1st Person (Gulf Playhouse)

1 9 5 3 (USA)
11 x 30 minute episodes

This live anthology series from DuMont presented dramatisations incorporating the subjective camera, a technique developed by Fred Coe for the 1946 feature film Lady in the Lake.

The television camera became the characters’ eyes, and an unseen actor or actress provided the voice and set the emotional tone.

Among the stories presented were ‘One Night Stand’ (a young man attempts to prove to his depressed father that he is a success as a jazz musician) with James Dunn and Conrad Janis; ‘Tears of My Sister’ (the story of a woman who is forced to marry a man she does not love) starring Kim Stanley and Lenka Peterson); ‘I’d Rather Be a Squirrel’ (the story of Sam Thistle, a man who retreats to a tree when situations become difficult) with Wally Cox; ‘August Heat’ (a tale of a man who envisions his own doom) featuring Francis L. Sullivan and Nelson Olmstead; and ‘Comeback’ (an agent attempts to trick a fading but once glamorous actress into accepting a role she does not want); starring Jessie Royce Landis, Murray Hamilton and John Fletcher.

The series aired from 7 July to 11 September 1953. The Gulf Oil Corporation sponsored the show, so the episodes were billed as part of The Gulf Playhouse. 

Episodes

Cafe Society | I’d Rather Be a Squirrel | Death of the Old Man | Comeback | One Night Stand | August Heat | The Tears of My Sister | Crip | The Lady Looks Ahead | Prophet in His Land | A Gift from Cotton Mather