Earl Hamner Jr. by Holly Interlandi
of the writers—were invited New York to be interviewed by Jean Hersholt, who was the actor who played Dr. Christian on the radio, and to meet each other. It was a nice occasion. That was my first meeting with Rod.
“THE HUNT” Creator of THE WALTONS, penner of
SPENCER’S MOUNTAIN, and all around Southern gentleman, Earl Hamner, Jr. may seem an odd fit for fantasy and ‘weird tales’. But he used his Virginian upbringing to weave folktales into the fabric of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, telling endearing stories that he considers some of the best of his career.
Famous Monsters. Let’s start with how you knew Rod Serling. Earl Hamner Jr.. In 1949, there was a radio show called DR. CHRISTIAN. It was done by the McCann-Erikson agency in New York. Dr. Christian was a kindly old country doctor who told all the stories, and each year, they advertised the show as “the only show on radio where the audience writes the script!” They invited anybody to submit scripts—students of writing, anybody who thought they could write a script could send one in. In 1949, Rod and I were both students. We did not know each other, but we submitted scripts to that contest, and each of us won one of the awards. Several of us—I think seven
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I don’t think he and Carol were married yet, but they both came, and I was very impressed with Rod as a person. He was very vibrant and intense. He wasn’t a tall man, but he tended to levitate. He was
a great presence—you could feel communication from him. It was
lovely. Then we both went our separate ways…
I went back to the University of Cincinnati, and Rod went back to… Ohio State, I think it was. While I was a student, I got a job at this WLW station in Cincinnati and started saving my money, because what I really wanted to do was write a novel. So once I had accumulated enough money, not to live in a grand manner, but enough that I could retire for a while and do a novel, I resigned from the job. Later, Rod took the job. We never even met, that time! But later in California when we would see each other at parties, he would always introduce me as ‘the man who gave him his first job’. Which was very gracious of him. We next met when I came here in 1961, because I had been writing radio and television and books and stuff in New York, and television had since moved [to Los Angeles]. I wanted to do television. But at that time, for some reason, there was prejudice against writers who had not written a film, and I had never been on any film. I had two books; I’d done extensive work in radio; I’d been a small part of the Golden Age of television in New York. I
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • JAN/FEB 2012
would go to see producers, and they’d say, oh, we heard about your books, but what have you got on film? I had nothing on film. Eventually, I met Rod Serling while he had THE TWILIGHT ZONE on the air, and I said, I really don’t think I can write fantasy… but the money was running low. I wrote a couple of outlines and sent them to Rod, and he wrote back a nice note saying, thanks for sending me the stories, but they’re chosen by committee, and I’ll keep you posted. I thought that was a very nice way to let me down. Then I had a call from his producer,
Doug Howden, who said, “We read both of your outlines and we liked them very much. We know you don’t write film, but would you like to write them up like little plays?” And I said absolutely not—I would like to write them up like little television shows! So, from those two scripts, I was catapulted into a career in television.
FM. Which two? EH. “The Hunt” was one… and “A Piano in the House”. Rod liked the work that I
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