"Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond" The Day the World Wept-The Lincoln Story (1960)

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TV Series:

"Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond" (1959)

Original Air Date:

9 February 1960 (Season 2, Episode 21)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title | Company Sponsor Name In Title | Anthology | Occult | Ghost

Cast

Barry Atwater	...	President Abraham Lincoln
Jeanne Bates	...	Mary Todd Lincoln
Amy Douglass	...	Mrs. Norcross
Watson Downs	...	Samuel
Jonathan Hole	...	Landlord
Norman Leavitt	...	Noah
Tom Middleton	...	Soldier
Theodore Newton	...	Minister Strom
Riza Royce	...	Ellen Stroom
Eric Sinclair	...	Secretary Hay
Justice Watson

And Farmers Said That at 10:00 P.M. the Moon turned Red

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I mentioned this episode in passing in my general review of ONE STEP BEYOND. The death of Abraham Lincoln has bred an entire mythology of it's own, due to the reverence felt towards the 16th President, and even shared (ironically) by his killer John Wilkes Booth. A good place to start studying it is in JIM BISHOP'S THE DAY LINCOLN WAS SHOT, but also read Lloyd Lewis's MYTHS AFTER LINCOLN, Theodore Roscoe's WEB OF CONSPIRACY, and William Hanchett's THE LINCOLN MURDER CONSPIRACIES.

Like the odd story about Morgan Robertson's novella FUTILITY: THE WRECK OF THE TITAN which mirrored the 1912 Titanic Disaster but was written in 1898, there are verifiable stories regarding Lincoln's death that are matters of record. For example Lincoln's dreams. He had two in particular that several of his associates and friends knew of. During the course of the war, Lincoln had a dream in which he was on a ship that was crossing an ocean, and headed for some distant place. It usually reappeared (that is, Lincoln dreamed it) whenever a major battle or event of the war was about to occur. He dreamed it shortly after Lee's surrender, except he now saw the outline of a distant shore (he hadn't before). Everyone suspected it had to do with Lee's Surrender, not with Lincoln's possible death.

Better known was his dream of waking in the middle of the day, and walking from his bedroom, and going to the East Room where many people were walking and moaning and crying. Lincoln saw them surrounding an object, and asked what it was. Someone says, "It was the President. He was killed by an assassin." Again many people are on record as having heard this.

But there were other events - I alluded to one in the "Summary Line". Farmers in the Midwest claimed that the Moon turned blood red at 10:00 P.M. - the hour and moment Booth fired his bullet into Lincoln's head.

The episode was done very well. Newland handled it tactfully. I mentioned (in the general review of the series) that it begins with Newland looking at an antique pocket watch. He points out it is running. It has the initials of it's owners on it: "J.W.B." Newland adds that the owner is a murderer. And we know who owns the watch.

Lincoln always had a feeling of fatalism about his job, because he knew the passions that were directed towards him and his policies by half the country (sometimes more than half). His step-mother Sarah had always felt dread at his political success, and openly said that he'd never return to Springfield alive. Yet, to be fair to Lincoln, he did have post-Presidential plans. He hoped to travel with Mary and his sons abroad after his Presidency, and possibly see California as well. A fantasy novel, THE MISSING YEARS, showed what might have happened if Lincoln had been able to struggle with Booth instead of just getting shot. But his general fatalism, and his willingness to accept the risks (which included at least two other attempts on his life) put a downer on his existence - one that may have been shared by his wife and son Robert.

The episode is stiff at times, but it's inevitability enhances the tale. Again it is worth watching.