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The Hitchhiker PP. 1

Lucille Fletcher wrote the suspenseful radio play "The Hitchhiker" in 1942. The story follows Ronald Adams as he drives across the United States and is constantly shadowed by the same hitchhiker. The radio play was a big success and helped establish Fletcher as a scriptwriter. She went on to write many other suspenseful scripts and novels throughout her career. The hitchhiker character represents the internal and external conflicts Ronald Adams faces on his journey.

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chynna cuellar
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189 views25 pages

The Hitchhiker PP. 1

Lucille Fletcher wrote the suspenseful radio play "The Hitchhiker" in 1942. The story follows Ronald Adams as he drives across the United States and is constantly shadowed by the same hitchhiker. The radio play was a big success and helped establish Fletcher as a scriptwriter. She went on to write many other suspenseful scripts and novels throughout her career. The hitchhiker character represents the internal and external conflicts Ronald Adams faces on his journey.

Uploaded by

chynna cuellar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Hitchhiker

The Hitchhiker

By
Lucille Fletcher
By
Lucille Fletcher
Lucille Fletcher
Violet Lucille Fletcher was born March
28, 1912, in Brooklyn, New York. Her
parents were Matthew Emerson
Fletcher, a marine draftsman, and the
former Violet Anderson, a
homemaker.
She graduated from Erasmus Hall High
School in 1929 and then went to
Vassar College, which was a women's
university at that time. She earned a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English in
1933, then took a $15 a week job as
clerk-typist for CBS radio in New York
City.
Lucille was a writer at heart. She spent a few days
writing a story about a man who drove across the
United States and was shadowed by the same
hitchhiker everywhere. The story was shown to
actor, Orson Welles, who showed it to the
production staff for the series Suspense! The
episode, "The Hitchhiker", aired on September 2,
1942.
Orson Welles was Ron Adams who drove from
Manhattan to Los Angeles on business. It was
repeated several times on Suspense! and other
series. The story changed her status at CBS from
clerk-typist to scriptwriter.

She wrote many other scripts, including another


for Suspense!, "Sorry, Wrong Number", which also
became a hit motion picture, for which she also
wrote the script. "The Hitchhiker" was also revised
as an episode of TV's The Twilight Zone, featuring
Leonard Strong (1908-80) in the role of the
hitchhiker and Inger Stevens (1934-70) in the
Orson Welles part as Nan Adams.
She spent the rest of her
life writing nine mystery
novels at her homes in
suburban Philadelphia.

Lucille died in Langhorne,


Pennsylvania, on August
31, 2000, of a stroke at
her home. She was 88
years old.
ORSON WELLES
On October 30, 1938, he
directed the Mercury
Theatre on the Air in a
dramatization of “War of the
Worlds,” based on the H. G.
Wells novel.

Welles set the events in


contemporary locations (the
landing spot for the Martian
invasion, Grover’s Mill, New
Jersey, was chosen at
random with a New Jersey
road map) and dramatized it
in the style of a musical
program interrupted by
news bulletins, complete
with eye-witness accounts.
Radio Play adapted from H.G. Wells novel, The War of the Worlds

The Panic
Though the program began with the announcement that it was a story based on a novel and
there were several announcements during the program that reiterated that this was just a
story, many listeners didn't tune in long enough to hear them.
A lot of the radio listeners had been intently listening to their favorite program the "Chase and
Sanborn Hour" and turned the dial, like they did every Sunday, during the musical section of
the "Chase and Sanborn Hour" around 8:12. Usually, listeners turned back to the "Chase and
Sanborn Hour" when they thought the musical section of the program was over.
However, on this particular evening they were shocked to hear another station carrying news
alerts warning of an invasion of Martians attacking Earth. Not hearing the introduction of the
play and listening to the authoritative and real sounding commentary and interviews, many
believed it to be real.
All across the United States, listeners reacted. Thousands of people called radio stations,
police and newspapers. Many in the New England area loaded up their cars and fled their
homes. In other areas, people went to churches to pray. People improvised gas masks.
Deaths, too, were reported but never confirmed. Many people were hysterical. They thought
the end was near.
TUNING IN TO A The Golden Age of Radio
FAVORITE RADIO (sometimes referred to as old-
time radio) refers to a period of
PROGRAM radio programming in the United
States lasting from the growth of
radio broadcasting in the early
1920s until television's
replacement of radio as the
primary home entertainment
medium in the 1950s. During this
period, when radio was dominant
and filled with a variety of
formats and genres, people
regularly tuned in to their favorite
radio programs. In fact, according
to a 1947 survey, 82 out of 100
Americans were found to be radio
listeners.
A radio play was written for radio
broadcast, which means that it
was originally
meant to be heard, not seen.
HOW TO READ A RADIO PLAY
*STAGE DIRECTIONS
These are written instructions that are not read aloud,
but are written to help the
actor know how to read his/her lines.

*SOUND EFFECTS
The sound of screeching tires, shattering glass, or
other noises help the listener
to “see” what is happening in the play. These
sounds suggest the action that is
taking place.
HOW TO READ A RADIO PLAY
*DIALOGUE
These are the words spoken by the actors.

*DIALOGUE AND STAGE DIRECTIONS


Since listeners can’t see the actors, radio
playwrights, (the person who writes the drama),
give information about the characters through the
dialogue and stage directions.
WHAT MAKES A SUSPENSE STORY ?

Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and


television programming that uses suspense,
tension and excitement as the main elements.
Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods
giving them a high level of anticipation, ultra-
heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise,
anxiety and/or terror. Thrillers and suspense
novels tend to be adrenaline-rushing and
fast-paced.
WHAT MAKES A
SUSPENSE STORY?

Literary devices such as


foreshadowing, red herrings,
plot twists and cliffhangers are
used extensively.
A thriller is a villain-driven plot,
whereby he or she presents
obstacles that the protagonist must
overcome.
WHAT MAKES A SUSPENSE STORY?
*The protagonist(s) faces death, either their own or somebody else's.
*The force(s) of antagonism must initially be cleverer and/or stronger than
the protagonist's.
*The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character who
cannot be put down.
*The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
*The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of
view.
*All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their
representation on screen.
*The two major themes that underpin the thriller genre are the desire for
justice and the morality of individuals.
*One small, but significant, aspect of a thriller is the presence of innocence
in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world.
*The protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) may battle, themselves and each
other, not just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.
*Either by accident or their own curiousness, characters are dragged into a
dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve.
LITERARY TERM TO NOTE
FORESHADOWING
The writer provides HINTS that suggest
future events in a story.
A great suspense story
will use the literary
technique of
foreshadowing to build
suspense
for the reader.
LITERARY TERM TO NOTE
FORESHADOWING
Foreshadow events in a suspense story or
novel. This is arguably the most
important technique used in writing any
kind of suspense story. Foreshadow
events by alluding to them in bits of
dialogue. This gives readers
more to anticipate.
LITERARY TERM TO REMEMBER

CONFLICT
The struggle in a story between
opposing forces.
The main character, Ronald Adams, experiences
both internal conflict of Man VS Self.

Ronald Adams also experiences external conflict of


Man VS Man.
ROUTE 66
Route 66 was
commissioned in 1926.
It was fully paved by the
late 1930s.
It ran from Chicago to
Los Angeles, creating
connections between
hundreds of small towns
and providing a trucking
route through the
Southwest. The highway, which became one of the
While not the first long- most famous roads ran through Missouri,
distance highway, or the Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico,
most traveled, Route 66 and Arizona before ending at
gained fame beyond Los Angeles, California, covering a total of
almost any other road. 2,448 miles.
“I was in the heart of the great Texas prairies. There wasn’t a car on
the road after the truck went by. I tried to figure out what to do, how
to get ahold of myself. If I could find a place to rest.”
Route 66 was used by many during the Depression
of the 1930s as people sought their brighter
future by heading to California.
Auto Camp of the 1940s

Auto camps were set up along Route 66 for weary travelers


to take a break from the long-distance driving.
Many people merely slept in their cars. Others pulled
campers behind the cars or carried tents in the trunks
of their cars.
“Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge that morning in the rain, I saw
a man leaning against the cables.”

BR I D GE
OOK LYN
THE B R
Each day, over
100,000 cars cross
the Pulaski
Skyway, a span of
bridges that feed
in and out of the
Holland Tunnel
connecting
Manhattan and
New Jersey. Traffic-
choked, with hair-
raising curves,
slopes and exits,
the Skyway is
loved by few, but
needed by many.
CHARACTERS
Protagonist Antagonist
Ronald Adams Phantom Hitchhiker (Voice)

Minor Characters
•Adams’s Mother •Hitchhiker Girl
•Operator
•Orson Welles
•Long-distance Operator
•Mechanic
•Albuquerque Operator
•Henry, a sleepy man
•New York Operator
•Woman’s Voice (Henry’s wife)
•Mrs. Whitney
GET READY TO READ

IS SEEING BELIEVING?
YOU EVER SEEN SOMETHING YOU COULDN’T E

Was that a man in the alley or was that only a


shadow? What was that bright shape that
streaked across the sky?
Adams is driving across the country on Route 6
sperate to prove that what he is seeing can be ex
dy to read the suspense drama. The Hitchhiker!

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