March 6, 2025 • 33 mins
Himan Brown was a busy philanthropist and producer during the two decades following the end of Golden Age broadcast radio, creating over 100 films in support of causes he believed in, and a concert series in Madison Square Garden among other projects. He also opened a production studio in Chelsea. But Brown was finally able to return radio drama to the air with the CBS Mystery Theater, which he established in 1974. It was a fully realized artistic vision, with Brown acting as producer, director, and script editor. He brought a new generation of actors to the medium, including Marian Seldes, Tammy Grimes, Paul Hecht, Tony Roberts, and EG Marshall, as well as continuing to work with stars of the Golden Age like Agnes Moorehead. In this episode we’ll hear from some of them, and from Brown himself on how he assessed actors, cast them, and worked with them, as well as visiting his former studios.
Credits
- Executive Producers: Melina Brown, Sarah Montague
- Executive Director, CUNY TV: Chiqui Cartagena
- Director of Production, CUNY TV: Susan Iger
- Producer/Director: Sarah Montague
- Narrator: Margot Avery
- Concept and Script: Sarah Montague
- Associate Producer: Corinne Wallace
- Audio Production intern: Lucia Funaro
- Audio Engineer, CUNY TV: Lisa Gosselin
- Senior Audio Engineer, CUNY TV: Richard Kim
- Mixing: Lisa Gosselin
- Sound design and final mixing: John DeLore and Bart Warshaw
- Staff photographer, CUNY TV: Laura Fuchs
- Script editor: Allison Behringer
- - Composer: Allison Leyton-Brown
- Archivists, CUNY TV: David Rice, Catriona Schlosser
-Closed Caption Coordinator: Amy Monte
- Branding and Graphic Design: Shae McMullin
- Publicity & Marketing: Multitude
Excerpts from the Himan Brown Oral History courtesy of Directors Guild of America, Inc. www.dga.org. All rights reserved.
- Audio Maverick was produced at THE HIMAN BROWN TV AND RADIO STUDIOS at CUNY TV, and made possible by the Radio Drama Network
About Us
The history of radio crackles to life with Audio Maverick, a 9-part documentary about one of the most visionary figures in radio, Himan Brown. Explore the Golden Age of radio through Brown's life, as we travel from the birth of audio drama to the programs that brought millions of families into their living rooms every night.
CUNY TV and the Himan Brown Archive assemble the story of how radio became an entertainment medium through archival audio of some of the most famous audio dramas, contemporary interviews with media scholars, and discussions with a new generation of audio mavericks that he inspired. New episodes monthly.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
>> [Radio Chatter]
>> I surrender.>> Who are you working for?
>> [Radio Chatter]
>> '59.
That was the death knell.
Everything went off radioin the way of drama.
>> That's radio producerHiman Brown.
And this is "Audio Maverick,"
a celebration of his lifeand work.
>> Come in.
>> What doesa driven creative do
(00:23):
when the sourceof his creativity dries up?
By 1959,
radio drama on commercialnetworks had come to an end.
Its shows, its revenues,and its talent
had migrated to television.
It was not, however,the end of Himan Brown.
30 years in broadcast radiohad given him a toolkit,
(00:44):
and he was about to use itin the service of social issues.
It's time to join himfor two
very different periodsof his creative life.
>> The door is open. Welcome.
>> But remember,there was a 14-year period
when there was no radio drama
and I was as busy as possibledoing many, many other things.
(01:04):
>> Brown became activeas a philanthropist,
a real estate investor,and a filmmaker.
Brown took his social conscienceand his skills
as a storytellerinto film and television.
He produced documentarystyle films, docudramas,
and social commentaries
that were often commissionedby institutions
he believed in and addressedissues he felt strongly about.
(01:25):
>> Recorded in frontof a live studio audience.
>> One example was"The Stars Salute,"
a seven-part television specialto raise money
for the Federationof Jewish Philanthropies.
Brown hired well-known starsto host segments
profiling local charities
that the federation supported,
organizations that workedwith the elderly,
(01:46):
the disabled, children,
and those challenged by povertyand mental illness.
>> And you name the stars.
There isn't a star alivefrom Bob Hope and Jack Benny
and Danny Kayeand George Segal
and Jack Lemmon.
>> They did not appearas performers
but as ambassadorsfor the Federation's works.
(02:07):
>> Well, I liked yours,and I hope you like mine.
>> Here's a segment hostedby Barbra Streisand
which was filmedat a children's home.
>> The big bad wolf,the big bad wolf.
>> The big bad wolf.
Who's afraid of thebig bad wolf?
>> In the early 1960s,
Hebrew Union Collegecommissioned Brown
to produce"The Price of Silence."
(02:29):
It was a fictionalized takeon the real-life oppression
that Jews were facingin the Soviet Union,
filmed entirelyas a courtroom scene.
The popular legal drama"Perry Mason" had moved
from radio to televisionin the late 1950s,
and Brown said this wasthe model for his structure.
>> I had Edward G. Robinson,strangely enough,
(02:49):
in the "Perry Mason" courtroom,
and the Russians had a table,and we had a table,
and it was a j'accuse.
You are guilty of anti-Semitism,Russia.
And George Coulouriswas the Russian voice.
We never saw him.
We just stayed on the table,
and I brought in witnesses,all kinds of witnesses.
[ Gavel bangs ]
(03:10):
>> The witnessesfor the Soviets' crimes
had actually been recordedbehind the Iron Curtain.
And the project demonstratesBrown's gift for synergy,
bringing togethercurrent events,
the famous historicalAlfred Dreyfus case,
a Jewish officer wrongly tried,and Perry Mason,
the quintessentialGolden Age legal genius.
(03:31):
"The Price of Silence"made Brown persona non grata
in the Soviet Union.
>> Because they know what I did.
>> Even though Brown'swork during this period
was primarily mission-driven,
in some 100 films he created,
he was innovative and pioneeringin his subjects and approaches.
(03:51):
For example,
at a time when discussingmental health was taboo,
he made one of the firstsuch films on the subject,
"You Are Not Alone."
And he was especially proudof "A Morning for Jimmy,"
created in 1960for the Urban League,
a national organization
that advocates for justicefor African Americans
and againstracial discrimination.
(04:13):
>> Jimmy, what's the matter?
>> I went downtown today, Mom,
just to get a little part-timejob in the shipping room,
department store.
I didn't want to tellyou and Papa about it
until I was sure I got the job.
I stood in line with allthose white people around me.
(04:36):
They took every white boyin line in front of me.
When they came to me, theyjust told me I had no hope.
I didn't pay it no mind.I just started to walk off.
>> "A Morning for Jimmy"portrayed the struggles
of a young African American
in his pursuit of a careeras an architect,
using a dramatic storyto reflect the challenges
(04:57):
and prejudices that demonstratedless overt forms of racism
in the professional realm.
The cast included Cicely Tysonat the start of her career,
and groundbreakingBlack producer Vinnette Carroll.
>> There are plenty of good jobsyou could take
without putting your headagainst a stone wall.
>> As I remember, you didn'talways talk like that, John.
(05:19):
>> Oh, Jim, look at meand the telephone company.
Why, 20 years ago,that was just unheard of.
They wouldn't even look at us,let alone hire us.
I do my work, and whenI do it well, I get a promotion.
You know, you can't pushthese people into doing things.
You have to let them do itin their own time.
Golly, you're a smart kid.
(05:41):
I thought you were wiseenough to know this.
>> Somebody had to push.
>> Even though he wasreflecting real-life stories,
Brown still saw his productionsas dramas
and himself as a sort of auteur.
>> Oh, yes.I'm a one-man operation.
I don't separate the producerfrom the director,
and neither doesMr. Sidney Lumet.
(06:03):
Neither does Elia Kazanor any of the movie makers.
>> Brown is makingan interesting connection here.
He was a man who alwaysprided himself on his gumption
and creative independence fromthe various systems he served,
but here he's linkinghis maverick nature,
the need to control every aspectof production, to his craft.
(06:23):
>> The moreof the creative effort
that is centeredin the one person, I think,
the greater the result.
>> And even as a producerof charitable events,
Brown was a showman.
He staged an annual benefitconcert at Madison Square Garden
for 18 yearsfor Bonds of Israel,
an organization that encouragedinvestment in stock portfolios
(06:46):
that would benefit thisstill-young nation,
and he insisted that the eventbe presented in the round.
>> I said, if a prizefightcan sit all around the stage,
I want to put a stage in themiddle of Madison Square Garden
and put everybody around there.
I would have a 70-, 80-pieceorchestra, symphony orchestra.
>> An echo of his old NBC days.
>> I would have 22to 30 ballet dancers
(07:09):
who would create special balletsunder my instructions.
>> Over the years,the artists who participated
included musical greatslike Itzhak Perlman,
Isaac Stern,and Leonard Bernstein.
It was a true logisticaland production feat
to bring the concerts together,
and Brown had to contendwith Madison Square Garden's
multi-purpose nature.
(07:31):
>> The night beforethey had hockey.
On Monday night,I had to come in,
the floor was still cold fromthe ice that they had taken off,
and put a show togetherin three hours, a 2.5-hour show.
>> Controlling as Brownwas in a studio environment,
you get the sensethat he liked the chaos
of live concert production.
Sometimes messinessinspires creation.
(07:52):
Just as he saw himselfas a solo operator filmmaker,
Brown was adamantabout a similar approach
to concert production.
>> But I did thisabsolutely single-handed.
I did not have any stoogesaround me.
I didn't have any assistants.
>> Of course, there's no waythat Brown
actually producedthese shows single handedly.
Madison Square Garden isvirtually a nation state
(08:13):
in public entertainment,
and there would have beena great many people involved
in making these events happen.And radio itself
is a fundamentallycollaborative medium,
something he acknowledgesin many accounts and interviews.
But he was clearly suspiciousof both toadies and glory hogs.
It's possible that someof his sense of isolation
(08:33):
had to do with hisdevastating early partnership
with Gertrude Berg over"The Goldbergs" radio serial.
He never really got overthis betrayal,
and it likely made himdistrustful of partnerships
that weren't creative.
He seemed to trust his actorsand engineers completely.
The costs of the MadisonSquare Garden concert mounted,
and eventually Brown stoppedproducing it.
(08:54):
But by then he calculated
that $12 to $14 million worthof bonds had been sold.
>> For 18 years, it was a ball.I loved it.
I never got a penny for these.
None of my philanthropic workhas paid me one nickel,
and I wouldn't want itany other way.
>> Brown did flirt withsome commercial entertainment
during the same period.
(09:16):
In the mid 1950s,he had a contract with RKO,
the studio that producedHollywood blockbusters
like "King Kong"and "Citizen Kane."
>> I made no campaign promises.
>> Brown had planned on doinga 12-part series
of what today we'd calldocudramas.
>> I predicated allof these pictures
on investigative reportage.
(09:37):
I wanted to do true stories,which we dramatized.
>> But he joined with thisonce-mighty studio
in its decline.
RKO ceased operations in 1957,
so in the end,Brown made only two features,
with a third waitingfor release,
"Women Without Shadow,"about amnesia.
It was Rosemary Harris'sscreen debut.
(10:01):
The experience and the aftermathof financial duplicity
embittered Brown.
>> I was very,very disillusioned
by the production companies,
that is, the distributingcompanies.
I didn't want any part of itso that I immediately said,
no, this isn't for me.
(10:21):
>> Even incompromising circumstances,
Brown was ahead of his time.
In 1957,he was given the complete files
of the New York CityMedical Examiner's office
by a former medical examiner,Dr. Morris Halperin,
and proposed a forensic show,presumably to RKO.
But Brown only commentsthat "The stupid people
(10:41):
I had to deal withsaid it won't go."
But in 1976, NBC debuted amedical mystery television drama
called "Quincy, M.E."
it starred Jack Klugman,and it was an instant hit.
>> Set up a central venous line.
Dr. Kaplan will insert it.>> Right away.
>> And I need moresilver sulfadiazine gauze.
>> Brown, who generally thoughtwith Annie Oakley
(11:01):
that anything they could do,he could do better,
dismissed it as paltry.
Imagine what he wouldhave thought of "CSI."
After hisnot entirely satisfactory dip
into television entertainment,
Brown was searchingfor the next thing to dive into.
As we've noted,what he liked was control.
And so, perhaps most tellingly,he got into real estate
(11:24):
and became a studio owner.
>> These buildings werereasonable.
26th Street between Seventhand Eighth Avenue
and 55 was kind ofa depressed neighborhood,
but I knew that it was duefor an upgrading.
>> And his building of choicebetween East 25th
and 26th streetshas a colorful history.
(11:44):
It originally housedthe 69th Regiment Armory.
>> Horses were tethered here,and the two buildings together,
so that it's an areaof 200 by 100,
and even the rings to whichthe horses were tethered
are still in the basement.
>> When the regiment moved outin 1914,
the building became a studiofor silent films,
(12:07):
with early cinema producers likeJesse Lasky and Alfred Zucker
among its tenants.
As if preparing for itseven more star-studded future,
the studio hostedHollywood legend Mary Pickford.
>> There is something.>> Nothing.
>> Stanley Winfrith, what is it?What happened?
>> The building's nextincarnation was less romantic.
(12:28):
It became a manufacturing space,and Brown purchased the building
from the AmericanCorrugated Box Company.
On the outside, it wasa handsome Beaux Arts building,
but inside it'sa different story.
Brown wanted to createa comprehensive,
state-of-the-art productionstudio
that he could lease to others.
Even though the spacehad been studios at one time,
(12:49):
they had served therelatively modest needs
of silent film production.
Brown wanted much more.
>> On 26th Street in Manhattan,
I created two stages,100 by 100,
uh, with allof the peripheral space,
17 dressing rooms, 12 different,uh, administrative offices,
(13:10):
a dozen editing rooms,a carpentry shop, prop shops,
everything that goes with
a motion picturetelevision effort.
>> Of what must have beena monumental renovation,
Brown just notes wryly,
"That took a certain amountof my time."
His investment was rewarded.
(13:30):
Among the showsthat came to life
in the studio are the Mel Brooksclassic "The Producers,"
and a host of classicand contemporary
celebrity television shows
featuring personalitiesfrom Judy Garland
to Patty Duke to Martha Stewart.
In one room, there's a billboard
that citesmany of the studio's programs.
>> "12 Angry Men," 1957.
(13:51):
>> "BUtterfield 8," 1960.
>> "Long Day's JourneyInto Night," 1962.
>> "You're a Big Boy Now," 1967.
>> "The Boys in the Band," 1970.
>> "The Anderson Tapes," 1971.
>> "Show of the Week.">> "The Patty Duke Show."
>> "Inner Sanctum.">> "As the World Turns."
>> "Love of Life.">> "Guiding Light."
>> "Search for Tomorrow."
(14:11):
>> "The Jon Stewart Show.">> "Ricki Lake."
>> "Where in the Worldis Carmen Sandiego?"
>> "Judge Hatchett.">> "Judge Karen."
>> "The Wendy Williams Show."
>> "Martha Stewart,"2005 to 2012.
>> When we first moved in, itwas absolutely an audio museum.
This is something we found.
>> Eric Duke and his son Steven
(14:32):
run Chelsea Television Studiosin Brown's old building,
which they bought from CBSin 1989.
The high ceilings that Brown wasso proud of are still there.
>> There are 100-foot beams
that if you go lookin the ceiling, you'll see them.
They floated themdown the Hudson,
and then they dockedat 26th Street
and had to come straight up26th Street.
Couldn't make any turnsbecause --
(14:54):
>> It's like "Fitzcarraldo.">> Yeah.
>> Stephen Duke shows usthe main studio.
>> And the studio is justthrough those doors right there.
>> Versatile enough to hosteverything from a cooking show
to a "Castaways" reunion
and to accommodateboth real and projected sets.
>> It's nice, wide open,accessible space.
Basically, it's practicalversus LED wall scenario.
(15:16):
So this lets us put up...
>> But there's a flavorof the past
in Eric Duke's modest office,
and Brown's old desk isstill there.
Although Brown boastedthat he had no office,
he did have one here.
Duke was a tenant of Brown's
before buying the studiooutright,
and over the years he and Brown
developed a comfortablerelationship.
>> He would call methe first of every month,
(15:37):
because we did a net leaseon the building
towards a purchasewith Mr. Brown,
and he would call methe first of the month
and say that the checkhadn't gotten there.
"Eric, where is the check?"
And I said, no,it's coming, Hi.
It's going to be there.
And then we'd catch up
and everything had alreadykind of been done, you know,
when we started talkingabout the newer shows.
And he says, "Oh, I did that.
(15:58):
That was 'Airport'back in 1952.
I did that.You know, I had that same show."
And, you know, what was beingdone on television
had been done on radio already.
So, no, it was interestinghearing those stories.
And he was also a passionatecollector of fine art.
He had quite an extensiveart collection.
I came in herewhen we were meeting
(16:20):
and he'd say, you see that?
And I said, yeah.
And it was just a painting,
like just sort of hanging outin the corner.
He goes, that's a Monet.
>> Granddaughter, Melina Brown,remembers visiting the studio
with her sister, Barrie.
>> They were shootinga soap opera.
We were little girls, andwe would take the wheelchairs
and push them up and downthe halls as fast as we could,
(16:42):
with one of us riding them.
>> But Brown's creative lifeand creative life's blood
was in radio.
So for all thathe was busy and productive
and doing good worksin the years after 1959,
for him, it felt like 14 yearsof wandering in the wilderness.
In all that time,
(17:03):
what he wanted mostwas to be back on the air
creating radio dramas.
>> So I begana systematic plotting.
I listed all the networks,of course.
No go.
I went to allthe advertising agencies.
I went to station groups.
Nothing would happen,but I couldn't give it up.
(17:25):
>> And finally, his persistencepaid off, just as it always had.
An old friend, Sam Diggs,was appointed president of CBS,
and Brown wasfinally able to persuade him
to give radio drama andHiman Brown a new lease on life.
They had a prolonged,though genial, negotiation
about just how much airtimewas available.
(17:46):
Like most executives,Diggs was cautious.
Like most visionaries,Brown was persistent.
>> Over a periodof four or five lunches,
I evolved seven hoursevery single night,
seven hours a week,so that people would know it.
>> So, 14 years after Brownheard the death knell of radio
(18:06):
and after his personaltheater went dark
at the end of NBC Playhouse,
Brown was back on the air.
And what he created wasthe "CBS Radio Mystery Theater."
>> The word mysterybecomes occult,
gothic suspense detective story,science fiction.
It is the whole world ofstorytelling under an umbrella
(18:30):
which is very, very flexible.
>> Brown's new series took himto the new CBS headquarters
at 51 West 52nd.
Elegant, imposingand known as Black Rock,
it was designedby Eero Saarinen,
best known for strikinglyminimal contemporary furniture.
Imposing as the exterior is,
(18:51):
it was the studiosthat framed Brown's experience.
In the building's radio annex,
he did his real creative work,
even while he was establishing
an entrepreneurial presencein Chelsea.
And because he hada marquee deal with CBS,
Brown wasn't alwayshaving to chase after sponsors
and create custom materialfor them.
It freed him up to becomemore of a creative force,
(19:15):
but with the same efficiency.
>> The radio that I do,I'm totally, totally unhampered,
unheckled and left alone,which is wonderful.
>> Here's Brown'smaverick nature surfacing.
In this interview withthe Directors Guild of America,
he wants to go on recordas someone
who didn't have to operatewith constraints.
(19:36):
But again, he wasn't,of course, alone.
>> Come in.
Welcome.
I am E.G. Marshall.
Welcome to the worldof terrifying imagination.
>> Host E.G. Marshallwas a product
of the famed Actor's Studio,
and his decisive voice carriedhim to Broadway
(19:57):
in "12 Angry Men,"
a successful courtroom series,"The Defenders"
and to the creaking doorof "CBS Mystery Theatre,"
which he hostedfor nearly a decade.
And to perform the playsthemselves,
Brown created what wemight think of
as an informal ensemble made upof venerable Golden Age stars
whom he'd worked within the past,
(20:18):
and newcomers he sensed
had what it takesto perform in radio.
>> Ours was sort ofa secondary golden age.
>> That's Paul Hecht,
a distinguished theaterand television veteran
who met Brownwhen he was in his early 30s.
>> Hi and I got on right away.He liked me.
I don't know why,
because I would just pretty muchdo what I wanted.
(20:41):
>> I had met him whenI was about 9 or 10 years old,
thanks to the fact thatmy father was a radio announcer
in the '40s on many of the mostpopular programs on the radio.
"Quick as a Flash.""It Pays to Be Ignorant."
Many others.
Anyway, he used to take meto the studio
when he was doinghis announcing,
(21:03):
and somewhere in the courseof events
I was introduced to Hi Brown.
>> Tony Roberts, anotherdistinguished Broadway veteran.
>> So when I was in my 20s
and I was starting my career onBroadway and whatnot,
somehow,maybe through Paul Hecht, even,
he started hiring meto do these radio scripts.
>> Here's how Brown rememberedTony Roberts.
(21:25):
>> Tony Roberts is a bright,sharp,
wonderful young actorwho'd never been in radio,
and I gave him hisfirst radio job,
and he was so enthralledand he worked so hard.
>> Brown's radio theater coteriealso included legendary actors
like Tammy Grimes,Marian Seldes,
and Mercedes McCambridge.
Brown also built up a cadreof practiced writers,
(21:48):
some of whom he knewfrom the Golden Age.
They included JeromeCoopersmith, Ian Martin,
Sam, Dan, and Henry Slesser,
a "Twilight Zone" writer.
Over the course of the series'eight years,
from 1974 to 1982,
they scripted thousandsof plays.
>> In the old dayswe used to do 30-minute shows.
(22:09):
Television has taught usthat working a one-hour pattern
is a heckof a lot more successful,
and has proven that for me.
So seven one-hour showsa week is something
that had never been donein radio.
>> And Brown feltthat his combination
of intuition and efficiency,
(22:29):
the gifts that had sustained himduring the Golden Age,
were what made it possible.
>> First off, I don't believe
that one can walkinto a studio unprepared.
I read my scripts very,very carefully ahead of time,
and I mark many,many cuts ahead of time.
But actually,when you're sitting there
and listening afterall these years of experience,
(22:52):
it makes it a little easierfor me to believe
a line should go outbecause it's not moving,
that reactions aren't smooth.
And I also hear what issuperfluous and make more cuts.
But it's a very,very intuitive skill.
And I can saywith complete immodesty,
(23:12):
I'm one of the fastestcutters, editors,
on that level in the business.
>> In fact,the average length of a play
minus commercialswas about 45 minutes.
Here's Tony Roberts.
>> There would usually beabout four or five
actors in the studio,
and we would sit aroundand we would read through it,
and there would usually bequite a bit of joking
(23:36):
and laughing and wisecracking
because, you know, it's alllet's pretend time
and people are making uptheir characters
and listening very intentlyto the other actors
standing around the microphone
or sitting at the reading table
to try and figure outhow to make a good story.
(23:57):
>> As Brown noted, by the timethe actors got into the studio,
he would already have workedthrough the script,
making revisions and cuts.
First, because time was money,
but also because he liked hisactors to have creative license,
to work quickly and intuitively,just as he had always done.
And they also enjoyedthe freedom it gave them
(24:18):
to developtheir own characters.
>> And Hi would then makea series of cuts in the script
in order to get itinto the right time.
I don't knowhow he ever used to do that,
but he held a stopwatch and knewexactly what needed to be cut
after we'd read through it,
and we would get the cuts
(24:38):
and take a break for ten minutesor something,
and then we would all stand up
and say hello to the sound manbehind the window
of the control room or whatever,
and to proceed to record it.
And we were finished by noon.
And then he would comeout of the booth
and hand everybody their check,
(24:58):
which was like $71
after taxes and thingshad been removed from it,
and everybody wouldgo home happy.
It was more or lessa social party
where the grown-ups got to play"let's pretend,"
and you might be a cowboyone week,
and you'd be a sheriff the nextweek,
and you'd be a criminal,a mafioso or something.
(25:21):
Whatever the stories were.
>> Paul Hecht had the sameaffectionate recollection
of Brown's creative intuitionand his fiscal constraint.
>> It was very important thatwhoever came in to work on this
didn't ask questions like,you know,
what is my motivation here?
There were rarely any rewrites.
(25:42):
There were only cuts.
I don't know about other people,
but if I didn't like something,I would say,
"Oh, Hi,I'm going to say this instead."
And Hi wasn't really interestedor listening.
He kind of knew that whateverI did would be fine with him.
He was mostly interestedin his time.
>> And 40 years afterthe heyday of Golden Age radio,
(26:03):
Hecht's memories attestto the fact that the medium
was still able to captivatea new generation of performers.
>> There is somethingabout putting a whole character
into your voicethat is so appealing.
You don't have to worryabout your costume.
You don't have to worry aboutgetting to the sofa in time.
(26:25):
You don't have to worryabout props.
There's something very pureabout it.
And one of the thingsabout radio
is that once you've developedthe knack,
the facility, you know,
you can give me a piece of paperand I can do it.
So one of the wonderful thingsfor an actor
is you don't reallyhave to rehearse.
(26:47):
You just do it.
We just did the workand giggled and carried on
and got it done in the two hoursand said, "Aren't we lucky?"
and went off and had soup.
>> Brown died in 2010,
and many of his friendsand colleagues
from "CBS RadioMystery Theater,"
(27:07):
his second golden age,gathered to record a tribute.
It was produced by CUNY TVand directed by Hecht.
>> When we planned this tribute,
we wondered what Hiwould want us to say.
We think if we asked him for hisadvice, he would say...
>> Can't youspeed things up a little?
It's okay to get a laughonce in a while.
(27:29):
>> We'll try our best, Hi.
It won't be easy withouthearing the telephone ring
and that bellowing voicesaying...
>> I hope you're freeDecember 10th.
There are people coming over
and I want you to tell themabout my life and my work.
>> He would need our helpfor that.
He was so modest, so withdrawn.
(27:50):
>> It's easy to view Brownjust as someone
who successfully shoehorned
one era's genre productinto another,
but he consistently brings upanother vision,
that of melding the artistsof legitimate theater and radio.
It's a model common to the BBC
and other European radiosystems,
but one of American radio'sreal lapses has been its failure
(28:13):
to engage seriousnon-genre writers in the form.
Brown would have likedto change that.
>> I would like to see Sundaydevoted for two hours
or 2.5 hoursto the great American plays,
American playwrights,
Maxwell Anderson,Sherwood Anderson,
Lillian Hellman, O'Neill,Hemingway,
(28:34):
Arthur Miller,Elmer Rice.
>> It should be notedthat the surge
of remarkable women playwrights
was only just beginningin the late 1970s.
Throughout his creative life,Brown, the producer, after all,
of the pioneering"Joyce Jordan, Girl Intern,"
was proud of recognizingand reflecting social change.
He would surely have embracedthe likes of Beth Henley,
(28:56):
Lynn Nottage, and Marsha Norman
and added them to his vision ofa cultural revolution in radio.
As he got older,Himan Brown became conscious
of the need to inspirethe next generation.
>> One of thevery exciting things
that has been happening to meover the years
since we started againwith radio drama,
(29:16):
has been the continuing requestsI have gotten from colleges
to come and speak totheir schools of communication.
It is unbelievable the interest
that exists with young peopleat colleges.
>> In his 1974 interview withthe Directors Guild of America,
Brown was proudto share the fact
(29:37):
that he might speak to as manyas 50 colleges in a year.
But among his favorite gigswere career days
for younger students.
>> I love to sayto these young people
it's a little boy climbing up onthe lap of his mother or father
and asking for a story.
It's the storyteller who cameinto the square 5,000 years ago
(30:01):
and sat down in the townspeoplegathered around him,
and he told them a story.
>> So back to core values.
In the late 1980sand early 1990s,
Brown had a chance to revisithis old documentary territory
in a special productionfor Voice of America.
(30:23):
It began as a 26-part seriescalled "Americans All."
>> These were storieswhich I said
would take the Bill of Rightsand show
that only in Americacould you have a Truman,
a LaGuardia,a George Washington Carver,
an Edgar Allan Poe.
I picked 26 Americans,some very well known,
(30:45):
some not so well known
who made itbecause we are a democracy,
because we do havea Bill of Rights.
>> I'm Charlton Heston,your host
and narratorfor "Americans All,"
inviting you again to sharethe unusual lives
of Americans all.
They mark the pagesof our history.
Some are born on farms, some inthe wilderness, some in cities.
(31:07):
They came fromall over the world
to contributeto the American experience.
>> In 1991,the year Brown was interviewed
by broadcaster and historianChuck Schaden,
he'd been off the airfor over a decade,
and was clearly hopingthat there would be a third wave
for radio drama, and thathe would be at its crest.
>> But it's becoming moreand more.
(31:29):
And this gives me hope
that the drama will come backinto its own.
We live cyclically,
and cyclically,it will come back.
I only hopethat I'm given the years
to go forward with all of this,
because it's a cinchfor me to produce.
(31:50):
>> Brown often describes himself
as sort of an audio equivalentof Superman,
no office, just a life conductedfrom phone call to phone call,
production to production,
working to maintain and laterrescue his cherished medium.
But he had another sideto his life
as a family man with a housein the country
and all that implies.
(32:10):
Next up, the family Brown.
I'm Margot Avery.Stay tuned.
♪♪
"Audio Maverick" is producedand directed by Sarah Montague,
who also writes the scripts.
Our executive producers areMelina Brown and Sarah Montague.
(32:33):
CUNY TV's executive director isChiqui Cartagena.
The director of productionis Susan Iger,
and Deborah Labadie is CUNY TV'schief operating officer.
The associate producer for"Audio Maverick"
is Corinne Wallace,
and our audio production internis Lucia Funaro.
"Audio Maverick" is narratedby Margot Avery.
(32:55):
Our technical team at CUNY
includes senioraudio engineer Richard Kim
and audio engineer and programmix engineer Lisa Gosselin.
Our staff photographer isLaura Fuchs.
Our archivists are David Riceand Catriona Schlosser.
Our closed captioncoordinator is Amy Monte,
and the script editor isAllison Behringer.
(33:15):
Our theme was composedby Allison Leyton-Brown.
Sound design and final mixing
are by John DeLoreand Bart Warshaw.
Excerpts from the Himan Brownoral history
courtesy of the Directors Guildof America, Inc.
www.dga.org.All rights reserved.
Multitude Productions handlesour publicity and marketing.
(33:37):
"Audio Maverick" is a productionof CUNY TV.
♪♪
>> [Radio Chatter]
>> I surrender.>> Who are you working for?
>> [Radio Chatter]
>> '59.
That was the death knell.
Everything went off radioin the way of drama.
>> That's radio producerHiman Brown.
And this is "Audio Maverick,"
a celebration of his lifeand work.
>> Come in.
>> What doesa driven creative do
(00:23):
when the sourceof his creativity dries up?
By 1959,
radio drama on commercialnetworks had come to an end.
Its shows, its revenues,and its talent
had migrated to television.
It was not, however,the end of Himan Brown.
30 years in broadcast radiohad given him a toolkit,
(00:44):
and he was about to use itin the service of social issues.
It's time to join himfor two
very different periodsof his creative life.
>> The door is open. Welcome.
>> But remember,there was a 14-year period
when there was no radio drama
and I was as busy as possibledoing many, many other things.
(01:04):
>> Brown became activeas a philanthropist,
a real estate investor,and a filmmaker.
Brown took his social conscienceand his skills
as a storytellerinto film and television.
He produced documentarystyle films, docudramas,
and social commentaries
that were often commissionedby institutions
he believed in and addressedissues he felt strongly about.
(01:25):
>> Recorded in frontof a live studio audience.
>> One example was"The Stars Salute,"
a seven-part television specialto raise money
for the Federationof Jewish Philanthropies.
Brown hired well-known starsto host segments
profiling local charities
that the federation supported,
organizations that workedwith the elderly,
(01:46):
the disabled, children,
and those challenged by povertyand mental illness.
>> And you name the stars.
There isn't a star alivefrom Bob Hope and Jack Benny
and Danny Kayeand George Segal
and Jack Lemmon.
>> They did not appearas performers
but as ambassadorsfor the Federation's works.
(02:07):
>> Well, I liked yours,and I hope you like mine.
>> Here's a segment hostedby Barbra Streisand
which was filmedat a children's home.
>> The big bad wolf,the big bad wolf.
>> The big bad wolf.
Who's afraid of thebig bad wolf?
>> In the early 1960s,
Hebrew Union Collegecommissioned Brown
to produce"The Price of Silence."
(02:29):
It was a fictionalized takeon the real-life oppression
that Jews were facingin the Soviet Union,
filmed entirelyas a courtroom scene.
The popular legal drama"Perry Mason" had moved
from radio to televisionin the late 1950s,
and Brown said this wasthe model for his structure.
>> I had Edward G. Robinson,strangely enough,
(02:49):
in the "Perry Mason" courtroom,
and the Russians had a table,and we had a table,
and it was a j'accuse.
You are guilty of anti-Semitism,Russia.
And George Coulouriswas the Russian voice.
We never saw him.
We just stayed on the table,
and I brought in witnesses,all kinds of witnesses.
[ Gavel bangs ]
(03:10):
>> The witnessesfor the Soviets' crimes
had actually been recordedbehind the Iron Curtain.
And the project demonstratesBrown's gift for synergy,
bringing togethercurrent events,
the famous historicalAlfred Dreyfus case,
a Jewish officer wrongly tried,and Perry Mason,
the quintessentialGolden Age legal genius.
(03:31):
"The Price of Silence"made Brown persona non grata
in the Soviet Union.
>> Because they know what I did.
>> Even though Brown'swork during this period
was primarily mission-driven,
in some 100 films he created,
he was innovative and pioneeringin his subjects and approaches.
(03:51):
For example,
at a time when discussingmental health was taboo,
he made one of the firstsuch films on the subject,
"You Are Not Alone."
And he was especially proudof "A Morning for Jimmy,"
created in 1960for the Urban League,
a national organization
that advocates for justicefor African Americans
and againstracial discrimination.
(04:13):
>> Jimmy, what's the matter?
>> I went downtown today, Mom,
just to get a little part-timejob in the shipping room,
department store.
I didn't want to tellyou and Papa about it
until I was sure I got the job.
I stood in line with allthose white people around me.
(04:36):
They took every white boyin line in front of me.
When they came to me, theyjust told me I had no hope.
I didn't pay it no mind.I just started to walk off.
>> "A Morning for Jimmy"portrayed the struggles
of a young African American
in his pursuit of a careeras an architect,
using a dramatic storyto reflect the challenges
(04:57):
and prejudices that demonstratedless overt forms of racism
in the professional realm.
The cast included Cicely Tysonat the start of her career,
and groundbreakingBlack producer Vinnette Carroll.
>> There are plenty of good jobsyou could take
without putting your headagainst a stone wall.
>> As I remember, you didn'talways talk like that, John.
(05:19):
>> Oh, Jim, look at meand the telephone company.
Why, 20 years ago,that was just unheard of.
They wouldn't even look at us,let alone hire us.
I do my work, and whenI do it well, I get a promotion.
You know, you can't pushthese people into doing things.
You have to let them do itin their own time.
Golly, you're a smart kid.
(05:41):
I thought you were wiseenough to know this.
>> Somebody had to push.
>> Even though he wasreflecting real-life stories,
Brown still saw his productionsas dramas
and himself as a sort of auteur.
>> Oh, yes.I'm a one-man operation.
I don't separate the producerfrom the director,
and neither doesMr. Sidney Lumet.
(06:03):
Neither does Elia Kazanor any of the movie makers.
>> Brown is makingan interesting connection here.
He was a man who alwaysprided himself on his gumption
and creative independence fromthe various systems he served,
but here he's linkinghis maverick nature,
the need to control every aspectof production, to his craft.
(06:23):
>> The moreof the creative effort
that is centeredin the one person, I think,
the greater the result.
>> And even as a producerof charitable events,
Brown was a showman.
He staged an annual benefitconcert at Madison Square Garden
for 18 yearsfor Bonds of Israel,
an organization that encouragedinvestment in stock portfolios
(06:46):
that would benefit thisstill-young nation,
and he insisted that the eventbe presented in the round.
>> I said, if a prizefightcan sit all around the stage,
I want to put a stage in themiddle of Madison Square Garden
and put everybody around there.
I would have a 70-, 80-pieceorchestra, symphony orchestra.
>> An echo of his old NBC days.
>> I would have 22to 30 ballet dancers
(07:09):
who would create special balletsunder my instructions.
>> Over the years,the artists who participated
included musical greatslike Itzhak Perlman,
Isaac Stern,and Leonard Bernstein.
It was a true logisticaland production feat
to bring the concerts together,
and Brown had to contendwith Madison Square Garden's
multi-purpose nature.
(07:31):
>> The night beforethey had hockey.
On Monday night,I had to come in,
the floor was still cold fromthe ice that they had taken off,
and put a show togetherin three hours, a 2.5-hour show.
>> Controlling as Brownwas in a studio environment,
you get the sensethat he liked the chaos
of live concert production.
Sometimes messinessinspires creation.
(07:52):
Just as he saw himselfas a solo operator filmmaker,
Brown was adamantabout a similar approach
to concert production.
>> But I did thisabsolutely single-handed.
I did not have any stoogesaround me.
I didn't have any assistants.
>> Of course, there's no waythat Brown
actually producedthese shows single handedly.
Madison Square Garden isvirtually a nation state
(08:13):
in public entertainment,
and there would have beena great many people involved
in making these events happen.And radio itself
is a fundamentallycollaborative medium,
something he acknowledgesin many accounts and interviews.
But he was clearly suspiciousof both toadies and glory hogs.
It's possible that someof his sense of isolation
(08:33):
had to do with hisdevastating early partnership
with Gertrude Berg over"The Goldbergs" radio serial.
He never really got overthis betrayal,
and it likely made himdistrustful of partnerships
that weren't creative.
He seemed to trust his actorsand engineers completely.
The costs of the MadisonSquare Garden concert mounted,
and eventually Brown stoppedproducing it.
(08:54):
But by then he calculated
that $12 to $14 million worthof bonds had been sold.
>> For 18 years, it was a ball.I loved it.
I never got a penny for these.
None of my philanthropic workhas paid me one nickel,
and I wouldn't want itany other way.
>> Brown did flirt withsome commercial entertainment
during the same period.
(09:16):
In the mid 1950s,he had a contract with RKO,
the studio that producedHollywood blockbusters
like "King Kong"and "Citizen Kane."
>> I made no campaign promises.
>> Brown had planned on doinga 12-part series
of what today we'd calldocudramas.
>> I predicated allof these pictures
on investigative reportage.
(09:37):
I wanted to do true stories,which we dramatized.
>> But he joined with thisonce-mighty studio
in its decline.
RKO ceased operations in 1957,
so in the end,Brown made only two features,
with a third waitingfor release,
"Women Without Shadow,"about amnesia.
It was Rosemary Harris'sscreen debut.
(10:01):
The experience and the aftermathof financial duplicity
embittered Brown.
>> I was very,very disillusioned
by the production companies,
that is, the distributingcompanies.
I didn't want any part of itso that I immediately said,
no, this isn't for me.
(10:21):
>> Even incompromising circumstances,
Brown was ahead of his time.
In 1957,he was given the complete files
of the New York CityMedical Examiner's office
by a former medical examiner,Dr. Morris Halperin,
and proposed a forensic show,presumably to RKO.
But Brown only commentsthat "The stupid people
(10:41):
I had to deal withsaid it won't go."
But in 1976, NBC debuted amedical mystery television drama
called "Quincy, M.E."
it starred Jack Klugman,and it was an instant hit.
>> Set up a central venous line.
Dr. Kaplan will insert it.>> Right away.
>> And I need moresilver sulfadiazine gauze.
>> Brown, who generally thoughtwith Annie Oakley
(11:01):
that anything they could do,he could do better,
dismissed it as paltry.
Imagine what he wouldhave thought of "CSI."
After hisnot entirely satisfactory dip
into television entertainment,
Brown was searchingfor the next thing to dive into.
As we've noted,what he liked was control.
And so, perhaps most tellingly,he got into real estate
(11:24):
and became a studio owner.
>> These buildings werereasonable.
26th Street between Seventhand Eighth Avenue
and 55 was kind ofa depressed neighborhood,
but I knew that it was duefor an upgrading.
>> And his building of choicebetween East 25th
and 26th streetshas a colorful history.
(11:44):
It originally housedthe 69th Regiment Armory.
>> Horses were tethered here,and the two buildings together,
so that it's an areaof 200 by 100,
and even the rings to whichthe horses were tethered
are still in the basement.
>> When the regiment moved outin 1914,
the building became a studiofor silent films,
(12:07):
with early cinema producers likeJesse Lasky and Alfred Zucker
among its tenants.
As if preparing for itseven more star-studded future,
the studio hostedHollywood legend Mary Pickford.
>> There is something.>> Nothing.
>> Stanley Winfrith, what is it?What happened?
>> The building's nextincarnation was less romantic.
(12:28):
It became a manufacturing space,and Brown purchased the building
from the AmericanCorrugated Box Company.
On the outside, it wasa handsome Beaux Arts building,
but inside it'sa different story.
Brown wanted to createa comprehensive,
state-of-the-art productionstudio
that he could lease to others.
Even though the spacehad been studios at one time,
(12:49):
they had served therelatively modest needs
of silent film production.
Brown wanted much more.
>> On 26th Street in Manhattan,
I created two stages,100 by 100,
uh, with allof the peripheral space,
17 dressing rooms, 12 different,uh, administrative offices,
(13:10):
a dozen editing rooms,a carpentry shop, prop shops,
everything that goes with
a motion picturetelevision effort.
>> Of what must have beena monumental renovation,
Brown just notes wryly,
"That took a certain amountof my time."
His investment was rewarded.
(13:30):
Among the showsthat came to life
in the studio are the Mel Brooksclassic "The Producers,"
and a host of classicand contemporary
celebrity television shows
featuring personalitiesfrom Judy Garland
to Patty Duke to Martha Stewart.
In one room, there's a billboard
that citesmany of the studio's programs.
>> "12 Angry Men," 1957.
(13:51):
>> "BUtterfield 8," 1960.
>> "Long Day's JourneyInto Night," 1962.
>> "You're a Big Boy Now," 1967.
>> "The Boys in the Band," 1970.
>> "The Anderson Tapes," 1971.
>> "Show of the Week.">> "The Patty Duke Show."
>> "Inner Sanctum.">> "As the World Turns."
>> "Love of Life.">> "Guiding Light."
>> "Search for Tomorrow."
(14:11):
>> "The Jon Stewart Show.">> "Ricki Lake."
>> "Where in the Worldis Carmen Sandiego?"
>> "Judge Hatchett.">> "Judge Karen."
>> "The Wendy Williams Show."
>> "Martha Stewart,"2005 to 2012.
>> When we first moved in, itwas absolutely an audio museum.
This is something we found.
>> Eric Duke and his son Steven
(14:32):
run Chelsea Television Studiosin Brown's old building,
which they bought from CBSin 1989.
The high ceilings that Brown wasso proud of are still there.
>> There are 100-foot beams
that if you go lookin the ceiling, you'll see them.
They floated themdown the Hudson,
and then they dockedat 26th Street
and had to come straight up26th Street.
Couldn't make any turnsbecause --
(14:54):
>> It's like "Fitzcarraldo.">> Yeah.
>> Stephen Duke shows usthe main studio.
>> And the studio is justthrough those doors right there.
>> Versatile enough to hosteverything from a cooking show
to a "Castaways" reunion
and to accommodateboth real and projected sets.
>> It's nice, wide open,accessible space.
Basically, it's practicalversus LED wall scenario.
(15:16):
So this lets us put up...
>> But there's a flavorof the past
in Eric Duke's modest office,
and Brown's old desk isstill there.
Although Brown boastedthat he had no office,
he did have one here.
Duke was a tenant of Brown's
before buying the studiooutright,
and over the years he and Brown
developed a comfortablerelationship.
>> He would call methe first of every month,
(15:37):
because we did a net leaseon the building
towards a purchasewith Mr. Brown,
and he would call methe first of the month
and say that the checkhadn't gotten there.
"Eric, where is the check?"
And I said, no,it's coming, Hi.
It's going to be there.
And then we'd catch up
and everything had alreadykind of been done, you know,
when we started talkingabout the newer shows.
And he says, "Oh, I did that.
(15:58):
That was 'Airport'back in 1952.
I did that.You know, I had that same show."
And, you know, what was beingdone on television
had been done on radio already.
So, no, it was interestinghearing those stories.
And he was also a passionatecollector of fine art.
He had quite an extensiveart collection.
I came in herewhen we were meeting
(16:20):
and he'd say, you see that?
And I said, yeah.
And it was just a painting,
like just sort of hanging outin the corner.
He goes, that's a Monet.
>> Granddaughter, Melina Brown,remembers visiting the studio
with her sister, Barrie.
>> They were shootinga soap opera.
We were little girls, andwe would take the wheelchairs
and push them up and downthe halls as fast as we could,
(16:42):
with one of us riding them.
>> But Brown's creative lifeand creative life's blood
was in radio.
So for all thathe was busy and productive
and doing good worksin the years after 1959,
for him, it felt like 14 yearsof wandering in the wilderness.
In all that time,
(17:03):
what he wanted mostwas to be back on the air
creating radio dramas.
>> So I begana systematic plotting.
I listed all the networks,of course.
No go.
I went to allthe advertising agencies.
I went to station groups.
Nothing would happen,but I couldn't give it up.
(17:25):
>> And finally, his persistencepaid off, just as it always had.
An old friend, Sam Diggs,was appointed president of CBS,
and Brown wasfinally able to persuade him
to give radio drama andHiman Brown a new lease on life.
They had a prolonged,though genial, negotiation
about just how much airtimewas available.
(17:46):
Like most executives,Diggs was cautious.
Like most visionaries,Brown was persistent.
>> Over a periodof four or five lunches,
I evolved seven hoursevery single night,
seven hours a week,so that people would know it.
>> So, 14 years after Brownheard the death knell of radio
(18:06):
and after his personaltheater went dark
at the end of NBC Playhouse,
Brown was back on the air.
And what he created wasthe "CBS Radio Mystery Theater."
>> The word mysterybecomes occult,
gothic suspense detective story,science fiction.
It is the whole world ofstorytelling under an umbrella
(18:30):
which is very, very flexible.
>> Brown's new series took himto the new CBS headquarters
at 51 West 52nd.
Elegant, imposingand known as Black Rock,
it was designedby Eero Saarinen,
best known for strikinglyminimal contemporary furniture.
Imposing as the exterior is,
(18:51):
it was the studiosthat framed Brown's experience.
In the building's radio annex,
he did his real creative work,
even while he was establishing
an entrepreneurial presencein Chelsea.
And because he hada marquee deal with CBS,
Brown wasn't alwayshaving to chase after sponsors
and create custom materialfor them.
It freed him up to becomemore of a creative force,
(19:15):
but with the same efficiency.
>> The radio that I do,I'm totally, totally unhampered,
unheckled and left alone,which is wonderful.
>> Here's Brown'smaverick nature surfacing.
In this interview withthe Directors Guild of America,
he wants to go on recordas someone
who didn't have to operatewith constraints.
(19:36):
But again, he wasn't,of course, alone.
>> Come in.
Welcome.
I am E.G. Marshall.
Welcome to the worldof terrifying imagination.
>> Host E.G. Marshallwas a product
of the famed Actor's Studio,
and his decisive voice carriedhim to Broadway
(19:57):
in "12 Angry Men,"
a successful courtroom series,"The Defenders"
and to the creaking doorof "CBS Mystery Theatre,"
which he hostedfor nearly a decade.
And to perform the playsthemselves,
Brown created what wemight think of
as an informal ensemble made upof venerable Golden Age stars
whom he'd worked within the past,
(20:18):
and newcomers he sensed
had what it takesto perform in radio.
>> Ours was sort ofa secondary golden age.
>> That's Paul Hecht,
a distinguished theaterand television veteran
who met Brownwhen he was in his early 30s.
>> Hi and I got on right away.He liked me.
I don't know why,
because I would just pretty muchdo what I wanted.
(20:41):
>> I had met him whenI was about 9 or 10 years old,
thanks to the fact thatmy father was a radio announcer
in the '40s on many of the mostpopular programs on the radio.
"Quick as a Flash.""It Pays to Be Ignorant."
Many others.
Anyway, he used to take meto the studio
when he was doinghis announcing,
(21:03):
and somewhere in the courseof events
I was introduced to Hi Brown.
>> Tony Roberts, anotherdistinguished Broadway veteran.
>> So when I was in my 20s
and I was starting my career onBroadway and whatnot,
somehow,maybe through Paul Hecht, even,
he started hiring meto do these radio scripts.
>> Here's how Brown rememberedTony Roberts.
(21:25):
>> Tony Roberts is a bright,sharp,
wonderful young actorwho'd never been in radio,
and I gave him hisfirst radio job,
and he was so enthralledand he worked so hard.
>> Brown's radio theater coteriealso included legendary actors
like Tammy Grimes,Marian Seldes,
and Mercedes McCambridge.
Brown also built up a cadreof practiced writers,
(21:48):
some of whom he knewfrom the Golden Age.
They included JeromeCoopersmith, Ian Martin,
Sam, Dan, and Henry Slesser,
a "Twilight Zone" writer.
Over the course of the series'eight years,
from 1974 to 1982,
they scripted thousandsof plays.
>> In the old dayswe used to do 30-minute shows.
(22:09):
Television has taught usthat working a one-hour pattern
is a heckof a lot more successful,
and has proven that for me.
So seven one-hour showsa week is something
that had never been donein radio.
>> And Brown feltthat his combination
of intuition and efficiency,
(22:29):
the gifts that had sustained himduring the Golden Age,
were what made it possible.
>> First off, I don't believe
that one can walkinto a studio unprepared.
I read my scripts very,very carefully ahead of time,
and I mark many,many cuts ahead of time.
But actually,when you're sitting there
and listening afterall these years of experience,
(22:52):
it makes it a little easierfor me to believe
a line should go outbecause it's not moving,
that reactions aren't smooth.
And I also hear what issuperfluous and make more cuts.
But it's a very,very intuitive skill.
And I can saywith complete immodesty,
(23:12):
I'm one of the fastestcutters, editors,
on that level in the business.
>> In fact,the average length of a play
minus commercialswas about 45 minutes.
Here's Tony Roberts.
>> There would usually beabout four or five
actors in the studio,
and we would sit aroundand we would read through it,
and there would usually bequite a bit of joking
(23:36):
and laughing and wisecracking
because, you know, it's alllet's pretend time
and people are making uptheir characters
and listening very intentlyto the other actors
standing around the microphone
or sitting at the reading table
to try and figure outhow to make a good story.
(23:57):
>> As Brown noted, by the timethe actors got into the studio,
he would already have workedthrough the script,
making revisions and cuts.
First, because time was money,
but also because he liked hisactors to have creative license,
to work quickly and intuitively,just as he had always done.
And they also enjoyedthe freedom it gave them
(24:18):
to developtheir own characters.
>> And Hi would then makea series of cuts in the script
in order to get itinto the right time.
I don't knowhow he ever used to do that,
but he held a stopwatch and knewexactly what needed to be cut
after we'd read through it,
and we would get the cuts
(24:38):
and take a break for ten minutesor something,
and then we would all stand up
and say hello to the sound manbehind the window
of the control room or whatever,
and to proceed to record it.
And we were finished by noon.
And then he would comeout of the booth
and hand everybody their check,
(24:58):
which was like $71
after taxes and thingshad been removed from it,
and everybody wouldgo home happy.
It was more or lessa social party
where the grown-ups got to play"let's pretend,"
and you might be a cowboyone week,
and you'd be a sheriff the nextweek,
and you'd be a criminal,a mafioso or something.
(25:21):
Whatever the stories were.
>> Paul Hecht had the sameaffectionate recollection
of Brown's creative intuitionand his fiscal constraint.
>> It was very important thatwhoever came in to work on this
didn't ask questions like,you know,
what is my motivation here?
There were rarely any rewrites.
(25:42):
There were only cuts.
I don't know about other people,
but if I didn't like something,I would say,
"Oh, Hi,I'm going to say this instead."
And Hi wasn't really interestedor listening.
He kind of knew that whateverI did would be fine with him.
He was mostly interestedin his time.
>> And 40 years afterthe heyday of Golden Age radio,
(26:03):
Hecht's memories attestto the fact that the medium
was still able to captivatea new generation of performers.
>> There is somethingabout putting a whole character
into your voicethat is so appealing.
You don't have to worryabout your costume.
You don't have to worry aboutgetting to the sofa in time.
(26:25):
You don't have to worryabout props.
There's something very pureabout it.
And one of the thingsabout radio
is that once you've developedthe knack,
the facility, you know,
you can give me a piece of paperand I can do it.
So one of the wonderful thingsfor an actor
is you don't reallyhave to rehearse.
(26:47):
You just do it.
We just did the workand giggled and carried on
and got it done in the two hoursand said, "Aren't we lucky?"
and went off and had soup.
>> Brown died in 2010,
and many of his friendsand colleagues
from "CBS RadioMystery Theater,"
(27:07):
his second golden age,gathered to record a tribute.
It was produced by CUNY TVand directed by Hecht.
>> When we planned this tribute,
we wondered what Hiwould want us to say.
We think if we asked him for hisadvice, he would say...
>> Can't youspeed things up a little?
It's okay to get a laughonce in a while.
(27:29):
>> We'll try our best, Hi.
It won't be easy withouthearing the telephone ring
and that bellowing voicesaying...
>> I hope you're freeDecember 10th.
There are people coming over
and I want you to tell themabout my life and my work.
>> He would need our helpfor that.
He was so modest, so withdrawn.
(27:50):
>> It's easy to view Brownjust as someone
who successfully shoehorned
one era's genre productinto another,
but he consistently brings upanother vision,
that of melding the artistsof legitimate theater and radio.
It's a model common to the BBC
and other European radiosystems,
but one of American radio'sreal lapses has been its failure
(28:13):
to engage seriousnon-genre writers in the form.
Brown would have likedto change that.
>> I would like to see Sundaydevoted for two hours
or 2.5 hoursto the great American plays,
American playwrights,
Maxwell Anderson,Sherwood Anderson,
Lillian Hellman, O'Neill,Hemingway,
(28:34):
Arthur Miller,Elmer Rice.
>> It should be notedthat the surge
of remarkable women playwrights
was only just beginningin the late 1970s.
Throughout his creative life,Brown, the producer, after all,
of the pioneering"Joyce Jordan, Girl Intern,"
was proud of recognizingand reflecting social change.
He would surely have embracedthe likes of Beth Henley,
(28:56):
Lynn Nottage, and Marsha Norman
and added them to his vision ofa cultural revolution in radio.
As he got older,Himan Brown became conscious
of the need to inspirethe next generation.
>> One of thevery exciting things
that has been happening to meover the years
since we started againwith radio drama,
(29:16):
has been the continuing requestsI have gotten from colleges
to come and speak totheir schools of communication.
It is unbelievable the interest
that exists with young peopleat colleges.
>> In his 1974 interview withthe Directors Guild of America,
Brown was proudto share the fact
(29:37):
that he might speak to as manyas 50 colleges in a year.
But among his favorite gigswere career days
for younger students.
>> I love to sayto these young people
it's a little boy climbing up onthe lap of his mother or father
and asking for a story.
It's the storyteller who cameinto the square 5,000 years ago
(30:01):
and sat down in the townspeoplegathered around him,
and he told them a story.
>> So back to core values.
In the late 1980sand early 1990s,
Brown had a chance to revisithis old documentary territory
in a special productionfor Voice of America.
(30:23):
It began as a 26-part seriescalled "Americans All."
>> These were storieswhich I said
would take the Bill of Rightsand show
that only in Americacould you have a Truman,
a LaGuardia,a George Washington Carver,
an Edgar Allan Poe.
I picked 26 Americans,some very well known,
(30:45):
some not so well known
who made itbecause we are a democracy,
because we do havea Bill of Rights.
>> I'm Charlton Heston,your host
and narratorfor "Americans All,"
inviting you again to sharethe unusual lives
of Americans all.
They mark the pagesof our history.
Some are born on farms, some inthe wilderness, some in cities.
(31:07):
They came fromall over the world
to contributeto the American experience.
>> In 1991,the year Brown was interviewed
by broadcaster and historianChuck Schaden,
he'd been off the airfor over a decade,
and was clearly hopingthat there would be a third wave
for radio drama, and thathe would be at its crest.
>> But it's becoming moreand more.
(31:29):
And this gives me hope
that the drama will come backinto its own.
We live cyclically,
and cyclically,it will come back.
I only hopethat I'm given the years
to go forward with all of this,
because it's a cinchfor me to produce.
(31:50):
>> Brown often describes himself
as sort of an audio equivalentof Superman,
no office, just a life conductedfrom phone call to phone call,
production to production,
working to maintain and laterrescue his cherished medium.
But he had another sideto his life
as a family man with a housein the country
and all that implies.
(32:10):
Next up, the family Brown.
I'm Margot Avery.Stay tuned.
♪♪
"Audio Maverick" is producedand directed by Sarah Montague,
who also writes the scripts.
Our executive producers areMelina Brown and Sarah Montague.
(32:33):
CUNY TV's executive director isChiqui Cartagena.
The director of productionis Susan Iger,
and Deborah Labadie is CUNY TV'schief operating officer.
The associate producer for"Audio Maverick"
is Corinne Wallace,
and our audio production internis Lucia Funaro.
"Audio Maverick" is narratedby Margot Avery.
(32:55):
Our technical team at CUNY
includes senioraudio engineer Richard Kim
and audio engineer and programmix engineer Lisa Gosselin.
Our staff photographer isLaura Fuchs.
Our archivists are David Riceand Catriona Schlosser.
Our closed captioncoordinator is Amy Monte,
and the script editor isAllison Behringer.
(33:15):
Our theme was composedby Allison Leyton-Brown.
Sound design and final mixing
are by John DeLoreand Bart Warshaw.
Excerpts from the Himan Brownoral history
courtesy of the Directors Guildof America, Inc.
www.dga.org.All rights reserved.
Multitude Productions handlesour publicity and marketing.
(33:37):
"Audio Maverick" is a productionof CUNY TV.
♪♪
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