Suspense - The Hitchhiker

The Suspense episode "The Hitchhiker" is well known because the radio play was transformed into a television episode, and it has since lived on in reruns. In this story, a supernatural hitchhiker follows the main character on a trip across the country.

Orson Welles, for whom the role was written, first performed "The Hitchhiker" on the CBS network's Mercury Theater on the Air in 1941, and then again on Suspense in 1942. The radio play was written by Lucille Fletcher, who also wrote Suspense's most famous episode, "Sorry, Wrong Number." (This episode also features her husband, legendary film-composer Bernard Herrmann, who composed and conducted the music.) In 1960, "The Hitch-Hiker" became an episode of the CBS television show, The Twilight Zone but with Inger Stevens in the lead role.

The radio version has chilling sound effects. Well, chilling or hokey. It depends on your point of view. Listen for the sound effects of the phone call made by Welles. The suspense builds as his call goes from operator to operator across the country, but it also shows how many people had to be involved just to make a phone call back then!

This episode was broadcast on September 2, 1942.

Download Suspense.1942.09.02_Hitchhiker.mp3 

The original presentation of "The Hitchhiker" performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater aired on November 17, 1941, but no recording of that broadcast is known to exist at this time. However, a 1946 version performed by Orson Welles for The Mercury Summer Theater is available below. 

. Download MercuryTheater_1946-06-2--The Hitch-hiker

(Visit The Digital Deli Too for more information about the The Mercury Theater on the Air and its various name changes and program logs.) 

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Many old radio shows have stories that include hitchhikers. Often, they play on the urban legends of "The Vanishing Hitchhiker" or "The Two Hitchhikers".

Here is an episode from the radio series The Clock (1946-1948) that is also called "The Hitchhiker". It is a spin on the urban legend where one of two hitchhikers is dangerous but appearances turn out to be deceiving.

This episode was broadcast on February 9, 1947.

Download Clock.1947.02.09_The_Hitchhiker.mp3

For more information about urban legends about hitchhikers consult The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand.

For more information about the Twilight Zone episode "The Hitch-Hiker" consult The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree.

(Photo by Robb Kiser)

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Revised  06/20/12

Comments

[etey]

OMG!!! he was dead! i had NO idea. i'm still speechless. OMG!!!

[brown, jaccara]

It was kind of cool. It kinda remineded me alot of like the twilight zone... thats the feel i got from it. But it wasnt scary just kind of weird/different...kind of like the mosters on maple street i read last year for english.

[danilyn besabella]

I think that the radio seemed more scary because it sounded like in realy life and i got scared. In the broadcast it felt like you were in the movie and haveing a better point of view of what was happening and what was around you. The broadcast was more interesting to me because it was very lifelike and was more exciting to listen to. There was lots of suppense in the radio version because the introduction and you can also hear the music which was scary. It was almost the same as the video version because in the radio you can picture what is happening and what is the backround of the movie. Mostly it was the same as the video and the book but I rather watvh the video.

[chloe smith]

Compared to the 3 ways we evaluated the story i thought this one was the best. the radio announce ment had way more supence then just reading, i also thought it had more supence then the movie. i think i feel this way is because of the way the voice discibes things and how he uses terms. he tells the story with more imagery, he makes you get a picture in your head. the foreshadowing thats used in all three ways we experienced this story were all told in the same way i felt.

[chloe smith]

Compared to the 3 ways we evaluated the story i thought this one was the best. the radio announce ment had way more supence then just reading, i also thought it had more supence then the movie. i think i feel this way is because of the way the voice discibes things and how he uses terms. he tells the story with more imagery, he makes you get a picture in your head. the foreshadowing thats used in all three ways we experienced this story were all told in the same way i felt.

[Mary Grabinski]

It was very interesting. In the textbook I read this story and there were alot of parts that it skipped over so at some points I kept rewinding it because I thought that it skipped over the parts. But all in all it was very interesting

[Mary Grabinski]

It was very interesting. In the textbook I read this story and there were alot of parts that it skipped over so at some points I kept rewinding it because I thought that it skipped over the parts. But all in all it was very interesting

[anna martinez]

the hitchiker is so creepy when its goin from one thing to another when u think u know wats goin on and dont even realize when at the very end BAMB!!! the story changes into something completely different.i give the writer props for the amazing story

[bob]

haha

[reahni a.]

the music gave it even more suspense than just reading it from a text book. i still cant get over the fact that he was actually dead. creepy.. and yet very confusing with just the right amount of sense..... ahahhahaha

[Nick]

we just read this in class, and my teacher said he was dead, and it was kind of a flahback, but if it was, and everyone else around him was dead, how come when he swerved into him, that chick that he gave a ride didnt see him also??? any ideas email me at [email protected], thanks

[belcher, calvin]

The radio one is probably the most suspenseful, because unlike the book, it has spooky music in the background. It is also kind of better than the book because like when a new person speaks, they don't wait like 2 minutes to say their line, they say it on time. The main character is the same as in the book, his name is Ronald Adams. He also starts out saying he isn't crazy. The hitchhiker is described the same. Stops at the mechanic’s place like in the book. Most of this is the same as the movie also but the movie starts out different, and the main character was a female. He stopped at the trailer just to talk to someone just like in the book and the movie. Unlike the movie, he was heading to California. He saw the hitchhiker by the train that was crossing like in the book and the movie. When he leaves it is raining, and there were fresh raindrops on the hitchhiker's shoulders like in the book. Like in the movie, he got stuck on the railroad track. He picks up a hitchhiking lady, like in the book, and even though he was heading to California, and she was going to Amarillo, Texas he will take her to Amarillo, Texas. He is seeking out comfort. He tried to hit the hitchhiker that he "sees". The lady thinks he's crazy, because she didn't see the hitchhiker. The part that she left him is sort of funny, because you can hear animals in the background. Keeps trying to outrun the hitchhiker, but the hitchhiker keeps getting in front of him. I don’t remember him mentioning being on the Brooklyn bridge and swerving around hitchhiker like in the book. When he got to Gallup, New Mexico, and like the book and the movie, he makes a call to his mom's house talks to someone not his mom, and finds out she is in hospital for nervous breakdown, when he fids out he is DEAD.

[Jose Estrada]

By comparing the 3 versions i think the video was the most suspenseful. You could actually see and hear what is taking place in the story. You feel the suspense because when you see it you get surprised. The book wasn't very suspenseful because you can read ahead and other people are reading and they don't sound very suspenseful. You cant see
or hear the real people speaking which isn't very suspenseful. The audio one was suspenseful because you hear the real voices and the sounds . You don't really see what's happening but when you hear it you don't really know what's going to happen.

[De'Ja Marie Greene]

I think that the radio version was most suspenceful because u can get a great visuall of what is happening but u cant quit know wat is gonna happen later on. so u keep listening until u find out. Enen though i dont like reading, i think the book version was slightlt better then the vedio, twilight zone version.While reading the book with greaat ethustiastic readers it make the suspence even better because of the readers energy. the vedio version was alright too but it didnt really pull me into the movie and make me think like "OMG" wat is gonna happen next, its like i already kinda new nnd i could easily figure it out.

[valerie Arredondo]

i think the radio version was the most suspenseful because you had to use the sounds and clues that the radio storyteller would give you to kinda figure out wat was gonna happen next. and it was my favorite bcuz i got to use my imagination and got to feel wat it was like to be in the old days when people listened to the radio instead of the T.V.
(sorry if im not writing rite) xP
so, yea, the radio one was my favorite and the most suspenseful!!!
=)

[belcher, calvin]

ddddddduuuuuudddddde i totallly agree with valerie

[Dianne Nelson]

I am looking for the performance rights to The Hitchhiker as our community theater is performing it in February and I am having trouble locating a site where I can get the rights. Can anyone help me?? Dianne

[colliric]

The TZ version was the best...

"I believe you're going my way?"

[weston]

we listened to this in class it was tank!!!!!

[tylan]

wow i would have never known he was a ghost

[Celine Seklawi]

I think the radio version was kind've more interesting because you can hear the tone changing and the reactions of adam.But I still think the book version is also good because when you have people do it ... its more interesting. But the twilight zone sounded kinda scary.

[jose long]

The hitchhiker is a very suspensefull broadcast. It is very hard to interperit. It is confusing how Ronald died and did not know.

[Matthew Jearez]

I thought the Show was the best because it was perfected. I found it wierd with a man being scared in the book and radio version although he did not get as scared and emotional as the woman did. I found that the radio was word for word with the book. I enjoyed how it was an old radio style compared to how the radio is now. I've watched the Twilight Zone episodes and found them interesting. I thought the show was the best and the book was the second and the radio was my least favorite.

[Jenna Inn]

Did you know the real meaning of that episode? At the beginning it mentions an accident she had. The guy mentions how she should have died, but didn't. This is because she actually did. She was like a ghost, and 'the hitchhiker' was like death or whatever, wanting to take her to her next life or heaven or whatever.

[Felix]

Is there any way to get the original 1941 version?

[cmillinsf]

Hi Felix,
No, the 1941 version is not available, but I have now added the 1946 version done by the Mercury Summer Theater to my original post.
Best--Christine