Reginald Rose was born on December 10 in 1920 and died on April 19 in 2002. He was an American screenwriter, and was known for addressing contentious subjects through his work. The Museum of Broadcasting Communications states that Rose was “one of the major players in one of the outstanding television playwrights to emerge from the "Golden Age" of television drama anthology series” (Reginald, 2011). Just like his equally successful peers, such as Paddy Chayefsky, Tad Mosel, and Rod Serling, Rose will be remembered for years to come as a key influence on American television (Reginald, 2011).
Rose was born and brought up in Manhattan, New York, and studied at Townsend Harris Secondary School. He then went on to study at City College. After leaving college, he had a run of low paid jobs, such as working as a window cleaner and a camp counsellor. During this time, Rose enjoyed writing short stories and plays, in his spare time. In 1942, Rose moved on to serve the American Army until 1946; during his time in the Army, he qualified as a lieutenant (Reginald, a). Rose was clearly successful in the Army, managing to attain such a high rank, but when the war ended, he left the Army. He then moved back to New York and secured a job working in the marketing department of Warner Bros. His next career move was to move on to work as a copywriter for an advertising firm. Through his choice of jobs, Rose was clearly becoming more serious about his writing, and narrowing his career path. It is easy to see Rose’s progression through various jobs, into working full time as a writer.
Rose was lucky enough to sell his first play for television in 1950; the play was called Bus To Nowhere. It was bought by a company called Studio One, which was CBS's drama-based anthology program (Reginald, b). This play went on to be very successful, and provided a good starting point for Rose’s career as a professional writer.
It was four years later that Rose then wrote the well-known Twelve Angry Men, also for Studio One. Twelve Angry Men was a drama which was wholly set in one room, and in this room a jury deliberates the verdict of a male who was suspected of manslaughter. Rose was motivated to write this drama following his time in service on a similar jury panel (Reginald, b).
According to the Rotten Tomatoes website, Rose spoke about his memories of his experience on the jury:
“It was such an impressive, solemn setting in a great big wood-panelled courtroom, with a silver-haired judge, it knocked me out. I was overwhelmed. I was on a jury for a manslaughter case, and we got into this terrific, furious, eight-hour argument in the jury room. I was writing one-hour dramas for Studio One then and I thought, wow, what a setting for a drama” (Reginald, b).
Twelve Angry Men is the play that Rose is best known for, perhaps even today. It explores a theme of justice, and how successfully the American criminal justice system works. At the beginning the story shows a jury who is about to wrongly convict a man, one man fights to make the jury look at the facts properly, and to correctly find the man innocent by the end.
The play explores three main elements of the justice system in America. The first is the well-known fact among most people that in the courtroom, a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, and not vice versa. The second point is that a the verdict must be unanimous among the jurors. Finally, Rose has explored the point that a defendant can only be convicted if there is no reasonable doubt among the jury. Is reasonable doubt is present, the defendant must be cleared of all charges. Essentially, the thinking behind this is that it is preferable to release a guilty man than it is to imprison an innocent one. In the play, the defendant is never proved innocent, he just cannot be proven guilty, and therefore he is acquitted (Twelve).
However, as The Novel Guide website argues: “the play also acts as a warning about the fragility of justice and the forces of complacency, prejudice, and lack of civic responsibility that would undermine it” (Twelve). In the story, several of the people on the jury demonstrate that they are incapable of being fair and objective about the case. This is a fascinating theme to explore as, arguably, most of us believe that we have the capacity to think and act objectively, when required. However, in reality, this confidence can be false. Most people have at least one issue that they cannot remain objective about; it tends to be an issue which is personal to them and therefore they can easily become emotional about it. An example of this is Juror Three, who harbours an anxiety about his relationship with his son, and therefore has personal reasons to convict the defendant in order to exorcize his own personal demons (Reginald, c). Rose’s decision to confront such issues, both in society and in the personal psyche of humans, was an intelligent and forward thinking one. This provides just one example of how the writer exploited such projects through his works.
Rose was awarded a prestigious Emmy for the teleplay Twelve Angry Men and was afterwards nominated for an Oscar for the 1957 film reworking. By this point, Rose’s work was well known and discussed in the television and film industries in America.
Following this enormous success, Rose’s career continued to flourish. Eventually, he ended up writing for the three most influential broadcast networks in operation between 1950 and 1980. In 1961, he devised and wrote on The Defenders. This was a courtroom drama which reached similar success as Twelve Angry Men, as it then won two awards – again prestigious Emmys – for its dramatic writing (Reginald, b).
As well as television writing, Rose was also involved in film screenwriting projects. He teamed up with the film producer Euan Lloyd, and together they made four films. These were “The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, Who Dares Wins and Wild Geese II” (Reginald, b).
Rose’s private life was similarly busy, as he managed to fit a hectic family life into his busy life of writing. The writer married twice. His first wife was Barbara Langbart who he married in 1943, and they went on to have four children. This marriage did not last, and in 1963 Rose married Ellen McLaughlin, and together they had an additional two children. In 2002, Rose died from heart failure complications (Reginald, b). Rose lived until he was eight-one years old, which supports the common belief among people that those who are successful and happy in their careers live longer and healthier lives.
Nowadays, Rose is most well-known for his tackling of controversial issues, both political and social, through his writing. His realistic dramatic style played a significant part in influencing the, previously, safe field of television drama. This was particularly poignant in the 1950s anthology programs (Reginald, b).
There were, of course, other talented and well-known writers working during the same period as Rose; Chayefsky and Serling are two such examples (Reginald, d). However, what made Rose’s teleplays different from those of other writers was their open and uncompromising association with controversial issues, both social and political. While Rose’s peers may also have been mindful about such issues, their scripts focussed more on domestic situations and private dilemmas. Consequently, the types of contentious societal matters that Rose tackled was a significant contrast to those of his peers.
Thunder on Sycamore Street was arguably one of Rose’s most famous and controversial plays. The story explores the theme of conforming to society. As the Museum of Broadcast Communications explains about the play:
“an ex-convict moves to an up-scale neighborhood in an attempt to make a new beginning. When his past is discovered, one of neighbors organizes a community march to drive the ex-convict out of his new home” (Reginald, d)
In this particular work, Rose bravely confronts subjects such as individualism, non-conformity and of mob mentality. It is important to remember that in 1953, when this play was written, the pressure to conform in society were rampant and, furthermore, fascism was still a fresh memory.
When Rose originally wrote Thunder on Sycamore Street, he wrote the protagonist as being an African-American man. However, Studio One were worried that this concept would alienate viewers in South America, and therefore they convinced Rose to change the main character of his play to an ex-convict (Reginald, d). This fact demonstrates just how unequivocal Rose’s tendency to focus on current and contentious American issues really was. In many ways it seems a shame that the company prevented Rose from writing the play as he had originally intended. In terms of ratings and overall success, it was probably the correct , thing to do; however, knowing Rose’s skills, both in writing storylines and in creating well-rounded characters that compliment and conflict with each other, the play about the African-American man is likely to have been outstanding.
Although Rose’s works were known, primarily, for their themes and storylines, he did not neglect the skill of characterisation.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications provides an example of how Rose used characters to enhance his themes, stating: “The tension created by exhausting deliberations within the confined closeness of the jury room in which Twelve Angry Men occurs is exemplary in this regard” (Reginald, d).
The conversion of this play into a feature film signified the proper move of the look of television drama into the Hollywood film industry. Credit should be given to Rose for this movement, as the gritty realism that his, along with others’, work introduced became popular very quickly, and has shaped the aesthetics of American cinema and television (Reginald, d).
Over the course of his life and writing career, Reginald Rose significantly influenced both the television and the film industries. His aptitude in tackling controversial issues that other writers tended to avoid, was genuinely admirable. Unlike his prominent counterparts, Rose deviated from the usual matters of domesticity, and instead tackled wider subjects of society. His focus on conforming within society was evidently based on his own feelings, as simply writing a play with a subject matter of this nature is, in itself, not conforming to normal society.
Rose lived a long life, dying at the age of eighty-one, and he achieved a lot in his time. He contributed to the shape and future of television and film, and he was a pioneer in the use of contentious topics within television themes. It is probable that this element of his work will be what he is remembered for in the years to come.
Works Cited
“Reginald (a) Rose Biography.” Film Reference. Web. 25 May 2011.
http://www.filmreference.com/film/48/Reginald-Rose.html
“Reginald (b) Rose Biography.” Rotten Tomatoes. Web. 25 May 2011.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/1053417-reginald_rose/biography.php
“Reginald (c) Rose Biography.” Book Rags. 9 June 2011.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/reginald-rose-dlb/
“Reginald (d) Rose.” The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Web. 9 June 2011.
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=rosereginal
“Twelve Angry Men.” Novel Guide. Web. 9 June 2011.
http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/dfs_0000_0023_0/dfs_0000_0023_0_00025.h
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