Then go on to A Writer's Notebook
Here is a capsulized account of past years:
In 1952 I joined WOI-TV, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa where I
produced "In Our Care", a 13 week series of documentaries filmed inside Iowa's mental hospitals,
prisons and other institutions. The series won National Sylvania Television Award for Production
Excellence presented at a black tie ceremony in New York City.
Joined Iowa State Medical Society in 1955 as Public Relations Director. Among other duties produced weekly half-hour TV film in local hospitals featuring actual surgical procedures. Films were "bicycled" to statewide TV stations as public service programs.
Most ambitious project was first-ever televising of Open Heart Surgery. Surgery was televised live on a weekday afternoon over KRNT-TV which stopped Des Moines in its tracks while people were glued to their TV sets. Telecast was written up in Newsweek. Procedure was so new that the heart-lung machine was constructed by the surgeon using plastic tubing, beer pumps and Tuffy sponges.
Joined WHTN-TV Huntington, West Virginia in 1957 as Public Affairs Director. I produced local programs and was active in community affairs. I was a representive of Huntington in Colorado Springs at the All American Cities awards banquet.
Governor Cecil Underwood appointed me Chairman of the West Virginia Mental Health Conference in recognition of my volunteer work in the mental health field.
Joined WIIC (WPXI-TV) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1959 as Public Affairs Director. Among many public affairs programs produced over six years was a weekly magazine type series featuring filmed segments of various aspects of life in Pittsburgh. Because of the ethnic and religious mix of Pittsburghers, I produced four hour-long film documentaries: "Why Is A Nun?", featuring life and training of nuns at Sisters of St. Francis Convent in Millvale, PA; "The Sign of a Priest", filmed at the Passionist Father's Seminary at St. Paul's Monestary, Pittsburgh; "Divine Mysteries" concerning the beliefs and ceremonies of Eastern Orthodox churches; "Divided We Stand" showing the varied forms of worship among protestant churches.
Independent Film Producer and Photographer until Retirement
Retirement
In my television/public relations/motion picture career I wrote many documentaries, brochures and sales promotion scripts. When I retired at 65 I embarked upon writing The Great American Novel. When I finished a few years later I felt I had accomplished my purpose and the world would be better off for my inspired prose.
Alas, no publisher to date has agreed. It's their loss, of course. I can survive, but how about the world that was to be better off for my writing.
A pox on blind editors. (That is past tense, of course. There's a new breed out there, more social consciousness.)
BLUESTONE
In the city of Bluestone, somewhere in the Southern Allegheny Mountains, at WQPQ-TV on the campus of Athens University, Rex Hall has lived his entire professional life as a television producer. His experiences begin in the earliest days of the medium and continue into modern times.
Facing the twentieth anniversary of his promotion to vice president and executive producer, Rex is confronted by an emotional crisis. How he copes and how he faces the fortunes and misfortunes of an unexpected promotion forms the framework of this novel. Behind-the-scenes television activities and staff interactions are vividly shown.
Through flashbacks associated with various characters the life and times of early mountain people is explored. Families who have lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains for generations are moved out as the federal government establishes the Shenandoah National Park. The life cycle of Rex Hall's parents is traced from poverty in the mountains of Virginia through success as druggists and back to poverty following the Great Depression.
There is murder as a disgruntled studio manager shoots Rex, kills Rex's wife, is captured in a massive manhunt, escapes jail and is killed in a third attempt on Rex's life. There is romance as a bereaved Rex meets a younger woman, a divorcee. There is conflict as the representative of a major contributor attempts to dictate policy and there is conflict as one of the staff faces up to the Establishment over control of the Community Fund.
Television episodes are threaded through the book. Characters suffer psychological problems, career changes and failures. The final chapter carries some unexpected resolutions.
The award resulted in my promotion to Executive Producer in charge of local production
Filmed training and sales promotion films, taught photography, operated two photo studios and a motion picture studio.
I finally got tired of the Winters in Pittsburgh and moved to New Mexico -- The Land of Enchantment.
This Writing Life
A Novel by
Ray Stewart
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Or e-mail me at rstewart@zianet.com
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