 Suspense (30 min)
Show Description
When it left the air in 1962, Suspense was the only remaining regularly scheduled drama on commercial network
radio. We’re bringing it back with “Sorry, Wrong Number”, the classic
tale of an invalid who overhears a call where her own murder is planned.
Show History
Considered one of the best mystery series
on radio, Suspense was broadcast by CBS. The weekly
anthology show ran for twenty years, from 1942 to 1962. The radio
program was broadcast weekly from Hollywood. Scripts were generally of
high quality and featured at least one well-known stage or film
performer. The famous broadcast of 1948 entitled “Sorry Wrong Number”
starred Agnes Moorehead in a thrilling tale of an invalid woman who
accidentally overhears a telephone conversation in which arrangements
for her own murder are being discussed. For the rest of the program, she
tries frantically to telephone someone for help. A stunning concept for
the aural medium, the episode was later made into a film.
One of the premier programs of the Golden Age of
Radio, Suspense advertised itself as “radio’s
outstanding theater of thrills” and was heard in one form or another
from 1942
through 1962.
There were approximately 945 episodes broadcast during its long run.
Suspense went through
several major phases, characterized by its hosts, sponsors and
director/producers. The show was so popular that over 900 of the
original episodes are extant in high-quality recordings. Alfred Hitchcock
directed the audition show — an adaptation of The Lodger, that
Hitchcock had filmed in 1926 —
in a 1940 program called Forecast, starring Herbert Marshall. In
the early phase, the program was hosted by “The Man in Black” (played by
Joseph Kearns or Ted Osborne) and many episodes written or adapted by
the prominent mystery author John Dickson Carr.
The sponsor became Roma Wines
and then Autolite Spark Plugs;
eventually Harlow Wilcox (of Fibber McGee and
Molly) became the pitchman. William Spier, William N. Robson,
and Anton M. Leder were among the producers and directors. The program’s
heyday was in the early 1950s,
when the great 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 famous
film stars like Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Colman, Cary Grant
and many others), took an unexpected turn when Lewis expanded the
repertory to include many of radio’s famous drama and comedy stars, such
as Jack Benny
and Jim and Marian Jordan (aka Fibber McGee and
Molly). The highest production values enhanced Suspense, and
many of the shows retain their power to grip, entertain and move.
The single most popular episode of
Suspense is “Sorry, Wrong Number,” written by the premier radio
scribe Lucille Fletcher, in which a panicked, bedridden woman (played by
veteran radio actor Agnes Moorehead)
tries to convince a telephone operator she has overheard a murder plot
on a crossed line. First broadcast on May 25, 1943, it was repeated
seven times (last on 2/14/60) and spawned the 1948 film with Barbara Stanwyck
in the lead role. Another noteworthy episode was Orson Welles’ “The
Hitchhiker”. But there are literally hundreds of extant episodes
considered by fans to be of equal or greater quality.
In addition to such fine writing, the radio Suspense featured outstanding music by Bernard Herrmann and excellent production
values. The program attracted a loyal following of listeners until
September 1962.
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