ARTHUR MILLER’S THE AMERICAN CLOCK (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television production, based on Arthur Miller’s play, is about several families trying to weather the devastating effects of the Great Depression. The program begins in New York City’s Grand Central Station as elderly stockbroker Arthur Huntington looks back on his self some thirty years earlier, recalling how he told shoeshine worker Clarence all his stock. Clarence finds the very thought unpatriotic. Elsewhere, elderly Lee Baumler looks back to when he was a seventeen-year-old living with his wealthy parents in their spacious Manhattan apartment. He recalls how American lived in “the age of belief” until 1929, typified by his deluded pianist mother Rose and financier father Moe. Rose’s sister, Fanny, interrupts as she agrees to take the irascible Grandpa to live in her smaller apartment in Brooklyn. Older Arthur then reflects back on Oct. 29, when Ted Quinn, president of General Electric and would-be hoofer, performed a soft shoe before a board meeting -- tap dancing to “You Were Meant for Me.” Ted and the younger Arthur discuss trepidations regarding their future in America, shortly before the stock market crash is announced. At a nightclub, corporate financiers Jesse Livermore and William Durant discuss the recent suicide of one of their recently bankrupted colleagues. They keep the news from the man’s society debutante sister, Diana Marley. She acknowledges that her father’s credit has suddenly been stopped. Younger Arthur arrives on the scene and admits that he sold out all his offerings in a timely fashion, leaving him a millionaire. Arthur then tells Diana that her brother threw himself from a high-story building, leaving her in a state of shock. By April 1930 in Brooklyn Heights, the Baumler family tries to adjust to living in smaller quarters in a borough other than Manhattan. Rose asks a quizzical Lee to take her diamond bracelet to a pawn shop, traveling on his newly acquired bicycle. Elsewhere in the Brooklyn brownstone, elderly landlord Doris remembers back to when neighbor Fanny made a strange proposition. Fanny asked her son, aspiring songwriter Sidney, to marry fifteen-year-old Doris when she turns eighteen, thus negating all future rent for Fanny and her family. By fall, locals rush the doors of the Chase National Bank as police try to keep order. An angry Grandpa complains to Rose about his current living situation, which he measures against their days of former wealth. As Lee goes to pawn Rose’s pearl necklace, he sees his bike being stolen, and is unable to retrieve it. Lee later takes a job after Moe tells him that college is no longer a possibility. Older Arthur recalls seeing “Calcutta on the Hudson” from his Riverside Drive apartment. He says “the clock was running” for New York society. On the Mississippi River in 1934, Lee continues looking for work around the country. He writes to Rose and Moe about his travels and how he’s starting to believe in Marxism. Elsewhere in the Heartland, older Wayne Taylor thinks back on his years as a farmer, when he inspired a group of his neighbors to arm themselves and halt his farm’s foreclosure auction. Ultimately, Judge Bradley and his assistants are forced off the property at gunpoint. Lee writes to his parents that he’s going to try to help foment a revolution. Older Arthur recalls being on the Queen Mary with other high society members when he sees Diana in the crowd below, now offering herself to wealthy men as a prostitute. The young Arthur watches her run off into the crowd, then saves Diana from ruffians attempting to rape her. Back at Arthur’s apartment, Diana tells him how her father died a month after her brother’s death. Arthur reveals how he made a fortune from the Depression. She agrees to stay, but warns him to never ask about her life on the streets. Back in Brooklyn, Rose plays “Just You, Just Me” on her piano as men come to repossess it. In St. Louis harbor, Wayne recalls being put on a chain gang for seven years after refusing to let Judge Bradley’s auction proceed. He notes how his family had disappeared when he returned home. Nearby, Lee talks with black bartender Isaac, who rejoices in the fact that the Depression has proved tough on whites. Isaac then deals with a racist sheriff, who forces him to take part in a shady business deal. Doris listens to FDR on the radio as she browbeats Sidney for trying to go back on their agreement to marry. Lee returns to Brooklyn and has a teary reunion with Moe, Rose and Grandpa. Arthur continues to help Diana live a life of luxury, securing a cache of mink coats. Moe asks Lee about WPA jobs, though Lee explains that they must first go to the relief office. Moe and Lee make a plan for how they can outsmart relief office staffers and get Lee a WPA position. Diana reflects on her past tragedy to Arthur. She confesses to having had a baby, which her pimp sold for two hundred dollars. She recalls setting the pimp on fire, though he was saved by neighbors. Older Arthur says that he knew Diana was too fragile to survive. Inside the relief office, workers try to quell angry locals. Applicant Irene takes President Roosevelt to task and defends the Communist Party and the benefits of solidarity. Lee and Moe finally meet with a case worker. Though their proposal is eyed with suspicion, Lee is finally given a WPA job. The program ends abruptly, and is missing its final 32 minutes. Includes commercials. (This program contains technical problems. This represents the best copy of this program currently available to the Museum.) The acquisition and cataloging of The Arthur Miller Collection was made possible by The Laura Pels Foundation.
Details
- NETWORK: TNT
- DATE: August 23, 1993 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:28:22
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:93719
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: TNT - TV, 1993
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - AT&T calling plans
- TV - Commercials - Alert Line security systems
- TV - Commercials - Ban deodorant
- TV - Commercials - Bayer Select pain relief
- TV - Commercials - Bridgewater Backworks back clinic
- TV - Commercials - Buick automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Clairol Lasting Color hair color
- TV - Commercials - Diamond Express Lane highway route
- TV - Commercials - MCI calling plans
- TV - Commercials - MobiLink cellular service
- TV - Commercials - Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park
- TV - Commercials - Soloflex weight machine
- TV - Commercials - State Farms Insurance
- TV - Commercials - The Clothing Center stores
- TV - Commercials - Wagner power painter
- TV - Promos - "Between Midnight and Dawn"
- TV - Promos - "Headline News"
- TV - Promos - "NFL on TNT: The Silver Bullet Stadium Show"
- TV - Promos - "National Geographic Explorer"
- TV - Promos - "Percy & Thunder"
- TV - Promos - "The Water Engine"
- TV - Promos - "The Way We Were"
- TV - Promos - Cartoon Network
- TV - Promos - TNT "A Summer Holiday" movies
- TV - Promos - TNT "Amazing Adventure" movies
- TV - Promos - TNT MonsterVision: "Apocalypse Goes the Weasel Night" movies
CREDITS
- Michael Brandman … Executive Producer
- Leanne Moore … Producer
- Steven J. Brandman … Co-Producer
- Mark F. Kaplan … Associate Producer
- Bob Clark … Director
- Frank Galati … Writer
- Arthur Miller … Based on the play by
- Paul Zaza … Music by
- Danny Daniels … Choreographer
- Robert Blossoms … Cast, Older Wayne Taylor
- Eddie Bracken … Cast, Grandpa
- Jim Dale … Cast, Ted Quinn
- Loren Dean … Cast, Young Lee Baumler
- Yaphet Kotto … Cast, Isaac
- Mary McDonnell … Cast, Rose Baumler
- Darren McGavin … Cast, Older Arthur Huntington
- Randle Mell … Cast, Sheriff
- Joanna Miles … Cast, Fanny
- Rebecca Miller … Cast, Edie
- Estelle Parsons … Cast, Older Doris
- Kelly Preston … Cast, Diana Marley
- John Randolph … Cast, Older Lee Baumler
- Tony Roberts … Cast, Jesse Livermore
- John Rubinstein … Cast, Moe Baumler
- David Strathairn … Cast, Young Arthur Huntington
- J.T. Walsh … Cast, Judge Bradley
- Shae D'Lyn … Cast, Young Doris
- Kurt Deutsch … Cast, Sidney
- Ivette Soler … Cast, Lucille
- Lloyd Battista … Cast, Tony
- Loretta Devine … Cast, Irene
- Jack Kruschen … Cast, Kapush
- Ron Kuhlman … Cast, Young Wayne Taylor
- Al Mancini … Cast, Dugan
- Dick O'Neill … Cast, Ryan
- Felton Perry … Cast, Clarence
- Bill Wiley … Cast, Hank Howard
- Ed Winter … Cast, William Durant
- Alex Bookston … Cast, Frank
- Wynn Reichart … Cast, Bartender
- Dorothy Dorian James … Cast, Miss Fowler
- Caylen Clark … Cast, Female Vocalist
- Bob Clark … Cast, Second Piano Man
- Wyatt Knight … Cast, Clayton
- Ted Hawkins … Cast, Old Man
- Adrienne Hampton … Cast, Miss Taylor
- John M. Jackson … Cast, Brewster
- Robert Dickman … Cast, Bidder
- Ron Deskins … Cast, Caldwell
- Bill Saluga … Cast, Steward
- Art Hindle … Cast, Rich Friend
- Kurt Bryant … Cast, Dark Figure
- Michael Carter … Cast, Piano Man
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt