Suspense Upgrades

Today's episode is a missing east or west program that is not in as good sound as the one we've always had. Its discovery in the reel transfers let the C3DS do their work in determining the origin of the AFRS recording...

... but that led to the question... do broadcast flubs give us a clue whether something is east or west? Details follow...

Suspense_1945-12-20_DoubleEntry_wKeenanWynn-HumeCronyn (dir to ID).mp3
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The official C3DS report was delivered to the Cobaltian High Office by a white-gloved agent (they were polishing the silverware again and were on break when they finally walked it up to the Suspense desk hours after they received it)

AFRS version is identical to the 6 seconds to ID network recording as Hume Cronyn has a bit of difficulty with one word in one of the recordings:
direct to ID at 25:56 “I’d never sleep again if I escaped scot-free”
6 seconds to ID at 25:39 “I’d never sssssleep again if I escaped scot-free”
AFRS at 22:53 “I’d never sssssleep again if I escaped scot-free.”

There was a scuffle in the C3DS locker room over how many "s" should be in "sssssleep" in their final report. It looked like it could get really nasty, but one of the supervisors stepped in, and asked them to pronounce "sssssleep" and "ssssssleep" and no one could tell the difference. Cooler heads prevailed and everyone shook hands and made up.

Both of these were recently posted. The 6sec network recording is the best of all of them

Suspense_1945-12-20_DoubleEntry_wKeenanWynn-HumeCronyn (6sec to ID) UPGRADE-4.mp3
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Suspense_1945-12-20_DoubleEntry_wKeenanWynn-HumeCronyn AFRS#134 wNOISE REDUCT.MP3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; these are new...



Is the correct reading during a west broadcast the result of extra practice from the earlier east broadcast? Or is it the east reading that's correct because it was performed before they went out to "dinner" to kill time for the west broadcast? Makes you wonder what kind of leash there was on the cast to ensure nothing unforeseen happened between broadcasts or that they could get back in plenty of time for the second performance. Was there a commissary where they all congregated in the KNX building? Did they bring McDonalds in for everyone? (It was Paul Frees who never said "I'm not eating anything that hasn't been invented yet.")

But seriously, what did they do between the Roma east and west broadcasts? Did they bring catering in? I figured that Keith Scott would know since he had so many conversations with the actors when he visited the states in the 1970s and 1980s. He said...

As far a as I know there were two places they hung. One was the restaurant in KNX, Brittingham’s Restaurant in the CBS courtyard, the other was the Key Club, across the street. Many of the guests at SPERDVAC recalled that the West repeat was always a bit looser because people back then would drink Martinis. Some were able to take it, had a good tolerance, but other performers might get a bit tipsy which could affect a performance. I’d love to know the real story. If it was three hours it was plenty of time to have a solid dinner and maybe a couple of drinks. I can only imagine that the majority were professionals who kept a watch on their intake knowing they had to give a performance later. Everyone met there. It was the big radio hangout.

Google has some of the secrets about the restaurant....

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The blog mentions Elizabeth Short, one of the victims of serial killer George Hodel. It is claimed he was nefariously inspired by the Suspense broadcast The White Rose Murders of July 6, 1943.

Many pictures in this blogpost
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Brittingham’s would be referred to as "the commissary" by workers and performers because it was in the KNX building. This means that this is the likely place where Welles and Spier would meet and conspire to add his "gas attendant" role to Ava Gardner's Suspense performance Lady in Distress of May 1, 1947, just hours before the broadcast.

The Key Club was the lounge section of a restaurant that was close to NBC's radio studios, not exactly across the street from KNX, but not far in taxi distance. Less that 4 miles away from KNX at Columbia Square, it was probably too far to go between Suspense performances, but that never stopped someone with a singleminded focus on consuming what they considered the best Martini in their preference. They may not have gone there when working on Suspense, but I'm sure all those freelance radio pros were quite familiar with the menu.
Pictures and other details are at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and also at
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The name "The Key Club" would be used by another club in the 1960s where rock acts like The Doors would appear, and had no relation to the original restaurant.

Glenhall Taylor, in his book Before Television, notes that the only time he saw entertainer Frank Morgan flub a line was when dress rehearsal went long and Frank could not get to The Key Club for his pre-show Martini. All the other times, he would have flawless performances with one and possible two of the noted cocktail before airtime.

So... we're still left with the question... are flubs the indicator of the east broadcast because of nervousness and unfamiliarity or are flubs a marker of the west broadcast because of the effects of adult lubrication? We'll never know. But we have suspicions.

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Thanks, greybelt. I've also wondered what everyone did between the east and west broadcasts.

Today's episode is the third time this script was produced. It is a repeat of 1943-03-02 (missing) and 1943-12-09. Return Trip was the originally scheduled script for this date with Keenan Wynn; it was held and broadcast at the end of June with Elliott Reid.

This new recording is for completists, but the other recordings are reposted here. It is a home recording where there has been some editing, likely for flipping the dictation discs. Those discs were small and did not hold much on each side. The time between the last announcement and the CBS ID is not in the recording, but dialogue matches the surviving network recording. The network recording is in much better sound. The AFRS recording is from the missing network recording. We don't know the intended coast of the recordings. We were hoping that the home recording would be the other network recording. Foiled again.

Suspense_1946-04-18_TheNightReveals HOME RECORDING.mp3
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This is the clean network recording posted in the last year...
Suspense_1946-04-18_TheNightReveals_wKeenanWynn (direct to ID) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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The official C3DS report documents the secret origin of the AFRS recording

The AFRS recording is sourced from the missing network recording.
22:18 AFRS dialogue is "She even tried to give me sleeping pills...."
26:34 network is "She even tried to g-give me sleeping pills..."
the home recording matches the surviving network broadcast, with certain sections edited out

This AFRS was first posted 9 years ago...
Suspense_1946-04-18_TheNightReveals_wKeenanWynn AFRS#151 (FROM DISC).mp3
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Newspaper clips for Return Trip for this date were posted previously; no newspaper clippings were available for Night Reveals. This indicates the script by the time the script was settled there was not enough time to send out updated publicity. Wynn was announced as the upcoming guest in the prior week show but no title was announced.


Keith Scott added some information about the between-show hangout for the east-west broadcasts. His conversations with actors decades ago indicated that there was a Key Club nearby the NBC studios, in very close walking distance from KNX, but I can't get any information from searches or photos. Still working on it. The true Key Club was a taxi ride away, but people do have nicknames for places they go, and that may be some of the confusion. Whatever the case, these are places they'd frequent to talk about the business and grouse about life and other topics. The fraternity of radio performers was always something to see at OTR conventions and it was these kinds of things like where they would hang out that brought them closer together.

Some of Keith's information about the hangouts came from Paul Frees. Ben Ohmart wrote a bio of Frees and interviewed Keith. When Keith had conversations with Frees over the years, Frees would always do the voices of the other people in the stories he told. So imagine the paragraph in the review of the book [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] that is about Frees and Lionel Barrymore being told to Keith with Frees doing Barrymore's voice. What a blessing that was for Keith to have heard that and to have known Frees the way he did.

The vintage pictures in this blogpost show the proximity of the studios, making it all walkable...
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More Hehn stuff has been posted. Yesterday I put up some YTJD 5-parters that are AFRS versions. The 6-part Kranesburg Matter was edited down to 5 parts by the AFRS! It is detailed and deciphered on the page.
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For years, early collectors had only these AFRS versions of a few 5-parters and they were in bad sound. These have been processed to be much better. There are a few stray episodes that still need to be posted but these are the only complete 5-episode stories in the Hehn collection.
The network 5-parters did not come out until the late 1970s and were in superior sound. Early collectors did not take YTJD seriously -- think about it -- if they started collecting in 1967, YTJD was just five years ago... so it couldn't have been from the golden age of radio! I did not realize how deep the feeling was until I saw the lack of YTJD from the end of its run these tape collections. It made sense -- even late era Suspense and Gunsmoke were missing.

It was the later collectors who had access to the better sounding 5-parters who grew to appreciate YTJD and especially Bob Bailey. Today, 5-part YTJD is the favorite series on the SiriusXM RadioClassics channel. The original collectors would be quite surprised... and would most likely love it as much as we do after they heard them in high quality sound without the hum and the hiss and speed problems (most of this AFRS batch was 8% fast!).

(This note will be posted on the YTJD thread later today or tomorrow)

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

We got a new recording in the reel transfers of the 1946 The Man Who Thought He was Edward G. Robinson performance, the only script by Lesley Raddatz, a worker in the CBS press department. He became a well known media writer for TV Guide and Variety. I have no clue why the title changed to Man Who Wanted to be Edward G. Robinson for its September 1948 performance.

This is a "new" east coast version that had fallen out of circulation
Suspense_1946-10-17_ManWhoThoughtHeWas_wEGRobinson EC (11sec to ID).mp3
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Because of this find, we now know for certain that the AFRS version, first posted 8 years ago, is from the east version. The secret C3DS notebook, written in invisible ink and exposed by high intensity UV light says...

East 23:21 "I-I don't think we'll have to go-go through with it"
West 24:04 "I-I don't think we'll have to, uh, go through with it."
AFRS 20:14 "I-I don't think we'll have to go-go through with it."

Suspense_1946-10-17_ManWhoThoughtHeWas_wEGR EC AFRS #177 FROM DISC.mp3
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This version of the west broadcast was posted in the last year; it is the best sounding of the three versions
Suspense_1946-10-17_ManWhoThoughtHeWas_wEGRobinson WC (4sec to ID) UPGRADE-4.mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; here's a lot of new ones!

Today's recordings may be for completists. Can't We Be Friends was Elliott Lewis' first Suspense script. The original title was "Full Confession," and the new name may be a Spier revision. He liked the script, and he used it again on The Clock on 1948-04-15 when he was on hissy-fit hiatus from CBS during the hour format chaos. He cast Elliott and Cathy Lewis a lot on that series; few recordings survive from that ABC attempt to raise the stature of The Clock by hiring Spier and keep it on the air. His 13 weeks was the last of the series.

This is also the episode when Ken Niles becomes announcer; Bradley would be back in March 1947.

It's funny at the opening when Wally Maher plays a doctor and his name is ... Dr. Maher! Lots of doubling in here; according to Keith Scott's log Jerry Hausner plays Jack the “Vout” kid, the tenant, and a baby crying! Bill Johnstone (the best Shadow ever in my mind) is the signature for Suspense in the episode, the man in the elevator, and old man Epstein!

The best recording of the surviving network disc has scratch from the edge. Today's recording has little detectable scratch but is of lesser quality. Suppressing the scratch in audio processing may have dulled the rest of the recording.

Suspense_1946-07-25_Can'tWeBeFriends_wELewis (no scratch at open) 20s LESSER Q.mp3
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This is an upgrade of the AFRTS Mystery Theater disc recording that Ian Grieve found in Australia in 2014. I decided to reprocess the original file this morning and it's a lot cleaner now. AFRTS production sped up the drama portion to fit their time limit. It's an upgrade.

This recording matches the surviving network recording. We don't know which coast it is from.

Suspense_1946-07-25 Can't We Be Friends AFRTSMysteryTheater#154 (RU-14-4_1-T-LB) UPGRADE.mp3
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This was posted over the last year, and it sounds best of the three files except for the problem with the opening disc scratch
Suspense_1946-07-25_Can'tWeBeFriends_wElliottLewis (some disc scratch during open) 20s UPGRADE-2.mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; these are new.

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

In today's episode, Dame Fortune Susan Hayward sings! Almost... “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” is actually the then-Mrs.-Spier, performer Kay Thompson. Yes, she appears in the Suspense background again... at this time next year things will be quite different. Bill would be in a relationship with soon-to-be wife June Havoc and Kay would be in Vegas establishing residence there for the divorce while developing what would become the prototypical Vegas evening show. But that's a year from now...

Suspense_1946-10-24_DameFortune_wSusanHayward AFRS (from dir to ID) UPGRADE-2.mp3
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These are the two network recordings
from two years ago
Suspense_1946-10-24_DameFortune_wSusanHayward (2sec to ID) UPGRADE-4.mp3
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from over this last year
Suspense_1946-10-24_DameFortune_wSusanHayward (direct to ID) UPGRADE.mp3
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The C3DS folder (the one with the coffee stains that mysteriously appeared on my desk yesterday and had "Damn Fortune" crossed out on the index tab; I need to have a word with that group because there speling is atroshis and there is stuff you just can't say on radio...) ... where were we... oh... this episode's notes say...

The AFRS version is derived from the direct to ID version
Direct to ID 2:05 in the network copy, someone says "encore, encore" after Thompson sings "I've Got You Under My Skin."
In the AFRS version it is at 1:13
2 second to ID version does not have the "encore" dialogue.

Newspaper clippings were posted previously... this is a new one

This is one of my more favorite Suspense episodes. It's a Lucille Fletcher script and it stars one of Spier's longest radio relationships... with Joseph Cotten. He starred on Suspense 18 times the way I count it; Moorehead starred 33 times. It made me realize... I've never counted the performances of the big stars. I suspect Cotten is the most frequent male star before Auto-Lite pulled the plug and our beloved radio specialists took over. But in the Hollywood star era I guess Herbert Marshall would be the other one with numbers of appearances that might even exceed Cotten's.

Today's main attraction is a missing west coast recording of Thing in the Window and its appearance allowed the verification of the AFRS source recording (east). Of the three recordings, the east recording sounds best, but this west one is close to it. The AFRS is a good disc copy but the AFRS engineers often narrowed the range of the audio, and that seems to be the case here.

Suspense_1946-12-19_ThingInThe_Window_wJosephCotten WC (no mention FBIiP&W).mp3
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Suspense_1946-12-19_ThingInThe_Window_wJosephCotten EC (mentions FBIiP&W at end) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Suspense_1946-12-19_ThingInThe_Window_wJosephCotten AFRS#187 FROM DISC.mp3
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The official C3DS commentary...

The AFRS recording is derived from the east coast broadcast.
East 25:32 Cotten says "I, the insignificant, outmoded ham who wouldn't---wasn't fit to appear in your precious plays."
AFRS 23:22 same dialogue

Newspaper clippings were posted previously... these are new...


Magee Adams was a major syndicated radio critic. He was not as unlikable as the other major critic of the era, John Crosby. Ten days after this broadcast, Adams commented that the ending of Thing in the Window was not appropriate for younger listeners.


This made me wonder... did Adams ever complain about the ending of Sorry, Wrong Number and what a downer it was, ending with a murder? Surely that was not for young ears. Not a word. In fact, through the 1950s and into the early 1960s, Adams kept using SWN as the benchmark of compelling radio drama productions that others should aspire to! (btw he did really like Radio City Playhouse and Jan Minor's performance in Long Distance... and said it was comparable to SWN!; so he's not just using SWN in comparing Suspense episodes with each other, but also to episodes of other series.)

Hey, Magee... put this together...
Suspense + Lucille Fletcher script = a chance for another downer ending,
you know, the kind that made SWN generate such buzz in its time, the kind you liked so much.

He's still not sloppy like John Crosby, but if he is inconsistent with his criticism he should be more definitive as to the criteria for judging such scripts.


The hubiC links for Can't We Be Friends are now in that post from the other day. Since hubiC's services are no longer available for consumer cloud storage and they are focusing on other businesses, they occasionally take their cloud resources offline for maintenance. No big deal.

That reel with The Rescue and the Burning Court discs offered by that eBay seller have been removed. The seller removed ALL of their offerings, in fact. What may be happening is that they will be reposted with new prices. We'll see....

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's episode is One Way Street which is a funny name because there are multiple different copies of the program. We have an existing network, an upgraded AFRS which is the new recording today, and a 1980s AFRTS recording... and a Suspense-AFRS mystery!

Suspense_1947-01-23_One_Way_Street_wRoddyMcDowell AFRS UPGRADE.mp3
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This upgrade to the network recording was posted over the last year
Suspense_1947-01-23_One_Way_Street_wRoddyMcDowell (2sec to ID) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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This is one of those awful 1980 AFRTS recordings and it is drawn from the surviving network recording! This is an oddity for sure because today's AFRS recording is from the MISSING NETWORK but the AFRTS recording is from the SURVIVING NETWORK! Why the difference? All we know is that the AFRS had it somewhere in their files. They usually match the prior AFRS recordings, and this one doesn't.
These 1980s recordings are so disturbing with their editing of opens and closes and hacked introductions that I keep them in a separate folder so they don't fraternize with the other recordings. They have bad habits and a special curfew and need to report to their probation officer regularly. It's a low encode recording because it drank coffee when it was a kid and it stunted its growth.
Suspense_1947-01-23_One_Way_Street_wRoddyMcDowell AFRTS 1980s.mp3
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Here's the top secret C3DS report that was acquired under the Freedom of Information Act...

The only network recording has at 1:55 "The only home I've had since..."
The AFRS recording is from the other coast broadcast because the dialogue at 1:08 is "The only home I've ever known since..."
The 1980s AFRTS recording is from the only network recording we have because the dialogue at 1:36 "The only home I've had since..." matches it; the surviving network recording is 2 sec to ID

Newspaper clippings were posted previously... these are new...



This is an interesting clipping about the episode The Thirteenth Sound. I don't remember if I posted this previously, but I stumbled on it again yesterday.



The eBay listings of the paper tape recording of The Rescue and the discs of The Burning Court have been removed. It is likely they will be re-listed as the seller has done that before.

This is an upgrade to a file posted in the last year. The item after this is really really interesting in showing the difference between east and west...

Suspense_1947-04-17_GreenEyedMonster_wLloydNolan (3sec to ID) UPGRADE-4.mp3
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This was posted over the last year and had fallen out of circulation but was found again in the transferred reels
Suspense_1947-04-17_GreenEyedMonster_wLloydNolan (1sec to ID).mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously... these are new...



I recently stumbled on this news clip that relates two incidents where sound effects did not work on Suspense according to Bill Spier...


This was one of those "evergreen" press releases that CBS would send out. It was published in newspapers around the country, surprisingly, with every word intact. The earliest it was published in a paper was April 3, 1947, and the latest I saw in some papers in June 1947.

The second incident in the clip is about Three Faces at Midnight from 1947-02-24 and it turns out it can be documented! The Cobalt Dialogue Difference Detection Squad (C3DS, aka lasombra and chasedad) were on it. Chasedad reported this back, and I have edited:

It occurred in the east coast version when the gun misfires at 16:44 when Wally Maher shoots Hans Conried, the gun "click" without firing is not audible but Conried plays for time and draws out his begging and pleading and starts to trail off a bit just before the gun finally fires;
in the west coast broadcast at 16:50 the gun fires on cue and Conried's pleading builds to a crescendo as the shot is fired

I listened to the programs and clipped the audio of the scene even further. This is the link to the file that has the clip of the scenes from East followed by West
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If you click on the link you can download the little file or play it within Icedrive by clicking "open" and then the "play" arrow. It's about 10 seconds, of which 3-5 seconds is from the east broadcast of Conried buying time for one of the guns to finally do what it was supposed to.

Conried was such a pro. This is where his deep and broad stage experience really comes through to adapt to situations in performances as they happen without flailing about and in a very convincing way.

Back when I had a real job and I had hair and such, and it seemed that corporate life was my professional destiny, the company's ad manager told me he had pursued an acting career years earlier. One of his pleasures was a summer in a traveling play with Conried. Stupid stuff would happen on stage and the players would have to turn away from the audience to hide their laughter, but not Conried. Conried would get a knowing glint in his eye but he would hold his expression and not lose the moment... and then they'd all crack up about it when they got off stage. He said that summer was one of the most incredible times he had as a struggling actor... before he decided to become a struggling ad manager instead. Some might say that ad manager job was his best acting performance ever. Did I just say that? But I digress...

It is really amazing that we can find this news item and then actually verify it, almost 75 years later!

As far as the other story goes, with the missed gunshot and the line "I'll use a knife" is the kind often told by a party or a convention guest. It could be one of those "showbiz stories" that everyone tells each other decades later. But we have something to listen for in the pre-April 1947 shows now, don't we?! Lasombra remembers hearing it at a SPERDVAC meeting decades ago but does not remember where or when... yet...


Three Faces at Midnight is in various newspapers before broadcast as

I always wonder how much of these small inconsistencies are from bad handwriting at CBS that was not caught by proofreaders, or was bad proofreading of typing mistakes. They may also be problems at the newspapers with Linotype operators not keying properly or taking editing into their own hands or the editor of the radio page not getting something right. When you see one mistake in one paper, you can easily figure that it was a mistake by that paper. But when those differences are in multiple papers in the same way, you have to think that the problem originated in CBS publicity.

It's in hunting these things down that you accidentally find other items here and there that capture the attention and illuminate some fact or situation that you were never expecting to find... like this one!

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Thanks, greybelt. I enjoyed hearing about the sound effect fails!

These are upgrades of recently posted items. The original titles of "Win, Place, and Death" and "Win, Place, or Murder" as well as the final one can be found in multiple newspapers. No other comments today...

Suspense_1947-04-24_Win_Place_and_Murder_wRichardConte EC (mentions FBIiP&W) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Suspense_1947-04-24_Win_Place_and_Murder_wRichardConte WC (no FBIiP&W) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; no new ones.


Posted some Hehn stuff yesterday -- and I think the write-ups are pretty good.

Cabin B-13
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The Diary of Fate
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Diary of Fate reminds me of the old mother-in-law joke about mixed feelings being "seeing my mother-in-law drive over a cliff in my new Cadillac"...  and it applies as "I have Diary of Fate in great sound" creating an obligation to listen. Or maybe it's that restaurant joke of a conversation between two people "The food at that restaurant is bad" and the response is "yeah, and the portions are small."

This is an upgrade of the east broadcast of Lady in Distress with Ava Gardner. Then boyfriend Orson Welles was hurriedly written into the script by Spier himself as they all sat in Brittingham's before the final rehearsal. Welles would be a gas station attendant! It happens at about the 15 minute mark. Clippings about the aftermath of the amusing event were posted previously.

Suspense_1947-05-01_Lady_In_Distress_wAGardner (OWelles@15min) EC (mentions FBIiP&W) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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This west upgrade was posted a few months ago
Suspense_1947-05-01_Lady_In_Distress WC (no FBIiP&W, no Cresta Blanca comml) UPGRADE.mp3
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No new newspaper clippings have been found.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's recordings are the east and west of the 1947 repeat script from 1944, A Thing of Beauty... we just don't know which is which. This is from a brief period of time when Elliott Lewis is doing some of the announcing... and it just doesn't work out. It seems he's trying not to be him, and putting on his radio announcer voice instead. One version has him flubbing the salutation "Miss" coming out of the mid-show commercial with "Mitch" in that one and getting it right in the other.

The intrepid C3DS documented this and another difference..

2 sec to ID
1:52 "And I want you to meet her without prejudice." (thunder effect OVER the words "without prejudice"
15:07 Lewis after commercial says “Mitch Angela Lansbury”

direct to ID
1:55 "And I want you to meet her without prejudice." thunder effect AFTER the word "prejudice"
15:17 after commercial Lewis says “Miss Angela” correctly

Suspense_1947-05-29_A_Thing_of_Beauty (Lewis 15m17s 'Miss Angela') (dir to ID).mp3
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Suspense_1947-05-29_A_Thing_of_Beauty (Lewis 15m7s 'Mitch Angela') (2sec to ID) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; this one is new...

Today's file is an upgraded of the east coast version of Stand-In with June Havoc. It has not been upgraded in four years.

Suspense_1947-06-12_Stand_In_wJuneHavoc EC (mentions FBIiP&W) UPGRADE.mp3
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The west coast version was posted four years ago
Suspense_1947-06-12_Stand_In_wJuneHavoc WC (no mention FBIiP&W).mp3
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Newspaper clippings were posted previously; these are new...


You never know where new information will come from... Newspapers.com is always adding to their archives and I believe they have made some big strides in the scanning and optical character recognition that makes their search engines work. The combination has helped identify many new items. These two items are from a small paper in the Malibu area and the column is by actress Dorothy Morris written in the form of a letter to her sister back east. The comments about Spier and Havoc, now officially a couple since the separation from Kay Thompson and the pending divorce, provide some insights into the very important trip to New York that relocated Suspense and Sam Spade there for three weeks, and had Havoc in a play in Connecticut. There has always been suspicion that Havoc appeared uncredited in at least one of those Suspense episodes. The appearance the Morris is referring to in the first clip is today's episode, Stand-In.

As for the number of scripts that Spier says he goes through, 1000 to find 4, that's probably an exaggeration, but I know they were really, really choosy. Robert Richards played a key role in selecting the scripts and making them work. A lot of what Spier and Richards got were plot outlines that were good with bad scripts as part of them. Richards was skillful at making those kinds of things work if the underlying story had promise.

But what happened to the rejected scripts? They'd go back to the people who submitted them, but I wonder if Spier had a "not good for Suspense" pile that other producers and staff let other shows peruse.

Today's recordings are upgrades of east and west; no AFRS version has been found.

Smiley with Elliott Reid was originally scheduled for this date, but that was held until mid-August for Donald O'Connor. It's not sure if it was held because it wasn't coming together in rehearsal or editing or if it was a better fit for O'Connor than Reid. O'Connor may not have been booked when the publicity for the originally planned Smiley production was sent to newspapers. The prior week's broadcast announced Reid as the upcoming guest but did not offer a title of this week's broadcast.

At approximately 16:40 east and 15:45 west Wally Maher's character is a cop named "Slugger Vanda." This was an inside joke for Charles Vanda who was directing, covering for Spier as he was traveling to New York for upcoming productions there. There were a few reasons for the trip, but it was mainly that Duff had to be in New York for the filming of Naked City. The Spade show was moved there and Suspense had to be moved, too. And then, of course, the ongoing issues with sponsorship and Roma's pending exit, and Spier having a chance to return to Connecticut and to see Havoc's play there.

Suspense_1947-06-19_DeadOfNight_wElliottReid EC (mentions FBIiP&W) UPGRADE-3.mp3
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Suspense_1947-06-19_DeadOfNight_wElliottReid WC (no mention FBIiP&W) UPGRADE-4.mp3
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Most of the newspaper listings had Elliott Reid mentioned as guest but no performance title. Nearly all of the ones with titles identify Smiley.

Only two clippings have been found with this episode described; this is the new one:

These are clippings that mention Smiley:

greybelt wrote:Smiley with Elliott Reid was originally scheduled for this date

Ted Reid was such a p*ss to hang with, and a pleasure to work with. It was sad, when he was noticeably fading mentally at his last FOTR, and then did not return.

greybelt wrote:but that was held until mid-August for Donald O'Connor. It's not sure if it was held because it wasn't coming together in rehearsal or editing or if it was a better fit for O'Connor than Reid. O'Connor may not have been booked when the publicity for the originally planned Smiley production was sent to newspapers.

No way to be sure, but I'd doubt that it was a rehearsal, or an O'Connor, problem - because prep time was so minimal. Usually, all in one day: Table Read/Mic Dress/Air.

I've read of movie stars flailing and being replaced by radio actors in Lux - but they rehearsed that for a week!

- Craig

greybelt wrote:Thing in the WindowThis is one of my more favorite Suspense episodes. It's a Lucille Fletcher script and it stars one of Spier's longest radio relationships... with Joseph Cotten. He starred on Suspense 18 times the way I count it; Moorehead starred 33 times.

(They were monikered, "The First Lady" and "The First Gentleman" of Suspense!)

I love Suspense, Fletcher, Spier, and Cotton. Wanted to love this ep. And it starts well!

But fizzles at the end.

- Craig

They usually started at 10:30 in the morning for the desk read. And then during the early afternoon the musicians and effects folks would arrive and then a "full dress" mid-to-late afternoon.

The actors had their scripts beforehand, and the guest stars would get it well beforehand often a week before. O'Connor was announced for "Billy the Kid" at the end of a program and then bailed saying the script wasn't right for him. They usually knew what scripts they were getting or the storyline when they signed. Lovejoy was rushed in some days before the broadcast.

Suzanne Peters was sent the wrong script two days before her broadcast and did not get the right script until she arrived that broadcast morning! (They Call Me Patrice)

The link to the west coast version of "Stand In" is the same as the East Coast version.