Third from the Sun
"Third from the Sun" is episode 14 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It is based on a short story of the same name by Richard Matheson which first appeared in the first issue of the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction in October 1950. Will Sturka, a scientist who works at a military base, has been producing a great number of H-bombs in preparation for imminent nuclear war. Sturka realizes that there is only one way to escape—steal an experimental, top-secret spacecraft stored at the base, he plans to bring Sturka's daughter Jody. The two plot for months, making arrangements for their departure; when production of the bombs increases, Sturka realizes. He and Riden decide to put their plan in action—take their families to the craft to tour it, overpower the guards and take off. Sturka's superior Carling overhears the two men talking; that night, everyone gathers for a game of cards where Riden reveals that he has found a place to go—a small planet 11 million miles away. During the game, Carling unexpectedly appears at the door and hints that he knows what the group is planning.
He hints at trouble: "A lot can happen in forty-eight hours." After he leaves and Riden inform the women that they must leave that moment. When the five arrive at the site of the spacecraft and Riden spot their contact, who flashes a light; when the contact steps forward, though, he is revealed to be Carling, armed with a gun. He prepares to call the authorities; the women, who have been waiting in the car, watch as Carling orders them out. Jody throws the car's door open, knocking the gun from Carling's hand and giving the men enough time to overpower him; the group rushes into the ship. That evening, the group has safely escaped their doomed planet and are on course. Sturka comments. Riden smiles as he points out on the ship's viewer their mysterious destination, 11 million miles away—the third planet from the Sun, called "Earth". Todd VanDerWerff of The A. V. Club rated it A and called the twist "justifiably famous". "Probe 7, Over and Out", another Twilight Zone episode with a similar plot. "The Invaders", another episode in which a farm woman encounters tiny "alien" astronauts, who are Earthlings.
"Death Ship" is a TZ episode again featuring the Forbidden Planet Cruiser, where explorers find their ship E-89 has somehow crashed on the alien planet they have just found. Ancient astronaut theory DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 "Third from the Sun" on IMDb "Third from the Sun" at TV.com Matheson, Richard. "Third from the Sun". Galaxy Science Fiction. P. 61. Retrieved 17 October 2013
A World of Difference
"A World of Difference" is episode 23 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. You're looking at a tableau of reality, things of substance, of physical material: a desk, a window, a light; these things have dimension. Now this is Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six, real, he has flesh and blood and mind. But in just a moment we will see how thin a line separates that which we assume to be real with that manufactured inside of a mind. Arthur Curtis is a businessman planning a vacation to San Francisco with his wife Marian. After arriving at his office and talking with his secretary Sally, after finding that his telephone is not functional and hearing someone yell "cut," he discovers his office to be a movie set on a sound stage, he is told that Arthur Curtis is a role he is playing, that his real identity is Gerald Raigan, a movie star, caught in the middle of a brutal divorce from a hostile wife Nora, his own alcoholism, a declining career. He leaves the studio with Nora, he tries in vain to locate Arthur Curtis's house, mistakes a little girl for his daughter, scaring her.
Nora drives him to their actual home. Inside, he meets his agent, who tells him that if he fails to continue work that day, he will drop him as a client. Curtis still protests that he is not Raigan, tries to call his workplace, but the operator cannot find any listing of it, his agent believes that he is having a nervous breakdown, shows him the shooting script of a movie called The Private World of Arthur Curtis. He tells him that the movie is being canceled due to his outburst in the studio. Raigan/Curtis rushes back to the set, being dismantled, pleads not to be left in the uncaring world of Gerald Raigan. Curtis reappears in his office. Sally gives Arthur his plane tickets; as Arthur hears echoes of the studio sounds, he tells Marian that he never wants to lose her, that they should leave for their vacation immediately. Meanwhile, in the other world, Raigan's agent shows up on the set to find; as the set is being dismantled, a teaser shows the "Arthur Curtis" script left on a table, waiting to be thrown into the rubbish bin.
In the last scene and Marian board a plane, which takes flight and fades away into the sky. The modus operandi for the departure from life is a pine box of such and such dimensions, this is the ultimate in reality, but there are other ways for a man to exit from life. Take the case of Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six, his departure was along a highway with an exit sign that reads, "This Way To Escape". Arthur Curtis, en route to the Twilight Zone. DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 "A World of Difference" on IMDb "A World of Difference" at TV.com the-croc.com episode page
Franchot Tone
Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was an American stage and television actor. He was Oscar-nominated for his role as Midshipman Roger Byam in Mutiny on the Bounty, starring alongside Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, he was a leading man in many films and appeared as a guest star in episodes of several television series, including The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone was born in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the wealthy president of the Carborundum Company, his prominent wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot, his maternal great-grandfather was congressman Richard Franchot. Tone was a distant relative of Wolfe Tone. Tone was of French Canadian and English ancestry. Through his ancestor, the nobleman Gilbert BasqueHomme, he was of French Basque descent. Tone was educated at The Hill School, from which he was dismissed "for being a subtle influence for disorder throughout the fall term", he entered Cornell University, where he was president of the drama club and was elected to the Sphinx Head Society.
He joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He gave up the family business to pursue an acting career in the theater. After graduating, he moved to New York. Tone was in The Belt, The International, a popular adaptation of The Age of Innocence with Katherine Cornell, he followed it with appearances in Cross Roads, Red Rust, Hotel Universe, Pagan Lady. He played Curly in their production of Green Grow the Lilacs. Tone became a founding member of the Group Theatre along with, among others, Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, many of whom had worked with the Theater Guild. Strasberg had been a castmate of Tone's in Green Grow the Lilacs; these were productive years for him. Outside the Group he was in A Thousand Summers. Tone made his film debut with The Wiser Sex starring Claudette Colbert, filmed by Paramount at their Astoria Studios. Tone was the first of the Group to go to Hollywood. In his memoir on the Group Theater, The Fervent Years, Harold Clurman recalls Tone being the most confrontational and egocentric of the group in the beginning.
He always considered cinema far inferior to the theater and recalled his stage years with longing. He provided financial support to the Group Theater, which needed it, he returned to stage work sporadically after the 1940s. Tone summered at Pine Brook Country Club, located in the countryside of Nichols, the Group Theater's summer rehearsal headquarters during the summer of 1936. MGM gave Tone a series of impressive roles, casting him in six films which came out in 1933, they started him with Today We Live, written by William Faulkner and starring Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. He was the romantic male lead in Gabriel Over the White House starring Walter Huston and co-starred with Loretta Young in Midnight Mary. Tone romanced Miriam Hopkins in King Vidor's The Stranger's Return and was the male lead in Stage Mother, he had an excellent role in Bombshell, with Jean Harlow and Lee Tracy. The last of the sequence of films released in 1933 was Dancing Lady, with his future wife Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, a hit.
Twentieth Century Pictures borrowed Tone to romance Constance Bennett in Moulin Rouge. Back at MGM he was with Crawford in Sadie McKee he was borrowed by Fox to co-star with Madeleine Carroll in The World Moves On. After The Girl from Missouri with Harlow, MGM gave Tone top billing in Straight Is the Way, although it was a "B". Warners borrowed him for Gentlemen Are Born. At Paramount, Tone starred in a huge hit in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer with Gary Cooper, he was top billed underneath Harlow and William Powell in Reckless. He supported Crawford and Robert Montgomery in No More Ladies and had another box-office success with Mutiny on the Bounty, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor - though still in support of Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. Warner Bros borrowed him to play Bette Davis' leading man in Dangerous, he had the lead in Exclusive Story, romanced Loretta Young in The Unguarded Hour and Grace Moore in Columbia's The King Steps Out. Tone was third lead in Suzy with Harlow and Cary Grant, The Gorgeous Hussy with Crawford and Robert Taylor, Love on the Run with Crawford and Gable.
RKO borrowed him to appear opposite Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street. Back at MGM he supported Gladys George in They Gave Him a Gun, he had the lead in Between Two Women and supported Crawford in The Bride Wore Red, Myrna Loy in Man-Proof and Gladys George in Love Is a Headache. In Three Comrades Tone was teamed with Margaret Sullavan, he did Three Loves Has Nancy with Janet Montgomery. Tone supported Franciska Gaal in The Girl Downstairs starred in a "B" with Ann Sothern and Furious. After this he left the studio, he returned to B
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. As of 2011, household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. The majority of households have more than one set; the peak ownership percentage of households with at least one television set occurred during the 1996–97 season, with 98.4% ownership. As a whole, the television networks that broadcast in the United States are the largest and most distributed in the world, programs produced for U. S.-based networks are the most syndicated internationally. Due to a recent surge in the number and popularity of critically acclaimed television series during the 2000s and the 2010s to date, many critics have said that American television is undergoing a modern golden age. In the United States, television is available via broadcast – the earliest method of receiving television programming, which requires an antenna and an equipped internal or external tuner capable of picking up channels that transmit on the two principal broadcast bands high frequency and ultra high frequency, in order to receive the signal – and four conventional types of multichannel subscription television: cable, unencrypted satellite, direct-broadcast satellite television and IPTV.
There are competing video services on the World Wide Web, which have become an popular mode of television viewing since the late 2000s with younger audiences as an alternative or a supplement to the aforementioned traditional forms of viewing television content. Individual broadcast television stations in the U. S. transmit on either VHF channels 2 through 13 or UHF channels 14 through 51. During the era of analog television, broadcast stations transmitted on a single universal channel; the UHF band spanned from channels 14 to 83, though the Federal Communications Commission has twice rescinded the high-end portions of the band from television broadcasting use for emergency and other telecommunications purposes in 1983 and 2009. As in other countries, television stations require a license to broadcast and must comply with certain requirements in order to retain it. Free-to-air and subscription television networks, are not required to file for a license to operate. Over-the-air and free-to-air television do not necessitate any monthly payments, while cable, direct broadcast satellite, IPTV and virtual MVPD services require monthly payments that vary depending on the number of channels that a subscriber chooses to pay for in a particular package.
Channels are sold in groups, rather than singularly. Most conventional subscription television services offer a limited basic tier, a minimum base package that includes only broadcast stations within the television market where the service is located, public and government access cable channels. Elevated programming tiers start with an expanded basic package, offering a selection of subscription channels intended for wide distribution. A la carte subscription services in the U. S. are limited to pay television channels that are offered as add-ons to any programming package that a customer of a multichannel video programming distributor can subscribe to for an additional monthly fee. The United States has a "decentralized", market-oriented television system in regard to broadcast television; the nation has a national publi
Cyril Delevanti
Harry Cyril Delevanti was an English character actor with a long career in American films. He was sometimes credited as Syril Delevanti. Delevanti was born in London to the Anglo-Italian music professor, Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti and his wife, Mary Elizabeth. Delevanti had a career as an actor on the English stage and, after his emigration to the United States in 1921, performed on the American stage throughout the 1920s, his first film appearance was in Devotion. In 1938 he appeared in Red Barry for director Ford Beebe, who would marry Delevanti's daughter, thus becoming the actor's son-in-law. From the 1940s, he appeared in many small roles uncredited, in such films as Phantom of the Opera, Confidential Agent, Monsieur Verdoux, Forever Amber and Bathsheba, Les Girls, Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins. In 1958, Delevanti was cast as the printer Lucius Coin in all twenty-six episodes of the NBC western television series, Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards, he made two guest appearances on Perry Mason during the final seasons of the series.
In 1957 he played florist Mr. Tulloch in "The Case of the Silent Partner". In 1965, he played bookie Craig Jefferson in "The Case of the Silent Six". Delevanti made guest-starring appearances on Dennis the Menace, US Marshal, The Fugitive, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Tall Man, Bourbon Street Beat, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Virginian, Daniel Boone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables, Science Fiction Theater, Adventures of Superman, The Twilight Zone and the Culhane, Peter Gunn, Dragnet, he continued to act in films, such as The Night of the Iguana, Mary Poppins, The Killing of Sister George, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. In 1913, Delevanti married Eva Kitty Peel. On 13 December 1975, Delevanti died in Hollywood of lung cancer, he is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, California. Cyril Delevanti on IMDb Cyril Delevanti at Find a Grave
The Last Flight (The Twilight Zone)
"The Last Flight" is episode 18 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Part of the production was filmed on location at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California; the vintage 1918 Nieuport 28 biplane was both owned and flown by Frank Gifford Tallman, had appeared in many World War I motion pictures. Flight Lieutenant William Terrance "Terry" Decker of 56 Squadron Royal Flying Corps lands his Nieuport biplane on an American airbase in France, after flying through a strange cloud, he is taken into custody and questioned by the American base commander, Major General Harper, his provost marshal, Major Wilson. Decker identifies himself and his squadron and claims that the date is March 5, 1917, he is informed that it is March 5, 1959. Decker tells the officers that he and his comrade Alexander "Old Leadbottom" Mackaye were fighting seven German aircraft; the Americans tell him that Mackaye is alive and is an Air Vice Marshal in the Royal Air Force, a war hero from World War II who saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives by shooting down German bombers over London.
The American officers add that Air Vice Marshal Mackaye, in addition to being alive and well, is coming to the base that day for an inspection. Major Wilson tries to help Decker remember. Decker confesses that he has avoided combat throughout his service, that he deliberately abandoned the outnumbered Mackaye when the two were attacked by the German fighters, he refuses to believe. When Wilson suggests that someone else helped Mackaye, Decker realizes that he has been given a second chance, he tells the American officer that there was no one within fifty miles who could have come to Mackaye's aid, so if Mackaye survived, it had to be because Decker went back himself. Knowing he cannot have much time to go back to 1917, Decker pleads with Wilson to release him from custody; when Wilson refuses, Decker escapes. Running outside, he locates his plane, punches a mechanic who tries to get in his way, starts the plane's engine, he is about to take off when Wilson puts a pistol to his head. Decker tells Wilson he will have to shoot him to stop him, as he would rather die than remain a coward.
After hesitating, Wilson allows him to escape and Decker flies his plane into white clouds and vanishes. Major Wilson is rebuked by Major General Harper for believing such a fantastic story and for allowing Decker to escape; when Mackaye arrives, Wilson asks he. Mackaye, says Decker saved his life. In March 1917, Mackaye and Decker were attacked. Decker flew off into a cloud, Mackaye believed at first that Decker had abandoned him. Decker came diving out of the cloud, proceeded to shoot down three of the German planes before being shot down himself. General Harper shows Mackaye Decker's badge and personal effects, startling Mackaye, who remarks that those items had never been returned by the Germans. Major Wilson suggests that "Old Leadbottom"—a nickname known only by Mackaye's comrades back in World War I—sit down while it is explained how these items came into the Americans' possession; this was the first episode of The Twilight Zone scripted by Richard Matheson. Rod Serling had adapted the episode "And When the Sky Was Opened" from a short story of Matheson's.
The United States Air Force major general refers to Mackaye as "sir", suggests that he is a superior officer inspecting the air base. However, Mackaye is ranked as an air vice marshal, a Royal Air Force rank equivalent to major general, thereby making the two officers equals – unless the American general was junior in rank by date of commission; the Royal Flying Corps never flew the Nieuport 28, which did not enter service until 1918. The death of Georges Guynemer is mentioned by Decker but Guynemer died in September 1917, six months after Decker's last flight. 56 Squadron was not deployed until April 1917, at which point it flew the S. E.5 aircraft. The rank of flight lieutenant existed in the Royal Naval Air Service and in the RAF but it never was used in the Royal Flying Corps. However, the only reference to "flight lieutenant" is during Mr. Serling's introduction. However, "Second lieutenant" the most junior commissioned officer rank is equal to a "Pilot Officer" in the RAF. Flight Lieutenant is equal to the Army rank of Captain.
DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 "The Last Flight" on IMDb
Jon Hall (actor)
Jon Hall was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six movies he made with Maria Montez. He was known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960's sci-fi films in his years, The Beach Girls and the Monster and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters. Born in Fresno and raised in Tahiti by his father, the Swiss-born actor Felix Maurice Locher, Hall was a nephew of writer James Norman Hall, co-author of the novel Mutiny on the Bounty. Hall intended to go into the diplomatic service and was educated in England and Switzerland, but a friend from Tahiti, writer Gouvernor Morris, suggested. Hall began in his career under the name "Charles Locher", his first performance was in a local theatre production of M'Lord the Duke, replacing Robert Taylor who had just signed to MGM.
He appeared in Murder on a Mountain on stage at the Bliss Hayden Little Theatre in Beverly Hills. This earned him a contract at Warner Bros, he followed it with What? No Yacht? at the Bliss Hayden Nothing appears to have happened with the Warners contract but his first film was Women Must Dress at Monogram. In April 1935 he signed with 20th Century Fox, he ended up not appearing in that movie but did have an uncredited bit in Here's to Romance and play the romantic male lead in Charlie Chan in Shanghai. After that the studio released him from his contract. In Hall's words "for the next three years I took whatever jobs in pictures they'd give me." He had support roles in the Westerns The Mysterious Avenger, at Columbia, Winds of the Wasteland, with John Wayne at Republic Pictures, the serial The Clutching Hand. He had the lead in a low budget adventure movie The Lion Man, based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, he was rejected for the lead of the Flash Gordon serial. He changed his screen name to "Lloyd Crane" and in 1936 signed a contract with Major Pictures, a company run by producer Emmanuel Cohen who distributed through Paramount.
Other actors who had deals with Cohen included Bing Crosby, Mae West, Gary Cooper. He made Mind Your Own Business and The Girl from Scotland Yard. Cohen dropped him. Samuel Goldwyn was preparing a big budget spectacular, The Hurricane, based on a novel by Nordhoff and Hall and directed by John Ford, they were having trouble finding someone to play the native whose wrongful imprisonment is the focus of the drama until Ford introduced Hall to Goldwyn. Hall was signed to a long term contract to Goldwyn, cast in the film, a big success. Goldwyn paid him $150 a week rising to $200 a week. Hall spent the next two and a half years idle under his contract as Goldwyn - who only made a few movies a year - contemplated what to do with him. There was some talk of a sequel to The Hurricane, of playing the lead in Golden Boy, of Black Gold a film for Goldwyn about firefights in Oklahoma. Alexander Korda wanted Hall for Thief of Bagdad; these films were either not made without Hall. Discussing the delay Hall said "At first it's alright because you tell...
What you believe to be true, that the studio is trying to find you a right script. But after a year, after a year and a half, after two years, you start to go nuts. You find yourself ducking across the street to avoid people who will ask you what you are doing."After two and a half years inactive, Hall made three films in quick succession: Sailor's Lady, a comedy with Nancy Kelly, developed by Goldwyn and sold to 20th Century Fox. Dorothy Lamour had gone to Paramount, they reunited her with Hall in the South Seas tale, Aloma of the South Seas, he stayed in that genre for The Tuttles of Tahiti with Charles Laughton at RKO, from a novel by Nordhoff and Hall. Goldwyn agreed to share Hall's contract with Universal Pictures who put him in a supporting role in Eagle Squadron, produced by Walter Wanger and directed by Arthur Lubin, a huge hit, they gave him the lead in the fourth in their "Invisible Man" series. Wanger called upon Hall for another movie at Universal, a big budget "exotic" spectacular co-starring Maria Montez and Sabu, Arabian Nights.
It was Universal's first movie in colour in years, was a massive hit. Universal promptly reunited Montez and Sabu in two more films: White Savage, directed by Lubin, Cobra Woman, directed by Robert Siodmak. Paramount borrowed Hall to play a film star in the musical Lady in the Dark, playing the role originated by Victor Mature on Broadway. Back at Universal he returned to the Invisible Man series with The Invisible Man's Revenge, making him the only actor to have portrayed an Invisible Man more than once in the original Universal series. Hall was meant to be reunited with Sabu for three more technicolor films; however Sabu was drafted in the army and was replaced by Turhan Bey for Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, directed by Lubin. Bey was going to reteam with Hall and Montez in Gypsy Wildcat but was needed for another film, was replaced by Peter Coe. Hall appeared in a comedy, San Diego, I Love You was reunited with Montez and Bey i
