91.7 WVXU and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music joined forces, led by our Media Beat blogger John Kiesewetter, to coproduce and present the radio adaptation of O'Toole From Moscow, a Rod Serling comedy about confusion between Russians and the Cincinnati Reds at the height of the "Red Scare."
CCM students recorded the radio play, which was directed by Richard Hess, CCM professor of acting and directing, in Cincinnati Public Radio's Corbett Studio. Rod Serling’s daughter, Anne Serling, came to town and serves as the play’s narrator. [There is also an interesting interview with her at the link.]
ABOUT THE SHOW
Rod Serling's "O'Toole From Moscow" aired only once, in a live one-hour television broadcast on "NBC Matinee Theatre" at 3 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, 1955. It was not filmed or recorded. Chuck Connors – best known as TV's "The Rifleman" (1958-63) after a brief career with the Chicago Cubs (1951) – starred as the Russian security officer who ended up playing outfield for the Cincinnati Reds. The cast also included John Banner (later known as Sergeant Schultz on "Hogan's Heroes") and Baseball Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher as the Reds manager.
Serling knew a lot about Cincinnati and the Reds. He started his career at Cincinnati's WLW TV/Radio in 1950, after graduating from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He lived in Cincinnati until fall of 1954, the year Reds slugger Ted Kluszewski led the Major Leagues with 49 home runs and 141 runs batted in.
THE PLOT
In Serling's script, a Russian consulate staffer named Mushnick is being sent back from New York to Moscow for re-education because of his high absenteeism due to attending Brooklyn Dodgers games at Ebbets Field. So Mushnick and a muscular naive Russian security officer named Joseph Bishofsky hop a train and go west as far as their money will take them – to Cincinnati.
Bishofsky panics in Cincinnati and goes to the Reds office and turns himself in to a bewildered general manager. Mushnick bursts in to explain that Joseph – whom he calls "Joseph O'Toole" – is an outfielder wanting a tryout. The Reds give O'Toole a shot, and he ends up being a better slugger than Kluszewski – until the Russians find him.
CREDITS
"O'Toole From Moscow" is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio in cooperation with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
PERFORMERS
Matt Fox
Jack Steiner
Lucas Prizant
Chandler Bates
Frankie Chuter
Cameron Nalley
Dustin Parsons
Austin James Cleri
Narrator: Anne Serling
Director: Richard Hess
Dialect and Vocal Coach: Sammi Grant
Executive Producer: Richard Eiswerth
Producer: John Kiesewetter, who also adapted the script for radio.
Recording Engineer: Josh Elstro
Special Thanks to Reds organist John Schutte.
It's interesting to hear a Rod Serling comedy, not exactly what he's famous for. It's a period piece from the world I knew as a young child, lots has gone on from then. I do think the script shows the difference between a drama written with visuals assumed and one in which the writer doesn't have those to depend on. Serling was noted as a very experienced radio drama writer before he got involved with TV, a medium he often seems to have longed to return to and which he did, briefly, revive again in the United States after it was considered quite moribund. He has said that he liked the freedom he had as a radio drama writer, the cheap cost of production and the exigency to have ever newer material meant management would let stuff on that they wouldn't if the production costs were higher. His famous Twilight Zone TV shows, the early ones, reflected some of the opportunities he'd come to expect with a minimal overhead, reportedly not so much as it became more popular. I'm not a huge sports fan so some of it went right past me but it reminded me of being there while my father and grandfather listened to ball games on the radio on hot summer days. Not so many night games in the 50s, as I recall.
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