Now, Auto Light and its 60,000 dealers and service stations present Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light brings you Miss Betty Grable in The Copper Tea Strainer, a suspense
play produced and directed by Antonin Leader. Friends, even a camel can't compete with an
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And now, Auto Light presents Betty Grable in a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
I was in the two by four dressing room changing into my street clothes. It was raining beating
down on the low skylight like a fury. It made such a racket that I didn't hear a thing until
a buzzer rang and the outer door opened. The first I heard your voice, I was sorry for you.
You sounded tired and you had a cold. You'd be surprised if I ever told you,
but I wasn't frightened at all when you spoke to Irwin. You, the photographer who runs this place?
I'm James Irwin and this is my port away to say yes. You have some work to do? I got work to do.
Is there a name named Jeannie Dunn here, Irwin? When you said my name, I got a little scared
without knowing why. I'd been modeling a sun suit and I was cold anyway. Irwin was never a guy to
pay for decent heating. Now I got cold way inside and my fingers trembled as I tried to zip my dress.
I leaned against the partition to try and hear better, but the rain was too loud. I couldn't
figure out why I was so jittery. I was blank. I couldn't remember what had happened all day
or yesterday, but I knew you were dangerous to me and I had to find out why. I opened the door
a crack to hear better. Oh, Jeannie's posed for me for the past five years of an army. Say,
why don't you wait until she gets dressed and ask her yourself? Any pictures of her handy?
Say who I... Easy, easy. This is police business. Oh. And that was all it took to make Irwin dangerous
too. Then he was against me. I stood there hidden by the door, sick of you pawing through my pictures,
even sicker of Irwin fawning over you because you were a cop. She's really stacked, isn't she,
Cap? But if she's done anything wrong, don't worry. I'll tell you all I can't believe me.
I'll cooperate. I believe you. You're the type. I couldn't stay out of sight any longer. I slipped
into my shoes and stepped out from behind the door. Miss Jeannie Dunn. What do you want, Mr.? I want
to find out a few facts. You live with your mother, don't you? Sure, the old lady's an invalid. Hey,
what happened? Shut up. I'm talking to Miss Dunn. She's got a boyfriend too. She might not tell you
herself, Cap. Get out of the room. Get out and stay out until I call you. Hey, look, Miss Irwin. Get out.
Okay, all right. Thanks for that anyhow. But look about Ted Warp. If it's anything you're trying to
pin on Ted, then Irwin's right. I won't talk. I didn't mention that name, did I? Ted wouldn't do
a thing. Nothing wrong. What time do you usually leave home for work, Miss? About eight, if it's
any of your affair. Yes, I'm afraid it is. Could you be more specific? Describe your routine, say,
this morning, for example. This morning? I've had such a headache all day, I really don't know about
this morning. Actually, I can't remember. Most mornings I get up about 6.30 and fix breakfast.
Does your mother eat with you? My friend, Mr. Irwin, told you. My mother's not well. She stays in bed
until noon. And you leave her breakfast ready for her? That's right. Being sick, your mother
hasn't much appetite, has she, Miss? No. I leave her teacup on the kitchen table with the tea measured
out in a strainer ready to pour hot water through. Now, mister, you'd better tell me what... How long
you've been going with this fellow? What's his name, Ted? A year or so, but... How old are you? I beg
your pardon, Miss. Thirty. About thirty. Plan to marry him? Why, yes, as soon as... Well, as soon as
possible. What, with supporting your mother? Excuse me, prices nowadays, a dollar don't go far. You
better take care of that coal, mister. Thank you. Are your mother and Ted Wark friendly? You better
take care of that coal. I repeated that stupidly so as not to hear your questions. Then I stared at
something you fished out of your coat pocket. I felt the arteries jumping on the sides of my neck.
You were looking at my neck. Maybe I could ask you sometime if that was a tip-off you learned by
studying people like me. You toyed with the thing in your hand and it picked up a sliver of light
from a flood lamp. It sparkled like a jewel. Only it wasn't any more a jewel in any of the
junk on my bureau. It was a common tea strainer made out of bright new copper. You watched me and
spun the thing by the handle between your finger and thumb. I couldn't stop looking at the shiny
wire, mesh like a net. Well, Miss, what do you say? Are your mother and Ted Wark friendly?
Suddenly my mind cleared. Everything I'd managed to block out came back. Everything. There was no
more escaping the past or you. Stop playing with that tea strainer. Put that thing away. Get it out of my sight.
Your suspense. Auto Light is bringing you Betty Grable in Radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspend.
Harlow. Harlow, you're on. No, no, I refuse to go on tonight. Why Harlow? I'm hurt. Auto Light won't let me say what I want to say about Auto Light's stay full batteries.
The sponsor won't let you talk about his product? I tell you half they inhibit my artistic expression.
I want to sling wonderful words about my personal experience with Auto Light's stay full batteries.
And all they'll let me say is, Auto Light's stay full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use.
Yep, needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Well, that's important.
What's more, half an Auto Light's stay full battery has extra plates protected by fiberglass insulation for stronger life and longer life.
Folks want to know those things, Harlow. Now, I'm sure. And in recent tests conducted according to the Society of Automotive Engineers life cycle standards,
Auto Light's stay full batteries did give 70% longer average life than batteries without all these features.
Well, now Harlow, folks should be told those facts. Well, maybe you're right, half. Maybe I shouldn't be angry. Maybe I should put in a commercial right here.
Oh, it's too late, Harlow. Here's Suspend.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage Betty Grable as Jeannie in The Copper Tea Strainer.
A tale well calculated to keep you in Suspend.
Can you think that away and keep sitting in a chair talking and acting normal?
I did, Mr. Detective. At the side of the tea strainer, you kept spinning between your fingers.
A cold blackness paralyzed me and our two voices seemed to be coming from a great distance.
My stomach felt sick. You hit at me with questions and I fought with all my will to keep from giving dangerous answers.
The rain banged louder on the skylight. A flood lamp sputtered out. Am I breathing quite a down?
You said your mother and Ted Wark are friendly? Yes, yes, I told you. Where did you get that tea strainer?
Five and Dimes store. Why, Miss? Nothing.
You, you leave your mother's breakfast ready for her?
Hadn't you asked me that before too? I wasn't sure. But the words started in memories flashing through my mind like jumping movie scenes.
You studied me with your tired expressionless eyes, but you couldn't see into my memory.
The nagging clatter of my alarm clock at home was waking me one morning, any morning except today.
The others were all alike for the last ten years.
All right, you devil, get up.
Lord, another day. Dear, are you awake? Yes, mother. Sleep well?
I'm always in pain, you know that, dear. If you're up, you could rub my back a while before you have breakfast, dear.
Yes, mother. Oh, now you're so fortunate to be able to eat a hearty meal and have a career that takes you out into the world.
Why, why, why, here in pain? Oh, I'm not complaining. It's just... Yes, mother.
Hadn't you better take your medicine before I rub your back? Oh, my medicine. Oh, yes, indeed.
And, Jean, don't forget to have the prescription refilled. It's getting low and I can't bear a day without...
I'm sure there's plenty, mother. I'll get it for you now. And I wish you would. I don't know how I have to...
I went into the bathroom while mother kept droning on and on. The bottle was almost empty.
Mother, you haven't been taking more than you should have this, have you?
Don't be absurd. You heard the doctor say that my medicine, more than one capsule a day, is poison.
She talked and talked, accusing me of being careless with her medicine and neglecting her.
She said if it hadn't been for me, she would still be on the stage and famous.
But I realized she was in pain and unhappy and some mornings I was afraid all of my strength would be drained before I could get away from her.
Especially when she harped on Ted and me getting married.
Dear, don't be angry, but I simply must ask whether you're serious with your young man this time.
This time? Well, after all, Jean, in the past years there were several young men I certainly thought you were going to become engaged to.
And every single one lost interest. Oh, mother. Oh, yes, they did. You can't deny it.
At your age, dear, a good has to consider her future.
Now, that young man, William something, he surely wanted to marry you and he had a bit of money too.
Now, why did he stop coming to see you, dear? Was it anything you might have told him?
You're trying to use me to excuse your own shortcomings, dear.
But on earth, how could I scare away any of your young men? When I was on the stage, young men used to flock around me like bees.
And now your Ted certainly thinks well enough of me to bring me flowers and look at my scrapbooks, even if my own daughter...
I wonder how long that will go on. When will you ask him whether he thinks a daughter has the right to let a helpless old invalid die alone?
Horrible, horrible girl. Oh, have you asked him that already?
After the sacrifices I've made for you, ruining my own health, destroying my youth and my career so that you would have the best from life.
Oh, mother.
Perhaps the easiest way for both of us would be for me to not try and hang on to this mortal coil any longer, to close my eyes and never wake up.
She used death as a weapon against me many times. I felt weak and nauseated, although I was certain she was bluffing.
And I would rush out with no breakfast and a panic to feel the healthy life of the city around me and lose myself in the traffic and crowds.
A rotten deal, isn't it, Miss?
Huh?
Honest, I'm interested in you and Ted Wark. You're serious about each other?
What are you getting at, mister? What's happened? I have a right to know.
You two really in love?
You paid no attention to my panic. You kept prodding me with that question and twirling the tea strainer. Faster now, it seemed to me.
Was I really in love with Ted? I couldn't have answered even if I'd wanted to. How can you tell a stranger your dreams?
Miss, tell me. Exactly what's the matter with your mother? What treatment is she getting?
That was funny. Ted asked almost the same question last night. You'd give a lot to know about last night, but you'll never get a word out of me.
If you had seen Ted and me last night, you wouldn't have had to ask if we were in love.
Last night was one of those miserably few times I found a neighbor to come sit with Mother.
And Ted took me to a little neighborhood bar where they have a jukebox and postage stamp dance floor. We were dancing crowded in like cigarettes in a pack.
How about a kiss, baby? Ted, not right here in public.
Nobody here but us, Jeannie. Us and the mob.
Anyway, it's just as crowded as Ciro's. They tell me. We'll get to the ritzy places someday, baby. We got it coming to us.
Oh, darling, you make it sound real sometimes. You stick it out a little longer, baby, and it will be real. Just trust me. There's always ways.
Sure. A million bucks. A million would help. Oh, forget the gloom, honey. Your feet had enough of my dancing.
Uh-uh. You want another beer, you mean? Well, there is a booth. Hey, watch where you're going, you biggie.
Ted! Ted, don't start a fight. Come on.
I should have poked him.
Maybe you'll tame me down, baby. Here, sit next to me.
I don't want to reform you, darling. It's not that. But if anything happened to you, I'd die inside of me.
Oh, baby, I don't know the words like you do. How can I tell you? You don't have to tell me in words, darling.
I want to, though. Somehow I want you to know. I love you, Jeannie, more than at first. And I was crazy about you then.
We could be so happy together. Together? Yeah, that's what we both want more than anything else in the world, isn't it, baby?
Ted, what's the matter? Huh? Matter? Oh, there's nothing to matter. I'm just figuring things out.
What do you folks have? Fund? Oh, what'll it be, honey?
Beer's fine. Two beers, huh? Yeah, all right. Coming up.
Then we'll have to be leaving. I promised Mrs. Grogan I'd get home by midnight.
Oh, baby, you promised me we'd make a night of it. I'm sorry, Ted. But mother was worse this evening before I left.
Jeannie, what really ails your mother? The doctor has a long list. She's pretty bad off.
Nothing's bad enough for her to keep you chained on like a slave.
Ted, tell me the truth. Has she gotten to you with her... her talk?
Oh, honey, don't listen. Ted, please. I want the truth.
Well, I bring her flowers and try to win her over, Jeannie, but it's no soap.
She says, what do I want to do? Kill her by taking you away from her?
She said that, huh? She did. I'm glad I know that. I'm glad I know that for sure.
Look, maybe it's because she's so sick. Maybe... maybe she's not getting the right treatment.
Say, what is the doctor giving her? Some stuff and capsules mixed with strychnine.
Strychnine? Right. That's poison. Yes, she has to be very careful.
You, uh, need a prescription for that, don't you? Uh-huh.
Here, I'll show you the prescription. I have it somewhere in my handbag. Oh, here.
Yeah, my Latin's sort of rusty. Excuse me, Ted. I'll freshen up and we'll go.
Be right back. Okay, baby.
The mirror in that dingy little powder room was cracked and clouded,
but I could see my own face all too clear as I tried to dab on some rouge.
My face was an old face with a thin, cruel mouth.
I tried to remember how I looked ten years ago when I had the screen test.
I was Garbo and Dietrich, only younger, the director said.
It was then my mother started getting sick and needing me.
I looked into the mirror and saw my strange, pinched face.
That was when the whole plan formed in my mind,
as I stared into that cloudy mirror.
Excuse me, miss. You better take care of that comb.
Yeah, thanks. Now, tell me, did Ted Wark ever blame your mother?
Did he ever say that she stood in the way of your marriage?
I never told you any such thing. Ted wouldn't have done...
Done what, miss? Mother's dead, isn't she?
You're not very subtle. Why else would the police persecute me? She's dead.
You believe your mother was killed, miss?
No, no. You keep putting words into my mouth.
Maybe she was worried about being in the way.
Would your mother have been likely to have...
Mother suffered night and day. I suppose that's why she acted so depressed.
The tea would have been the... What tea?
Oh, leave me alone. Please.
You believe your mother took her own life by making herself a poisoned cup of tea
because she didn't want to be a burden any longer?
Yes. Yes, that's what must have happened.
But I lied. You led me into that lie.
And then because I couldn't help myself, I relived the most terrible day of my life.
A day I'll never confess to you or to anyone on earth.
I woke up this morning with a headache, the pain running deep back of my eyes.
I had a feeling of dread with the thought of last night in the mirror.
Are you awake, dear? Yes.
Oh, I haven't slept a wink, Gene.
Oh, Gene, did you get my prescription filled as I asked you to?
No, but there's plenty.
Well, out later than usual.
Last night weren't you, dear? I don't mind for myself, but it is an imposition on Mrs. Grogan.
Oh, your young man's such an amazing person.
She must have gone on complaining, as usual, but I didn't hear her.
I seemed to be moving in a strange world, all my own, as I dressed and went into the kitchen.
Sounds lost their familiarity.
The sharp tinkle of tableware hurt my ears as I went about setting the table.
When I put her teacup in its regular place in the center of the faded blue cloth,
the spoon fell against the saucer.
It was like a fall rasping a slate in my ears.
I ran from the kitchen to get the medicine bottle from the cabinet.
There were only two capsules left.
My heart was pounding.
I was so worried about my son.
Only enough for two normal doses.
Not enough for...
I yanked my coat on and ran out the front door.
I hadn't planned on this.
I ran all the way to the corner drugstore.
Oh.
Oh, I never do hear that door open.
Why, why, Jean, is your marlbat off?
No.
Well, yes.
Her prescription has run out.
I was shaking all over, having this unexpected job to do.
I knew the medicine bottle had plenty the day before.
I thought I must be going crazy.
I'd known Mr. Harmon since I was a kid.
His patient, wisen face and celluloid eye shade.
But I found no comfort in him now.
Young lady, I asked you twice for your prescription, huh?
Jean, oh, my sakes, are you well?
No, no.
I'm sorry, Mr. Harmon.
I can't find it.
It's gone.
Oh, well, you sit down at the fountain, my dear.
I'm not supposed to, of course, without a prescription,
but I'll make up those capsules anyway.
In the meantime, lemon syrup and soda.
Remember how you loved that when you were a little pigtail type, eh?
I think I cried then.
I scarcely was conscious as I hurried home.
I took a drink of whiskey in the kitchen, gagging on it.
Jean, where did you rush out to?
I answered her while I struggled
to unscrew the cap from the medicine bottle.
I took four capsules and emptied them into the tea strainer.
I emptied two more to be positive.
On the bottle's label it said, warning,
no more than one capsule in any one 24-hour period.
Be careful.
And put two spoons of sugar in my cup, dear.
It was too bitter yesterday.
Did you hear me, Jean?
I hear you.
I was careful, all right.
Three heaping spoons instead of two to hide the bitterness.
A double measure of black tea, carefully,
very carefully over the white pottery stuff in the strainer.
And it was hidden completely.
I left the tea kettle whistling on the electric plate.
Ready for Mother.
I didn't see Mother again.
I left the apartment half running all the way downtown
to the studio in the rain.
Erwin was crabbing as soon as I walked in.
Oh, good morning, Duchess.
All right, hop into your sun suit now and make it snappy.
And make up for black and white.
What's the excuse today?
Have to go to a funeral or something?
I did it, he said, silently and got through a series of poses.
My mind had gone blank and I struggled to keep that way.
Numb.
All I knew was I must have left myself remember.
Keep busy and blank.
And that's the way it was when you came in
and asked me questions.
You spun that ugly little tea strainer
until my eyes ain't watching it.
And you tore the protective blanket from over my head.
You released my memories.
But I told you nothing of the scenes
you conjured up in my mind.
I told you nothing.
But still you knew that I lied
when I agreed that my mother must have killed herself.
You're not telling the truth, Miss.
But the odd thing is you're closer to the truth than you realize.
I didn't kill my mother. I didn't.
Did you know your mother had enough lethal medicine
under her pillow to kill a dozen people?
What?
She'd been hoarding them.
Perhaps because she brooded she was a burden.
No.
But Miss, your mother never would have taken those capsules
the hard way and a cup of tea.
I'm sorry.
You could have taken those capsules the hard way and a cup of tea.
There was the flaw in your lie, wasn't it now?
What?
Your friend Ted Wark got a hold of your mother's prescription.
Maybe he took it from your purse. That doesn't matter.
Oh, no. No. No, no.
I'm afraid I must place you under arrest, Miss Dunn.
But I didn't kill my mother.
You said... you said...
No, no. You didn't kill your mother, Miss.
Your mother had a caller this morning after you left.
He brought her flowers and some more medicine.
Oh, no. Not Ted.
He couldn't have done. No.
No. You lie.
So your mother never had a chance to use the overdose she had hidden.
No. You... you lie.
And your mother's caller never had the chance to feed her
the poison he brought with him either.
Because as soon as he arrived he made the mistake
of affecting your mother's hospitality.
He drank a special cup of tea.
Half of it, anyhow. Enough.
Your mother is still alive, Miss.
She's requesting you for the murder of Ted Wark.
Thank you, Betty Grable, for a wonderful performance.
Well, Harlow, all over you're mad at the sponsor?
No, half. You know I never hold a grudge.
In fact, I like to talk about Auto Light Stay Full Batteries.
I like to tell people an Auto Light Stay Full Battery
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Remember, you're always right with Auto Light.
Here again is our star, Miss Betty Grable.
I want to thank Tony Leeder and his wonderful cast of actors
for helping me to make my first suspense visit so pleasant.
I'm a suspense fan from way back, and I'm sure all of you
are as anxious as I am to hear next week's show
when Mickey Rooney appears in the Cornell Woolrich story, The Lie.
It's another truly gripping study in...
Suspense!
Betty Grable appeared through the courtesy of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
and will soon be seen in the Technicolor picture
The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend.
Tonight's suspense play was written by John T. Copeland
with music composed by Lucian Morrowek and conducted by Lud Bluskin.
The entire production was under the direction of Anton M. Leeder.
In the coming weeks, Suspense will present such stars
as Bob Hope, Claire Trevor, James Stewart, and many others.
So make it a point to listen each Thursday to Suspense,
Radio's outstanding theater of thrills.
And next Thursday, same time, hear Mickey Rooney in The Lie.
You can buy auto light staple batteries, auto light resistor spark plugs,
auto light electrical parts at your neighborhood auto light dealers.
Switch to auto light. Good night.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.