Lucille Fletcher Tribute 2016
Season 04, Episode 01
March 23, 2016
Two classic radio dramas by Lucille Fletcher
Re-Imagined Radio presents Willamette Radio Workshop actors and other community volunteers performing two radio dramas by Lucille Fletcher—"Sorry, Wrong Number" and "The Hitch-Hiker"— at Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver, Washington
Re-Imagined Radio offered another Lucille Fletcher Tribute, in 2022. Learn more and LISTEN here
Lucille Fletcher is also featured in our "Women and Radio" episode. Learn more and Listen here
Access the episode script
The "Lucille Fletcher Tribute 2016" script is not available. Apologies.
Background
Violet Lucille Fletcher (1912–2000) wrote novels, plays, librettos, and radio dramas. She is considered
the greatest of all women radio storytellers. Examples of her other radio dramas include . . .
"The Man with the One Track Mind"
The Columbia Workshop, June 30, 1940
"Carmilla"
The Columbia Workshop, July 28, 1940
"Alf, The All-American Fly"
The Columbia Workshop, September 1, 1940
"The Hitch-Hiker"
The Orson Welles Show, November 17, 1941
"Someone Else"
The Columbia Workshop, July 20, 1942
"Remodeled Brownstone"
The Columbia Workshop, October 19, 1942
"Gremlins"
Ceiling Unlimited, December 21, 1942
"The Diary of Safronia
Winters"
Suspense, April 27, 1943, Episode 039
August 17, 1944, Episode 105
August 10, 1958, Episode 763
Starring Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins
"Sorry, Wrong Number"
Suspense, May 25, 1943, Episode 043
Starring Agnes Moorhead
This broadcast was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of
Congress and selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry in 2015.
"Fugue in C Minor"
Suspense, June 1, 1944, Episode 094
Starring Vincent Price, Ida Lupino, and Bea Benaderet
"The Search
for Henri Lefevre"
Suspense, July 6, 1944, Episode 099
Starring Paul Muni, Hans Conried, and Lurene Tuttle
"The Night Man"
Suspense, October 26, 1944, Episode 812
October 23, 1960, Episode 876
Starring Virginia Bruce, Marsha Hunt, Ginger Jones
"The Furnished Floor"
Suspense, September 13, 1945, Episode 158
Starring Mildred Natwick and Don Defore
"Dark Journey"
Suspense, April 25, 1946, Episode 190
Starring Nancy Kelly and Cathy Lewis
"The Thing in the Window"
Suspense, December 19, 1946, Episode 325
Starring Cathy Lewis, Jeanette Nolan, Jerry Hausner, Joseph Cotten, Robert Montgomery, and Elizabeth
Montgomery
"Bela Boczniak's Bad Dreams"
The Clock, April 25, 1948
Lucille Fletcher is best know for her radio dramas "Sorry, Wrong Number" and "The Hitch-Hiker."
"The Hitch-Hiker"
Fletcher wrote "The Hitch-Hiker" for Orson Welles "in the days when he was one of the master producers and actors in radio." Fletcher said "The Hitch-Hiker" was designed not only for Welles' famous voice but "for the original techniques of sound which became associated with his radio presentations. Orson Welles and his group of Mercury Players made of this script a haunting study of the supernatural, which can still raise hackles along my own spine" (Smith 72). The story follows Ronald Adams, voiced by Welles, as he drives from New York to California. Along the way he repeatedly sees a strange man, hitch-hiking along the side of road. Adams becomes obsessed with the hitch-hiker and learning his identity.
LEARN more about Orson Welles
Fletcher says inspiration for "The Hitch-Hiker" came during a 1940 automobile trip with her husband Bernard Herrmann, music composer for Welles. "We saw an odd-looking man, first on the Brooklyn Bridge and then on the Pulaski Skyway. We never saw him again. I kept the idea in my mind for a year and then wrote it as a ghost story" (Smith 72).
Welles performed "The Hitch-Hiker" several times on different radio programs.
The Orson Welles Show
November 17, 1941
A live CBS Radio series produced, directed, and hosted by Orson Welles. Featured dramatic adaptations,
poetry, history, music, comedy, and a
commentary segment by Welles titled "Almanac." Nineteen episodes were produced, 1941-1942. This
performance featured a musical score composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.
Suspense
September 2, 1942
One of radio's best-known series for mystery and suspense. Broadcast on CBS from 1942 to 1962.
The Philip Morris Playhouse
October 16, 1942
A radio dramatic anthology series in several incarnations: 1939-1944, 1948-1949, and 1951-1953.
The Orson Welles Almanac
March 16, 1944
A CBS Radio Network series produced and hosted by Welles. Included his commentary on topics of the day,
original stories, and conversations
with Hollywood celebrities.
The Mercury Summer Theatre on the Air
June 21, 1946.
In his introduction, Orson Welles called "The Hitch-Hiker" a classic among radio thrillers and went on
to say, "It's author is one of the most gifted of all the writers who ever worked for this medium,
Lucille Fletcher who wrote 'Sorry, Wrong Number,' the greatest single radio script ever written"
(Welles).
A notable adaptation was produced by Rod Sterling for his television anthology series The Twilight Zone, January 22, 1960.
Resources
Smith, Steven C., A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann.
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1991, hardcover; 2002, paperback
ISBN 978-0-520-22939-6 p. 72.
Welles, Orson. "The Hitch-Hiker." The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air, Internet Archive,
June 21, 1946.
"Sorry, Wrong Number"
Fletcher established herself as THE writer for radio when "Sorry, Wrong Number" was first broadcast on 25 May 1943 as an episode of Suspense starring Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Elbert Stevenson, a bedridden woman confined at home who depends on the telephone for a lifeline to the outside world. While calling her husband, she is connected into a conversation between two men. She can hear them but they cannot hear her. Apparently, they are plotting to murder a woman at 11:15 that night, just as a train passes outside. Mrs. Stevenson realizes she may be the murder victim. It is nearly 11:15 PM. How will she convince anyone that she is in danger? Everyone she calls refuses to take her fears seriously. The drama becomes a critical examination of the telephone, a device which although it allows people to connect, does not necessarily allow them to communicate.
Subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and often called one of the best series of the Golden Age of Radio (1920s-1950s), Suspense provided a diverse and broad-based anthology of crime, adventure, science fiction, and supernatural stories during its twenty year run, 1942 to 1962. Episodes were heightened by a sense of doom and often dealt with life or death situations. Notable actors like Cary Grant, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Humphrey Bogart, Lucille Ball, Olivia De Havilland, Gregory Peck, Peter Lorre, Henry Fonda, and Orson Welles appeared frequently. Despite these credentials, Suspense is best known for its "Sorry, Wrong Number" episode. Radio historian John Dunning says "Sorry, Wrong Number" transcended Suspense and was "widely perceived to be the most effective radio show ever" (Dunning 648). In 2015, The Library of Congress selected "Sorry, Wrong Number" for inclusion in the National Recording Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Versions
Eight versions starring Agnes Moorehead were featured on Suspense between 1943 and 1960.
Seven of those episodes survive.
Episode 043, May 25, 1943
Starring Agnes Moorehead
Both the East and West Coast versions contained a mistake in one of the final lines of dialog that made
the ending confusing. Despite this, the broadcast was been deemed "culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for inclusion in the National
Recording Registry in 2015.
Available
here
Episode 054, August 21, 1943
Starring Agnes Moorehead
This performance fixed the flawed ending.
Available
here
Episode 080, February 24, 1944
Starring Agnes Moorehead
Available
here
Episode 157, September 6, 1945
Starring Agnes Moorehead
Available
here
Episode 315, November 18, 1948
Starring Agnes Moorehead
To coincide with the release of the film adaptation written by Lucille Fletcher and starring Barbara
Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster. The film was nominated for an Academy Award. "Sorry, Wrong Number" was the
only Suspense episode to be made into a film.
Available
here
On January 9, 1950, Stanwyck and Lancaster reprised their film roles in an hour-long adaptation for the
Lux Radio Theater, episode 684.
Available here
Episode 478, September 15, 1952
Starring Agnes Moorehead
Missing, not available
Episode 721, October 20, 1957
Starring Agnes Moorehead
Available
here
Episode 840, February 14, 1960
Starring Agnes Moorehead
A rebroadcast of 20 October 1947 episode with new opening and closing segments and advertisements.
Available
here
Adaptations
"Sorry, Wrong Number" was adapted into a movie, a television play, and a novel.
Resources
OTRR certified episodes at Internet
Archive
Single episodes at Internet Archive
Suspense Radio Logs at Jerry Haendiges Vintage
Radio Logs website
Plot summaries and credits at Radio Gold Index website
Escape and Suspense website.
Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998, p. 648.
Production
Contents
"The Hitch-Hiker" and "Sorry, Wrong Number" by Lucille Fletcher. Both performed live by Willamette Radio Workshop, Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver, Washington.
Credits
Directed by Sam A. Mowry
Produced by John F. Barber
Promotional Graphics by Kate Palermini
Significance
This performance celebrates the work of Lucille Fletcher, and Women's History Month.
Producer's Notes
It's a pleasure to work again with Willamette Radio Workshop, directed by Sam A. Mowry, offer both these
radio dramas by Lucille Fletcher as live performances at Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver, Washington.
— John F. Barber
Promotion
Press
Hewitt, Scott. The New Magic of Old-Time Radio.→ The Columbian, 13 Mar. 2016, pp. D1, D8.
—. The Sound Magician: David Ian Demonstrates the Art of Foley.→ The Columbian, 13 Mar. 2016: D1, D8.
Graphics
