Stars On Suspense (old Time Radio)

One of the screen's brightest stars, Myrna Loy broke out with her wry and sophisticated comedy turn as Nora Charles in The Thin Man and grew so popular she earned the nickname "Queen of the Movies." Her one and only appearance on Suspense played to her talents with both comedy and drama. It's a tale of a librarian on a quest to find a vandal in "Library Book" (originally aired on CBS on September 20, 1945). We'll also hear her recreate her big screen role in The Best Years of Our Lives from Screen Guild Players (originally aired on CBS on November 24, 1947).

Equally effective as weary heroes and psychotic villains, Robert Mitchum had a screen presence that few actors could replicate. Best known for his turns in film noir and thrillers, Mitchum gave Hollywood some of its most iconic baddies and toughest antiheroes. We'll hear him as a man plotting a murder in "Death at Live Oak" (originally aired on CBS on May 15, 1947) and as Washington Irving in a biographical drama from The Cavalcade of America (originally aired on NBC on May 3, 1948).

The great William Conrad lends his booming voice to two outstanding "tales well calculated to keep you in Suspense." One of the all-time legends of the medium, Conrad was best known as US Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, and he made these visits to Suspense during his run in one of radio's best westerns. We'll hear him in a terrifying one-man show in "The Waxwork" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1956) and in an amazing radio tale of high adventure in "Leningen vs. the Ants" (originally aired on CBS August 25, 1957).

Actor, writer, and director Cornel Wilde was a gifted mimic with a talent for languages. It served him well in his screen career, and it especially helped in his five appearances on Suspense, where Wilde could play characters both good and bad from all corners of the world. He's a man plotting a dangerous insurance fraud in "A Ring for Marya" (originally aired on CBS on December 28, 1950), and then he's a southern lawyer in the Big Apple in "Allen in Wonderland" (originally aired on CBS on October 27, 1952).

In his second and final appearance on Suspense, Jimmy Cagney stars in "No Escape," a cautionary tale of distracted (and deadly) driving (originally aired on CBS on December 16, 1948). Then we'll hear the star of Angels with Dirty Faces and Yankee Doodle Dandy in an adaptation of "Night Must Fall" from the Lady Esther Screen Guild Theater (originally aired on CBS on July 24, 1944).

Claire Trevor - the "queen of film noir" - returns to the Suspense microphone in two more old time radio thrillers. We'll hear Trevor as a woman scorned out for revenge against a cheating husband in "The Light Switch" (originally aired on CBS on May 12, 1949). Then, she stars in a story from Cornell Woolrich - the master of noir fiction - in "Angel Face" (originally aired on CBS on May 18, 1950).

Despite his long career in Hollywood (and his fantastic voice), Roddy McDowall made only one visit to Suspense. We'll hear the star of Planet of the Apes in "One Way Street" (originally aired on CBS on January 23, 1947). Then he's in lighter fare in an adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" from Family Theater (originally aired on the Mutual Network on March 8, 1950).

Oscar-nominated actress and singer Ava Gardner turned in sensational performances in The Killers, Seven Days in May, and more, and her off-screen romances with Mickey Rooney and Frank Sinatra made for memorable chapters in Hollywood history. We'll hear Ms. Gardner in her one and only Suspense appearance - "Lady in Distress" (originally aired on CBS on May 1, 1947). Then we'll hear her as she makes a visit to Edwards Air Force Base with Bob Hope in an episode from the comedian's radio show from March 6, 1951.

The "First Lady of Suspense" is back! Agnes Moorehead stars in a pair of eerie thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat: "Uncle Henry's Rosebush" (originally aired on CBS on June 23, 1943) and an adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (originally aired on CBS on July 29, 1948).

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.