Who Am I? August 2023
I was born in Syracuse, NY but actually grew up in Binghamton. Dad worked as a grocer and later as a butcher and my mom was a homemaker. I was a chatterbox and sometimes a class clown as a kid. I gravitated to the debating team and was one of speakers at my graduation from Binghamton High.
WWII broke out while I was in high school and I decided to enlist immediately after graduation. I was a big supporter of the war effort and hoped to be assigned to the European Theater. I went “airborne” and became a paratrooper assigned to an airborne division and a parachute infantry regiment. As often happens, I was assigned instead to the Pacific Theater! I was a scrappy little guy who took up boxing in the army where I competed as a flyweight boxer. Years later, after my army discharge, I competed in Golden Gloves tournaments as a featherweight. After I had my nose broken a couple of times I decided I’d better find another line of work.
In the army I eventually attained the rank of T4 (TEC 4). I experienced combat in the Battle of Leyte in the Philippines where I earned my purple heart after suffering shrapnel wounds. I was also awarded a bronze star. I saw lots of death, some of it random, during my army service. Years later, when I became a screenwriter, playwright, and producer my experiences in the army found their way into my writing. I was also to suffer nightmares from my P.T.S.D. condition, though they didn’t call it that back then. We knew it as “CSR” (Combat Stress Reaction) or “battle fatigue.”
After 3 years of service I was discharged and took advantage of the G.I. Bill and disability payments to go to Antioch College in Ohio. There I furthered an early interest of mine in radio and broadcasting. I began to write radio scripts in college and started sending them out to publishers and broadcasting networks. The new medium of television was emerging and I became one of the first to write TV scripts. As a freelance writer I was by no means an overnight success! I suffered plenty of indignities, rejections and slammed doors before Kraft Television Theater, the Hallmark Hall of Fame and Playhouse 90 began buying my scripts and putting them on the air.
I didn’t particularly like having my scripts interrupted by commercials. Even more than that I resented the fact that producers, studio executives and sponsors often tried to edit my material because they thought it was too controversial. I was quoted as saying that trying to tell meaningful stories in an industry governed by big money was like “striking out at social evil with a feather duster.” I knew that somewhere along the line I would have to wring creative control from others and have my own TV show.
In fact, in the late 1950’s, I actually narrated my own anthology series on CBS. You might remember me with my jet-black hair, piercing eyes and deadpan delivery because I personally narrated my show. During our run on TV we screened about 150 episodes and I penned over half of them. I found that I could write about the topics that interested me as long as I presented them in a kind of science fiction prose. The settings for our stories took place in “a strange intersection, the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, a guide to the unknown, a fifth dimension if you will.” It was only in that realm that I was at last free to explore and tackle themes such as the fear of technology and such matters as sexism, social upheaval, racism, and cold war obsession.
Admittedly, I only have a flimsy connection to north Jersey; however, in 1960 or so, I did write one episode of my show about the mystical ‘Hoboken Zephyrs,’ a non-functioning baseball team from another time and place.
I was one of honorees to have a stamp issued with my likeness on it by the U.S. Postal Service when they released their ‘Early TV Memories’ commemorative stamp series. You might even have one of my postage stamps in a drawer somewhere. I was portrayed on a $.44 stamp. I was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and I have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
That’s me, the new army enlistee, in the photo below. (1)Who Am I? Where exactly is my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? (2)I enjoyed driving a replica of a 1930’s car originally manufactured in Indiana. That automobile was way before its time because of the fact that it had front wheel drive and hidden headlights. What car am I talking about? (3a) My breakthrough script for the Kraft Television Theater won an Emmy. It was about corporate politics, some of it cutthroat, in the boardroom. It was later made into a movie. What was the title? (3b)Another one of my scripts was also very successful both on TV and in the movies and it concerned an aging pugilist. Who starred in the TV version? Who starred in the movie version? What was the title of that script? (4) Ok, here’s the easy question. What was the TV series I am best known for? Hint- My series spawned 2 additional TV series, a film, a comic book, and a magazine. I’d bet you remember the musical introduction to my TV anthology series too! (5a)My war experiences made me as a peace activist in the 1960’s. Who did I support in the run-up to the 1968 election? (5b)Finally, what TV program did I really enjoy watching with my young daughter, Anne?
