09-11-2009, 03:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-11-2009, 03:35 PM by Helen Reyes.)
This just as easily fits the Strange Timing in Polanski Arrest and MKULTRA Naval Intel Hippie threads..
Object of study: Suspense radio series episode The House in Cypress Canyon, first aired December 5, 1945 (?).
Synopsis:
Real estate agent Jerry calls friend and private detective Sam Spade over to Cypress Canyon outside Los Angeles to discuss a strange manuscript found in a half-finished house. The house now has a number: 2256. It was one of those houses from before the war, never finished, just a foundation and some beams. Now it's finished and ready to rent.
Sam initially asks Jerry if he needs protection from the mafia, at which point Jerry tries to explain the nature of the manuscript.
Mr. James Woods and his wife Ellen (they were married 7 years ago in Indiana) need to rent a house. They've been living out of one of those California motels for 3 months, ever since Woods's employer (he's a chemical engineer) moved him out to work on "a minor project in Los Angeles, Hollywood to be exact," from Indiana. Serendipitiously, as they're driving up and down Cypress Canyon, they spot a sign at a realtor's advertising a small house. James doesn't think they have a chance, but his wife persists, and soon they're talking to the realtor and moving in. James says they don't have a chance because the sign is out in "plain sight" already.
The house is dusty, it's been standing empty for a year. As they move their boxes of stuff from the motel in, they find one door is locked, and none of the keys fit it. It's apparently a door to a closet. Ellen makes a passing remark about the severity of the current housing crisis, and how odd it is that a woman moves into a house without knowing all the closets first. Ellen then wants to discuss getting red curtains, but Jim is tired and convinces her to go to bed. As they prepare, a strange sound is heard, like a wildcat.
They retire, and a more horrible sound is heard. Jim thinks it might be a bobcat or mountain lion. Ellen thinks it came from inside the house. Jim doesn't understand where it could come from inside the house. Ellen reminds him of the locked closet.
They go to investigate. In the dark, Ellen sees there is a liquid coming from underneath the door of the closet. Despite Jim trying to stop her, she touches it. In the light they see it's blood.
They call the police and an officer comes by. The blood is gone from the floor and Ellen's hand, and the closet is unlocked now. The officer remarks they are from the east, and warns there are strange things in the canyon at night. They sleep poorly.
The next day, Ellen scratches the spot on her hand that came in contact with the blood. That night Jim and Ellen take sleeping pills to sleep. Jim awakens to find Ellen missing. He searches, but knows she's in the closet. He opens the door finally to find her in a fierce pose. He tries to reach out to her, but she bites him on the arm, then collapses. She sleeps soundly but Jim can't. The next morning she remembers nothing. Jim tries to lose himself in work the next day, and sees a doctor about the bite. The doctor has never seen an infection spread so quickly. Jim then realizes it's late, and will soon be dark. He races home, but Ellen is gone. In the middle of the night he turns on the shortwave for some reason. He hears a police call about a murder nearby. He rushes to the scene and sees the corpse, with the neck ripped out. Bystanders call him Frank the milkman.
This is a crucial part: the police radio says the murder took place in the 4000 block of Laurel Canyon. The responding officer is the same who came to the Woods's home the night before. He recognizes Jim, but Jim explains anyway that he lives "right down the street." Cypress Canyon is Laurel Canyon. This is confirmed at the end of the story with the newspaper clippings.
Ellen eventually comes home, and then it cuts back to Jerry and Sam Spade discussing the manuscript. Sam thinks maybe a writer lived next door and misplaced a story. Jerry says there are newspaper clippings paper-clipped to the manuscript as well.
Dated December 26, byline Hollywood: murder/suicide in Cypress Canyon, Jim and Ellen are dead. This is the second tragedy to be reported in Cypress Canyon in the last 24 hours, the other being the unexplained death of Frank Polanski, milkman.
Sam and Jerry's conversation turns to the paradox of the story being written before construction on the house was complete. Sam leaves and a pair stop by the realty office to rent the now finished one-storey California bungalow, named Jim and Ellen Woods.
This is considered a classic Old-Time Radio episode and can be found in numerous places on the internet, in varying quality. Suspense also redramatized it several times, in 1946 and later. Every version I've heard has the same elements: Laurel Canyon, action taking place between the winter solstice and Christmas, and Frank Polanski, milkman.
Object of study: Suspense radio series episode The House in Cypress Canyon, first aired December 5, 1945 (?).
Synopsis:
Real estate agent Jerry calls friend and private detective Sam Spade over to Cypress Canyon outside Los Angeles to discuss a strange manuscript found in a half-finished house. The house now has a number: 2256. It was one of those houses from before the war, never finished, just a foundation and some beams. Now it's finished and ready to rent.
Sam initially asks Jerry if he needs protection from the mafia, at which point Jerry tries to explain the nature of the manuscript.
Mr. James Woods and his wife Ellen (they were married 7 years ago in Indiana) need to rent a house. They've been living out of one of those California motels for 3 months, ever since Woods's employer (he's a chemical engineer) moved him out to work on "a minor project in Los Angeles, Hollywood to be exact," from Indiana. Serendipitiously, as they're driving up and down Cypress Canyon, they spot a sign at a realtor's advertising a small house. James doesn't think they have a chance, but his wife persists, and soon they're talking to the realtor and moving in. James says they don't have a chance because the sign is out in "plain sight" already.
The house is dusty, it's been standing empty for a year. As they move their boxes of stuff from the motel in, they find one door is locked, and none of the keys fit it. It's apparently a door to a closet. Ellen makes a passing remark about the severity of the current housing crisis, and how odd it is that a woman moves into a house without knowing all the closets first. Ellen then wants to discuss getting red curtains, but Jim is tired and convinces her to go to bed. As they prepare, a strange sound is heard, like a wildcat.
They retire, and a more horrible sound is heard. Jim thinks it might be a bobcat or mountain lion. Ellen thinks it came from inside the house. Jim doesn't understand where it could come from inside the house. Ellen reminds him of the locked closet.
They go to investigate. In the dark, Ellen sees there is a liquid coming from underneath the door of the closet. Despite Jim trying to stop her, she touches it. In the light they see it's blood.
They call the police and an officer comes by. The blood is gone from the floor and Ellen's hand, and the closet is unlocked now. The officer remarks they are from the east, and warns there are strange things in the canyon at night. They sleep poorly.
The next day, Ellen scratches the spot on her hand that came in contact with the blood. That night Jim and Ellen take sleeping pills to sleep. Jim awakens to find Ellen missing. He searches, but knows she's in the closet. He opens the door finally to find her in a fierce pose. He tries to reach out to her, but she bites him on the arm, then collapses. She sleeps soundly but Jim can't. The next morning she remembers nothing. Jim tries to lose himself in work the next day, and sees a doctor about the bite. The doctor has never seen an infection spread so quickly. Jim then realizes it's late, and will soon be dark. He races home, but Ellen is gone. In the middle of the night he turns on the shortwave for some reason. He hears a police call about a murder nearby. He rushes to the scene and sees the corpse, with the neck ripped out. Bystanders call him Frank the milkman.
This is a crucial part: the police radio says the murder took place in the 4000 block of Laurel Canyon. The responding officer is the same who came to the Woods's home the night before. He recognizes Jim, but Jim explains anyway that he lives "right down the street." Cypress Canyon is Laurel Canyon. This is confirmed at the end of the story with the newspaper clippings.
Ellen eventually comes home, and then it cuts back to Jerry and Sam Spade discussing the manuscript. Sam thinks maybe a writer lived next door and misplaced a story. Jerry says there are newspaper clippings paper-clipped to the manuscript as well.
Dated December 26, byline Hollywood: murder/suicide in Cypress Canyon, Jim and Ellen are dead. This is the second tragedy to be reported in Cypress Canyon in the last 24 hours, the other being the unexplained death of Frank Polanski, milkman.
Sam and Jerry's conversation turns to the paradox of the story being written before construction on the house was complete. Sam leaves and a pair stop by the realty office to rent the now finished one-storey California bungalow, named Jim and Ellen Woods.
This is considered a classic Old-Time Radio episode and can be found in numerous places on the internet, in varying quality. Suspense also redramatized it several times, in 1946 and later. Every version I've heard has the same elements: Laurel Canyon, action taking place between the winter solstice and Christmas, and Frank Polanski, milkman.