Suspense - The Ten Grand (#96)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2023-04-12

Suspense - 06/22/44, episode 96
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

This is another Lucille Ball appearance. Her character realizes her purse is stolen… she finds it… and it’s got $10,000 in it! That’s more than $170,000 in 2023US$… What will she do? The script is very demanding as most of it is a near-monologue of narration with only incidental interactions.

The script was written by Virginia Radcliffe, 30 years old. It was her only Suspense script in a long radio writing career. She was best recognized for many years of writing for Cavalcade of America. She also contributed two scripts to Theater Five, one of which was nominated for a Writers Guild Award. In her post-radio career, she wrote extensively about conservation. She died in 1976 at 62.

Only the east recording has survived.

This story was included in Suspense Magazine #3. A PDF of the story is available for download on this page.

At the very end of the drama, "meatless Tuesday" is mentioned as a humorous item as she can’t get the steak she kept thinking about (the joke is set up early in the story). This was a wartime initiative to preserve meat supplies to ensure there would be enough for the armed forces.

The cast: LUCILLE BALL (Ge Ge Lewis), Pat McGeehan (The Greek), John McIntire (Wino / Axis agent), Harry Lang (Fat man / Whistling for old lady), Jeanette Nolan? (Old lady / waitress), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), unknown (Conductor)

For more information, visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-06-22-ten-grand.html