John Mantley
Encyclopedia
John Truman Mantley was a Canadian theatrical actor, writer, director, screenwriter and producer of the long-running television series, Gunsmoke
, and was Mary Pickford
's cousin.
Their father, Cecil Clay Van Manzer, adopted the stage name Clay Mantley. Van Manzer met his wife Violet Petello in 1906 in New York City at the casting of "The Convict's Daughter," directed by Maurice Costello. He later wrote playlets which his wife appeared in on the vaudeville
circuit.
In later years Van Manzer operated a traveling circus while his wife ran a number of concession stands in a park across the lake from Toronto. Their son John operated the candy booth and at 17 traveled with the carnival, serving as the bingo game barker.
s" in addition to performing as an athlete in high school. He was later president of the Victoria College Dramatic Society, which won international competitions.
in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II
, and was sent to England
and India
. While there he exchanged long letters with his second cousin Mary Pickford, from which later evolved his first novel, The 27th Day. After the war he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse
, where he graduated magna cum laude. Earning his master's degree, he subsequently performed in a variety of roles in the legitimate theatre
, including the role of Sir Robert Cecil to Jane Cowl's lead in Elizabeth the Great; a two-year summer theatre run of The Hasty Heart, and Summer Smoke with Dorothy McGuire
. His final role in legitimate theatre was the lead role in Cyrano de Bergerac
at the Kansas City Playhouse.
The actor returned to his native Canada to recover from exhaustion. While there, the United Kingdom
issued a tax on American films and "Hollywood went into complete chaos. Entire departments of all the major studios were dismantled and it was really a bad time in the film industry
." He had planned to work for Mary Pickford following graduation from Pasadena Playhouse, but she sold both her production companies when it appeared there was no future for the motion picture industry.
Mantley worked in radio shows with Lorne Green, of Bonanza
television fame, as well as other actors who later had successful careers. He eventually played the lead on Buckingham Theatre the most prestigious program on Canadian radio's coast-to-coast network. Subsequent acting and directing roles won him provincial and national awards comparable to the American ANTA.
He then returned to California to perform at the LaJolla Theatre and to New York City
, "where I starved," he said. He eventually played the leads in a number of shows produced by Harvey Marlow, and assumed his job as producer of television station WOR. There he produced "Mr. & Mrs. Mystery," written by John Gay
, who later won an Oscar for Separate Tables
.
The Canadian actor also produced the first foreign language television show in the U.S., starring an all-Italian cast, and he changed his name for the show to Giovanni Mantley. During his time at WOR, Mantley began to write for television and edited scripts from university students because the station could not afford a writer. He then spent four years in Rome
, where he produced and directed a series of 39 successful half-hour dramatic anthologies for American television, a pioneering effort which played in some 200 markets.
The first of Mantley's three children was born in Italy
, where the couple managed to financially survive because John's wife Angela did the voiceovers—post synchronization of the voices of Gina Lollobridgida and Sophia Loren
, among others. Mantley said that he translated Italian films into English by the lip synching process because American audiences would not accept subtitles, "and because at that time the American motion picture industry would not sell their films to television because they were trying to destroy the media."
When the Mantleys returned to California
, he began his writing career, turning out a number of short stories and articles. He wrote his first novel, The 27th Day, which became a "Book of the Month Club" selection and was adapted to film for Columbia Pictures
. At Mary Pickford's urging, he then wrote The Snow Birch, which was produced by 20th Century Fox
as Woman Obsessed starring Susan Hayward.
Mantley's first television script was for Desilu Westinghouse Theatre, for which he wrote five. He also wrote for Harrigan and Sons, The Untouchables
, The Outer Limits
, Kraft Theatre, Rawhide
, and freelanced scripts for Gunsmoke
, the longest running dramatic show in television history, which he produced for the next ten years. "I can tell you that James Arness
and the crew were great fun to work with," he said.
John Mantley received five consecutive Western Heritage awards for his Gunsmoke series, and shared writing honors with Calvin Clements and Earl Wallace for a 1978 Spur Award
from Western Writers of America
for How the West Was Won
. He also received the William F. Cody Award.
He operated his own production company for a number of years, and was loaned out to produce Wild Wild West
Dirty Sally
, and How the West Was Won, among other films. He also served on the board of directors of the Producer's Guild and hosted the earliest meeting of the Caucus of Producers, Writers, and Directors in his own backyard.
Mantley felt that networks should stay out of the creative process. During the golden age of television, "the only people who looked at your rough cuts, or your manuscripts, were advertising agencies in order to protect their clients. They came to rough cut screenings to make sure that you didn't "ford" a river if you were sponsored by Chevrolet
, as was Bonanza
. As a result, Bonanza in its thirteen-year history, never forded a river. They crossed rivers. On the other hand, we at Gunsmoke forded a lot of rivers, but I was found of saying that 'we never chevroleted one.'" (Excerpted from S. Jean Mead
's interview with John Mantley for her book, Maverick Writers, pages 151-55.)
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, and was Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
's cousin.
Family
Mantley had a sister, eleven years older than himself, who taught dancing well into her eighties. Mantley said that she was "the one born in a (show business) trunk," but strangely enough, I was the one who ended up involved in television and films."Their father, Cecil Clay Van Manzer, adopted the stage name Clay Mantley. Van Manzer met his wife Violet Petello in 1906 in New York City at the casting of "The Convict's Daughter," directed by Maurice Costello. He later wrote playlets which his wife appeared in on the vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
circuit.
In later years Van Manzer operated a traveling circus while his wife ran a number of concession stands in a park across the lake from Toronto. Their son John operated the candy booth and at 17 traveled with the carnival, serving as the bingo game barker.
Childhood
Reading was Mantley's childhood escape and his dream was to become an actor. While attending St. Catherine's Institute of Vocation School in Toronto, he persuaded a teacher to open a dramatic society, of which he became its first president. "And, therefore," he said, "I got to play the leads in all sorts of marvelous melodramaMelodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
s" in addition to performing as an athlete in high school. He was later president of the Victoria College Dramatic Society, which won international competitions.
Career
Mantley trained as a fighter pilotFighter pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained in air-to-air combat while piloting a fighter aircraft . Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and dogfighting...
in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and was sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. While there he exchanged long letters with his second cousin Mary Pickford, from which later evolved his first novel, The 27th Day. After the war he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
, where he graduated magna cum laude. Earning his master's degree, he subsequently performed in a variety of roles in the legitimate theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, including the role of Sir Robert Cecil to Jane Cowl's lead in Elizabeth the Great; a two-year summer theatre run of The Hasty Heart, and Summer Smoke with Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
. His final role in legitimate theatre was the lead role in Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (play)
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
at the Kansas City Playhouse.
The actor returned to his native Canada to recover from exhaustion. While there, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
issued a tax on American films and "Hollywood went into complete chaos. Entire departments of all the major studios were dismantled and it was really a bad time in the film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
." He had planned to work for Mary Pickford following graduation from Pasadena Playhouse, but she sold both her production companies when it appeared there was no future for the motion picture industry.
Mantley worked in radio shows with Lorne Green, of Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
television fame, as well as other actors who later had successful careers. He eventually played the lead on Buckingham Theatre the most prestigious program on Canadian radio's coast-to-coast network. Subsequent acting and directing roles won him provincial and national awards comparable to the American ANTA.
He then returned to California to perform at the LaJolla Theatre and to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, "where I starved," he said. He eventually played the leads in a number of shows produced by Harvey Marlow, and assumed his job as producer of television station WOR. There he produced "Mr. & Mrs. Mystery," written by John Gay
John Gay
John Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, who later won an Oscar for Separate Tables
Separate Tables (film)
Separate Tables is a 1958 American drama film based on two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan that were collectively known by this name. It was directed by Delbert Mann, and adapted by Rattigan, John Gay and an uncredited John Michael Hayes. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.The film took the...
.
The Canadian actor also produced the first foreign language television show in the U.S., starring an all-Italian cast, and he changed his name for the show to Giovanni Mantley. During his time at WOR, Mantley began to write for television and edited scripts from university students because the station could not afford a writer. He then spent four years in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he produced and directed a series of 39 successful half-hour dramatic anthologies for American television, a pioneering effort which played in some 200 markets.
The first of Mantley's three children was born in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where the couple managed to financially survive because John's wife Angela did the voiceovers—post synchronization of the voices of Gina Lollobridgida and Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, among others. Mantley said that he translated Italian films into English by the lip synching process because American audiences would not accept subtitles, "and because at that time the American motion picture industry would not sell their films to television because they were trying to destroy the media."
When the Mantleys returned to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, he began his writing career, turning out a number of short stories and articles. He wrote his first novel, The 27th Day, which became a "Book of the Month Club" selection and was adapted to film for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. At Mary Pickford's urging, he then wrote The Snow Birch, which was produced by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
as Woman Obsessed starring Susan Hayward.
Mantley's first television script was for Desilu Westinghouse Theatre, for which he wrote five. He also wrote for Harrigan and Sons, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
, Kraft Theatre, Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, and freelanced scripts for Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, the longest running dramatic show in television history, which he produced for the next ten years. "I can tell you that James Arness
James Arness
James King Arness was an American actor, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon in the television series Gunsmoke for 20 years...
and the crew were great fun to work with," he said.
John Mantley received five consecutive Western Heritage awards for his Gunsmoke series, and shared writing honors with Calvin Clements and Earl Wallace for a 1978 Spur Award
Spur Award
The Spur Award is an annual literary prize awarded by the Western Writers of America. Founded in 1953 with only four categories , the award today has expanded to include the following categories:...
from Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America, founded 1953, promotes literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional western fiction, the more than five hundred current members also include historians and other non-fiction writers as well as authors...
for How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won (TV series)
How the West Was Won is an American western television series that featured an all star cast that included: James Arness, Eva Marie Saint, Fionnula Flanagan, Bruce Boxleitner, G. W. Bailey, Trisha Noble, William Shatner, Jack Elam, Woody Strode, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Kiley, Lloyd Bridges,...
. He also received the William F. Cody Award.
He operated his own production company for a number of years, and was loaned out to produce Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
Dirty Sally
Dirty Sally
Dirty Sally is a short-lived comedy-drama Western series which ran on CBS from January 11 until April 5, 1974. The program was a spin-off of a two-part 1971 episode of Gunsmoke in which Sally nursed a young gunfighter back to health.-Synopsis:...
, and How the West Was Won, among other films. He also served on the board of directors of the Producer's Guild and hosted the earliest meeting of the Caucus of Producers, Writers, and Directors in his own backyard.
Mantley felt that networks should stay out of the creative process. During the golden age of television, "the only people who looked at your rough cuts, or your manuscripts, were advertising agencies in order to protect their clients. They came to rough cut screenings to make sure that you didn't "ford" a river if you were sponsored by Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
, as was Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
. As a result, Bonanza in its thirteen-year history, never forded a river. They crossed rivers. On the other hand, we at Gunsmoke forded a lot of rivers, but I was found of saying that 'we never chevroleted one.'" (Excerpted from S. Jean Mead
Jean Henry-Mead
Jean Henry Mead is an American novelist, award-winning photojournalist, historian and editor/publisher. She has also written under the names: Jean Henry, Jean Mead, and S...
's interview with John Mantley for her book, Maverick Writers, pages 151-55.)