This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Suspense, "radio's outstanding theater of thrills." Compounded of mystery and suspicion and dangerous adventure, the iconic, groundbreaking series was hugely popular throughout its twenty year run on CBS Radio, airing over nine hundred episodes and featuring performances from some of the biggest stars of the day. In honor of this classic series, here are five tales calculated to intrigue, to stir your nerves, to offer you a precarious situation and then withhold the solution until the last possible moment. Listen, listen then as we again hope to keep you in . . . Suspense!
1. The Diary of Sophronia Winters
Perhaps best known to modern audiences for her role as Endora on Bewitched, Agnes Moorehead began her acting career in radio. With thirty-two appearances on the program, she is the undisputed "Queen of Suspense." Her most famous performance for the series is, of course, the iconic "Sorry, Wrong Number," a piece she reprised seven times during the series' run; her first episode for the program, entitled "The Diary of Sophronia Winters," is however a far more frightening piece.
Also listen to: Uncle Henry's Rosebush. Post Mortem. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Evil of Adelaide Winters. Death and Miss Turner. Don't Call Me Mother.
2. Fugue in C Minor
If Agnes Moorehead be the Queen of Suspense, Vincent Price must be its King with an appropos thirteen appearances during the program's run. The episode Three Skeleton Key often appears on lists of the most terrifying episodes of old time radio, but I have selected Price's second appearance, "Fugue in C Minor" co-starring Ida Lupino, for this list due to its gothic atmosphere and far more disturbing narrative.
Also listen to: The Hands of Mr. Ottermole. The Pit and the Pendulum. Rave Notice.
3. Ghost Hunt
Starring game show host and creator Ralph Edwards, this episode about a radio personality broadcasting live from a haunted house as a publicity stunt basically invented the genre of found-footage horror.
4. The House in Cypress Canyon
Another episode that often appears on lists of the most frightening classic radio episodes of all time is this Christmas episode about a newly married couple who move into a house in the Hollywood hills, only to find something terrifying behind the locked door of a hall closet...
5. Finishing School
To quote the host of Suspense, the Man in Black, this episode presents "a distinguished, all-feminine cast of stars headed by Margo, Miss Elsa Lanchester, and Miss Janet Beecher . . . Despite the absence of male participants in Ethel Lena White's story, we can promise you there is nothing dainty about the proceedings."
Also listen to: Library Book
Sources: 0.1.2.3.4.5.