BW - EP154—011: Stars on Suspense in 1944—Listen to Cary Grant in "The Black Curtain," 11/30/44

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers Back on December 2nd, 1943 when Suspense first became sponsored by Roma Wines, the script chosen for the first Roma episode was “The Black Curtain” starring Cary Grant. Of the performance Grant said, “If I ever do any more radio work, I want to do it on Suspense, where I get a good chance to act.” The just-heard Lurene Tuttle felt the same way about acting in radio. On November 30th, 1944 Grant was back on Suspense for a repeat performance of “The Black Curtain.” He requested that Lurene Tuttle join him again as the female lead. “The Black Curtain” is an adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich story about a man who wakes up after a fall on a city sidewalk and realizes he can’t remember his name or events of the last three years. He soon learns he’s been accused of murder. Somehow he has to prove his innocence, which means finding the real killer. The repeat performance wasn’t initially planned. The original script, “To Find Help” starring Frank Sinatra had to be postponed due to a scheduling conflict. Grant happened to be available and it also happened to be the one-year anniversary of Roma’s sponsorship. More than eight million people heard this broadcast. The cast features the aforementioned Lurene Tuttle, Wally Maher, Pat McGeehan, Harry Lang, and a young Conrad Binyon, who had previously played an uncredited part in The Howards of Virginia with Grant. Binyon was amazed that Cary Grant remembered him.