Suspense - An Evening's Diversion (#199)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2023-08-02

Suspense: 07/04/46, episode 199
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Leon Ames stars as a business-obsessed man whose doctor prescribes “an evening’s diversion” to get away from the stresses of his daily life and improve his health and overall well-being. He reluctantly does so, and then he lets the excitement of it all lead him to a restaurant frequented by gangsters. He overhears the plans for a murder plot, then trails the murderer to the scene of their desired crime. Along the way we learn that while he’s had a problem getting on board with the idea of getting out for a night every now and then, his wife has had no problem having diversions when he’s been at the office. Listen carefully as she keeps asking how long he will be at the office and starts getting very specific about his schedule of late night work. 

Gerald Mohr is in the episode as a gangster. Mohr wasn’t on Suspense that often, seven times as best documented. RadioGoldindex has him in The Whistler cast around 60 times. It’s probably a lot more because about a third of The Whistler episodes are still missing.

The author of the script is Sanford Schlesinger, announced in the episode as “Stan.” He was a writer for Boston Blackie, Cisco Kid, an Associated Press program Eye Witness News, and War Correspondent. He also wrote for Molle Mystery Theater and Grand Central Station, among others.

There are two network recordings of the episode, east and west. The east is 10 seconds to network ID (“10s”) and the west is 3 seconds (“3s”). The west coast recording is the better of the two, but they are very close in sound quality.

This was the only appearance of Leon Ames on Suspense. He had a long movie and television career.

The cast: LEON AMES (Paul Edwards), Cathy Lewis (Lily Edwards), Elliott Lewis (Doctor / Railway officer), Gerald Mohr (Maxie), Wally Maher (Joe, the elevator operator / Old man), Lurene Tuttle (Lois / Phone operator), Jerry Hausner (Cab driver / Desk sergeant), Harry Lang (Maxie’s associate), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Policeman), unknown (Waitress)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-07-04-evenings-diversion.html