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Kraft Television Theatre and ‘A night to remember’(NBC, 1956)Judine Mayerle aa University of MinnesotaPublished online: 15 Sep 2006.

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Historical ffournal of Film, Radio and Television, VoL 7, No. 2, 1987 115

Kraft Television Theatre and 'A Night to Remember' (NBC, 1956)

JUDINE MAYERLE, University of Minnesota

There was a 'golden age' of live commercial network television drama in the United States that began with the premiere of the "Kraft Television Theatre" in New York in 1947 and ended with the demise of "Playhouse 90" in Los Angeles in 1961. It was 'golden', not in some mystical sense, but because of the surprisingly large number of excellent dramas that were produced, such as Many, Days of Wine and Roses, Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Our Town, Twelve Angry Men, and ffudgment at Nurem- berg. Outstanding among these dramas was A Night To Remember, and it was outstanding for a group of reasons. These included the manner in which television programs were produced during the 1950s, the creative resources of the J. Walter Thompson Company, the production resources of the National Broadcasting Compa- ny's television division, the programming philosophy of the Kraft Foods Company, and the coincidence of Walter Lord's best-selling book about the Titanic becoming available for television adaptation at the same time that director George Roy Hill was in line to produce a show for the "Kraft Television Theatre:

During the first decade of American commercial network television, much of the programming was produced by the networks either as sustaining or fo.lly sponsored shows. An exception occurred when an advertising agency handled an entire production [1]. The J. Walter Thompson Company 0"WT) had its own television division, including producers, directors, and writers, and could handle all aspects of a production~ from initial concept through casting, rehearsal, and live broadcast for its clients, as well as acting as intermediary between sponsors and networks [2]. Although the Kraft Foods Company made it clear that it wanted strong dramatic programming that would not only attract a family viewing audience but be a good vehicle for its product commercials, it did not interfere with the agency's handling of the "Kraft Television Theatre: In the same manner, JWT executives did not interfere with the agency's television division. The 'non-interference' policy on the part of both Kraft Foods and JWT provided a stable environment that permitted innovation and experimentation [3].

From the very beginning of its 11-year run on television [4], the "Kraft Television Theatre" had been a pioneer in program development and production innovation. During its first four years on the air, it outgrew four studios, and in 1952moved into NBC's studio 8H, then considered the largest, most modern, and most versatile studio for television production [5]. Unlike most other live anthology drama series of the early 1950s, the 'Kraft Telemision Theatre" was produced in a studio that had four cameras and 14 available sets. It was in this environment that the live television production of A Night To Remember was made possible through an unprecedented budget of $85,000, plus $10,000 for air time, by the Kraft Foods Company. Most

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important, A Night To Remember was outstanding because of the writing and direction of George Roy Hill.

Although Hill is best known today for his work in motion pictures, he began his career as a television writer [6]. He had considerable experience in drama, acting in a variety of stage productions while an undergraduate at Yale, at the Abbey Theatre while doing graduate work at Trinity College in Dublin, and with Cyril Cusack's repertory company and Margaret Webster's Shakespeare Company. Hill's experience as an actor helped him as he began to write television drama in the early i950s and as he began to direct for the new medium, whose productions resembled theatrical works because of the live performances by actors on small sets. Hill continued writing scripts during his first years at JWT and then became assistant director to Fielder Cook. When offered a position as a staff director for the agency, he accepted,

Walter Lord was a copywriter at JWT as well as a successful author. Born five years after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 [7], Lord's childhood absorption with its story became a lifelong hobby and a literary challenge [8]. A Night To Remember, a reconstruction of the last several hours of the Titanic, written in a dramatic documen- tary style, was published by Henry Holt and Company in November, 1955, made the best-seller list, and continued its volume sales through the Christmas season. In January 1956, Manry Holland, a JWT producer, and Ed Rice, a script editor, asked Lord if he were interested in having his book dramatized for the 'Kraft Television Theatre: As Lord recalls, the Kraft Foods Company purchased the television rights to A Night To Remember for $5,000 [9].

George Roy Hill had been a staff director for JWT for six months when Lord's book became available for production. Since he was in line to direct a show for the "Kraft Television Theatre' and he had read the book, it was mutually agreed by Maury Holland, Ed Rice, and Hill" that he should produce it. Hill had directed only four or five shows, and he knew that A Night To Remember was a greater challenge than any he had yet faced. Normally, a staff director for JWT directed a show every three weeks, but because of the scope of his proposed adaptation of Lord's book, Hill was allowed to skip a turn and, consequently, had six weeks to mount the production.

Through interviews, archival research, the shooting script, blueprints of the set designs, and critical analysis of a kinescope of the production [10], this study reconstructs the process by which the television production evolved from the initial adaptation of Lord's book to the live broadcast on 28 March 1956. It is intended to show how George Roy Hill's writing and direction overcame the limitations generally associated with live television drama [11].

The key to this outstanding production was the quite extraordinary direction of George Roy Hill. Originally, Hill planned to present A Night To Remember as a series of flashbacks from the British Board of Enquiry to the last hours of the Titanic. However, as he worked on the adaptation [12], he realized that such an approach would not capture the grand tragedy of the Titanic. He came to believe he could do it "live, do a real live show, as it happened, and sink the ship in the studio" [13]. It was this conception that caused Hill to mount a production that audaciously challenged the aesthetic limits and the technical capacities of the still infant medium. Hill's A Night To Remember not only demonstrated live television's potential for innovative and compelling narrative but prefigured as well the technical and creative artistry achieved by television producers/directors/writers during the decades that followed [14].

Although the outcome of the drama was known before it began, Hill built suspense throughout the production by concentrating on how the tragedy happened.

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,4 Night to Remember 117

I think there are several ways of telling a story. One is the fascination with how something came about. The suspense is heightened by the ironies in how it happened, especially as it happens to someone you know, people you see and get to know during the telling of the story. [15]

Of the many ways George Roy Hill knew to tell a story, the way he chose to tell this story resulted in an intensely moving dramatic narrative. His focus on how the disaster happened rather than on the fact that it did, his scaling the immense number of passengers and crew down to a recognisable few, and his depiction of the enormous size and grandeur of the huge mail steamer Titanic through vignettes of minute detail from the crow's nest to steerage, from bow to stem, brought to life the great maritime tragedy. A brief discussion of the drama will show how Hill utilized his full production complementwcast, crew, cameras, sets, sound and lightingwin a way unique to live anthology drama during American television's 'golden age'.

Act I of ,4 Night To Remember begins with the Titanic leaving Southampton, introduces the principal players in the drama, makes the viewer aware of the five iceberg warnings ignored by the ship's captain, and ends with the ship's architect's calculations that they have about two hours remaining before the Titanic will sink. Act II begins on the bridge of the Titanic where Captain Smith gives orders to muster the passengers, swing out the lifeboats, and send out distress signals. As the ship begins to list, her officers continue their futile attempts to contact the Californian, anchored ten miles away, by wireless, morse lamp, and flares. The dominant story in Act I is life aboard the great liner during and after the dinner hour, with the underlying irony of the ignored warnings of the dangerous ice field woven throughout, building to the climactic scene on which the act comes to an end. Act II reverses this order, with the dominant story that of the crew trying to slow down the inevitable sinking of the ship and desperately sending out calls for help. The underlying irony is the continued lack of concern of many of the first-class passengers and some of the stewards who refuse to believe that the ship will sink. Unlike Acts I and II where two story lines were intertwined--complacent passengers and an increasingly concerned crew~Act III dramatizes the last hour and 20 minutes before the ship sinks, with the only story that of passengers and crew responding in diverse ways to the inevitable. Lifeboats, which at first were lowered with only a few passengers, are now filled to capacity. The steerage passengers, refused permission to leave their quarters in Act II, are finally allowed to climb to the boat deck with its empty davits. The final irony is their facing death in an area and with passengers previously off-limits to them. The decks, which were slightly raked, are now almost impossible to walk as the Titanic begins to slide, bow first, into the Atlantic.

The structural framework for ,4 Night To Remember was provided by host/narrator Claude Rains who spoke directly to the audience at the beginning of the production, preparing them for the drama to come and heightening its irony. His introduction, commentary, and conclusion knit together the disparate elements of the production, providing cohesion among the 133 scenes.

The live television production of,4 Night To Remember ran exactly 50 minutes: Act I, 24 minutes; Act II, 12�89 minutes; Act III, 13�89 minutes. The remaining ten minutes of the one-hour block included an introduction to the "Kraft Television Theatre" (1:35), end credits (1:15), a promo for the next week's show (:45), and three commercials, one after each of the acts (1:45, 2:30, 2:00) for a total commercial time of six minutes, 15 seconds.

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A breakdown of the 50 minutes of the drama gives an insight into both the Complexity of the production and Hill's directorial style. Act I, the longest of the three acts, had 74 scenes made up of 83 shots, the shortest of which was less than a few seconds, the longest of which was almost two minutes. Of the 83 shots, 27 were dissolves and 56 were cuts; the dissolves give a natural, leisurely pace to the production, while the cuts increase the tempo, especially once the iceberg was first sighted and then struck by the Titanic. Act II, the shortest of the three acts, had a total of 27 scenes made up of 30 shots. Of these, 23 were dissolves and seven were cuts. Although the mood of this act is one of extreme concern on the part of the crew and near indifference on the part of the passengers who did not believe the ship was in any real danger, an interesting balance is struck between the two by the use of the dissolve as the passengers half-heartedly obey the captain's order to don life jackets and the use of cuts to show the urgency of the crew as they radio for help, prepare the lifeboats, and send up distress flares. Act III, with 32 scenes made up of 51 shots, is almost equally divided between dissolves and cuts. The 20 dissolves are interspersed between sections of shots with rapid cutting as Hill shows parallel action: the growing concern and then panic on the part of the passengers, and the apparent acceptance of their fate by those who must remain on board.

As Hill developed the television script for A Night To Remember, he was determined to recreate the overall disaster, a conception that would place the greatest demands on the creativity and expertise of those involved in the production and on the technical capabilities of the medium. Although he decided to exploit the intimacy that is the peculiar aesthetic strength of television, Hill did not think it necessary to embellish the story with fictional subplots [16]:

I think what they did in the other filmed versions was that they tried to build stories that were extraneous to the thing going down. I think you got bored with that because you're not really interested in who's marrying whom except" as it affects their getting sunk. So we didn't have time for any love story or any other stories. We were just dealing with pure facts. And we didn't try to create anything or fictionalize. I think that's what gave our live show its immediacy. [17]

As Hill envisioned the production, the audience would 'see' the gigantic ship from the crow's nest to the first class promenade deck, from the bow to the stern, from the luxurious staterooms of the wealthy to the cramped quarters of the steerage passengers, from the bridge to the engine room, from the grand staircase to the lifeboats. Such a plan called for 31 sets and six cameras because Hill worked against one immutable constraint: a broadcast time of 50 minutes. He knew he would need to move the production along quickly, rapidly shifting between cameras in a style then only found in motion picture editing. Hill believed it possible to do this on live television if he had his sets constructed in such a manner that each camera could handle a variety of sets and angles with a minimum of camera movement.

NBC's Brooklyn studio, 'home of the spectaculars' [18], provided the physical expanse necessary to include the numerous sets as well as the cameras, cables, 107 actors (72 with speaking parts), technical crew, 3000 gallons of water, and other requirements of the production. Measuring 178 by 88 feet, more than one and a half times the size of Studio 8H, it had been renovated and equipped for color broadcasting with the most advanced technical equipment available. Th e immense sound stage had a lighting grid with components that could be raised or lowered by 126 electric hoists

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A Night to Remember 11.9

remotely-controlled from the lighting bridge, permitting individual height adjustment of 63 groups of lights, the presetting of heights and lighting for ten scenes, and ten changes of lighting within any one scene. The 45 foot height of the sound stage provided latitude for the lighting grids, two-story sets, pedestal cameras and boom microphones [19].

After Hill had completed his script, he worked with NBC art director Duane McKinney in determining how to design and place the many sets in the Brooklyn studio to provide maximum coverage by the six cameras with minimum movement. Walter Lord served as a consultant to Hill and McKinney, giving advice on characters, costumes, sets, incidents mentioned in his book, and details about the Titanic herself. He had a complete set of blueprints of the real-life Titanic, as weU as photographs of her decks, staterooms, dining rooms, ballroom, and grand staircase, and was able to provide Hill and McKinney with materials from which to develop authentic set designs.

The range of sets designed by Hill and McKinney dramatised the awesome size of the great liner as well as the intimate personal space of the passengers. A two-story set, for example, showed both the top deck of the Titanic as well as the side of the ship between decks, with a lifeboat hanging from above and large cabin portholes below. McKinney worked six days with the ship's original blueprints in order to make the set designs authentic, and workmen labored for 14 days to build the various pieces of the montage that would represent the great liner. Carpenters replicated the grand staircase, the salon with its huge fireplace, the wheelhouse with navigation equipment identical to that carried by the Titanic, the lifeboats, the luxurious first-class staterooms, the wood- paneled corridors, and the elegant dining room, aU in minute and authentic detail, even to the damask on the writing-room walls, and the numerous clocks that kept the ship's time for the viewing audience [20]. Some sets were built and then duplicated several times, e.g. a first set of the deck prior to striking the iceberg, a second raked to suggest the listing deck, and a third at a still greater slant and partially filled with water.

The interaction between Hill and McKinney was crucial at this stage because McKinney needed to know exactly how much room a given camera would need to pick up a specific part of the set, how much room that same camera would need to swing right or left for another shot or angle, or whether that camera could pedestal up high enough to cover a two-story set, such as the side of the ship as the lifeboats were lowered from the decks to the water below. They worked together on such fine points as the comer construction of the wheelhouse because Hill's script called for a frontal view of Captain Smith through the bridge window by one camera foUowed by a side view of Smith and several officers looking out the window. Although the success of such technical and spatial conception was improbable in live television, the set design of Hill and McKinney made it work. When completed, the wheelhouse included a back, side and front wall, with a side waU missing so the camera could bring the audience inside. Further, placement of the set ensured enough distance between it and the next set so the cameras would have room to maneuver. Although such detail was not necessary for the scene, Hill wished to draw the audience inside the wheelhouse in order to give them a firsthand view of the great liner slowing, too late, as she approached the iceberg.

The sets were arranged within the large rectangular Brooklyn studio to afford maximum flexibility for the cameras and room for the 'wild' set pieces (such as the stern of the ship which was on a platform with rubber casters) to be moved in and out, with certain sets in close proximity to others in order to allow the performers to get from one to the other as quickly as possible. For example, in Act II, a group of five

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people must get from the lifeboats (which they refuse to board) on number six deck in scene 11 back to the gym in scene 16 where they sit, telling each other that "it's nonsense being asked to bob about out there in the dark when we can stay in here." The four intervening scenes are of very short duration: a dissolve to the ship's wireless room, a dissolve to the wireless shack at Bare Point, a dissolve to the wireless shack on top of Wanamaker's Department Store in New York, and a dissolve to a news desk at the New York Times--each less than 10 seconds in length. A note in Hill's script says, "Bob, VERY fast for the five to get hereto23 seconds outside" [21]. The group could not begin to move until the floor manager for camera one gave them the signal, and they had to be in place on the next set, settled, with coats removed, when cued by the floor manager for camera five. All of the sets were designed and positioned in the studio in similar fashion to provide maximum flexibility for both actors and technical crew.

Such attention to the technical requirements of the live television production were an integral part of the set design and of the construction and placement of the sets within the studio. Further, despite the size of the studio, which was large enough to include most of the sets called for in the script, several sets, such as a section of the dining room, had to be built in such a way that they could be easily struck during the production and replaced by another set stored until the appropriate time. For example, a handwritten notation on McKinney's two by four foot rendering of the entire studio, with all the sets drawn to scale, with camera and microphone positions, reads "four minutes to strike dining". When asked what would happen if the set were not struck and the new set in place on time, Hill simply laughed and said, "then we would have had an interesting shot of the workmen rather than the actors" [22].

Hill was aware of a film about the Titanic made by the Nazis during World War II, seized by the Allies, and held by the Alien Property Custodian Office in Washington, D.C. According to Hill, it was heavyhanded propaganda film with the English portrayed as decadent and cowardly and the only hero a young German Second Officer. However, he was able to use film clips of the engine room, the actual sighting of the iceberg, and water crashing into the ship's holds for his live television production [23].

Hill's script called for three acts, the first with 74 scenes, the second with 27 scenes, and the third with 32 scenes. The first act used 25 of the 31 sets, along with an additional eight film clips. Act Two used 15 of the sets, with five film clips, and Act Three used 14 of the sets and three film clips. In addition, each act used what are referred to as 'limbo' scenes, i.e. closeups of only a small part of a set, such as a sailor's hand on an engine room control. Sound effects were on disks run by a technician in a corner of the studio, cued by Hill (who said, "I was a one-man band during the production") who also cued the technician running the film chain. Although it seems improbable that a production of such scope and technical requirements could be done with a very small crew, Hill had only three assistants, who also served as floor managers, and a technical director, who oversaw the camera crew and lighting technicians.

As soon as Marion Dougherty and her assistant, Joan Scott, had finished casting, rehearsals began "in bits and pieces", as Walter Lord remembers, primarily at the Central Plaza at 111 Second Avenue in New York where Hill had taken over three floors, as well as in "half a dozen loft buildings around town that had enough space". Sets were first drawn on the floor in chalk and then marked with tape, with props sketched in in the same way. Most cast members had no idea of the overall production, only of the narrative fragments dramatised in their scenes. Despite the large cast and

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the multiple rehearsals, Hill handled it all himself, moving from group to group, recalling that "he was everywhere" and that "it was great".

Actor Joe Hardy, who played one of the ship's officers, recalls reporting for rehearsal about a week after the principal players had been rehearsing, "an awful long time, in those days of live television in New York to have the luxury of more than one day of rehearsal, regardless of how big the show was" [24]. During the days of rehearsal, Lord remembers, "they were building the sets frantically, they were way behind, and I think the last few days they were working twenty-four hours a day to get the sets ready" [25]. Once the actors knew how a scene was to be played, Hill and his assistants began to block the production at Central Plaza on Tuesday, 20 March, eight days before the live broadcast. A memo from the personal papers of George Roy Hill reminded the cast of the procedure to be followed at Central Plaza and at the NBC studio in Brooklyn.

Important Notes to the Actors

Because of the huge production and confusion that will exist during re- hearsal, we must ask that you be in position as soon as rehearsal begins. All of the cues and scenes are split second, so we must ask for your complete attention and concentration. After you have finished a scene, please sit in the chairs around the room and wait for your next scene or cue. We must ask that there be no talking during rehearsal. With such a large cast, a whispered conversation will turn into a roar.

You have in your folio a scene breakdown, to help you know where you are; a cast breakdown, to know your fellows and what act you are in; a schedule, to be right on time; and directions to Brooklyn. You will be given costume appointments the very first day. Please do not change your time or be late. Return the yellow W4 card to Miss Peters at your first rehearsal. [26]

The week before air time was compactly scheduled, with t ime built in for continued study of scenes, costume and wig appointments for the entire cast, dry and technical runthrough, camera blocking, and so forth. The cast and crew moved from Central Plaza to the NBC studio in Brooklyn on Monday, 26 March for three days of rehearsal before the live broadcast [27].

Schedule Monday, 26 March 9:00-10:00- Dry runthrough (actors all)

10:00-1:00-Dry (actors and cameramen) 1:00-2:00- Lunch break 2:00-4:00-Dry runthrough continued

Tuesday, 27 March

Wednesday, 28 March (this day is subject

to change)

11:00-2:00 - 2:00-3:00- 3:00-5:00 - 5:00-7:00 - 1:00-3:00 - 3:00-4:00 - 4:00-6:00- 6:00-7:00 - 7:00-8:00 -

8:00-8:30- 9:00-10:00 -

NBC, Brooklyn

Camera blocking of Act One NBC, Brooklyn Lunch Camera blocking of Act Two Camera blocking of Act Three Runthrough (all actors) NBC, Brooklyn Lunch Runthrough (all actors) Touchup makeup Dress rehearsal Notes Air time

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122 J. Mayerle

More time was spent on Act I than on the other two acts because it was longer and more complicated in terms of production requirements. During the early stages of rehearsal, one of Hill's assistants, Audrey Peters, would time each scene with a stopwatch. Hill would then cut the scene as necessary, shaping it to the time they had available,

You get used to doing it that way. It would be a big deal to do in that way now, but not then. We were all youngsters then--you must realize that. We were all in our late twenties and early thirties, and nothing was impossible. And there was also no Old Guard around telling you how to do it, because nobody had done it. There weren't any veterans, as there were in the movie business, veteran producers, people who had a stake in the business, because television was just a few years old. And they had this great maw gulping up all the material that they could possibly get and there was nobody in it that could qualify as being wiser than anybody else. We were all kids in it. We were doing everything, experimenting and having a lot of fun. It was hard, hard work, but very exhilarating. [28]

In any production, a complete runthrough--even as late as the dress rehearsal before air time--is considered vital to a successful performance. However, despite the days of blocking and rehearsal, Hill's performers and crew were never able to do a complete runthrough. Even though the scenes had been timed exactly and all of the shots visualized by Hill and discussed with the technical director and camera crew before moving to the Brooklyn studio, they encountered many problems when working with the actual sets, e.g. cameras could not maneuver or change positions in the amount of room provided between sets, cast members could not move between sets (often with a costume change) in the time allowed, cables hindered the moving of wild sets, a called- for dolly or pan or pedestal shot would include material extraneous to the scene, and so forth. Hill kept shaping and reshaping until everyone, cast and technical crew, hit their marks. Even then, in attempted runthroughs, cues would be missed, parts of sets would fall, props would be missing, lines of dialogue would be forgotten. Given such problems in rehearsal, it seemed unlikely that a sustained performance could be achieved when the production was broadcast live. According to Walter Lord, however~ who sat in on most of the rehearsals and watched Hill interact with the production ensemble, there was an extraordinary spirit of cooperation and a feeling of 'it can be done' because of the confidence communicated by Hill [29].

When asked if he had a 'fullback' plan in case something went wrong during the live broadcast, Hill laughed.

Fullback plan! I f it went, it went[ This is what engendered a kind of hysteria in everybody because we knew that if one cue went off, it was all over-- the whole thing would collapse. It would be a house of cards! And it only did work that once, on the air. And when it was over, we laughed, we just howled, it had been so much fun, so insane, so wonderful. And it worked! [30]

Problems continued right up through the dress rehearsal, with the final crisis coming during one of the last scenes. A dummy was used in place of ship builder Thomas Andrews who decided to stay with the sinking Titanic. The script called for a large chandelier to fall from the ceiling as the cabin filled with water. During the dress rehearsal, the chandelier knocked the head off the dummy and it rolled across the floor. Once the cast and crew had stopped laughing, runners were sent to drug stores in the

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area to buy adhesive tape. The head was refastened to the body with 'miles of tape', remembers Lord, and it was agreed that it was probably good that it had happened. "Can you imagine how it would have looked," he asked, "to have the head knocked off the shoulders and be floating in the water during one of the most climactic moments of the live broadcast? At least this was one potential problem they could deal with ahead of time" [31].

After the dress rehearsal, a half-hour prior to air, Hill assembled the entire cast and production crew on the grand staircase of the studio Titanic. Hill stood at the bottom of the stairs with sheets of notes, Lord recalls, and spoke directly to individuals and groups in the cast and to the tech crew, telling them specifically what needed to be polished when they went 'live'. When Hill was finished, Lord said,

He gave them sort of a pep talk about 'this being i t b a culmination of everything they had been working for'. And when he was through speaking, I have never seen such an emotional throng of professional people. They were in tears, they were cheering him, applauding him, literally, even though they were just about to go on stage for the live broadcast. He had such a wonderful sense of the grand design of the production and yet paid such attention to the most minute detail. He had such confidence and control and so much respect for the cast and crew. He communicated that to them from the beginning and they were all caught up in the challenge of the production. I think that's really what made it work. [32]

Despite the technical and performance problems experienced in rehearsal, when the production went live, it 'worked'. For the first time the lighting was right, the camera crew composed the exact shots in the right sequence and with the right movement, the performers hit their marks, and George Roy Hill, orchestrating the production via the control room monitors, saw his grand conception come flawlessly together.

In reviewing his shooting script thirty years later and recalling his often staccato- paced camerawork [33], highly unusual for live television of the 1950% Hill acknow- ledged how extraordinary it was to attempt such a production.

It really was an insane undertaking. It was only because I was as young as I was and as confident as I was. Everybody thought it was crazy, but I thought it was just going to be fun. And it was great fun. I f you look at the script, you can see what an impossible undertaking it should have been. There are so many cuts and it goes so fast. To have this many cuts on a page is amazing. Cue Captain, cue Ismay, cue . . , and so forth. And if you fumbled once, you were lost, in the control room. You'd never get it back again. [34]

The pace of the production was such that Hill had to commit both the script and the predetermined shots to memory prior to air time and could not direct his crew in shot composition and camera movement. Rather, as he cued and cut and dissolved from one shot to another in the control room, he knew he had to depend upon his actors to be in exact position and on his technical crew to have the precise distance, angle, and composition of each shot. Given the close proximity of other sets, as well as at times having only fragments of sets, the shot composition and camera movement predeter- mined by Hill in rehearsal had to be followed exactly by his technical crew. Although the smallness of the television screen could have been a constraint in the production of such a grand scale as that of A Night To Remember, Hill instead used that quality aesthetically by tight shots of set pieces deliberately designed to be shown through medium and close camerawork. The technical crew and performers knew that extra-

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ordinary control would be necessary when working within such defined parameters and that it would be even more difficult when the production went live. Their commitment to the project and their belief in Hill's direction made it possible to attempt and achieve what in television's 'golden age' was considered impossible.

Such heightened awareness of the interlocking technical and performance demands of live television production was imperative for this particular drama because it was not done within conventional sets of the period. Rather than having back and side walls against which the performers could play and the cameras move, with latitude of both time and space for shot composition, Hill and McKinney designed what were essentially pieces of a mosaic that suggested a set far larger than could be included in the production or built within the studio. This created the illusion of the great liner, which could not be shown in total on the television screen, but could be suggested through partial sets when choreographed through shot composition and camera selec- tion and movement. Because the number and size of the sets resulted in a minimum of

space in which to move his cameras, Hill often kept the cameras stationary while calling for movement from the actors. The tight choreography within a single sustained shot would thus result in a scene of greater implied dimension and action than was actually viewed on the screen.

For example, at the beginning of the first scene on board the Titanic in Act I, a camera is positioned slightly back from the bottom of the grand staircase to show the elegantly dressed passengers coming down for dinner. The couples begin their descent from off-screen on the top right side of the staircase, moving slowly toward the camera and then passing to one side or the other. The movement of the passengers into the foreground and around the camera, with continuous movement by other passengers in the background, suggested a larger setting and more passengers. Further, although the camera movement was constrained by the tight parameters of the set, Hill has his technical crew move the cameras just enough--through slow dollying, panning, zooming--to prevent the shot from becoming static.

Although the narrative was carried forward primarily by the action and dialogue of the characters, the cameras added a richer dimension by highlighting evocative visual images, e.g. the arm of an unseen passenger reaching out a cabin door to leave a pair of shoes in need of polishing for the steward. Hill interspersed such visual images throughout the three acts of the production and called upon the audience to fill in the larger contextual meaning implicit in these shots. Today such images are easily done on film or videotape in pickup shots that are edited in during postproduction. Their integration within a continuous live television performance was another example of Hill audaciously challenging the limitations of the medium through extensive pre- planning, technical rehearsal, creative camerawork, and confident direction.

Hill complemented the forward movement of the narrative by developing a dramatic rhythm through camerawork, shot selection, and sound/image patterns. For example, he used alternating cameras to show parallel action, moving them through the corridors and decks of the Titanic, dissolving from a shot from the bridge and the first class promenade deck to the engine room and steerage to create a series of vignettes that, although confined to the immediate limitations of the set, suggested the grandeur of the great liner and the many passengers and crew on board.

Hill also directed the cameras to move in a way remarkable for live television where the slightest mistake may be seen by the viewing audience. For example, after the Titanic had struck the iceberg in Act I, a camera moved forward to a window on a deck set where two men looked out at the iceberg. It then pedestaled slowly up to a

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lifeboat hanging from the deck above and panned right to show one passenger giving another a 'souvenir to take back to New York,' a piece of ice from the starboard well deck. Not only was the live camera moving smoothly in for a pedestal shot and slow pan, but another camera had been maneuvered into position in a similar pedestal shot and picked up the two passengers in close-up. They moved out of the tight frame and two other passengers moved in, pointing past the camera at the iceberg. What was seen on the screen was all there was of the double-deck set; had the camera been pulled too wide as it was moved, it would have picked up not only the edge of the set but extraneous detail, such as other sets and actors moving into new positions.

Another example demonstrates the determination of Hill and his technical crew to push back the limitations of a studio-bound medium that mitigated against attempting difficult maneuvers because any mistakes would be seen by the audience. In Act III, although most of the shots of the lifeboats being lowered were simulated by officers climbing back on deck and looking down, one scene was dramatic, both for its visual content and for the fact that Hill attempted such a difficult shot. While the officers tried to prevent men from getting into the lifeboats because there were still so many women and children waiting, several men got into a lifeboat that had been swung over the side of the ship. An officer fired his gun and ordered the men to get out. The camera swung around to show the officer standing on the outside of the deck railing. Beyond him swung the lifeboat, partially filled with women and children. The shot was interesting because it gave a different perspective on the lifeboatmfrom its sternmand even more interesting because the velour draperies hanging behind the set, as well as the lighting, give the effect of the black emptiness of water beyond the Titanic. This was the only time in the entire production that the camera swung away from the ship and showed a blackness the viewer interpreted as water. Had there been an error in the lighting, the shot would not have worked; the illusion would have failed. To have attempted this effect in live television was extraordinarily bold.

Although the use of a narrator was not common in live anthology drama of the 1950s, the technique was sometimes used to fill in background for the viewer or verbally to dramatise action that was not possible to mount on the stage [35]. However, the narrator was generally one of the drama's characters who would move out from the set and speak directly to the viewer about the unfolding events. The actor never stepped 'out of character' and his remarks to the viewer were part of the performance. Further, such use of a narrator did not demand any additional sound mix because the remarks were part of the dramatic dialogue. However, Hill's integration of a narrative commentary into the performance of the drama is another indication of his understanding of the aesthetics of the medium and his determination to use the element of sound in a more complex way than was common in live television production of the 1950s. The commentary of narrator Claude Rains, spoken from an enclosed corner set, had to be synchronised perfectly with the rapidly cut visuals or the dramatic effedt would not have been achieved. For Hill continuously to cue an additional major sound source as he directed the dramatic performance was an extraordinary attempt and achievement.

When A Night To Remember was broadcast live on Wednesday evening, 28 March 1956, at 9 p.m. EST, the combined efforts of director/performers/technical crew brought to the audience of the "Kraft Television Theatre' the tragic grandeur and fragility of the legendary ship of the White Star Line, the Royal Mail Steamer S. S. Titanic. Unlike earlier rehearsals and runthroughs, the live broadcast was technically and theatrically flawless, with 107 performers hitting their marks for the six cameras

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that moved within the 31 sets and throughout the large sound stage. Public response to the broadcast was such that NBC and the Kraft Foods Company permitted the then unprecedented network airing of a kinescope of the production on 2 May 1956 [36],

Even as applause continued for the critically acclaimed production, however, Claude Rains' final words as narrator also summed up the situation of live anthology drama: "An age had come to an end". Although ,4 Night To Remember demonstrated what could be achieved on the live television stage in New York, the shift to Hollywood as the center of television production continued. Action/adventure series replaced antho- logy drama, film and then videotape replaced live performance, and television pro- gramming became geared to the shifting and diverse tastes of the mass audience. The creative environment in which experimentation and innovation were nurtured was replaced by network control, which brought to an end the 'golden age' of American television.

George Roy Hill's production of.4 Night To Remember was awarded two Emmys by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (for writing and direction) in recognition of the artistry of the image on the television screen..4 Night To Remember was a unique production, innovative in intent, design, and execution. While it was an exception to the norm of live anthology drama in the 1950s, it was a vivid demon- stration of what was possible aesthetically and technically during United States television's 'golden age'.

Acknowledgement The author would like to thank George Roy Hill for his assistance in this research project. Research for this paper was made possible in part by a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.

Correspondence: Judine Mayerle, Department of Speech-Communication, 317 Folwell Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

[1] The networks had their own above- and below-the-line talent on staff and assigned production units to handle specific programs. Regardless of who actually produced the program, i.e. the network or an advertising agency, once the production was at the technical runthrough stage in the studio, network technical crew and personnel were used. In the case of an agency,produced series such as the 'Kra~ Tele'oision Theatre', network staff and technical crew were not used until the production was actually using the Brooklyn studio. Personal interview with Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, president and then chairman of the board of the NBC Television Network between 1949-1956. Montecito, California, 12 August 1984.

[2] J. Walter Thompson Company released a memo to its clients in April 1956, which gave a detailed breakdown of the "creative services in the fields of television, radio, and motion pictures," stating that "J. Walter Thompson is the only agency with creative facilities which are equivalent to a network program department". The lengthy memo referred to the "unequaled critical acclaim" received by its production of,4 Night To Remember and reminded its clients that its television department covered "all phases of television programming--budgeting, casting, full script department, and direction and production". This six-page memo is from the archives of J. Walter Thompson, New York City.

[3] Hill explained the creative freedom given him by JWT to do such a costly production: "John Reber was the vice-president of J. Walter Thompson, and if he believed in you, he let you do anything you'd want to do. I mean, he wouldn't let you do things that weren't sensible. But with that exception, he'd back you a hundred percent. I never had a bit of trouble from him. And I never saw anybody from NBC.

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We were protected completely from them by John Reber. So there was a great deal of creative freedom. Much more, infinitely more than they have today". Personal interview with George Roy Hill, 28 January 1985, New York.

[4] When the 'Kraft Television Theatre' went on the air on 7 May 1947, it was the only fully sponsored one-hour television show, the first one-hour dramatic program, and the first to use alternate directors. It opened the evening schedule of station WNBT, New York, and at first was seen only by the New York audience. The following year "Kraft Television Theatre" was the first dramatic program to be transmitted by cable to another city (Philadelphia), and in 1949 it waS selected as the first dramatic program to be sent over the East/Midwest cable.

[5] 'Kraft Television Theatre', press release, J. Walter Thompson archive, 1955 (no more specific date given).

[6] Hill's sale of three television scripts to JW'I" while serving with the marines during the Korean War helped him gain entre to JWT in 1953. He is also known for writing/producing/directing the CBS 'Playhouse 90" live television production of Judgment at Nuremberg in 1957. Some of his best-known films include The World of Henry Orient (1964), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Slaughterhouse Five (1972), The Sting (1973), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), The World According to Garp (1982), and The Little Drummer Girl (1984).

[7] At noon on 10 April 1912, the S. S. Titanic, a newly-built ship of Britain's White Star Line, left Southampton, England, on her first and only voyage. The largest and most luxurious liner afloat, the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic was considered 'unsinkable' because of her double bottom and her 16 watertight compartments. On her maiden voyage she carried 1316 passengers and a crew of 891 en route to New York City by way of Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland. On the evening of the fifth night of her voyage, at 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg some 400 miles of the coast of Newfoundland. Two hours and 40 minutes later she sank; only 705 survivors were rescued from her partially-filled lifeboats.

[8] Lord remembers that when every other little boy was building model trains, he was pasting up scrapbooks on the Titanic. For several years prior to the publication of his classic work in November 1955, he found and interviewed survivors of the tragedy, relatives of the victims, rescuers, steamship officials, and so forth. He studied blueprints and photographs of the Titanic, talked with shipbuilders about the vessel's unique specifications, analyzed thousands of pages of official testimony of the investigations of the American Inquiry, the British Enquiry, and the British Board of Trade. Personal interview with Walter Lord, 19 July 1984, New York City.

[9] Lord interview. [10] In addition to interviews with Hill and Lord, as well as with Joe Hardy (an actor who played one of the

officers on the Titanic) and others involved in live anthology drama during the mid-1950s, major sources for the reconstruction of the history of the production of A Night To Remember included Hill's kinescope and shooting script, photographs, the studio floor plan with set designs, material from the J. Waker Thompson archive, and popular and trade press articles and reviews.

[11] Delbert Mann, an alternating director of the "Philco/Goodyear Television Playhouse' (NBC, 1948-1955) and best-known during that period for his 1953 live production of Marty, says the pressure of time was always the most overwhelming of all, particularly in terms of getting scripts in advance, of getting the script right. Space was a problem because the studios were very small and even the least ambitious shows filled them. Money was always a problem; $25,000 was the top production budget for many years, a figure that did not include the cost of air time. Delbert Mann, Personal interview, Los Angeles, 29 August 1984.

[12] John Whedon, a JWT writer, did the initial breakdown of the book into scenes and then worked with Hill in determining what scenes would be included. As Hill remembers, it was more of a construction job than a writing effort at that point because the book was so detailed and complex, and the Kraft series only allowed 50 minutes of performance within the one-hour show. Hill interview.

[13] Hill interview. [14] Critics of the period recognized that Hill's production was a landmark in the history of American

television programming: e.g. see J. Crosby, N.Y. HeraM Tribune, 2 April 1956, sec. 2, p. 1;J. Gould, N.Y. Times, 29 March 1956, sec. 2, p. 55; E. Daccardo, Chicago Daily News, 30 March 1956, p. 31.

[i5] Hill interview. [16] For example, a 1953 film based on Lord's book added a fictional substory that highlighted the

estrangement of a husband and wife who became reconciled when caught up in the impending tragedy. Titanic was directed by Jean Negulesco and starred Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck.

[17] Hill interview.

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[18] 'The Home of the Spectaculars'. NBC Chimes, October 1954, pp. 4--5. Broadcast Pioneers' Library archive, Washington, D.C. The 'spectaculars' were 'event programming', such as Peter Pan, developed by Sylvester 'Pat' Weaver.

[19] NBC Trade News, 2 September 1954; and NBC Color Television News, 10 September 1954. Broadcast Pioneers' Library archive.

[20] An indication of Hill's attention to minute detail can be found in the fist of props he requested for the production, e.g. "service lights (like those in wealthy homes when Madam rings for Jeeves)," "for the dining room, all lovely linen, fine glassware for water, champagne buckets at each table," "for the first course, beautifully arranged shrimp cocktails in the silver things with ice, some grapefruit, the same way, all done perfectly, a tray of celery and olives, and all the dishes must be the very best," and "a period magazine for Lightoller to read in his cabin." Personal papers, George Roy Hill.

[21] Bob Hanna was the Technical Director, on staff for NBC, for A Night To Remember. [22] Hill interview. [23] Lord interview. [24] Personal interview with actor Joe Hardy, 20 July 1984, New York City. [25] Lord interview. [26] Personal papers, George Roy Hill. [27] Personal papers, George Roy Hill. This schedule is also available on microfilm at the J. Walter

Thompson Company archive, New York. However, the quality of the copy is extremely poor and for the most part almost illegible.

[28] Hill interview. [29] Lord interview. [30] Hill interview. [31] Lord interview. [32] Lord interview. [33] Hill's unusual editing style was influenced by his experience learning to identify aircraft as an avaiation

cadet in the Marine Corps during the Korean War:

We would be sitting in a darkened room and they would flash slides on the screen for 1/20th of a second. There would be a number of planes on the slide, and you were supposed to say how many planes there were. We also had to identify what the planes were. You could really keep that image in your mind after 1/20th of a second and count them. So I realized that you could take so much more in visuals than you were ordinarily expected to be able to take. One of the things I did on .4 Night To Remember was to put an enormous amount of story in a very, very short time. I think the fast cutting on that production really extends from my belief, having studied as an aviation cadet, of how much the mind could absorb and take in in very fast cuts. The audience does not need to linger long on images, and you can tell a lot more story by cutting. Hill interview.

[34] Hill interview. [35] For example, the characters of Will Stockdale in No Time For Sergeants (1955) and Henry Wiggin in

Bang The Drum Slowly (1956) , productions of 'The U.S. Steel Hour'. [36] Although A Night To Remember has not been broadcast since the second (kinescope) broadcast on 2

May 1956, nor available for public viewing, it is currently held in an uncatalogued collection donated by the National Broadcasting Company to the Library of Congress, Motion Picture Division, Washington, D.C., and may be viewed upon request.

a~udine Mayerle is Assistant Professor of Broadcasting in the Department of Speech-Communication at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She received her M.A. in Motion Picture History~Criticism from the Univenity of California, Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in Television from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Her research interests include television criticism and the historical and current development of primetime television programming.

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