1953-11-22 To Be or Not to Be Dead

Broadcast November 22nd 1953 on Mutual at 5:00 p.m. EST sponsored by Wildroot Cream-Oil Hair Tonic and Wildroot Cream Shampoo

This is a lost episode and no recreation of it has yet been made. If you have a copy of the script please let me know.

Written by: Max Ehrlich

Announcer: Ted Mallie

Cast: Bret Morrison (Lamont Cranston/The Shadow) Gertrude Warner (Margot Lane)

Music: Charles Paul

Synopsis:

While attending the Shakespearean Festival, Lamont and Margot witness an actual strangling of the actress playing Desdemona by the actor playing Othello. Roger Denham, the director and producer of the stage play, admits that Cynthia Cortney was leaving her husband, Cedric. While the killer escaped out the back door and into the woods, Lamont and Margot find Cedric’s corpse in a wardrobe chest, suggesting the killer used makeup to fool the audience into thinking Cedric killed his wife. The only suspect remaining is understudy Eric Newton, who claims to have been at a bar drinking the night of the murderous performance. It doesn’t take long for the truth to come out — Henry Hodges, a stagehand, was the guilty culprit. His ancestor was Sir Francis Bacon, and he longed to have his kin receive rightful due among literary immortals. With mad sentiment, Hodges planned to destroy the Shakespeare Memorial, first by killing the actors and then by blowing up the theater. The Shadow foils his scheme to ensure “all’s well that ends well.”