Organization Man

Every desert has its oasis. Television has George Schaefer. Now that Playhouse 90, the Alcoa Hour, Kraft Theater and Studio One have gone, Schaefer's Hallmark Hall of Fame is virtually the only greenery left. The other directors spawned in the golden days of live and tape television--Arthur Penn, Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer, et al.--have all gone to graze in the lusher pastures of Broadway or Hollywood. Only Schaefer still does business at the same old stand. For him 60 feet of studio space still offer acres of opportunity and fulfillment, as he proved with last week's Inherit the Wind.

It was hardly a fresh Wind. The fictionalized treatment of the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" was a 1955 play; the 1960 movie version has been run and rerun on television. But despite the script's many previous lives, Schaefer, employing Ed Begley and Melvyn Douglas from the Broadway cast, managed to make this reincarnation seem new and important.

First-Night Feeling. His secret is neither the fire of genius nor the flash of inspiration. Others may be more daring and original; they have streaked like comets across the screen and disappeared. Schaefer has lasted for 13 years and may go on for 13 more. For in a medium run by networks and advertising agencies, he has something more potent than mere brilliance: organization.

He insists on an unheard-of three weeks' rehearsal for a 90-minute play. To achieve the "first-night feeling" of a Broadway opening, he shoots the play in sequence--an expensive indulgence no Hollywood studio can afford. Under Schaefer's hothouse treatment, actors blossom. Says Schaefer: "They know they're not going to be cut up into little pieces and put back together again at the laboratory."

For Schaefer, organization has paid dividends ever since his World War II army days, when he found himself assigned to a Special Services unit under the command of Major Maurice Evans. After some 50 wartime shows, including Macbeth and the G.I. Hamlet, Civilian Schaefer directed Civilian Evans in Hamlet on Broadway, went on to the Dallas State Fair for six seasons, co-produced (with Evans) The Teahouse of the August Moon, and then settled in for a long run at Hallmark.

Calling the Shots. Over the years Schaefer's efforts have garnered some 17 Emmy awards for him and his actors. As a result, a parade of stars from Mary Martin to Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who ordinarily shun TV, have allowed themselves to be shrunk down to 21 inches simply because they knew Schaefer would be calling the shots. Said doughty Trevor Howard after taping Eagle in a Cage: "I'd play Mickey Mouse for him. I trust him. He is one of the few directors for whom I would work script unseen." Emmy Winner Julie Harris calls Schaefer "positively inspired."

Only Melvyn Douglas finds fault with Schaefer--and even then he is apologetic: "There was one scene [in Inherit the Wind] with a little mild profanity," recalls Douglas. "The word was passed that the agency wanted the scene out. Schaefer said he'd fight for it, but in the final version it came out. Still, George is really a nice man, and he is organized. I can't tell you how important that is."

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