by Rocky Wood
Dave King told Spignesi the paper was published from January 1959. Spignesi reproduces an article from the April 23, 1959 issue of the Brunswick Record, titled 3 Durham Lads Publishing Bright Hometown Newspaper. (The third was a cousin, Donald Flaws, at 15 four years older than Steve). By that time six issues had been published; Dave was a freshman at Brunswick High School and Steve “attends the West Durham school.”
King also relates the story of Dave’s Rag in sections 17 –19 of the “C.V.” section of On Writing. According to this, “The Rag was an odd combination of family newsletter and small-town bi-weekly.” Initially the paper had a “circulation” of five family members but reached fifty or sixty at its maximum, including neighbors and relatives of neighbors in the small town of Durham, Maine (King tells us it had a population of 900 in 1962). In the first year the newspaper was printed on a hectograph, producing purple print but was later printed using stencils and a small drum printing press. Steve typed the stencils, as he was less prone to typing errors than Dave!
Rush Call
In this America Under Siege story a young boy is trapped after a car accident. A grouchy, bitter old doctor volunteers to take out his appendix while the boy is still trapped in the car. Dr. Thorpe, “one of the best in his day,” climbs into the car on Christmas Eve and by Christmas morning he has saved the boy’s life. After the commotion dies down he realizes he has recaptured the real meaning of Christmas – “The Beginning.”
In trademark King style we have an old, bitter man walking the quiet hospital corridors and calling on a patient, Mrs. Simmons:
“I can’t sleep,” she told him. “I keep thinking about my Carol marrying that tramp. The fortune hunter! I simply can’t,” she talked on, and although Dr. Thorpe smiled and nodded and agreed, her voice became only a background to him.
When the rush call emergency buzzer goes off Thorpe joins the other doctors in the hospital president’s office and finds himself the only one volunteering to worm into a wrecked car and perform an appendectomy on a trapped and badly injured boy.
After succeeding in the operation, “…somehow, he wasn’t the same man he had been four hours ago – something had happened in that car – something in the small hours of Christmas morning. Something had washed out of him. Call it bitterness. Call it irony.” Hearing “Silent Night,” really hearing it for the first time, Dr. Thorpe suddenly understood, “God had sent his son for a million times the ordeal he had faced that morning … And as the sun blazed over the horizon in full glory, Dr. Thorpe knew the meaning of Christmas. THE BEGINNING.”
While no year is given for the story it occurs over the period of Christmas Eve and into Christmas morning. There are no links to other King works.
The Dead Zone – Unproduced Screenplay (c.1982)
King’s screenplay of his classic 1979 novel The Dead Zone is held in Box 2317 of the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono. As Box 2317 is open to the public those interested in this version of the tale may read the screenplay at the Library.
Both this screenplay and the novel are part of both the Maine Street Horror and America Under Siege Realities. One of the most interesting aspects of this screenplay is King’s decision to move Frank Dodd’s killings from his archetypal town, Castle Rock in Maine to the town of Cleaves Mills, also in Maine. By changing the town King was also obliged to change the media name for the killer from the “Castle Rock Strangler” to “The Destroyer.” Of course the question remains, why move this part of the action from Castle Rock at all?
In this screenplay, effectively an alternate version of the story, a young man enters a four and a half-year coma following a car accident. When Johnny Smith awoke he found that he had lost his fiancée, Sarah Bracknell, and gained psychic powers. These powers were generated by touching others and resulted in visions. At the request of Sheriff Bannerman of Cleaves Mills, he helped solve the baffling “Destroyer” murders by revealing that the killer was actually a local deputy, Frank Dodd.
Later, at a political rally, Smith shook hands with Greg Stillson, a politician with presidential aspirations and through a vision realized that Stillson would lead the world to a total holocaust. Smith resolved that to avert this fate he must assassinate Stillson. During the attempt, Stillson held a small boy up as a shield, effectively ending his political career. Johnny was shot dead but his mission had been achieved. Stillson, voted out of the House of Representatives by disgusted voters, committed suicide.
Paul Monash wrote the first two drafts of a screenplay adaptation of The Dead Zone for Lorimar Productions. King told Cinefantastique, “Neither of the drafts was particularly successful.” Jeffrey Boam completed his first draft in early November 1980. When Dino De Laurentiis purchased the production rights in 1982, he asked King to write a script but rejected the submission as “too complex.”52 It therefore seems likely King wrote the screenplay in 1982, as production on the movie began in January 1983. More drafts were written, including one by Andrei Konchalovsky. Finally, Director David Cronenberg decided to use the screenplay written by Boam. Boam, Cronenberg and Debra Hill reworked it over a three-day period and that re-work was used for the movie.
The film, released in October 1983, is one of the better King adaptations and www.imdb.com members rate it a very respectable 7.3 out of a possible 10. It starred one of the most talented actors of his generation, Christopher Walken, who played Johnny Smith to perfection; Brooke Adams as Sarah; the great character actor Herbert Lom as Sam Weizak; The West Wing’s Martin Sheen brilliantly portrayed Stillson; and Picket Fence’s Tom Skerritt played Sheriff George Bannerman (Skerritt would later appear in Desperation). The movie was released on DVD in 2000. The character of Johnny Smith was also used as the basis for the USA Network television series The Dead Zone from 2002 through 2007.
As an adaptation of the novel there are many links from King’s screenplay to his other fiction. King also revised details about certain characters and places in the script.
The hero, Johnny Smith is also mentioned in Needful Things, The Tommyknockers and Cujo. The villain, Greg Stillson is also mentioned in The Tommyknockers and The Night Flier (but only the Prime Evil version). George Bannerman also appears or is mentioned in The Body (although it is doubtful this is the same man), Cujo, Needful Things, The Dark Half and The Sun Dog.
In this script, Deputy Frank Dodd’s mother Henrietta was shot dead by George Bannerman on 17 November 1975 after she tried to kill Smith. However, in Cujo she suffered a stroke and died shortly after Dodd killed himself (no information about her demise was provided in the novel of The Dead Zone, although this source did tell us she was ill with hypertension, thyroid problems and a semi-diabetic condition). She was also the busybody gossip who was on the same party line as the Bruckners in Gramma.
Annie Dussault was the sister of journalist Roger Dussault. In the novel she died of a heart attack aged 27 as a result of drugs. In this screenplay she jumped to her death.
Dodd’s victims, Alma Frechette and Mary Kate Hendrasen, are also mentioned in Cujo. Dr. Sam Weizak is mentioned in passing in King’s screenplay for Cat’s Eye. Smith tutored Chuck Chatsworth and his father Roger agreed that Chuck could attend Stovington Prep. Jack Torrance was dismissed from his teaching position at that school in The Shining.
Although King moved the town in which Dodd committed his killings from Castle Rock to Cleaves Mills (both in the state of Maine), Castle Rock was mentioned, when two boys found one of Dodd’s victims in “a gravel pit near Castle Rock.” Castle Rock appears in many King works of fiction. It is the setting for The Body, Cujo, Gramma, the Nightmares and Dreamscapes version of It Grows on You, The Man in the Black Suit, Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut, Needful Things, the Skeleton Crew version of Nona, Premium Harmony, The Sun Dog and Uncle Otto’s Truck. It also receives considerable mention in Bag of Bones, The Dark Half, Squad D and The Huffman Story; and is mentioned in Creepshow, Dreamcatcher, Gerald’s Game, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, Riding the Bullet, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, Under the Dome and the Uncut version of The Stand.
In the novel Johnny Smith was living in the town of Cleaves Mills, Maine at the time of his car accident. In the screenplay, as previously mentioned, Cleaves Mills is the location of Dodd’s murders. The town is mentioned in passing in It and also appears in The Tommyknockers (Roberta Anderson started writing Hangtown there). The only other time King uses the town name of Cleaves Mills is in the short story Weeds, in which Cleaves Mills, New Hampshire is the nearest town to Jordy Verrill’s farm. In the revised version of that story, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, King changes the nearby town to Castle Rock, Maine – confused yet?
By moving Dodd and the killings to Cleaves Mills, King also had to move Sheriff George Bannerman and Dodd to the Cleaves Mills Sheriff’s Department. The bandstand, such a symbol of fear and death in the novel, is also part of this new town. King adds a twist in that not only did Dodd kill Alma Frechette there but he also later watched Walt and Sarah Hazlett’s wedding from it! Delivered well, that scene would likely have chilled movie viewers to the core.
Another town that receives a name change is Trimbull, New Hampshire. In the novel Johnny Smith attended Stillson’s rally in this town and shook his hand, receiving the vision that would lead him to the assassination attempt. In the screenplay this town is called Timmons, New Hampshire.
In the novel Sarah and Johnny visited the Esty Fair but in the screenplay this becomes the Cleaves Mills carnival or County Fair. In an emotional closing scene to the script, Sarah Hazlett visited the midway at the Cleaves Mills County Fair, which was being dismantled. While there, she thought she heard John Smith’s voice on the wind.
King broadly keeps to the timelines of the original novel. However, in the novel Johnny awoke on 17 May 1975 but in the screenplay on the 1st of that month. In the screenplay Johnny uncovered Dodd as the killer on 17 November 1975 and in the novel exactly a month later on 17 December. In the screenplay it was on 30 July 1976 that Johnny shook hands with Greg Stillson and received the apocalyptic vision. In the novel this event occurred on 19 August 1976. In the novel Cathy’s Roadhouse burned on 23 June 1977 but King cut that particular event from the screenplay.
Finally, in the screenplay the assassination attempt took place on 12 November 1976 in the Timmons town hall. In the novel these events occur on 27 January 1979 in the town hall of Jackson, New Hampshire. King excluded the plot for the intervening two years from the screenplay. The Dead Zone is a relatively long novel and the excision of these portions to allow for a movie length script would seem to have been a sensible move on the author’s part.
In other changes Greg Stillson’s life takes a wildly different turn. In the screenplay he had been elected mayor of Ridgeway and a state senator in New Hampshire and, as the Founder of the Great American Hot Dog Party, was elected to Congress as an Independent candidate from New Hampshire’s third district in 1976. After he disgraced himself by using a boy as a shield against Smith’s gun the US House of Representatives voted 381-0 on 14 August 1977 to expel him. That day he committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his Lincoln. In the novel the party he formed was the America Now Party and there is no formal resolution to his political career, although it is clearly finished. No information is given as to his future and certainly not a suicide. Apparently, King took the opportunity of this screenplay to provide closure in the matter of Greg Stillson and may even have felt in retrospect that such a conclusion should have been included in the novel.
As to Frank Dodd, King simplified the list of his victims from those in the novel, namely Alma Frechette (12 November 1970), Pauline Toothaker (17 November 1971), Cheryl Moody (16 December 1971), Carol Dunbarger (November 1974), Etta Ringgold (about 29 October 1975), Mary Kate Hendrasen (17 December 1975) and probably Ann Simons (12 November 1972) in Colorado. The screenplay victims were Alma Frechette (29 October 1970), Mary Kate Hendrasen (mid-October 1975) and at least two unnamed women. In the screenplay version of their lives Alma and Mary Kate had even shorter lives!
While it is disappointing that De Laurentiis and Cronenberg chose to ignore King’s script the actual movie was a box office and critical success even without the original author’s script. Made on a budget of $7 million, it took nearly $21 million at the box office.
Fortunately, even though most King fans cannot read this screenplay, they do have both the novel, one of King’s best, and an excellent movie with which to entertain themselves.
The Life And Times Of John Smith
The son of Herb and Vera, John was born sometime between January 1946 and December 1948 (probably in 1947). In January 1953 he fell on the ice at Runaround Pond in Durham, Maine (note: the town in which King grew up and in which there is an actual Runaround Pond) and blacked out. He graduated from high school as salutatorian and then from University of Maine at Orono in 1970 (note: the same year King graduated that very institution) and began a career as a teacher at Cleaves Mills High School in October that year. He was tall with dark hair that started graying in 1976. Originally from Pownal, he was living at 110 North Main Street at Cleaves Mills and went on a date with his girlfriend, Sarah Bracknell, to the Esty Fair on 29 October 1970 where he had a great run of luck on the Wheel of Fortune. Early the next morning he was critically injured in a car accident and was left in a coma. He woke on 17 May 1975 and had a number of operations on his legs and neck, these left scars. John had developed psychic powers involving touch while comatose and a number of public and private incidents demonstrated this after his recovery. After leaving the hospital in August 1975, he moved back to his father’s home in Pownal where he made love to Sarah Hazlett (now married) once that October. In December 1975, using his powers, he unmasked Frank Dodd as the “Castle Rock Strangler.” In mid-February 1976 he moved to Kittery and took a job as a short order cook before taking another in May 1976 tutoring Chuck Chatsworth in New Hampshire. During the 1976 election campaign John formed the habit of meeting various candidates and visiting their rallies, including Greg Stillson’s. After predicting a fire at Cathy’s Roadhouse in June 1977, thereby saving many lives, John fled the resulting publicity and moved via Florida to Phoenix, Arizona. He worked for the Phoenix Public Works Department in 1977 and 1978 before leaving for New Hampshire just after Christmas 1978. In late January 1979 he attempted to assassinate Greg Stillson, the Congressman from whom he had received a doomsday vision when shaking his hand in 1976. John was killed in the unsuccessful attempt and was buried at “The Birches” cemetery.
Source: The Dead Zone novel
The son of Herb and Vera, a teacher, he was the boyfriend of Sarah Bracknell, whom he intended to marry. On the night of 29 October 1970 he was seriously injured in a car accident and left in a coma. He awoke in May 1975 to find Sarah married to another man. He appeared to have developed a psychic ability with which he could intermittently see things that were happening elsewhere or that would happen. In November 1975, using these powers, he unmasked Frank Dodd as the Cleaves Mills “Destroyer.” In mid-1976 he tutored Chuck Chatsworth. He met Greg Stillson at a 1976 political rally and had a vision of Stillson causing a nuclear war. After grappling with the issue he became determined to kill Stillson and attempted to do so in Timmons, New Hampshire on 12 December 1976 but was shot during the attempt. Stillson was unhurt but disgraced himself and his career was at end. Smith, lying mortally wounded, was able to hold Stillson’s hand and confirm this new future.
Source: The Dead Zone unproduced screenplay
52 Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, Stephen Jones, p.30
Desperation – Screenplay (Undated)
King adapted his novel Desperation in a screenplay, a copy of which is held in Box 2289 of the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono. As this Box is available to the public those interested may read the 133-page script at the Library.
A la
ter version of King’s screenplay was produced for a 23 May 2006 premiere on the US ABC-TV network. King did three feature drafts before Mick Garris put the script into television format. Garris directed the mini-series versions of The Stand and The Shining and the films Sleepwalkers, Quicksilver Highway and Riding the Bullet. ABC has a long relationship with King, having delivered The Stand, The Shining, Storm of the Century, Rose Red and Kingdom Hospital to viewing audiences.
The telemovie starred Ron Perlman as Collie Entragian; Tom Skerritt as John Edward Marinville; Steven Weber53 as Steve Ames; and Charles Durning as Tom Billingsley. It rates below this author’s estimation with members of www.imdb.com giving it only 5.3 out of a possible 10. The DVD was released in 2006.
According to King, Desperation addresses, “…the question of why, if there is a God, such terrible things happen” (King also classifies The Stand and The Green Mile as other of his works on this theme).54 Michael Collings states the novel reflects:
…King at his best, with incremental horrors, children (and adults) in peril, monsters in human form, and a quintessential quasi-alien entity devoted to evil. It is significant that here King approaches making explicit the spiritual elements implicit in the conclusion to novels such as Needful Things; overt horror gives way to an understated sense of restitution and restoration.55
