Original Air Date: April 8, 1960
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Ron Winston
“If you don’t believe, Bolie, it won’t be true. That’s the way magic works.”
“The Big Tall Wish” offers an impressive rarity, a nearly all-black cast on a 1960s television show. Regarding the plight of Black actors, Rod Serling, a known civil rights advocate, once stated the following, “Television, like its big sister, the motion picture, has been guilty of the sin of omission… Hungry for talent, desperate for the so-called ‘new face,’ constantly searching for a transfusion of new blood, it has overlooked a source of wondrous talent that resides under its nose. This is the Negro actor” (as quoted in The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree). “The Big Tall Wish” presents a heart-wrenching tale overlaid with a beautiful, downbeat score by Jerry Goldsmith.
“In this corner of the universe, a prizefighter named Bolie Jackson, 183 pounds and an hour and a half away from a comeback at St. Nick’s Arena. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who, by the standards of his profession is an aging, over-the-hill relic of what was, and who now sees a reflection of a man who has left too many pieces of his youth in too many stadiums for too many years before too many screaming people. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who might do well to look for some gentle magic in the hard-surfaced glass that stares back at him.”
-Rod Serling
An aging boxer named Bolie Jackson (played by Ivan Dixon) is friends with a neighborhood boy, Henry (played by Stephen Perry) and his mother (played by Kim Hamilton). Henry makes a “big tall wish” that Bolie wins his upcoming fight. Later, one of Bolie’s team members, Thomas, has bet against him. In a fit of rage, Bolie, punches the wall and breaks his hand. The fight goes terribly and Bolie is knocked out.
However, something miraculous occurs. Suddenly, Bolie finds himself standing in the middle of the ring with his hand in the air. He has, in fact, somehow won the fight. Bolie is the only person who remembers breaking his hand and losing the fight. When he returns home he confronts Henry who begs him to believe in magic and accept his “big tall wish” but Bolie is jaded and skeptical. At the end of the episode his fortunes are reversed. Bolie’s hand is returned to broken and he loses the fight. He returns home to Henry and the boy says: “I ain’t gonna make no more wishes. I’m too old for wishes.” Bolie sorrowfully replies: “Or maybe… maybe there is magic. And maybe there’s wishes, too. I guess the trouble is… there’s not enough people around to believe…”
“Mr. Bolie Jackson, 183 pounds, who left a second chance lying in a heap on a rosin-spattered canvas at St. Nick’s Arena. Mr. Bolie Jackson, who shares the most common ailment of all men, the strange and perverse disinclination to believe in a miracle, the kind of miracle to come from the mind of a little boy, perhaps only to be found in the Twilight Zone.”
-Rod Serling
My Thoughts on “The Big Tall Wish”
A sentimental, magical episode, “The Big Tall Wish” is another true delight from Rod Serling. The fact that it presents a nearly all African-American cast only adds to its importance in The Twilight Zone canon. Notably, the fight scene in this episode is told in a string of quick cuts showing nervous people’s hands in the audience. George T. Clemens unveils an extraordinarily unique way to show this fight –a pair of hands clutching a microphone, covering eyes, clinging to another person’s coat sleeve, and so on, rather than showing us the two fighters leveling punches at each other. It lends credence to the old idea that by showing less gratuity onscreen, the intensity actually increases. “The Big Tall Wish” is another gem from the first season.
Credits:
- Director: Ron Winston
- Written by: Rod Serling
- Music: Jerry Goldsmith (with harmonica solos)
- Director of Photography: George T. Clemens
- Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson
- Art Directors: George W. Davis and Merrill Pye
- Film Editor: Bill Mosher
- Assistant Director: Kurt Neumann
- Set Decorations: Henry Grace and Keogh Gleason
- Sound: Franklin Milton and Philip Mitchell
- Starring:
- Ivan Dixon…..Bolie Jackson
- Ivan Dixon (1931-2008) best known for his role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, and for his starring roles in the 1964 independent drama Nothing But a Man and the 1967 television film The Final War of Olly Winter. He appeared in two Twilight Zone episodes (“I Am the Night—Color Me Black” and “The Big Tall Wish”). In addition, he directed many episodes of television series. Active in the civil rights movement from 1961, Dixon served as a president of Negro Actors for Action. He and his wife had four children, two of whom predeceased him. Dixon died in 2008 due to complications from kidney failure.
- Steven Perry…..Henry Temple
- Steven Perry (1952-present) as a child actor sometimes went by the name “Stevie Perry” or “Stephen Perry.” He appeared in films like Sidney Poitier’s A Raising in the Sun, and The Sound and the Fury. This was his only Twilight Zone appearance. He still alive as of the time I am writing this review.
- Kim Hamilton…..Frances Temple
- Kim Hamilton (1932-2013) had a career that spanned more than a half century, from the early 1950s to 2010. Her early film credits included the 1959 film noir Odds Against Tomorrow opposite Harry Belafonte and The Leech Woman in 1960. She was one of the first African-American actors to appear on the soap opera Days of Our Lives and was the only African-American to appear in a speaking role on Leave It to Beaver. Hamilton portrayed, in an uncredited role, Helen Robinson in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. She was the film’s last surviving African-American adult cast member with a speaking role. She portrayed Songi in the Star Trek TNG episode “Final Mission.” She was married twice and had two children (one of whom predeceased her). She died in 2013 four days after her 81st birthday in Los Angeles, California.
- Walter Burke…..Joe Mizell
- Charles Horvath…..Joey Consiglio
- Carl McIntire…..Announcer
- Henry Scott…..Harvey Thomas
- Dan Terranova…..Rodie
- Frankie Van…..referee
- Ivan Dixon…..Bolie Jackson
The Twilight Zone Trivia:
- Rod Serling was once a boxer while serving as a paratrooper in the army during World War II. He enjoyed a string of 17 wins but in the 18th fight, his opponent was a professional boxer who broke Serling’s nose in two places. This led Serling to give up the sport, though he always maintained a level of taste for the sport. Serling’s favorite fighter was Joe Louis. He once remarked, “A good fighter is a piece of art.”
- Rod Serling wrote other boxing stories like “The Good Right Hand” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”
- Supposedly, boxer Archie Moore was initially slated to play the lead in this episode but the casting attempt failed. Months later, when Moore was knocked out by Yvon Durelle in 1961, he described his knockout: “Man I was in the Twilight Zone!”
- “Television, like its big sister, the motion picture, has been guilty of the sin of omission,” remarked Serling in an interview around the time this episode aired. “Hungry for talent, desperate for the so-called ‘new face,’ constantly searching for a transfusion of new blood, it has overlooked a source of wondrous talent that resides under its nose. This is the Negro actor.”
- In order to achieve the shot beneath the ring looking up at the referee, part of the floor was replaced with glass.
- Jerry Goldsmith offers a wonderfully unique score in this episode with the feature of a harmonica.
- The boxing match takes place at St. Nicholas Arena (or “St. Nick’s Arena”) which was the name of a boxing arena in New York City, the St. Nicholas Rink. other fights posted at the arena in the episode include: Sunny Linkwood vs Kavo Otcello, Nick Scarbine vs Johnny Ellerton, Joe Fythe vs Honey Sirota. The general cost of admission is $11.25, reserved is $11.75, and ringside is $12.00.
- Originally cast in the lead role was champion boxer Archie Moore, who later exclaimed, “Man, I was in the Twilight Zone!” when describing the punch delivered by his opponent Yvon Durelle.
- Ivan Dixon and Stephen Perry were reunited the following year in the 1961 Sydney Poitier film A Raising in the Sun.
- One of the signs visible when Bolie walks through the neighborhood reads: “Madam Maria – Palmist.”
- In “The Last Round,” an episode of One Step Beyond, guest starring Charles Bronson, a poster can be seen hanging on the wall in the arena manager’s office promoting the Bolie Jackson and Consiglio fight.Both programs were filed around the same time.
Click here to return to my survey of The Twilight Zone series.
Click here to read my reflections on Rod Serling’s short story “The Big, Tall Wish.”