The Twilight Zone: Season 1, Episode Twenty-Four “Long Live Walter Jameson”

Original Air Date: March 18, 1960
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: Anton “Tony” Leader

“It is death that gives this world its point. We love a rose because we know it will soon be gone…”

“Long Live Walter Jameson” opens beautifully as we enter into a college classroom. Walter Jameson (played by Kevin McCarthy of 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers repute) is a professor delivering a lecture on the American Civil War. He holds an extraordinary, almost unbelievable, amount of intimate historical knowledge –many students say his lectures are so powerful, it’s almost as if he has lived through them. His friend and colleague, Professor Sam Kittridge (played by French actor Edgar Stehli) invites Jameson over to his house. Why? Because Jameson is engaged to Sam’s daughter, Susanna (played by Dodie Heath who also appeared in a number of Hitchcock shorts).

“You’re looking at Act One, Scene One, of a nightmare, one not restricted to witching hours of dark, rainswept nights. Professor Walter Jameson, popular beyond words, who talks of the past as if it were the present, who conjures up the dead as if they were alive…In the view of this man, Professor Samuel Kittridge, Walter Jameson has access to knowledge that couldn’t come out of a volume of history, but rather from a book on black magic, which is to say that this nightmare begins at noon.”
-Rod Serling

Later at the Kittridge home, Walter and Sam engage in an extensive conversation while playing chess. Sam tests Walter with a pressing question: ‘how old are you?’ Sam describes how Walter has not aged a day during their time working together. Sam then reveals a photo of a Civil War soldier, Major Hugh Skelton, who looks exactly like Walter Jameson. After much questioning, Walter relents. As it turns out, Walter is over 2,000 years old. A long time ago he paid an alchemist to help him overcome his fear of death, and he was somehow granted the secret to immortality. Over thousands of years, he has watched his loved ones pass away, including his own children. With this horrifying knowledge, Sam forbids Walter from marrying Susanna but things grow out of control when an elderly woman named Laurette (played by Estelle Winwood) tracks him down –his former wife. She grabs a revolver and shoots Walter. Moments later, he rapidly ages in front of Sam: “nothing lasts forever… thank god…” In horror, Susanna enters the room to find Walter’s empty suit and a pile of dust where he once stood.

“Last stop on a long journey, as yet another human being returns to the vast nothingness that is the beginning and into the dust that is always the end.”
-Rod Serling

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My Thoughts On “Long Live Walter Jameson”

With similar themes to the early Season One episode “Escape Clause,” Walter Jameson has learned the true value of death –“It’s death that gives this world its point.” For the man who is cursed to live forever, after some 2,000 years of watching his loved ones die, death itself becomes a sweet release. Birth, growth, and death are all integral parts of life, and efforts to minimize or overcome these stages of life are unnatural. Walter Jameson has learned this lesson the hard way.

“Long Live Walter Jameson” is a a striking, atmospheric, unsettling urban folktale. Inexplicably, Walter Jameson was given the elixir of life, but he was still not immune to a bullet. In the end, his body is horrifyingly reduced to dust. Everyone delivers a wonderful performance in this episode, particularly Kevin McCarthy, though William Tuttle’s make-up effects and George T. Clemen’s camerawork really stand out here. “Long Live Walter Jameson” is another brilliant installment in the series and a triumph for Charles Beaumont.

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Credits:

• Director: Anton M. “Tony” Leader
• Written by: Charles Beaumont
• Music: Stock Music
• Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
• Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
• Art Directors: George W. Davis and William Ferrari
• Film Editor: Bill Mosher
• Assistant Director: Edward Denault
• Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Rudy Butler
• Sound: Franklin Milton and Jean Valentino
• Makeup: William Tuttle
• Casting Director: Mildred Gusse
• Starring:
  • Kevin McCarthy…..Walter Jameson/ Tom Bowen/ Maj. Hugh Skelton
    • Kevin McCarthy (1914-2010) was best remembered as the lead in the horror science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). He appeared in television shows like The Rifleman, The Wild, Wild West, and Hawaii Five-O among others. McCarthy gave his first credited film performance in Death of a Salesman (1951), portraying Biff Loman to Fredric March’s Willy Loman. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He later appeared in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie as Uncle Walt (during the segment entitled “It’s a Good Life”) Kevin McCarthy was married twice and had a total of five children. He died of pneumonia in 2010 on Cape Cod at the age of 96.
  • Edgar Stehli…..Professor Samuel Kittridge
    • Edgar Stehli (1884-1973) was a French-born American actor who got his start in old-time radio with shows like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He then turned to film and television, appearing in shows like Dennis the Menace, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Texan. He died in 1973 in New Jersey at the age of 89. At the time of his death, he was one of the oldest active members of Actors’ Equity Association.
  • Estelle Winwood…..Laurette Bowen
    • Estelle Winwood (1883-1984) was an English actress who moved to the United States mid-career and became celebrated for her wit and longevity, starring in film and TV roles until her nineties. She was friends with many actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood including Tallulah Bankhead and Bette Davis. She died in her sleep in Woodland Hills, California in 1984 at age 101. She was married four times and had no children.
  • Dody Heath…..Susanna Kittridge
    • Dodie Heath (1926-2023) started her career in Broadway before turning to television and film, appearing in televisions shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
  • Geri Chatis…..student #1
  • Beverly Englander…..student #2
  • Charles Arrigo…..student #3
  • Brad Broun…..student #4
  • David Harrell…..student #5
  • Paul Denton…..student #6
  • Phil Kaufman…..student #7
  • Bob McCord…..bit part
    • Robert “Bob” McCord III (1915-1980) appeared in a variety of Westerns in addition to The Twilight Zone. He set a record for appearing on The Twilight Zone 75 times (mostly uncredited). He was known as “Bud McCord.”

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The Twilight Zone Trivia:

• The original title for this script throughout production was “Forever and a Day” (an allusion to William Shakespeare’s As You Like It).
• The original idea by makeup artist William Tuttle was to hire a second actor (Lloyd Rogers) for the aging effect of Jameson with a progressive lap-dissolve effect that was used in other films such as Wolf Man (1941) but instead that idea was scrapped. The scenes of Walter Jameson’s aging was performed by using an old movie-making trick. Red and green age lines were drawn on actor Kevin McCarthy’s face to be shot in black and white. During the beginning of the scene, red lighting was used, bathing the scene in red and hiding the age lines. As the scene progressed, the red lights were turned down and green lights were brought up. Under the green lights, the red age lines were more prominent. The lighting changes were unseen by the audience because it was filmed in black-and-white. A similar effect was used in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and also The Twilight Zone episode “Queen of the Nile.”
• The makeup for this episode cost $184.
• The opening scene of this episode was stock footage of Collins University in Texas.
• The exterior of Jameson’s house was filmed on the ‘Andy Hardy” street which features prominently in numerous Twilight Zone episodes. The exterior of Jameson’s house (“The Philadelphia House”) is the same one Howard Duff approaches but never enters in ‘A World of Difference.”
• The date of Major Hugh Skelton’s diary entry of September 11, 1864 is said to be on a Tuesday in the episode, but in reality it was on a Sunday. Interestingly enough, Kevin McCarthy later died on this same date: September 11th (albeit in 2010).
• Professor Samuel Kittridge would have been born in 1889.
• This episode mistakenly implies that during the U.S. Civil War General William T. Sherman ordered the Union Ary to set fire to the buildings in Atlanta in September 1864 and that he even started the fires himself. However, in reality Confederates accidentally started the fire in Atlanta after blowing up ammunition depots (it was correctly depicted in 1939’s Gone With The Wind). Numerous viewers wrote to Rod Serling as well as CBS pointing out the mistake. Serling responded: “The script in question was written by Charles Beaumont and very likely should have been checked for accuracy before a judgement like the one made was allowed to slip through. Since I don’t happen to be a Civil War buff, I’m not at all knowledgable in this area; but I’m disturbed that any misstatement of fact would occur on my show.”
• This episode was originally scheduled to be shot over three days, but the crew needed an extra day mainly because of the construction needed to make Jameson’s study appear more aged.
• In the Blu-Ray audio commentary, Kevin McCarthy revealed that he never met Rod Serling and that aside from the film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, his appearance in this episode generated the most fan mail he ever received.
• The revolver Laurette uses to shoot Walter is a Colt 1862, appropriate for a man who fought in the Civil War. This gun was apparently first sold during the Civil War, and was a common side-arm for both Union and Confederate soldiers.
• Ironically, for an episode dealing with immortality, the entire cast all lived exceptionally long lives. Kevin McCarthy lived to be 96, Estelle Winwood lived to be 101, Edgar Stehli passed away shortly after turning 89, and Dodie Heath died at the age of 96.
• Twilight Zone writer Jerome Bixby (who wrote the classic episode “It’s a Good Life“) also wrote novels dealing with the subject of immortality: The Man From Earth and Requiem for Methuselah.
• Mary Shelley’s story “The Mortal Immortal” also explores the question of immortality as a man receives the gift of immortality from a mysterious alchemist, only to ultimately watch his loved ones die off.
• This is the only episode in which the phrase “The Twilight Zone” is not used in either the opening or closing narration.
• Anton “Tony” Leader later directed the classic Twilight Zone “The Midnight Sun” as well as many episodes of Lost In Space.
• Five years after this episode, makeup artist William Tuttle became the first makeup artist to receive an Academy Award, for The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (which was also scripted by Charles Beaumont).

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