OLD TIME RADIO -
12 AUDIO CD - 24 Shows
Suspense, one of the
premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was
subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." It was
heard on CBS from 1942 through 1962. Approximately 945
episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than
900 are extant in mostly high-quality recordings
Suspense went through several major
phases, characterized by different hosts, sponsors and director/producers. There
were a few rules which were followed for all but a handful of episodes:
Protagonists were usually a normal person suddenly dropped into a threatening or
bizarre situation. Evildoers must be punished in the end. The program made only
occasional forays into science fiction and fantasy. Among its science fiction
entries were "The Man who Went Back to Save Lincoln" (a time travel fantasy) and
an adaptation of Curt Siodmak's Donovan's Brain, as well as an adaptation of an
H.P. Lovecraft short story, "The Dunwich Horror".
Alfred Hitchcock directed its audition
show (for the CBS series Forecast). This was an adaptation of "The Lodger," a
story Hitchcock had filmed in 1926 with Ivor Novello. Martin Grams, Jr., author
of Suspense: Twenty Years of Thrills and Chills, described the Forecast origin
of Suspense:
On the second presentation of July 22,
1940, Forecast offered a mystery/horror show titled Suspense. With the
co-operation of his producer Walter Wanger, Alfred Hitchcock received the honor
of directing his first radio show for the American public. The condition agreed
upon for Hitchcock's appearance was that CBS make a pitch to the listening
audience about his and Wanger's latest film, Foreign Correspondent. To add some
flavour to the deal, Wanger threw in Edmund Gwenn and Herbert Marshall as part
of the package. All three men (including Hitch) would be seen in the upcoming
film, which was due for a theatrical release the next month. Both Marshall and
Hitchcock decided on the same story to bring to the airwaves, which happened to
be a favorite of both of them: Marie Belloc Lowndes' "The Lodger." Alfred
Hitchcock had filmed this story for Gainsborough in 1926, and since then it had
remained as one of his favorites.
Herbert Marshall portrayed the mysterious
lodger, and co-starring with him were Edmund Gwenn and character actress Lurene
Tuttle as the rooming-house keepers who start to suspect that their new boarder
might be the notorious Jack-the-Ripper. [Gwenn was actually repeating the role
taken in the 1926 film by his brother, Arthur Chesney. And Tuttle would work
again with Hitchcock exactly 20 years later, playing Mrs Al Chambers in Psycho.]
Character actor Joseph Kearns also had a small part in the drama, and Wilbur
Hatch, head musician for CBS Radio at the time, composed and conducted the music
specially for the program. Adapting the script to radio was not a great
technical challenge for Hitchcock, and he cleverly decided to hold back the
ending of the story from the listening audience in order to keep them in
suspense themselves. This way, if the audience's curiosity got the better of
them, they would write in to the network to find out whether the mysterious
lodger was in fact Jack-the-Ripper. For the next few weeks, hundreds of letters
came in from faithful listeners asking how the story ended. Actually a few wrote
threats claiming that it was "indecent" and "immoral" to present such a
production without giving the solution.
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. Escape was
a similar anthology thriller and suspense program. Both occasionally adapted the
same stories, though Escape had lower budgets--and thus, fewer sound effects and
name actors.
THESE ARE REGULAR AUDIO CD
CAN
BE PLAYED IN ANY CD PLAYER, DVD PLAYER OR COMPUTERS
THIS COLLECTION WILL BE DELIVERED IN A BOX
SET WITH ART WORK
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SHOWS LIST
CD 1
The Copper Tea Strainer - 1949-04-21 Episode 337
The Lie - 1949-04-28 Episode 338
CD 2
Death Has a Shadow - 1949-05-05 Episode 339
The Light Switch - 1949-05-12 Episode 340
CD 3
Consequence - 1949-05-19 Episode 341
The Night Reveals - 1949-05-26 Episode 342
CD 4
The Ten Years - 1949-06-02 Episode 343
Lunch Kit - 1949-06-09 Episode 344
CD 5
The Trap - 1949-06-16 Episode 345
Ghost Hunt - 1949-06-23 Episode 346
CD 6
The Day I Died - 1949-06-30 Episode 347
Nightmare - 1949-09-01 Episode 348
CD 7
Chicken Feed - 1949-09-08 Episode 349
Last Confession - 1949-09-15 Episode 350
CD 8
Experiment 6-R - 1949-09-22 Episode 351
Blind Date - 1949-09-29 Episode 352
CD 9
The Defense Rests - 1949-10-06 Episode 353
Account Payable - 1949-10-13 Episode 354
CD 10
Good Night Mrs Russell - 1949-10-20 Episode 355
Momentum - 1949-10-27 Episode 356
CD 11
The Search for Isabell - 1949-11-03 Episode 357
The Murder of Aunt Delia - 1949-11-10 Episode 358
CD 12
The Red-Headed Woman - 1949-11-17 Episode 359
The Long Wait - 1949-11-24 Episode 360
This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 25 March, 2012.