"The Line-Up" round-up: story connections and other minutiae

I am indebted to the Line-Up log prepared by the late Stewart Wright (available via this page) and would recommend it for thorough information on The Line-Up:  airdates, titles, actors, the setting, etc.  Thanks also to Dr. Joe Webb and to Bob Pedersen for sharing with me episodes I had not heard!

My own eclectic notes below are based on listening to 82 episodes of the series and on looking at the twelve scripts available in the library of the Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety And Comedy (SPERDVAC).

 

Some story connections

1950-05-27 audition "The Anita Cameron Case" (Morton Fine & David Friedkin)

The same story as Broadway's My Beat 1949-11-26 "The Mary Gilbert Murder Case" and Bold Venture e42 "A Dead Girl's Clothes" aka "Innocence in Trujillo."

1950-08-03 Untitled (aka Two Young Girls Killed by Hit and Run Driver) (Morton Fine & David Friedkin)

Serial killing as revenge for vehicle accident:  a variation on the same basic idea as, although not the same story as, Fine and Friedkin's oft-repurposed script for Broadway's My Beat 1949-08-11 "The Jane Darnell Murder Case," Pursuit 1949-11-10 "Three For All," The McCoy 1951-04-24 "Three Wayward Girls" and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1953-01-16 "The Starlet Matter."
 

"I'm gonna keep Elaine Kirk's engagements."  See also Broadway's My Beat 1950-11-24 "The Shorty Dunne Murder Case," in which Danny Clover investigates a woman's murder by following her shopping list.
 

Someone "confesses" that they blame themselves for the victim's death, but then it turns out that person literally did commit the murder.  This also happens in Broadway's My Beat 1950-02-03 "The Lt. Jimmy Hunt Murder Case," 1951-10-06 "The Lily Nelson Murder Case," and 1952-02-16 "The Raymond Grant Murder Case."

1950-08-10 Untitled aka Man Dies of Poisoning (Morton Fine & David Friedkin)

Man dies at police headquarters; cab driver reports man was in his cab with woman who got out first; investigation uncovers blackmail about bullet wound:  see also Broadway's My Beat 1949-08-04 "The Dr. Robbie McClure Murder Case."  The cabbie coming to the protagonist's office to report recognizing his fare on a poster is also reminiscent of a scene in Broadway 1950-05-05 "The Thelma Harper Murder Case."

1950-08-24 Untitled (Hotel arson, body found) (Morton Fine & David Friedkin)

Policewoman impersonates murder victim in order to trap killer into trying to finish the job:  see also the later Broadway's My Beat 1952-01-19 "The Lynn Halstead Murder Case."  That story also involves delay and trouble about identifying a body, although for very different reasons.

1950-11-23 The Topaz Earring Case (Gene Levitt and Robert Mitchell)

Reuses many story elements from The Adventures of Philip Marlowe 1949-08-06 "The August Lion" by Mel Dinelli, Robert Mitchell and Gene Levitt—including the clue of a piece of jewelry which seems to point to one suspect but actually implicates another of the opposite gender.
 

Also, the cops get a tip from a dubious private detective named Manny Pomeroy; there's a disreputable PI named Mutt Pomeroy in Philip Marlowe 1950-01-28 "The Hairpin Turn" and 1950-09-08 "The Fifth Mask."

1950-11-30 The Cop Killer (Blake Edwards)

The grieving Mom Fisher calling Ben and Matt "my two big policemen" is reminiscent of the grieving Mama Waxman ("Oh, Richard, how's mein big policeman?") in Richard Diamond, Private Detective 1949-06-26 "The Tom Waxman Bombing Case."

1950-12-07 The Jersey Parallel (Blake Edwards)

Evidently inspired by the case of WWII veteran Howard Unruh (Wikipedia), who on 6 September 1949 walked around his Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood and killed thirteen people with a Luger in under twenty minutes.  In the days immediately following the crime, Unruh's brother was reported to have "expressed the opinion that his brother went berserk because of nervousness brought on by his war service," and his father also publicly stated that the war changed him; but psychiatrists quoted in the press said that Howard Unruh's war service had nothing to do with his mental illness.  The Line-Up story takes that view, adding the final twist that in this case the paranoid killer was never even in the Army.

1951-06-19 Lieutenant Guthrie Kidnapped (Blake Edwards)

See also Richard Diamond, Private Detective 1950-10-18, in which Lieutenant Walt Levinson is kidnapped; the two stories are not especially similar, but it could be a bit of an in-joke the way the Line-Up kidnapper keeps saying he bets nobody's ever kidnapped a police lieutenant before.

1951-09-26 The Fur Flaunting Floozie (E. Jack Neuman)

Several elements of this story were reused for Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1953-05-12 "The Rochester Theft Matter," which was later combined with Johnny Dollar 1953-01-02 "The Baltimore Matter" and reworked as 1956-01-09 – 1956-01-13 "The Todd Matter."

1951-10-18 The Nicely Nixed Nixon Case (E. Jack Neuman)

Has a character named Bill Chambers, which was the name of the boyfriend in Johnny Dollar "The Rochester Theft Matter" and "The Todd Matter."

1951-11-08 The Pixie-Picker Pickle Case (E. Jack Neuman)

The police bring in a eccentric, religious newspaper seller named Edmund who witnessed a crime and who, when asked to describe the criminal's face, replies that it was "the Devil's face."  Neuman reused much of this scene in Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1955-10-06 "The Macormack Matter" episode 4—perhaps primarily in order to fill time for the new five-part format!  Unlike in the Line-Up episode, the witness's story in Johnny Dollar does not help solve the case and they don't try to get him to identify a suspect.

 

1952-07-22 The Drinkler Kidnapping Case (E. Jack Neuman)

"Doesn't look much like a kidnapper, does he, Ben?" / "I don't know.  What's a kidnapper supposed to look like?"  Compare Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar 1953-05-12 "The Rochester Theft Matter" (and the subsequent "The Todd Matter"):  "Doesn't look like a killer, though, does he?" / "I don't know.  What's a killer supposed to look like?"

1952-10-08 The Teacher's Pet (Sidney Marshall)

A man dies at the wheel of a car, apparently of cardiac arrest, but the autopsy uncovers a small-caliber bullet wound behind the right ear.  This also occurred in the murder of Samuel I. Paris, dramatized by Sidney Marshall for Somebody Knows 1950-08-10.  In the Line-Up episode, the autopsy surgeon says the bullet wound wasn't noticed because "Silvano needed a haircut"; the Somebody Knows episode doesn't specifically mention the victim's hair, but contemporary newspaper items on the Paris murder do say the wound was concealed by thick hair.

1952-10-22 The Green Cap Case (Sidney Marshall)

Significant portions of this episode are directly adapted from Marshall's script for Somebody Knows 1950-07-06 "The Unsolved Murder of Joseph P. Bohanak."  According to that account of a true unsolved case, the police believe the distinctive green cap found at the scene may be a vital clue.  In the Line-Up story, they investigate the cap but wind up catching the killer by other means—and the last line is "I wonder if Quine ever got anywhere with that cap"!

The name of the victim in "The Green Cap Case" is William Brenizer; Eugene Brenizer was one of the detectives on the Bohanak case.

1953-01-07 Once Upon a Snow-Plow (Sidney Marshall)

This story seems to be loosely based on the murders of Geraldine Mingo and Mary Kabiska, as dramatized by Sidney Marshall for Somebody Knows 1950-07-13.  The two St. Paul women were knifed over a year apart, both while walking home alone from transit stops at night in stormy inclement weather.  Before the Kabiska murder, a professor of clinical psychology had theorized that the Mingo murder was the work of a repetitive psychopathic killer and predicted that the killer would strike again under similar circumstances.  In the Line-Up story, Guthrie is able to identify the circumstances in order to anticipate and thwart a third murder.  In real life, there were apparently no further murders publicly linked to these two, and the case remains unsolved.

1953-02-11 Good Enough to Eat (Sidney Marshall)

A clue is reported in a trash can, but the trash is taken to the dump before the clue is retrieved, and the police have to sort through a huge pile of garbage using a conveyor belt.  This also occurred in the investigation of the murder of Elizabeth Short, as dramatized by Sidney Marshall for Somebody Knows 1950-08-24.  In the Line-Up story, they find the jars and track down the source of the poisonings; in the Short case, they found the purse but it turned out to have no bearing on the murder.

Some character names (or, The Quine's Qurious Qognomens Qase)

Child actor turned director Richard Quine (Wikipedia) was a friend and frequent collaborator of Blake Edwards, and is credited as co-writer or co-editor with Edwards of the Line-Up episodes of 1951-05-29, 1951-06-12, 1951-07-05, and 1951-08-02.  He and William Asher (Wikipedia) were co-producers and co-directors of the 1948 Columbia picture Leather Gloves, in which Blake Edwards was an actor.

The fictional Sgt. Quine is called "Dick" and "Richard" in the dialogue of 1951-09-05 "Pointless Pierson Polemic Polarity," and has the first name Richard on the character list of the script for 1952-04-08 "Cornered Cop Killer."  His first name is Tom in the dialogue of 1952-10-01 "Poker Party" and on the scripts of 1952-04-01 "Kastro's," 1952-07-06 "Luger-Lugging Laddie," 1952-07-22 "Drinkler Kidnapping," 1952-11-05 "Be-Bop Bandits," 1952-12-12 "Gasoline Bandit," and 1952-12-19 "Two Tough Thugs."

Sgt. Asher has the first name Dave in the dialogue of 1952-03-04 "Mercer's," 1952-05-06 "Babs," 1952-07-08 "Luger-Lugging," 1952-07-29 "Charles Crocked," 1952-08-05 "Karger Kops," 1952-10-15 "Bentley's" and 1952-12-19 "Two Tough Thugs," and on the script of 1952-12-12 "Gasoline Bandit."  His first name is Fred on the scripts of 1952-04-01 "Kastro's" and 1952-11-05 "Be-Bop."

According to IMDb, Asher's first name was Fred in both the 1954 TV series and the 1958 movie based on The Line-Up.  Quine is listed in only one episode of the TV series, with no first name given, and has the first name Al in the movie.

Before introducing Quine as a regular on The Line-Up, Blake Edwards had used the name Quine for a police officer in Richard Diamond, Private Detective 1949-05-22 "The Stolen Purse"; and Sgt. Asher shares his surname with Diamond's steady girlfriend Helen Asher.  In a possible nod to her, one of the suspect's aliases in 1951-10-04 "The Wild, Wild Woman Case" by E. Jack Neuman is "Helen Diamond."

The real-life Dick Quine was also close friends with one Frederick Karger, and witnessed Karger's marriage to Jane Wyman in 1952.  A policeman named Karger is referred to in passing in nine episodes in 1951 (1951-04-24, 06-19, 09-26, 10-04, 10-11, 11-01, 11-08, 11-22 and 11-29), but does not appear as a character.

1951-12-06 "The Bastille-Bound Bad Boys Case" has a Sgt. John Karger:  "Karger's taking the line while Matt is sick, he's nervous as a kitten."  John Karger has very little dialogue in this episode after the line-up scene, but Quine is present throughout—and at one point seems to refer to Ben as his partner, leading me to believe that this Karger really was introduced solely to fill in for an unexpectedly absent Matt Greb/Wally Maher, and the script was hastily reworked to give Quine most of Matt's other dialogue (probably relegating Quine's original dialogue to Karger).

Pete Karger is Ben Guthrie's full-time sidekick beginning in early 1952 after Maher's untimely death.  Asher and Ben's dialogue at the beginning of 1952-02-05 "The Potting Peter Case" again indicates that Karger is new to doing the line-up ("Got somebody in the line?"  "Uh-uh.  I thought I'd see how Karger was making out.  How many do you have?"  "Fifteen. Glad to see Karger get the chance.  Been with you a long time."  "Yeah, twelve years now."), so there's no apparent continuity between him and the earlier version of the Karger character.  Karger spells his name aloud in 1952-10-08 "The Teacher's Pet":  "This is Sergeant Karger."  "Carter?"  "Er, Karger.  K-A-R-G-E-R."

In 1950-07-20, the first prisoner in the line-up is named John Meston, like the radio writer who later became script supervisor for Gunsmoke.  Fine and Friedkin also used the surname Meston in four episodes of Broadway's My Beat and one episode of Bold Venture.

1951-02-01 "The Grocery Store Matter" by Blake Edwards has a character named George Lumpkin; Ernest Lumpkin was Helen Asher's grouchy neighbor on Richard Diamond.

1952-04-01 "Kastro's" mentions a cop named Leeds who gets shot and dies!  Peter Leeds does play Asher in this episode, but at least he doesn't have to report his own death.

Joke names and a name joke

The first page of the script for 1951-10-04 "The Wild, Wild Woman Case" by E. Jack Neuman lists the two supporting sergeants as "Sgt. Nohitt Asher" and "Sgt. Cap Quine," which is presumably a joke:  in this and other episodes, the cast lists sometimes give characters humorous names in addition to the names that are heard in the script proper.

"Wild, Wild Woman" also gives a superfluous middle name to Foley Lapin O'Mahoney, and a superfluous surname to Pete Peters.  1952-11-05 "The Be-Bop Bandits Bungling Bang-Bang" by William J. Ratcliff lists the character Miss Raines as "Miss Seldom Raines."  1952-04-01 "Kastro's Kop Killing Karnage Kase" by Blake Edwards lists the character Santley as "Notalent Santley"—and lists his actor as "Raymond N. T. Burr"!!

In 1951-02-01 and 1952-04-08, both by Blake Edwards, Quine's first line of dialogue in the script is "Hy, Ben," with a Y—presumably because in both episodes Quine is played as usual by Hy Averback.  (In five of these other scripts, including 1952-11-12 by Blake Edwards and with Hy Averback, Quine says hi with an I.)

 

The prisoners are sent where?

The spiel explaining the line-up in the first scene of each episode has some minor variations throughout the series:  the order of the sentences, which sentences are included, whether or not the sergeant adds "All right" or "Okay" before "bring on the line," whether the audience is on the other side of "the wire" or "the screen"....

My favorite of these variations is that in all surviving episodes up through 1951-02-22, Greb says, "Please be prompt with your questions or identifications.  When the prisoners leave here they are sent to the bathroom and dressed back into their jail clothes.  It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here."

Then, starting on 1951-02-27, he says, "Please be prompt with your questions or identifications.  When the prisoners leave here they are sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes.  It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here."

Did somebody decide the word bathroom was too vulgar for the radio?  Were you allowed to say bathroom on Thursday night, but not on Tuesday night?

On 1951-05-01, Greb's spiel omits this sentence entirely ("...If you're sure or not too sure of the suspect, have him held.  The officers who took your name will assist you, they're seated among you.  The questions I ask these suspects..."), and subsequent episodes either have washroom or neither word.

1953-01-02 "Cowardly Castro" and 1953-01-07 "Once Upon a Snow-Plow" both omit the bathroom/washroom line from Karger's spiel—but there are surviving dialogue-only recordings of both, and in both cases we do hear the line at the end, where the spiel would normally be covered by the rising theme music.  The "Snow-Plow" script in the SPERDVAC library says bathroom, but the recording says washroom; the dialogue in this script is not identical with the dialogue in the recording, and this may have been among the changes yet to be made.

Or, perhaps Jack Moyles simply knew that he wasn't supposed to say bathroom!  In "Castro," presumably recorded about a week before "Snow-Plow," he says, "...When the prisoners leave here they're sent to the bathroom—  When the prisoners leave here they're sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes.  It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here."  Then he starts over and repeats the whole speech, ending with "...sent to the washroom and dressed back into their jail clothes.  It makes it quite difficult to bring them back after they leave here."

Miscellaneous

Lieutenant Guthrie has a cold in 1951-01-18 (and 1952-05-13) "Yudo in Ypsilanti," 1952-02-29 "The Sobbing Singer Saga," and 1953-01-07 "Once Upon a Snow-Plow."  Three or four colds in two and a half years is better than average for a real person, but must be a record for a weekly detective show protagonist!  Interestingly, in the "Snow-Plow" script I've seen, Guthrie does not have a cold—but it's mentioned in the dialogue in four places, so it clearly wasn't just a case of "throw it in."  And actually, I think Guthrie's cold is more essential to this story than to either of the other two:  it contributes to the overall mood of the episode, underscoring both the harsh winter weather and his anxiety about anticipating additional murders.

In 1951-11-29 "The Railroad Roundhouse Roundup," prisoner number 1, Jules Simpson (Howard McNear), says he's had lots of jobs and made enough to get a Social Security number.  The number he gives is Blake Edwards's actual Social Security number!  (This was back in the day when one's Social Security number really was just for keeping track of Social Security payments, rather than being the super-top-secret key to one's whole identity.)

The Whistler 1948-03-31 "Bird of Prey"

The basic setup:  A writer steals the identity of a novelist known only by a mysterious pen name.

The Whistler 1948-03-31 "Bird of Prey"
Produced by George W. Allen
Story by George & Gertrude Fass, music by Wilbur Hatch
Whistler:  Bill Forman / Announcer:  Marvin Miller
Cast (credited):  Wally Maher, Sarah Selby
Cast (from script):  Jay Novello, Pat McGeehan, Lois Corbett, ?
Cast (ear):  Bill Bouchey as Lt. Driscoll

The story:  Freelance writer Eddie Smith has come to Havana on the trail of the mysterious bestselling novelist known only by the pen name J. C. Raven.  He asks Raven's agent Barkly Wells for an interview, and Wells refuses to let him see Raven, but agrees to meet again at Wells's apartment.  Eddie begins to suspect that Wells himself is really Raven.  As they leave the bar, Wells is attacked and Eddie apprehends the assailant, but Wells is already dead.  Eddie heads for Wells's apartment, where he finds an offer letter from a Hollywood studio and a complete synopsis for a new J. C. Raven novel.

Eddie takes the offer letter to the studio and presents himself as J. C. Raven, all the while insisting that his name is Edgar Smith—which, after all, it is.  The studio boss Mr. Rosamund takes him on and assigns him an assistant, mousy little Veronica Corbie.  Eddie writes a script from the stolen Raven outline, changing the ending to suit his own taste, and hands it over to Veronica to type up.

Rosamund is thrilled with Eddie's script, especially the ending—and Eddie realizes he's describing the original J. C. Raven ending, not the new ending that Eddie wrote.  Eddie confronts Veronica, who admits that she changed the ending because she thought Rosamund would like it better.  She wanted Eddie to make good after the risks he's taken, pretending to be J. C. Raven.  She says she won't tell anyone Eddie isn't J. C. Raven.  He couldn't be J. C. Raven... because she is.

Veronica explains that she used to work with Barkly Wells at the studio, and, having been unsuccessful in her literary efforts, hit on the idea of creating the mystery author and using Wells as a front.  She would send him outlines, and they would work on the Raven novels together.  Veronica says she'd like to continue the arrangement with Eddie.

Eddie plays up to Veronica for some weeks, taking her out on dates, intending to put up with her for a couple of years until he makes enough money to quit.  Then one day Eddie takes a phone call from a police detective asking to speak to Veronica.  Later, Veronica asks Eddie what happened in Havana the night Barkly Wells was killed; and then Eddie overhears her on the phone agreeing to meet the detective the next day.  Eddie is convinced that Veronica was in love with Barkly Wells and thinks Eddie murdered him, and that she intends to turn Eddie over to the police and ruin everything.  He kills her to silence her.

The twist:  Eddie is about to leave Veronica's apartment when the doorbell rings.  He drags the body behind the davenport and answers the door.  It's the police detective.  When he spoke to Veronica on the phone this afternoon it was just routine, but now it isn't.  They've received a wire from the Havana police that the killer of Barkly Wells has confessed—and he was hired by Veronica Corbie.

Spotlight on George and Gertrude Fass

Consider this exchange in the first scene of "Bird of Prey":

EDDIE:
Now listen, why don't you fix up an appointment for me to talk to this guy Raven...

WELLS:
Guy?  Mr. Smith, has it ever occurred to you that J. C. Raven might be a woman?

EDDIE:
Sure.  I've kicked the idea around... but I won't buy it.  Take that last novel-Undertow.  Could a dame have written it?

Well, "Undertow" was also the title of the Whistler episode of 1948-02-24... also written by George and Gertrude Fass!  It's no wonder, then, that in "Bird of Prey," the mysterious author of Undertow turns out to have been a woman collaborating with a man.

I always think it's a little funny that a husband-and-wife writing team would write a story about a male/female writing team... in which the man steals credit for the woman's ideas and each half of the team at one point murders their collaborator!

And several of the Fasses' other radio scripts involve dysfunctional marriages, infidelity, and/or spouse murder.   Another one that seems potentially close to home for a creative couple is Mollé Mystery Theater "Solo Performance," about married actors:  she dreams of being a husband-and-wife team, but his professional and romantic jealousy lead to murder.  I can only assume that the Fasses must have felt comfortable in their marriage and their creative partnership to keep writing stories about these kinds of themes!  (See also Mystery Time "The White Curtain" for a suspenseful and atmospheric story with an unexpected take on the eternal triangle.)

George Fass, born in Manhattan in 1907 of Russian Jewish parents, was a New York lawyer who wrote plays in the 1930s and early 1940s—including winning a short play prize in 1941 for his radio play "Lincoln, the Lawyer."  Gertrude Kossoff, born in the Bronx in 1909 of Russian Jewish parents, graduated Hunter College in 1930 and was a high school teacher and artist.  The two married around 1942 and collaborated on scripts for radio and television.

The Fasses were particularly highly regarded for their work in television in the 1950s, writing scripts for shows including Colgate Theater, Fireside Theater, Foreign Assignment, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Peter Gunn.  A piece in Variety of 26 Apr 1950 quotes Kendall Foster, TV director of the William Esty agency:  "'There are not yet any perfectly trained TV writers as such,' Foster believes, 'because the medium is still too new.  However, there are many who are doing fine jobs.'  Among those he cited were George and Gertrude Fass, Jack Bentkover, True Boardman, William Kendall Clarke, William L. Stuart, Lawrence Klee, Margaret Wilder and Lee Roggow."

A piece in Writer's Digest of September 1951 describes the Fasses' creative process:

In the Fass team, there's no division of labor between "idea man" and "technician"—one writer supplying the story line and the other putting it into shape for TV—as there is with some collaborators.  Both George and Gertrude get story ideas and both write scripts, dividing the work according to a special system of their own.  "I understand our method of working together is unusual," George says, in explaining how their team operates.  "Our system is to write every script three times.  When one of us gets an idea for a story, we talk it over together and then the one whose idea it was writes a first draft.  The other one takes this first draft and revises it into a second draft.  Then we talk over the story some more and, finally, the original writer sits down and turns out the final script.  This is a lengthy procedure, but the system works well for us.  And we feel we get a better finished product."

After George's death in 1965, Gertrude Fass taught high school English, wrote children's stories, and was successful as a sculptor.  This two-part profile from the Cybis Porcelain Archive has photos of Gertrude Fass's sculptures as well as some of her paintings and drawings.

Photo and profile of Gertrude Fass from the 1976 Tenafly (New Jersey) High School yearbook

Other notes on "Bird of Prey"

The J. C. Raven story that Eddie steals is called The House in the Swamp, and Rosamund praises "the scene between the old man and the little girl at the edge of the swamp"; the script has "Rosalyn" crossed out and "the little girl" penciled in.  As far as I know this does not correspond to any actual George and Gertrude Fass story, but I wouldn't be surprised!

The script for "Bird of Prey" has some lines that were cut for the final production, including more of Mr. Rosamund praising Veronica's previous work with successful screenwriters, and a deleted scene in which Veronica calls Eddie with her concerns about his script.  The episode works better with the cuts, keeping Veronica more of a non-entity until the dramatic reveal after she changes the story back without consulting Eddie.

The scan of the script in the SPERDVAC library also has handwritten notes in red pencil, apparently from George W. Allen, that identify some of the supporting players!  "Jay" is written next to Rosamund's first line, confirming the distinctive voice of Jay Novello.  Wells's first line is marked "Pat" and he sounds like Pat McGeehan.  Rosamund's secretary is marked "Lois" and she sounds like Lois Corbett; the house manager in the last scene is likely also Corbett.  ("Corbet" is also written on the title page of this script and crossed out.)

Script page 6.  "Joe"?

There's a word or name I'm not sure about next to the first line of the Man who calls the police when Wells is killed; it doesn't quite look like (or sound like) "Jay," but it could conceivably be "Joe."  Whoever he was, he probably doubled as the airline representative on the phone.  (In the script, that character is called "Girl"!)

A note next to Eddie's first line says "Eddie"!

There's no note on Lieutenant Driscoll, but it sounds like frequent Whistler cop Bill Bouchey.

Further listening

Other episodes of The Whistler involving literary plagiarism and/or author identity theft:

• 1946-02-25 / 1947-12-17 "Murder in Haste" by Eleanor Beeson (script also used on Murder by Experts 1950-02-06 and on Mystery Time)
• This story also involves a renowned but personally obscure author returning from Latin America, and also ends with the revelation that the woman the protagonist killed because she was a threat to him was herself wanted for murder.
• 1946-08-12 "Stolen Murder" by Eleanor Beeson
• 1948-04-21 "The Silent City" by Gilbert Thomas
• This episode also features Wally Maher and Sarah Selby.
• 1950-02-05 "Ladies' Man" (no author credit on surviving recording)

The Whistler "Caesar's Wife" (1947-06-02 / 1950-06-04)

The basic setup:  A big-time racketeer with a secret is suspicious of his wife.  I always love this episode for the character dynamics between Gerald Mohr as the racketeer and Willard Waterman as his loyal right-hand man.

1947-06-02 "Caesar's Wife"
Produced by Gordon T. Hughes, music by Wilbur Hatch
Story by David Victor and Herbert Little
Whistler:  Bill Forman / Announcer:  Marvin Miller
Cast (credited):  Gerald Mohr, Barbara Luddy, Willard Waterman
Cast (ear):  Hy Averback as Alan?

1950-06-04 "Caesar's Wife"
Produced and directed by George W. Allen, music by Wilbur Hatch
Story by David Victor and Herbert Little
Whistler:  Bill Forman / Announcer:  Marvin Miller
Cast (credited):  Gerald Mohr, Willard Waterman, Vivi Janiss
Cast (ear):  Wilms Herbert as Solly and Alan

The story:  In Frank Conway's luxurious hotel suite, Frank has his hair trimmed by his personal barber and then shaves himself with an electric razor.  Kirby Morton, Frank's press agent, remarks that Frank is an enigma:  a guy who can swing elections and collect payoffs, but can't stand the sight of blood or the feel of a razor against his face.

Frank is unusually irritable, and Kirby says he's acting like he's got woman trouble.  Frank's wife Gloria interrupts their conversation to tell Frank she's got a lunch date with a female friend.  Soon afterwards, a man arrives to report that he followed Gloria like Frank said, and Gloria is having lunch with a good-looking man.  Frank indicates that he intends to kill the man, and Kirby says wait, they're not sure.  Frank says he'll be sure.

Frank and Kirby go to the restaurant to see for themselves:  the man is good-looking, and the scene appears romantic.  Back at the hotel, Frank taps Gloria's phone.

Kirby tells Frank that Judge Faulkner, recently elected thanks to Frank's finagling, is waiting to see him.  Frank keeps the judge waiting.  Frank's tailor comes in to fit him for a suit, and Frank blows up at the tailor for leaving a pin sticking out of the basted lining.

Frank listens in on a phone conversation between Gloria and the man, Alan.  Gloria says she has the money for him.  Alan says he was thinking of going away this weekend, and Gloria asks him not to.  It means so much to her just to know that he's around.  Alan agrees to stay, and tells her he's been moved to room 1438 of the hotel.  He'll be there until after six, and then he'll go out to dinner.  Gloria says she'll slip away and meet him at the restaurant with the money.

Frank hangs up in a rage, and takes out a gun.  Kirby protests that Frank has never used a gun, that if this thing has to be done Kirby can just drop a word...  Frank refuses to listen.  Frank admits Judge Faulker, who has dropped by to thank him for the way everything worked out.  Frank tells the judge just how he can show his appreciation.  They'll have dinner together at the judge's home tonight, at six.  He's going to be late—but as far as Judge Faulkner and his wife are concerned, Frank arrived at six sharp and stayed all evening.

His alibi thus arranged, Frank goes to room 1438 a little before six and shoots Alan.  The wine glass in Alan's hand shatters when he falls, and a shard of glass cuts Frank's hand.  Frank notices the blood with horror.  This was the secret behind his strange fears, the reason he's always had things done smoothly and avoided violence:  hemophilia.  He'll bleed to death!

The twist:  An hour later, Frank's personal physician tells Frank to relax, they just have to wait.  He explains that Frank has a very unusual blood type, and needs a special type of blood for a transfusion.  The doctor and Gloria knew that if they had to find it in a hurry, they'd never have a chance.  Yes, Gloria knows.  It was she who...  The doctor takes a phone call, and then gives Frank the bad news.  The man Gloria hired just to be near Frank, the man with the rare blood needed to save Frank's life, is dead.  They've just found him murdered in his room, room 1438.

Comparison:

This is one of my favorite Whistler episodes, and it's tough to decide which version I prefer!  The ending of the second act is much improved in '50:  it's smoother and more dramatic for Frank to notice the blood on his hand immediately, so that the act ends on a cliffhanger in the murder room, rather than pausing the action and having Frank notice the blood as he presses the elevator button a few minutes later.

On the other hand, I think '47 is a stronger episode overall, because the first act narration in '50 is weaker.  Compare the openings of the two episodes:

(1947)  It made a strange picture that morning:  Frank Conway standing in front of the mirror in his luxurious hotel suite.  Strange because Joe, his personal barber, who had just finished trimming his hair now, did nothing but stand there behind holding a towel, watching as Conway shaved himself with an electric razor; wondering what to do with his hands; feeling as awkward and helpless on this occasion as on every one of the many other Monday morning routines.  The weekly command performance at eight o'clock sharp in Conway's suite.  Kirby Morton, the other man in the room, was more relaxed.  After many years with Conway he'd learned to accept anything.

(1950)  They were starting the day, the three of them.  Just as they had begun every Monday morning for as long as any of them could remember.  But that was because none of them had any premonition of what was going to happen in the next twenty-four hours.  Frank Conway, the Caesar of the rackets, was standing in front of the mirror in his luxurious hotel suite.  Joe, his personal barber, who had just finished trimming his hair, did nothing but stand there behind him holding a towel.  He watched as Frank Conway shaved himself with an electric razor.  Joe was wondering what to do with his hands, feeling as awkward and helpless on this occasion as he did on many other Monday morning routines.  The weekly command performance at eight o'clock sharp in Conway's suite.  Kirby Morton, the other man in the room, was more relaxed.  After many years with Conway he'd learned to accept anything.

And again in the Whistler's second speech (underlined text is heard only in 1950):

You have a right to be irritated with Kirby, haven't you, Frank?  Yes.  In the years he has served you he certainly should have learned that your strange fear of sharp objects, of things that cut and scratch, is something no one asks about ever.  The big secret, the thing that makes you a walking question mark, belongs to you—and only one other man in the world.  A secret terror other people will learn about within twenty-four hours, but, you have no way of knowing that, Frank.  A few minutes later as you and Kirby are about to settle down to work he gets on another subject just as irritating.

In '50, the Whistler tells the audience things that we don't need to be told.  We understand that Frank is the Caesar of the rackets from the episode title and from his discussion of the quotation, the narration doesn't need to spell it out immediately.  And I don't even want to be told that something is going to happen within twenty-four hours!  Something's going to happen sometime or there wouldn't be a story; it's more suspenseful to have to wait and see how this strange situation is going to play out.

These two points are the most significant differences between the two scripts.  Of the other minor changes, I want to call attention to one short line in '47 that is not heard in '50:

FRANK.
What makes you think I'm nervous, Kirby?

KIRBY (1947).
I don't know.  Woman's intuition, maybe.  Just got the idea from the way you talked to Judge Faulkner yesterday.

KIRBY (1950).
Oh, I don't know.  I just got the idea from the way you talked to Judge Faulkner yesterday.

A man claiming to have woman's intuition?  There might be a little subtext there about Kirby's relationship with Frank!  See also, for instance, the "woman's intuition" line in North By Northwest (1959), which was reportedly added to the script after Martin Landau made the decision to play his character as gay and in love with his boss.

Further notes/commentary:

1947-06-02 "Caesar's Wife" is the first credited appearance of Willard Waterman on The Whistler.  The word with in the end credits—"Featured in our cast were Gerald Mohr and Barbara Luddy, with Willard Waterman"—is unusual.  At this period the program only credited the leading actors, which often meant naming only the male and female leads.  The "with Willard Waterman" here seems to acknowledge how important his supporting character is to the story!  For the 1950 production, which still doesn't have full cast credits, he's moved up to second billing:  "Featured in our cast were Bill Forman, Gerald Mohr, Willard Waterman and Vivi Janiss."

For me, the Kirby Morton character really makes this story!  I'm always drawn to the tragedy of his trying and failing to save Frank from himself—and his last scenes in particular really drive home that aspect of the drama.

Kirby defies Frank three times in the second act.  He presses him on his reaction to the tailor's pin; he tells him it's foolish to shoot Gloria's lover himself; and he refuses to admit Judge Faulkner while Frank is in his current emotional state.  After Frank admits Faulkner himself and arranges the alibi, Kirby remarks that it's a good thing Frank's making use of Faulkner now, because it won't take long for the people to find out he's a phony.

Frank says, "Now look, Kirby, if you're trying to stop me..."

"No, Frank.  I know better than that.  You've made your decision.  Nothing I can say will stop you now."

Sure enough, this is Kirby's last line in the episode, and from this point on Frank hurries toward his doom.

The quotations:

"Stay me with raisins, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love" is, as Kirby says, from the Song of Solomon, 2:5.  This exact translation of the line was popular as early as the 1870s; the King James Bible has "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples:  for I am sick of love."  Some Biblical commentaries say that the word translated as raisins or flagons was actually a cake of pressed raisins.  "Sick of love" has also been translated as "sick with love," "faint with love," or "lovesick"; the phrase sick of didn't originally have the sense to which Kirby perhaps facetiously applies it.  (In the 1947 episode, Kirby says "stay with me raisins"—presumably a misreading on Waterman's part, but he doesn't let it throw him one bit!)

"Caesar's wife should be above suspicion" is a proverb originating from Plutarch's Lives.  A young man named Publius Clodius was in love with Caesar's wife Pompeia, and snuck into her household during a women-only religious festival in order to seduce her.  Clodius was caught and tried for sacrilege.  "Caesar divorced Pompeia at once, but when he was summoned to testify at the trial, he said he knew nothing about the matters with which Clodius was charged.  His statement appeared strange, and the prosecutor therefore asked, 'Why, then, didst thou divorce thy wife?' 'Because,' said Caesar, 'I thought my wife ought not even to be under suspicion.'"  (tr. Bernadotte Perrin)

"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's [and unto God the things that are God's]" is from a story related in three books of the New Testament (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, and Luke 20:25).  Jesus is asked whether Jews should pay taxes to the emperor by enemies who hope to trap him into saying no, so that they can hand him over to the authorities; instead, he points out the emperor's head on a coin and gives this famous reply.

Connections/additional listening:

This is the only known Whistler episode by David Victor and Herbert Little Jr.  The two collaborated on scripts for other radio and television programs, including most episodes of Let George Do It between 1948-04-05 and 1949-06-06, after which most episodes were written by David Victor and/or Jackson Gillis.  Victor and Little wrote another, otherwise dissimilar, story about a man with a genetic secret for Let George Do It 1948-09-06 "The Impatient Redhead".

A 1949 Whistler episode by Robert Eisenbach and Jackson Gillis (title/date hidden behind hyperlink to avoid casual spoilers) has essentially the same twist as "Caesar's Wife":  commit the perfect murder because a man's been seeing your wife, only to find out your wife was conspiring with the man to help you, and you've only doomed yourself.