Suspense: A Message to Garcia (

Suspense: 09/14/53, episode 516
Brought to you by the Old Time Radio Researchers, courtesy of The Suspense Project

The 1953-1954 season opens with the famous (at the time) account of an emissary from President McKinley who works to get a message to General Calixto Garcia, a leader of the Cuban insurgents prior to the Spanish-American War. This was a timely and topical story for the Fall of 1953 because Cuba was in the news. Fidel Castro and Cuban revolutionaries made a failed attempt in July 1953 to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. The country was in turmoil; Castro would eventually succeed. The story fits Elliott Lewis’s affinity for real-life stories that had elements of suspense and uncertainty.

It is one of the more curious adventures in American history. Widmark plays Army Lieutenant Andrew Rowan whose assignment it was to make a heroic dash to deliver the message of support and upcoming military intervention to General Garcia. The assignment was suicidal in many ways. The courageous Rowan had to sneak through a hostile Spanish army to tell Garcia that the United States was about to dispatch Army forces to support the Cuban revolt against Spain. The episode opens with a folk song (no, this is not a Suspense musical) that recounts the blowing up of the US battleship Maine. It was that incident that precipitated the Spanish-American War. A Cuban patriot in Jamaica assists Rowan in disguising himself as a fisherman and obtaining a tiny sailing boat to cross to Cuba. Upon landing there, however, he discovered that he had to cross through virtually the entire Spanish army to reach Garcia. Somehow, the Spanish army learns of his mission and is determined to kill him before he can carry it out.

Special music for the opening and close of the drama was prepared for the episode by Rene Garriguenc in conjunction with the Suspense musical director Lud Gluskin. Garriguenc wrote many pieces for motion pictures and television, especially bridges between scenes and background music.

The original story was by journalist Elbert Hubbard and is accessible at The Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/messageto... The Suspense adaptation was by Richard Chandlee.

The original story was incredibly popular, with 40 million copies printed worldwide, an astonishing number in its time. Hubbard was shocked when requests for copies of the article started to come into his small publishing company. The story was considered to be inspiring, because of Lieutenant Andrew Rowan’s dogged determination to locate Garcia and risk his life at every turn and return with Garcia’s response. A request from the New York Central Railroad for 100,000 copies caught Hubbard by surprise. He told them that it would take two years to produce that many in their company. Instead, he gave permission for them to have copies printed by any means of their choosing by going to printing companies that had proper equipment and quicker turnaround. People from around the world started began see copies of the publication when they visited New York and used the railroad to go around the country. The story began to get international coverage and was translated into many languages once these travelers returned home.

The phrase “get a message to Garcia” came into popular conversation and would have still been known at the time of this broadcast, 40 years or so after the first publication of the story. Many listeners would have remembered it, and even more likely used the phrase even if they had no specific knowledge about its origin. It has since fallen out of general use.

The story was made into a 1936 movie, A Message to Garcia, with Wallace Beery and Barbara Stanwyck. Some listeners may have been familiar with the story because of that release.

At the end of the broadcast, Richard Widmark receives a “Golden Mike Award.” It was his second, this time for the episode How Long is the Night. The awardee was selected by Suspense staff and the show’s regular players. It was intended to bring more news coverage to the series as well as to express gratitude to the selectees.

The rehearsal was on Sunday, August 30, 1953, starting at noon and ending at 4:30 pm. The taping of the drama began at 4:30 pm and ended at 5:00 pm.

The cast: RICHARD WIDMARK (Lieutenant Andrew Rowan), Joseph Kearns (Carter / Sanchez the Soldier), Lillian Buyeff (Teresa), Anthony Barrett (Ceruasio), Jack Kruschen (Dr. Jose Rubio), Ted de Corsia (Dominguin), Edgar Barrier (General Garcia), Ernest Newton (Vocalist [in style of Calypso singer Sir Lancelot]), Larry Thor (Narrator)

COMMERCIAL: Tom Holland (Hap), Harlow Wilcox (Announcer), Sylvia Simms (Operator)

For more information visit https://suspenseproject.blogspot.com/...