SUSPENSE
(Broadcast: June 17, 1942 - June 3, 1962)

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With a revolving guest cast of some of Hollywood's most popular names, the Peabody Award-winning Suspense ushered into radio's golden age a unique point of cross-pollination between media industries. Under the management of producer William Spier and the patronage of the CBS radio network, the weekly "psychological drama" featured performances from a range of successful commercial film personas of "marquee status" including Cary Grant, Judy Garland and Humphrey Bogart, with notable episodes featuring Agnes Moorehead and Orson Welles. Moorehead's role as the bedridden Mrs. Elbert Stevenson in Sorry, Wrong Number proved such a ratings success that she repeated the performance seven times in subsequent broadcasts.

The initial success of Suspense was due in large part to the partnership between its producer Spier, composer Lucien Moraweck and sound effects supervisor Berne Surrey who fostered a production environment that allowed for minimal rehearsal time from its performers, making the show appealing for film stars coordinating busy shooting and publicity schedules. Spier's focus on fully integrating the program's soundscape, including the dramatic use of moments of silence, with its script foregrounded the aural nature of the medium while building upon the commercially-friendly national reputation of its guest cast members from Hollywood. This formula would prove effective well into the 1950s when staff changes at CBS and shifts in the radio and film industries along with the proliferation of television ownership caused a realigning of the importance of radio in commercial drama. For Suspense, faced with the lack of participation of major film stars during the late 1950s, the program would weather the difficulties of a shrinking budget and dwindling audience base until 1962.

The UCLA Film and Television Archive holds multiple titles of Suspense available for use on-site at the Archive Research and Study Center.