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66 DGA QUARTERLY cameras snaked across the floor. The men—and they were mostly men— who ventured into directing television were cowboys of sorts, finding new techniques and methods for working in a hybrid medium that borrowed el- ements from theater, radio and film. Oftentimes, they figured things out on the fly. "You had to have the guts of a blind burglar and the coordination of an athlete," director Arthur Penn said in a 2006 DGA Quarterly interview when asked about the qualifications of a TV director in the early years. "It was tough. Quite a few guys ended up sick from it." "A lot of people couldn't handle the pressure," echoed Charles Haas, who directed Lucky Strike's Your Show Time in 1949, which was the first dramatic series shot on film instead of broadcast live; the Hardy Boys on ABC from 1955 to 1957; and a number of suc- cessful '60s series such as The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and 77 Sunset Strip. "On one filmed drama I directed, the female lead got sick, and I ended up having to shoot 17 pages of script the following day. It was inconceivable to figure out the complex setups. Typically, I'd get a script and break down the whole thing on the train going home the night before, then be at work by 7 in the morning. I'd give the first setup to the cameraman, and we would start shooting by 8 a.m." For all its stressors, however, directing television in the early years was as exhilarating as it was nerve-racking. The challenge, much as it is today, was to figure out how to tell a story visually. But because it was a new frontier, a Wild West, directors also had the freedom to learn and experiment as they went along. Although no one was get- ting rich (Haas remembers earning about $55 a week in the late '40s), many of the medium's first directors were instantly smitten; they de- veloped techniques that paved the way for the next generations of television directors. Sidney Lumet, who directed original dramas for Kraft Television Theatre and episodes of the popular half-hour an- thology series Danger, which aired from 1950-1955, was known for developing his own "lightning quick" method for shooting to satisfy the high turnover television required. "Directors were nervous, some more than others," said former DGA president Gene Reynolds who, as an actor, worked with Lumet in the '50s and went on to direct M*A*S*H and many other shows. "Sidney was amazing in being able to handle all that tension. He was a very good director, interesting and fun to work with. But it was a sweaty proposition, and no one worked coolly," "What was so interesting about this so-called golden age was that no one knew it was a golden age," Lumet said in an interview for the DGA's 50th anniversary. "It was so early that there was nobody to say no; there were no rules yet, which is probably why so much good work came out of it." A number of the emerging directors had been introduced to the craft while in the service during World War II. John Frankenheimer, for example, helped make Air Force documentaries for a newly formed military motion picture squadron in Burbank, then went to CBS on the suggestion of a friend in 1952. He worked as an associate director for Lumet on Danger and went on to direct more than 125 live televi- sion shows, including 42 episodes of the 1956 groundbreaking anthol- ogy Playhouse 90. Television directing, he said, taught him many of the techniques he later used in features such as The Manchurian Candi- date and Seven Days in May. "I learned a great deal about cutting in live television," Frankenheimer said in a 1970 interview for the DGA's Ac- PRACTICE: (above) John Frankenheimer, directing Playhouse 90, preplanned all his shots; (below) Sidney Lumet, working on Danger, was known for a "lightning quick" method of shooting. "No one knew it was a Golden Age. It was so early that there was nobody to say no; there were no rules yet, which is probably why so much good work came out of it." —SIDNEY LUMET PHOTOS: CBS/LANDOV; (OPPOSITE) DGA ARCHIVES