Suspense Upgrades

THANKS KD for reminding me of that!
Completists Unite!

This is a "missing" AFRTS version of this episode, posted as received and also a sound processed recording.

Suspense_1959-05-24_SpoilsForVictor_wRobertHorton AFRS.mp3

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Suspense_1959-05-24_SpoilsForVictor_wRobertHorton AFRS PROC.mp3
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Newspaper clippings were previously posted.

Today one of the Suspense episodes I've never really been able to warm up to. Like, Man, Somebody Dig Me is one of the stranger episodes. It has a star, Dennis Day, who is casted against type and profession, in the Suspense tradition, but that's about it. After that it seems flat and flailing about to me. Does anyone in Cobaltia have an opposite feeling about this?

This recording is from disc. All disc recordings are "flawed" in some manner and need some processing to counter the mash-up convergence of technologies of that time and today. The recent recordings I have posted have an electric hum and turntable rumble that take a little doing to minimize without affecting the good aspects of the recording. This one was a little bit harder to clean up, so I have listed two processed copies. Personally, I like the second one better.

Suspense_1959-08-16_LikeManSomebodyDigMe_wDennisDay AFRS FROM DISC.mp3
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Suspense_1959-08-16_LikeManSomebodyDigMe_wDennisDay AFRS FROM DISC PROC.mp3
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Suspense_1959-08-16_LikeManSomebodyDigMe_wDennisDay AFRS FROM DISC PROC2.mp3
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Except for some volume fluctuation at the opening, this is a better sounding copy of this episode.
Suspense_1962-04-08_LetThereBeLight_wIvorFrancis UPGRADE-2 (vol flux at open).mp3
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Newspaper clippings for this episode were posted earlier.

One more posting to go for this round of Suspense. Not sure what the next series will be (I checked my YTJD and Whistler files -- nothing new there, unfortunately). I'll settle that soon...

greybelt 9500 Internal server error

just tried the link and it is working

greybelt wrote:Today one of the Suspense episodes I've never really been able to warm up to. Like, Man, Somebody Dig Me is one of the stranger episodes. It has a star, Dennis Day, who is casted against type and profession, in the Suspense tradition, but that's about it. After that it seems flat and flailing about to me. Does anyone in Cobaltia have an opposite feeling about this?

I like this one; the "beatnik" aspect is pretty quaint to today's listener, yes (although it adds some period flavor to the episode), but the ending is admirably mean-spirited and subverts what would otherwise have been a pretty standard-issue cautionary tale. And Dennis Day's voice in unrecognizable in this characterization, at least to my ears.

greybelt wrote:Except for some volume fluctuation at the opening, this is a better sounding copy of this episode.
Suspense_1962-04-08_LetThereBeLight_wIvorFrancis UPGRADE-2 (vol flux at open).mp3
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Nice find...pretty sure all of the other versions of this out there are without commercials. Thanks!

Anyone know if there was any reason why Mason Adams would have appeared uncredited on radio programs for a few months during this era? I'm pretty positive that the fourth, uncredited actor in this episode is Adams. Likewise, "Matt Cooper", the purported lead actor in the '62 "Suspense" episode "The Lost Ship" (with no other credits listed on RadioGOLDINdex) sounds like he has to be Mason Adams as well.

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"Matt Cooper" may be something Mason Adams had to do briefly while under contract to do something else. I can't find any reason why that name was picked. Some of our radio favorites like Raymond Burr used "Ray Hartman" briefly in 1951-1952, and John Abbott documents that in his YTJD books, where Burr's name is on the script cover but the announcements use Hartman (the name may come from a new lilac variety that was being sold in California at the time). Burr may have wanted to emphasize and promote his name associated with his movie work. Those same scripts have "Joel Samuels" appearing, but that is actually Hy Averback. But I digress... the use of a different name was usually to avoid some kind of temporary contractual conflict in public performance. I can't find any reason why it was done in this case or why the name "Matt Cooper" was selected.


And now, our last episode of Suspense for a little while. Don't worry, there are more in the hopper. This comes from a reel transfer. It's not one of my favorite episodes.

Suspense_1962-07-08_SinEater_wJimBoles&ElizabethEverett UPGRADE-4 (full open, has commls).mp3
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The next Suspense episode posts probably won't be for two or three months.

What's next? I need a few days to get some OTR things organized. The Jeff Regan series will begin posts in a few days after I get the files to the Cobaltian volunteers.

In June, I am headed for a couple of days of research out at the Thousand Oaks library in California where many of the Suspense scripts are (mainly 1947-1959). I have a long list of questions to delve into while there. A new edition of my Suspense book will be available a few weeks later.

I'll also have a collector interview scheduled while I am there that should be of great interest for everyone.

Watch for my posting a different series in about three days. I still need to figure out what it will be. So many choices...

greybelt wrote:
"Matt Cooper" may be something Mason Adams had to do briefly while under contract to do something else. I can't find any reason why that name was picked. Some of our radio favorites like Raymond Burr used "Ray Hartman" briefly in 1951-1952, and John Abbott documents that in his YTJD books, where Burr's name is on the script cover but the announcements use Hartman (the name may come from a new lilac variety that was being sold in California at the time). Burr may have wanted to emphasize and promote his name associated with his movie work. Those same scripts have "Joel Samuels" appearing, but that is actually Hy Averback. But I digress... the use of a different name was usually to avoid some kind of temporary contractual conflict in public performance. I can't find any reason why it was done in this case or why the name "Matt Cooper" was selected.

Thanks for that insight about Burr; that's an interesting fun fact that I didn't know. And you're right, that's the most likely explanation for Mason Adams not going by his actual name during this period in '62.

And now, our last episode of Suspense for a little while. Don't worry, there are more in the hopper. This comes from a reel transfer. It's not one of my favorite episodes.

Suspense_1962-07-08_SinEater_wJimBoles&ElizabethEverett UPGRADE-4 (full open, has commls).mp3
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Thanks, greybelt, and thanks again for this remarkable run of upgraded episodes of "Suspense", that's quite the valuable service you've provided to us fans of the series. Once again I'll voice my admiration for an episode that doesn't do very much for you. "The Sin Eater" is a remarkably cold-blooded episode that's pretty disturbing on a number of levels, and is more straight-up horror than most of what was performed on the series (unless you somehow contend that the wife really Had It Coming), and could probably only have been done on "Suspense" when there were very few people left listening to series anymore. At any rate, I give it points for strangeness.

In June, I am headed for a couple of days of research out at the Thousand Oaks library in California where many of the Suspense scripts are (mainly 1947-1959). I have a long list of questions to delve into while there. A new edition of my Suspense book will be available a few weeks later.

Good luck and have fun while you're there! I don't know how much is involved in transcribing materials from their library (e.g. is photocopying permitted?) but if there are copies of scripts with those missing intros by William N. Robson I'd be fascinated to get to read those after all these years. I'm looking forward to that addition to your book.

Thanks for all the upgrades, greybelt!

ChaseDad - can you send me a list (via private message) of the Robson episodes for which we do not have introductions?
I have the "missing" list as
Russian New Year - 1/13/57
Death and Miss Turner - 5/15/57
Trial by Jury - 6/16/57
The Sisters - 3/30/58
The Steel River Prison Break - 7/27/58
Night Man - 7/26/59

Copies of cover pages, ad copy, and closing comments are allowed, but the core program is not unless you can prove there is no copyright in force. This is different than other libraries where you can get copies but them hold the library harmless from any violation that you may cause. It could also be the specific direction of the donor. But we'll see -- I'm curious about those, too, since you brought that topic to my attention many posts ago.

Thanks for all your work greybelt
Best regards
Art

Suspense help needed! From Dec 1943 to Sept 1944 Suspense was on Thursdays for East and Central and a new separate performance for Pacific and Mountain. I can only find a 32kps mp3 of the Thursday performance of of 1944-02-03 "The Sisters" with Lupino & Moorehead. The way the recording can be identified is at the close, when Joe Kearns says "don't forget then, next Thursday, same time..." -- in my copy it's at about 28:15ish. Does anyone have a higher encode copy? The Monday copy circulates in decent sound, but this one has been very hard to find.

Hi Greybelt, I just checked my copy and it says "don't forget next Monday". It's a pretty good copy from my old reel-to-reel collection. If you would like a copy just let me know. I'm still a few days away from being able to list any links here, but I could give you a link via e-mail.

Tom

Toebig -- sent you a private message. I would like to check your Monday copy

Thank you Joe......Like Man Somebody Dig Me is quite an annoying episode!!

greybelt, I too have a copy in mps that says next monday. It is 29.57 in length.
As well, I have a copy that is 29.01 that says next thursday.
Let me know
Art

Art
Yes, I'd like to check your copy -- but I suspect it might be the same.
These are the Thurs and Mon copies currently in my Suspense set
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It is a higher encode than what I have -- I tried to clean it up but it seems that none of the defects are responding to sound processing software, which means that someone aggressively did it before -- so this is as good as it gets!

Oh well... it may be in an old reel collection somewhere...

My many thanks to you, Greybelt, for your treasure trove of Suspense upgrades.

I am back from my California trip having survived another red eye flight back to the east coast.

I spent my three days there with long-time OTR collector Keith Scott. Keith is a voice actor and stage performer. I first met Keith by letter 35+ years ago and this is the first time we ever met in person. He's been visiting from Australia to catch up with his animation and OTR associates and acquaintances of many years. His book about the Jay Ward studio, "The Moose that Roared" got rave reviews years ago and is still available. Keith got to play Bullwinkle's voice (and Boris and Fearless Leader and narrator) in the 2000 movie, and also 1997's George of the Jungle. Keith is a decades-experienced and exceptional researcher of radio's golden and silver ages, and has interviewed more radio and voice actors than I can count.

We spent Monday June 10 at the Thousand Oaks Library where the KNX script collection is housed. We had a very long research agenda. We had many questions about Suspense, Whistler, Jeff Regan, Broadway's My Beat, and many other shows. It was a stunningly productive day and the folks who maintain the archives were so extraordinarily patient, helpful and generous with us. We ran down our smartphone batteries taking pictures of script pages (I was prepared with all kinds of chargers and backup batteries with me!)

The research room had little space and turned out to be a wifi deadspot in that section of the library, so I set up an iPhone personal hotspot as I backed up photos and other items through the day. We had shared the research agenda with the archive folks as we built it, since it was aggressive and had numerous topics beyond just the KNX collection. They, and we, were surprised how quickly we could work because of the agenda prep that they were able to do in advance but also because of the smartphones. It was pretty amazing.

We thought we'd be there until the evening and would have to come back on the next day. Instead, we finished up by 4pm and spent Tuesday analyzing what we found and also cleaning up and organizing all of the images. It was one of the most exciting days I have ever had as a collector. Learning about these programs enriches our enjoyment and especially our appreciation of the era and its people.

The Library personnel were excellent and supportive as they responded to new requests as the day went on as each answer we were getting often led to more and new questions. I learned so much by digging into the original program materials, much of it destined for my revised Suspense book which will be done this Summer.

On Sunday, June 9, Keith and I sat down for an interview. The 1 hour, 45 minute interview in 64kps (45MB) is available at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

NOTE: There is a sound change at 2 min 8 sec as I did not set up my good recorder properly so I had to revert to my lower quality recording from my dictation recorder that I had on as a backup -- so please stick with it until the much better quality begins. The affected part of the interview is some playful preliminaries.

There is a version that is broken up as two files
Part 1 is about Keith's career and radio voices and the people he's been so grateful to meet (1 hour and 5 min
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Part 2 includes a discussion about Suspense and its history and other deeper collector topics
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Other versions that you might prefer are at...

Full version in 128kps mp3 (92MB)
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Full version in FLAC (big file 462MB)
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It was great to finally meet with Keith after all these years and have our research trip to Thousand Oaks together. He is a marvelous and generous resource to all of us for his knowledge and also many high quality recordings. He financially supported (with others) for the preservation of those recordings many years ago, in many OTR fans collections already without fanfare or attribution. I hope we can have another visit again!

Enjoy!

Updated status, missing single-performance episodes. Now have copies of all of the scripts for these.

Updated data on how many of the Robson episodes were repeats.

Thanks greybelt for all the work you put into making these shows more enjoyable for all of us. We appreciate it.

Tom