Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there!
--"Antigonish," by William Hughes Mearns (1899)
These lines are from an old poem that was turned into a hit song titled "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" in 1939, recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, among others. Another song and catch phrase at the time that used the same lines was "Who's Yehoodi?," which was a hit for Cab Calloway in 1940. Yehoodi (or Yehudi) was a late '30s slang reference for a "mysteriously absent person." The lines about the little man who wasn't there and Yehudi found their way into short stories, such as Fredric Brown's "The Jabberwocky Murders" (1944); novels, such as Brown's Night of the Jabberwock (1950); and radio shows, such as a 1949 episode of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, called "The Little Man Who Wasn't All There Matter."
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| Norman Lloyd as the little man |
The Johnny Dollar radio show flipped the idea in a 1959 episode called "The Little Man Who Was There Matter"; the listeners would have understood the title as a reference to the craze of a decade earlier and wonder why the little man who wasn't there before now was there. The title was re-used by writers Gordon Russell and Larry Ward for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "The Little Man Who Was There" aired on CBS on Sunday, April 3, 1960. The original teleplay is the first credit for both writers and was their only script for the Hitchcock TV show.
The show takes place almost entirely inside a saloon in the Old West mining town of Copper Pocket, and, as it opens, Hutch and Pete, two men at the bar on pay night, argue over who will buy the next drink. Before the disagreement turns into a fistfight, two large men, Jamie and Ben McMahon, put a stop to it, reminding the duo about the virtues of brotherly love. A little man in a top hat observes the proceedings from outside through a widow and Jamie hits the jackpot on a slot machine, crediting his faith rather than luck.
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| Arch Johnson as Jamie McMahon |
The little man enters through the swinging doors and observes the signs placed around the room that read, "Charity Shall Cover the Multitude of Sins" and "Be of Good Cheer, Brothers." Okie, the bartender, engages with the little man, who speaks in a formal, educated manner and wears gloves. He requests a glass of rum, takes a sip, and spits it out when Okie refers to it as "'demon rum;'" the little man cautions the bartender that, "'Where I come from, we'd never refer to it as demon rum.'"
Across the room, Ben and Jamie demonstrate their strength by lifting an anvil, while Okie explains to the little man that Copper Pocket has been a different town since the McMahon brothers arrived two months ago and tamed it with their muscles and their talk of brotherly love. After insisting that power, not brotherly love, was what changed the town, the little man captures everyone's attention by creating a small explosion and bursting into laughter. Ignoring Okie's instruction to leave, the little man begins to insult Jamie, calling him a coward. "'Many men have tried to beat me,'" says the little man, "'but not a soul has ever succeeded.'"
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| Read Morgan as Ben McMahon |
Jamie finally is pushed to his limit and throws punches at the little man, but an invisible force stops his fist from reaching its target. "What kind of a demon are you, anyway?'" says Jamie, and the little man points at the big man and uses his mental powers to force his opponent to the floor, where he writhes in agony. Jamie tries and fails to attack the little man as well and soon joins his brother on the floor. With the two strongest men conquered, the others cower in fear and willingly comply with the little man's command to put all of their money in his bag, Even Okie is compelled to empty his secret stash from a statue behind the bar into the little man's sack. He tells the crowd in the bar, "'Do not try to follow me or there will be the devil to pay!'" and he exits.
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| Robert Armstrong as Okie |
Jamie and Ben quickly recover and Okie concludes that their visitor must have been the devil. Not long after that, in a lonely shack outside of town, the little man sits behind a desk and counts out $30,000 into three piles. He pulls a gun when Jamie and Ben enter, but they all smile and split the proceeds of their successful con game. The little man tells Jamie not to drink so much next time and he tells Ben not to "'lay it on so thick with that holy stuff.'" He tells the brothers to go next to Silver Wheel, Nevada, and start sending reports; he'll come when they send the word. Another explosion follows and the little man exits the shack, once again laughing.
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| Clegg Hoyt as Hutch |
"The Little Man Who Was There" is a delightful story of a confidence game that plays out in an Old West saloon, where two men have used their strength and wit to gain the trust of the townspeople before their partner can appear and play upon everyone's superstitions to collect a big payday. The "little man" of the title is just that, and the fact that a man of such small stature can seemingly overpower two giants is enough to instill fear into everyone else so that they part with their money on pay night. The final scene shows that this story will soon play out again in another place, suggesting that it has played out elsewhere more than once before.
"The Little Man Who Was There" is directed by George Stevens, Jr. (1932- ), son of director George Stevens and an important Hollywood figure in his own right. He started out as a production assistant to his father, directed training films while in the Air Force, and directed a few TV shows, including two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Coming, Mama" is the other), before being put in charge of film and TV output in 1961 for the U.S. Information Agency. Stevens later founded the American Film Institute in 1967 and served as its director until 1980.
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| Mike Ragan as Pete |
Gordon Russell (1929-1981), one of the writers, started as an actor but had a long career as a TV writer from 1960 to 1980. He was head writer for The Nurses from 1965 to 1967, for Dark Shadows from 1967 to 1971, and for One Life to Live from 1972 to 1980, so he spent fifteen years writing soap operas.
Larry Ward (1924-1985), the other writer, only had a handful of writing credits and had more success as a TV actor, appearing on the small screen from 1969 to 1982. He and Russell co-wrote a play called Masterpiece that premiered in London in February 1961.
The little man of the show's title is played by Norman Lloyd (1914-2021), one of the people most responsible for the success and quality of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Born Norman Perlmutter and active in the theater in the 1930s, he had a long career as a film and television actor, from 1939 to 2015, and appeared in Hitchcock's Saboteur (1942) and Spellbound (1945). He also directed for television from 1951 to 1984. He acted in five episodes of the Hitchcock series and directed 22, including "Man from the South."
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| Clancy Cooper as Swede |
Arch Johnson (1922-1997) plays Jamie McMahon, in one of his three appearances on Alfred Hitchcock Presents (see "Party Line"). A familiar face among character actors, he had a career on TV and in the movies that lasted over three decades and he was in the original Broadway cast of West Side Story.
Read Morgan (1931-2022) plays Ben McMahon. On screen from 1949 to 1994, he was in three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Hitch Hike," as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Night Stalker.
In smaller roles:
Read Morgan (1931-2022) plays Ben McMahon. On screen from 1949 to 1994, he was in three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Hitch Hike," as well as episodes of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and The Night Stalker.
In smaller roles:
- Robert Armstrong as Okie, the bartender; living from 1890-1973, Armstrong will forever be remembered as Carl Denham in King Kong (1933); he also appeared in Son of Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). In movies from 1927, he appeared in over 150 films in his long career and he was on TV beginning in 1950. He appeared in three Hitchcock TV episodes, including "The Faith of Aaron Menefee."
- Clegg Hoyt (1910-1967) as Hutch, one of the men arguing at the bar; he was on screen from 1955-1967 and appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock series, including "The Day of the Bullet." He was also on The Twilight Zone, Thriller, and Star Trek.
- Mike Ragan (1918-1995) as Pete, who argues with Hutch; he was born Hollis Bane and he appeared in countless movies and TV shows starting in 1924. He was seen on the Hitchcock TV show eight times, including "Breakdown."
- Clancy Cooper (1906-1975) as Swede, the first man to try to lift the anvil; he was on screen in small roles from 1938 to 1972, appearing on The Twilight Zone, two episodes of Thriller (including "Knock Three-One-Two"), and three episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Don't Look Behind You."
- Frank Christi (1929-1982) as the first man to try the slot machine; he was on screen from 1953 to 1981, mostly on TV, and he appeared on Batman twice. He was murdered in a sensational case involving a love triangle.
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| Frank Christi |
- Roscoe Ates (1895-1962) as Charlie, the piano player; he was in six episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "The Jokester." He started out as a comedian in vaudeville and his film career began in 1929. He was in 15 westerns from 1946 to 1948 as sidekick Soapy Jones, and his TV career began in 1951. Other film roles included Freaks (1932), King Kong (1933), Gone With the Wind (1939), Sullivan's Travels (1941), and The Palm Beach Story (1942). Ates also worked as an Air Force trainer in WWII.
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| Roscoe Ates |
Sources:
Gordon Russell, TV Writer, Dies; "one Life to Live" among Credits - The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/1981/01/22/obituaries/gordon-russell-tv-writer-dies-one-life-to-live-among-credits.html.
Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub, 2001.
IMDb, www.imdb.com.
"The Little Man Who Was There." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 5, episode 25, CBS, 3 Apr. 1960.
Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org.
Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss season two of Alfred Hitchcock Presents here!
In two weeks: "The Pearl Necklace," starring Hazel Court!
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