 Now the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California presents Suspense! Tonight Roma Wines bring you the story of Ivy by that high priestess of the art of suspense Mary Bella Clowns and starring the young actress whose performance you admired in the picture An American romance Miss Anne Richards Suspense is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines That's R-O-M-A Roma Wines Those excellent California wines that can add so much pleasantness to the way you live To your happiness and entertaining guests To your enjoyment of everyday meals Yes, right now a glass full would be very pleasant As Roma Wines bring you a remarkable tale of suspense And with the story of Ivy and with the performance of Anne Richards As its extraordinary heroine Roma Wines hope indeed to keep you in Suspense! The story of Ivy, Ivy Lexton's own story as told to Victoria Matthews An exclusive feature of the Morning Herald I wrote it in the first person Mrs. Lexton, I hope you don't mind Oh, it doesn't matter, so long as the story is accurate You can understand my anxiety, Miss Matthews After all, I owe it to my public Yes, of course Perhaps you'd like to read it through and make suggestions before signing the release Oh, if it's not too much bother The country hearing it in your own words would be a decided help to me Very well, Miss Matthews, I'll read it out then Are you comfortable? Would you like anything? A cigarette perhaps? It's unfortunate that I have no maid here with me at present Thank you, I'm quite comfortable Please go ahead, Mrs. Lexton Very well Chapter one I was born in Hobbs Court, Soho And I was christened Ivy Gudge I hated my name And I hated the sordid surroundings into which I had been born And while yet a child I made up my mind that wealth and position should be mine at whatever cost As a child, my favourite book was the story of Nell Gwynn The commoner who became the favourite of a king And one sentence of Nells in the face of all her success Made an indelible impression on me It was this In life I have never sought anything that did not seem to have been placed in my hands by Providence itself At the close of my first season as an actress Our show was bankrupted by an embezzling manager But I was left stranded in the provinces and stone broke Many great gentlemen had shown me attentions And showered me with presents But I sought assistance from none of them And it was Jarvis Lexton A young man who might scarcely noticed who came to me in my hour of need Ivy, I know there are hundreds of men who adore you And with titles, wealth, social position, much more than I can offer But there's not one who loves you more than I do Will you marry me, Ivy? And I said yes, because it was offered We were frightfully happy that first year of our marriage And Jarvis was so generous Humoring all my little whims Spending much more money on me than he could afford It always gave him a thrill of boyish pleasure to see my portraits in the newspapers and magazines With captions such as The beautiful Mrs Ivy Lexton Wearing Vianette's latest creation Or Mrs Jarvis Lexton at Ascot With Lady Hampton and Lord Rushworth He kept a scrapbook of them And rarely seemed quite pleased about everything Until one day I say, Ivy, don't you think you're being seen and photographed a bit too much with this fellow Rushworth? Oh, but darling I thought you liked having me hobnob with the peers of the realm What about this other chap, Roger Gresham? You know, it does seem a bit thick for me to work my head off 12 hours a day Figuring out ways to finance your clothes and jewels So you can be photographed with other men It's got to stop in any case, Ivy We're broke Oh, you mean how money is all spent up? Well, wiped out The bailiffs attached my office furniture They can't even pay the rental on this flat What are we going to do, Jarvis? I'll let you figure that one out You're so good at spending money, perhaps you can think of a way to make some So you see, Jarvis rarely made the suggestion to me himself I don't know what we'd have done during the next few months If it hadn't been for the generosity of Roger Gresham and Lord Rushworth Roger was only a young doctor starting out in practice And couldn't help a great deal, of course Though he was even funder of me than Miles Rushworth Now that I look back on it It was in July that things took such a distressing turn I'd been out to dinner with Roger Gresham And I asked him up to the flat afterwards to say hello to Jarvis and cheer him up Poor Jarvis hadn't been feeling well lately Well, Ivy, this is a fine hour to come home to your loving husband Where have you been? Out, darling Aren't you going to say hello to Roger? I suppose I should thank him for keeping my wife amused I say, old fellow Roger has just been telling me the most fascinating things He was called as an expert, you know, for the crown of the Bronson case I asked him to come up and tell you about it, darling Since you're such a detective fan Well, that's nice of you, Roger Do tell me all about the Bronson case Well, uh, there was nothing so interesting about the murder itself It was just a simple case of arsenic poisoning And you don't say As a medical man, what interested me about it was What a doctor ought to do in a case where he suspects a patient's being secretly poisoned What would you do, Roger? Well, I, uh, it's hard to say If you called him a police and your suspicions turned out to be unfounded But this would just about finish your career I suppose that's why so many poisoners get away with it Well, I, I guess I'd better be getting along Drop in again sometime, Roger And bring your own arsenic Jarvis Well, cheerio Ivy, see you later Really, Jarvis? I've never been so humiliated You know I don't like him Why do you persist in bringing him here? Why, darling? I do believe you're jealous Well, why shouldn't I be? I like it when you're jealous It's like old times, isn't it? Do you deny that he's in love with you And that you've encouraged him Him and I don't know how many others Oh, now, darling, don't be like that There's only one other You admit it Well, darling, we may as well be realistic We're still stony broke And you don't seem to have any prospects What are you driving at? Well, Miles got back in town today And I was seeing him tomorrow night Lord Rushworth, darling Well, that titled idiot That titled idiot has been paying the rent On this flat for the past six months If you want to know the truth Why, you little... Well, now, darling, can I help it If Miles Rushworth is awfully, awfully fond of me And if it helps us, what's the difference? Go on, I'm listening Darling, look I'm just a burden to you At the stage, aren't I? So you want me to give you a divorce? Is that it? Needn't make any difference between us, darling As soon as I'm Lady Rushworth I'll settle a nice allowance on you Are you serious? Of course I'm serious, darling Well, I don't play your rotten filthy game Jarvis! You married me for Ritter or poorer And you're going to stick to your bargain And if you try to divorce me, I'll make such a scandal Your precious Lord Rushworth will wish he'd never met you In fact, I have a notion to do it anyway Oh, Jarvis, you wouldn't That would spoil everything You're frightened, aren't you? Well, I'll give you your choice Either you give up your boyfriends and keep me Or you'll lose all three of us Which will it be? Well, well, all right, Jarvis I'll tell Roger and Miles both I can't see them again, ever Why didn't you just ask me to kill myself? I might have obliged if you'd been more honest Jarvis, you mustn't say such things You're poison to me How to let you go I won't If it's any satisfaction to you, I'd be better off dead Than with things the way they are I simply can't go on seeing you It isn't fair to Jarvis Is he being fair to you? You don't understand I'm all he has left now You're so good, so innocent Can't you see he's just holding on to you out of spite? Has he done one thing? Has he even tried to get a job so that he could support you? I married him for richer or poorer Until death do us part Then I pray death be merciful To us both, I believe You mustn't say such things, it's wicked I'm sorry, my dear Ivy, I wanted to give you this little remembrance I had hoped to give it to you under happier circumstances But please accept it now As a farewell present Oh, Lord Rushford, you shouldn't do it It's only a little thing A little handbag you admired so much We saw it in Cartier's window Oh, the one with the emerald glass Oh, you shouldn't do it Oh, it must have cost a fortune The emerald matches your eyes You will accept it, won't you? Oh, Myles, I'll carry it with me always Ivy, darling, come in, come in I was just in the neighborhood, Roger, and I thought that I... Yeah, yeah, let me take your things I say Oh, what a smart handbag Real emerald, isn't it? Yes, Myles gave it to me, isn't it lovely? You know what it means, accepting a present like that from him Oh, don't be silly, Roger It was a farewell present Farewell? Do you really mean that? Roger, Roger, please, please What if your housekeeper walked in? Oh, I'm sorry Well, come along, darling, come in here I was just putting up a prescription What a queer sort of room I never knew a doctor's surgery looked like this Weren't you ever in here before? No Huh? Oh, well, Arsenic I thought it was a poison Well, it is It's also a fine tonic taken in the right amounts How much would it take to, uh, kill someone? Oh, about the same amount as... The amount of sugar it would take to sweeten your coffee? Oh, doesn't it give you an eerie feeling? What? That little glass jar, there's death in it Prison, waiting to escape Oh Aren't you being rather morbid? Will you have one or two spoonfuls of death in your coffee, darling? I say, you are a little bourgeois, darling All right, it's my patient now, wait here, darling Shouldn't be a moment As soon as he'd left the room I picked up the glass jar on the end of the table Unscrewed the top of it Almost without being aware of what I was doing How strange and exciting to know that death was in that jar In those little white crystals Then as if some power outside myself had suddenly taken possession of me I pressed the catch of that lovely jeweled handbag And commenced spooning out the white crystals One, two, three Sorry to be so long, darling I had to listen to a recital of the colonel's symptoms Oh, that's all right I was just fixing my makeup I can't seem to find my lipstick I so, girl, you're looking rather pale Perhaps I'd better prescribe a tonic for you Oh, no, I'm just a little tired, that's all Hello What is it, Roger? Oh, nothing I could have sworn I put the cap back on the spot Oh, well On the bus all the way back to Kensington I kept wondering why I had done that funny thing It seemed as if everyone was staring at me under the little handbag with the emerald clasp In a momentary surge of panic I wondered if they'd guessed my secret The little white crystals of death I had carried away with me For what? For whom? Then, of a sudden, it came to me Providence had placed in my hands the means of helping my poor, unhappy husband For Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you as star Miss Ann Richards whom you have heard in the first act of The Story of Ivy by Mrs. Bella Clowns which is Roma Wines' presentation tonight of Suspense Between the acts of suspense this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines Gracious hostess Elsa Maxwell makes this timely suggestion During the warm weather, I'd suggest you try America's smartest, coolest drink refreshing Roma wine and soda So simple and yet so charming When the temperature soars enjoy iced, thirst-quenching Roma wine and soda Simply half-filled tall glasses with good Roma California burgundy or Roma California sautern and ice cubes and sparkling water a little sugar if you wish and for a decorative touch garnish with cherries and slices of fruit The secret of the flavorful goodness of Roma wine and soda is the distinguished Roma wine unvaryingly good always high in quality of bouquet brilliance and taste the result of selected grapes slowly brought to perfection in California's choicest vineyards carefully, unhurriedly guided to flavorfulness by the ancient skill of Roma's famed wineries Yet all this goodness is yours for only pennies a glass Remember, because of uniformly fine quality at reasonable cost more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wine R-O-M-A Roma wines And now Roma wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage Anne Richards who continues the story of Ivy a play well calculated to keep you in suspense My husband's illness lasted only a little more than a week but to me it seemed an intolerably long time Thanks to the generosity of Lord Rushworth I was able to have a nursing to look after him but I couldn't help wishing there was something more I could do for him I'd used up nearly all of the poison I'd carried away that night from Roger's dispensary but instead of the merciful death I had hoped it would bring it seemed only to cause poor Jarvis to suffer more pain There were only a few grains of the white crystals left in the bottom of the little handbag with the emerald clasp and I hadn't the heart to go on with it Besides, Jarvis Doctor was commencing to ask too many questions I decided to consult another physician and under the circumstances Roger Gresham seemed the wisest choice Ivy, I came the moment I received your message It's offering so dreadfully, Roger I hadn't any idea it would be so painful You hadn't any idea what? Well, I mean he complained of a stomach ache and suddenly and the night... Where is he? I'll have a look at him Here This is Dr Gresham nurse How do you do, Doctor? Jarvis, I've asked Roger to look at you You don't mind, do you, dear? Get him out of here I've been poisoned He's the one who poisoned me Get him out of here Oh boy, he's been that distracted he has I'll just prescribe a little sedative for him, nurse I'll go and order up some tea, Roger You will stay, won't you? Yes, yes, thanks Oh, Mrs. Lexton, I was just looking for you Dr. Berwick is waiting in the drawing room with another gentleman, ma'am I'll see what they want Order up some tea, will you, dear? Oh, well, there you are, Mrs. Lexton This is Inspector Orpington Inspector? Scotland Yard, ma'am Dr. Berwick tells me he has reason to suspect that your husband is suffering from arsenic poisoning, Miss Lexton I don't understand Your husband keeps speaking of someone named Roger Gresham Is that the name, Dr. Berwick? Yes, yes Mr. Gresham, he's in there now with my husband Good lord, come along, Inspector You'd better wait here, Mrs. Lexton Never until that moment had I realized how foolish my actions had been Surely now they would suspect poor Roger If there had only been someone to confide in I felt so alone I'll have your license for discretion, you hear me? Look here, Berwick Mrs. Lexton never told me there was another doctor on the case No, is that true, Mrs. Lexton? Well, yes, Dr. Gresham is an old friend of mine and I saw no harm in his looking him Well, nevertheless, I shall sign the death certificate not till there's a post mortem Death certificate? I'm sorry, Mrs. Lexton It's our painful duty to inform you that your husband has just passed away Oh, good God, yes Roger, it's Ivy Roger, it's been such an ordeal, you don't know And that dreadful man, that Inspector from Scotland Yard has been here again asking questions What kind of questions? Well, darling, I can't tell you everything over the telephone but he said it was his duty to find out the truth The truth about what? They found out that Pruitt Jarvis died of arsenic poisoning Suicide? The Inspector says they know it was murder What possible motive could I have? None, of course, darling but I was silly enough to let out to the Inspector that you had been, well, fond of me in a sort of way Are you there, Roger? Well, the moment I said it I saw what a mistake I'd made but he spoke as if he already knew such a lot or at any rate, some part of it Well, but even if I didn't care for you you had been very, very fond of me Are you there, Roger? Yes, Ivy Well, he's certain to ask if I've ever been to see you at your house, I mean Well, of course, I said no Are you still on the line, Roger? You won't give me away Will you, Roger, darling? Roger Gresham The jury, after a careful and patient hearing have found you guilty of the willful murder of Jarvis Lexton A sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from here to a lawful place of execution and that you be there hanged by the neck until you'll be dead Roger, you mustn't give away like this I can't help it, Miles It's been such a shock First poor Jarvis, and now Well, it's all over now Look here, Ivy, why not take a long voyage somewhere far away from here? The CM is marvellous with getting one's troubles and make a fresh start somewhere Rio, for instance Oh, I've always wanted to see Rio Perhaps we can go there for our honeymoon Honeymoon? Are you thinking of remarrying? Of course, darling Don't you remember what you said? If I were only free Well, I'm free now Ivy, I don't quite know what to say I'm very fond of you, of course And I'll gladly lend you any financial assistance but as for marriage Particularly under the circumstances You must know there's been a great deal of talk about you and Gresham Surely you don't believe those stories There's never been anyone but you, Miles If I'd met you before I met Jarvis We could never have been in any case Ivy Surely you realise that I'm not good enough to be Lady Rushworth Is that what you're trying to say? Too good, if you like It's not my choice in any case I was born with this name and I have certain responsibilities You stop this now I wish I could make you understand There's my mother, for instance And if I were to marry Well, you are I believe the shock would kill her But the things you said, the presents you gave me What was I to think? I'm sorry if you thought I was leading you on The night that I gave you the bag You were saving it for the kiss off Was that it? It matches the colour of your eyes And I said I'll carry it with me always Funny isn't it? Ivy, please, the servants Don't you Ivy, please me Perhaps the whole world will hear one day That Ivy Lexton poisoned a husband for Lord Rushworth Ivy, what are you saying? Two lives weren't too much for Ivy to sacrifice And the risk of her own life meant nothing She wasn't good enough from the Lord You dear sweet little Ivy Lexton I can't believe it Well, let me tell you something you can believe I never loved you I loved your money and the title I wanted to be a lady, what a joke Well, I'm not sorry I've always hated your kind deep down inside of me Anything to say, face anything Roger Gresham going to the gallows Because he's too much of a gentleman to tell the truth That I was in his flat the night Jarvis was poisoned You let an innocent man be hanged If he'd loved me as he pretended to He would've killed Jarvis If he'd been a man instead of a gentleman If any of your kind were real men Well, I've had enough of it Take your foul present Pretty little thing isn't it A little handbag and so expensive too The emerald matches my eyes, does it? No, thank you I'm not in the market for emeralds this season, my lord They cost too dear We vandalized the residue in that handbag, Inspector Oh, good, good What did you find? Well, quite a lot of face powder Some tobacco crumbs and about three grains Of chemically pure arsenic Leave it here Sergeant, bring in Mrs. Nexton Yes, sir, bring in the prisoner What's the meaning of this, Inspector Please, please instruct your officers To treat me with respect, I'm not a common criminal Let her go, Officer Thank you, Inspector Mrs. Nexton, have you Have you ever seen this handbag before? Where did you get that? I'll ask you a question Where did you get the arsenic that we founded it? I'm sure I don't know Why don't you ask Lord Rushworth? My dear Mrs. Nexton, surely you know that Lord Rushworth Is in no condition to answer questions What do you mean? Lord Rushworth died last night Of the effects of arsenic poisoning And so my story draws to a close It's a comfort to me as I sit here in the condemned cell To know that so many loyal friends Still believe in my innocence In spite of all the un-gentlemanly things The crown prosecutor said about me during my trial I was especially gratified At the tribute paid to the costumes I wore in the witness box One admirer has written to compliment me On my delivery and the poise I exhibited under cross examination I'm told that my remarks were clearly audible In the very back row of the speckling I'm told that my remarks were clearly audible In the very back row of the spectator seats In spite of the overcrowding And on the final day of testimony I received that greatest Of all the tributes and actress can command My audience was moved to tears And so in spite of all the misfortunes That have befallen me and my loved ones I have at last realized My life's ambition The end Well Mrs. Nexton, does it meet With your approval? Well, I think you might point out That I killed Lord Rushworth too Of course between you and me My dear, I didn't It must have been suicide But you know it makes a better story And please print the photograph That was taken of me outside St. Paul's After my husband's funeral That was the smartest frock I ever owned I think that can be arranged Mrs. Nexton And how much did you say your paper's Going to pay for my story? Two hundred pounds We thought that was quite generous Well, it's not much But it'll come in handy They're hanging me next week, you know And I haven't a thing to wear And so closes The story of Ivy In which Roma Wines have brought you And Richards as star of tonight's study In Suspense Suspense is produced, edited and directed By William Spear Before Miss Richards returns To the microphone Let me say a word for Roma Wines The sponsor of Suspense Famed hostess Elsa Maxwell Recently said this about Gracious entertaining Serving glorious amber golden Roma California sherry Is truly a distinguished expression Of hospitality Your guests will appreciate The delightful flavor, aroma And color of Roma sherry Before dinner and during the evening California's choicest vineyards come Distinctive Roma sherry And all other fine Roma Wines The quality of Roma Wines Never varies Always the same tempting flavor Always pleasing to the palate Yet cost only pennies a glass And the next time you use Vermouth, choose Roma Vermouth Zestful, full flavored Roma Vermouth is blended Developed with all the Traditional wine making skill Is made and bottled in the heart Of California's famous vineyards Yet surprisingly low priced Try Roma Vermouth soon, won't you? This is Anne Richards With a very important word Our fighting men still need lots of weapons Ammunition, food and supplies To defeat Japan And they still depend on us at home To help pay the way There'll be one less war loan this year So to do our share we must buy During the seventh war loan War bonds, remember Are the world's safest investment Thank you Anne Richards Next Thursday, same time Mr. Henry Daniel will be your star of Suspense Presented by Roma Wines R-O-M-A Made in California For enjoyment throughout the world This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System