THE MISSING SUSPENSE EPISODES (c) 2017, Joseph W. Webb, Ph.D.

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 19 Missing Episodes
will soon be 18!
Single performances are important to find
18 other missing shows were performed
multiple times
Some missing shows can be filled in
Short stories
Scripts
Recreations

THE MISSING SUSPENSE EPISODES (c) 2017, Joseph W. Webb, Ph.D. 2

 Recreations of Suspense

Hangman Wont Wait

Will You Walk into My Parlor?
The Keenest Edge
The Embezzler

THE MISSING SUSPENSE EPISODES (c) 2017, Joseph W. Webb, Ph.D. 3

 Recreations / Interpretations /
New productions
Blue Hours Productions
John C. Alsedek
Hopes to produce
260 episodes
soundcloud.com/
suspenseradiodrama

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 Brief history
1942 summer series originating in New York
1943 moves to Hollywood, big star era
1943 1944 Roma Wines 2x/wk, different days
1944 single night
1947 Roma leaves; series cancelled, then it isnt
1948 the hour format debacle; Auto-Lite begins
1953 Auto-Lite and the big star era ends
1959 1962 return to New York

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 7/1/42 Life of Nellie James
Likely based on the
1892 Lizzie Borden axe
murders in Fall River,
Massachusetts

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 7/8/42 Rope
Based on the 1923 just for the thrill of it
Leopold & Loeb murders
Became Hitchcock movie in 1948

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 7/15/42Third Eye
Based on short story by creator of Mr. Keen, Robert
W. Chambers
Short story can be found on the Yankee Magazine
site

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 7/22/42 Westbound Limited
Based on the
1937 movie
a man survives a
train wreck, and later
meets up with the
saboteur who caused
the wreck. He has to
stop the saboteur from
striking again.

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 2/9/43 The Hangman Won't Wait
First half of show exists
Produced for BBCs Appointment
with Fear
as The Clock Strikes Eight
John Dickson Carr script is in
The Door to Doom and Other
Detections
American Radio Theater
recreation is available
Blue Hours Productions version
to be available by late 2019

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 2/23/43 Will You Walk
into My Parlor?
First half of show exists
Script in September
1945 edition of
Ellery Queen Mystery
Magazine
American Radio
Theater recreation
Blue Hours Productions
late 2019

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 3/9/43 The Phantom Archer
John Dickson Carr script
The Door to Doom and
Other Detections
June 1948 edition of Ellery
Queen Mystery Magazine
Star is Ralph Bellamy
On an island off the
Cornish coast, a woman is
killed by an arrow fired
from the end of a long
portrait gallery which is
inhabited only by a wooden
dummy in an archer's
costume.

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 1943: Roma begins, but the CBS
national network is not ready
CBS Pacific Network cant
match slot or schedule a
same night performance
December 1943 to
September 1944
Thursdays: East Coast
Mondays: West Coast
Many shows available,
many missing
Few Thurs/Mon/AFRS
sets have been found

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 Details about the dual run
Join us next _____ indicates East or West
Some shows Join us next week but companion
broadcast pair specifies day
Four shows have complete East/West/AFRS
The Sisters
Marvelous Barrastro
A Friend to Alexander
The Search for Henri LeFevre
28 shows are missing the companion coast
33 are missing the AFRS version

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 7/26/45 Fury and Sound
Stars Norman Lloyd
thwarted assistant producer driven by violent ego of his
employer to murder.
In Suspense Magazine #1
Scriptwriters Jerome
Lawrence & Robert E. Lee
were part of group that
founded AFRS and
helped develop
Command Performance
and Mail Call
Irving Reis was pivotal
figure in radio production,
founding series Columbia
Workshop

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 7/26/45 Fury and Sound
AFRS transcription Ziv TV syndication of
sold on eBay in The Unexpected stars
December 2013 for Hans Conreid
$405 DVD Obscure Horror TV
classicmoviesdvd.com

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 Big news!
Stop looking at your phone
Pay attention and look up here
for gosh sakes this is important stuff

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Thank you John C. Alsedek:
Fury and Sound
Blue Hours Productions
special performance
Lead actors are from a
comedy troupe
named Sound & Fury!
Hear it at
soundcloud.com/
suspenseradiodrama

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 Big news!
Stop looking at your phone
Im not telling you again

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 1/10/46 This Was a Hero
is now found and you can hear it tomorrow!

Stars Philip Terry

Was it supposed to be
Lee J. Cobb?
80 movies, supporting role in
Lost Weekend
The third Mr. Joan Crawford
Appeared on TV Perry Mason
five times
California real estate investor

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 Read along with the story
Suspense Magazine #2

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 Thank you Jerry Haendiges!
Listen on Old Time Radio Classics
September 17 thats tomorrow!
Special broadcast of uncirculated shows
BLONDIE Episode 476
11-10-48 "Blondie's Historical House
(Rehearsal of 11-08-49)
GREAT GILDERSLEEVE Episode 154
1-28-45 "Aunt Hattie Is Due To Arrive"
SUSPENSE Episode 175
1-10-46 "This Was A Hero"
SGT. PRESTON Episode 1104
6-9-53 "Tugboat Skipper Mamie"
http://www.vintageradioclassics.com/vintageradioclassics/broadcast/

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 2/28/46 The Keenest Edge
Script is in Darryl Sheltons Suspense book
Produced in Australia by Grace Gibson Productions
in the series Tension gracegibsonradio.com
American Radio Theater recreation is available
Blue Hours
Productions
version is
planned

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 What if Mel Brooks wrote the
history of Suspense?
Roma Wines is not happy
with the cost and sales
results of their sponsorship
How can they get out?
Get a script
that everyone
is bound to hate!

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 A crazy script
that William Spier rejects
A man is prone to fainting spells
Appears dead whenever it happens
Is a pedestrian in an accident
Found on the ground dead
Ends up on an embalming table
Will news of his condition reach
the morticians in time to stop the procedure?

AND its a comedy

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 Spiers wife, Kay Thompson,
reads rejected scripts at bedtime
Convinces Spier
to reconsider
Thompson is a famous
multitalented entertainer
Will divorce in 1947
Spier reconsiders Ernest
Suspense wins a
Peabody Award

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 Dead Ernest keeps Suspense alive
(for a few weeks longer)
Schenley embarrassed Peabody panel loves the
to cancel show and the series

The committee believes that there are too many

whodunits for the good of radio; it also believes
that in this overworked and melodramatic field
there is one program which, for its casting, its
music and its suspense, is head and shoulders
above the competition.

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 Roma cancels: The Panic of 48
Chaos and Backroom Deals
Hour-long Suspense Paley in the background
Bad idea whose time Wanted 30-min format
had come
Negotiating with
Recycled scripts Auto-Lite directly
Black Curtain
Kandy Tooth (Spade Gets Auto-Lite to
two-part from 1946) change ad agencies to
Many others one of his choosing
Robert Montgomery as Works TV version
producer and wants into the deal
more money
Spiers exciting Spring,
leaves CBS for ABC

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 7/8/48 The Last Chance
First Auto-Lite show
Stars Cary Grant (also starred on first Roma Wines
show)

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 6/15/50 Deadline
Stars Broderick Crawford
Mean drama critic gets his own medicine
Possibly performed on NBCs Radio City Playhouse
February 28, 1949

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 5/24/51 Fresh Air, Sunshine
and Murder
Stars Jeff Chandler
and Cathy Lewis
a guy steals a
mobsters girl and
winds up at a drive-in
movie.
Play adapted by Blue
Hours Productions for
2019 release

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 11/5/51 Trials of Thomas Shaw
Joseph Cotten planned
as star, may have been
replaced by Ben Wright
A man is found
innocent of murder for
lack of evidence, and he
decides to try it again

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 11/12/51 Mission of the Betta
John Hodiak stars
A submarine is on a special mission to transport
Australians from Japanese territory to the US prior
to the start of WW2.
Blue Hours Productions has adapted the play, will
produce in 2019

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 11/19/51 The Embezzler
Stars John Lund
American Radio
Theater recreation is
available
Play adapted by Blue
Hours Productions for
2019 release

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 11/26/51 Misfortune in Pearls
Frank Lovejoy stars
AFRS transcription sold
on eBay in 2014 for $710
Blue Hours Productions
plans to produce script
by end of 2018
dealer of cheap costume jewelry visits wealthy jeweler
friend and becomes involved in disappearance of a
million dollar pearl necklace
youll have trouble deciding if hes a thief or detective

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 1/3/56 The Eavesdropper
Larry Dobkin stars
A plumber locked in a
bathroom overhears a
murder take place;
murderers try to kill
him before he warns
the police.

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 8/1/56 Massacre at Little Big Horn
Custers Last Stand, Show promotion
starring Stacy Harris stressed the episodes
historical accuracy

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 Quirky Suspense
Sept. 44: Sinatra April 49:
supposed to be Arch
The Man Who Oboler
Couldnt Lose wrote a
(Gene Kelly did it) Suspense
script
(it was
never
produced)

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 Stranger than TRUTH!
Lucille Fletcher and Zirato would direct
Bruno Zirato Jr. Suspense when it
mentioned in two returned to New York,
consecutive sentences but Sorry, Wrong
in a 1943 Variety Number was not one
column of those episodes

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 Movies based on Suspense scripts
(other than Sorry, Wrong Number)
Suspense Episode Movie
The Argyle Album The Argyle Secrets
See it on YouTube

One Way Ride The Last Crooked Mile

to Nowhere
Cabin B-13 Dangerous Crossing

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 Suspense needs your help!

Programs Research
Missing shows Newspapers
Missing formats Industry press
Sound upgrades, Show summaries
especially 1950s Cast changes
post-Auto-Lite

THE MISSING SUSPENSE EPISODES (c) 2017, Joseph W. Webb, Ph.D. 41

 Thank you
very much!
drjoewebb@yahoo.com
Cobalt Club greybelt

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