“SUSPENSE!” 5-HOUR MARATHON 013 #WeirdDarkness #RetroRadio
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When the dramatic anthology series "Suspense" premiered over CBS Radio on June 17, 1942, it did so as both a summer series and as a sustaining program. The network had no idea how well the series would perform - its only previous showcase was as an hour-long audition on the 1940 series "Forecast" - so running out and getting a sponsor didn’t seem to be important at that particular stage. Besides, in the show’s salad days, the guest stars that did appear were of considerably low wattage. But as "Suspense" grew in popularity and began to attract a more upscale acting clientele anxious to participate in “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills,” finding someone to pick up the weekly tab became a top priority for CBS. Luckily, in December 2, 1943, the series found its 'angel' in the sponsorship of Roma Wines. "Suspense’s" long association with Roma (and co-branded Cresta Blanca) was good for both the series and the company; a bigger budget attracted bigger guest stars and, as the program began to climb in the ratings, the company began to enjoy substantial profits. This fruitful arrangement came to an end on November 20, 1947. Roma had been admittedly seeing other programs behind "Suspense’s" back and the bright array of top Hollywood talent began to dim a bit as many of the stars began to tire of the program. CBS rolled the dice and took one heck of a chance in keeping "Suspense" on the air; the network still felt that the series was popular with audiences and they agreed to sustain the program until another sponsor could be found. How serious was CBS about keeping its prestige show? Beginning January 3, 1948, "Suspense" was moved to Saturday nights and was broadcast from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. That’s right: a full hour of “Suspense.” Hour-long dramatic shows were a gamble at best; many stars tended to shun these programs - a half-hour show was grueling enough to get through - and only a few, "The Lux Radio Theater" being the best example, managed to continue on the air for very long. But Lux had a sponsor all too willing to write checks on a weekly basis...while CBS, without a sponsor to back them up, was still the sole support of "Suspense." What's more, the network learned soon enough that by doubling the show from half-hour to hour-long status, they had to double the pay of the individuals working on the show as well. (Networks, as a rule, cringe at the thought of giving money away.) To jazz up "Suspense," CBS hired actor Robert Montgomery to be the host and occasional performer, figuring that on the weeks when they had to resort to a less-than "A" list of guest stars, at least Montgomery would be around to provide a certain degree of glitter. Montgomery, at it turned out, made appearances in quite a few of the hour-long shows, including both the premiere, “The Black Curtain”, and most notably in “Night Must Fall”, which allowed him to reprise the role he had created in the 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture of the same name. "Suspense’s" hour-long experiment closed up shop on May 15, 1948 and the show moved back to Thursday night in its familiar half-hour form through September 1962.
00:00:00.000 = INTRODUCTION
00:01:54.350 = The Lucky Lady (February 14, 1946)
00:32:10.863 = Consequences (February 21, 1946)
01:02:27.676 = Black Path of Fear (March 07, 1946)
01:28:53.720 = No More Alice (March 14, 1946)
01:59:25.121 = The Lonely Road (March 21, 1946)
02:30:10.968 = Out Of Control (March 28, 1946)
03:00:17.665 = Post Mortem (April 04, 1946)
03:30:40.306 = The Name of the Beast (April 11, 1946)
04:01:08.422 = The Night Reveals (April 18, 1946)
04:31:23.782 = Dark Journey (April 25, 1946)
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
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