Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition

by Rocky Wood

  Dark was also known as“‘The Illustrated Mn’.” Tattoos covered his face, neck, chest and arms. He had tattooed photos of Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade on his palms and he had probably run the carnival for hundreds of years.

  We know less of Dark’s partner, Mr. Cooger, also known as“‘Mr. Electro, the Man of Lightnig’.” He was tall with oiled, dark hair, dressed like a riverboat gambler and had a pocked face that was very pale. He somehow became trapped in the carnival’s electric chair (these are some of the pages that are missing from the screenplay) and this was probably the boys’ fault. As a result, he died and disintegrated into dust.

  Among the Carnival’s attractions were The Hall of Freaks and the Egyptian Mirror Maze. When the carousel spun backwards its calliope would play The Funeral March in reverse. The carnivals“‘freas’” included Vesuvio, the fire-eater; The Crusher, who was the strongman; the Dwarf; and the Skeleton.

  In this screenplay Miss Foley was the only“‘innocet’” victim of all this mayhem. An elderly schoolteacher with gray hair, Halloway and Nightshade initially saved her from the carniva’’s Mirror-Maze, where she could see visions of herself aged about 80, hunched and with snow white hair. Later, Cooger tricked her into believing the boys had stolen her jewellery. Later again, Dark and his cohorts tricked her onto the carousel and turned her into a nine-year old. Halloway and Nightshade found this young girl crying under a huge old elm tree on Brackman’s Lot.

  In the only link to King’s other fiction Green Town, Illinois is also mentioned in Bag of Bones. In that novel it appears in the context of the first space traellers to Mars discovering they had apparently arrived in this town (or was it Heaven?) in Ray Bradbury’s story Mars Is Heaven (originally published as The Third Expedition in the 1950 short story collection, The Martian Chronicles). That story is known to be one of King’s earliest influences and favorite horror/science fiction tales. In fact, in Danse Macabre King write:,

  ‘My first experience with real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury – it was an adaptation of his story“‘Mars is Heave!’” on Dimension X. This would have been broadcast about 1951, which would have made me four at the time. I asked to listen, and was denied permission by my mother … I crept down to the door to listen anyway, and she was right it was plenty upsetting…’

  We should note that it is Bradbury, not King, who chose to use Green Town, Illinois in both Mars Is Heaven and Something Wicked This Way Comes and this is therefore not a“‘Lik’” in the sense of one created by King himself.

  In King’s screenplay Green Town has a population of 4063. There are three or four streets, which run at right angles to and intersect Main Street. Miss Foley lived on Culpepper Street, four houses up from Main. Both the Nightshade and Halloway families lived on Oak, the Nightshades at number 97.

  All in all, this is a relatively unique King piece. Including this script, he is thought to have adapted only two works of other writers for the screen. The other is a screenplay of Patrick McGrath’s novel, Asylum. That screenplay has not come to light, although one purported review of it has been seen on the Internet. The original claim was made in an article in the entertainment industry magazine Variety for 6 February 2001.

  To the casual reader’s eye this is a very competent movie script and it would have made an interesting note to King’s career had there been a production of his screenplay of any other author’s work, particularly one of such note. Ultimately, as we mentioned earlier, Bradbury himself wrote a script that was produced and, as we have argued elsewhere, this is generally preferable to scripting by another writer.

  117 Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller (editors), page 79

  Sorry, Right Number – The Shooting Script (1986)

  A version of the screenplay for a series episode on the horror anthology series, TalesfFrom the Darkside appears in King’s 1993 collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Most fans would be forgiven for believing this was the telescript actually used for the program. However, it varies significantly from the actual shooting script.

  That script is held in Box 1012 at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono. It is marked as the“‘Final Shooting Scrit’,” dated July 11, 1986,“‘Story and Teleplay by Stephen Kig’.” As King chose to publish his first draft of Nightmares and Dreamscapes we can safely assume this shooting script will never be published. Box 1012 is open to the public so readers may access this version at the Fogler.

  As the basic storyline can be enjoyed in Nightmares and Dreamscapes or watched on video we will satisfy ourselves here with a short summary of this shooting script and the key changes.

  In this America Under Siege tale a woman briefly hears from an anguished caller. She and her husband tried to discover the source of the call, as she was sure she recognzsed the voice. That very night Kate Weiderman’s husband Bill, a successful horror novelist, died of a heart attack.

  Ten years later, on the anniversary of Bill’s death, his daughter was about to marry at the family home. Katie absent-mindedly dialled her old phone number and was momentarily connected with her earlier self. She realzsed she had been trying to send a warning of the heart attack from the future and tried to blurt out that warning but was cut off. When redialled she discovered the number was not connected.

  The script was produced as the episode Sorry, Right Number for Tale Ffrom the Darkside and was first televised on 22 November 1987. John Sutherland directed and the key actors were Deborah Harmon as Katie Weiderman; Rhonda Dotson as Dawn; Arthur Taxier as Bill Weiderman; and Catherine Battistone as the“‘Voice on the Phoe’.” The episode is available on video as part of Volume 4 of a compilation set from the series. Mysteriously, ie was released on DVD 19 October 2010.

  King gives the background to the screenplay in the Notes to Nightmares and Dreamscapes118. He says he wrote it,“‘…pretty much as it appears here, in two sitting.’” After writing the telescript King relate:,

  ‘My West Coast agent – the one who does film deals – had it by the end of the week. Early the following week, Steven Spielberg read it for Amazing Stories, a TV series which he then had in production … Spielberg rejected it – they were looking for Amazing Stories that were a little more upbeat he said – and so I took it to my long-time collaborator and good friend, Richard Rubinstein, who then had a series called Tales from the Darkside in syndication. I won’t say Richard blows his nose on happy endings – he likes happily-ever-after as well as anyone, I think – but he’s never shied away from a downer; he was the guy who got Pet Sematary made after all … Richard bought“‘Sory’” the day he read it and had it in production a week or two late.’

  King continue:,

  ‘This version, by the way, is my first draft, which is longer and a little more textured than the final shooting script, which for budgetary reasons specified just two sets. It is included here as an example of another kind of story-telling … different, but as valid as any othe.’

  There are, in fact, key differences between the two scripts. The time lapse between Bill’s death and Polly’s wedding (that is, between the call being received and later being made) is ten years in the case of the shooting script, but only five years in the published version. Bill Weiderman’s age at his death changes from 44 in this script to 45 in Nightmares and Dreamscapes. He and Katie have an extra child and he is credited with an additional novel in the published version, and the movie made from his work is of a different novel in each version (see the feature panel for details). In the published version, but not the shooting script, Katie had remarried (to an architect, Hank). In the opposite direction, in the published version Polly’s husband-to-be remains unnamed but we know him as Jack in the shooting script. In another interesting twist there had been murders in Colville the month before Bill Weiderman died but these did not appear in the earlier, published version.

  For those interested the number dialled in the shooting sc
ript was 555-4408 but no number is given in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes version. In yet another amusing in-joke from King, when Katie Weiderman called her daughter Polly at her dorm the person answering mentioned that, if the caller was Arnie, Christine was not in (this is a reference, however obscure, to Christine and its key characters).

  This is not one of King’s key works of fiction. It is derivative and the production itself suffered from a lack of real suspense.

  Bill Weiderman – Not Saved By The Bell

  A successful horror writer, he was about 44 when he died of a heart attack. He was the husband of Katie and father of Polly, Connie and Jeff. Among his books were his first, Spider’s Kiss (a best-seller, which had been made into a movie) and Night of the Beast.

  Source: Sorry, Right Number (The Shooting Script)

  A writer aged about 45 when he died of a heart attack. He was the husband of Katie and father of Connie, Dennis, Jeff and Polly. He wrote Ghost Kiss (also made into a movie), Spider Doom and Night of the Beast.

  Source: Sorry, Right Number (Nightmares and Dreamscapes)

  118 Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King

  Squad D (Undated)

  Squad D was written in the late 1970s for a Harlan Ellison edited anthology, Last Dangerous Visions. Ellison told George Beahm for The Stephen King Companion:

  Stephen sent me a story for Last Dangerous Visions that needs to be rewritten … I was sent this short story, and I think there’s a lot more in it than Stephen had time to develop. The story deserves better, the work deserves better, and Stephen’s reputation deserves better.

  The anthology itself has never appeared.

  As King has not otherwise published the story it cannot be read, excepting in photocopy form. These photocopies circulate quite freely in the King community. Squad D is a fairly short story at “approximately 2000 words,” according to a typed header on the manuscript. The manuscript itself is double-spaced and 11 pages in length.

  Interestingly, there are apparently two versions of this manuscript circulating. The manuscript reviewed in this chapter sets the suicide three years to the day after the death of the rest of Squad D (see below). However, Spignesi refers to the deaths as occurring eleven years later. In Michael Collings’ The Shorter Works of Stephen King, he also refers to the suicide occurring on the eleventh anniversary of the original deaths. Collings describes the tale as one “…of guilt and forgiveness, of peace growing out of turmoil.” As both these King experts have read the manuscript, one can only presume there are at least two versions in existence.

  The final victim of this tale, Josh Bortman, was a resident of Castle Rock and, as a result, it is classified as a Maine Street Horror story. As a Castle Rock story Squad D is linked to all other King stories mentioning “The Rock.” Castle Rock is the main setting for The Body, Cujo, Gramma, It Grows on You (but only the Nightmares and Dreamscapes version), The Man in the Black Suit, Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut, Needful Things, Nona (but only the Skeleton Crew version), Premium Harmony, The Sun Dog and Uncle Otto’s Truck. It is a key location in Bag of Bones, The Dark Half, The Dead Zone and The Huffman Story. It is also 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 Stand (Complete and Uncut version only). Unfortunately, nothing more of Castle Rock is revealed in this story other than the fact that the Bortman family lived there, at least during the 1974 – 1977 period.

  In this tale a soldier is the only survivor of his army squad, (“D”). On 8 April 1974, the Viet Cong had killed nine members of Squad D while they crossed a bridge over the Ky River at Ky Doc in Vietnam. The squad had been on “…a flank sweep of a jungle quadrant of which Ky Doc was the only village.” Josh Bortman was not with his Squad as he was in the hospital, suffering bleeding hemorrhoids.

  Bortman, from Castle Rock, Maine sent a framed photograph showing the nine dead members of Squad D to each of the parents of those killed as some form of atonement for his survival.

  On 9 April 1977 various relatives of Squad D members called the Bortman household after noticing another soldier appear in their photos. Bortman, still only 24, had committed suicide by hanging at his parents’ home in Castle Rock the previous day, the third anniversary of the attack, and his image had now joined those of his comrades.

  As many readers will not have the opportunity to read this classic tale let’s take this opportunity to present further detail.

  One of the key characters is, of course, Josh Bortman. Apparently overcome by remorse over the fact that he was the sole survivor of his Squad, and probably embarrassed by having been in the hospital with bleeding hemorrhoids at the time, he killed himself on the third anniversary of his comrades’ death. From his base in Vietnam Bortman had sent a framed photograph of the nine deceased members of the Squad to each of their grieving parents or relatives. His letter to the Clewsons “was anguished. He called the other nine ‘the best friends I ever had in my life. I loved them all like they was my brothers.’”

  “Rites of atonement with a soft-lead pencil …,” Dale Clewson thought of Bortman’s letter while re-reading it after he noticed the extra “boy” in the photo. Dale thought he could read into the letter and photo a deep anguish:

  Please don’t think I killed your son – all of your sons – by taking their picture. Please don’t hate me because I was in the Homan base hospital with bleeding haemorrhoids (sic) instead of on the Ky Doc bridge with the best friends I ever had in my life. Please don’t hate me, because I finally caught up, it took me ten years of trying, but I finally caught up.

  This quote, claiming ten years since the original deaths, is from the manuscript your author has seen. As noted earlier there is apparently also a manuscript showing eleven years, rather than three between the deaths on the bridge and Bortman’s suicide noted elsewhere in the manuscript in my possession.

  After his suicide, many of the dead soldier’s relatives noticed another person in their copies of the photograph. We can presume poor Josh is now at peace, joining his comrades in the death he had but temporarily cheated. One interesting question remains: where was Josh buried? If in Castle Rock, his name might reappear in some future King story, as a character wanders through one of the town’s cemeteries, or mentioned as another character is interred there.

  The other members of the Squad were Jack Bradley from Omaha, Nebraska; Billy Clewson from Binghamton, New York; Rider Dotson from Oneonta, New York; Charlie Gibson, a guitar player from Payson, North Dakota; Bobby Kale from Henderson, Iowa; Jack Kimberley, who liked to tell dirty jokes, from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; Andy Moulton, the squad’s Staff Sergeant, from Faraday, Louisiana; Jimmy Oliphant from Beson, Delaware; and Asley St. Thomas from Anderson, Indiana. This simple roll call reflects the true horror of the Vietnam War, a group of young men from throughout the United States, dying in a foreign land, quickly forgotten by all but their loved ones and close friends.

  The men who died on the bridge in Vietnam and Bortman were not the only victims of the tragedy. The story is from the viewpoint of Billy Clewson’s father, Dale. He was one of those who called Josh Bortman’s father, after noticing a tenth soldier appear in his photograph. At first, Dale thought he had simply mistaken the number of soldiers originally in the photograph but then began to question his own sanity. He was already under enough pressure following the death of both Billy and his wife.

  Billy’s mother, Andrea became a heavy drinker after her son’s death and two years later died of the liver dysfunction and renal failure caused by her drinking. Quoting from the story, “The Viet Cong had killed their son in a place called Ky Doc, and Billy’s death had killed his mother.”

  Considering Bortman’s letter, the condolence letter from the Squad’s lieutenant and the photo itself, Clewson found himself looking at the list of names on the rear of the photo, where all the dead boys were listed, along with the name Josh Bortma
n, Castle Rock, Me. and an asterisk next to his name, “The asterisk means ‘still alive.’ The asterisk means ‘don’t hate me.’” Now considering the unthinkable, Clewson was tempted to call the Bortmans. “I never hated you, son, he thought. Nor did Andrea, for all her grief. Maybe I should have picked up a pen and dropped you a note saying so, but honest to Christ, the thought never crossed my mind.”

  Clewson could stand no more and called the Bortman home (there was only one Bortman family in Castle Rock) only to find the phone busy. When Mr. Bortman did answer the phone later he immediately demanded to Clewson’s surprise, “‘Which one are you?’ ‘My name is Dale Clewson, Mr. Bortman. My son …’ ‘Clewson, Billy Clewson’s father … And has your picture of Squad D changed, too?’” Unfortunately, Bortman senior had assumed the concerned calls from other relatives were some sort of sick joke. Clewson quickly brought him to his senses, whispering, “You know this isn’t a joke.” Bortman told Clewson Josh had died the night before, hanging himself in the garage.