Memories of William Fay

The post about writer William Fay and his family (here) was read by his youngest son, John Hartley Fahey, who contacted me with more information about his father. I have edited his correspondence into the following reminiscence.

--Jack Seabrook

Memories of My Father, William Fay

by John Hartley Fahey

William Fay and family in 1955.
John Hartley Fahey is the little boy in the sailor suit.

My father's life was never easy. He was born William Jerome Fahey on July 27, 1909. When my father was five years old, his father, Dr. James Charles Fahey, M.D., died from complications of alcoholism. Prior to that--due to Dr. Fahey's use of drugs and alcohol and other acts of abusiveness--my grandmother, Clara Hayes Fahey, had taken her three children, Marian, Jimmy, and Billy, from Northampton, Mass., to New York City, where she had family. For a time, all three children were "farmed out" to relatives while Clara joined the Navy and was appointed head of personnel for the Customs House in New York City.

When it came time for Billy to enroll in school, at age five, Clara changed the spelling of his last name to the less ethnic sounding "Fay," something she chose to do for herself as well. Jimmy and Marian never changed the spelling of their names; they were already enrolled in school and remained Faheys. When I was a boy, I asked my father about it. He seemed unconcerned and said it really didn't matter all that much which way the name was spelled. I legally changed my last name (restored it) to Fahey when I turned 21.

Bill and Peggy Fay, probably at Point Lookout on 
Long Island, NY, just before they were married.

Billy was expelled from Fordham Preparatory High School for fighting. He took to boxing and fought several opponents in the Golden Gloves of America, New York Metro Division, during the years from 1927 to about 1932. One of my father's biggest fans was retired NYPD officer John Jay Waters, father of Margaret Celestine (Peggy) Waters, the apple of my father's eye. Grandpa attended Pop's fights and approved of him but made it clear that no prizefighter would marry his daughter until he had a real job. If Billy wanted to marry Peggy, her father made it abundantly clear that a profession would be key.

With only a high school education, he faced a challenge. On the other hand, he was always handy at spinning yarns, and writing stories came to him rather readily. I believe it was in 1933 when Billy was hired by Popular Publications as an editor and to write stories for a pulp fiction conceit named G-8 and His Battle Aces, tales of heroism in the skies above Europe during WWI. Some years later, in 1935 or 1936, he sold his first short story to Ladies' Home Journal, which then led to short stories being written for various publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Good Housekeeping, etc. His career as a writer underway, Pop and Mom were married on September 11, 1937.

He flew to Italy in 1950 to research a book that he ghost-wrote for a priest about Our Lady of Fatima. Pop was a devout Roman Catholic, and when we lived in Hollywood in the sixties, he donated his services more than once to his Jesuit priest friends at the Blessed Sacrament Church on Sunset Boulevard, occasionally editing or even rewriting their homilies for them. It was a point of contention for my mother, who did not approve of him doing work for which he received nothing besides effusive thanks, enthusiastic signs of the cross, and a quick sprinkling of holy water.

Ward Bond on Wagon Train

One of Pop's closest boyhood friends was Bill Cox. Together, they co-wrote the first episode of Wagon Train, featuring Ward Bond (with whom Pop became a close, personal friend; the two of them went golfing the morning before Ward Bond died). Billy Fay and Bill Cox had a third close friend named Billy Holder. All three were prizefighters in their youth and they were known around the Bronx as "The Three Billys." Legend has it that there were a few bars that had to close down due to commotions caused by this wily, animated trio. All three made a living as writers. Bill Cox was instrumental in getting my father to throw his hat in the Hollywood TV ring, which he did about the year I was born, 1954. Soon, Bill Fay was writing for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kraft Mystery Theatre, and other series from the so-called Golden Age of TV. By 1957, his career in Hollywood had taken hold well enough that he sent for Peggy and the kids to join him. All eight of us climbed into our Ford Country Squire Station Wagon, leaving New Rochelle with our irrepressible mother to make the 3000-mile drive across the U.S.

In 1960, Bill Fay was hired to write the script for Kid Galahad, featuring Elvis Presley as a prizefighter fresh out of service in the U.S. Army. Naturally, I am biased, but to my mind it is the best script of any Elvis movie, precisely because Pop wrote precious little dialogue for Elvis, leaving him to gyrate & sing, while leaning on the considerable acting talent of the many brilliant co-stars: Gig Young, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson, Lola Albright, Ned Glass, Ed Asner, David Lewis, Liam Redmond, and others. The highly suggestive scene where Charles Bronson gets mugged and brutalized by thugs still gives me chills. Besides, Elvis was privy to some of the best pre-Beatles rock & roll songwriting of the Kennedy Era.

Other noteworthy achievements of Pop's included a four-part episode of Dr. Kildare featuring Fred Astaire as the father of a nun who is dying of cancer. These episodes were written when one of my sisters was already a nun and another was about to enter the novitiate. Both sisters eventually left holy orders to become wives and mothers.

Other shows he wrote included Combat!--the first episode of season four, "Main Event," in which a fight manager played by Jack Carter threatens Saunders's squad when he tries to keep his boxer out of a demolition mission. Combat! was by far my favorite television show, so I vividly remember the day Pop told me that his agent, Bill Stanton, had asked him if he wanted to write an episode. He scrunched his nose and said something disparaging about all the "Blood 'n T'under" in war shows, whereupon--wide-eyed--I implored him to PLEASE write an episode, which of course he then did.

 
On August 18, 1968, he died of a heart attack at the dinner table in our house at 2831 Hollyridge Drive. He was working on his second feature film at the time, a story entitled "Brother John" that was never completed. After Pop's death, actor Steve Forrest expressed interest in purchasing the storyline to "Brother John," but Mom turned him down, much to my relief.

The Hitchcock Project-William Fay Part Twelve : Good-Bye, George [9.10] and Wrapup

R.I.P. Norman Lloyd (1914-2021)

by Jack Seabrook

William Fay's teleplay for "Good-Bye, George" is based on a short story by Robert Arthur titled "Getting Rid of George" that was first published in the May 1959 issue of Bestseller Mystery Magazine. It was collected in that year's anthology, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Favorites in Suspense, a volume edited by none other than Robert Arthur!

Even though Laura Layne's husband George has been dead for five years, she still sees his leering wink in her dreams. She is now a movie star, whose every action is followed by gossip columnists, none of whom know that her recent five years of stardom were preceded by seven years as Gloria Gordon, a stripper in cheap burlesque houses, accompanied by her husband George, a comedian who was killed in a holdup. There is a knock at her dressing-room door, but instead of admitting her lover, Harry Lawrence, she admits George, very much alive and anxious to reunite with his now rich and famous wife. Laura grabs a silver statuette and brains her unwelcome visitor, who collapses to the floor dead just as Harry enters.

"Getting Rid of George"
was first published here

The lovers agree that their safest course of action is to spirit the corpse away and dispose of it. They put George in a wardrobe trunk and Laura attends the party going on downstairs, where publicity man Dave Dennis announces that Laura and Harry are to be wed. They plan to fly to Yuma for a quick wedding before returning the next day and they are counting on some honeymoon privacy to let them get rid of the body in the trunk. Harry tells Dennis that they will honeymoon in Mexico and the publicist agrees to hold off the press for forty-eight hours. Harry and Laura drive off together with the corpse in the trunk, heading for Harry's lodge in the mountains. A cop stops their car for speeding but is dazzled when he realizes that the passenger is a glamorous movie star.

Reaching the lodge, Laura and Harry enter in the darkness, with George's body slung over Harry's shoulder. Suddenly, they hear voices from the next room, and reporters begin to sing "Here comes the bride" as the light is switched on and everyone sees the corpse, displaying George's famous lewd wink.

Patricia Barry as Lana

"Getting Rid of George" is at once humorous and horrible, exposing the artificiality of a Hollywood star and the press agents who follow her every move. The end is similar to that of Fredric Brown's famous short-short, "Nightmare in Yellow," which was published two years later.

The TV version, retitled "Good-Bye, George," was adapted by William Fay, directed by Robert Stevens, and starred Patricia Barry as Lana Layne (her name changed from the Laura of the story), Robert Culp as Harry, Stubby Kaye as George Cassidy (renamed from Gordon), and Elliott Reid as Dave. Alice Pearce adds superb comedic timing as Haila French, the gossip columnist. The episode aired on Friday, December 13, 1963, on CBS, and is an outstanding example of how to flesh out a short story to fill an hour-long TV time slot.

Robert Culp as Harry

The show begins with a fade-in on a scene from a movie being filmed, with Lana playing a nun who kneels and prays before votive candles. The viewer does not need to be sharp-eyed to notice that this nun is the Hollywood sort, with long, manicured fingernails and a wedding ring! The camera starts out with a closeup of those hands before swinging around to show Lana, a heavily made-up beauty who prays, "'Lord, make me ugly if it would help me to serve you more.'" Her prayer is definitely not answered and the director says, "'Cut!'" The crew is shown and Harry plants a kiss on Lana's lips before they are joined by Dave Dennis and Haila French.

Haila has two burning questions for Lana: how does she feel about having been nominated for an Academy Award and when will she marry Harry? Lana is momentarily distracted when she sees George wander onto the set; she is shaken when she looks again and he is gone. Harry takes her to her bungalow and they are joined by Dave, who complains that Lana left Haila in mid-interview. Harry, Lana's manager, rushes off to calm the reporter, and Lana is left alone. George walks in without knocking and greets Lana as "'Peaches'" before referring to himself as "'the last of the red-hot cadavers.'" George explains that newspaper reports stating that he was shot to death during a bank robbery in Newark were wrong--he switched wallets with the man who got shot, but a detective examined the corpse and, three months later, George was arrested in St. Louis and spent five years in jail.

Stubby Kaye as George

When George was released from prison he went to a movie and saw that dancer Rosemary "Peaches" Cassidy was now movie star Lana Layne. He remarks on her "'new set of curves'" and a "'two-million dollar smile you got from some dentist.'" Lana offers to pay George to disappear but he prefers to wait and see how she fares at the Academy Awards.

In the following scene, the ceremony is over and Lana has won an Academy Award. She is the toast of the town and, at a party to celebrate, Dave takes her to mend fences with Haila, but when Lana spies George dancing with a starlet, she confronts her husband and invites him to her room, where he admires her Oscar and other statuettes she has won. Still refusing to agree to a price for his disappearance, George points out California's community property law and Lana's extensive real estate holdings. Patricia Barry and Stubby Kaye play off of each other perfectly in this scene; she is believable as a dancer turned respected actress, fearful that her success will evaporate, while he delivers his lines with all the streetwise gusto of his character from Guys and Dolls. George grabs Lana and they wrestle, a brief battle that ends when she grabs a statuette and bashes him in the forehead.

Elliott Reid as Dave

Harry arrives on the scene and confirms that George is dead; the corpse is shown with blood on its brow and its eyes wide open. When Dave shows up, insisting that they return to the party, Harry wipes the blood off of the murder weapon and proposes that Lana be photographed holding both it and the Oscar! This is not the first time that Harry makes a decision for both himself and Lana, who does not argue with his plan to cover up her murderous act. Lana says that she will rely on Harry and reminds him that he could lose everything--not she, not they, but he--Lana avoids deciding for herself and lets Harry decide, knowing that he occupies the role that George coveted. Harry tells Lana to open the cedar closet in her room, and the closet door has a combination lock, making it a most handy and safe place to stash a corpse. Inside, the closet is temperature-controlled and houses her fur coats. Harry adds George's corpse to the collection by hanging it on a coat hook like just another garment. The sight of the dead body, its eyes open and a bloody gash on its forehead, hanging on the wall, is an image of body horror that demonstrates loosening censorship on television in 1963.

At the party downstairs, Haila is showing the effects of too many drinks and too little attention from Lana. As Haila, Alice Pearce is excellent, with her ridiculous hat, adenoidal voice, and lines like: "'I didn't come here like some hundred dollar a week reporter for the free booze and chicken salad.'" Elliott Reid is also excellent as Dave, the smarmy publicist whose job consists of frantically trying to keep everyone happy. No one but Harry and Lana know of the murder, so the action takes place on two levels; others just enjoy the party, while the lovers juggle a potentially career-ending (not to mention criminal) situation. Harry surprises everyone with an announcement that he and Lana have decided to get married. Lana is stunned and Haila is furious at not having had advance notice. Harry admits that he did not ask Lana, who immediately says yes. Throughout their scenes together, Harry manages Haila with kisses on her cheek; she clearly adores him and remarks, "'I love that man!'"

Alice Pearce as Haila

Harry is a skilled manager, managing everyone around him. He explains to Lana that a wedding gives them an excuse to take along a large trunk and, in no time, two men deliver a steamer trunk (monogrammed "L.L.") to Lana's room. Harry pulls George's corpse out of the closet and stuffs it in the trunk, providing another example of body horror. The actual process of taking the body from closet to trunk is not shown; instead, the camera remains focused on Lana while Harry takes care of business, though shadows cross the wall and suggest what is happening off-camera. Instead of flying to Yuma, as they do in the story, Harry and Lana decide to drive to Tijuana and get married after midnight, with reporters in tow. Harry outlines a route into Mexico on a map, showing Lana how they can drive deep into the country before doubling back to re-enter the U.S., drive to Harry's shack, and "'bury George before daybreak.'"

There is a knock at the door (William Fay uses the gimmick of having someone at the door at an inopportune moment more than once in this episode) and Harry and Lana quickly stuff a quilt into the trunk so that George's body doesn't rattle around. Since they can't find the key and are in a hurry, Lana is forced to sit on the trunk to keep it closed, and suddenly the scene recalls Rope, where another body was hidden in a large container in plain sight. Of course, Dave is at the door, asking Harry to tip Haila off as to where they're headed in Mexico. Harry refuses and the men who brought the trunk return with the key. One gives flowers to Lana and, after they leave, Harry puts one of the flowers in George's hand and closes the trunk, but not before there is a shot of the corpse holding the flower, the trunk acting as a makeshift coffin.

Mike Ragan

Mexican music plays on the soundtrack and the screen fades in to a stock shot of a downtown street in Mexico, followed by a cut to a shot of a neon sign that advertises "Marriages Without Delay" for the cost of three dollars. Director Robert Stevens then uses a handheld camera to shoot a crowd of reporters, with Dave and Haila in their midst, waiting on the sidewalk in front of the marriage bureau. The happy couple emerges and the camera follows them through the crowd. Harry again kisses Haila's cheek before he and Lana drive off, leaving reporters, police, and locals cheering and waving.

The following scenes track Harry and Lana as they drive into and out of Mexico through the night, with no one on their trail. This section of the episode is like a classic noir road film, though Lana in her fur coat is hardly reminiscent of the downtrodden heroines of such classic films as Detour. Patricia Barry is gorgeous, with a sex-kitten voice that fits the role perfectly. Visible behind the duo are a suitcase (with the monogram, "L.L.") and the trunk. Lana whines that her happiness is ruined by "'that miserable albatross still hanging around my neck'"--her vanity and selfishness blind her to the fact that she is a murderer and that she and her new husband are driving around with a corpse! They grow visibly more tried as the night wears on. Finally, Harry turns the car around to head back to Mexicali. Perhaps their own self-importance makes them believe that they can't just dump the body by the side of the road in Mexico, though no one is following them.

Kreg Martin

Harry and Lana pass through customs and into Calexico without incident. Lana lights two cigarettes, one for her and the other for Harry, and lays her head back as if they have just consummated their marriage. This act suggests that the danger of the border crossing was like wedding night lovemaking for her and now she is spent. Lana is asleep and Harry is exhausted when the policeman pulls them over for speeding; this event recalls the Hitchcock-directed episode, "One More Mile to Go," where another murderer attempts to escape with a dead body in the trunk of his car.

Finally, they pull up to Harry's cabin, thinking they've succeeded in avoiding all pitfalls. They wrestle the trunk out of the back of the station wagon and Harry removes the corpse, planning to stash it in the basement and bury it the next day. Lana can't stand to see the body and goes ahead to enter the house in darkness, followed by Harry, who has George slung over his back. Lana switches on the light and everyone yells "'Surprise!'" Haila lets out a scream as press photographers snap a picture. Dave is holding the map that he pilfered from Lana's room; it outlined Harry's secret route. The screen freezes on the image of Lana, Harry, and George, and the camera pulls back to reveal the front page of the Los Angeles Gazette, with the headline: "Lana Layne and Husband Arrested on Murder Charge." The camera then zooms in on the subhead, which explains that "Road Map Leads to Grim Discovery," and the screen fades to black.

"Good-Bye, George" is an excellent episode from every aspect, bringing Robert Arthur's short story to life and fleshing it out in a way that doesn't seem padded. The lead performances are all strong and Robert Stevens excels at visual storytelling, mixing suspense, humor, and horror while skewering the film industry. None of the characters is admirable yet all are likeable for their personality, charm, and (in the case of Harry and Lana) good looks.

Bernie Kopell

Director Robert Stevens (1920-1989) worked mostly in TV from 1949 to 1987, directing 44 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and five of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour--"Good-Bye, George" was his first at the hour length.

Robert Arthur (1909-1969), who wrote the short story, "Getting Rid of George," was born in the Philippines, where his father was stationed in the Army. He earned an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Michigan before moving to New York City in the early 1930s and becoming a prolific writer of short stories. He later was an editor at Dell and Fawcett but is best known as the ghost editor of many of the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. He also wrote a beloved series of books about Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators for young adult readers. In 1959, he moved to Hollywood to write for television and edit screenplays. Before that, he won two Edgar Awards as a writer for radio. Many of his stories were adapted for TV; five episodes of the Hitchcock series were based on his stories and he wrote one additional teleplay himself. There is a website devoted to him here.

Sally Carter

Top billing goes to Robert Culp (1930-2010), who plays Harry Lawrence. Culp's long screen career spanned the years from 1953 until his death in 2010. He starred in a series called Trackdown from 1957 to 1959, became a major star with his lead role in the series, I Spy (1965-1968), and later was a semi-regular on The Greatest American Hero (1981-1986). He was on The Outer Limits three times and also appeared in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Stubby Kaye (1918-1997) receives second billing as George, though he spends most of the episode as a corpse. Born Bernard Solomon Kotzin, he started out in vaudeville in 1939 and began appearing in films in 1938. Kaye became famous overnight when he was cast in the original Broadway run of Guys and Dolls (1950-1953) as Nicely Nicely Johnson, whose song, "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" was a showstopper. He also had a hit role in the Broadway production of Li'l Abner (1956-1958). This was his only appearance on the Hitchcock series.

Jimmy Joyce

Patricia Barry (1920-2013) is the real star of the episode as Lana. She was born Patricia White and came to Hollywood in 1946 after winning a Rita Hayworth look-alike contest not long before that. She began appearing on screen in 1946 but most of her roles over the next 60 years were on TV, including starring on First Love (1954-1955), co-starring with Jack Klugman on Harris Against the World (1964-1965), and playing another role on a soap opera called Loving (1992-1994). Fans of televised fantasy know her for her two roles on The Twilight Zone and her three roles on Thriller; "Good-Bye, George" was one of two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which she was featured.

Dave Dennis, the publicist, is played by Elliott Reid (1920-2013), who appeared in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, including "Design for Loving," and many films, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and Inherit the Wind (1960). Born Edgeworth Blair Reid, his long career onscreen lasted from 1940 to 1995.

Alice Pearce (1917-1966) is unforgettable as Haila French. She started out as a nightclub comedian and made such a splash on Broadway in On the Town (1944-1946) that Gene Kelly brought her to Hollywood for the film version (1949). She starred in a TV series called Alice Pearce (1949) and was on the large and small screen from then until her untimely death in 1966. She was in an episode of The Twilight Zone and this was her only episode of the Hitchcock series. She is best-remembered as a semi-regular on Bewitched (1964-66), playing Samantha's nosy neighbor.

In smaller roles:

• Kreg Martin as the motorcycle cop who pulls Harry over for speeding; in a short TV career from 1962-1963 he was seen on The Twilight Zone and in seven episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Maria."
• Mike Ragan (1918-1995) as the man who delivers the trunk and gives Lana flowers; he was born Hollis Bane and he appeared in countless movies and TV shows starting in 1924, including eight episodes of the Hitchcock series.
• Sally Carter (1942- ) as the starlet at the party who is talking to George; born Zella Maria Grajeda, she was Playmate of the Month (as Marya Carter) in Playboy's May 1962 issue. Her screen career lasted from 1961 to 1978 and she was married to Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall from 1977 to 1983.
• Jimmy Joyce (1921-2011) as the photographer who snaps the picture at the end; he was on screen from 1959 to 1978 and appeared on Thriller, The Night Stalker (twice), and in six episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, including "Off Season."
• Bernie Kopell (1933- ) as the director of the film in the first scene; he has been on screen since 1963, mostly on TV. This was his only role on the Hitchcock show, but he appeared on Get Smart, Night Gallery, The Odd Couple, and Night Stalker. He was a regular on When Things Were Rotten (1975) but became a household name for his long-running role on The Love Boat (1977-1987). As of this writing, he is still acting in a current TV series and has a website here.

"Getting Rid of George" was later adapted for the South African radio series, Beyond Midnight, which ran from 1968 to 1970, as "The Party."

Read the short story for free online here or watch the TV version here.

Sources:

Arthur, Robert. "Getting Rid of George."  Bestseller Mystery Magazine, May 1959, 114-123.

The FictionMags Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

"Good-Bye, George." The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, season 2, episode 10, CBS, 13 Dec. 1963.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IBDb, IBDb.com, www.ibdb.com.

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com.

Luminist Archives, www.luminist.org/archives/PU/index.htm.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

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William Fay on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour: An Overview and Episode Guide

William Fay burst on the scene of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in October 1958, near the beginning of season four, and went on to write eight episodes for that season. "The Crooked Road" follows its source story closely, while "The $2,000,000 Defense" has new dialogue, its events are put into chronological order, and its conclusion is revised. "Safety for the Witness" tries for broad comedy but misses the mark. "The Last Dark Step" is chilling and subtle. "I'll Take Care of You" streamlines the source story and removes any ambiguity about the main character's guilt. "The Avon Emeralds" is more comedy than thriller, with a much-expanded story and new characters. "Your Witness" is an outstanding example of how to open up a story and rearrange events successfully, while "Touche" follows its source closely and succeeds in turning narrative into dialogue. Fay's fourth-season episodes demonstrate his ability to take stories off the page and tell them visually without the need for many changes.

He slowed down in season five, writing only three teleplays. "No Pain" deepens the story's themes and increases suspense, "Man from the South" is one of the best episodes of the entire series, and "Madame Mystery" darkens some of the characters' motives.

For season six, Fay's two teleplays are quite different: "The Contest for Aaron Gold" adds depth and emotional resonance by inventing a new and unforgettable ending, while "Gratitude" adapts a story that is very old and dated, eliminating a major character and focusing on the story's crime aspects.

"Ten O'Clock Tiger" was Fay's only teleplay for season seven, and it marks the only time he adapted one of his own short stories. Though it follows the source closely, the final scene is not staged successfully.

Fay wrote two hour-long episodes for the second season of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The first was "Good-Bye, George," a superb satire of Hollywood mixed with aspects of TV noir. The second was "Isabel," which was co-written with Henry Slesar. The scriptwriters take a complex novel and revise it to fit the hour-long format in part by deepening one of the main characters.

In his fourteen half-hours and two hours, William Fay demonstrated a firm grasp of how to adapt short stories for the small screen, and the majority of episodes produced from his scripts are highly entertaining.

EPISODE GUIDE-WILLIAM FAY ON ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR

Episode title-"The Crooked Road" [4.4]
Broadcast date-26 October 1958
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The Crooked Road" by Alex Gaby

First print appearance-Argosy, January 1958
Notes
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Episode title-"The 2,000,000 Defense" [4.5]
Broadcast date-2 November 1958
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The 2,000,000 Defense" by Harold Q. Masur

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1958
Notes
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Episode title-"Safety for the Witness" [4.8]
Broadcast date-23 November 1958
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Safety for the Witness" by John De Meyer

First print appearance-The Saint Detective Magazine, March 1955
Notes
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"Safety for the Witness"

Episode title-"The Last Dark Step" [4.18]
Broadcast date-8 February 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The Last Dark Step" by Margaret Manners

First print appearance-Argosy, October 1957
Notes
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Episode title-"I'll Take Care of You" [4.23]
Broadcast date-15 March 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "I'll Take Care of You" by George Johnson

First print appearance-Bestseller Mystery Magazine, November 1958
Notes
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"I'll Take Care of You"

Episode title-"The Avon Emeralds" [4.24]
Broadcast date-22 March 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The Avon Emeralds" by Joe Piddock

First print appearance-John Creasey Mystery Magazine, August 1958
Notes
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Episode title-"Your Witness" [4.31]
Broadcast date-17 May 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Your Witness" by Helen Nielsen

First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, December 1958
Notes
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"No Pain"

Episode title-"Touche" [4.35]
Broadcast date-21 June 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Touche" by Bryce Walton (as Kenneth O'Hara)

First print appearance-Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, November 1958
Notes
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Episode title-"No Pain" [5.5]
Broadcast date-25 October 1959
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Pigeon in an Iron Lung" by Talmage Powell

First print appearance-Manhunt, November 1956
Notes
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Episode title-"Man from the South" [5.15]
Broadcast date-13 March 1960
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Collector's Item" by Roald Dahl

First print appearance-Collier's, 4 September 1948
Notes
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"Man from the South"

Episode title-"Madame Mystery" [5.24]
Broadcast date-27 March 1960
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Is Betsey Blake Still Alive?" by Robert Bloch

First print appearance-Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1958
Notes
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Episode title-"The Contest for Aaron Gold" [6.4]
Broadcast date-18 October 1960
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The Contest for Aaron Gold" by Phillip Roth

First print appearance-Epoch, Fall 1955
Notes
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"The Contest for Aaron Gold"

Episode title-"Gratitude" [6.28]
Broadcast date-25 April 1961
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "The Thing Called Gratitude" by Donn Byrne

First print appearance-Hearst's International, January 1922
Notes
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Episode title-"Ten O'Clock Tiger" [7.26]
Broadcast date-3 April 1962
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Epitaph for a Heel" by William Fay

First print appearance-The Saturday Evening Post, 20 January 1962
Notes
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Episode title-"Good-Bye, George" [9.10]
Broadcast date-13 December 1963
Teleplay by-William Fay
Based on "Getting Rid of George" by Robert Arthur

First print appearance-Bestseller Mystery Magazine, May 1959
Notes
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"Ten O'Clock Tiger"

Episode title-"Isabel" [9.31]
Broadcast date-5 June 1964
Teleplay by-William Fay and Henry Slesar
Based on The Bronze Perseus by S.B. Hough

First print appearance-1959 novel
Notes
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William Fay, writer and family man

 by Jack Seabrook

In my introduction to the series of posts on William Fay, I wrote:

William Cullen Fay (1918-1981) wrote 14 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and two episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He was an editor at Popular Publications starting in 1935 and he wrote over 160 short stories that were published from 1938 to 1962. His stories appeared mostly in mainstream popular fiction magazines such as Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, and Liberty. Fay also worked as a sports writer for the Chicago Tribune and, as of 1948, he was the sports editor for Collier's. He wrote for television from 1954 to 1967 and he wrote the screenplay for Kid Galahad, a 1962 film starring Elvis Presley.

However, I have since learned that there were two writers named William Fay, both of whom were writing at about the same time. I corresponded with William Fay, an attorney in Chicago, whose grandfather was William Cullen Fay. This William Fay was not the person who wrote short stories for popular magazines and later wrote teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and other TV shows. William Cullen Fay was a sports writer and editor, who was the sports editor at Collier's magazine before moving to Chicago to become the sports editor for the Chicago Tribune. He seems to have signed magazine articles as William Cullen Fay in the early 1940s and by the late 1940s he had switched to signing them as Bill Fay, which continued thereafter.

The other William Fay worked for Popular Publications, wrote numerous short stories, and wrote teleplays. He moved to Los Angeles in 1957 to write for television. Part of the confusion between the two William Fays stems from the fact that William Cullen Fay was a sports editor and writer, while William Fay's short stories and teleplays often dealt with sports, especially boxing. IMDb lists his dates of birth and death as 1918 to 1981, but these may be the dates for the sports editor, William Cullen Fay, since a birth year of 1918 would mean that William Fay (the TV writer) became an editor at Popular Publications at the age of seventeen.

If anyone knows more about the William Fay who wrote short stories and teleplays, please contact me. He had eight children, as pictured in the photo below.

The University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center holds an archive of the William Fay papers, which are indexed here. Most of the collection consists of short stories or teleplays by Fay, but there are also some photographs, a short article, letters to and from the author, and a handwritten list of short stories that covers the period from 1938 to 1960.

Here is an article about short-story and teleplay writer William Fay (referred to as Bill Fay) and his family, from The Saturday Evening Post, August 27, 1955:

Here is a photo of Fay with his family:

Good Housekeeping, December 1955

Two miscellaneous photos:

Europe, 1950-Researching for article on
"Shrines of Europe"-Fatima, Portugal

Radio interview, Sardi's, New York
(Rocky Graziano is on the right)

This is a letter Fay wrote that references boxing:

Here is his handwritten list of his work from 1938 to 1960:

These documents were provided courtesy of The University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center and I am grateful for their help in preparing this post. If any of the images above are under copyright, the rights belong to the copyright holders.

The Hitchcock Project-William Fay Part Eleven: Ten O'Clock Tiger [7.26]

by Jack Seabrook

Mixing greed and illegal performance-enhancing drugs in the boxing world leads to tragedy in "Ten O'Clock Tiger," which first aired on NBC on Tuesday, April 3, 1962. The onscreen writing credit says that the teleplay is by William Fay, "from his story," and this has led to some confusion about the source material.

The TV show, "Ten O'Clock Tiger," is not based on Fay's story, "The Ten O'Clock Tiger," which was published in the August 9, 1947 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. That story concerns a young boxer who meets a pretty young woman at the New York Public Library prior to a championship fight. She helps boost his confidence and he wins the title after having convinced himself that he was being set up to lose.

"Epitaph for a Heel"
was first published here

The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, "Ten O'Clock Tiger," is instead based on Fay's last published short story, "Epitaph for a Heel," which appeared in the January 20, 1962 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, less than three months before the TV show aired. It's possible that Fay recalled his own story of twelve years' before and decided to reuse the title for his teleplay. This episode is the only one of the sixteen that Fay wrote for the Hitchcock series to be based on one of his own short stories, even though he had been publishing short fiction in popular magazines since the late 1930s.

"Epitaph for a Heel" begins as Arthur (The Professor) Duffy, a "manager of fighters," is approached at McCooley's Midtown Gym in New York City by a former jockey named Boots, who offers a tip on a horse race. Arthur is not interested, but Boots follows him into the dressing room of Soldier Fresno, "a shop-worn heavyweight," who is asleep on a rubbing table. Lamenting that Soldier will "make out like General Custer" at his next fight, against Buster Bigelow, Arthur is upset when he hears that the horse Boots tipped him off about not only won, but set a new track record.

Saul Bass designed this
illustration for the short story

Boots explains that he gave the horse a dose of a new formula that leaves no trace after ninety minutes. Arthur suggests giving a dose to Soldier before his upcoming fight and Boots agrees. They test it out and it works like a charm; Soldier knocks out a sparring partner in the gym who had "bombarded" him the day before. The following Tuesday, with the help of Boots's formula, Soldier knocks out Buster Bigelow in the second round. Arthur wagers heavily on the fight and wins big. Two weeks later, after another dose of formula, Soldier knocks out Luther Felix in the fourth round of a bout in Chicago. Two more successful fights follow and Soldier is set to "meet the champion in June."

Now Soldier is famous and Arthur is reaping the rewards, living in a swanky hotel suite on Manhattan's Park Avenue. On the morning of the championship fight, Boots visits Arthur and suggests that he let Soldier get knocked out and not risk further injury. Yet Arthur is greedy and wants to split the two million dollar purse with Boots. The manager is even more certain when Boots reveals that the two vials of formula in his hand are the last of it--the inventor "'died in Leavenworth last year.'"

That night, at twenty minutes before ten, Arthur gives Soldier a shot of formula, then a second shot, doubling the dose to a dangerous level. Soldier goes wild, losing his sense of place and thinking he is already in the boxing ring. He beats Arthur to death and the police find the manager dead on the floor of the dressing room, where Soldier believes he has just won the championship.

Robert Keith as Arthur (The Professor) Duffy

A headline above the story calls it "a story of the sordid underworld of big-time boxing," and that is the truth. William Fay had written other stories about the sport, such as "The Champ's Last Fight" (1951) and "Nice Clean Fight" (1955), so he was familiar with the characters and setting. He uses dry humor, such as referring to the manager by both his full name and his nickname in parentheses--Arthur (The Professor) Duffy--but the essence of the tale is the way that Duffy sees his fighter as less than human. Soldier is just another animal, no different than a racehorse, to be experimented on and profited from. Even Boots, who Arthur calls "'a known crook,'" shows concern for the boxer's welfare prior to the last fight, but the manager will not be deterred from his determination to abuse the simple athlete and he pays the ultimate price. Duffy is the heel of the title and Fay's story serves as his epitaph.

Frankie Darro as Boots

The TV adaptation of "Epitaph for a Heel," retitled "Ten O'Clock Tiger," follows the short story very closely, scene for scene, and much of the dialogue is lifted from the page. There are bits of business and snatches of dialogue added, but there are no significant changes. In the short story, the formula is injected in Soldier's buttocks ("portside"), while in the show it is given as a shot in the arm. After he gets the first shot, Soldier goes out into the gym and punches a heavy bag, leaving a tear in the bag's side from which sand pours. This visually demonstrates the boxer's newfound power.

After Soldier beats Bigelow, Fay adds some dialogue to the hotel room scene between Arthur and Boots to show Boots beginning to demonstrate concern for Soldier's welfare. This helps set up the final scene, where Boots tells Arthur not to dose Soldier for the championship fight. Boots is portrayed as a small-time crook with a heart, whereas Arthur lacks any sort of love for his fellow man.

Karl Lukas as Soldier Fresno

The biggest problems with the TV version are the performance of Karl Lukas as Soldier and the staging of the final scene. Lukas plays Soldier as a complete innocent, but when he receives a shot of formula he takes a quick intake of breath and becomes a caricature of an animated boxer. In the show's last scene, he loses control of himself, but it would not be possible to show a heavyweight boxer beating a frail old man to death on television, so director Bernard Girard resorts to several tricks to avoid focusing in on what is happening. When Soldier approaches Arthur, swinging punches furiously, Girard films the boxer coming toward the lens with a handheld camera that gives the shots a shaky quality. As in the basement scene in Psycho, a hanging overhead lamp is struck by Soldier's arm, and it swings back and forth above the action to create movement and distract the viewer from what is happening. Girard also cuts back and forth between the inside of the dressing room and the outside, where police try to break the door down. The end result is an unsatisfying scene, where it is clear that Soldier is not really hitting Arthur.

Syl Lamont (?)

The fight scenes are a mix of stock footage for the long shots and close-up shots featuring a limited number of cast members, relying on the soundtrack's cheering crowd to complete the illusion. Robert Keith is perfectly cast as Arthur and fully inhabits his role, looking at first like an old buzzard in a cardigan and slacks. By the scene in the hotel room, he has changed into a suit, taking advantage of the money he has made off of his chemically-enhanced fighter. Yet the fine clothes can't hide the liver sports on his face or his perpetually sour expression. Frankie Darro is also good as Boots; he is a sharper dresser than Arthur and looks every inch the racetrack tout in hat and bow tie. Unfortunately, Karl Lukas portrays Soldier as too much of a mug and overplays the palooka role. In the end, "Ten O'Clock Tiger" is a disappointment, a seedy episode that looks as cheap as its subject.

Andy Romano

Director Bernard Girard (1918-1997) was born Bernard Goldstein and worked as both a writer and director of movies and TV from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. He directed a Twilight Zone as well as four half-hour Hitchcock episodes and eight hour-length Hitchcock episodes, including the Robert Bloch classic, "Water's Edge."

Robert Keith (1890-1966) had a long career on film and TV from 1924 to 1964. He also played many roles on Broadway, from 1921 to 1951, and was in the original cast of Mister Roberts when it premiered in 1948. Keith was seen on the big screen in The Wild One (1953) and Guys and Dolls (1955) and this was one of his two appearances on the Hitchcock show. His last role was in an episode of The Twilight Zone. His son, Brian Keith, was also in several episodes of the Hitchcock series, some scripted by William Fay.

Charles E. Perry (?)

Frankie Darro (1917-1976) was born Frank Johnson Jr. and was the son of circus aerialists. He started out as a child actor on film but only grew to 5'3" as an adult. He was on screen from 1924 to 1975 and had a voice role in Pinocchio (1940). He was also one of the actors to play Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet (1956). This was one of his two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and he also appeared on Batman. A website devoted to him is here.

Karl Lukas (1919-1995) was born Karol Louis Lukasiak, he was on screen from 1951 to 1991 and had roles on Batman, Night Gallery, and The Odd Couple. He had begun his career on Broadway in the 1940s and was a semi-regular on The Phil Silvers Show (1955-58). He was in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "Bang! You're Dead."

In smaller roles:

• Syl Lamont (1912-1982) as an attendant; he was on screen from 1950 to 1975 and appeared in six episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "A Tangled Web."

• 

  Chuck Hicks

  Andy Romano (1941- ) as the cop who says "he's dead" to end the episode; he was on screen from 1961 to 2003, including an appearance on Batman and parts in eight episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Black Curtain."
• Charles E. Perry (1900-1967) as a handler; he was often uncredited but he was on screen from 1940 to 1965. He played a corner man in the Playhouse 90 production of Rod Serling's "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and appeared in five episodes of the Hitchcock show, including "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." He was also on The Twilight Zone.
• Chuck Hicks (1927- ) is credited as Gypsy Joe, though he is called "Gypsy Boy" in the show; he was an actor and a stuntman who was on screen from 1952 to 2010. He boxed in college, the Navy, and professionally, and he played a boxer in The Twilight Zone episode, "Steel." He was on Batman six times but this was his only role on the Hitchcock show. A website devoted to him is here.

"Ten O'Clock Tiger" is not available on U.S. DVD or for free online, but may be viewed at the Peacock site for a fee. The short story, "Epitaph for a Heel," may be read on the online archives of The Saturday Evening Post.

Sources:

Fay, William. "Epitaph for a Heel."  The Saturday Evening Post. Jan. 20, 1962, 26-27, 48-50.

The FictionMags Index, www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/0start.htm.

Grams, Martin, and Patrik Wikstrom. The Alfred Hitchcock Presents Companion. OTR Pub., 2001.

IBDb, IBDb.com, www.ibdb.com.

IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil. Galactic Central, philsp.com/.

"Ten O'Clock Tiger." Alfred Hitchcock Presents, season 7, episode 26, NBC, 3 Apr., 1962.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, www.wikipedia.org/.

In two weeks: Our coverage of William Fay concludes with Good-Bye, George, starring Robert Culp!

Listen to Al Sjoerdsma discuss "The Baby Sitter" here!

Listen to Annie and Kathryn discuss "The Blessington Method" here!