AND NOW, A TALE WELL CALCULATED TO KEEP YOU IN SUSPENSE
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The formula of Suspense was similar to that of another excellent anthology of the day, The Whistler. In most episodes a crime occurs shortly after the program begins. Suspense is heightened as the drama unfolds. In the end justice prevails and the program concludes. Suspense succeeds where lesser anthologies often failed through good production, usually-taut writing, and the presence of some of the biggest names in Hollywood including giants like Bela Lugosi, Cary Grant, Charles Laughton, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Lena Horne, Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles, Paul Muni, Peter Lorre, among others — who were often cast against type (especially in the case of actors mostly thought of as comedians like Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, and Red Skelton).
AUDITION EPISODE – THE LODGER
The audition episode was an adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock‘s 1926 silent film, The Lodger, and was also directed by Hitchcock. It aired on a 22 July, 1940 episode of the program, Forecast and was Hitchcock’s American radio directorial debut.
EARLY YEARS
The first episode was called “The Burning Court.” The programs were initially hosted by the mysterious, omniscient “Man in Black” (voiced by Joseph Kearns or Ted Osborne). In its early years, Suspense episodes almost always were in the mystery/thriller vein although there were occasional forays into fantasy, horror, and science-fiction. It bounced around the schedule five times before the end of 1943, when it moved to Thursday.
THE HITCHHIKER
One of the best-remembered episodes from Suspense‘s first season was “The Hitchhiker,” which aired on 2 September, 1942, and starred Orson Welles as a cross-country motorist haunted by a mysterious hitchhiker who continues to appear at every turn. It was later adapted into a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone and seems to have directly or indirectly inspired the 1962 film Carnival of Souls.
ROMA WINES
One of my favorite aspects of listening to old time radio dramas are the advertisements, especially when they’re promoting a product that no longer exists. If anyone in the 21st Century knows of Roma Wines they’re almost certainly a fan of Suspense and have tasted their delicious sauterne. CBS sustained Suspense until Roma Wines became the program’s sponsor in 1943.
Roma was a Fresno-based winemaker and boasted in their ads that they were “America’s largest selling wine” (during an era when Americans drank FAR more liquor and beer) and that Roma was “Made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.” They seem to have been absorbed into a larger company in the 1970s.
SORRY, WRONG NUMBER
Agnes Moorehead starring in several versions of “Sorry, Wrong Number”
Apparently encouraged by Suspense‘s success and mistakingly equating length with quality (as many filmmakers do today), half hour program was stretched to an hour in January 1948. The Man in Black was done away with and replaced with actor, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) cooperator, and that year’s Oscar host, Robert Montgomery. The bloated version ran until May, when it was thankfully trimmed back to fighting fitness.
AUTOLITE
Following its return to the 30 minute format, spark plug manufacturer Autolite began sponsoring the show in July 1948 and continued to do so until June 1954. Beginning in 1949, Autolite also began sponsoring a live broadcast television version of Suspense for CBS although, like most radio programs adapted for television, it was inferior to the original. It ended with Autolite’s sponsorship in 1954, although it was briefly revived in 1962. It was also during Autolite’s sponsorship that two attempts were made to cash in on the success of Suspense by producing two short-run magazines of the same name, one in 1946 and ’47 and the other in 1951 and ’52.
ELLIOT LEWIS
Actor/producer/director Elliott “Mr. Radio” Lewis and his wife Cathy assumed the co-producers’ roles on Suspense from 1950 until 1956. Elliott Lewis also directed the program from 1951 until 1954. From 1952 until 1954 he was also producing, writing, directing, and performing in his own production, the excellent but sadly short-lived Crime Classics. Although the Lewis years are fondly remembered by today’s fans of Suspense, it was during the 1952-1953 season that the series’ popularity began to decline as audiences increasingly turned away from radio to television.
LATER YEARS
After Autolite ended their sponsorship of Suspense in 1954, CBS and various sponsors (like Alpine Cigarettes, Parliament Cigarettes, and Pepsi-Cola), sustained the program and it once again began bouncing around various nights of the week. Lewis left his role as producer in 1956 and was succeeded by Antony Ellis, William N. Robson and others. As the networks increasingly shifted their efforts to television, budgets were cut and to cut costs, episodes were adapted from other anthologies like Escape (1947-1954) and The Mysterious Traveler (1943-1952).
After the departure of the Lewises, most of the big Hollywood actors stopped coming around — although loyal listeners could still count on regular appearances from radio stalwarts like Agnes Moorehead, Frank Lovejoy, Joseph Cotten, Parley Baer, Raymond Burr, Vincent Price, and William Conrad at least until the end of 1959.
THE END OF SUSPENSE
Suspense was actually first cancelled in 1960, following the November airing of an episode titled “Home Is Where You Find It.” It was revived the following June with “Call Me At Half-Past.” What proved to be the final episode, “Devil Stone,” aired on the same day as the final episode of another long-running series, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, 30 September, 1962. The program had debuted shortly after the US had entered World War II. By its end, the country was ramping up for an invasion of Vietnam.
946 episodes of Suspense were produced in its twenty year run and roughly 900 are known to still exist, which you can stream here, at the Internet Radio Archive. My favorite way to hear them is by tuning into Radio AM 1710 Antioch, a the best listener-supported online Old Time Radio station which, whenever possible, airs old radio drama episodes on the same date as it originally aired.
Music: Bernard Herrmann, Alexander Semmler, Lucien Morawek, and Wilbur Hatch
Announcers: Berry Kroeger, George Walsh, Joseph Kearns, Larry Thor, Paul Frees, and William Johnstone
Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities — or salaried work. He is not interested in generating advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. Art prints of Brightwell’s maps are available from 1650 Gallery. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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