Suspense Upgrades

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

At 3pm ET today I will be interviewed by collector Bob Burnham at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] about Suspense! Stream it live! Or if you're in the Dearborn, MI area, it's 89.3 FM.

UPDATE

Listen or download the interview with this link
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The following is a recording from a very damaged disc. There was weight sitting on the edge of the disc while it was in storage, and it crushed the grooves that contained about 2 minutes of side 2. No needle could sit in the grooves enough to capture the sound. A highly respected former Cobaltian, St. Jack, was able to get a rather clean recording from the rest of the disc, and then inserted the relevant portion of the existing network recording to replace the damaged and unplayable area. It is wise to always document these kinds of alterations to the original recording as has been done in the file name. The network recording is in better sound, but this version was not in circulation.

Suspense_1944-12-14_The_Lodger AFRS#82 FROM DISC (restored 16m02s to 17m50s for unplayable disc section).mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Follow-up #1...
Neglected to add this to yesterday's post.

Follow-up #2...
Forgot to include this the other day: Orson Welles wanted to buy the film rights to Ben Hecht's short story that was turned into the episode Marvelous Barastro

And now today's offering, another replacement disc recording
Suspense_1945-03-15_Cricket_wMOBrien&DMWhitty AFRS#095 FROM DISC UPGRADE.mp3
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

The next update is planned to be on November 25 as we have various Thanksgiving travels.

Here are the next three items...

For some reason, finding this fourth performance of SWN in decent sound was always difficult. This is pretty good, finally, a generous contribution from a regular supporter. This is likely the east coast broadcast, the first time Moorehead would perform twice on the same day. This makes it the fifth performance (the inaugural one, the corrected one, and then the Thursday and Monday ones when the Roma sponsorship began; only the Monday one exists).

From all accounts the "draining" SWN performances that resulted in disheveled clothing and very bad hair was the creation of the PR department and staged for the cameras. Actors and others who saw the various performances were in awe over her concentration and intensity, but always describe a professional performer at the top of her craft who was well-aware of the production in progress and always in control.

Suspense_1945-09-06_SorryWrongNumber_wAgnesMoorehead_v4 UPGRADE-2.mp3
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The nice copy of this next episode is missing "Now..." at the beginning. This is a lower quality recording, but it is complete. That one little word is the only reason it's in the collection and posted here, the kind of thing that earned yours truly the "completist" moniker. For best listening enjoyment, the other copy is much preferred. Clifton Webb was supposed to star in this, but was ill. Spier's favorite emergency fill-in Joseph Cotten saved the day.

Suspense_1945-09-27_TheEarthIsMadeOfGlass_wJCotten LQ HAS COMPLETE OPEN.mp3
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Suspense_1946-03-07_BlackPathOfFear_wCaryGrant AFRS#145 UPGRADE-3 FROM DISC.mp3
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This replaces a noisier recording. Only the AFRS recording exists. This was the second performance on Suspense, the first on 1944-08-31 for which a network recording exists.

This Cornell Woolrich story became a movie, The Chase, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which starred Robert "Bob" Cummings, and is online at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Some of the actors appeared on Suspense: Cummings (Dead of Night, Want Ad), Peter Lorre (multiple times), Michele Morgan (Portrait Without a Face). Don Wilson is in the cast, but curiously, never appeared on Suspense.


A Personal Note: Thank you again Cobaltia for your support of this project but also the support to us as we dealt with health issues of my mother. Somehow, she made her 91st birthday last month, has most all of her mental faculties, and made progress in physical therapy and can now self-propel in her wheelchair 300'. She has no memory of her awful six-week hospital stay -- a good thing. Her caregivers have gone beyond their routine tasks and have been generous with her. Nowadays it is trendy to make fun of "thoughts and prayers" but we see them not in her recovery, but in the gracious conduct of the staff and workers, kindness of strangers and some unlikely beneficial situations that have occurred and improved her situation. Have a great Thanksgiving, Cobaltia.

Thanks greybelt
So gald to hear that your Mom is doing so well. It was a trying time for your family.

Best regards

Art

My mother in law is 97 and mother is 88. Completely sympathize and empathize with you, Graybelt.

Family is a top priority, Greybelt. And you'll find more than enough support here in Cobaltia in those tough times. I've never been surrounded by a more supportive, caring group of people than I've found here. At various times the good people here offered comfort when I lost my folks--ten years apart.

It's good to be with family at Thanksgiving, so please consider this group to be part of your extended family, as I do.
Jeff

Greetings!! Greybelt has returned from a Thanksgiving week cruise  on Royal's Adventure of the Seas. The food was great, the entertainment was generally good, but most of all it's a week of "is there anything else I can do for you?" -- but now we're back, so we have to pick up our own used towels, make our own beds, put the dishes in the dishwasher, shop and cook, yadda yadda yadda. It was a much-needed week away and we were blessed to be able to do it. There were many 3-generation families, so it had a nice positive family vibe throughout the entire cruise. The kids on board were all great (especially the 3-yr old girl who was impatient for the elevator and said "c'mon elevator, you can do it!")  Yes, it did feel a little strange having Thanksgiving dinner after a day in Cozumel, rather than at home, but the meal was spectacular, and its participants thankful for our relaxing days together.

I'm posting a few hours earlier than usual, just because I'm so happy to be home and that we had such a marvelous time.

This first item is different from the one circulating in that the ending of the program is slightly different. Another "completist" recording, I can't tell which of the recordings is east or west, but now we seem to have both of them (like the old saying "a man with two watches is never really certain what time it is"). The quality is unfortunately LQ, but perhaps a better one will appear now that we know a recording exists with this format.
Suspense_1946-06-20_YourDevotedWife_wJuneDuprez DELAYED NETWORK ID AT END LQ FROM REEL-rx2.mp3
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And this next episode is a verified east-west pair in nice sound. Usually only one of these episodes is in collections.
Suspense_1946-07-04_An_Evenings_Diversion_wLeonAmes EC.mp3
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Suspense_1946-07-04_An_Evenings_Diversion_wLeonAmes WC.mp3
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The star is Leon Ames, a successful character actor [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] who was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933. At the time of this broadcast, he was popular for his role in The Postman Always Rings Twice.

He and his wife were victims of a kidnapping in 1964, foiled by the actions of his business partner. Some of the details are at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
The story gets stranger. The criminal, Lynn Wayne Benner, was convicted and sent to Folsom prison. Benner escaped in 1970 and attempted another home invasion, but failed and returned to Folsom, his victims unharmed. A few years later, his cellmate would be Dr. Timothy Leary of LSD fame. They would become friends and talk about a range of things including interstellar travel, UFOs, and ESP. They tried to escape Folsom via levitation (it didn't work).

Thanks greybelt
I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. I've found that Royal Caribbean always seems to go that little extra to make sure you have a great time.

Best regards

Art

This recording is a "completist" post of the AFRS version of this episode. The prior AFRS one had a cut opening.
Suspense_1947-03-13_YouTakeBallistics_wHDiSilva&JWebb AFRS HAS FULL OPEN.mp3
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I'm not sure what the movie reference is in this newspaper clipping. DaSilva had a supporting role in Two Years Before the Mast in Fall of 1946. Perhaps one of the movie buffs here can shed some light on the reference. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


You Take Ballistics was a Cornell Woolrich story originally published under his pseudonym "William Irish." Woolrich was so prolific there was concern that there were "too many" Woolrich works getting into the marketplace at the same time, so "Irish" was the workaround used by the publisher. The story would become the audition and the first episode of Pursuit, and is detailed in Stewart Wright's log of that series [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is the main post for today...
Suspense_1947-10-23_The_X-Ray_Camera_wDennisO'Keefe UPGRADE-3.mp3
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What were the ratings for Suspense?

There's a book I have had for a long time that shows Hooper Ratings for the golden age. I just learned it is available for download [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This chart shows Suspense, Mr. DA, and Lux. For some reason the 1948 rating for Suspense is not available, and it might be that the format bounced around and it had weeks where there was no broadcast. I know that in September of that year there were reports about its big ratings rebound under Auto-Lite and Tony Leader, so I might be able to make an estimate at some point. Mr. DA ratings end with the closing of the network show and the shift to syndication. It is still hard to believe for a show so big in the ratings when Jay Jostyn starred that so few of the episodes exist. Another thing you learn from the ratings was how big Dragnet was, replacing Mr. DA for many listeners. Mr. DA went to television, initially with Jostyn, and there seem to be no kinescopes of that brief series. That was the main reason it is not in the chart's later years. The book excluded syndicated programs from its ratings compilations, so the Ziv Mr. DA series is not included. The downslide in all radio ratings after about 1949 in favor of TV is fairly obvious. Compared to other series, Suspense had roughly about 2/3 of the ratings of Benny or Fibber in the mid-40s heyday.


Interpreting the chart -- this is percentage of households. During the entire period, the number of households was growing. That means that 10% of households in 1944 is a lot different than 10% of households in 1954 -- the percentage is the same, but the actual number of households is different. Household formation started to grow at a quicker rate once the troops got home from WW2 and civilians went back to their pre-war roles and jobs. In 1944, there were about 37.5 million US households, and by 1955 there were about 48 million. Roughly, in 1947 there were 7 million households tuned into Suspense (remember: households, not people) and by 1954 it was down to about 2.8 million households.

BTW the same site that had this collection of Hooper ratings also has many other books for download
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The PDF of Tune in Yesterday is on this page [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Suspense_1949-02-24_WhereTheresAWill_wJamesMason UPGRADE-3.mp3
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The Masons and the Spiers (Bill Spier and June Havoc) would create a movie, Lady Possessed, released in 1952.
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Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Thanks Greybelt.

Suspense_1949-11-24_TheLongWait_wBurtLancaster UPGRADE-2.mp3
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BOOK RECOMMENDATION

This bio of Kay Thompson by Sam Irvin was released in 2011 -- it's fascinating [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] There are numerous OTR references especially during the time she was married to William Spier. How someone this talented and influential could have fallen out of our collective memory is surprising. She's everywhere and knows everybody, and they listen to her! Her influence on Suspense is detailed with some amazing facts such as her recommendations for casting, the ending that was used in SWN, the saving of Dead Ernest from the reject pile, the inclusion of Ray Bradbury stories, and more. And, oh yeah, all the Hollywood stuff with the musicals and other movies, the stars and their affairs, and what would the story be without Las Vegas... wonderfully written and excellently researched. I got a really nice used copy on Amazon. But new copies and ebooks are still available. Glad I stumbled onto it on Google Books in some searches a few months ago, and then Suspense expert and collector Keith Scott recommended it to me as worth owning because of all of the Suspense background. He was right!

If you want a sense of the kind of things you can find in the book, the author has been updating notes with new or expanded information in a 500+ page PDF -- some of it reads like a novel! The backstory of Suspense is referenced many times with some critically important incidents recounted in specific detail [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Most OTR fans have never heard of Kay Thompson, but one could say that her behind-the-scenes, unpaid, unreported influence on Suspense may be the most important catalyst that made the show as successful as it was.

An interview of the author is on YouTube
Part One [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Part Two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Another interview
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Part Two [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Kay Thompson, for all of her influence on Suspense, never appeared on the show as a credited performer. But, as noted by Irvin in a the extended notes and a radio appearances list, that when guest star Susan Hayward performed Cole Porter’s I’ve Got You Under My Skin, it was actually the singing voice of Kay Thompson. Irvin learned this through contact with voice actor and Suspense fan/collector/researcher Keith Scott after the book was published.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

Thank you, that was a very interesting read on Kay Thompson. I enjoyed it very much. - Tom

Here's another one with a name change before broadcast
Suspense_1950-11-30_LadyInTheRedHat_wVanHeflin UPGRADE-2.mp3
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The original title was The Thirteenth Apostle


My favorite Heflin performance, and my favorite Suspense is still the Woolrich story Three O'Clock
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This item is a "completist" recording that most will not want to download. There is a good recording already in circulation but that has some volume fluctuation at the open. This one is not as good sound-wise, but has no vol flux. Hate when that happens. But it may mean that there is a good total recording out there somewhere.
Suspense_1951-12-10_BlackjackToKill (no flux at open; not full range) NOT FULL RANGE.mp3
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Today's main posting is a Suspense script that was likely delayed for a reason related to Red Channels. It is believed that this script (titled at that time as Concerto for a Killer) was originally intended for actor John Garfield who got caught up in all of the problems of the time. Some of the details of Garfield's travails are at Wikipedia. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Garfield appeared on Suspense in 1945 (Reprieve) and in 1948 (Death Sentence). Things started to heat up in 1950 and some CBS execs did not want Garfield to appear. Garfield died of heart problems in May 1952 at age 39. It is suspected that Lewis ran with this script he had been holding for Garfield either as a tribute, or to thumb his nose at CBS execs, or both. There is a persistent rumor that a rehearsal recording done in 1950 or 1951 with Garfield exists somewhere. There is a script in the KNX collection at Thousand Oaks Library for Concerto in the 1950 holdings.

Suspense_1952-06-09_ConcertoForKiller&EyeWitnesses_wELewis UPGRADE-2.mp3
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After Garfield's death, Ed Sullivan tried to clarify Garfield's situation in his column. It was commonly believed that Garfield's heart attack was from the stress of the blacklist.

The possible reason to speculate this was a snub to the CBS "suits" was that Sorry, Wrong Number was originally scheduled for the slot. We can't know for certain because SWN had been moved in the past years to accommodate Moorehead or other reasons. Concerto was announced in the week prior's closing. It could have just been an issue of scheduling convenience for Moorehead and opportunistic scheduling by CBS. But knowing some of the backstory, it seems suspicious. We're likely to never know for sure if Lewis kicked the planned SWN down the road to rush Concerto into the schedule in reaction to Garfield's passing.

This clip indicates that an SWN performance had to be done in New York because of Moorehead's commitments on Broadway. Going coast-to-coast was still time consuming and expensive in 1952, and this is a factor on the side of Concerto being used just as a fill-in, without any curious purposes, in the schedule. With no scheduled star, Lewis stepped in for expedience sake.

The Los Angeles Times noted how Lewis would work during the production.

What was "first lady of Suspense" Moorehead doing? She was touring with Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Laughton, and Charles Boyer as the "First Drama Quartette" in a performance of George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell. The successful SWN record release led to this performance also being released in that format. A recording of it is at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The September 1952 broadcast of SWN remains a missing episode.

Lewis' birthday was celebrated at Radio Spirits blog two days ago [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks Greybelt. Love the background info.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Finally! The skips and repeats in this really nice recording are all fixed.
Suspense_1953-02-16_TheLove&DeathOfJoaquinMurietta_wVMature UPGRADE-3 (SKIPS FIXED).mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously. Here is a new one.