning than they are… and tests the medications on his dog! When the dog dies, Uncle Ed has enough energy to get out of the house and report his heirs to the police… or does he?

This is a Robert L. Richards script. Richards was key to the rise of Suspense as he was the script editor as well as creating his own original scripts like this one.

Last week Joe Kearns was a boring Britisher, and this week he’s the cranky old uncle. Is he the most valuable member of the Suspense ensemble cast? It sure seems that way.

Nancy Coleman plays “Myra.” Just weeks ago, Lloyd Nolan starred in Murder for Myra. Spoiler: Myra dies in this episode, too!

One may wonder how a dentist could have a failing practice. There was virtually no dental insurance at this time in history, and the concept of preventative care in dentistry had not been widely established. Most people only went to dentists when they had serious problems. Dentistry would not become a dependable and rewarding specialty for about another two decades or so.

The drug in the story, thiocyanate, is an actual compound that was used at one time to treat hypertension. Sometimes scriptwriters create names of compounds that do not exist for their stories, sometimes in fear that someone in the audience will get a strange idea and act it out. Richards obviously had no problem mentioning the real drug in this case. The toxic effects of the drug included dangerous cardiac and/or neurological problems. The dangers led to substitution of other drugs that were less harmful. Richards was not making anything up in this regard.

This episode was missing until an Armed Forces Radio Service transcription became available sometime in 2012. The script was presented again in December 1947 with Ozzie and Harriet. That second production was the one that classic radio fans were most familiar with until this broadcast was found. No network recording is available.

Spoils for Victor was originally scheduled for this date, was not broadcast until 1946-05-23. That script is an interesting circumstance beyond the storytelling because the story concept was submitted to Suspense by a Los Angeles area high school chemistry teacher.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460207

THE CAST

NANCY COLEMAN (Myra O’Connor), GEORGE MURPHY (Dr. Dave O’Connor), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Uncle Ed), Wally Maher (Old codger / Clancy), Elliott Lewis (Herman the druggist), Bill Johnstone (Eldridge), unknown (Willie, the dog)

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1946-01-31 The Long Shot

An Englishman places an ad in the newspaper hoping to find a fellow countryman to drive from New York City to San Francisco. George Coulouris plays the down-on-his-luck gambler who answers the ad in the hopes of escaping the debts he’s piled up. Joe Kearns plays the boring Britisher who is constantly asking questions about London to keep the conversation going in all the hours of driving. Is that what he’s doing? Or is he prepping himself for his own escape to get away with his own problems or encounters with the law? Sorry for the mild spoiler, but the story is pretty arduous listening as you really start to hate Joe Kearns character as much as Coulouris does… which means Kearns is playing it quite well. Stick with the story, it has a better ending than one might expect.

The author is Harold Swanton, writer of many scripts, especially The Whistler.

The boring Britisher was offering $150 to drive from New York to San Francisco. That’s $2,500 in US$2023.

This was a missing episode for a very long time until an Armed Forces Radio Service transcription was found in the early 2000s. No network recording is available.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460131

THE CAST

GEORGE COULOURIS (Kelly Raymond), Wally Maher (Detective Kelson), Jim Backus (First Detective / Highway patrol cop), Jerry Hausner (Paper boy / Tommy DeWitt), Gloria Gordon (Miss Andrews / Margaret Stoddard), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Walker Hendricks)

According to Keith Scott, the story was presented again on Murder by Experts 1950-12-04 and Hollywood Star Playhouse 1952-06-08. The story was presented again on Suspense in 1958.

Harold Swanton had a long career as a radio and TV writer. His papers were donated to University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). This is a link to the holdings https://www.library.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/pamss218.pdf 

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1946-01-24 My Dear Niece

This is the first of three scripts for Suspense authored by Elliott Lewis. It’s a good one that you think may be so formulaic that it won’t really be interesting, and then you get to a surprising ending. Lewis uses a letter of an elderly woman writing to her niece about how she’s taking the niece’s advice to be more active, perhaps even looking for a job. She gets one, after placing an ad in the local newspaper. It pays $50 a week ($833 in US$2023) but she does nothing to earn it! She finally gets some instructions just as she was about to quit. A publisher wants to use a room her house to sequester one of their authors who is behind on their deadline. They don’t want him to be disturbed so he can finally finish his work. We learn it’s not as innocent as it sounds… and meeting the mastermind of the scheme puts her in great danger.

About four and a half years after this script’s broadcast, Lewis would become the Suspense director and producer. His star and stature was already on the rise in Hollywood radio and it would grow even brighter by the time he took that position.

There is an address mentioned in the story, the intersection of Sierra Madre and Brookside. In the Sierra Madre section of Los Angeles, not far from Pasadena, there is a Sierra Madre Boulevard and a Brookside Lane. The streets are close to each other, but they do not intersect. It is often the case that locations in radio scripts can be inside jokes or “hat tips” to someone in the cast or a family member. In Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, producer Jack Johnstone would sometimes include his street address in stories. It is not known what reference this might be.

There are two recordings of this episode. The west coast network recording is an aircheck of KQW in San Jose, California. The better recording is from the Armed Forces Radio Service (#139). It is derived from the missing east coast broadcast. Times are approximate:

• AFRS 1:49 “We ah we have a very small publishing house...”

• KQW 2:35 “We have a very small publishing house...”

• AFRS 17:27 “Now get the telephone, ask, uh, ask long distance for Crestview 9177 in Los Angeles”

• KQW 20:56 “Now get the telephone. Ask long distance for Crestview 9177 in Los Angeles”

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP460124

THE CAST

DAME MAY WHITTY (Emily Rogers), Bill Johnstone (Officer Barnes), Wally Maher (Mr. Bruce, alias Paul Stephens), Bret Morrison? (Stephens / Al Newholt), Joe Kearns (Signature Voice / Mr. Mayer)

The presence of Bret Morrison is very doubtful as he was mainly a New York radio actor at this time. It is however, noted in a SPERDVAC catalog of many years ago for this episode. It really seems very unlikely as Shadow responsibilities could not get him from California to New York between Friday and Sunday afternoon in time for broadcast. I doubt they would have allowed that with the nature of air service at that time.

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