Suspense: Destruction (AFRS

Suspense: 07/27/54, episode 561
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

Lawrence Dobkin stars in Morton Fine and David Friedkin's story about a husband, Joe Porter, whose entire life has disintegrated. The show opens with him in a hospital as doctors are working on him to save his life. The script turns to flashbacks and the events he ponders in his thoughts becomes the narration for the listener. Scenes that led up to this situation are replayed, starting with his wife telling him she wants a divorce. The story continues as he loses his job, his friends, and any self-esteem he might have had.

This show might be considered as very depressing, especially in its conclusion. One of the premises of the story is that Joe Porter’s “will to live” had eroded so much he could not recover, but if he had the desire to rebound, he could have done so. Once that desire was destroyed, the cumulative effects of the cascade of negative experiences, he was gone, right before our ears.
When he loses his job, his boss details the need to restructure the business and control their costs. This scene would have resonated with the listening audience because the US economy was in recession from Spring 1953 to Spring 1954. Many families had dealt with job disruptions in this period. The economy had started to recover. There was concern that the economy and businesses would retain that recovery. That particular recession and their own organizational restructuring were major reasons, among many others, for the Auto-Lite decision to end their sponsorship.

This is the first production under the leadership of Norman Macdonnell. His relationship with the series began during the 1949-1950 season when he served during William Spier’s brief return to the series after Anton M. Leader’s contract was not renewed. The highlight of Macdonnell’s career was Gunsmoke. His return to Suspense was likely as a placeholder to fill the vacuum created by Elliott Lewis’s departure. CBS was uncertain what they would do with Suspense. They were originally prepared to end the season with Terribly Strange Bed, but that assumed Auto-Lite would return. Instead of closing down for the summer, they continued with the backlog of scripts they had. This was likely in the hope of gaining a sponsor. That sponsor never materialized. Macdonnell’s return to the series was as an established and respected radio producer and director. The series was in very capable hands as CBS pondered what to do with the series next, and the productions, especially of new scripts, demonstrate that. Macdonnell was likely told it was temporary.

This is the last of the original Fine and Friedkin scripts to debut on the series. It was probably commissioned by Elliott Lewis when there was an expectation of an Auto-Lite sponsorship renewal. Many of Fine & Friedkin’s scripts would be re-presented again in subsequent years. You can always tell whether a script was considered by Suspense staffers to be better than others by whether or not it was repeated. Not all of the best scripts were repeated, of course. Repeats had to be negotiated with the authors. One of the ways CBS was reducing costs for the sustained Suspense was to reuse scripts. The author’s fee was generally one-third to one-half of what was originally paid. Sometimes authors would be paid for the right to produce a repeat broadcast as part of their initial fee. Fine and Friedkin were so well-established that they likely commanded a higher fee than other writers, which was likely a reason that their new Suspense scripts ended once the show sponsorship ended.

Cast: Lawrence Dobkin (Joe Porter), Parley Baer (Reamer), Charlotte Lawrence (Vera), Jerry Hausner (Herb), Michael Ann Barrett (Phyllis), John Dehner (Dickie / Collins), Virginia Gregg (Girl / Maid), Clayton Post (Steve), Frank Gerstle (Bar), Georgia Ellis (Ellen), Jack Kruschen (Landis), Larry Thor (Narrator)

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