Suspense Upgrades

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

These recordings are upgrades from about 2 years ago. The AFRS recording is much better than the network one and worth a listen. It had circulated in bad sound, and it's one of the recordings that was on the reels being transferred.

Dick Powell and William Spier always wanted to work together but schedules and commitments never really meshed. They had a very positive collaboration in summer of 1945 on Bandwagon Mysteries, the summer replacement for Fitch Bandwagon. The Richard Rogue character was introduced then in Rogue's Gallery. (No recordings have ever surfaced). They nearly worked on a regular season of RG but Spier was busy developing Sam Spade. The plans for the hour-long Suspense included an adaptation of Powell's film Pitfall, but that all collapsed months before any of those plans could be realized. They finally get to work on Slow Burn.

Suspense_1950-02-23_Slow_Burn_wDickPowell UPGRADE-3 (patched PSA at 29m25s).mp3
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Suspense_1950-02-23_Slow_Burn_wDickPowell AFRS#312 complete UPGRADE-3.mp3
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A wrong driving maneuver and all of the plans for Powell could have ended in a vehicle accident just three weeks before the broadcast.



I'm surprised but I get this question more often than I thought. "How many sponsors did Suspense have?" and then cite Parliament and other such advertisers. There were only two sponsors, Roma and Auto-Lite.

Parliament was not a sponsor of the program, they just bought air time that was sold to them. Roma and Auto-Lite were sponsors because they bankrolled the entire productions from beginning to end. Both were happy in the beginning of the relationships, but the post-WW2 wine market was bad as people were spending money on other things, and Roma felt there were less expensive venues for their ads to get the same results for a lot less money. They attempted to cancel in early 1947 but winning the Peabody Award (announced in April 1947, mainly for Dead Ernest broadcast in 1946) got them to re-up for 13 more weeks twice. Winning the award did nothing for their sales, so they bailed.

Auto-Lite's deal included the Suspense TV series, and they ended the contract in 1954, surprising CBS. Both series had big budgets compared to other series. Auto-Lite had a difficult year in 1954, felt that it was too expensive to continue for what they got. The company began to rely less on consumer purchases and more on selling direct to the auto manufacturers.

From there on, CBS ad sales were to individual advertisers to just buy time on shows and not to bankroll programs. Those ad buys were bundles, and usually covered multiple programs in contracts of comparatively short duration.


The eBay seller who offered the home aircheck recordings on paper tape of Suspense episodes withdrew the offering and has now reposted The Rescue and now a new tape Strange for a Killer. If anyone has interest in pursuing either of these in some manner, please private message me.

The story of this first one was told a few weeks ago. We have a clean AFRS recording of The Rescue and the first 20 min of the network broadcast. At its offering price that makes it $42.50/min for the last 10 minutes of the network broadcast. I'm surprised no Jimmy Stewart fan has picked it up. It is pricey, but often celebrity fans put high values on things, but this may be too much for them.
The Rescue, now $425 (when first posted it was $450, then dropped to $395, and then pulled; it has now reappeared at this price).
The flip side is an uncirculated Bergen & McCarthy
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This is the new one, Strange for a Killer. The script was done 3x, 1951, 1955, and 1958. This is the 1951-03-15 starring Van Johnson. The only recording for which we have related to this broadcast is the drama recording only from 1951-03-03 before it became edited into the full production for broadcast. There is no AFRS recording of this episode. The sample of the recording, the 30 seconds of the opening sounds very good for a home recording. The flip side is a Hallmark Playhouse with Johnson that is in circulation.
Strange for a Killer, $595
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Both are still "buy it now" with no bidding.

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

This is a repeat of 1943-06-01 and 1944-08-03. Pit and the Pendulum with James Mason was originally planned; it is possible that "Crime Without Passion" was considered.

Suspense_1950-03-09_Banquo'sChair_wJamesMason UPGRADE-2.mp3
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The AFRS version (#321) was posted over the last year.
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If you want to hear the opening of the 1951 Strange, for a Killer, the eBay seller has posted a clip of it at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
It's for sale for $595. If anyone here has interest, please private message me.

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Hi Greybelt thank you as always for the upgrades and the always fascinating background detail.

Thanks also for the brief explanation of the Blue Hours Suspense series which seemed to have disappeared without trace or comment, and which is awfully confusing to follow as they keep re-releasing and re-releasing the same episodes with big gaps in the numbering! I'm glad they are still going. The last 'new' ones I had seen on Soundcloud were number 71 The Hangman Won't Wait in August 2019 and then number 140 Ex Astris in February 2020. I hope there are more to come and will keep checking.

They were also playing the Blue Hours Suspense series on KIXI after the new Imagination Theatre episodes every Saturday night, but they were not new Suspense episodes last time I listened. I haven't listened for a while as the KIXI stream is 'geo-locked' to the US so it's quite tricky for me to set it up and listen not being in the US, and as you can buy the Imagination Theatre shows and listen to Suspense online there was no need anymore!

Today's posting is an upgrade of the network broadcast of The Chain that has not been upgraded for more than 10 years. We recently posted an upgrade of the AFRS recording. Whenever Moorehead appeared, the CBS publicity department went into high gear. There are always more newspaper clippings for her appearances than others.

Suspense_1950-04-27_TheChain_wAgnesMoorehead UPGRADE-4.mp3
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AFRS version
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These are new clippings...

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's recording has not been updated for three years. The script is by Shirley Gordon, a writer for Radio-TV Life magazine. As best as I can tell, this is her first script, and it was followed by Death Parade a year later, with further scripts for The Whistler, On Stage, and other series.

Suspense_1950-05-04_Statement_of_Mary_Blake_wJoanBennett UPGRADE-3.mp3
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There is an AFRS recording acquired 9+ years ago... it's in bad shape
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These clippings are new...

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

This episode, Angel Face, was delayed twice, originally planned for 1950-03-30 with Ginger Rogers and then 1950-04-06, a week later. Finally, here it is with Claire Trevor. Spier previously used the script on Philip Morris Playhouse on 1948-11-07 with Lucille Ball; no recording has survived.

Rogers would eventually appear in Vamp Til Dead 1951-01-11, her only Suspense performance.

Suspense_1950-05-18_AngelFace_wClaireTrevor UPGRADE-3.mp3
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These clippings are new...

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

This is an upgrade of a file posted 5 years ago.

Suspense_1950-06-01_ACaseOfNerves_wEdwardGRobinson UPGRADE-3.mp3
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AFRS version was posted 6 years ago
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One of those strange AFRTS versions from the late 1970s / early 1980s
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These clippings are new...

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's episode has not been upgraded for 11 years. The script was originally used on 1948-12-24 Philip Morris Playhouse and starred Michael O'Shea.

Suspense_1950-06-22_TheOneMillionthJoe_wJackCarson UPGRADE-2.mp3
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These clippings are new...



There was a broadcast the prior week that I'd love to hear: Deadline with Broderick Crawford. It still eludes us. Originally planned for a live broadcast, it was recorded in advance 12 days before on a Saturday night. The script shows the revision from attributing "editing" to "transcribed" to Spier.

The script cover shows the production staff and cast arriving in that evening and the rehearsals and recording beginning at 7pm, scheduled to end at Midnight. And then who knows what happened after that! Crawford was supposedly a party animal.

Music staff arrived on the day of the broadcast and supplied its contribution to the broadcast on that June 15th day with rehearsals and timing beginning at 2:30pm. Hmmm... maybe that Saturday after-party was less raucous than imagined without the musicians to assist...

Thanks greybelt
Best regards

Art

This was last upgraded 3 years ago. We've never been able to find a rich version of this -- they've all been on the tinny side. Since this is from one of the old reels that have been processed from near-original sources, the recordings seem to be that way for decades. It would be nice if an AFRS version would pop up.

We're into the Elliott Lewis years now, and it just so happens that this is the first script by Antony Ellis who would become Suspense producer after Lewis leaves shortly after Auto-Lite departs. Norman Macdonnell picked up the pieces for a few months before Ellis took over.

I've had a love-hate relationship with the Lewis years. Auto-Lite was sponsoring the TV series, so that was going in one direction, with Lewis not really involved. The radio audience was starting to migrate to TV if their cities even had the service, and the habit of radio listening was starting to break down. Lewis had to be a bit creative, and he did try to get the variety of programs and approaches to be a bit different. Some of them fell flat. The idea of using current news or historical events as springboards for Suspense was started in conjunction with Auto-Lite and its ad agency around the second year of Lewis' stewardship. They believed it would make Suspense more relevant and not just a collection of pure fiction short stories adapted for audio that leveraged Hollywood glamour and notoriety. In that way, Suspense started to differentiate itself from radio's typical offerings and give TV watchers a reason to keep the radio on. While the star power of Suspense was constrained, there were still stars on the the program, but the publicity hubub around an appearance was considerably reduced. Appearing on Suspense was no longer necessary for one's career advancement or to show one's range of acting ability that were otherwise masked by prominent comedic or musical prowess. The next stage for such career enhancement would not occur until later in the decade with TV's Playhouse 90 where comedians like Ed Wynn could take serious roles (Requiem for a Heavyweight) and cast their opportunities in other directions.

The Lewis productions feel very uneven, though they are techically superb with the advent of tape recording and editing. In one sense, Suspense is becoming experimental in the spirit of Columbia Workshop. Enjoy the ones you can. Even bad Suspense is better than most series.

Suspense_1950-09-14_OverTheBoundingMain_wDanDailey UPGRADE-2.mp3
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These clippings are new...

Yeah, that's pretty much my feeling about this era of the show. "Tonight, a story based on actual events" is practically a guarantee that half an hour of boredom is to follow.

And that's funny in itself since EVERY radio writer I ever met or read about devoured newspaper stories (at a time when big cities had multiple papers and they'd often get all of them, morning and evening). They especially liked police reports, which gave them "fresh" plotlines and curious circumstances... meaning that they often produced scripts "based on actual events"... to break their writer's block or get a new idea... all along...

Thanks greybelt
Best regards
Art

Today's recording has not been upgraded in about two and a half years. It's Rave Notice with Uncle Miltie. He was in his surge of TV popularity at the time. So little programming was available in many areas that his program often reached more than 90% of the viewing audience. He was a radio veteran, starting with the Rudy Vallee program and eventually getting his own comedy program. But as for drama, this was another Suspense cast against type.

The drama portion was recorded on the afternoon of Friday, July 21... Suspense had been off the air for summer break for three weeks and everyone came back into the studio for the session. Berle also recorded a tease for the episode that was played at the end of October 5's Rose Garden.

Suspense_1950-10-12_Rave_Notice_wMiltonBerle UPGRADE-5.mp3
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A little over a year ago we posted a KNX aircheck... it's not as good a recording as this one, but it feeds the completist instinct...
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These clips are new...

Thanks greybelt

Best regards

Art

Today's post is one of the most popular of Suspense broadcasts, On a Country Road, a one-hit wonder script that is still very highly regarded. It was written by Walter Bazar, a journalism student at Columbia University, penning the script when he was 23. He did not follow it up with any others but instead became a successful government and science news reporter, mainly for the New York Journal-American. Despite the broadening of archives of newspapers.com, there are no signs of Walter Bazar the reporter anywhere. The New York Journal-American ended operations in 1966, and that's where all of the newspaper references to Bazar end. Bazar made a mark early in his career, and won an award in 1957. His reports about the early US space program appeared in newspapers around the country. Bazar would appear as a questioner on some TV interview panels while he was at the Journal-American. It might be the case, however, that his journalism career ended with the NYJA demise.


There's a little bit more information at a prior post
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Suspense_1950-11-16_On_A_Country_Road_wCaryGrant UPGRADE-3.mp3
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These AFRS/AFRTS versions were posted previously
AFRS
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AFRTS Mystery Theater
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These clippings are new...


On a Country Road also made it to the Suspense television series, season 3, episode 29 on 1951-03-13. The TV version was no stranger to cast changes, either. It was supposed to star Hume Cronyn, but John Forsythe replaced him as co-star to Mildred Natwick. She starred in the experimental CBS TV broadcast of Sorry, Wrong Number in 1945 that was seen only in the New York City area. She was in the radio broadcast of Furnished Floor on 1945-09-13, her only radio appearance on the series, but she was in 11 of the TV broadcasts.
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I had posted the YouTube link to the episode before, but that link no longer works. This one does, for now...
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The story still inspires productions... One of them is a short film (18 min) that was released in 2014 and played at some regional film festivals.
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Watch the whole movie [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
...watch it for $1, buy it for $5 with director commentary

Thanks greybelt

Best regards
Art

This program has not been upgraded for more than 9 years.

Suspense_1950-11-23_GoingGoingGone_wOzzie&HarrietNelson UPGRADE-2.mp3
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These clippings are new...