What happens
Orson Welles stars in this Suspense episode, adapted from a story by Ben Hecht, in which a stage magician named Barastro arrives at the office of William Spier to tell his tale. Barastro explains that he intends to travel to Mexico City to kill a man named Rico Sanzoni, whom he holds responsible for events that began twenty years earlier in a Russian village. Barastro recounts how he met a blind girl named Anna, how they married, and how Rico came into their lives. The episode was broadcast on April 13, 1944, on CBS, sponsored by Roma Wines.
A Russian village and traveling carnival twenty years earlier, and later the office of William Spier in the present day
Characters: Barastro, Anna, Rico Sanzoni, William Spier
Listen for: Barastro's account of his wife Anna and the stranger Rico Sanzoni, and the moment in the story when Barastro meets Rico
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.