Suspense - Dead Ernest (#243)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 2023-10-02

Suspense: 05/08/47, episode 243
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

This is the “victory lap” repeat of this legendary Seeleg Lester - Merwin Gerard script after it was a prime factor in Suspense receiving a Peabody Award. It’s a marvelous story that has you chuckling and squirming and riveted at different points of the performance.

Details about the history of the production and how the “Articles of Death” script was rescued from William Spier’s reject pile and became Dead Ernest are at this page https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/08/1946-08-08-dead-ernest.html

The Award helped nudge Roma into renewing for two 13-week contracts after they had originally announced that 1947-05-22 would be their last sponsored broadcast.

This repeat performance of Dead Ernest was added after the Award was announced. Death at Live Oak with Robert Mitchum was originally scheduled for this date. It was delayed one week.

Both east and west network broadcasts have survived. The east has a tease for The FBI in Peace and War. The west recording is the better one. There is another curious difference.

At the conclusion of the broadcast, CBS West Coast President Don Thornburg appears before the microphone to announce the program’s Peabody Award. Well, on the east broadcast it’s him. He sounds somewhat Jimmy Stewart-like, is tentative, and has long pauses between sentences. For the west broadcast, Suspense ensemble member John McIntire substitutes as Thornburg. He delivers a much more polished presentation, as one would expect. McIntire was not in the cast of the production but may have been in the studios for a performance of another CBS program that evening. If not, then he was called in between the broadcasts. His wife, Jeanette Nolan, was, however, in this broadcast as "the landlady." A separate audio file of both the east and west Peabody announcements is included with the episode files for easy comparison.


Despite its importance in Suspense history, Dead Ernest was broadcast only three times.

The cast: Wally Maher (Lieutenant Steve Healey who narrates / Bystander), Lester Jay (Payne), Howard Duff (Officer Abbott), Junius Matthews (Witness / Ernest Bowers), Bill Johnstone (Signature Voice / Bystander / Dr. Weldon the coroner), Elliott Reid (Tobin / Anthony the 2nd embalmer), Conrad Binyon (Bob Minelli), Joel Davis (Tommy Stoner), Jay Novello (Minelli / Clerk), Sidney Miller (Honest Jerry Murdock), Elliott Lewis (Henry Prince), Cathy Lewis (Frances Prince / Mrs. Bowers), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Brawley, the landlady), Peggy Rea (Honey, the coroner’s nurse), Jerry Hausner (Al Beniton the 1st embalmer)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/10/1947-05-08-dead-ernest.html