Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

Hail to the Chief! Before he sat in the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan made a pair of visits to the Suspense microphone. Tune in and “hear one for the Gipper.” Better yet, hear two as Reagan stars in “One and One’s a Lonesome” (originally aired on CBS on March 23, 1950) and “Circumstantial Terror” (originally aired on CBS on March 8, 1954).

“Stars On Suspense” salutes the master of suspense – Alfred Hitchcock. We’re celebrating the anniversary of the legendary director’s birth with an old time radio adaptation of one of his big screen classics. Tallulah Bankhead recreates her role in Hitch’s wartime drama set on the high seas – Lifeboat. Jeff Chandler and Sheldon Leonard join her aboard this production from the Screen Directors’ Playhouse, originally aired on NBC on November 16, 1950.

We're back with more legends of Hollywood in tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense. This week, our star is John Lund, the boyishly good looking leading man who made thirteen visits to the program. He plays a man conspiring to bump off his wife's lover in "A Plane Case of Murder" (originally aired on CBS on October 10, 1946). Then, Lund is first mate on a ship with a killer among the crew in "Murder Aboard the Alphabet" (originally aired on CBS on August 21, 1947).

Father may have known best, but when Robert Young starred on Suspense he played characters miles away from beloved radio and TV dad Jim Anderson. We'll hear Young co-star with Geraldine Fitzgerald in "A Friend to Alexander" (originally aired on CBS on August 3, 1943). Then, Young plays a patient in an insane asylum fighting to regain his memory in "The High Wall" (originally aired on CBS on June 6, 1946).

With his good looks and affable demeanor, Van Johnson was a matinee idol to the bobbysoxer crowd during the war years. He went on to success on the big and small screens in a career that stretched into the 1980s. We'll hear Johnson on Suspense in "The Singing Walls" (an AFRS rebroadcast of a show from November 2, 1944) and "The Defense Rests" (originally aired on CBS on October 6, 1949).

Best known as the mother of The Bad Seed, Nancy Kelly made eight visits to Suspense during her long Broadway and Hollywood career. We'll hear the Tony winner and Oscar nominee as a wife fighting for her husband's life in "Eve" (an Armed Forces Radio Service rebroadcast) and as a carhop who gets a ride from the wrong stranger in "Drive-In" (originally aired on CBS on January 11, 1945).

Emmy winner Hume Cronyn was no stranger to thrills and chills. A frequent collaborator of Alfred Hitchcock, Cronyn played the scene stealing true crime buff in Shadow of a Doubt and helped with the story for Rope. He played many roles over his award-winning career, but his background with the master certainly must have helped prepare him for his work on Suspense. We'll hear him in "Too Many Smiths" (originally aired on CBS on June 13, 1946) and "Blue Eyes" (originally aired on CBS on August 29, 1946).

Best known for his strong, heroic performances on screen, Henry Fonda played presidents, farmers, cowboys, and killers with a quiet authority over a fifty year career. We'll hear the Oscar winner in "Summer Storm," his only appearance on Suspense (originally aired on CBS on October 18, 1945). Then, he creates the titular role in Young Mr. Lincoln on Academy Award (originally aired on CBS on July 10, 1946).

Big and small screen legend Mickey Rooney plays two small-time hoods yearning to be big and facing the consequences of their actions in these old time radio thrillers: "Alibi Me" from Suspense - his final appearance on "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" - (originally aired on CBS on January 4, 1951) and "Knee High to a Corpse" from The Hollywood Star Playhouse (originally aired on CBS on July 19, 1951).

To generations of radio, TV, and movie fans, Eve Arden lives in the halls of high school as Principal McGee of Grease or the titular Our Miss Brooks in one of radio's best comedies. But there was more to this talented comedienne than her sense of deadpan humor, as seen in performances in Mildred Pierce and Anatomy of a Murder. We'll hear Eve Arden get serious in "The Well-Dressed Corpse" (originally aired on CBS on January 18, 1951). Then, she's Madison High's favorite English teacher in the March 6, 1949 episode of Our Miss Brooks - "Miss Brooks Gets the Works."

For his final visits to Suspense, the great Orson Welles starred in an epic two-part adaptation of Curt Siodmak's "Donovan's Brain." Welles plays a scientist whose experiments into the power of the brain take a sinister turn and gives rise to a monster. The story originally aired on CBS on May 18 and May 25, 1944.

Whether she was locked in a surfside embrace with Burt Lancaster or dancing with Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr turned in memorable performances on screen and earned six Oscar nominations over her long career. The star of An Affair to Remember and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allyson made only one appearance on Suspense as a beautiful thief in "The Lady Pamela" (originally aired on CBS on March 31, 1952). We'll also hear her in a thriller from the Hollywood Star Playhouse - "Haunt Me Not" (originally aired on NBC on August 17, 1952).

Singer, actor, director, producer - Dick Powell wore many hats during his career in Hollywood. Starting out in musical comedies, Powell reinvented himself as a tough guy film noir hero in the 1940s and he'd go on to a successful run as a director and producer on the big and small screens. We'll hear both of his Suspense appearances: "Slow Burn" (originally aired on CBS on February 23, 1950); and "Overdrawn" (originally aired on CBS on May 31, 1951).

Actress, singer, and World War II pin-up legend Betty Grable brings her "million dollar legs" to "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Ms. Grable stars in a twisting mystery about an invalid mother, a frustrated daughter, and poison - "The Copper Tea Strainer" (originally aired on CBS on April 21, 1949). Then, we'll hear her playing for laughs with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in "Altar Bound," originally aired on The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre on CBS on February 23, 1941.

Oscar-winner Charles Laughton is back in more "tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense." We'll hear him co-star with his wife Elsa Lanchester in a radio adaptation of Agatha Christie's "The ABC Murders" (originally aired on May 18, 1943). Then, Laughton plays one of history's most notorious murderers in "Neil Cream, Doctor of Poison" (originally aired on CBS on September 17, 1951).

Eddie Bracken endeared himself to audiences with winning turns as lovable losers in comedies like The Miracle oft Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero, but on Suspense he turned his "aw shucks" persona on its head for a series of shows as mysterious characters with sinister sides. We'll hear him in "The Visitor" (originally aired on CBS on May 11, 1944) and in "Elwood" (originally aired on CBS on March 5, 1947).

Suspense regular Richard Widmark is back in the saddle for two more old time radio thrillers. In "Tell You Why I Shouldn't Die" (originally aired on CBS on June 7, 1951), he's a pitchman trying to save his own life from an angry man with a gun. Then, Widmark stars in the story of an infamous and bloody Texas feud in "The Hunting of Bob Lee" (originally aired on CBS on October 29, 1951).

Oscar-winner Edmond O'Brien was one of Hollywood's most colorful character actors, making memorable appearances in The Killers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Seven Days in May, and more. He brought a tough, hard-boiled intensity to his Suspense appearances: as a reporter on the trail of a story worth killing for in "The Argyle Album" (originally aired on CBS on September 4, 1947) and as a gambler framed for murder in "Muddy Track" (originally aired on CBS on November 11, 1948).

Sophisticated and charming on screen, three-time Oscar nominee William Powell showed a different side in his performances on Suspense. His desperate characters - men on the run with greed and murder in their hearts - are miles away from his witty roles in The Thin Man films and My Man Godfrey. We'll hear Powell in "Give Me Liberty" (originally aired on CBS on October 21, 1948) and "The Escape of Lacey Abbott" (originally aired on CBS on January 19, 1950).

In her third and final performance on Suspense, four-time Oscar nominee Rosalind Russell is new bride whose marriage falls in the shadow of her grandfather's murder. We'll hear her in "When the Bough Breaks" (originally aired on CBS on May 3, 1951). Then, Russell reunites with Cary Grant in a radio recreation of His Girl Friday from The Gulf Screen Guild Theatre (originally aired on CBS on March 30, 1941).