BAT MASTERSON: Archiving the Television Series

Lawman, Indian fighter, scout and professional gambler. That's the way Bat Masterson was portrayed on a television program starring Gene Barry in the title role, broadcast over NBC from 1959 to 1961. The classic Western television series was produced by ZIV-TV, famous for producing such classics as Science Fiction Theater, I Led Three Lives, Highway Patrol and Sea Hunt.

The program featured Masterson's adventures through the pioneering West, meeting criminals and beautiful women along the way. With a derby hat, a gold-topped cane and clothes that fancied himself as a dandy, the program ran a total of three seasons. Along the way, Barry went on strike for merchandising which was never extensively detailed in his salary contract. For your amusement, here are some archival letters and telegrams that reveal some fascinating behind-the-scenes trivia. (Remember to click on the photo to enlarge.)

The Lost Radio Adventures of "RENFREW OF THE MOUNTED"

After a healthy run over CBS as a five-times-a-week serial, Renfrew of the Mounted returned to the air as a weekly half-hour adventure program over NBC-Blue. Launched on the evening of January 7, 1939, the network agreed to produce a 30-minute weekly program with the hope that a sponsor would be interested in signing on the bottom line. Producer Phil Goldstone of Criterion Pictures, responsible for the big screen adventures of Renfrew, created a momentary stir when he consulted the network about a clause in his contract that stipulated his rights to have a market tie-in with the cast of the motion pictures. To avoid conflict of interest with the movie studio, executives at NBC-Blue agreed to allow James Newill, the screen Renfrew, to play the starring role if the program moved to the West Coast. In the meantime, the new half-hour format would originate from the studios in New York City, known to all interests as “a substitute cast,” although House Jameson and Brad Barker were merely reprising their roles from the 1936–37 series.

 

George Ludlam was hired to write the scripts, based on 14-page plot summaries by Laurie York Erskine, who had no time to write two drafts of a weekly half-hour radio script. Ludlam, an experienced script writer with such credits as For Men Only and Spy at Large under his belt, would eventually go on to establish The Adventures of Superman for radio in early 1940. Without the continuation format of a daily serial, these half-hour stories were superior on many levels.

 

The adventures dramatized during the half-hour rendition of Renfrew of the Mounted consisted of both single-episode adventures and multi-episode story arcs. A number of recurring characters bridged continuity even when Renfrew was solving cases within one radio broadcast. Some of the half-hour adventures were adaptations of short stories written years prior by Erskine, others recycled material from short stories with revisions, and a number of them were originals. The episode “Redheads Won’t Stay Down,” broadcast February 18, 1939, was adapted from a story in Renfrew Rides North (1931). The episode “Signals in the Dark,” broadcast June 29, 1940, was inspired by the seafaring stories of the ships that mysteriously wrecked in the fog at San Francisco Bay — one in particular that disappeared without a trace but today is assumed to have wrecked and sunk.

 

Despite all the publicity, however, the radio program expired after the broadcast of October 12, 1940, with Renfrew riding the range on the silver screen courtesy of second-run theatres. The final movie in the franchise was released nationally back in July. On October 3, 1940, L.H. Titterton, manager of the Script Division at NBC, wrote to Douglas Storer with an official verdict: “Renfrew has been with us through thick and thin for several seasons now and much effort and time on everybody’s part has been expended to find a sponsor. We have not succeeded and for this we are very sorry. However, time is so precious on the air that we feel that we will just have to kiss Renfrew goodbye and make the last broadcast October 12. I want to thank you for your courtesy during the long months of the Renfrew programs and tell you that we want to be able to work out another program arrangement with you sometime in the future.”

 

According to production and call sheets in the NBC files, every half-hour episode was recorded. Sadly, like the fifteen-minute radio serial before it, recordings of the radio broadcasts were subject to the ravages of time. Fewer than half a dozen recordings from the 1939–1940 series are known to exist in collector hands, and the transcription discs for the remainder of the broadcasts are presumed “lost.”

 

The following are plot summaries gleaned from review of the radio scripts, filling in the gap that “lost” recordings would not be able to provide.

 

EPISODE #63, “THE CLASH IN THE BRAMBLES”

Broadcast March 23, 1940

CAST: Roger DeKoven, Sean Dillon, James McCallion, Jose Perez, and Elliot Reid.

PLOT: Winslow, the head of the Northern Star Mining Company, has discovered the tradeoff to making his fortune when subjected to threats and blackmail. His son, Denny Winslow, proves to be a tenderfoot when he sets out for a three-week vacation near the Arctic with Todd Gordon, son of the mining company’s superintendent. Todd proves to be a thoroughly experienced woodsman as they start roughing the countryside on a prospecting trip. Mac and Reno, having tailed the company plane, find the boys and kidnap Denny in the hopes of collecting a tidy ransom. Three weeks later, Denny returns to the company to report the kidnapping of Todd, who’d been mistaken for Denny by the kidnappers. Hoping to find the hideout, Renfrew flies up to Retribution and starts exploring every lake within 50 miles. After finding the location, Renfrew jumps back into the plane when he observes the kidnappers attempting to flee. In what could be described as minor aerial combat, Renfrew shoots both motors on their plane, then covers the men when they are forced to land. In desperation, the kidnappers threaten to shoot Todd, until Renfrew points out the obvious: doing so will only mean they would hang inside a month. Realizing their position, the men surrender only to discover how they’d given away their position to Renfrew so quickly… when Todd was forced to go out and fetch firewood for the stove, he’d spelled his name in the sand by the lake. And imagine their surprise when they discover they’d kidnapped the wrong person in the first place!

 

EPISODE #64, “THE CASE OF DAN CHESTER”

Broadcast March 30, 1940

CAST: Lester Chambers, Dennis Hoey, Fred Knight, Eric Rolf, and Eddie Wragge.

PLOT: Inspector Renfrew is on the trail of Jake Grenstadt, an outlaw who’d headed a gang of ruffians wanted for breaking into stores and camps and robbing up and down along the border. Dressed in plain clothes, Renfrew ventures to the new mining fields along the Tawney River, far up in the northern mountains. Along the way he meets Jim Chester and his son Dan, who are venturing north to open a store; they have a wagon full of provisions they intend to sell to millionaire miners. When Jake Grenstadt shows up, he demands Jim Chester pay for a license to operate a business in the area — a rule he himself had created. Regardless of Jim’s rudeness to the disguised Renfrew, the Mountie overpowers the criminal and throws him into a barrel of molasses, damaging Grenstadt’s ego. The criminal later plans to smash up Chester’s tent of provisions by starting a stampede with beef cattle, while Renfrew is asked by the town residents for help — the town’s been under Grenstadt’s thumb for long enough. Regardless of the fact that Jim Chester has treated Renfrew with disrespect, young Dan agreed to follow instructions and keep tabs on the local cattle. When Grenstadt and his men show up to start a stampede, Dan blows his whistle to alert the law. Renfrew arrives, along with a local who has been deputized, to thwart the scheme and place the racketeers under arrest for robbery and attempted murder. Jim Chester makes a mental note: In the future he will be kind to strangers.

 

EPISODE #80, “SPARE THE ROD!”

Broadcast July 20, 1940

CAST: Charita Bauer, Ray Bramley, Jean Dillon, Frank Lovejoy, and

Clementine Turrell.

PLOT: Corporal Sheehan is assigned to investigate a daylight holdup of the Marvale Bank, involving a stolen car left wrecked beside a main highway that runs through the Canadian Rockies. The bandits have vanished into thin air, making their escape in an area studded with summer resorts. Renfrew offers assistance, suspecting the robbers are hiding out by playing the part of vacationing guests — riding the trails, out on the golf course, or taking a plunge in the pools. At one summer resort in particular, Sheehan falls victim to a practical joke in a mudhole, masterminded by tourists Connie Gordon and her sister Sheila. After Renfrew reminds Connie that any action calculated to destroy respect for the uniform reduces the strength of the law, Connie throws a tomato at Renfrew in disgust. Later, Connie and Sheila befriend Charley Pierson, the leader of the bandit gang. Unaware of Pierson’s real identity, she soon realizes that her life is in danger. When Renfrew discovers the situation, he and Sheehan employ a couple of additional Mounties to help apprehend the bandits — teaching Connie a lesson not to shame the very men responsible for protecting her.

 

NOTES: It was instructed that the character of Jumbo, one of the bandits, was to be played like James Cagney.

NOTE: Plots are reprinted with permission from Renfrew of the Mounted: A History of Laurie York Erskine's Canadian Mounted Franchise by Martin Grams, Jr. 

TV Guide Trivia from 1959

During the 1950s and 1960s, TV Guide featured a minimum of two pages of news blurbs related to television programming and television personalities. Many of these blurbs were word through the Hollywood grapevine, some reprinted from Variety and Broadcasting magazine. While these items are of historical note, sometimes providing the reasoning for programming changes or unusual casting, a number of blurbs provide us with fascinating trivia.

 

Reprinted below are a number of those news blurbs from 1959, for programming decisions that never happened. Information in Italics is from me, clarifying what did happen during the course of events.

 

June 13, 1959

Have Gun – Will Travel will film four shows in Mexico this summer, another four or five in Hawaii. If the location jaunts are successful, the show next year will travel to Japan, Asia and Europe. 

 

June 6, 1959

Richard Carlson goes into production in June with another 39 episodes of Mackenzie’s Raiders. (A second season never went into production.)

 

May 30, 1959

Ed Sullivan trying to line up Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles to do their magic act for the show he’s taking to Moscow next August. The Russians, in return, offered Ed choice of six acts for the special he’s to tape in Moscow for televising here in September.

 

March 28, 1959

Bat Masterson will be stretched to a full hour on Monday nights.

 

February 14, 1959

Jack Oakie is now weighing offers for two different series. The Fat Man and Uncle Sidney. No decision yet.

 

May 9, 1959

Constance Bennett now goes into the projected Mother is the Governor of Texas series, originally planned for Helen Traubel.

 

May 23, 1959

Polly Bergen preparing “The Enchanted Cottage” as a 90-minute TV special.

 

May 16, 1959

Rock Hudson and Joan Crawford may star in a 90-minute special based on Thomas Wolfe’s The Web and the Rock. 

 

April 4, 1959

With nine shopping months until Christmas, there’s a Christmas special in the works. Burl Ives in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” The producers see it as a yearly affair.

 

October 17, 1959

Kathy (THE REAL McCOYS) Nolan and Hugh (WYATT EARP) O’Brian are working up an act that they’d do for TV guest shots. Idea for the act was born when, by coincidence, they appeared at state fairs together last summer.

 

October 3, 1959

Richard Boone will finish filming this season’s batch of HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL episodes in January, will then turn director for two episodes of DEATH VALLEY DAYS, may also direct both a GUNSMOKE and a LINEUP for CBS. 

 

October 3, 1959

Neville Brand, who played Al Capone in the original THE UNTOUCHABLES, and just appeared in DuPont’s BODY AND SOUL, will star in THE SEARCHERS, new series dealing with the Treasury Department’s narcotics division. Test film will be shot in Tokyo this month. 

 

May 23, 1959

Nancy Gates, who plays a man in the first Riverboat episode, may do the role in three more segments of the NBC series.

 

June 6, 1959

If Joan Crawford goes through with plans to do an anthology dramatic series for Pepsi-Cola, it will mark the first time in history a member of the sponsor’s board of directors stars in the sponsor’s show.

 

August 29, 1959

Broderick Crawford has come to the end of the HIGHWAY PATROL road after four years. He’ll do at least 39 episodes of a new series, a Western, which will probably go into production before the snow flies. 

BETTY BOOP'S RADIO PROGRAMS (1932 - 1934)

Betty Boop was a cartoon phenomenon at the time Max Fleischer was producing those black and white 6-minute animated classics for theatrical distribution in the 1930s. Every cartoon was a different concept, with the basic premise that a night club sex kitten would play the lead role. In "Boop-Oop-A-Doop," a villain attempted to compromise her virginity when the ringmaster of a circus massages her legs and suggests she would be fired if she did not submit. In one animated gem, Betty Boop tended the fields on a farm. In "Stopping the Show" (1934), a favorite of mine, she hosted a vaudeville show complete with a variety of act and delivered an impersonation of Maurice Chevalier and another of Fanny Brice. When the Hays Code went into effect in 1934, her sex kitten image was revised to wearing clothing more akin to a housewife. While the early cartoons were clearly remnants of the jazz age, her last cartoon in 1939 attempted to modernize her image with the growing popularity of the swing era. Just watching these cartoons in chronological order reveals a time capsule for the changing times.

A total of 90 animated cartoons were produced and released from 1930 to 1939, more than half of them restored in 2K and released on DVD and BluRay. Ongoing efforts to continue releasing additional shorts, remastered, continue to this day. But amidst the comic strips and merchandising, one of the few aspects of Betty Boop rarely explored are the radio broadcasts of the 1930s. There, Mae Questel (who also voiced the cartoons) voiced the character for a series of 15-minute radio adventures, in two different programs, with other cartoon characters such as Koko the Clown and Ferdinand the Frog. One series was known as Betty Boop's Fables (1932-1933), with a format similar to the cartoons where each episode placed Betty into a different storybook scenario from Jack and the Beanstalk to Cinderella. The other was Betty Boop Frolics (1933-1934), which featured more musical entertainment than stories.

A few months ago all of the radio scripts (for both series) were found and scanned into PDF format, allowing us to create an episode guide for each and every broadcast, including a list of songs performed. This truly is a historical even if some animation fans dismiss the discovery because it lacks visuals.  

DICK TRACY GOES TO WAR

When the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie was released in movie theaters in 1990, Bantam Books published a novelization of the screenplay. Max Allan Collins, who wrote the newspaper strip (following Chester Gould’s five-decade run), was commissioned to write three paperback novels – the first an adaptation of the 1990 screenplay. Collins added bits of background and motivation to improve the story, so if you are a fan of the 1990 movie, I recommend you seek out the paperback and enjoy reading a better rendition.

 

Collins’ second and third novels were Dick Tracy Goes to War (1991) and Dick Tracy Meets His Match (1992). Where the film novelization was set vaguely in the Depression-era 1930's, and Goes to War took place in late 1942 and Meets His Match was set late 1949. Over the past week I read Dick Tracy Goes to War and essentially an original novel, it utilized plot elements and characters from several different wartime storylines in the newspaper strip. Like the previous novel and the film from which it derived, Goes to War pits Dick Tracy against a coalition of many different foes, rather than just one or two.

 

Dick Tracy is eager to serve his country in any way he can. But Lieutenant Commander Tracy of Naval Intelligence was needed on the home front, where a wave of wartime racketeering had the city in a deadly grip. As gangsters B-B Eyes, The Mole and the quivering confidence man Shaky try to bleed the city dry, Dick Tracy rushes into battle with his tommy gun blazing. Yet between the town’s toughest gangsters and a slinky seductress named Black Pearl, the crime-stopping hero found himself distracted from the real danger: foreign agents who were zeroing in on a top-secret weapon that could destroy the country. 

 

Max Allan Collins has said that he considers this book his best Dick Tracy work in any medium, and one of his best novels overall. Because it was not a novelization of a pre-existing screenplay and had nothing directly to do with the strip itself, Collins received little editorial interference from Disney Studios and Tribune Media Services, giving him a level of freedom he did not have on any previous Dick Tracy project.

 

As a fan of the Dick Tracy comic strip, I found this novel to be above average and highly recommended. Worth seeking out if you want a good read. 

 

The Lost Radio Adventures of "THE SHADOW" (1953)

As many fans of the radio program know, not every broadcast of The Shadow exists in recorded form. The radio episodes were melodramatic, with The Shadow often tracking down mass murderers and psychotic killers who were carrying out bizarre crimes. In one episode, a modern-day pirate uses a privately-owned submarine to wreak havoc on the high seas, and in another a mad scientist rips airplanes out of the sky with a giant magnet. Using his invisibility to cloud men’s minds so they cannot see him, he appeared more like an avenging conscience that plagued the guilty culprits until the criminals fell victim to their own demise. Less than fifty percent of the radio broadcasts exist in recorded form, which is a darn pity considering the cult fanbase that exists for this series. Thankfully we have the radio scripts to consult. Enclosed are five plot summaries for radio episodes that do not exist in recorded form.

 

Episode #613 “THE CRYING KITTEN KILLER”

Broadcast March 29, 1953

Copyright Registered in U.S. Copyright Office, #DU33868, April 24, 1953.

Renewal Copyright Registration #RE97-144, July 27, 1981.

Script written by Jerry McGill.

Plot: Commissioner Weston is baffled. There have been two muggings and one murder in three nights. The mugger uses hungry kittens to lure victims into dark alleys and vacant lots to rob them. When the body of a half-starved Siamese kitten, too sick to move, is found next to the recent victim, Lamont and Margot question all the veterinarians and pet shop owners in the neighborhood. A pet store owner named Squires gives Lamont and Margot a tip, leading to an old brownstone occupied by a man named West and his landlady, Hilda. After questioning the suspects, Lamont discovers that Hilda is the Crying Kitten Killer. She stole West’s kittens and starved them so they would meow when someone passed by. Having knocked West unconscious, she attempts to rout through his room for the money he supposedly hoarded in a mattress. Squires discovers Hilda’s scheme and attempts to blackmail her, becoming another victim. It turns out that West never had a fortune stashed away and the police arrive to take control of the situation. In a desperate attempt to escape, Hilda trips over the kitten she used to trap her victims, breaking her neck in the fall down the rickety stairs.

 

Trivia, etc. The crying sound of the hungry kitten was pre-recorded and not performed by an actor.

 

Episode #615 “THE DEATH MASTER”

Broadcast April 12, 1953

Copyright Registered in U.S. Copyright Office, #DU33870, April 24, 1953.

Renewal Copyright Registration #RE97-142, July 27, 1981.

Script written by J.G. Leighton (a pseudonym of John Cole).

Plot: The vicious insurance racket of Hugo Guttman and his accomplice, Snapper, remains unobserved by the law until an underworld informant named Charlie tips off Lamont and Margot. Arranging with an unscrupulous doctor to sign a death certificate testifying that the body of a vagrant was actually that of the insured, they employ a mortician named Latisse to work with the bodies and to make them bear a resemblance to the deceased. The deceased’s wife would then hold a formal funeral and later join her actual husband in another part of the country. Latisse applied his skills as an artist to help with the crimes, unaware that he was being duped into participating in a racket. Margot investigates Latisse while The Shadow searches Guttman’s office. Guttman arrives and attempts to eliminate Margot, accidentally shooting Latisse instead. Before Margot takes the next bullet, The Shadow knocks the gun out of the crook’s hand and holds him until the police arrive.

 

Episode #616 “THE TORCH”

Recorded April 14, 1953. Broadcast April 19, 1953

Copyright Registered in U.S. Copyright Office, #DU34351, June 15, 1953.

Renewal Copyright Registration #RE97-141, July 27, 1981.

Script written by Max Ehrlich.

Plot: Professor Landry of the local observatory has perfected a new celestial telescope capable of reversing the science of the lens. A notorious arsonist known as The Torch and his two henchmen murder the professor and use the machine for evil. Hidden in the telescopic tube is a special howitzer that fires Thermite shells. When the tube is sighted accurately using precision machinery, the arsonist commits his crime while staying a good distance from the scene. As Carl Brand, the owner of a fur company is about to file bankruptcy, The Torch makes him an offer to collect fire insurance that would clear his debts and handsomely pay The Torch. Brand, however, switched furs with imitations in the warehouse before the scheduled fire, giving Lamont and Margot a clue to suspect foul play. Angry, The Torch uses his machine to burn a hole through Brand’s chest. Realizing the power of the sun and a telescope would be needed to commit such a crime, Lamont investigates the nearby observatory. As The Shadow, he discovers that The Torch is none other than John Stearns, an employee of the insurance company, who was using his inside information for personal profit. Stealing The Torch’s gun, The Shadow holds the criminals at bay while Margot fetches Commissioner Weston.

 

Trivia, etc. This episode was a rewrite of a former Shadow broadcast titled “Death from the Sky” (November 29, 1942). The plot and dialogue remained the same but the names of the fictional characters were changed.

 

Episode #618 “WHITE ANGEL OF DEATH”

Recorded April 28, 1953. Broadcast May 3, 1953

Copyright Registered in U.S. Copyright Office, #DU34353, June 15, 1953.

Renewal Copyright Registration #RE97-139, July 27, 1981.

Script written by Judith and David Bublick.

Plot: After witnessing a hit and run in the streets, Lamont follows the dying man’s last words to the White Angel, a nightclub known in police circles as a hangout for big time gamblers with many criminal operations in the city. Lamont goes undercover as a singer to learn what goes on behind the scenes but when his cover is exposed he flees into the night. Margot attends as a respectable customer and together with what they learn the truth becomes known. Prominent out-of-state customers are blackmailed after the club photographer takes incriminating photos. If the victims choose to face the consequences of malicious gossip, they are silenced for their efforts. Learning the name of the hotel where the most recent victim resides, The Shadow observes the blackmail attempt followed by efforts to push the victim from a sixteenth story window to give the appearance of suicide. The Shadow tricks Angelo, the owner of the White Angel, into shooting about the room, emptying his gun and alerting the police who respond to his wild shooting.

 

Episode #619 “MURDER WILL SPEAK”

Recorded April 29, 1953. Broadcast May 10, 1953

Copyright Registered in U.S. Copyright Office, #DU35507, November 13, 1953.

Renewal Copyright Registration #RE97-124, July 27, 1981.

Script written by Bret Morrison.

Plot: Accepting an invitation to Seacliff Mansion, Lamont and Margot investigate a mysterious death during a rehearsal of “Hamlet” that lends suspicion to a rare poison as the cause. In the dark, they soon find themselves confronted by a horrible glowing face and a voice with a puzzling message. During the confusion, and protected by the darkness, an unknown assailant attacks Lamont. After questioning all the suspects on the premises, Lamont finally solves the mystery. Pop Worth, the caretaker and theatre custodian, wanted to thwart a massive buy-out of real estate on the island because of the fond memories he had of the past. Using a Medici poison ring which he brought back from Africa, Pop committed the murder in hopes of exacting revenge on the man who not only stole his only love but now tried to steal the theater. Attempting to evade The Shadow, Pop races up the

stairs to the stage and puts the noose meant for the ghost of Hamlet’s father around his own neck.

 

NOTES: The plot summaries above were reprinted with permission from The Shadow: The History and Mystery of the Radio Program, 1930-1954 by Martin Grams, Jr.

The Lone Ranger and the War Horse

For fans of The Lone Ranger, here is a PDF of a children's book featuring the character, one of thousands of premiums sold in the stores during the 1950s. This retro classic will only be available for a few weeks so be sure to grab this today. Enjoy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1aygovrji1193ul/Lone%20Ranger%20and%20the%20War%20Horse.pdf?dl=0

Calling DICK TRACY! Six Decades of Dick Tracy

Back in the 1980s, before the days of the Internet, there were books published about retro pop culture that were a feast for folks like myself. Often with historical documentation, these books were heavily illustrated and covered all of the topics they could from collectibles to comic books. As as child in the 1980s, I found them to be a treasure trove of information. Our local library had a couple about The Three Stooges and I digested every piece of trivia from them.

Earlier this week I came across one of those books while wandering a comic con. This one, written by James Van Hise, focuses on the character of Dick Tracy. The book covers the history of the newspaper strip, comic books, television series, Republic Pictures serials, RKO movies, and collectibles. Even more intriguing is an interview with Chester Gould that was never in print until the publication of this book. 

While many books exhaust their tomes with lengthy plot summaries, this one covers all the basics. A great starting point for knowing the facts about Dick Tracy and his incarnations. I spent the past day or two enjoying the content in the pages of this book. Perhaps this post bring up memories of those same types of publications you had way back when: The Marx Brothers, John Wayne, Batman, and so on. Perhaps you still have one or two of them in your collection?

The Wine Lover's Daughter: A Memoir (Book Review)

 

In The Wine Lover’s Daughter, Anne Fadiman examines – with all her characteristic wit and feeling – her relationship with her father, Clifton Fadiman, a renowned literary critic, editor, and radio host whose greatest love was wine. An intellectual and public personality, Clifton Fadiman was perhaps best known as a literary critic for The New Yorker magazine. Pop culture enthusiasts know him as the weekly host of Information, Please, which later spawned an annual Almanac. Fadiman's witticisms and sayings were frequently printed in newspapers and magazines. "When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than there was before," was one of the better known. Fadiman became a prime example of the "witty intellectual" and if you remember those “Book of the Month” mail order clubs… you can thank Fadiman for establishing that good ol’ pastime.

Anne’s book arrived in my mail box this week and like many of those 250-page memoirs that are overshadowed by the tens of thousands of books available on library shelves, this one is worthy of your time and attention. In full disclosure, I was partly responsible for the contents of this book. When Anne’s daughter contacted me, assisting her mother with this book, seeking information about her grandfather’s professional career, I mailed complimentary copies of my book on Information, Please, published many years ago by Bear Manor Media in Oklahoma. Hence the reason why the complimentary, autographed copy arriving at my door.

This book documents the personal side of Clifton Fadiman, his appreciation of wine – along with a plummy upper-crust accent, expensive suits, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Western literature – which was an essential element of his escape from lower-middle-class Brooklyn to swanky Manhattan. But wine was not just a class-vaulting accessory; it was an object of ardent desire. The Wine Lover’s Daughter traces the arc of a man’s infatuation from the glass of cheap Graves he drank in Paris in 1927; through the Château Lafite-Rothschild 1904 he drank to celebrate his eightieth birthday, when he and the bottle were exactly the same age; to the wines that sustained him in his last years, when he was blind but still buoyed, as always, by hedonism.

Clifton Radioman

Along the way, this book educates you with the basic appreciation of fine wine. After Fadiman sampled a glass, he once remarked how wine lived “a triple life: one in the mouth, another in the course of slipping down the gullet, still another, a beautiful ghost, the moment afterward.” As Anne revealed, her father was a lousy driver and a two-finger typist, but he could open a wine bottle as deftly as any swain ever undressed his lover.

Along the way this book provides us with the reminder that not all greats are destined to perfection of the basic tasks that we take for granted and assume everyone is capable of performing. After all, we ourselves generate fallacy and live within its shadows. Whether we discover something new about ourselves or a gentle reminder to forgive and forget the fallacies of others, perfection is rarely a word to brand about… and the true reason why memoirs are a full-course meal for the wise. Wine is the spine of this touching memoir; the life and character of Anne Fadiman’s father, along with her relationship with him and her own less ardent relationship with wine, are the flesh. The Wine Lover’s Daughter is a poignant exploration of love, ambition, class, family, and the pleasures of the palate by one of the finest essayists. Anne may not have inherited her father's love of wine, but she most definitely has his gift for writing and love of all things literacy.