SUS...PENSE! (Audio)

Jim & Marian Jordan do a rare dramatic turn on Suspense while Agnes Moorehead rehearses her Sorry, Wrong Number classic.

SUS…PENSE!

Critics agree that the best mystery anthology series in Network Radio was Suspense. Week after week during the show’s peak years listeners could hear their favorite movie and radio personalities in superbly produced half hour dramas that often ended with a twist.

For example, NBC stars Jim & Marian Jordan, aka Fibber McGee & Molly, were seldom seen at a CBS microphone, yet they were when they answered the call to step out of character for the Suspense play written for them, Back Seat Driver.

During its Hollywood seasons an appearance on the show was considered the stamp of validity as a serious radio actor.

But Suspense almost didn’t get on the air.

Its origin goes back to New York in 1940 and the CBS show Forecast, a two season summer replacement for Lux Radio Theater and a one-shot audition platform for network hopefuls including Duffy’s Tavern and Hopalong Cassidy. Listeners were encouraged to write the network to voice their support or disapproval of the candidates.

The July 22nd edition of Forecast was a double header, a half hour variety show starring 27 year old comedian Danny Kaye and a 30 minute preview of Suspense featuring director Alfred Hitchcock’s radio adaptation of his 1927 film, The Lodger. This radio version of Hitchcock’s silent film - think about that one - starred Herbert Marshall.

Suspense was shelved by CBS for almost two years, then brought on as a sustaining summer fill - less Hitchcock - on Wednesday, June 24, 1942. It caught on as good low-budget counter-programming to the fast paced mirth and music of Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on NBC. Economical counter-programming was also the reason that CBS “promoted” Suspense to 9:30 on Tuesdays in October, opposite the NBC’s Fibber McGee & Molly which was in the middle of its 12 seasons as one of America’s Top Three programs.

The show was moved to Hollywood in January, 1943, and shifted around to a number of slots on the CBS schedule.  It was opposite Fibber McGee & Molly on Tuesday, May 25, 1943, that the show reached urban legend status.

With Suspense sound effects chief Berne Surrey at her side, actress Agnes Moorehead sat down with a $250 script by Lucille Fletcher originally titled She Overheard Death Speaking, known now as Sorry, Wrong Number.

Producer William Spier, often called the brains of Suspense, had a rule that crime would never pay on his program and villans would always get caught. But he made an exception for Sorry, Wrong Number and listeners were shocked.

They were also stunned by Moorehead’s performance that left the actress limp with exhaustion. So famous was her portrayal of the helpless victim that she repeated the performance another seven times on Suspense. Listeners also howled when Moorehead was overlooked for the film adaptation of Sorry, Wrong Number, for which Barbara Stanwyck received an Academy Award nomination.

A recording of the original Suspense broadcast Sorry, Wrong Number is posted. (Because of a missed cue by the actor playing the killer at the play’s end, a subsequent broadcast of the play has also been posted, Sorry, Wrong Number II).

Roma Wine took sponsorship of Suspense in December, 1943, and the show settled in to its four season home of Thursdays at 8:00. It also meant bigger budgets allowing producer Spier to pursue big name stars for his show. Spier is heard as himself in The Marvelous Barastro which features Orson Welles in a double role.

Despite steadily climbing ratings peaking at 22nd in 1946-47 - and winning the Peabody Award in April, 1947 - Roma cancelled in November and Suspense was moved by CBS to Fridays at 9:30. Then, in January, 1948, it was expanded to a Saturday night hour and a vehicle for actor Robert Montgomery. That experiment lasted only five months.

Electric Autolite came to the show’s rescue in July, returned it to half hour form on Thursday night and underwrote plays with famous stars for the next six seasons - five in the Top 20.

Producers changed but Suspense was on a roll, always in the Top Ten on its night of broadcast. Anton Leader took over the program in 1948, Spier returned in 1949 and Elliott Lewis took the helm in 1950. The show was moved to the powerful CBS Monday lineup in 1951 and Suspense finished ninth among all programs in the final season of Network Radio’s Golden Age, 1952-53.

Autolite cancelled in 1954 and for the next eight seasons Suspense became a sustaining or spot carrying nomad on the CBS schedule. It moved back to New York in 1959 and finally closed down on September 30, 1962.

Fortunately for Network Radio fans many shows from the Suspense series still exist. Posted below along with the two Sorry, Wrong Number samples and The Marvelous Barastro are Jack Benny in Murder In G Flat, Judy Garland’s Drive In and The Search For Isabel with Red Skelton.

All are tales well calculated to … well, you know the rest.

Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL   Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com