Suspense - Donovan's Brain (Part 1) (#91)
Channel: Old Time Radio Researchers
Date: 08/04/2023

Suspense - 05/22/44, episode 91
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

This was a long-awaited Suspense production, and it didn’t disappoint. Delayed for about six months, it was a ground-breaking endeavor that demonstrated a good story and sophisticated production could be spread over two broadcasts, and it established the fact that science fiction could attract and satisfy a general adult audience. 

Listeners accustomed to typical radio mysteries had to think that this was an odd story for Suspense. A doctor places a dead man’s brain in a jar and conducts experiments to keep it alive. The experiment goes awry when the brain’s significant telepathic powers take over the doctor’s will, thoughts, and actions. Telepathy and ESP were mysterious and intriguing ideas and audiences could believe most anything about them. But they were not the stuff of mystery programming. The Suspense production showed that it was the situations created around the experiments that make the story Suspense-worthy.

Welles likely had a great deal of influence in the adaptation and the production effects. He used the movie script as a springboard and created the gimmick of his muttering to indicate when it was Donovan, and not the doctor, in charge of decisions and behavior. 

There are multiple recordings available. These are the best recordings to listen to:

Suspense 1944-05-22 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) WC.flac
Suspense 1944-05-25 Donovan's Brain (Part 2) EC.flac

The east coast recording of part one was commercially released by Radio Reruns in the 1980s and was never widely circulated among collectors. It is in lesser sound quality than the west broadcast of part one.

Suspense 1944-05-18 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) EC.flac

The west broadcast of part two does not exist among collectors and is not known to have survived. There is no record of the broadcasts being used by the Armed Forces Radio Service. This may be attributable to the two-part nature of the production.

These are two aircheck recordings that may have been privately recorded by or for one of the actors or their agents, or for Roma. These airchecks were the first recordings of Donovan’s Brain to be circulated among collectors. They fell out of circulation once better studio recordings became available.

Suspense 1944-05-22 Donovan's Brain (Part 1) WC AIRCHECK (some signal drift).flac
Suspense 1944-05-25 Donovan's Brain (Part 2) EC AIRCHECK (some signal drift).flac

There is another interesting recording. Fresh off his performance on Suspense, just two days after the west coast broadcast of part two, Welles included a parody of Donovan's Brain on his Orson Welles Almanac program. It was a live performance at the Air Transport Command at Long Beach, California for military and support service personnel. The lampoon begins about 11:30 into the program and is 10.5 minutes. It has many topical jokes and some inside jokes for the service personnel in the audience, and it does not resonate with a current listener. The sounds of the brain thinking were created by an actor in full view of the audience, to get more on-air laughs and sounds of amusement from them. Suspense historian Keith Scott notes that Hans Conried and John McIntire, regulars on Suspense, were in the cast.

The guest on the Orson Welles Almanac of 1944-05-31 guest is actress and singer Marjorie Reynolds. The parody excerpt is included on this page. The full program can be accessed at https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/items/show/2095#

The cast: ORSON WELLES (Dr. Patrick Corey / William Donovan), Jeanette Nolan (Janice), John McIntire (Dr. Schrott), Joe Kearns (Man in Black), Hans Conried (Dr. Zanger / Newsreader), Bill Martell? (David Corey), unknown (Nurse)

John McIntire would play Corey/Donovan four years later in the hour-long Suspense production in January 1948.

Following the broadcast of part one on May 18, Spier was dining with Welles and others at the Players Restaurant and suffered his second major heart attack in just ten months. He was ordered to rest for several months.

For more information, visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/2023/04/1944-05-18-25-donovans-brain-two-parts.html