Suspense (radio drama)

Suspense

Lurene Tuttle (left) and Rosalind Russell in "The Sisters" on Suspense in 1948.
Genre Drama and suspense
Running time 30 minutes or one hour
Country United States
Language(s) English
Home station CBS Radio Network
Written by
Directed by
Produced by
Air dates June 17, 1942 (1942-06-17) to September 30, 1962 (1962-09-30)
No. of episodes 946

Suspense is a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio from 1942 through 1962.

Production background

One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 still exist.

Suspense went through several major phases, characterized by different hosts, sponsors, and director/producers. Formula plot devices were followed for all but a handful of episodes: the protagonist was usually a normal person suddenly dropped into a threatening or bizarre situation; solutions were "withheld until the last possible second"; and evildoers were usually punished in the end.

In its early years, the program made only occasional forays into science fiction and fantasy. Notable exceptions include adaptations of Curt Siodmak's Donovan's Brain and H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror", but by the late 1950s, such material was regularly featured.

Alfred Hitchcock presents

Alfred Hitchcock directed its audition show (for the CBS summer series Forecast). This was an adaptation of The Lodger[1] a story Hitchcock had filmed in 1926 with Ivor Novello. Martin Grams, Jr., author of Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills, described the Forecast origin of Suspense:

On the second presentation of July 22, 1940, Forecast offered a mystery/horror show titled Suspense. With the co-operation of his producer, Walter Wanger, Alfred Hitchcock received the honor of directing his first radio show for the American public. The condition agreed upon for Hitchcock's appearance was that CBS make a pitch to the listening audience about his and Wanger's latest film, Foreign Correspondent. To add flavor to the deal, Wanger threw in Edmund Gwenn and Herbert Marshall as part of the package. All three men (including Hitch) would be seen in the upcoming film, which was due for a theatrical release the next month. Both Marshall and Hitchcock decided on the same story to bring to the airwaves, which happened to be a favorite of both of them: Marie Belloc Lowndes' "The Lodger." Alfred Hitchcock had filmed this story for Gainsborough in 1926, and since then it had remained as one of his favorites.
Herbert Marshall portrayed the mysterious lodger, and co-starring with him were Edmund Gwenn and character actress Lurene Tuttle as the rooming-house keepers who start to suspect that their new boarder might be the notorious Jack-the-Ripper. [Gwenn was actually repeating the role taken in the 1926 film by his brother, Arthur Chesney. And Tuttle would work again with Hitchcock nearly 20 years later, playing Mrs. Al Chambers, the sheriff's wife, in Psycho.] Character actor Joseph Kearns also had a small part in the drama, and Wilbur Hatch, head musician for CBS Radio at the time, composed and conducted the music specially for the program. Adapting the script to radio was not a great technical challenge for Hitchcock, and he cleverly decided to hold back the ending of the story from the listening audience in order to keep them in suspense themselves. This way, if the audience's curiosity got the better of them, they would write in to the network to find out whether the mysterious lodger was in fact Jack the Ripper. For the next few weeks, hundreds of letters came in from faithful listeners asking how the story ended. Actually a few wrote threats claiming that it was "indecent" and "immoral" to present such a production without giving the solution.

1942–1962

In the earliest years, the program was hosted by "The Man in Black" (played by Joseph Kearns or Ted Osborne) with many episodes written or adapted by the prominent mystery author John Dickson Carr.

One of the series' earliest successes and its single most popular episode is Lucille Fletcher's "Sorry, Wrong Number," about a bedridden woman (Agnes Moorehead) who panics after overhearing a murder plot on a crossed telephone connection but is unable to persuade anyone to investigate. First broadcast on May 25, 1943, it was restaged seven times (last on February 14, 1960) — each time with Moorehead. The popularity of the episode led to a film adaptation, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), starring Barbara Stanwyck. Nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, Stanwyck recreated the role on Lux Radio Theater. Loni Anderson had the lead in the TV movie Sorry, Wrong Number (1989). Another notable early episode was Fletcher's "The Hitch Hiker," in which a motorist (Orson Welles) is stalked on a cross-country trip by a nondescript man who keeps appearing on the side of the road. This episode originally aired on September 2, 1942, and was later adapted for television by Rod Serling as a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone.

After the network sustained the program during its first two years, the sponsor became Roma Wines (1944–1947), and then (after another brief period of sustained hour-long episodes, initially featuring Robert Montgomery as host and "producer" in early 1948), Autolite Spark Plugs (1948–1954); eventually Harlow Wilcox (of Fibber McGee and Molly) became the pitchman. William Spier, Norman MacDonnell and Anton M. Leader were among the producers and directors.

Suspense received a Special Citation of Honor Peabody Award for 1946.[2]

Second issue of the 1946 magazine tie-in

The program's heyday was in the early 1950s, when radio actor, producer and director Elliott Lewis took over (still during the Wilcox/Autolite run). Here the material reached new levels of sophistication. The writing was taut, and the casting, which had always been a strong point of the series (featuring such film stars as Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Eve McVeagh, Lena Horne, and Cary Grant), took an unexpected turn when Lewis expanded the repertory to include many of radio's famous drama and comedy stars — often playing against type — such as Jack Benny. Jim and Marian Jordan of Fibber McGee and Molly were heard in the episode, "Backseat Driver," which originally aired February 3, 1949.

The highest production values enhanced Suspense, and many of the shows retain their power to grip and entertain. At the time he took over Suspense, Lewis was familiar to radio fans for playing Frankie Remley, the wastrel guitar-playing sidekick to Phil Harris in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. On the May 10, 1951 Suspense, Lewis reversed the roles with "Death on My Hands": A bandleader (Harris) is horrified when an autograph-seeking fan accidentally shoots herself and dies in his hotel room, and a vocalist (Faye) tries to help him as the townfolk call for vigilante justice against him.

With the rise of television and the departures of Lewis and Autolite, subsequent producers (Antony Ellis, William N. Robson and others) struggled to maintain the series despite shrinking budgets, the availability of fewer name actors, and listenership decline. To save money, the program frequently used scripts first broadcast by another noteworthy CBS anthology, Escape. In addition to these tales of exotic adventure, Suspense expanded its repertoire to include more science fiction and supernatural content. By the end of its run, the series was remaking scripts from the long-canceled program The Mysterious Traveler. A time travel tale like Robert Arthur's "The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln" or a thriller about a death ray-wielding mad scientist would alternate with more run-of-the-mill crime dramas.

The series expanded to television with the Suspense series on CBS from 1949 to 1954, and again in 1962. The radio series had a tie-in with Suspense magazine which published four 1946–47 issues edited by Leslie Charteris.

The final broadcasts of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense, ending at 7:00 pm Eastern Time on September 30, 1962, are often cited as the end of the Golden Age of Radio. The final episode of Suspense was Devilstone, starring Christopher Carey and Neal Fitzgerald. It was sponsored by Parliament cigarettes.[3]

Opening introductions

There were several variations of program introductions. A typical early opening is this from April 27, 1943:

(MUSIC ... BERNARD HERRMANN'S SUSPENSE THEME ... CONTINUES IN BG)
THE MAN IN BLACK: Suspense!
This is The Man in Black, here again to introduce Columbia's program, Suspense.
Our stars tonight are Miss Agnes Moorehead and Mr. Ray Collins. You've seen these two expert and resourceful players in "Citizen Kane" – "The Magnificent Ambersons" in which Miss Moorehead's performance won her the 1942 Film Critics' Award. Mr. Collins will soon be seen in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor film, "Salute to the Marines."
Miss Moorehead and Mr. Collins return this evening to their first love, the CBS microphone, to appear in a study in terror by Lucille Fletcher called "The Diary of Sophronia Winters."
The story told by this diary is tonight's tale of... suspense. If you've been with us on these Tuesday nights, you will know that Suspense is compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure. In this series are tales calculated to intrigue you, to stir your nerves, to offer you a precarious situation and then withhold the solution... until the last possible moment. And so it is with "The Diary of Sophronia Winters" and the performances of Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, we again hope to keep you in...
(MUSIC: ... UP, DRAMATICALLY)
THE MAN IN BLACK: ... Suspense![4]

Recognition

Suspense was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.[5]

Satire

The familiar opening phrase "tales well-calculated to..." was satirized by Mad as the cover blurb "Tales Calculated to Drive You... Mad" on its first issue (October–November 1952) and continuing until issue #23 (May 1955).

Radio comedians Bob and Ray had a recurring routine lampooning the show called "Anxiety". Their character Commander Neville Putney told stories that were presented as dramatic but were intentionally mundane, with the opening line "A tale well designed to keep you in... Anxiety"

Theater

For the Poway Performance Art Company, the 70-year-old San Diego actor-director Robert Hitchcox mounted a 2006 stage production recreating Suspense, complete with commercials, in a stage set designed like a CBS radio studio.[6]

Partial list of episodes of Suspense

1940

Date Title Star(s)
July 22, 1940 The Lodger Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn (Audition program)[7]

1942

Date Title Star(s)
June 17, 1942 The Burning Court Charlie Ruggles (narrator)[8]
September 2, 1942 The Hitch-Hiker Orson Welles[7]
September 30, 1942 One Hundred in the Dark Eric Dressler and Alice Frost[9]

1943

Date Title Star(s)
January 5, 1943 --- Elissa Landi[10]
June 22, 1943 The Man without a Body John Sutton, George Zucco[11]
July 6, 1943 The White Rose Murders Maureen O'Hara[12]
August 3, 1943 A Friend to Alexander Robert Young, Geraldine Fitzgerald[11]
August 21, 1943 Sorry, Wrong Number Agnes Moorehead[7]
August 28, 1943 The King's Birthday Dolores Costello, Martin Kosleck, George Zucco, Ian Wolfe[11]
September 9, 1943 Marry for Murder Lillian Gish, Ray Collins, Bramwell Fletcher[11]
November 2, 1943 Statement of Employee Henry Wilson Gene Lockhart[11]
November 16, 1943 Thieves Fall Out Gene Kelly, Hans Conried, William Johnstone[11]

1944

Date Title Star(s)
January 6, 1944 One Way Ride to Nowhere Alan Ladd[13]
January 13, 1944 Dime a Dance Lucille Ball[11]
January 20, 1944 A World of Darkness Paul Lukas[11]
January 25, 1944 The Locked Room Virginia Bruce and Allyn Joslyn[14]
February 3, 1944 The Sisters Ida Lupino and Agnes Moorehead[15]
February 10, 1944 Suspicion Charlie Ruggles[16]
February 24, 1944 Sorry, Wrong Number (rebroadcast) Agnes Moorehead[11]
March 2, 1944 Portrait without a Face Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn, George Coulouris[11]
March 9, 1944 --- Alan Ladd[17]
April 6, 1944 --- Katina Paxinou[18]
May 11, 1944 The Visitor Eddie Bracken[11]
May 18, 1944 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) Orson Welles[19]:35
May 25, 1944 Donovan's Brain (Part 2) Orson Welles[19]:35
June 22, 1944 The Ten Grand Lucille Ball[11]
September 7, 1944 Voyage Through Darkness Olivia de Havilland and Reginald Gardiner[20]

1945

Date Title Star(s)
May 24, 1945 My Own Murderer Herbert Marshall[20]
August 16, 1945 Short Order Joseph Kearns, Gerald Mohr and Conrad Binyon.[21]:34
September 20, 1945 Library Book Myrna Loy[21]

1946

Date Title Star(s)
March 21, 1946 The Lonely Road Gregory Peck[22]
June 27, 1946 Return Trip Elliott Reid[23]
August 8, 1946 Dead Ernest Wally Maher[7]

1947

Date Title Star(s)
May 22, 1947 Her Knight Comes Riding Virginia Bruce[24]
June 19, 1947 Dead of Night Elliott Reid[25]

1948

Date Title Star(s)
January 3, 1948 The Black Curtain Robert Montgomery[26]

1949

Date Title Star(s)
February 3, 1949 Backseat Driver Jim and Marian Jordan[19]
April 21, 1949 The Copper Tea Strainer Betty Grable, Raymond Burr, and William Conrad[7]
December 1, 1949 Mission Completed James Stewart[27]

1950

Date Title Star(s)
March 2, 1950 Lady Killer Loretta Young[28]
November 16, 1950 On a Country Road Cary Grant[7]

1951

Date Title Star(s)
May 10, 1951 Death on My Hands Phil Harris and Alice Faye[29]
September 24, 1951 The McKay College Basketball Scandal Tony Curtis[30]

1952

Date Title Star(s)
June 2, 1952 A Good and Faithful Servant Jack Benny[21]:37

1954

Date Title Star(s)
March 29, 1954 Somebody Help Me Cornell Wilde[31]
April 12, 1954 Parole to Panic'' Broderick Crawford[27]
August 3, 1954 Goodnight, Mrs. Russell Virginia Gregg and Vic Perrin[12]:37

1955

Date Title Star(s)
April 5, 1955 Zero Hour John Dehner (narrator)[7]

1956

Date Title Star(s)
March 1, 1956 The Waxworks William Conrad (narrator)[9]:39
October 23, 1956 The Doll Patty McCormack[28]:39

1958

Date Title Star(s)
April 20, 1958 Alibi Me Stan Freberg[27]

1959

Date Title Star(s)
January 4, 1959 Don't Call Me Mother Agnes Moorehead[32]

1962

Date Title Star(s)
September 30, 1962 Devilstone Christopher Carey and Neal Fitzgerald[7]

Revival

In 2012, John C. Alsedek and Dana Perry-Hayes of Blue Hours Productions revived Suspense for Sirius XM Radio, recording all-new scripts including originals and adaptations of works by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Cornell Woolrich, and Clark Ashton Smith. The Suspense revival is currently airing on nearly 250 radio stations worldwide, and has been nominated for a Peabody Award. Season One is also available as video on YouTube.

Season Two is under production, with episode #25 slated to premiere March 1, 2015. For more information on the Suspense revival, please visit www.bluehoursproductions.com.[33]

Since 2007, Radio Classics, on Sirius XM channel 82, has been airing episodes of Suspense in its daily lineup among other classic shows, such as The Whistler, The Mysterious Traveler, and The Hermit's Cave. The show is also streamed nightly at 7 pm Pacific time on kusaradio.com from the original masters.

Season One episodes

  1. "Cool Air", starring Adrienne Wilkinson & Daamen Krall
  2. "The Pipes of Tcho Ktlan", starring Daamen Krall & Rocky Cerda
  3. "The Return of the Sorcerer", starring Tucker Smallwood & Ron Bottitta
  4. "Proof in the Pudding", starring Adrienne Wilkinson & Christina Joy Howard
  5. "The Devil"s Saint", starring Daamen Krall & Christopher Duva
  6. "Gag Reflex", starring Daamen Krall & Elizabeth Gracen
  7. "The Graveyard Rats", starring Daamen Krall & Christopher Duva
  8. "An Ungentle Wager", starring Elizabeth Gracen & Adrienne Wilkinson
  9. "The Fire of Asshurbanipal", starring Christopher Duva & Steve Moulton
  10. "The Walls Between Us", starring Adrienne Wilkinson & Rocky Cerda
  11. "The Horla", starring Christopher Duva & Elizabeth Gracen
  12. "Essence", starring Dana Perry-Hayes & Skyler Caleb
  13. "The Hounds of Tindalos", starring Christopher Duva & Daamen Krall
  14. "Madeline"s Veil", starring Dana Perry-Hayes & Rocky Cerda
  15. "Wet Saturday", starring Daamen Krall & Adrienne Wilkinson
  16. "Forest of the Dark Unbound", starring Catherine Kamei & Elizabeth Gracen
  17. "Who Goes There?", starring Steve Moulton & Sean Hackman
  18. "De Vermis Manorum", starring Elizabeth Gracen & John Lauver
  19. "The Night Reveals", starring David Collins & Susan Eisenberg
  20. "Ebb Tide", starring Christopher Duva & Adrienne Wilkinson
  21. "Far Below", starring Daamen Krall & Catherine Kamei
  22. "Behind Every Great Man...", starring Brett Thompson & Adrienne Wilkinson
  23. "Pigeons From Hell", starring Scott Henry & Daniel Hackman
  24. "Red Rook, White King...Black Cat", starring Adrienne Wilkinson & David Collins

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Lodger"
  2. ↑ "Peabody Awards for '46 Announced" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 21, 1947. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 38 (3): 39. Summer 2012.
  4. ↑ Suspense, April 27, 1943.
  5. ↑ "Suspense". National Radio Hall of Fame. Retrieved 5 January 2016.
  6. ↑ PowPAC: "Wrong Number & the Hitch-hiker"
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 38 (3): 32–39. Summer 2012.
  8. ↑ Elliott, Jordan (Summer 2012). "Suspense!". Nostalgia Digest. 38 (3): 42–49.
  9. 1 2 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 35 (2): 36. Spring 2009.
  10. ↑ "(photo caption)". New York, Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. January 4, 1943. p. 8. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Suspense vol. 2, Blackstone Audio, 2015, CD ISBN 1-4815-1957-3
  12. 1 2 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (1): 32. Winter 2016.
  13. ↑ "Dinah Offers Good Variety". Illinois, Decatur. The Decatur Daily Review. January 6, 1944. p. 13. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Bruce, Joslyn". Ohio, Circleville. The Circleville Herald. January 25, 1944. p. 7. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Story of Twins". Maryland, Cumberland. The Cumberland News. February 3, 1944. p. 11. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Viva America Offers Evelyn". Illinois, Decatur. The Decatur Daily Review. February 10, 1944. p. 15. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Decatur Game On Air at 9:30". Illinois, Decatur. The Decatur Daily Review. March 9, 1944. p. 15. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "'Suspense' Guest". Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. Harrisburg Telegraph. April 1, 1944. p. 15. Retrieved January 6, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. 1 2 3 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (2): 33. Spring 2015.
  20. 1 2 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (2): 33. Spring 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 37 (1): 33. Winter 2011.
  22. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (2): 32. Spring 2016.
  23. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 39 (2): 32–39. Spring 2013.
  24. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (2): 40. Spring 2015.
  25. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 40 (1): 32. Winter 2014.
  26. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 38 (3): 40–41. Summer 2012.
  27. 1 2 3 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 41 (3): 32–39. Summer 2015.
  28. 1 2 "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 39 (1): 32–39. Winter 2013.
  29. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 39 (1): 40. Winter 2013.
  30. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 37 (1): 41. Winter 2011.
  31. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 42 (3): 34. Summer 2016.
  32. ↑ "Radio's Golden Age". Nostalgia Digest. 39 (2): 40–41. Spring 2013.
  33. ↑ The Fifth Dimension blog

Sources

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