Suspense Upgrades

About a week ago, a missing Suspense was recreated at REPS in Bellevue, WA. The show was Deadline which originally starred Broderick Crawford and was broadcast on June 15, 1950.

This was toward the end of the season of William Spier's final involvement as the Suspense producer. During this season, Norman Macdonnell was the series director, likely picking up lots of insight that could be used on Escape and especially Gunsmoke.

The star of Deadline was Broderick Crawford, 39, a year after receiving an Oscar for All the King's Men. It was still in theaters at the time of this broadcast. This would eventually be considered the peak of his career. He would be very busy for Columbia Pictures for the next five years. That's when his starring role in Highway Patrol began.

Crawford was considered to be difficult to direct because of his tough living and drinking, especially during the TV series Highway Patrol. There were problems with his performing in certain scenes because of being hurt, or because of his size affecting his ability to get in and out of vehicles and helicopters. He also had a suspended license which sometimes limited driving sequences to private or closed roads. But he always found projects in movies and television well after its supposed "peak."

The scripts indicate that this Suspense episode was rehearsed and recorded on Saturday, June 3, 1950, from 7:00pm to Midnight.... a Saturday night... ending at midnight... really!!!... with Broderick Crawford and his advanced knowledge of adult beverage assessment.... you have to wonder what the afterparty was like. (Suspense was sometimes known for its parties).

The show was not live, likely being recorded on tape as well as using discs, so the risk of a problem of live performance was much lower. Crawford had been on radio before, so he knew what was at stake for Suspense but knew what was generally expected of any radio performer.

Something attracted Crawford to Spier. Perhaps it was the gritty, hard-nosed nature of his personality. Crawford's issues were likely known among insiders, and not the public, but Spier had to consider them manageable. It must have gone okay, because Crawford starred two more times under Elliott Lewis, in Dutch Schultz and Parole to Panic.

Below is a link to the recording of the recreation. Some of the recreations we have heard recently have had the benefit of prerecording and post-production work. This was performed live with few tools to make it a polished performance like those recreations. Be aware that some of the sfx cues are late. Be patient with it. It's hard to recreate Broderick Crawford, and I suspect the ending of the story was a bit more powerful when he did it. Suspense is a complex show in terms of music and effects, and is a challenge, especially for a script like this.

This is the basic storyline and the spoiler. You can certainly envision Crawford in this role.

A troubled Chicago paper realizes it has to find a way to survive and decides its path to increase circulation is to focus on crime stories. It would sensationalize them to capture more reader interest. The paper hired a new editor to do so. The editor hires a down-on-his-luck reporter in the process. There was no way this paper could outperform its bigger competitors so they make "a deal with the devil." They have a deal with a mob leader who will tip them off when something is about to break so they can be first on the scene. The mobster wants a quid pro quo: whenever the paper learns that the police will be after him, they'd give him the heads up.

The plan works, and then it backfires when the paper became so cocky in its process that they start writing the stories and put them on press before they happen. One of the stories doesn't play out the way they "reported" it, and now there's trouble, and the mobster will solve it the way mobsters do. There's only one way it can end. The editor decides to take one for the team, for good, and writes a final story that will get a big headline and big single copy sales. That story is never explicitly revealed but you realize it's the story about the mobster murdering the editor. As the editor leaves the office and says goodbye to everyone, he knows it's for the very last time and he's going straight into that trap.

Live recreations of an involved story like this are tough to do in any venue, but the REPS crew made a valiant effort for it. Perhaps a fuller production can be attempted in the future.

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Keith Scott and I did a panel about Suspense at the recent REPS. It was moderated by Larry and John Gassman. It has some episode clips and audience Q&A. Enjoy!

2022 REPS Showcase October 22 Suspense Panel with Joe Webb & Keith Scott
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Update...

The massive collection of reels and digital files that OTRR acquired has been yielding some very good rewards.

One of the most pleasant finds is 48 hour-long airchecks, mainly from WROW but a handful from KRLD (Dallas) spread from March 1959 through September 1962. The sound is very nice. These WROW recordings were made by the legendary Pat Rispole (RIP, 1979), who, thankfully, traded them aggressively with our hobby's early collectors.

There are many upgrades of Suspense, Whistler, YTJD, and others to sort through.

It is likely that I will not be making any new posts in a planned manner until January 1, 2023.

There have been so many upgrades over all these years that it might be a very good time to post all of the Suspense episodes. One way I'm considering is using a modified version of the Suspense calendar at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] With 944 episodes, if a daily post began on January 1, 2023, it would not be done until sometime in Fall 2025. But if the calendar was followed, it would take a year.

I need your help...

These collections and all of the upgrades over the past three years have been posted as mp3s, but I have also been archiving in FLAC. That file format is amazing. But there are many who cannot handle FLAC on their players (automobile CD players generally can't handle it and neither can other older equipment). I am aware of an OTR site that wants to use FLAC for streaming but has not been able to find a way for FLAC to stream from its servers. It's a matter of time before it works. In the meantime they're using high resolution mp3.

Posting in mp3 and FLAC is duplicate work. I'd like to post only in FLAC for the recordings I have in that format.

In a related matter, I have been getting help updating the file names and the metadata of each recording. More on that another time. It's a big effort!

I need your help... again...

I've posted a lot of background on all of these episodes. Because the forum software limits us to 40 pages (it goes to 45, then without warning takes the first 40 and locks them, and starts a new 5 page thread) there are multiple threads called "Suspense Upgrades."

The search engine in the forum, for whatever reason, does not work well. I could really use a log of the episode name and date and the web addresses of the posts associated with that episode.

I really do want to finish a new edition of the Suspense book, but as long as I have all these recordings to sort through, I've been choosing to do the recordings, so the book just sits. Help getting this organized would be incredibly appreciated.

That's it for now... I hope to announce the availability of the latest recreation of a missing episode, The Phantom Archer, very soon!

Yes, I do CDs filled with shows and podcasts at 32kps mp3s for my car then I listen and toss them when done. The car keeps better track of where I left off on something than I do

But as far as trading and such and for permanent storage... no, definitely not. I last bought 100-packs of CDs and DVDs two years ago and they're only half gone.

Which reminds me... I do have to update my overview of cloud services that I have done before Black Fridays. With supply chain issues subsiding, we may get to see some good deals on external drives this shopping season.

I got an 16TB for all these recent files for $240 on Amazon's "early prime" promotion a few weeks ago. It's now $300. I suspect there will be more deals like that coming up.

The 1TB you bought -- those have come down steadily and we have a few -- one for documents, one for photos, one for each computer system backup... they're great! And so easy to store or travel with.

I thought by now we'd see more usb thumb drive offerings of that size, but not yet. Amazon has one by PNY for $132, but most are closer to $200.

I was going through a file box where I keep some of my older backup drives -- I have a Fantom 500GB drive which feels like it weighs 3lb. How marvelously all this has changed!


One of our hobby's most generous collectors and skilled disc and reel transfer contributors is working on various projects and asked me to prioritize the backlog of some digital transfers. He sent back a funny note that found a pattern in my order of preference...
Sam Spade - murder
Inner Sanctum - murder
Suspense - probably murder
The Whistler - probably murder
Theater Guild - might be wholesome

I thought his list left out key details about critical differentiators of the various series...
Sam Spade - murder with puns and various shenanigans... and some booze here and there
Inner Sanctum - murder with preposterous circumstances and guilty consciences
Suspense - murder or threatened murder with great musical backgrounds
The Whistler - murder, facilitated by greed and envy, emphasis on immediate gratification through insurance and/or inheritance because outright theft would make it a generic cop show
Theater Guild - wholesome entertainment that everyone says they are really, really enthused about, but are afraid to admit they really don't like... but they enjoyed their nap

IT'S A JOKE from one of the fans of Masterpiece Mystery et al...

Fellow Cobaltians if you have not heard my podcast with wich2, it's a worthwhile listen!
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This is a Suspense thread, so don't tell anyone that I'm doing this, but this is a relatively rare Theater Guild with Bogie and Bacall, The Traitor. It's one of the rare times they performed drama together outside of Bold Venture.
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Speaking of cloud stuff, I updated my page
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If you have not seen news about the Escape missing episode recreation on the "Sharing Shows" thread, go to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I listened and watched the Escape recreation and it brought up a Suspense connection. But first, congratulations to Project Audion and everyone involved! I wish Project Audion had no missing scripts to perform. But I'm glad they have doing so as one of their missions, and that they do it with such great care and enthusiasm.

At the end of the presentation, the original credits were given, and included Frank Lovejoy, Alan Reed, and Bill Johnstone (aka Randy Stone, Fred Flintstone, and Lamont Cranston!). This was an early role for Lovejoy in his first Hollywood year after moving from New York.

Lovejoy's lead casting makes me wonder -- Robson produced this, and he also wrote the Suspense "musical" "The Wreck of the Old 97." That was at the time when the Red Channels issues had him writing under the name "Christopher Anthony," the names of his sons. I would think that if Robson was happy with the way "Yellow Mail" went with Lovejoy, he likely whispered into Elliott Lewis' ear 4+ years later about casting Lovejoy for "97." And who knows, perhaps Robson wrote the script with Lovejoy in mind right from the beginning. We'll never know...


Crickets.
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No matter. The project will do the best in can when it can and how it can.

The upgrades have been numerous for 1961 and 1961, and even 1947-1948. It may be easier to make near-daily posts of single episodes over 3 years. Still figuring it out.

OTRR has a handful of volunteers working on nearly 5000 reel tracks that were recorded in double-speed in lossless format in hopes that one day they could be put to proper speed, parsed into separate programs, named properly, and preserved in lossless format. The results have been impressive and will represent a big leap forward for the hobby. It has been gratifying to have such willing volunteers who have no ability to transfer discs or reels but have stepped up to do what they can with simple tools like Audacity to further the cause. And there are more files like this to come.

Conyers is running Suspense from beginning to end in a multiweek marathon... [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The Phantom Archer recreation posting will be delayed to March 9, 2023, which is the 80th anniversary of its original broadcast. Production work on it is still in process, and the idea of tying it to an anniversary was just too tempting from a publicity standpoint. (It was my idea to do that -- still a marketing guy at heart).


Assistance is still needed for what will likely be the start of the culminating event of the Suspense Project starting in January.

It will be an episode a day for 31 months since the other idea of following the one-year Suspense calendar [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]   will not be practical.

Details will follow in the coming weeks....

I've been keeping a "secret stash" of FLAC files that I have never posted. But nearly every upgrade I have received over the last 5 years has a FLAC file from a lossless source that I converted to mp3. When I start posting in January 2023, the FLAC files will make their debut.

Just like the folks who believed you could "upcode" 32kps mp3s to 128kps....
The problem was with the word "compression" -- many thought mp3 was like a zip file, that you could make files smaller but they'd stay intact. But it wasn't designed to be THAT kind of compression at all.
Martin Grams had a great explanation he gave to someone -- it was at a convention banquet -- he emptied 3 sugar packets to make a long line of sugar. Then he flicked away some sugar every inch or so. The person finally got it, especially when they realized they could never get all that sugar that had been flicked away back into the line.

Actor Ellen Burstyn turned 90 years old on December 7, and she has a Suspense history few are aware of. Burstyn is only one of two performers to appear on Suspense who won a Tony, an Emmy, and an Oscar (Thomas Mitchell is the other). She appeared on Suspense 8 times in the 1959-1960 period when the show moved back to New York. She also wrote two of the scripts. I know this seems unfamiliar to most everyone, but it's one of those "Believe it or Not!" types of stories.

Burstyn's birth name was Edna Rae Gillooly, and she used multiple names as she began her acting career. She settled on the name "Ellen McRae," but would sometimes go to auditions using another name. She had some roles on Broadway in the late 1950s where she met and married Paul Roberts. He was doing some Broadway production work and was also working at CBS. When Suspense moved from the west coast, Roberts received the producer assignment for Suspense. He cast his wife in some of the episodes. She may have also appeared in some of his productions of the series Indictment. She tried her hand at writing, and prepared the script based on the Benet story, "Elemental." She used the name "Edna Rae," her first and middle birth names. By the Fall of 1960, CBS began its purge of radio programs, and it was announced that Suspense would end in November 1960 along with its radio soaps and Have Gun Will Travel. She authored a second Suspense script, "Home is Where You Find It," originally planned to air on November 20, 1960, but was changed to November 27, 1960. Perhaps Paul Roberts wanted to have his wife's script be the final broadcast of the legendary series.
Suspense, cancelled for at least the fourth time, would return, yet again, seven months later for its final run.

Roberts and McRae divorced in 1961. She married Neil Burstyn in 1964, and changed her name to the one we recognize for so many successful roles on screen, TV, and theater.

All of the Suspense producers are easy to find from a historical standpoint. Obits can be found for all of them. Below is a sad one from Broadcasting regarding the last Suspense producer/director, Fred Hendrickson.

Every producer from A (Anton L) to Z (Bruno Z), but not the "second Mr Ellen Burstyn," Paul Roberts.

I can't find anything about him after his Suspense tenure that ended in November 1960.

Confounding the searches is that there was a Mutual executive with the same name in the late 1950s

His true name was Paul Robert Botstein.

I can find him in Playbill for "Fair Game" (where the then Ellen McRae and him met) but nothing else there. There are newspaper clips available about their marriage and divorce.

But I can't find anything in Broadcasting or Billboard about assignments after that or the rest of his life.

Happy 2023 everyone!

My plans to start posting Suspense on January 1, 2023 have been postponed. They are more likely to begin on January 15. We're working out a few details to make it all happen... and there are so very many new recordings to evaluate...

Heads up...

Starting next weekend, Radio Talking Book Service asked me to participate in their salute to newspapers and reporters. The recordings will cover Big Story, Screen Director's Playhouse, Casey, and Night Beat.

John Tefteller's Good Old Days of Radio podcast will start with its Suspense salute on Thursday, January 26, and will be presented for the next 9 Thursdays thereafter. The holiday break allowed us to record all 10 of the programs. Most all of the recordings will be sound quality upgrades.

I'm still going through reels of pioneer collectors and have found some real killer sound upgrades for episodes. I'm anxious to offer them... but at one posting a day, everyone will need to be patient. The access to these tapes enlarged the entire project and created some new ones.

Have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2023!