pca1995-tom swift silver screen

8/8/2019 PCA1995-Tom Swift Silver Screen

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Tom Swift on the Silver Screenby James D. Keeline


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Tom Swift was a pioneer in the motion picture and television industries. By1914, he had perfected a self-developing,

portable motion picture camera and in

1928, he invented an attachment to radiothat let listeners see the actors andsingers on the stage in color.

Readers know of his many adventures inconnection with his inventions. Tom washired by a theater owner to travel aroundthe globe in one of his airships to filmexciting footage of wild animals, strange

peoples, and perhaps even an earthquake

or a volcano eruption if he should happenupon them; of course he did. His filmswere marveled at by the theater ownerand the public. Years later, owners oftheater chains felt his new TalkingPictures attachment to radio would be athrea t t o the i r bus iness and theythreatened to blow up his laboratory.Viewers of film and television, however,have not had a chance to see his narrow

escapes, nor his inventive brilliance.

Tom nearly made an appearance on the bigand little screens on several occasions. Asearly as 1914, Edward Stratemeyer wascirculating several pages of typewrittenmaterial proposing that his inventive seriesbe used as the subject of two-reel (silent, ofcourse) films. By that time, seventeen volumes had been published in the series

and sales were at the rate of 150,000 copies

per year. He even described Tom and MaryNestors relationship as a slight loveelement which might be made a bit strongerif desired. He further adds For scenariopurposes it might be well to play up Mary,the girl Tom loved, a bit more prominentlyin the first books of the series. The primaryscenes for these proposed films include:

Swift workshop...a typical inventors

workshop, with much machinery, partsof airships, etc., also electrical devices.

Library of the Swift home, full of booksand models and blue prints. 1

The entry for Tom Swift and His Airshipwas self-described as very thrilling.About a paragraph was used to describeeach of the volumes in the series thus far.Presumably Stratemeyer actually offered

Tom Swift on the Silver Screen1993, 1998, James D. Keeline

First page of Edward Stratemeyers proposalto make films from the Tom Swift series of

books.

Tom Swifts fourteenth adventure took him toremote parts of the world in search of exciting

footage for a motion picture theater owner.


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this to motion picture concerns that wereprimarily based in New York and NewJersey at the time before their move toHollywood around 1916.

The most famous attempt to put Tom on thebig screen was by Twentieth Century Foxin 1968. To tell the full story, it is necessary

to tell the story of Barry Kirk. EdwardStratemeyer had produced the Tom Swiftseries since its inception in 1910. Thebasic method Stratemeyer used began witha title proposal sheet which was generallyapproved by the publisher. The titleproposals, which were about a paragraph inlength would then be given to the ghostwriter who would write the full story withtwenty-five chapters and about 214 pages.

For more than twenty years the ghost writerfor the Tom Swift series was Howard Garis,who was best known for his Uncle Wiggilystories printed in books and syndicated

newspaper stories. After Stratemeyer diedin May 1930, his two daughters began tocontinue this method of series book creationthat produced the Bobbsey Twins, HardyBoys, Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, HoneyBunch, Happy Hollisters, and dozens ofother series from 1899 through 1984.

Barry M. Kirk was born six years afterEdward Stratemeyer died.2 When he wasseventeen, he met Harriet Adams while shewas on a trip to California.3 Around 19564,he convinced a judge to allow him to use$1,000 from a trust fund to option film andtelevision rights to Tom Swift and otherS t ra t emeye r Syndica t e cha rac t e r s(including the Bobbsey Twins, Bomba theJungle Boy, and the Hardy Boys but not

Nancy Drew which was already optioned).5This occurred immedia te ly a f te r thepublication of the first volumes of the newTom Swift Jr. series in 1954. In a 1967,interview Kirk recalled that he signed anagreement with Goldstone-Tobias fromwhich he later backed out.6 He studied filmat USC and at one point invited DavidBrown, who was the head of TwentiethCentury Foxs story department, to lecture.

When Kirk asked about Tom Swift, Browndid not think the time was right for a non-Disney childrens film.

After his graduation from USC in 1957,7

Kirk persuaded Jack Wrather to invest$60,000 into a Tom Swift television seriespilot. Probably part of Kirks persuasioninvolved the fact that Wrathers wife,Bonita Granville, portrayed Nancy Drew in

four films for Warner Brothers in 1938 and1939.

The production was finished by 1958 andof fe red by Wra the r s Independen tTelevision Corporation to all three of thenetworks and two cereal companies ,General Mills and Kellogg, attempting togain sponsorship for The Adventures ofTom Swift without success.8 The pilot

starred a Garry Vinson [sic] as TomSwift.9 A Gary Vinson was listed as aliving actor in Who Was Who in Hollywood.This actor was described as a supportingactor who first appeared in several films,including: A Majority of One, McHales

Navy and Nobodys Perfect. The earliest ofthese was in 1962. It is unclear whetherthis Gary Vinson was the same as theGarry Vinson for Tom Swift.

Barry M. Kirk obtained film rights to Tom Swift

and other characters in the mid-1950s.


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To date, no copy of this pilot nor its scriptor storyline has surfaced; however, Kirks1966 interview identified it as a pilot for aTom Swift Jr. series.10 Another articlestated Wrather owns a pilot which hecannot distribute, rights having beenreve r t ed . Wi th t he new 20 th dea l ,

development of the junior Swift characteris in temporary protective limbo.11 Lettersfrom the Syndicate at the time show areluctance to grant rights to the originalTom Swift since it was an out of printseries, so this may be true. The offering ofa Tom Swift Jr. series in 1958 or 1959would come severa l years a f te r thetelevision appearance of live televisionscience fiction like Captain Video (1949-

53 and 1955-56) on the DuMont networkand Tom Corbett(1950) on CBS.12 A letterfrom a fourteen year old boy to VictorAppleton II in September of 1959 outlinedhis own enquiry into the subject of TomSwift on television:

A Mr. Ross Donaldson of the NationalBroadcasting Company, wrote to me andsaid The Tom Swift Series has beenrecently produced on film for television

by Victor Appleton II, and the lettergoes on to say that NBC has viewed this

film but has no plans to add it to theirschedule, and a Mr. Bertram Berman ofColumbia Broadcasting System, said thatCBS has no plans for this series to be puton television as yet, but also said, We

should like to thank you very much forgetting in touch with us. As an old andmost fond Tom Swift partisan, I do, indeedlook forward to the appearance onTe lev i s ion o f h i s more curren t adventures, and the ABC letter was asimilar one.13

Around this time, Kirk lost his option to theHardy Boys which was picked up by theDisney company. They produced two HardyBoys serials for the Mickey Mouse Clubtelevision program with Tommy Kirk andBill Considine. After Disney released theoption, Kirk acquired it again but could notsell it for a second time. After he droppedit again, the Hardy Boys were made into atelevision pilot based on theMystery of theChinese Junk with Rick Gates and TimMatheson in 1965.14

One of two full-scale airships built by Boeing for the Twentieth Century Fox film intended to bemoving stages suspended by cables from a helicopter for filming.


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A concept painting showing the Wizard Aeroship from the T


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entieth Century Fox film project flying through the clouds.


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Over the intervening years, Kirk tried tosell film rights for Tom Swift. In 1966, hesigned a deal with Dick Zanuck, the vicepresident of Twentieth Century Fox. Since

Kirk did not have any producing experience,Fox assigned Saul David (and later FrankMcCarthy) to produce the film. A budgetof $8 million was allocated and Gene Kelly,the dancer, was to direct. Dale Hennesywas mentioned as the art director in a newsrelease. Other art directors, perhapsassistants, were Jim Murikami and DianeWager. At least three watercolor renderingswere drawn showing the overall airship, a

detail of the front portion of the airship anda general scene showing the Swift home asa beautiful Victorian mansion and a barn-like building with the airship emerging.

In the summer of 1967, discussions withthe Boeing Aircraft and the Goodyear Tireand Rubber Company were held to designand construct a fullscale airship withproperties of an airplane and of a dirigible

balloon. The airship was designed to behung by cables from a helicopter and filmedfrom a second helicopter. It included manyof the features described in the Tom Swiftbooks, especially an enclosed passengercabin which was constructed much like arailroad car of the time.15 The open controlcabin used wicker seating for maximumcomfort yet light weight. This was typicalof aircraft of the era. The construction of

this very elaborate stage prop was reportedat $500,000.16 Of course, today the sameamount or much more would be invested tocreate miniatures or computer generatedanimation from a firm such as GeorgeLucas Industrial Lights and Magic.

The revised screenplay was begun in

January of 196817 based on an earlier scriptby J a me s D . Bucha nna n a nd Rona ldAustin.18 By October 1 of the same year itwas revised by Jim Fritzell and EverettGreenbaum and apparently it was approvedin principle. An introductory note describedthe running length of the existing revisedscript at two and a half hours.19 Filmingwas expected to begin in 1969.20

The script is classic Tom Swift, although afew of the people seem out of character;especially Mr. Damon (called Dr. Damon)and Mary Nestor (who is a more developedand vivid character but reminds me of thefilm versions of Tom Sawyers BeckyThatcher). The story centers around aninventor in Russia who appears to havedeveloped a tablet to add to water to producea super gasoline. Teddy Roosevelt holds a

meeting with top inventors, including TomEdison, Henry Ford, and of course, TomSwift. He enlists Tom to bring the scientistto the United States. Along the way,members of a Gas Trust and others try tohamper Toms voyage.

The opening scenes of the story showdifferent stages of Toms youth and hisinventive triumphs and humorous near-

triumphs. This creative story, unlike anysingle title, but embodying the spirit of theentire series was not filmed. A letter fromDavid Brown indicated that the decisionnot to make the film was based primarily oncost.21 A letter from Frank McCarthy,however, described another reason for thefilms failure:

Kelly and I had selected many locations

to be used, some of them in Europe. Aboutthis time, the man who was to directHello, Dolly! dropped out, and 20thCentury-Fox, for which Kelly and I wereworking, was in immediate and desperateneed o f a d i rec tor w i th mus ica lexperience, since the film had been castand was ready to go. So I had to surrenderKelly to Dolly .... Somehow Kelly and Icould never get into synchronization, so

Title page of Screenplay for Twentieth Cen-tury Fox Tom Swift Film, revised Oct. 1, 1968


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the Wizard Aeroship was never airborne.20th Century-Fox became interested inmany other big productions and, in theabsence o f Ke l l y and me , never reactivated our project.22

Several years after the cancelation of theproject, the water color paintings were sold

at auction. Rumors indicate that the airshipwas sold to an amusement park in themidwest.

In 1974, a newspaper article indicated thatBarry Ki rk and Levy-Gardner-LavenProductions formed a joint venture toacquire motion picture rights for Tom Swift.Barry Kirk was to produce with ArthurGardner and Jules Levy as executive

producers. Production was targeted forla te 1974 or ear ly 1975. 23 Shor t lythereafter, an article in American Heritagedescribed the L-G-L venture in a photocaption of the Twentieth Century Foxaeroship as a television series attempt.24

That article is known to have several factualomissions; for example, it describes theTwentieth Century Fox film as a musical;probably based on the fact that Gene Kelly

was to direct.

Barry Kirk had a reverence for Tom Swiftand fo r t he t ype o f cha rac t e r s t heStratemeyer Syndicate tried to portray. Heknew tha t Har r i e t Adams was ve ryprotective of the image that her series bookheroes had and that she would not considerany business deal that would tarnish them.This was probably a key reason that Harriet

allowed Kirk to purchase the film optionwhich had three near appearances in 1959,1967, and 1975. Since then, Tom Swift hasappeared on television twice, but hisgreatest chance was lost to the famous f ilmversion of the musical, Hello, Dolly!

On July 3, 1983, a pilot episode in the TomSwift and Linda Craig Mystery Hour wasbroadcast starring Willie Aames and Lori

Loughlin. This first sixty minute show wastitled The Treasure of Rancho del Solwhere Tom and his cousin Linda team torescue their grandfather from fortunehunters seeking a legendary treasure.25

The story shows Tom test ing a newinvention which can perform radio carbondating instantaneously as he points thedevice at the given object. The solution tothe mystery involves hidden passages of a

California mission-era building where Tom

and Lindas grandfather live. Toms newdevice helps them identify walls that werebuilt more recently than the rest of thebuilding. A cable television series of themid-1980s, called theEdison Twins seemsto take some of the basic elements of thispilot and extend them into a series withsome success. There, a brother and sister

solve basic mysteries with the use ofscience which is explained in humorousanimated segments at the end of theprogram.

In early 1993, an episode of George LucasYoung Indiana Jones Chronicles titledPrinceton 1916 has Indy meet a youngNancy Stratemeyer with a father namedEdward who writes the Tom Swift books.

Tom Swift does not appear in the episode,but Indy is seen reading a copy of TomSwift and His Electric Runabout. Indywants to take Nancy to a school dance anduse her fathers car. A generator is burnedout and needs to be repaired. That evening,an engineer from Tom Edisons lab dines

Novelization of Princeton, 1916 episode ofThe Young Indiana Jones ChronicleswhereIndy meets Thomas Edison, Edward

Stratemeyer, and his daughter Nancy.


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with the Jones family and Indy asks for hishelp. When Indy arrives at the lab, a theftof several of Edisons plans have just beenstolen. Indy and Nancy solve the mystery.Apparently and oil concern feels threatenedby Edisons electric car battery. For atime, however suspicion is laid at the feeto f German sp i e s i n t h i s s to ry se t

immediately before the first World War.As a means of thanks, Edison lets Indy usean experimental racing car to take Nancy tothe dance. Naturally Edward Stratemeyerdid not have a daughter named Nancy wholiked to try to solve mysteries. Nor was hesingly involved in writing the Tom Swiftbooks as the program implies. The coloreddust jacket on the copy of Electric Runaboutdid not appear until eight years after thestory was set, however the story waspublished early enough to be included inthis episode. Nevertheless it was a veryenjoyable episode.

Another Tom Swift near-appearance isworth mentioning. In 1946, the CardinalCompany of Los Angeles, proposed thatTom Swift would make a good subject of aradio serial. Two full scripts were submitted

along with an episode-by-episode synopsisof the rest of the program which wouldprobably be in fifteen minute segments.The title of the program was to be TomSwift and His Atom Motor. The storyopens with suitable sound effects and all ofToms friends. As was common in radioshows of the time, a Dr. X was featuredin the show. The story rambles around butis generally good. Tom is described ashaving worked on secret projects duringWorld War II, like the Manhattan Projectand atomic testing in the Pacific Ocean.

Hopefully this is not the end of the TomSwift saga. A story was circulating thatColumbia was considering a Tom Swiftfilm but it appears that they have droppedthe project as well. Hopefully, someonewill take Toms character and put it before

a wider audience in a quality production,perhaps based on the original series, that istrue to the character whom we all respectand admire.

Works Cited

The Adventures of Tom Swift. AuditionProgram #1 , #5 and synops i s .Hollywood: The Cardinal Company,Aug. 24, 1946. (on some pages as TomSwift and His Atom Motor)

Brown, David. Letter to Tom Phillips, Jr.

Aug. 20, 1980.Clu t e , John and Nicho l l s , Pe t e r .

Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. NewYork: St. Martins Press, 1993.

Complete Encyclopedia of Television.#2633.

Dunne, John Gregory. The Studio. NewYork: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.

Goldberg, Lee. Unsold Television Pilots:1955-1988. Jefferson, NC: McFarland& Co, 1990.

Kle in , Dor i s . Bar ry Ki rk ProvesPersistence is a Virtuefor a Producer.

Hollywood Reporter. Dec. 28, 1967.

McCarthy, Frank. Letter to Tom Phillips,Jr. Sep. 15, 1980.

Nicho l l s , Pe t e r . Sc ience F ic t ion

Encyclopedia. Garden Ci ty , NY:Doubleday, 1979.

Prager, Arthur. Bless my collar button, ifit isnt Tom Swift the worlds greatestinventor! American Heritage. Dec.1976. p74.

Press Release from Twentieth Century Fox.Nov. 22, 1966.

Swift Rights Acquired by L-G-L Kirk.unknown newspaper Feb. 21, 1974.

Thomas, Kevin. Tom Swift and HisElectr ic Fi lm Career . LA Times.June 20, 1966

Tom Swift. Revised Screenplay. 101Twentieth Century Fox. Oct. 1, 1968.Screenplay by Jim Fritzell and EverettGreenbaum based on a Screenplay byJames D. Buchanan and Ronald Austin.

Tom Swift Books (41) for Filming: BarryKirk Peddled Works for Decade DickZanuck F ina l ly Makes t he Buy .unknown newspaper. June 7, 1966 (?).


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Tom Swifts Aeroship Being Built forFilm. unknown newspaper: Cleveland,OH? Dec. 25, 1967.

Yates, Robert S. Letter to Victor Appleton,II Sep. 1, 1959.

Notes

1Stratemeyer Syndicate books for MovingPictures: The Adventures of TomSwift. Stratemeyer Syndicate Files(p robab ly wr i t t en by EdwardStratemeyer). circa 1914. 5p.

2Two articles mention Kirks age. Thomas,Kevin. Tom Swift and His ElectricFilm Career. LA Times. June 20, 1966describes him as 30 years old whileKlein, Doris. Barry Kirk ProvesPersistence is a Virtue for a Producer.

Hollywood Reporter. Dec. 28, 1967describes him as 32. This indicates thathis birthday was between June andDecember of 1936.

3Thomas, Kevin. ibid

4Tom Swift Books (41) for Filming: BarryKirk Peddled Works for DecadeDickZanuck F ina l ly Makes t he Buy .

unknown newspaper. June 7, 1966 (?).

5Klein, Doris. ibid

6Klein, Doris. ibid

7Tom Swift Books (41) for Filming


9Goldberg, Lee. Unsold Television Pilots:1955-1988. McFarland & Co, 1990.p49


11 Tom Swift Books (41) for Filming

1 2Nichol l s , Pe t e r . Sc ience F ic t ionEncyclopedia. Doubleday, 1979.

13Yates, Robert S. Let ter to VictorAppleton, II Sep. 1, 1959.

14 Goldberg, Lee. ibid

15

Dunne, John Gregory. The Studio. Farrar,Straus & Giroux, 1969. p106-109.

16 Tom Swifts Aeroship Being Built forFilm. unknown newspaper: Cleveland,Ohio (?). Dec. 25, 1967

17 Tom Swifts Aeroship Being Built forFilm.

18 Press Release from Twentieth CenturyFox. Nov. 22, 1966.

19 Tom Swift. Revised Screenplay. 101Twentieth Century Fox. October 1, 1968.Screenplay by Jim Fritzell and EverettGreenbaum based on a Screenplay byJames D. Buchanan and Ronald Austin.

20 Tom Swifts Aeroship Being Built forFilm.

21 Brown, David. Letter to Tom Phillips, Jr.Aug. 20, 1980.

22 McCarthy, Frank. Letter to Tom Phillips,Jr. Sep. 15, 1980.

23 Swift Rights Acquired by L-G-L Kirk.unknown newspaper Feb. 21, 1974.

24 Prager, Arthur. Bless my collar button,if it isnt Tom Swift the worlds greatestinventor! American Heritage. Dec.1976. p74.

25

Complete Encyclopedia of Television.#2633.


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Artists rendering prepared for the Twentieth Century Fox film of the stately home of Tom Swiftand his family with workshops and Wizard Aeroship amid hills of upstate New York.

Detail of one of the Wizard Aeroships built by Boeing for the Twentieth Century Fox film.

pca1995-tom swift silver screen

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