Conrad Aiken Classic Tale is TVs Lost Classic

In 1934, Conrad Aiken wrote his most famous short story, "Silent Snow, Secret Snow." It went on to become one of the most widely read American short stories of the twentieth-century. Thirty-seven years later in 1971, Rod Serling's Night Gallery would adapt this short tale as part of its weekly anthology series. With a teleplay and direction by Emmy Award-nominated Gene R. Kearney, the episode remains one of the finest half-hours from 1970s television. Being only five years old in 1971, I must admit that I didn't catch this telling of Aiken's tale until I saw it as a late-night rerun in 1978. Being twelve at the time, the same age as Aiken's protagonist in the story is probably one of the reasons it had such an impact on me.

"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" tells the story of young Paul Hasleman and his slow decent into madness. When Paul awakens one morning to the sound of the postman's muffled footsteps on the street below, his belief that it has snowed the night before is shattered when he discovers the sun-draped lawn outside his window. Paul's discovery of a "secret snow" begins his slow detachment from the real world around him.

Night Gallery is probably best known for it's weekly horror stories and strange tales book ended with introductions by it's host, writer Rod Serling. Serling worked more often as a host than writer on the program, unlike his more famous Twilight Zone series of the 1950s and 60s. For Twilight Zone, Serling took a more active role in weekly production, and it shows. Night Gallery only ran for three seasons, and only a handful of episodes remain memorable in viewers minds. But the ones that do were strong, and often were based on famous and some not-so-famous short stories. Contemporary writers like Richard Matheson, and Serling provided among the best of the series along with adaptations by classic authors like Aiken and even Edgar Allen Poe.

"Silent Snow, Secret Snow" is told from the perspective of young Paul, played by then eleven year-old actor, Radames Pera. Pera, who would go on to play Young Caine in the famed 1970s TV series Kung Fu, is quite revealing as the troubled Paul. His soulful eyes focuses the viewers attention almost immediately, and as his fascination with the "secret snow" progresses, Pera's conveyance of pure pathos is at times overwhelming.

Two other great contributions to the episodes success are it's music score and narration. The compelling and haunting musical score by composers Paul Glass and Oliver Nelson strike just the right chord between setting the tone and providing effective underscoring. The music at times sounds mournful evoking images of longing and sympathy.

The narration is by the legendary Orson Welles. Just a few moments of dialogue are interspersed between the raspy baritone of Welles' telling which accounts for the bulk of the story's narrative. Remarkably, Welles' never responded to the offer sent to him along with the script by director Kearney for the project, and only at the proverbial 11th hour did a tape arrive bearing Welles narration. Welles was famous for this sort of thing, but in the end, the effect is mesmerizing.

Universal Home Video released the first season of Night Gallery on DVD in 2004. Unfortunately, "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" originally aired in October of 1971 during the shows second season. What is keeping Universal from releasing the second and third seasons of the program is unknown. One can only hope that they will complete the collection at sometime in the near future. The episode was available at onetime through Columbia House Home Video, and VHS tapes from that series can be found on Ebay from time-to-time.

In the end the combination of performance, music and the effective storytelling by Welles allows the audience watching to somehow share in Paul's alienation from the world around him. It's a remarkable achievement for 1970s television, to tell a story so innately poetic. One doubts that anything of this kind with such great lyricism could find its way onto the airwaves today.