Suspense Upgrades

Two programs today since the first one upgrades a recent upgrade.

The AFRS recording of this episode is known to exist, but has not been found in any of my travels yet. It is #470.

Suspense_1954-01-11_OneManCrimeWave_wDanaAndrews UPGRADE-4.mp3
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This episode has not been updated for 8 years.

Suspense_1954-01-25_WantAd_wRobertCummings UPGRADE-5.mp3
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These clippings are new...

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Best regards

Art

Two upgrades to recent upgrades today...

This episode was last updated earlier this year. For the historical background go to
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Suspense_1954-02-08_DeathAtSkrikerudPond_wJeffChandler UPGRADE-3.mp3
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These newspaper clippings are new...



Suspense_1954-02-22_Murder_By_Jury_wHerbertMarshall UPGRADE-4.mp3
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This clipping is new...



The Theater Five story is starting to be told...
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Christmas is sneaking up on us... and various happy events and obligations are coming up that will be disruptive to the daily schedule of this thread... starting today...
Will post as often as I can!

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

This episode has not been upgraded for 11 years!

The program begins with a plea by Harlow Wilcox to support charities and that Auto-Lite is offering an opportunity for listeners to submit suggestions for their contributions. The suggestions had to be made at car dealers that sold brands that used Auto-Lite parts in their vehicles. Knowing that Auto-Lite was having lackluster sales, this promotion was likely developed to increase traffic on car dealer showroom floors. This would indirectly increase demand for Auto-Lite parts with a very soft sell and a benefit to corporate image. No matter... four months from this episode the Auto-Lite sponsorship would be over.

Auto sales in 1954 were down from 1953.
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The economy was concluding year long recession that started in Q3 1953 and ending in Q2 1954... which happens to be the exact quarter that Auto-Lite pulled the plug on television and radio Suspense. Should they have held on longer? Likely not. Holding onto the television series may have been a better choice, but I understand the decision not to from a marketing strategy perspective (even though marketing strategy as a concept did not really become an area of study until 10+ years later).

The working title was "The Deadly Rabbit" which likely means that the original animal with rabies in the story may have been a rabbit rather than a dog. Oh, what Elmer Fudd would have done if he was the star this week in the hunt for a wabid wabbit. Seriously, a rabbit? The audience has a much greater affinity for dogs as so many more households own them... which makes the story hit closer to home. Rabies was in the news. There was a story in September 1953 from Council Bluffs, Iowa about a boy who had been bitten by a rabbit. The rabbit escaped after chewing through a leash. There is no indication that Fine and Friedkin knew about or used that specific story. There were plenty of rabies stories in the news in California, including debate about the efficacy and ethics of the Pasteur treatment that could have inspired development of their storyline. The late 1940s and early 1950s had significant efforts to vaccinate household dogs. The temptation for sensationalizing rabies stories was significant for reporters. Most cases of rabies were in children because of their innocent outdoor play and contact with dogs and other wild animals such as squirrels and rabbits. The combination of childhood innocence and such a dangerous and mysterious disease can be used by unscrupulous reporters to stoke fears of readers. One rarely hears of rabies today, but in the 1940s and early 1950s it was in the news often. Vaccination of pets worked, but such inoculations had to be kept up to date. By the time this show aired, rabies cases were already way down, but the newsworthiness about the infection and the need for vaccination did not ebb until years and decades later.

The other aspect of the story about the stolen microscopes was also based on many news stories in 1953. Like in the script, one man posed as a doctor to steal microscopes and moved across the country stealing them. Portland, OR police returned a microscope to a Pennsylvania college. A different pilfering of microscopes from Texas Christian University did end up being pawned, and the police were notified. Microscope thefts were occuring around the country from physician offices, labs, and colleges. They were usually returned. The microscopes were targets for theft because they were worth more than $5000 in US$2021 value.

At the opening of the program, Larry Thor promised "a story based on fact." Fine and Friedkin went shopping at the story idea store, selected the items they wanted in the raw facts aisle, went to their office and put them in a blender... and out came a reasonably good episode. A lot better than one about a wabid wabbit, that's for sure.

Suspense_1954-03-01_TheBarkingDeath_wWilliamPowell UPGRADE-2.mp3
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Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Today's recording has not been updated for three years...

Suspense_1954-04-05_Grand_Theft_wDavidNiven UPGRADE-4.mp3
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These newspaper clippings are new...

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

Today's episode has not been updated for three years.

Suspense_1954-04-12_Parole_To_Panic_wBroderickCrawford UPGRADE-3.mp3
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These clippings are new...

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Hope Santa paid a wonderful visit...  Here are 3 recordings. The first two are upgrade to what was posted in this past year. The third is a "missing" AFRS version of Last Days of John Dillinger. It's not in the best sound, but it's what we got! There are no newspaper clippings today.

(Check below for some interesting stuff about The Adventures of Frank Race!)

Suspense_1954-04-19_The_Card_Game_wRichardWidmark UPGRADE-4.mp3
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Suspense_1954-04-26_BertillionMethod_wCharlesBoyer UPGRADE-3.mp3
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The previous notes for this episode are at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Suspense_1954-05-10_LastDaysOfJohnDillinger_wVanHeflin AFRS VLQ.mp3
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The Dillinger network version was posted previously
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The Adventures of Frank Race has only had 43 episodes available, and it has always been assumed that 9 episodes were missing to make 52 episodes for a full year of shows. A question was posed at the groups.io page of OTRR regarding where those 9 episodes may be. The show was moderately popular and they would have made anywhere from 50-200 sets of discs. Surely with that many around, some of those 9 would have appeared!

A search of Broadcasting Magazine and Variety sheds some light on the story. Bruce Eells' syndication strategy included a different kind of pricing mechanism than typical. A best way to overly simplify it is that as the number of stations grew, the fees charged to each station would be reduced. Bluntly, it did not work, and he got into financial trouble. It may be that the shift from Tom Collins after 22 episodes to Paul Dubov was to save costs. Eells had trouble paying the talent required for the series, and he could never deliver the 52 episodes. It came to fisticuffs: things got so bad writer and director Joel Murcott brought assault charges against Eells to court! Eells had other series in trouble and everything fell apart and the business ended up declaring bankruptcy with various legal actions in the process.

This is also why Frontier Town has 47 episodes. That show started production a few weeks earlier than the Race series.

Eells would later get involved in television syndication and eventually worked for Ziv Television in a sales capacity.

Three episodes today. One is an upgrade of a recent post, and the others are AFRS versions that fell out of circulation when network versions in better sound were located. The network versions of those have not been upgraded in almost 10 years, and are provided here since some of the followers of this thread may not have been around back then.

Suspense_1954-05-17_RevengeOfCaptBligh_wCharlesLaughton UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Newspaper clippings posted previously.


The Earth is Made of Glass is the first Suspense after Auto-Lite cancelled its sponsorship. The show moved to Tuesdays. Sponsored shows would get the preferred schedule time that was worth more money to CBS and had the best opportunity to reach the sponsor's target audience. There is a big difference between sponsorship and buying ads. A sponsor paid for the entire production and their ad agency ran the show in conjunction with the producer. For the rest of its run, Suspense would occasionally have ads that were purchased on a time basis. Sponsors would no longer influence the show's script selection nor have any direct veto power over the productions. They might be able to grumble and make suggestions... but that's about it. Lewis saw the writing on the wall and left a few weeks later, believing that there was no future to sustained radio. He was right... his fortunes were better elsewhere, though it is funny that he would be involved in radio revivals in the 1970s of Hollywood Radio Theater and Sears Radio Theater, but those were after his television work was done. The lack of a sponsor also allowed Bill Robson the freedom to do things as he pleased when he took over the program in Fall 1956. The lack of a sponsor, however, meant smaller budgets and made it harder to attract big Hollywood star talent. That's fine... the technology was changing to compensate for that and... we adore the CBS ensemble cast. We don't have to worry that Sonny Tufts would darken the studio door ever again...

This is an AFRS version of this episode that presumably fell out of circulation because of its sound quality.
Suspense_1954-06-15_TheEarthIsMadeOfGlass_wJosephKearns AFRS LQ.mp3
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We have not found an upgrade network version of this episode for almost a decade.
Suspense_1954-06-15_TheEarthIsMadeOfGlass_wJosephKearns UPGRADE.mp3
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This is also an AFRS version of this episode that probably fell out of circulation because of its sound problems.
Suspense_1954-06-22_SequelToMurder_wWhitfieldConnor AFRS LQ.mp3
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...and we have not found an upgrade network version of this one for almost a decade!
Suspense_1954-06-22_SequelToMurder_wWhitfieldConnor UPGRADE.mp3
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Yesterday I posted notes about why Frank Race only had 43 episodes. A brief PDF slide deck has the news items about it all... and some snarky comments. Slide 7 shows the number of episodes which was part of a legal proceeding. Enjoy!
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This episode was updated within the last year.
Suspense_1954-08-03_GoodnightMrsRussell_wVGregg&VPerrin UPGRADE-4.mp3
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The following episode has not been updated for three years. It's a new season for Suspense, and to celebrate the show is cut from 30 minutes to 25 minutes. Oh well. First Auto-Lite leaves and now they penalize us 5 minutes a week. We promise never to lose a sponsor again. (They never did... because they never got one).

How you count the number of Suspense seasons is up for debate. You can make a case for 13th or 14th or even 15th season if you wanted to, counting the 1942 summer season as distinct (after which the show was essentially cancelled) or breaking up 1943 into sustained and sponsored, and treating the 60-minute format as separate. It doesn't really matter.

Norman Macdonnell takes over because Lewis left, but now it's official. His tenure does not last long and Antony Ellis picks up at the beginning of 1955. Macdonnell was mentored by Spier, especially in the 1949-1950 season, and then went on to the major success that was Gunsmoke.

Suspense_1954-09-30_ALittleMatterOfMemory_wLDobkin&PWinslowe UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

Two recordings today. On a separate note, I received word that TWO missing Suspense episodes will be recreated, for the very first time, in 2022! Details will be reported when known.

This episode was last updated almost 3 years ago.
Suspense_1954-10-07_ChickenFeed_wHarryBartell UPGRADE-3.mp3
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There are no new newspaper clippings.

At this time of the series, CBS publicity was not sending much information to the newspapers. Most newspapers just list the show in their radio timetables without details. The frequency and depth of Suspense publicity does not really pick up again until Robson takes over in October 1956.


This episode was last updated more than 9 years ago. The original title was "Lost One."
Suspense_1954-10-14_Lost_wPaulaWinslowe UPGRADE-2.mp3
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Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Today's episode has not been updated in more than 9 years. The original title for this episode, and the title sent to newspapers, was "The Fix."

Hy Averback had a wonderful career as an actor and director and producer. What sticks in my mind most about him is that he was the loudspeaker voice on TV's M*A*S*H!

Suspense_1954-11-11_TheSureThing_wHyAverback UPGRADE-2.mp3
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I was reviewing the "truly missing" Suspense -- the ones that were performed just once on the series. I have scripts of one sort or another for each of them.

It would be great if we could get them all recreated. Here is the list with embedded links to known recreations if they are available... are there other recreations we need to be aware of? Sadly the 1942 and 1943 broadcast recordings are likely lost -- and there is a possibility they were not recorded at all. There is hope for the others that AFRS recordings may be found one day.

   1942-07-01 - Episode 3 - The Life of Nellie James (based on Lizzie Borden)

   1942-07-08 - Episode 4 - Rope

   1942-07-15 - Episode 5 - Witness on the Westbound Limited

   1943-02-09 - Episode 27 - The Hangman Won't Wait (first half exists) (the complete performance has been done by Blue Hours Productions and ART, and was used in the BBC Appointment with Fear series as 1944-05-18 The Clock Strikes Eight for which a recording exists at the Internet Archive). AWF used Carr's scripts and the Suspense theme.

   1943-02-23 - Episode 29 - Will You Walk into My Parlor? (first half exists) (complete performance done by ART)

   1943-03-09 - Episode 31 - The Phantom Archer

   1946-02-28 - Episode 181- The Keenest Edge (was performed in the 1950s in Australia on Grace Gibson's "Tension" series, and by ART and most recently by Project Audion [a Zoom video presentation on YouTube])

   1948-07-08 - Episode 296 - The Last Chance (first Auto-Lite broadcast)

   1950-06-15 - Episode 388 - Deadline (tentatively scheduled for March 2022 REPS Showcase)

   1951-11-12 - Episode 446 - The Mission of the Betta (this could be hard to recreate well -- a portion of the script is originally from Man Behind the Gun "Incident in the Pacific")

   1951-11-19 - Episode 447 - The Embezzler (done by ART)

   1956-01-03 - Episode 630 - The Eavesdropper (tentatively scheduled for May 2022 by Project Audion)

   1956-08-01 - Episode 660 - Massacre at Little Big Horn (was written by San Quentin prisoner Elmer Parsons, who stayed out of trouble after serving his time there while the notorious scriptwriter and forger Edgar Scott Flohr did not; this can be described as a psychological drama about the night before the massacre)

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

Today's episode has not been upgraded for 8+ years. It's one of two scripts authored by actor John Dehner, and both had their initial performance on Escape (the other was Lily and the Colonel).

This episode is notable for another reason. According to Keith Scott,

"This was the final SUSPENSE show with file reference recording stored on an acetate disc master."

No more discs, unless someone made a different reference copy for some reason, like an aircheck that an agency or performer would pay to have done, or an AFRS/AFRTS disc. Everything else from here on in will be from file tapes, network feed tapes recorded at stations, home tape recordings, and anything else you can think of. The tapes were big 15" reels of Ampex tape, and prone to being recorded over. Tape was expensive, and its biggest selling points were more flexibility and productivity in the editing process, and that that re-using tape saved lots of money. The idea of re-broadcasting programs was something those syndicators did, we're networks, and re-broadcasting cheapens the importance of listening to the broadcast when the network determined it was right. How things changed as the decades moved on and broadcasters began to cater to the whims of the audiences. Remember the networks and studios resistance to VCRs? Gosh, now you're old if you remember what a VCR is! Now all those networks and studios have their own streaming channels and libraries. But I digress...

But Suspense was saved for the next year or so and years later collectors did have access to tapes. Access all starts to break down around 1957ish and we're left with a lot of bad sounding airchecks but thankfully good-sounding AFRTS because CBS started to re-use tapes. It is amazing that so much of this series was saved in some way as over its 20 years the technology changed so much and radio as a medium changed so drastically.

Suspense was using tape in production in various ways starting in 1949, most likely. They came to rely on it more and more. More and more shows were being pre-recorded in pieces and then edited together on tape. But the final file copies were discs... and that all ended with this episode. So when Bill Robson makes a big deal about his tenure beginning with full, modern tape production, he's making a big deal about something that already happened... except for more use of pre-recorded music and effects. But it sounded good. Robson was good or exceptional at many things, bluster being one of them.

Suspense_1955-02-17_ManWithTheSteelTeeth_wJohnDehner UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's recording has not been upgraded in 9 years. That's because this episode was always one of the best sounding ones. It may have to do with being the first Suspense with its file preserved on tape, and then it was lucky it was stored well, and not recorded over.

Suspense_1955-02-22_Waiting_wVJanisHKleeb&CLawrence UPGRADE-2.mp3
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This is an aircheck that was orginally posted over 8 years ago. It's always interesting to hear recordings that were most like the way people actually heard it. We are actually spoiled in most of OTRdom by the great sound recorded from transcriptions and preserved in digital formats. Until FM came around, it was uncommon to hear a full range of sound when listening to radio drama. So many of the subtle sound effects and the resounding orchestral music of Suspense was lost to the narrow AM range for so many of those far from transmitters or having signal disruptions of weather and other factors.

We're lucky to hear OTR today and it's getting better as we get more close-to-source tapes transferred and processed with some of the amazing software tools we have, especially in a price range that hobbyists can afford.
Suspense_1955-02-22_Waiting_wViJanisHKleeb&CLawrence WMT-Iowa AIRCHECK (bad 11s open, okay after).mp3
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Have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2022!

Happy 2022, everyone... here are three for the holiday weekend...

This episode has not been upgraded for almost 10 years. There are no newspaper clippings, which may mean the decision to perform this script was made after the deadline for publicity and timetable inclusion or that CBS radio was exerting its efforts elsewhere... likely both.

Suspense_1955-08-16_AStudyInWax_wWConrad&SHarris UPGRADE-3.mp3
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The switch away from discs led to more haphazard sound in the Suspense collections of years later. It's unclear how some of the programs were saved and there may be more airchecks than is realized or network tapes were played on home equipment that was not up to the task. These two upgrades are still LQ. The fact that their sound characteristics eminate from 50+ year-old-reels indicates that these episodes were originally circulated in LQ sound right from the beginning of the hobby. We have to hope that AFRS/AFRTS discs will be found some day.

This era of Suspense also got very little attention, even among early OTR collectors. The focus was on the "star years" of the series and there was an obsession with finding and savings discs. Discs represented the true golden age in the minds of those pioneers of the very brand new hobby. While they did not turn down network tapes or home recordings, they felt their mission was to preserve radio's heyday, the radio that they remembered so vividly.

No newspaper clippings for this one.
Suspense_1955-11-01_The_Mountain_wParleyBaer&BenWright UPGRADE-3 (still LQ).mp3
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No newspaper clippings for this, either. The original title was "X915." Hollywood Hostages was originally planned for this date. That script would not be broadcast for another three months.
Suspense_1955-11-08_ReportOnThe_X915_wStaceyHarris UPGRADE-2 STILL LQ.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

This episode was last upgraded with within the last year. It is a repeat of 1945-08-23 written by "I J Finley," pseudonym of Hollywood agent Irving Fein, but the nom de plume was changed to "Peter Ashley" for this episode; I have no idea why. George Walsh becomes the new narrator, taking over for Larry Thor. (Thor was my favorite in this role). There are no new newspaper clippings.
Suspense_1955-11-29_ThisWillKillYou_wSamEdwards UPGRADE-3.mp3
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This episode was last upgraded more than 2 years ago; it's a repeat of 1951-05-03. No newspaper clippings are available.
Suspense_1955-12-06_When_The_Bough_Breaks_wSHrris&VGregg UPGRADE-3.mp3
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This episode was last upgraded more that 2 years ago. The original title was "Two Platinum Needles," but that was likely changed because of the possible connection to drug addiction. The movie Man with the Golden Arm was in theaters at that time. More background is at a previous post [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Suspense_1956-01-10_Two_Platinum_Capsules_wSHarris&EBarrier UPGRADE-4.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art