This Ray Bradbury story first appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1949. Its first radio version was on Dimension X in 1951. It’s one of those outer space stories that doesn’t need to be set in space. It’s a story where the participants are facing their imminent demise from an explosion of their craft, they end up in conversations examining their lives and relationships, knowing that they are having last conversations with others. Those conversations aren’t in-person, but by their audio communications in their space suits, which makes them even more poignant. The dialogues are filled with wide ranging emotions of anger, resignation, regret, hope, animosity, friendship, gratitude, and in the end are quite stunning when heard and pondered. The fact it is set in the emptiness of space adds a deeper loneliness and meaning to the tragedy and the end of their lives. You get the sense that some of the characters led lives that did not include much introspection about the nature of their behavior or decision or actions until confronted with this situation. The Socrates quote “The unexamined life is not worth living” is quite interesting here as they are examining their lives knowing they are near an undesired end.
Science fiction has always tackled existential and philosophical issues in creative and insightful ways. It often does that without being explicit, luring you into weighty topics that might not otherwise be considered. This episode does that.
The writing by Bradbury and its adaptation by Antony Ellis are excellent. The cast was already used to working with each other since they were already on Gunsmoke week after week for almost three years. They are superb together. It might not have worked without that binding experience. William Conrad might be identified as the star, but this is a true ensemble performance. The production had a special construction to make it more realistic and duplicate the alone-ness of floating in space. In the June 22, 1956 issue of TV-Radio Life in the article Serve Well Chilled by Jon Bruce (p. 46), Ellis said:
This is a story of six men blown out of a rocket ship who float around in outer space. Each philosophizes what will happen to him. To help create the desired effect, we had our six actors play their roles in six different isolated booths so that they were entirely alone. They couldn't even see each other. This helped to give them the proper mood and it made for a highly successful show. This sort of thing—even this type of production—could not have been done half as well on TV.
The episode had no consistent or even viable publicity. It seems that, for a time, the CBS Radio publicity department had no idea what the program was about. They used a dictionary-style description of what a “kaleidoscope” is for the episode. This is what they sent to the newspapers:
Changing patterns fall into an exciting design in Kaleidoscope on Suspense Tuesday at 8pm. Antony Ellis produces and directs the series. Wilbur Hatch conducts the program's music.
Really? No mention of Bradbury, science fiction, or anything else! There were some closer to air time, that mentioned an outer space wreck of some sort, but did not even mention Bradbury.
There is, however, something that makes this episode extra special. The Ellis family is in the production: Antony, Georgia, and six-year-old Jonathan. Antony was directing, and Georgia and Jonathan are heard at the very end of the broadcast. At least one newspaper listed Jonathan as the star! Some newspapers had this listing:
Ray Bradbury’s Kaleidoscope, story of a rocket wrecked in outer space, with Jonathan Ellis.
The Ellises would divorce a few years later, with Georgia remarrying in 1961.
Despite the uniqueness of the play and the nature of the staging, and the presence of a six-year-old actor, this show was broadcast live, with no prerecorded segments. By today’s standards, that would seem to be astonishing.
The sound of this episode is excellent. For many years, collectors had unsatisfying recordings with much noise, narrow range, and other problems. Some 1970s collectors, however, had access to a personal 15ips reel that Antony Ellis had for himself. It is exceptional.
LISTEN
TO THE PROGRAM or download in FLAC or
mp3
https://archive.org/details/TSP550712
THE CAST
William Conrad (Hollis), Howard McNear (Lespere), Stacy Harris (Applegate), Parley Baer (Stone), John Dehner (Captain), Sam Edwards (Stimson), Georgia Ellis (Mother), Jonathan Ellis (Sonny), Larry Thor (Narrator)
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