Suspense Upgrades

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Santa says... "Post another one! I saw the Cobaltians while they were sleeping, I knew when they were awake, and they were good for goodness' sake!" And we do what Santa says...

Suspense_1945-12-27_Pink_Camillias_wMarshaHunt UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Hume Cronyn

Suspense_1946-01-10 This Was A Hero wPTerry AFRS#137 FROM DISC.mp3
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This program was missing until it was played last September on Jerry Haendiges’ program and podcast “Old Time Radio Classics.” The timing was done to coincide with the September 2017 weekend of my presentation about the missing Suspense episodes at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention near Baltimore. Setting all that up was great fun. The disc was not in good shape, and his sound processing took some time; this recording is much improved from the way it started out.

Phil Terry was the star of the program, coming off a notable appearance in the movie Lost Weekend with Ray Milland. He was also known in Hollywood as the husband (#3) of Joan Crawford. More below.

The marriage with Joan Crawford was unraveling at the time of the performance, as these clips indicate. There may have been some extra publicity buzz around his Suspense appearance because of it.

His acting career did not take off in the manner Hopper wrote. You wonder if this item was placed with her by an agent to tell others in the business (producers, casting directors, etc.) that Phil was on his own and that his decisions would not involve any influence of Joan.

The divorce made the news just weeks later. As with Hollywood divorces in the news everyone knew that the reasons for divorce listed in legal papers were often to just get the process through the court system quickly and not have any bearing on the actual events. Because legal documents were public records or could become public, minimal details were reported.

Terry did have a good acting career, not a great one. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] He married twice more, with his third marriage the longest. He can be seen in a few TV Perry Mason episodes.

• The Case of the Bedeviled Doctor (1959) ... Peter Heywood
  
• The Case of the Gallant Grafter (1960) ... Robert Doniger
  
• The Case of the Resolute Reformer (1961) ... Lawrence Kent
  
• The Case of the Tarnished Trademark (1962) ... Latham Reed
  
• The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara (1966) ... Rolf Thorsen
  

He became a great success with real estate investing. His timing for that was excellent, as the post-WW2 California was growing at a fast pace and there were many rewards for wise efforts in that regard.

This story was included in Suspense Magazine #2 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
A very good version of it was done in Australia on Grace Gibson's series Tension
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Suspense_1946-01-24_My_Dear_Niece_wDameMaeWhitty KQW AIRCHECK UPGRADE-2.mp3
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The network aircheck is the only network recording available; there is an AFRS version in circulation.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Suspense_1946-03-14_No_More_Alice_wPaulHenreid UPGRADE-2.mp3
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This is another case of a last minute cast change. The show features Paul Henreid. Most movie fans know him as Victor Laszlo in Casablanca. He had already appeared in January’s Angel of Death.

The original casting was for George Brent in the lead. This seems to be a last minute change because not a single newspaper reference to Henried and this performance could be found. We don’t know if Brent or Henreid was announced the week prior because we only have an AFRS version of Black Path of Fear, the show of March 7, for which the show announcements were removed by AFRS. (There’s an interesting story behind that episode ... more in my post tomorrow).

Based on research I could find, Brent never appeared on Suspense in any role, and was never scheduled again. The bulk of his radio appearances were on Lux Radio Theatre.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

A few weeks ago I was on YesterdayUSA with Walden Hughes and Larry Gassman. The main topic was Casey Crime Photographer, but we got into other series like Suspense.

This folder has 2 versions, 32kps and 128kps mp3
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I'm also posting this on a Casey thread. If someone wants to start posting Casey shows and some background, I'd be pleased to supply recordings and information.

Suspense_1946-03-21_LonelyRoad_wGregoryPeck UPGRADE-4.mp3
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This is an interesting cast change. Lonely Road was originally promoted as the March 7, 1946 program starring Cary Grant!

Instead, they used that week for a new performance of Black Path of Fear. That script was originally done in 1944 with Brian Donlevy.

Grant's appearance was confirmed on March 7 in the close of the February 28 program, the missing episode The Keenest Edge. The title of the episode was not announced (they rarely did, but sometimes they would).

For some reason, they held the script of Lonely Road for Gregory Peck for the March 21 broadcast. There is no indication why that was done. Was the script not ready? Was Peck considered a better fit for the performance? Was there another reason? It seems to be a pattern that when something was not ready about a planned performance, Spier would decide to repeat a script in its place.

The script change did make it in time for some March 7 newspaper listings. So the change must have happened rather early in their planning, but not early enough for many newspapers to catch it.

Here are some announcements for Lonely Road. The second one has some other Suspense news.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Thanks for posting these upgrades Greybelt.

Happy New Year Cobaltians.

Suspense_1946-03-28_Out_Of_Control_wBrianDonlevy UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Blind detective? That reminds me of the South African series on Springbok, Sounds of Darkness. And, as a silver age comic book fan, Marvel's Daredevil.

A less than enthusiastic review of this episode is at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

This is a Howard Duff question that I have come across in my Suspense research.

I've been trying to figure out why Murderous Revision has a rehearsal recording with Duff on October 13 1951, but the show was broadcast with Richard Widmark in December. I've assumed all along that it was a continuance of his problems in 1950 with Duff being listed in Red Channels and NBC "asking" him to leave Sam Spade.

From the newspaper accounts of that (cleaned up by the influence of publicists, most likely) Duff is quoted as saying "the sponsor wanted a cheaper show." The newspapers have quite a few stories of fan protests and letter writing campaigns. Some of the biographical entries online mention career issues dogging Duff from 1950; but this is 1951. I must say that he was really busy during this time from just looking at the number of movie ads with his name in them.

The recording date of the rehearsal of Murderous Revision, however, is just a week before his marriage to Ida Lupino. That seemed to happen in a rush, with a quick divorce in Las Vegas for Lupino from Collier Young on 10/20 and then the marriage to Duff the next day. In November and December 1951, Duff is very busy. Some of it may just be publicists blowing smoke into the Hollywood gossip machine, but there is nothing to indicate that he is banned or hampered in any way (except perhaps by certain producers and directors but nothing like that is mentioned). One of the bio articles indicated that the marriage to Lupino saved his career since she was so active on both sides of the camera, blunting any negative issues with her influence.

So now I'm wondering if there was no version of Murderous Revision with him because of the quickly unfolding legal logistics of Lupino's divorce and marriage coming together, making him unavailable for business and possibly their honeymoon which they did not have time to plan for in terms of the Vegas events.

The thing that nags at me is that in the rehearsal recording, Wilcox does not mention Duff's name at the show's open like they do other stars. This was always explained to me that Duff was too hot to handle and they didn't want to turn off part of their audience. But again, from the papers, his name is plastered all over the place in movie ads. Had he been too hot, it wouldn't be.

So on one hand I feel like I opened a door to understanding this recording and on the other hand I feel like there's a new and maddening murkiness Anyone have ideas or input? (As an aside, the working title of Murderous Revision was The Twist is Death (and before that The Twist is Murder) which was part of the prior week's closing announcement (which I have from the script -- the prior week program is not circulating).

Help!

Suspense_1946-04-11_TheNameOfTheBeast_wVincentPrice UPGRADE-3.mp3
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A positive review of this episode is at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brian Donlevy

Thank you greybelt for the upgrades and jb steele for the pictures

Re: Murderous Revision

Martin Grams added some insight at the OTRR Facebook page. The bottom line is that Duff being on the rehearsal recording was not unusual -- he would stand in for the star when they could not be available for the first rehearsal. This was commonly done with with Duff. As to why, perhaps it had to do with his relationship with Spier, who produced Sam Spade in its most successful years. At this time, Elliott Lewis was the producer, but Duff doing this was still happening when needed.

So the whole story about him being ripped from the lead of Murderous Revision because he was "too hot" is just that... a story. There is no indication that Duff was ever intended as the Suspense star for the scheduled week.

I posted an extra time late yesterday with an additional recording, and here is an extra one for New Year's Eve, too. There's something in common for these two lead actors: they were part of entertainment families. The first had a successful father in vaudeville, movies, and radio. The second had a son, affectionately known for his role as a buffoonish "skipper" whose nautical (in)abilities stranded his first mate, a movie star, a millionaire and his wife, a professor, and Mary Ann on an uncharted island!

Suspense_1946-04-18_TheNightReveals_wKeenanWynn UPGRADE-2.mp3
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This broadcast was supposed to be Return Trip, but that ended up being broadcast two months later on 1946-06-27. Why Night Reveals was substituted this week is not known. Perhaps the script was not ready for prime time performance. This must have been a relatively last minute decision -- not a single citation of Night Reveals for this date could be found. Yet again, when there's a problem, Spier yanks an old script from the file cabinet.

Night Reveals was performed four times on Suspense: twice in 1943, the first with Frederic March (missing), the second with Robert Young, then this episode, and again in 1949 with March.

Suspense_1946-05-30_LeadingCitizenOfPrattCounty_wAlanHale UPGRADE-2.mp3
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It's been a good year for Suspense at Cobaltia, and a busy 2018 is ahead! Have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Thank you greybelt!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here's two to celebrate!

Suspense_1946-06-06_The_High_Wall_wRobertYoung UPGRADE-2.mp3
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Suspense_1946-06-20_YourDevotedWife_wJuneDuprez AFRS#160 FROM DISC (SS-SP-6-27-9 & 10).mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

June Duprez