Paul Newman was originally scheduled to play Nick Adams in this TV play, opposite James Dean as "The Battler". Dean's death in a car crash on September 30, 1955, led to a hasty re-arranging of the casting. The play went out live some 19 days later, giving Newman some of the best notices of his career to that time.
Paul Newman repeated his acclaimed role as "The Battler" seven years later in the feature film, Hemingway's Adventures Of A Young Man (1962), directed by Martin Ritt.