Adapting Scripts in The 1950s The Economic and Political Incentives For Television Anthology Writers

Adapting Scripts in the 1950s: The Economic and Political Incentives for Television
Anthology Writers
Author(s): JON KRASZEWSKI
Source: Journal of Film and Video , FALL 2006, Vol. 58, No. 3 (FALL 2006), pp. 3-21
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video
Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20688526
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Adapting Scripts in the 1950s: The Economic and
Political Incentives for Television Anthology Writers
JON KRASZEWSKI
the 1950S are often referred to as the and Serling published book collections of their
golden age of dramatic television writing scripts with Simon and Schuster between 1955
in America, a time when anthology series and 1957.
performed Broadway-quality scripts from pres Anthology writers discovered that the mo
tigious writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, Rod tion picture, Broadway, and book-publishing
Serling, and Reginald Rose.1 Media scholars markets offered them a new way to earn a liv
have written about the importance of 1950s ing and a new venue for cultural production.
dramatic writers largely from an institutional Television writers took advantage of the fact
standpoint, exploring why, given the economic that these other markets paid better by reli
relationships between networks, sponsors, and censing their television scripts for adaptation.
advertising agencies, writers had an unprec Rod Serling's 1956 television and Broadway
edented amount of creative control on anthol versions of Noon on Doomsday? fictionalized
ogy series (Barnouw 154-56; Boddy 80-92; accounts of the murder of Emmett Till?are an
MacDonald 79-83). example of how writers crafted their stories for
While these histories offer excellent insight particular markets. Serling submitted the origi
into the role of the writer in the television in nal television version of Noon on Doomsday to
dustry, they overlook the importance of adapta CBS's United States Steel Hour in January 1956;
tions in the careers of these television writers. in it he had transformed the African American
Several writers licensed their television scripts teenager Emmett Till into a Jewish pawnbroker.
for adaptation in the motion picture industry At the same time, Serling wrote a version for
between 1955 and 1962. These adaptations the Broadway stage to be produced by the The
included Paddy Chayefsky's The Bachelor Party, atre Guild. In this version, the Emmett Till figure
The Goddess, and Middle of the Night; Rod Ser remained African American. Serling tailored his
ling's Patterns and Requiem for a Heavy Weight; social commitments to fit the types of stories
Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men and Crime acceptable to his patrons in television and the
in the Streets; and ]. P. Miller's Days of Wine theater. He focused on two issues raised by the
and Roses. In 1956 Paddy Chayefsky adapted Till murder?the act of witnessing and the loca
Middle of the Nightto the Broadway stage, and tion of racism in the United States?to question
Reginald Rose wrote the theatrical version of the politics of postwar Jewish assimilation in
Twelve Angry Men in 1962. Chayefsky, Rose, the television version and then to challenge the
politics of lynching in the Broadway version.
Instead of offering a complete production his
jon KRASZEWSKi is an assistant professor in the
tory of the television and Broadway versions of
Department of Communication at Seton Hall Uni
versity. His scholarship has appeared in The Velvet
Noon on Doomsday, my focus is on how Serling
Light Trap and in the anthology Reality TV: Remak imagined the possibilities and constraints of
ing Television Culture (NYU, 2004). cultural production in the television and Broad
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 58.3 / FALL 2006 3

?2006 BY THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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way industry and then crafted a response to struggled to earn a living because guilds rep
those conditions. resented them poorly during contract negotia
Serling unfortunately imagined these pos tions. The feuds between the Authors League of
sibilities incorrectly. Both scripts have long, America and the Screen Writers Guild of Ameri
contentious production histories. The United ca over how to represent television writers had
States Steel Hour presented a production based devastating effects on anthology writers' sala
on the third draft of Noon on Doomsday on 26 ries and their future relicensing deals. These
April 1956. In addition to producing Broadway disputes were finally resolved in 1955 when
dramas, the Theatre Guild also coproduced the the newly formed Writers Guild of America took
United States Steel Hour and censored Serling's over contract negotiations for television an
television script by asking that the Till character thology writers. The Writers Guild of America's
be transformed into a European immigrant and 1955 Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) allowed
the story's setting be moved from the South to television writers to become wealthy as entre
the North.2 As it produced the television ver preneurs who wrote fewer original television
sion of Noon on Doomsday, the Theatre Guild scripts while pursuing opportunities in other
grew to dislike Serling's feisty temperament markets.
and chose not to fund his Broadway version of Writers' guilds organized the labor of writers
the story. Although Serling finished the Broad through MBAs. These documents set the terms
way script, it remained unperformed and un for collective labor negotiations by establishing
published. While the Rod Serling Archive at the minimum wages, intellectual property rights,
Wisconsin State Historical Society in Madison revision rights, and the role of a writer on the
does not contain enough material to explain production set. Individual contracts could
all of the differences between the television exceed the MBA, but MBAs were important
and Broadway versions, Noon on Doomsday because networks, sponsors, and producers
remains an important piece of television history could not violate their minimums.
because it shows a writer adapting his storytell The Authors League of America was originally
ing skills and social commitments for different the main organization in charge of deciding
markets. which guild should represent all television writ
ers, including those who wrote for anthology
A New Way to Earn a Living: dramas. The Authors League had this responsi
bility because it supervised a variety of writing
Anthology Writers and Adaptations
in the Mid-1950s guilds in the entertainment industry. The Radio
Writers Guild and the Dramatists Guild be
The contract system in the late 1940s and early longed to the Authors League, and the Screen
1950s made it extremely difficult for televi Writers Guild was affiliated with it ("Where").
sion anthology writers to earn a middle-class The Authors League also had the power to form
salary of at least $5,000. As freelancers in the a guild specifically for television writers.
television industry, writers faced unique prob From 1947 to 1955, the Authors League and
lems charting their careers.3 Producers and the Screen Writers Guild disagreed over the
directors signed three-year exclusive contracts best way to classify television writers. Ulti
with a network that earned them a minimum mately, these debates centered on which guild
annual salary of $21,600 and $19,305 respec should represent television writers in contract
tively (NBC Archive box 589, folder 8).4 These negotiations. Eschewing a difference between
contracts brought stability to the careers of live and filmed television series, the Authors
producers and directors and afforded them League created the Television Writers Guild
the economic comforts to work exclusively in in 1948. The league concerned itself with four
the television industry?if they chose to do specific types of writers who scripted either
that. Until 1955, in contrast, writers frantically live or filmed television: 1) writers for a "one
4 JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 58.3 / FALL 2006


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time show," a spectacular or special event set period of time. That company could ask a
only broadcast once and not connected with different writer to revise a script only after the
any regular series on a network; 2) writers for original writer refused to revise it. However,
a "unit series," such as an anthology drama, when a writer sold a script to a company, that
which aired an original drama each week, the company, because it owned the script, could
individual programs bound together only by the ask a different writer to perform revisions with
series title; 3) writers for an "episodic series," out even consulting the original writer. The Au
which featured the same title and identifying thors League successfully convinced the Radio
characters each week and also had narrative Writers Guild to switch to a licensing system in
closure at the end of each episode; and 4) writ 1947, and it hoped its proposed Television Writ
ers for a "serial," in which usually the same set ers Guild would operate in a similar fashion.
of characters carried on a continuing narrative Motion picture screenwriters, represented by
from episode to episode. The Authors League the Screen Writers Guild, still sold their proper
focused on how to structure a writer's rights ties outright to Hollywood studios and thus
for each type of program ("Push TV" 27). The never retained any rights to their scripts ("Writ
Screen Writers Guild argued for a distinction ers Guild" 1, 53). The Authors League attempted
between live and filmed television. The technol to block the Screen Writers Guild from repre
ogy used to capture the image, not the medium senting television writers because under the
itself, should determine who represented a Guild's representation, television writers would
writer. Accordingly, since the Screen Writers have no relicensing or revision rights.
Guild governed writers for movies, it felt it Feuds between the Authors League and the
should represent writers for filmed television. Screen Writers Guild prevented the establish
The guild also had clear economic incentives to ment of an MBA that would address needs
represent filmed-television writers. Doing this specific to television writers. Each organization
would allow the guild to tap a new source of continually threatened the other with suits and
profits in the media industries and earn 10 per countersuits in the late 1940s. As a result, the
cent of the money agreed upon in each writer's Authors League dissolved the Television Writers
contract. Guild in 1950, fearing the Screen Writers Guild
The Authors League and the Screen Writ might successfully sue the league over jurisdic
ers Guild also fought over whether television tion issues. Nevertheless, these two organiza
writers should license or sell their scripts. In tions would continue to battle over which guild
1947, the Authors League pressured its guilds should represent television writers for the next
to win writers the right to license, not sell, their five years.
scripts. Licensing benefited writers in two ways. While these disputes took place between
One, the company (be it a network, studio, 1947 and 1955, the Authors League of America
or sponsor) that "rented" the script had to asked the Radio Writers Guild to negotiate con
return the script's rights to the writer after the tracts for television writers based on their 1947
period of license ended. This allowed writers MBA ("TV Writers" 27). Radio and television
to receive all of the money from future adapta were broadcast media and essentially operated
tion, or relicensing, deals. Previously, when under the same industrial structure that includ
writers sold scripts to companies, they did ed networks, sponsors, and advertising agen
not receive any money from future adaptation cies. The Authors League hoped this would give
deals. The company, not the writer, owned the television writers the right to revise their scripts
script. Two, licensing agreements insisted that and set a minimum price for television scripts.
companies first consult a script's original writer Moreover, the Radio Writers Guild used four
about potential revisions. Under the licensing categories for its writers: those who wrote for
system, the writer maintains ownership of the a "one-time show," for a "unit series," for an
script and simply "rents" it to a company for a "episodic series," and for a "serial"?the same


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taxonomy that the Authors League wanted to and the television industry nullified this clause
use for television writers. for television negotiations because it took lon
The Radio Writers Guild could not adequately ger to produce a television script. This period
negotiate licensing fees for freelance television needed to be longer than twenty-six weeks, but
writers. According to the 1947 MBA, writers just how long was never established. Because
should earn a minimum of $250 for a thirty-min of this, many writers lost the rights to their
ute script and a minimum of $500 for a sixty script for decades.6
minute script. Television writers found these When it became obvious that feuds between
rates unfair. Television producers and directors the Authors League and the Screen Writers
received over $500 a month for their work on Guild were irresolvable and that the Radio Writ
anthology series. The price for hour-long scripts ers Guild's MBA could not adequately cover the
on television anthology series before 1955 was needs of television writers, writers and some
usually between $500 and $i,500.5 Even Rod guild members realized that there was only
Serling's Patterns, arguably the most critically one way for writers to achieve organized labor
celebrated anthology drama of the decade, representation: form a new guild completely
brought its author a mere $1,500 (Serling Ar independent of the Authors League. The first
chive box 6, folder 5). A writer might sell five attempt at this came from a group of New York
scripts a year and still earn as little as $2,500. City live-television writers who formed their
Because pre-1955 freelance-writing contracts own guild, the Television Writers Association,
paid poorly, writers could follow one of two in 1953. This guild only survived until 1954
career paths: write quickly and survive off of and never established an MBA. Nevertheless,
writing fees alone, or write moderately and it remains important for two reasons. First, it
work another full-time job. Serling was one of existed independently of the Authors League
the few writers who lived off of writing fees. His of America. The Radio Writers Guild and the
prolific script production before 1955 made him Screen Writers Guild had both considered
one of the most financially successful television defecting from the league, but the Television
writers. Serling began writing television anthol Writers Association took the first step in that
ogy dramas in 1952. He sold ten scripts that direction. Second, the association considered
year, seventeen in 1953, and sixteen in 1954. protecting a writer's politics in labor negotia
From 1952 to 1954, Serling earned between tions. Typically, organized labor would not
$5,000 and $12,000 a year from his writing. take an explicitly political stance. The Authors
Writers such as Reginald Rose, Tad Mosel, and League declared its function was to "represent
J. P. Miller, who usually scripted five dramas per the interests of all Authors: ownership of liter
year, had to look elsewhere for a full-time ca ary material, and problems arising out of trade
reer. Rose sold his first television script, Bus to practices for its sale or lease, censorship,
Nowhere, in 1951, but kept his full-time job at a legislation, taxation, copyrights, and infringe
New York City advertising agency through 1954. ment. It is strictly a professional organization
In fact, Rose wrote some of his most famous with no political affiliations" (Middleton 24).
and critically acclaimed television plays, such However, a number of writers in the Television
as The Remarkable Incident at Carson Corners Writers Association felt that guilds should fight
and Thunder on Sycamore Street, while working the conservative pressures of the industry by
at the advertising agency (Rose ix-x). helping blacklisted television writers such as
The 1947 MBA also made it nearly impossible Walter Bernstein, Arnold Manoff, and Abraham
for writers to license their scripts for adapta Polonsky find work.7 Many members wanted
tions in other industries and thus to earn mon the guild to guarantee that a writer's previous
ey from those markets. While the Radio Writers ties to the Communist Party should not affect
Guild MBA gave the licensee a twenty-six-week his current work in the television industry. After
period of exclusivity, the Radio Writers Guild all, though the Authors League claimed it was


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apolitical, its affiliate, the Screen Writers Guild, maximum pay still hovered around $1,500. If
made members sign loyalty oaths and expelled writers wanted to have stable careers or maybe
writers who refused (Buhle and Wagner 59). even to become wealthy, they needed to do so
It now seemed more necessary than ever to outside of the television industry, and writers
protect the rights of liberal and leftist writers. quickly discovered that other industries offered
However, many members of the Television Writ much bigger paychecks.
ers Association felt that guilds should not fight Paddy Chayefsky's 1954 contract for the
for politics ("Internal Strife" 27). The Television film version of Marty (1955) demonstrated to
Writers Association disbanded over this topic other television writers that there were clear
in 1954 ("CBS Continuity" 30). Still, the orga economic incentives to adapt their work in
nization showed other writers' guilds that they the motion picture industry. Although many
could leverage bargaining power with networks, writers had tried before 1954 to license their
sponsors, and advertising agencies without scripts to other industries, Chayefsky was the
being affiliated with the Authors League. only one who retained the rights to do so in
The Writers Guild of America followed the his contract. In 1954, the independent produc
Television Writers Association's footsteps and tion company Hecht-Lancaster paid Chayefsky
formed, independent of the Authors League, in $13,000 up front and guaranteed 5 percent of
1954. The Screen Writers Guild and the Radio any future profits to adapt Marty as a motion
Writers Guild divorced themselves from the picture (Considine 71). Chayefsky earned more
Authors League and joined The Writers Guild, in one sale than most television writers earned
which split into two branches: The Writers in a year. The 5 percent guarantee on future
Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of profits sounded good, too. Hecht-Lancaster
America, West. distributed the picture through United Artists,
The Writers Guild of America immediately which originally slated the film for an art-house
drafted and instated a minimum basic agree distribution in major US cities. When Marty won
ment that settled unclear issues of pay and the best-film award at the Cannes Film Festival,
periods of exclusivity for television writers. The the first American picture ever to earn such
Writers Guild gave jurisdiction over live writ an honor, Hecht-Lancaster and United Artists
ers to its East Coast branch and jurisdiction altered Marty's distribution plans to capitalize
over filmed writers to its West Coast branch. on the publicity. Now distributed in first-run
Moreover, it carried over the four types of writ theaters throughout the country, Marty grossed
ers?one-time show, unit series, episodic, and over $4,000,000 at the box office (Balio 82).
serials?that the Radio Writers Guild's 1947 Accustomed to making $1,000 from a television
MBA had set up. Under this contract, writers script, Chayefsky earned over $200,000 from
licensed their scripts to companies for a period the film version of Marty.
of fifty-two weeks for a minimum payment of The box-office success of Marty raised the
$1,100, with the option for the company to buy stakes for television writers by opening a mar
an additional period of exclusivity?drawn up ket for their television plays. Motion picture
in a separate contract?directly from the writer. companies courted writers with big paychecks.
Writers could not sign a relicensing contract for m 1955? Serling signed a $250,000 contract
an adaptation until the initial period of exclu with MGM to write four scripts (Sander 127).
sivity ended (Writers Guild "1955 Minimum"). United Artists paid Rose $60,000 to adapt
The agreement negotiated by the Writers Twelve Angry Men; because Rose coproduced
Guild of America in 1955 set the foundation for the film with Henry Fonda, he earned an addi
writers to become entrepreneurs who licensed tional 10 percent of its box-office profits, which
their scripts for performance in other indus amounted to $45,000 (Kaplan).
tries. While the MBA did raise the minimum pay A market developed for television adapta
for a script in the television industry by $600, tions on Broadway. The plays of the Group The


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atre and Arthur Miller had influenced television write during a year. Live-television writers able
anthology writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, to adapt their work for other media could trans
Rod Serling, Reginald Rose, Tad Mosel, and form themselves from working-class scribes
J. P. Miller. With Broadway companies financing who labored constantly into wealthy drama
scripts about working-class laborers, lower tists who needed to write much less. Instead
class tragic heroes, and the debilitating effects of cranking out seventeen television scripts a
of capitalism, anthology writers found an ideal year, Serling licensed six dramas in 1956, three
outlet for their work. Much like Chayefsky's in 1957, four in 1958, and only two in 1959. After
motion picture contract for Marty, contracts for Serling signed his contract with MGM in 1955,
Broadway plays offered the television writer he no longer finished one television script
good pay outright and bigger rewards from tick and then immediately started writing another.
et sales. Chayefsky's Broadway adaptation of Instead, he spent a good deal of time looking
Middle of the Night ran from 1956 through 1958 for companies to adapt his television dramas in
at the ANTA (American National Theater Asso other media.
ciation) Theatre in New York City and made over If a writer could successfully adapt his televi
$1.8 million. The theater company purchased sion scripts for other media industries, then he
the rights to Chayefsky's script for $10,000 and could sometimes use those credentials to sign
promised him 15 percent of its weekly gross? a long-term, nonexclusive contract with a televi
$280,800 total profits?for the entire two-year sion network. After Serling adapted Patterns as
run (Considine 93). The financial success of a motion picture in 1955 and Rose put together
Middle of the Night on Broadway made theater his book anthology in 1956, they signed three
companies willing to fund adaptations of televi year contracts with CBS in 1956. Each writer
sion anthology dramas. Serling wrote dramatic would earn $15,000 the first year, $18,000 the
versions of Noon on Doomsday and Requiem second, and $20,000 the third. For this, the
for a Heavyweight, although neither was actu writer had to submit twelve ideas to CBS over
ally produced. Rose adapted Twelve Angry Men three years, with the network producing six of
as a Broadway play in 1962. them. If CBS decided not to produce the script
Several writers found the book market an on one of its anthology series, then the writer
easy way to make money. Serling, Chayefsky, could resubmit the piece to a series on another
Rose, Horton Foote, and Tad Mosel published network (Engel 121). Although Serling and Rose
collections of their television scripts. This mar were the only two writers to sign such lucrative
ket offered the smallest financial reward, but contracts, their ability to do so came about
the book publishing industry still paid writers because of their success in other media.
well considering the small amount of addition Serling's decision to write more adaptations,
al work that went into these anthologies. Writ despite signing a long-term, nonexclusive con
ing a film or Broadway adaptation demanded tract, appears in his plans for his 1956 Noon on
that writers expand their television dramas by Doomsday script. From its very earliest phases
at least forty-five minutes. Published scripts of preproduction, Serling hoped that Noon
appeared just as they did for their television on Doomsday would earn him the money that
performance, and writers simply wrote an in the film version of Patterns had. In a letter to a
troduction and a commentary for each drama. friend, Serling stated that Noon on Doomsday
Serling made $2,800 in royalty fees on the "was number one to replace Patterns1* (Itr. to
sales of his 1957 collection, almost twice what Junes Eddy).
a typical writer would earn for an original dra
ma in the television industry (Serling Archive Cultural Production and Different Markets
box 7, folder 2).
Serling's adaptation practices altered the The motion picture, Broadway, and book-pub
total number of television scripts he would lishing markets offered writers different con


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straints on and possibilities for cultural produc lin Schaffner and John Frankenheimer would go
tion than did the television industry. However, on to direct anti-cold war films in the 1960s.
writers did not initially exploit these opportu Producers Fred Coe and Worthington Minor
nities. The first two adaptations of anthology had liberal views and would often fight with
dramas, Chayefsky's 1955 motion picture ver networks and sponsors to preserve the content
sion of Marty and Serling's 1956 motion picture of their writers' scripts. But sponsors, advertis
version of Patterns, bear striking resemblances ing agencies, and networks ultimately decided
to their television counterparts. Chayefsky and what could and could not be said in anthology
Serling kept all of the dialogue and plot from dramas.
the television versions and simply expanded Sponsors, advertising agencies, and net
the roles of minor characters. Both writers works treated the television audience as a
timidly experimented with the storytelling mass of consumers, and this motivated them
techniques of new markets. Serling's Noon on to censor topics. One of the economic founda
Doomsday is important to television history; tions of this market was a network's ability
for the first time, a writer drastically reworked to deliver an audience to advertisers. View
his story in adapting it. In the theatrical ver ing television as an advertising medium par
sion, not only did Serling change the lynching excellence, sponsors wanted their series to
victim from a jew back to an African American, achieve 100 percent acceptability, in order
but he also transformed the murderer from a that they might sell their product to the largest
store owner to a college student, made a heroic possible audience. Controversial issues might
lawyer a town drunk, and injected supernatural harm a sponsor's sales or even inspire private
elements into a realistic script. The writer tai organizations to lead a boycott of a sponsor's
lored his versions of Noon on Doomsday for the product. Accordingly, sponsors insisted that
television and Broadway markets. Serling's cor advertising agencies censor political topics that
respondence and business transactions reveal might offend segments of an audience.
that he wrote these different versions with an Networks, sponsors, and advertising agen
understanding that the funding opportunities cies censored anthology scripts that explicitly
and the audience in each market would affect addressed segregation or racial violence. In
what he could say in his scripts. 1953, NBC vice-president Edward D. Madden
The commercial nature of television placed declared the network would represent "integra
sponsors, advertising agencies, and networks tion without identification." African Americans
in a gatekeeper role, and everyone else who could be in programs with whites, so long as
made television was subordinate to them. the scripts avoided issues of civil rights and
Sponsors paid the production costs for anthol racial inequality. Networks, sponsors, and ad
ogy dramas. This gave them and the advertising vertising agencies felt that these topics might
agencies that represented them the power to harm a sponsor's sales because they might
censor any idea posed by a writer. Networks offend white viewers (Doherty 72-76).
also had the power to censor. They had to bal By 1956, the television audience was nation
ance the demands of advertising agencies with al; this further limited a writer's ability to ad
the requests of local stations. Both might pro dress racism and racial violence in his scripts.
test a topic in an anthology drama. In order to When television began broadcasting nationally
continue doing business with the agencies and in 1947, stations existed in large numbers on
to continue supplying local channels with pro the East Coast and in cities in other areas of
gramming, the networks often censored writers. the country. The FCC had put a freeze on station
Writers did have liberal allies on the production allocations from 1948 to 1952 because new
sets of anthology dramas. Many of the produc stations interfered with the reception of others.
ers and directors with whom the writers worked This postponed the industry's ability to reach
shared their liberal sentiments. Directors Frank a national audience. But soon after the freeze,


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stations proliferated, and television became claiming that the actual lynching of an African
a national medium.8 With that, sponsors, American would be too radical for television.
agencies, and networks became aware that Serling thought he could address similar issues
their geographic markets had diverse values. if he wrote about how the lynching of a jew af
Although racism certainly existed throughout fected a town. The advertising agency approved
the country, the industry feared that the South (Serling, Itr. to Ira Steiner).
would be more sensitive to the topic since Serling's plan to license Noon on Doomsday
many of the national protests were in response to The United States Steel Hour was an intel
to specific conditions of segregation in the ligent business decision that put him in contact
South. Paddy Chayefsky bemoaned the effects with a Broadway company that could potential
this had on his scripts, claiming that "you ly produce a theatrical adaptation of the story.
can't write the Little Rock thing [racial protests] The Theatre Guild produced the series. The
because they [sponsors] can't sell sets down Guild began producing broadcast anthology
south ... or you can't sell aluminum paper dramas in an effort to recover from an economic
down south" (qtd. in MacDonald 83). This slump in the theater business during World War
posed major problems to Serling as well be II. Ticket sales declined, and the Guild cut its
cause the Till murder happened in Mississippi. number of productions during the war. As the
Serling witnessed the commercial pressures theater industry rebounded in 1945, the Theatre
of the television industry stop Reginald Rose Guild wanted to expand its profits by producing
from writing about racial discrimination in his new forms of media. It entered the radio broad
1954 Westinghouse Studio One drama Thunder casting business in 1945 when it coproduced
on Sycamore Street Rose based the script on NBC's The Theatre Guild on the Air with United
a real-life event in which the residents of an States Steel (Marshall 211-15). It would remain
exclusively white Chicago suburb drove out in a business relationship with the sponsor
a black family that had recently moved in. As United States Steel until 1963, producing NBC's
Rose recounts in The Box, an oral history of first television anthology drama, The Theatre
television, several people who heard about his Guild Television Theatre, during the fall of 1947,
upcoming script accused him of communist and then The United States Steel Hour, from
sympathies and threatened to boycott Westing 1953 to 1963.
house products. Westinghouse eliminated all Serling wanted to license his Broadway
references to race, so that when the play aired, version of Noon on Doomsday to the Theatre
the black family struggling against racial preju Guild because the company's funding meth
dice had become the family of a white ex-con ods insured that writers could address topics
vict (Kisseloff 256-57). such as racism and segregation. Lawrence
Serling molded his script about Emmett Till Langer founded the Theatre Guild in 1918 and
to fit the demands of a commercial medium. diligently avoided any agency or person who
Knowing that even a toned-down portrait of the might try to exert financial and artistic control
Till murder would be controversial on televi over the company. His colleague Lee Simonson
sion, Serling took unusual precautions during wanted to find a multimillion-dollar benefactor
preproduction. Most writers submitted a fin to fund Guild productions, but Langer worried
ished script to a producer or advertising agency that such a large gift would hand the donor
before having any meetings with them. How too much artistic control. Instead, Langer paid
ever, Serling met with Batten, Barton, Durstine, for productions by soliciting five-hundred
and Osborn, Inc., the agency behind The United dollar donations from theater lovers and by
States Steel Hour, before he even began writ selling tickets on a subscription basis (Langer
ing; he wanted to know if the company would 115-22). Open-minded patrons responded by
be interested in producing such a script. During paying top dollar to watch compelling dramas.
the pitch, Serling sold the television version by With this source of financing, the Theatre Guild


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claimed that true art should be able to address with the Theatre Guild for a Broadway adapta
any topic. In a 1936 publication, the board of tion. In a letter dated 24 January 1956, Serling
directors wrote that "The Guild is, then, primar reported to his agent, Ira Steiner, that "Yester
ily an 'art theater.' It has from its inception day I had a call from Lawrence Langer at the
produced only plays which it believed had Theatre Guild, and we talked for a half hour.
something to say and which said it well. As to The crux of what he had on his mind is that the
their content, it has no bias_It has been guild is very anxious to make a deal on Noon on
willing to produce a communistic play as quick Doomsday as a play to be done next session"
ly as an imperialistic play, so long as it was a (Itr. to Ira Steiner). Serling felt that the stage
good play" {Theatre Guild ix). The Theatre Guild version would offer more ground to address
performed "art," an aesthetic category that the the politics of lynching head-on. In a letter to
company thought could involve either radical his friend Jack Natteford, Serling stated that
or conservative topics. he was "now deep in the throes of reworking
Despite its commitment to produce plays it [Noon on Doomsday] into the new and more
about any political issue, the Theatre Guild fund thematically free medium. I'm finding it easier
ed dramas about race in the 1950s. Playwrights in the sense that there are no basic taboos on
found the postwar Broadway stage an ideal mar the stage as opposed to the mass media. And
ket for dramas that debunked exotic and primi for a story like this, this freedom is much to be
tive stereotypes of African Americans and rep desired" (Itr. to Jack Natteford).
resented black characters as sympathetic and
humane. Louis Peterson's Take a Giant Step, a
The Politics of Noon on Doomsday's
drama about a northern African American grow
First Television and Broadway Drafts
ing up in a predominantly white neighborhood,
debuted at the Lyceum Theatre in 1953. William In what follows, I offer a close analysis of the
Branch's In a Splendid Error premiered in 1954 first drafts of the Broadway and the television
and dramatized Fredrick Douglas's decision versions of Noon on Doomsday to demonstrate
whether to join an attack on Harper's Ferry. Lor how Serling catered his story and social com
raine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun premiered mitments to each market. Serling's goal as a
at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in 1959 and be writer was not to portray the events of the Till
came one of the most celebrated dramas about murder accurately. Rather, he saw the Till mur
African Americans. The Theatre Guild was one of der raising two issues about racism that African
the leading contributers to this cycle of dramas, American civil rights activists and Jewish liber
funding Porgyand Bess and Set My People Free als struggled with in the 1950s: the politics of
and casting Paul Robeson in a performance of witnessing and the national construction of
Othello (Nadel 216-18). racism. Serling's Broadway script attacked the
Serling could address racism and racial vio foundations of lynching in the United States but
lence explicitly in his Broadway script because also questioned the liberal tendency to label
the Theatre Guild thought of its audience as racism a southern phenomenon. Serling's origi
patrons of the arts, not consumers. Unlike nal television version of Noon on Doomsday did
the television viewers, the Broadway audi far more than substitute a Jewish character for
ence would not boycott a sponsor's products an African American one. Serling used the Till
because of a politically unpalatable script. murder to interrogate the politics of Jewish as
Audience members had no say over the pro similation in postwar America.
duction's contents and paid to appreciate the Two white grocery store owners, Roy Bryant
aesthetic sophistication of a well-wrought and and J. W. Milam, lynched Emmett Till on 24
well-performed play. August 1955. Till, an African American teenager
Before completing the first television draft from Chicago, was visiting relatives in Talla
in January 1956, Serling set up a tentative deal hatchie, Mississippi, that summer. While play


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ing with his cousins outside Bryant's grocery tors. Accordingly, lynching exacted justice on a
store, Till bragged that he had a white girlfriend black male's body by hanging and then castrat
in Chicago. In order to prove that white women ing him (Weigman 85-90). Bradley made peo
liked him, Till entered the grocery store to ple see that her son's body posed no sexual
talk to the cashier, Carolyn Bryant, wife of the threat. His distorted limbs and bruised head
owner. According to Bryant, Till grabbed her inspired pathos. Till looked like a helpless
and said, "Don't be afraid of me, baby. I been child, not a violent rapist. Bradley's actions
with white girls before" (Halberstam 433). A catalyzed civil rights activists to stop the unof
local black man witnessed the incident and ficial forms of policing that violently threatened
understood the deep-rooted seeds of racism at African Americans.
the time. He told Till and his cousins to leave Racist Tallahatchie residents also referenced
before white citizens attacked them. That eve witnessing to deny the murder of Emmett Till.
ning, Roy Bryant and Milam kidnapped Till from This false witness eventually freed Roy Bryant
his uncle's house, murdered him, and dumped and j. W. Milam. The overwhelming evidence
his body in the Tallahatchie river. against the two men almost guaranteed a pris
Emmett Till's mother, Mamie Bradley, made on sentence. Till's uncle had reported that the
the country bear witness to the horrors of lynch two men kidnapped Emmett from his house the
ing during her son's funeral. Till's murder took night before his body was discovered. But Sher
place in the middle of the night, hidden from iff Clarence Strider, the defense's star witness,
public sight, but Bradley held an open-casket insisted that the mangled body was beyond
funeral and invited reporters from all over the identification. The police could not decide if
country to photograph Till's mangled body. the body was Till's. Strider speculated that the
National and local newspapers printed the pho NAACP faked the murder and hid Till in Mexico.
tographs across the country. The jury found Strider's testimony so convinc
Bradley brought national recognition to ing that it declared Bryant and Milam innocent
lynching practices that had taken place out of on grounds of insufficient evidence.9
the public eye since the nineteenth century. Serling focused intensely on the politics of
Till's mother made America see the immoral witnessing in his Broadway script. The drama
ways that white people treated African Ameri is only loosely based on the murder of Till.
cans outside of the law. Lynching surfaced in Noon on Doomsday is about two lynchings that
nineteenth-century America after the freeing occurred thirty-three years apart in Demarest,
of the slaves supposedly placed black and Georgia. The drama starts with the present
white men on equal grounds of citizenship. In day lynching of Henry, an African American
that patriarchal society, being male granted a college student at Washington D.C.'s all-black
person the right to property. In an attempt to Howard University. He is spending summer
regulate who did and did not count as a citizen, vacation with his older sister, Jana, herself a
whites falsely accused black men of criminal Howard graduate. Serling created Henry to
acts and then lynched them. This vigilante resemble Till. Both are northern blacks mur
"justice" took place entirely outside of the legal dered while visiting relatives in the South. In
system and denied African Americans the right Serling's script, John Kattell, a teenage drunk,
to a fair trial. murders Henry during a robbery on the street.
Mamie Bradley's funeral plans challenged Kattell and his friends wanted money for beer.
a central tenant of lynching: that black males The plot follows attorney Bob Grinstead as he
could not control their sexuality. Whites cre defends Kattell on murder charges. Northern
ated the myth of the ultrasexual black rapist, and southern journalists travel to Demarest to
whose urges are so overwhelming that even he cover the case. As the trial approaches, many
cannot control them. Rape narratives portrayed characters mention Demarest's previous lynch
black males as criminals and sexual preda ing and ponder its similarities to the upcoming


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case. The previous lynching occurred when ten try to forget, the ghost reminds them of their
white residents murdered an African American horrific action. But Carradine's immaterial body
named Carradine for talking to a white woman; also counters the myth that African Americans
town members feared this act would lead to had bodily urges that were out of control and
rape. The play ends with a judge finding Kattell needed to be contained. As an apparition,
innocent, despite a preponderance of evidence Carradine has no body and therefore poses no
against him. sexual threats. Moreover, the spirit reverses
The opening act of Serling's Broadway notions of citizenship attached to lynching.
script positions the audience as a witness and People who practiced lynching did so to deny
brutally forces it to watch John Kattell murder African Americans citizenship, but Noon on
Henry. The sheer horror of the violence dispels Doomsday allows Carradine's ghost to attack
many of the sexual myths that justified lynching the conscience of his murderers so persistently
in America. The Broadway version of Noon on that they stop functioning as citizens. All of the
Doomsday shows that Henry posed no sexual people who lynched Carradine have become
threat to John Kartell's white female friends. dysfunctional members of the community.
Henry kindly greets Kattell and his friends while Kartell's father becomes a mental patient, and
taking a leisurely walk. In fact, the murder Bob's father, Frank, is a homeless drunk.
stands out as particularly gruesome because The script's final scene positions the audi
Henry is nice and refuses to fight back when ence as both a witness to and a potential
Kattell violently robs him. participant in lynching. After Kattell is found
Act one leaves Henry's dead body on stage innocent, he announces that the Founder's Day
for ten minutes; this constructs a version of wit event to be held the following day will jointly
nessing similar to Mamie Bradley's. The audi celebrate his acquittal and the founding of
ence must see the horrors that lynching inflicts the town. In an effort to redeem himself from
on an innocent black body. During this scene, his actions thirty-three years ago and to stop
several horrified characters stumble across other people from being similarly haunted,
the body lying dead in the streets and then Frank Grinstead protests the Founder's Day
run for help. Their comments stress the need event and claims that Kattell is guilty. Kattell
to witness what just happened. For example, becomes so enraged that he stabs Frank. As
one stranger viscerally points to the body and he lies dying, Frank speaks softly into a tape
states, "Holy God. Look!" (Serling, Broadway recorder meant to record the town's celebra
draft act 1, p. 12). But between these moments, tion. The drama ends with Frank's son playing
the body lies alone on stage, forcing the audi the recording of Frank's dying speech, which
ence to look at it. says, "This is not the end of the world. You have
The second and third acts complicate the a hope left. That hope lies in the knowledge
script's politics of witnessing by investigating that we have buried a part of ourselves with
what goes unseen after a lynching. The script every one of our victims. And you have just
interlaces conversations about both the pres witnessed a little demonstration that we are
ent-day lynching and the one that happened not very selective with our victims_No one
thirty-three years earlier. The play reveals that is safe"( Broadway draft act 3, p. 17). Although
Carradine, the first victim, was not an exces Frank mentions hope and universal civil rights,
sively corporeal threat. He now appears as an his disembodied voice becomes the ghost
apparition that haunts the conscience of his that haunts his son, who helped bring about
murderers. No one can see Carradine's ghost his father's death by freeing Kattell. But more
except his murderers, two of whom were John important, Frank's voice haunts the whole town
Kartell's and Bob Grinstead's fathers. The Car and the audience?both positioned as "you."
radine figure forces his murderers to experience Like Carradine's ghost, Frank's message brings
moral guilt continually. Although the murderers disturbing consequences, insisting that the


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town has in some way suffered its own death. the end looks toward a time when America can
The speech positions town members as abject remodel its social institutions and remove rac
creatures existing between life and death like ism from the nation, but until that time, racism
the crazed and institutionalized murderers who remains built into the country.
lynched Carradine. Although the court has freed A close reading of the television version
a murderer, Frank hopes the town will remodel reveals how consciously Serling reworked the
itself in the wake of its moral collapse, so that story's central themes. The original television
every citizen is treated as a citizen and the version avoids showing a violent murder and
justice system serves both blacks and whites. instead follows a small southern town's reac
The audience can either bear witness to Frank's tion after John Kattell is found innocent of mur
mangled body and the lesson it imparts or be der. Kattell, here a young, violent storeowner,
haunted by his ghost. had been tried for the murder of Chinik, an old
As it twists and turns through the politics Jewish immigrant who had recently moved to
of witnessing, the Broadway version of Noon town with his daughter, Felicia, opened a pawn
on Doomsday endorses African American civil shop, and, with better prices, had taken most
rights, but the script is equally as interested in of John's business. One night, in a drunken
defining what racism is and pinpointing where rage, John murdered him. Although the town
it resides within a nation. In this way, the script had wanted to protect John from any charges,
counters popular ideas about race and nation it placed him on trial after a significant number
that surrounded the Till murder. The national of northern journalists covered the incident and
distribution of photographs from Till's funeral gave it national publicity.
caught the interest of many northern journal This version of Noon on Doomsday shifts
ists who ventured to Mississippi to cover the focus away from the politics of witnessing and
trial. The press coverage usually portrayed the onto the politics of speaking. The script fixates
journalists as liberal crusaders encountering on Chinik's identity, asking whether he is a
a strange and backward southern world, in Jewish outsider or an assimilated townie. Just
the process portraying racism as a distinctly as the Broadway version points out the horrors
southern problem. Although Serling was a of unseen lynchings, the television script shows
northeastern liberal, he had also experienced the horrors of unspoken anti-Semitism. No one
anti-Semitic scorn from fellow liberals in Bing explicitly refers to Chinik as a Jew. Rather than
hamton, New York, a predominantly Protestant suggest that harmonious integration is pos
town where he grew up.10 The Broadway script sible, the television version argues that such in
of Noon on Doomsday counters the notion tegration is a hollow dream in a country marred
that racism is unique to the South and pres by ingrained prejudice. Many of the scenes
ents it instead as a national problem. Many show how Chinik's unspoken identity remains
of the northern journalists covering the Henry the organizing principle behind the prejudice,
Clemson murder express racist sentiments, hatred, and violence in the play. Take the scene
use racial slurs, or simply do not care about in act one where Frank tells Rod his plans to
the outcome of the Kattell trial. Likewise, many protest the Kattell celebration. In the television
of the southern residents take liberal stances version, Frank is a state-supreme-court justice
against the lynching and realize that racism is who left Demarest, Georgia, because of the
ingrained in the town's social system when a town's bigoted ways. Serling also changed the
jury declares Kattell innocent. name of Bob Grinstead to Rod. The dialogue
By setting Kartell's celebration on Founder's conveys the anti-Semitic nature of the murder,
Day, Serling suggests that racism is ingrained even without mentioning Chinik's ethnicity:
in the social foundations of America. The play
equates the actual founding of the town with frank: Crime committed in the heat of passion
racist actions. Frank's moralizing speech at is a crime nonetheless, isn't it?


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rod: (with equal intensity) Not when the defen and unworthy of civil rights. People make no
dant is a kid, liked and known by everybody. anti-Semitic statements, but they perform anti
And not when the victim is? (Rodstops, Semitic actions.
turns away) Like the Broadway version, the television
frank: (pouncing on this) Not when the victim script concerns itself with racism and regional
is what? differences within the United States. The script
(Rod turns and faces his father but with obvious directly addresses cultural debates between
reluctance) northern and southern jews on what consti
rod: He was a stranger. tutes Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in
frank: Go on. What else was he? postwar America. Historians often refer to the
rod: (shrugs) What else did he have to be. A postwar period in America as the golden age
tight-lipped, strange old man that nobody of Jewish assimilation. The worldwide fight
knew. He'd opened a store a few months against Nazi atrocity meant that Jews felt more
ago. A homely old man who couldn't even welcomed than ever in the United States, and
speak English. Well, you know small towns, postwar polls revealed an all-time low level of
Dad anti-Semitism in the country. Many prestigious
frank: ... I have a strange sick feeling in the
American universities began accepting Jews,
pit of my stomach that you and they and consid
the group became less shunned in work
ered the nature of the victim more spheres.
than the In fact, a record number of Jews en
nature of the crime, (television draft tered
act politics
1, in the 1940s. A poll showed that
pp. 28-29) by 1962, three-quarters of Americans would not
vote for an anti-Semitic candidate. With popular
The dialogue's key turns, from rational debate culture looking more favorably upon Jews as
to heated intensity to reluctant defeat, all well, a number of Jewish icons appeared shortly
revolve around the victim's identity, an issue after the war. In 1945, Bess Myerson was the
from which Rod Grinstead shies away. While first Jew to win the Miss America Pageant, and
people might not speak of it, Chinik's Jew fans rallied behind Hank Greenberg as he led
ish identity influences everyone's actions. As the Detroit Tigers to a World Series victory (Da
Frank suggests, the violence had to do with the widowicz 129). Filmmaker Elia Kazan spoke out
victim's identity. against anti-Semitism in Gentlemen's Agree
This passage, as well as others, draws on ment, a 1947 film that ultimately demonstrated
physical stereotypes of Jews to continue to ad that Jews were just like everyone else.
dress, but not explicitly speak about, Chinik's All seemed to be well, but many northern
ethnicity. The character Rod refers to Chinik's Jewish activists thought that postwar assimi
thin lips, and in other sections of the play, lation threatened Jewish identity. How could
townspeople mention the storeowner's long American Jews forget their ethnicity after a
nose and short stature. As Sander Gilman major part of the world had tried to exterminate
argues, Jews have been represented by their them? If America celebrated diversity, Jewish
physiognomic difference: their eyes, nose, activists felt it needed to accept them as an
height, skin color, etc. (173-74). Much of Noon ethnic group within America, not dissolve them
on Doomsday shows that while the town might into the melting pot.
have accepted Chinik as one of them, they also Historian Seth Forman presents a fascinat
draw on these Jewish stereotypes to mark the ing thesis that many northern Jews adopted
pawnbroker as different. Noon on Doomsday antiassimilationist politics by endorsing African
presents an ultimate paradox of assimilation, American civil rights. Jews identified with Afri
then. While no one refers to the ethnic identity can Americans as an oppressed social group
of Jewish characters, people draw on stereo who needed to end racism. Many Jews drew
types to constitute them as ethnic outsiders parallels between the Nazi genocide and the


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American enslavement of blacks. Foreman such as Carl Alpert, argued that by refusing
realizes the contradictory and complex identity to stand up for fellow sufferers, apolitical,
politics in place here. He writes, "the irony was southern Jews perpetuated hate crimes against
that many Jews viewed the broader struggle to blacks. Southern Jews, on the other hand, felt
tear down legal barriers to full integration as their northern allies threatened their safety by
one way by which Jews could stave off complete attaching the names of national Jewish organi
assimilation" (32). Liberalism helped north zations to protests in the South and by making
ern Jews mark themselves as a distinct ethnic it appear that southern Jews endorsed civil
group. National defense organizations such as rights. Many southern Jews went as far as peti
the American Jewish Committee, the American tioning national Jewish organizations to remove
Jewish Congress, and the B'Nai B'rith's Anti their names from protests (Foreman 24-54).
Defamation League focused on the importance The television version of Noon on Doomsday
of political issues such as civil rights, racial har called for southern Jews to join the fight for civil
mony, democracy, and equality (57-62). Jews rights. Jewish assimilation in the South masked
acted to end discrimination against African deep-rooted anti-Semitism. In the script, south
Americans and, in the process, to constitute ern Jews are a socially disempowered group
their own ethnic identity (29). who need to fight for civil rights and universal
Southern Jews embraced assimilation and equality. Other characters never make anti-Se
avoided any association with the African Ameri mitic comments, but they act violently toward
can civil rights movement. Demographics show Jews. Noon on Doomsday shows the useful
that very few Jewish neighborhoods ever existed ness of Jews aligning themselves with other
in this area of the country. Instead, the Jewish oppressed social groups in the South. Chinik's
population dispersed itself throughout the daughter joins forces with two other outsid
region and coexisted within nonethnic, white ers: Frank, the Demarest emigrant, and Lanier,
neighborhoods. In their limited numbers, Jews a northern journalist appalled by the murder.
figured into southern society not as an ethnic Physical violence threatens the civil rights of
group but as one of the three major religions: all the characters aligned with Chinik. Kattell
Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism. As murders Chinik. Kartell's friends attack Lanier.
Foreman argues, this focus on Jews as a re And Rod says he will tar and feather Frank for
ligious group led to a high level of southern protesting the Founder's Day celebration. In
acceptance. Welcomed in society where blacks this script, Jews share a common condition of
were not, southern Jews shied away from liberal oppression with the excluded and downtrod
politics and civil rights. As they had not found den, and all characters have been somehow
in many areas of the world, Jews found in the displaced from their home.
South a safe home, and they refused to upset As in the Broadway script, the fact that the
it. Witnessing the massive devastation of the Kattell celebration in this version takes place
Holocaust, southern Jews feared that endorsing on the anniversary of the town's founding sug
civil rights might cause their southern neighbors gests that intolerance and prejudice?here
to take up violence against them. As Forman directed toward jews?are built into America's
shows, this created two very different meanings social system. Noon on Doomsday ends by en
of Jewishness in postwar America: In the North, dorsing universal civil rights and calling upon
politics and ethnicity constructed Jewish iden people to change the anti-Semitic foundations
tity. In the South, religion did (47-50). of society. All of the outsider characters?Feli
At times, this discrepancy led to heated cia, Frank, and Lanier?protest the Founder's
debates over the roles Jews should play in the Day event. Frank is by far the most vocal. As he
African American civil rights movement. Many upholds the values of equality and universal
northern Jews felt their southern brethren personhood that founded the civil rights move
avoided their political responsibilities. Some, ment, he argues that the town caused Chinik's


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murder. In fact, he reminds his son Rod that There is that moment that you talk about?
John Kattell simply executed the town's desires. when a hate, an inbred, crooked, warped
The verdict of Kartell's trial needs to change hate boils over. That's the point, John Kattell,
when you take it off the stove or let it boil.
along with the legal institutions that hold the
That's the chance for a human being to have
town together. In this sense, Frank shares much
an awakening?or a doomsday. You [the
in common with civil rights activists who chal
town] go on living as best you can, but you
lenged the racism operating throughout the buried part of you with an old man. Every
United States social system, in segregated pub body for a different reason maybe, but you
lic-transportation systems, in schools segre buried part of yourselves, (television draft act
gated by separate-but-equal clauses, and in Jim 3, P. 39).
Crow provisions that denied African Americans
their right to vote. Frank is correct to say that Frank suggests that the town can awaken
the not-guilty verdict for Kattell sanctioned rac from its own prejudices and accept all citizens
ist murder in the town and that the town's legal equally, but as he delivers his speech next to
institutions permitted this behavior. Felicia and Lanier, he carefully addresses the
Serling called for national Jewish activism by town as somehow different, as you, not as we.
making Chinik a thinly disguised version of Leo Characters who had their civil rights violated
Frank, a Jewish industrialist lynched in 1915. still hold onto their differences because the
Frank is a key figure in American Jewish history, town's earlier pretence of Jewish assimilation
one whose story shows the need to fight anti led to Chinik's death.
Semitism on a national level. While Serling only

spoke about Noon on Doomsday's relationship The Beleaguered Artist: Serling's
to the Emmett Till murder, the Chinik-Frank Problems with Noon on Doomsday
connection stands out. Frank managed the and the Theatre Guild
National Pencil Company in Marietta, Georgia,
in 1913 when a night watchman found one of Serling's original strategy for writing about the
Frank's employees, Mary Phagan, murdered. No Emmett Till murder on television failed. The
evidence linked Frank to the crime. The South Theatre Guild praised his Broadway adaptation
seemed to have a lower level of anti-Semitism but felt Chinik's Jewish identity in the television
than the North in the 1910s, but Marietta resi version could offend the audience and lead
dents accused and then lynched Frank in 1915 to a boycott of United States Steel products.
primarily because he was a Jew who had too Moreover, Lawrence Langer thought the script
much economic power?the same reason Kat resembled the Emmett Till murder too closely
tell murdered Chinik. In the 1910s, northern (Serling, Itr. to Ira Steiner). Serling responded
Jewish activists used the Frank murder to call like many writers did once producers, spon
attention to the national roots of anti-Semitism, sors, networks, or advertising agencies cen
and as historian Jeffrey Melnick argues, Frank sored their scripts. He courted the press and
remains a rallying point for Jews (Melnick 3-4). presented himself as a beleaguered artist, an
Noon on Doomsday endorsed the same values intellectual locked inside the philistine televi
that Jews found in the figure of Leo Frank. sion business. This identity, crafted for the
Despite endorsing universal citizenship, the public, shared much with the goals Serling had
first draft of the television script also supports for adapting Noon on Doomsday as a Broadway
marking Jews as a distinct ethnic group. The play. At the heart of both his public comments
northern journalist, southern emigrant, and and his adaptation deal was Serling's belief
Jewish immigrant carefully retain their own that he could produce art if he escaped from
differences from the town in the final scene. the commercial censorship of the television
As the town realizes the horror of excusing Kat industry. However, Serling had planned to fund
tell's murder, Frank moralizes about the event: the Broadway adaptation through the same
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 58.3 / FALL 2006 XJ


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company that would produce the original televi pressures of television. Its controversial radio
sion performance?the Theatre Guild. But as performance of O'Neil's Strange Interlude
Serling publicly bemoaned the Theatre Guild's convinced the company that its broadcast audi
revision demands for his television script, that ence was consumers and that it must protect
company avenged itself by refusing to fund the the reputation of its sponsor. O'Neil's play men
Broadway adaptation. Serling discovered that tions an abortion. Although United States Steel
he could present himself as an artist either by and the NBC radio network objected to this
talking negatively about Noon on Doomsday's topic because it might alienate a national audi
television production or by adapting the script ence, the Guild kept the abortion references
to Broadway. He could not do both. in the radio script. When many listeners com
It at first appears odd that the producer, the plained to the network afterward and threat
Theatre Guild, and not the sponsor, United ened to boycott United States Steel, the Theatre
States Steel, or the advertising agency, Batten, Guild recognized the need to censor the more
Barton, Durstine, and Osborn, Inc., made Ser radical ideas for broadcast performances. The
ling remove the topic of Jewish identity from his Guild appreciated their business relationship
television script. This surprised Serling as well. with United States Steel and did not want to
Serling spent most of his initial conversations find another sponsor (Marshall 213). The Guild
with the Theatre Guild talking about his Broad felt vulnerable to commercial boycotts and
way version, so he never imagined the liberal audience protests. Accordingly, it presented an
producers would object to his admittedly less array of controversial social topics on Broadway
political television version.11 One of Serling's but not in broadcasting.
mistakes, then, was to assume that a liberal This, then, is the context for Lawrence
theater company would support liberal televi Langels efforts to get Serling to transform
sion drama. Chinik into a European immigrant and relocate
The Guild's demands make more sense when the play's setting in the North. A script that fix
one understands that the company bowed to ated on Jewish identity in an era that had only
the commercial censorship demands of televi recently begun to overcome its anti-Semitism
sion. The Theatre Guild entered broadcasting might offend viewers. Making Chinik an uniden
in 1945, hoping the industry would prove to be tifiable foreigner would allow the script to deal
an extension of the theater business; they soon with intolerance without explicitly addressing
discovered something else. Theatre Guild mem a heated social issue. The Guild postponed the
ber Armina Marshall originally imagined the television performance from 25 February to 25
radio audience as untutored theatergoers who April 1956 and made Serling rewrite his drama.
would eventually become patrons of the arts. Despite these changes, Serling was able to
Her initial reflections on this new medium over keep the first television draft's basic plot ele
looked, or at least downplayed, its commercial ments in the second and third drafts. In the sec
nature. Marshall claimed that The Theatre Guild ond draft, Kattell murders a European business
on the Air was "designed to bring the living the man for stealing his customers. The town still
atre into the homes of millions of radio listen unethically finds Kattell not guilty, and Kattell
ers, especially in those areas where profession plans a celebration of this verdict on Founder's
ally mounted stage plays were not available Day. Like the first draft, the second draft has
to the public" (Marshall 211). Envisioning the Frank, Felicia, and Lanier protest the event. The
Guild's foray into radio as a project of enlight Theatre Guild, United States Steel, Batten, Bar
enment, Marshall wanted to introduce radio ton, Durstine, and Osborn, Inc., still felt, how
listeners to the works of George Bernard Shaw, ever, that another revision was warranted. In the
Eugene O'Neil, and William Shakespeare. third draft, they made Serling eliminate words
However, Marshall admits that the Theatre such as "black" and "white" because they car
Guild quickly became aware of the commercial ried racial connotations.


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Still, these minor changes drastically altered that their censorship depoliticized his drama
the television script's social interests. Instead to the point where it had nothing important to
of considering the politics of Jewish assimila say. In the introduction to his 1957 collection
tion, the script now rallied suburban neighbor of television plays, Serling wrote that "what
hoods to hold onto ethnic identities. Forced to destroyed it as a piece of writing was the fact
transform Chinik into a European immigrant, that when it was ultimately produced, its the
Serling eliminated the complex physiognomic sis had been diluted, and my characters had
markers of Jewish identity. Characters no longer mounted a soap box to shout something that
referred to Chinik's long nose, squinty eyes, had become too vague to warrant any shout
orthin lips. Instead, they simply call him a ing" (Patterns 23). He echoed these sentiments
foreigner. In this sense, the second and third in a June 1957 Television Age interview. In pre
versions challenge the pressure that America's senting himself as an artist destroyed by the
postwar suburban boom placed on people to television industry, Serling always maintained
don a homogeneous national identity. With that the television version of Noon on Dooms
developers building affordable, middle-class day initially had important issues to address
homes in areas devoid of ethnicity, the era but that these were lost as the producers and
witnessed a mass migration from urban eth sponsor censored the script to make it palat
nic neighborhoods. In fact, many of those able for all viewers.
neighborhoods had to be destroyed so that Serling continued to present himself as a
the national government could build highways victim of malicious producers and sponsors
connecting the suburbs to the city. The suburbs well over a year after Noon on Doomsday's
invited Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Pol television performance?a mistake that lost him
ish Americans, Jewish Americans, and so on funding for his Broadway version of the script.
to drop their hyphenate identities and simply Although he still hoped the Theatre Guild would
become Americans. No longer interested in produce his Broadway adaptation, he had to
anti-Semitism, the second and third versions of wait, under the mandates of the Writers Guild
Noon on Doomsday call for northern suburbs to of America 1955 MBA, until April 1957 before
welcome ethnic difference into their neighbor he could relicense the script for performance
hoods. Chinik's death becomes a cautionary in another industry. No one moment convinced
tale of what can happen when suburbanites the Theatre Guild to pull out of the Broadway
strive to create homogeneous communities production of Noon on Doomsday during that
devoid of ethnicity. year-long waiting period, but cumulatively, Ser
Forced to make these changes, Serling ling's combative press statements convinced
became increasingly infuriated with all of the the Guild that it could not work with him. He
agencies involved with the script and pre portrayed the Guild as crass, commercial, and
sented himself as an intellectual distraught cowardly?hardly the words a company funding
with the commercial nature of the television a Broadway production wants to hear. Serling
industry. Serling attacked the Theatre Guild by and the Theatre Guild never discussed another
talking to the press about his censorship prob production for television or Broadway again.
lems before and after Noon on Doomsday aired
on television. In a March 1956 interview with Conclusion
Dave Kauffman of Variety, Serling mentioned
the script's connection to the Emmett Till case, Although most historians confine them to a
even though the Theatre Guild wanted to keep few cursory sentences or a footnote, adapta
that connection quiet. The television perfor tions played a crucial role in the way anthology
mance of Noon on Doomsday received terrible writers charted their careers and experimented
reviews. Serling publicly blamed this on the with social commitments. These adaptations
Theatre Guild and United States Steel, insisting marked the pivotal moment in the careers of
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO 58-3 / FALL 2006 1Q


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anthology writers when they began to seek ski, and the anonymous reviewers at the Journal of
Film and Video also deserve thanks.
out other markets for their work. This would
become increasingly important as the networks 1. With titles such as Kraft Television Theatre and
phased out anthology dramas. ABC cancelled Playhouse 90, the television anthology series mod
eled itself partly on the theater. Each week an anthol
all of its single-sponsor anthology dramas for
ogy series would present a sixty- to ninety-minute
the 1955-56 season and scheduled Hollywood self-contained drama with new characters and an
produced series instead. CBS and NBC followed original plot.
suit, and by 1964 all of the prestigious anthol 2. The Theatre Guild was a company that funded
and performed Broadway dramas. It was not a labor
ogy series had been cancelled. With the televi
union that negotiated theater contracts.
sion industry no longer providing a market for 3. When I refer to "writers" in this essay, I mean
single, stand-alone scripts, anthology writers television anthology writers. I am not addressing the
such as Paddy Chayefsky, Tad Mosel, Horton problems writers for other types of television series
Foote, David Shaw, and J. P. Miller left television faced.
4. Additionally, these contracts allowed producers
in the mid-1950s and wrote for the Broadway
and directors to receive raises if their work demon
stage or for motion pictures. By adapting their strated exceptional quality.
television scripts to other industries, anthology 5.1 have determined this by looking through hun
writers learned the types of stories that sold, dreds of business correspondence documents be
tween writers and their managers. These documents
the array of social concerns they could address,
can be found in the Rod Serling Archive, the Reginald
and the overall structure of production in other
Rose Archive, the Paddy Chayefsky Archive, the Alvin
industries.
Boretz Archive, the jerome Rose Archive, and the
Serling's hostile criticism of the television Ernest Kinoy Archive, all at the State Historical Society
industry's censorship and his failed Broadway of Wisconsin, Madison. Numerous articles in Variety
adaptation of Noon on Doomsday capture between 1947 and 1955 also address the payment
writers received for licensing a script for performance
one of his quintessential contradictions: he on television.
bemoaned the commercial constraints of the
6. Rod Serling, one of the first writers concerned
television industry more than any other writer, with licensing his scripts to other media industries,
but he never truly branched out from that discovered the highly unregulated nature of rights
for anthology scripts. Sometimes the employer struc
industry. While other writers turned to fiction
tured Serling's contract so that the company retained
or theater, Serling stayed with television, de
legal rights to sell the script to other buyers. In fact,
veloping genre-based anthology series such once Serling discovered this, he made sure his agent
as The Twilight Zone (1959-64) and Night Gal paid strict attention to subsidiary-rights issues. In
lery (1970-73), as well as the anthology-like a letter dated 3 November 1952, Serling's agent,
Blanche Gaines, told him not to sign a contract with
series The Loner (1965-66). While he wrote the
the weekly thirty-minute anthology drama Doctor. The
screenplay for the motion picture Seven Days in company wanted the right to sell the script to other
May (1964) and collaborated on the script for companies under the period of exclusivity, which
Planet of the Apes (1968), he worked primarily the company usually holds for years. On 1 December
in television until his death in 1975. Throughout 1952, Gaines wrote to Serling that she had found two
buyers for one of his scripts: Doctor and Lux Video
the 1960s and 1970s, he continued to criticize
Theater. Gaines advised him to sell the script to Lux
the commercial nature of television. By the time because it usually granted copyright back to the writer
of his death, Serling had truly earned the title in a more timely fashion and did not request rights to
that many journalists used to describe him: resale during exclusivity. When Serling wanted to put
television's last angry man. together an anthology of his most successful televi
sion dramas with Simon and Schuster in 1954, he
NOTES quickly found that he did not even own the rights to
some of his most noteworthy scripts, such as Strike.
I would like to thank Christopher Anderson for insight 7. Because of the blacklist, Bernstein, Manoff, and
ful comments on various drafts of this essay. Joan Polonsky had to use fronts. In his memoir, Inside Out,
Hawkins, Barbara Klinger, James Naremore, Gregory Bernstein recounts how these three writers collabo
Waller, Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, Suzanne Kraszew rated on scripts for the television anthology series


195.221.243.143 on Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:21:28 UTC
You Are There and used various fronts. Bernstein also MacDonald, J. Fred. One Nation Under Television: The
wrote about this issue in his 1976 screenplay, The Rise and Decline of Network TV. Chicago: Nelson,
Front. 1994.
8. Fora more detailed account of the politics of the Marshall, Armina. "The Theatre Guild on Radio and
freeze, see Boddy 42-62. Television." Nadel 211-15.
9. These facts about the Till murder and murder Melnick, Jeffrey. Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo
trial come from Halberstam 431-41. The emphasis on Frank and Jim Conleyin the New South. Jackson: U
witnessing is my own, not Halberstam's. Mississippi P, 2000.
10. For more on the anti-Semitism Serling faced Middleton, George. The Dramatists Guild: What It Is
growing up in Binghamton, see Engel 25-28. and Does... How It Happened and Why. New York:
11.1 concluded this by synthesizing numerous Dramatists Guild, 1959.
points Serling makes throughout his correspondence Nadel, Norman. A Pictorial History of the Theatre
(Serling Archive box 6, folders 4 and 5). Guild with Special Material by Lawrence Langerand
Armina Marshall. New York: Crown, 1969.
REFERENCES "Push TV Scripters Guild as Screen Writers Balk on
Tele Jurisdiction." Variety 24 Nov. 1948: 27.
Balio, Tino. United Artists: The Company That Changed
Rose, Reginald. Six Television Plays. New York: Simon,
the Film Industry. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1978.
1956.
Barnouw, Erik. Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of Ameri
Sander, Gordon F. Serling: The Rise and Twilight of
can Television. 2d ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1990.
Television's Last Angry Man. New York: Plume, 1992.
Bernstein, Walter. Inside Out: A Memoir of the Black
Serling, Rod. Patterns: Four Television Plays with the
list. New York: Knopf, 1996. Author's Personal Commentaries. New York: Simon,
Boddy, William. Fifties Television. Urbana: University
1957.
of Illinois Press, 1990.
-. Letter to Ira Steiner. 24 Jan. 1956. Box 6, folder
Buhle, Paul and David Wagner. Hide in Plain Sight:
5. Serling Archive.
The Hollywood Blacklistees in Film and Television,
-. Letter to Jack Natteford. 5 May 1956. Box 6,
1950-2002. New York: Palgrave, 2003.
folder 5. Serling Archive.
"CBS Continuity Department Dangling in TWA's Fold."
-. Letter to Junes Eddy. 11 May 1956. Box 6, folder
Variety 8 Sept. 1954:30. 5. Serling Archive.
Chayefsky, Paddy. Television Plays. New York: Simon,
-. Noon on Doomsday. 1956. ist Broadway draft.
1955. Box 79, folder 2. Serling Archive.
Considine, Shaun. Mad as Hell: The Life and Work of
-. Noon on Doomsday. 1956. ist television draft.
Paddy Chayefsky. New York: Random, 1994. Box 71, folder 2. Serling Archive.
Dawidowicz, Lucy. On Equal Terms-Jews in America
The Theatre Guild Anthology: With an Introduction by
1881-1981. New York: Holt, 1982.
the Board of Directors of the Theatre Guild. New
Doherty, Thomas. Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, York: Random, 1936.
McCarthyism, and American Culture. New York:
"TV Writers Guild Gets League Okay." Variety 17 Nov.
Columbia UP, 2003.
1948: 29.
Engel, Joel. Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares
Weigman, Robyn. American Anatomies: Theorizing
of Life in The Twilight Zone. Chicago: Contemporary, Race and Gender. Durham: Duke UP, 1995.
1989. "Where We Came From: A Brief History of the Writers
Foreman, Seth. Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Guild of America, East and West." 30 June 2004
Liberalism. New York: New York UP, 1988.
<http://www.wgaeast.org/about_the_writers_
Gilman, Sander. The Jew's Body. New York: Routledge,
guild/wg_history.html>.
1991. Writer's Guild of America. "1955 Minimum Basic
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. New York: Fawcett, 1993.
Agreement." Box 375, folder 16. NBC Archive.
"Internal Strife Sweeps TWA on Eve of Strike Against
"Writers Guild Opens Drive to License Material Rather
TV Webs." Variety 21 July 1954: 27.
Than Sell Outright." Variety 7 Apr. 1948:1,53.
Kaplan, Leon. Letter to Reginald Rose. 17 Aug. 1955.
Box 3, folder 5. Reginald Rose Archive. State His ARCHIVES
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Kisseloff, Jeff. The Box: An Oral History of Television, The NBC Archive. State Historical Society of Wiscon
1920-1961. New York: Viking, 1995. sin, Madison.
Langer, Lawrence. The Magic Curtain: The Story of The Reginald Rose Archive. State Historical Society of
a Life in Two Fields, Theatre and Invention by the Wisconsin, Madison.
Founder of the Theatre Guild. New York: Dutton, The Rod Serling Archive. State Historical Society of
1951. Wisconsin, Madison.


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Adapting Scripts in The 1950s The Economic and Political Incentives For Television Anthology Writers

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Semitism on a national level. While Serling only

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