The Howling Man Read Free

highly individual mind," says the New York Herald Tribune . "One is impressed by the creative gymnastics of the author . . . But in 'Black Country,' Beaumont, the author, is forgotten . . . Among all the stories it is this extraordinary work that passionately tears into the heart of jazz which gives Mr. Beaumont undeniable stature as an artist."
    In addition to the previously mentioned periodicals, Beaumont's stories--both fiction and non fiction--were appearing in publications as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , Fortnight , and Rogue . (In Rogue , due to his Playboy commitment, he appeared as "C.B. Lovehill" and "Michael Philips"). Other collections soon followed-- Yonder: Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Bantam, 1958), Night Ride and Other Journeys (Bantam, 1960), and The Fiend in You , a Beaumont-edited anthology (Ballantine Books, 1962). In September of 1957, his first novel was published, Run From the Hunter (written in collaboration with John Tomerlin under the joint pseudonym "Keith Grantland").
    Though he employed many writing styles, the distinct Beaumont "signature" was always in evidence. "His writing was brisk and very terse," says Bradbury. "There's a great similarity to John Collier. Collier rubbed off on him, just as Collier rubbed off on me. And it was all to the good: good, short, to the point, imaginative storytelling. A lot of us are Collier's indirect sons, but you learn as the years pass, to shake the influence. But it's certainly there. I also see carryovers from my work in Chuck. It's inevitable, because we were around each other so much. I told him about Eudora Welty and Katherine Anne Porter. I think that also shows. And it's all to the good."
    By 1958, Beaumont had firmly established himself in television, scripting episodes for shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents , One Step Beyond , Naked City , Thriller and Wanted Dead or Alive . Recalls Jerry Sohl, author of numerous scripts and novels, and with whom Beaumont had collaborated on several screen projects, including an unproduced version of The Dunwich Horror , "Chuck was the kind of person who could go in [to a producer's office] and absolutely flabbergast you. He'd do what you'd call 'Blue Sky'--he'd pitch this story and no one would say that's no good, because they'd be so fascinated with Chuck. He had this ability to absolutely overpower you with what it was that he was doing. The trouble with most writers is that they may be good writers, but they can't sell themselves in television. Chuck Beaumont was able to do both; plus he could deliver the goods when the chips were down." In 1958, Beaumont also saw the film release of his first produced screenplay, Queen of Outer Space . (Two earlier screenplays, Confession of a Teen-Ager and Invaders from 7000 A.D. , both written in 1956-7, went unproduced). Of the film, Beaumont says: "[The] studio called me in to do what I'd thought was to be a serious study of a group of men who take a space ship to Venus. But how serious can a picture be when the part of the world's biochemist is played by Zsa Zsa Gabor? The picture [is] about these men who land on Venus and find a planet inhabited entirely by beautiful women.
    "Naturally, I wrote the thing as a big spoof. Only trouble was the director and some of the cast didn't realize it."
    When Rod Serling's Twilight Zone made it's network debut in 1959, Beaumont became one of the show's principal writers, scripting 22 of its 156 episodes. Richard Matheson explains his and Beaumont's involvement with the celebrated series. "The show was just getting started and Chuck and I had just joined this agency which was quite good at the time (we'd never had a good film agency before this), so they immediately started getting us appointments. There was a lot of work going on in television--half-hour television--and Twilight Zone was about to screen their pilot episode. So Chuck and I went to pitch some ideas to Rod [Serling] and [producer] Buck Houghton."