EARLY TO DEATH

April 12, 1951

A fight for $300,000 in stolen loot in the Mexican desert. Early To Death is a story of murder and greed. 

• Writers: John Michael Hayes and E. Jack Newman
• Composer: Lucien Morowack
• Producer and Director: Elliott Lewis

“Suspense” is a radio drama  broadcast on CBS Radio from 1940 through 1962. One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, it was subtitled “radio’s outstanding theater of thrills” and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era. Approximately 945 episodes were broadcast during its long run, and more than 900 still exist. 

 At this point, the show is sponsored by Auto-Lite.

The program’s heyday was in the early 1950s, when radio actor, producer and director Elliott Lewis (later married to Mary Jane Croft) took over. Here the material reached new levels of sophistication. The writing was taut, and the casting, which had always been a strong point of the series featured such film stars as Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Lena Horne, and Cary Grant. Lewis expanded the repertory to include many of radio’s famous drama and comedy stars – like Lucy and Desi – playing against type. “Suspense” was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.

‘EARLY TO DEATH’ SYNOPSIS

Ben is a co-pilot on a plane and he and his partner Evie call in that their plane is in trouble. But the plane wasn’t in trouble, it was carrying the company’s payroll and the two of them jumped from the plane with the money and took it as they had planned and buried it in the mountain where they planned to leave it until things had died down. A few days later they strolled in to a nearby town like two plane crash survivors. They knew there would be questions to answer but they had rehearsed for this over the year. When the wreckage was found it was assumed that the money had burnt in it. It seemed that they were clear and all they had to do was wait but then a guy named Rico Sebastian turned up claiming that he had seen them bury the money in the mountains.

“I’d killed, then he’d killed. The way I looked at it, it was my turn again.“

CAST

• Lucille Ball (Evie) 
• Desi Arnaz (Rico Sebastian) was also performing on the radio show “Your Tropical Trip” on CBS. 
• Tom Holland (Ben Taylor)
• Joseph Kearns played psychiatrist Dr. Tom Robinson in “The Kleptomaniac” (ILL S1;E27) and later played the theatre manager in “Lucy’s Night in Town” (ILL S6;E22). 
• Jack Kruschen was heard on “My Favorite Husband” in “Baby Sitting” on November 11, 1949. He later played a mechanic in The Long, Long Trailer (1954).
• Bert Holland (Auto-Lite Commercial Spokesman) 

“I’d killed, then he’d killed. The way I looked at it, it was my turn again.” ~ Evie

‘DEATH’ TRIVIA

On April 12, 1951, Lucille Ball had just finished a three-season run on radio as Liz Cooper in “My Favorite Husband.”  Her next goal was to prepare for television, with her husband of eleven years, Desi Arnaz. Desi was then playing gigs with his orchestra and hosting CBS radio’s “Your Tropical Trip”. Television would bring them together at work as well as at home.  The original pilot for “I Love Lucy” was kinescoped on March 2, 1951, in Hollywood, a month before this broadcast. 

Lucille Ball in “Suspense”:

• January 13, 1944  – “Dime A Dance”
• October 24, 1945 –  “ A Shroud for Sarah”
• June 22, 1944 – “The Ten Grand”
• October 14, 1948 – “Little Pieces of Rope”
• October 12, 1950  – “The Red Headed Woman” ~ with Desi Arnaz

At then end, the announcer promotes next week’s “Suspense” James Stewart in “The Rescue” and promises future stars Ann Baxter, Charles Boyer, and Rosalind Russell.