Suspense:8 Page Booklet 9/10/08 9:33 PM Page 1 culture, and the danger it poses both to the hot rodders themselves and the general public. Following the drama, Ned Dearborn, president of the National Safety Council presents SUSPENSE a national safety award to Auto-Lite chairman Royce G. Martin. Tales Well Calculated 9/10/51 -- "The Evil of Adelaide Winters" by Arthur Ross. Another tour-de-force role for Suspense stalwart Agnes Moorehead, as a swindling, fraudulent spiritualist -- who may THE ELLIOT LEWIS YEARS - An Appreciation not be as phony as she seems. By Elizabeth McLeod 10/29/51 -- "The Hunting of Bob Lee", adapted by Gil Doud from the story by Charles L. Sonnicksen. Richard Widmark returns to the Suspense microphone in a true-life story Radio in the early 1950s stood at a crossroads. Television's audience, encroaching since of a Texas gunman embroiled in a murderous blood feud. The tale is punctuated by the end of the Second World War, continued to loom as a menace to the entire entrenched haunting Western ballads performed by Terry Lee. structure of sound broadcasting -- but between 1948 and 1952, that encroachment was slowed thanks to a federal freeze on the issuance of new television licenses. For millions 12/31/51 -- "Rogue Male," adapted by Sylvia Richards from the novel by Geoffrey of Americans away from the large urban centers, radio remained the premiere source of Household. A savage variation on "The Most Dangerous Game" features Herbert home entertainment -- and for as long as that audience remained, sponsors remained Marshall as an arrogant British big-game hunter turned would-be assassin matching wits willing to support high-quality network programming. with a cadre of Nazi gunmen. It was this confluence of factors that led to 3/31/52 -- "Lady Pamela" by Antony Ellis. Deborah Kerr stars in this true story of an the last great flowering of creativity in aristorcratic British jewel thief out to settle the score with an unfaithful accomplice. network radio drama -- a final burst of intelligent, adult-oriented programming ELIZABETH MCLEOD is the winner of the 2005 Ray Stanich Award for excellence in before the medium would be eclipsed broadcasting history research. She is the author of “The Original Amos ‘n’ Andy,” forever. And standing in the vanguard of that (McFarland 2005), and articles appearing in a wide range of old-time-radio and nostalgia sharp new trend stood one of radio's publications. venerable favorites – Radio’s Outstanding Theatre of Thrills --- Suspense. By the turn of the decade, Suspense had been a radio fixture for nearly eight years, growing from an obscure summer- replacement sustaining feature to a high-budgeted, star-studded year-round PO Box 1315, Little Falls, NJ 07424 favorite. Under the guidance of www.RadioSpirits.com producer/director William Spier, the series Audio programming is under exclusive license from series rights holders. All Rights Reserved. developed a reputation as a thoughtful Program Guide © 2008 Elizabeth McLeod and RSPT LLC. All Rights Reserved. Elliot Lewis thriller -- featuring well-crafted scripts by an Suspense:8 Page Booklet 9/10/08 9:33 PM Page 2 array of the medium's top writers, scripts that avoided 2/15/51 -- "The Death Parade", by Antony Ellis, from the short story by Shirley Gordon. the head-splitting gore and smirking outlandishness of Agnes Moorehead in a bravura role as a busybody woman who stumbles onto murder the Inner Sanctum genre of radio mystery programs. plans. Any resemblance to Moorehead's characterization or performance in "Sorry Wrong Where most of radio's thrillers were geared to an Number" is purely coincidental. adolescent, comic-book-reading audience, Suspense was always for grownups. 3/1/51-- "The Gift of Jumbo Brannigan" by E. Jack Neuman and John Michael Hayes. William Bendix sheds his Chester A. Riley persona in a searing performance as Jumbo And as the 1950s dawned, it became even more so. Brannigan -- master safecracker, lately of the State Penitentiary but back on the streets Spier left the program in 1948, and after a brief again and looking for new opportunities. interregnum in the hands of Anton M. Leader, the series came under the guidance of one of radio's few, true 3/8/51—“A Vision of Death” by Walter Brown Neman from a story by Jerry Hausner. renaissance men, the dynamic actor/writer/director Ronald Colman stars as a mind reader with an assistant who turns out to be the real deal! Joseph Cotten Elliot Lewis. 3/22/51 -- "Three Lethal Words" by Walter Brown Neuman, from a story by Charles For most radio listeners at the time, the announcement of Lewis's appointment as the new Vion. Joan Crawford as a screenwriter working on a true-life drama of a tensely-wound producer/director of Suspense might have led to raised eyebrows. Lewis was best known middle-aged woman who takes gruesome vengeance against a faithless lover -- a drama at that time as a funnyman, thoroughly identified with his most famous acting role, the which may be closer to reality than its author is willing to admit. shamelessly sleazy left-handed guitar player Frankie Remley, on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show . But Lewis had far more to offer radio than merely one indelible 5/10/51 -- "Death On My Hands" by John Michael characterization, and he was soon to prove it. Hayes and E. Jack Neuman. Phil Harris and Alice Faye turn in powerful dramatic performances in Elliot Lewis never intended to be an actor, but radio was in his blood. He was born in this tale of a self-absorbed touring bandleader who 1919 -- as part of the very first generation to actually grow up with broadcasting as a unwittingly causes the death of an obsessed fan in regular part of its daily experience. Lewis set out originally to be a lawyer -- but before a small Southern town -- and is then accused of her he knew it, he'd drifted westward and turned up in Hollywood by 1937 doing bit roles in murder! a wide range of radio programs, including stints in the dramatic stock company on Silver Theatre , assorted minor comic turns in support of Burns and Allen, Al Jolson, and Jack 6/28/51 -- "The Case for Dr. Singer", by Blake Benny, and even a continuing role in a slurpy daytime serial called Midstream . These Edwards. Joseph Kearns both announces and plays roles paid little -- but the real recompense was in the education they afforded him. Acting the title role in this atomic-age spy thriller very most every day and night, always scurrying from reading to rehearsal to performance loosely based on the real-life case of Julius and and back again taught Lewis much about timing, inflection, microphone balance -- all the Ethel Rosenberg. Final program of the 1950-51 many tools necessary to the young art of broadcast drama, tools best learned only in the season. crucible of daily experience. By the turn of the decade, Lewis's name as well-known to the people who really mattered in radio -- the producers and directors -- as it was unknown 8/27/51 -- "The Case of the Jolly Death Riders" by to the average member of the public. Such roles as he played rarely, if ever, received on- Richard George Peduccini. William Holden stars air credit. in this true-life expose of the reckless hot-rod Joan Crawford Suspense:8 Page Booklet 9/10/08 9:33 PM Page 3 10/5/50 -- "The Rose Garden" by Sumner He might have spent an entire career as one of the many anonymous AFRA members Locke Elliot and Antony Ellis. Movie who filled in the blank spots on bigtime shows, had World War II not intervened. Master veteran Miriam Hopkins stars with Paula Sergeant Lewis spent his Army career attached to the Armed Forces Radio Service. Still Winslowe and Jeanette Nolan in this tale of based in Hollywood, he found himself moving behind the scenes, working in production the disturbing Mrs. Bone -- a roomer with an roles on an assortment of AFRS features -- routining talent, assigning roles, editing unsettling taste for toxicology. scripts, directing recording sessions, learning everything there was to know about radio production from the ground up. After demobilization, Lewis returned to acting -- taking 10/26/50 -- "Too Hot to Live" by Sam Rolfe. on his famous Frankie Remley role in 1946, followed by the lead role in the high- Richard Widmark makes effective use of adventure seagoing drama Voyage of the Scarlet Queen in 1947. He had lost none of his first-person narration in this harrowing tale thespian versatility while in khaki, but he itched for a chance to put his new production of Jeff Casey, an ex-soldier fleeing a murder talents to work. charge across a sun-baked western desert. That opportunity came as the summer of 1950 wound down, when Lewis was offered the 11/23/50 -- "Going, Going, Gone," by chance to helm Suspense . He had appeared occasionally on the program during the Antony Ellis. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson William Spier era, and knew both the tradition of the series and its production routine -- appear as a young couple who think they've and jumped at the opportunity. Working frequently with scriptwriters Morton Fine and stumbled onto the luckiest break of their David Friedkin, Lewis soon gave the series his own personal stamp. lives when an old trunk bought at auction is full of valuable gems. But the trunk turns out Under Spier, the program had developed a reputation for to be less a treasure chest than Pandora's Box offbeat casting, often going out of its way to cast actors far when the story behind the jewels begins to against type -- dropping light leading men into gritty crime Alan Ladd emerge.