by Rocky Wood
In 1988 horror expert and King biographer Douglas E. Winter96 edited an anthology, Night Visions 5, which was released in a Limited Edition and a trade hardback. The anthology included three King stories, the most ever released in one volume outside one of King’s own collections. They were The Reploids, Dedication and Sneakers. Dedication and Sneakers were completely rewritten for their appearance in 1993’s Nightmare and Dreamscapes. In this context it is telling that King apparently chose not to even rewrite The Reploids for Nightmare and Dreamscapes.
Gollancz of the United Kingdom published the anthology in 1989 under the title, Dark Visions: All Original Stories. Berkley Books finally released the anthology in the US as a mass-market paperback in 1990 under yet another title, The Skin Trade. Readers wishing to access one of these books would be best to start with online King booksellers. Copies of Night Visions 5 sell for over $40 but the other two, particularly The Skin Trade, often trade for under $20. The story also appeared in a short-lived British magazine, Skeleton Crew for July 1990.
In this America Under Siege tale the normal world takes a strange and very visible twist. On 29 November 1989, the filming of The Tonight Show was disrupted when Johnny Carson disappeared and was mysteriously replaced by Edward Paladin. Paladin seemed to think that he was the star of the show and that everyone should know him and treat him as such.
As the story begins we understand that something strange, in the tradition of The Twilight Zone and the later series The X-Files, has been going on:
No one knew exactly how long it had been going on. Not long. Two days, two weeks, it couldn’t have been much longer than that … Not that it mattered. It was just that people got to watch a little more of the show with the added thrill of knowing the show was real. When the United States – the whole world – found out about the Reploids, it was pretty spectacular … These days, unless it’s spectacular, a thing can go on damned near forever. It is neither believed nor disbelieved. It is simply part of the weird Godhead mantra that made up the accelerating flow of events and experience as the century neared its end.
This comment could serve as proxy for the events in many a King story. How often do strange events escape the unknowing world in the King-dom? Think of the demise of ‘Salem’s Lot; or the out-of-the way town, Rock and Roll Heaven, Oregon in You Know They’ve Got a Hell of a Band; or the strange events in Rainy Season; or the fact that only The Ten O’Clock People can see a species that lives unseen among us. Readers will have their own favorites but this concept certainly reflects a major theme of King’s fiction.
The night Paladin appeared on The Tonight Show the guests were due to be Cybill Shepherd (“of Moonlighting”), magician Doug Henning, Pee Wee Herman and the Flying Schnauzers, the world’s only canine acrobats! When Ed McMahon, as usual, announced, “And now heeeeere’s JOHNNY!”, there Johnny wasn’t! Instead the man who later identified himself as Edward Paladin stepped on stage and acted as if he belonged in Johnny’s shoes. However, “the man who was not Johnny Carson was taken, bellowing loudly not about his lawyer but his team of lawyers, to the Burbank Police Station.” The Station had a wing known simply as “special security functions,” where the rich and powerful were taken. They could be dealt with there, quietly and discreetly.
Detective 1st Grade Richard Cheyney, only half jokingly known as the “Detective to the Stars,” interviewed Paladin in a luxurious interrogation room, filled with magazines, cigarettes and even Cable TV for the use of the “guests.” Paladin immediately denied knowing who Johnny Carson was and Cheyney’s partner, Pete Jacoby, began making jokes. What Cheyney realized and Jacoby did not, was that the case had all the hallmarks of a major problem – media attention from both the Los Angeles Times Mirror and The National Enquirer, not to mention being taken over by the Feds if not solved within a day or so.
When Paladin demanded his lawyer and announced that gentleman’s name to be Albert K. Dellums neither of the cops recognized it. “For the first time an expression of perplexity – it was not fear, not yet – crossed Mr. Edward Paladin’s face.” Paladin now threatened the two detectives with walking a “beat out in Watts” and was shocked when Jacoby said, “Shut your mouth, jag-off!” Cheyney could immediately see it had been years since Paladin had been spoken to that way and now he looked both stunned and frightened by the turn of events.
When Jacoby tried to contact Paladin’s lawyer’s home number all he got was a cleaning woman and the office number was not a legal firm but a stockbroker. There was no Albert K. Dellums listed in the phone directory. The Mayor now arrived at the Station, joining a still stunned Ed McMahon and other cops observing the interrogation.
Trying to unravel the mystery Cheyney took Paladin’s NBC Performer’s Pass, which was perfect in every way except that the pass was salmon pink, as compared with genuine passes, which were bright red. He requested Paladin take a dollar bill from his wallet and place it on the table and then placed one of his own next to it.
On the right was Cheyney’s one, gray-green, not brand new by any means, but new enough so that it did not yet have that rumpled, limp shopworn look of a bill which has changed hands many times. Big number 1’s at the top corners, smaller 1’s at the bottom corners. FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE in small caps between the top 1’s and THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA in larger ones. The letter A in a seal to the left of Washington, along with the assurance THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER, FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. It was a series 1985 bill, the signature that of James A. Baker III.
Paladin’s one was not the same at all. The 1’s in the four corners were the same; THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was the same; the assurance the bill could be used to pay all public and private debts was the same. But Paladin’s was a bright blue. Instead of FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE it said CURRENCY OF GOVERNMENT. Instead of the letter A was the letter F. But most of all it was the picture of the man on the bill that drew Cheyney’s attention, just as the picture of the man on Cheyney’s bill drew Paladin’s. Cheyney’s gray-green one showed George Washington. Paladin’s blue one showed James Madison.
And there the story ends!
Just before the end of the story Cheyney thought, “Walk softly, stranger, for here there be tygers.” Here There Be Tygers is the title of one of King’s earliest stories. There is one other possible link, with King mentioning different “politicians on the currency” with relation to alternate worlds in The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah.
There is one error in this story. Fairly early on we read, “After repeated viewings of the videotape, Dave Cheyney …” But, later, “Detective 1st Grade Richard Cheyney looked at him calmly …” Interestingly, this error had not been corrected by the time The Reploids was last published.
One is left with the distinct impression that King was intending a longer, more interesting story, that he abandoned it for some reason at this very point but still submitted it for publication. We know from the opening paragraph that “The Reploids” would become worldwide news the following morning – in the storyline Johnny Carson’s disappearance would obviously make news but there is no indication of how “The Reploids” would not only be revealed but come to the attention of the media. The Reploids is one of the least satisfying of King’s published works perhaps because it is, as suggested, nothing more than the opening salvo of an originally much longer work.
King’s Characters as Writers
King has provided us with a long and interesting list of characters who are writers, presumably reflecting parts of his own life to us through his fiction. He kindly updates us on many of them in later works (for instance in The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla we find that Ben Mears of ‘Salem’s Lot has died). Some of the more prominent and interesting are listed below. (Readers will note that an unhealthy proportion of King’s major writer characters are now dead!)
Major Characters as Writers
Roberta (“Bobbi”) Anderson The Tommyknockers (also The Stand)
Thad Beaumont The Dark Half (also Bag of Bones)
(…and George Stark) The Dark Half (also Bag of Bones and Needful Things)
Richard Dees The Dead Zone and The Night Flier
William Denbrough It (also Bag of Bones, Dreamcatcher)
Carlos Detweiller The Plant
Richard Hagstrom Word Processor of the Gods
Peter Jefferies Dedication
Howard Fornoy The End of the Whole Mess
James (“Jim” or “Gard”) Gardener The Tommyknockers
Richard Kinnell The Road Virus Heads North
Stephen King The Dark Tower V, VI and VII
Gordon (“Gordie”) Lachance The Body (also Needful Things)
Samuel Landry Umney’s Last Case
John Marinville Desperation
Benjaman Mears ‘Salem’s Lot (and The Dark Tower V)
Gerald Nately The Blue Air Compressor
Michael Noonan Bag of Bones
Morton Rainey Secret Window, Secret Garden
Paul Sheldon Misery (also The Library Policeman and Rose Madder)
Reg Thorpe The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet
John (“Jack”) Torrance The Shining (also Before the Play, Misery)
William (“Bill”) Weiderman Sorry, Right Number
Other Characters of Interest
Claudia y Inez Bachman The Dark Tower V
Beryl Evans The Dark Tower III, IV and V
David Bright The Dead Zone and The Tommyknockers
Michael Cunningham Christine
Susan Day Insomnia (also Rose Madder)
Elizabeth Pillsbury Drogan Untitled (The Huffman Story)
Fletcher In the Deathroom
Robert Jenkins The Langoliers
Steve Kemp Cujo
John Kenton The Plant
Stephen King * The Blue Air Compressor, The King Family and the Wicked Witch, The Leprechaun
Harold Lauder The Stand
John Marinville The Regulators
Peter Rosewall Dedication
Selena St George Dolores Claiborne
Julia Shumway Under the Dome
* King is also mentioned in Blockade Billy, The Library Policeman, The Night Flier, The Regulators, Slade, Sleepwalkers and Thinner. We should perhaps regard these “appearances” as similar to a cameo in a movie or TV show.
96 Stephen King: The Art of Darkness, Douglas E. Winter
Rose Red Screenplay (2000)
Rose Red was carefully staged as a major media event with both television and book connections. When the prequel novel, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer was released prior to the mini-series, using major characters from Rose Red and with a $200,000 marketing campaign there was much speculation as to whether Stephen King or even Tabitha King had written the book. The original paperback itself was purported to be by Joyce Reardon, herself a character in the upcoming mini-series. Some time after the mini-series screened it was revealed that novelist Ridley Pearson had actually written the novel. Pearson is a member of The Rock Bottom Remainders band of which King is a founding member and a sometime player.
The Rose Red project had been in development for a number of years (in a post to his official web site on 2 November 1999 titled Stephen King Comments on Fears That He’s Unable to Write King notes he’d recently begun work on Rose Red, which “is an expansion of a screenplay I wrote some years ago”) with King and Steven Spielberg attempting to put a project together. When King submitted the haunted house story script Spielberg kept asking for changes and after three drafts King felt the project was no longer his. According to Jones97 King pitched the concept to producer Mark Carliner and Carliner loved the story. King was due to begin writing a new script on the following Monday. Jones continues, “However, the following day King was hit by a mini-van while out walking …” King was nearly killed by Brian Smith’s van on Saturday 19 June 1999.
Stephen King’s Rose Red debuted on the US ABC-TV network on the nights of 27, 28 and 31 January 2002. Frankly, it suffered somewhat from poor casting, some strange editing, questionable special effects and outrageous overacting by Nancy Travis (later seen in Becker), playing Dr. Joyce Reardon. However, www.imdb.com members rate it a respectable 6.4 out of a possible 10. Craig R. Baxley directed. The other main actors were Kimberly J. Brown as Annie Wheaton; David Dukes as Carl Miller; Matt Ross as Emery Waterman; Matt Keeslar as Steven Rimbauer; Judith Ivey as Cathy Kramer; Melanie Lynskey as Rachel Wheaton; Tsidii Leloka as Sukeena; and Julian Sands played Nick Hardaway.
Unfortunately Dukes, aged only 55, died on 9 October 2000 while filming Rose Red. Most of his scenes had already been shot, with the ironic exception of his character’s death scenes.
In another cameo Stephen King played a Pizza Delivery Guy, doing his job at Rose Red. The mini-series was released on DVD in 2002 and includes the “Featurettes” The Making of Rose Red and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer.
ABC was encouraged enough by the ratings Rose Red garnered to make the prequel as a one-off movie. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer debuted on 12 May 2003 and was a ratings and artistic disappointment. Ridley Pearson and Craig R. Baxley again helmed the screenplay. Lisa Brenner played Ellen Rimbauer; Steven Brand appeared as John Rimbauer; and Tsidii Leloka reprised Sukeena. It was released on DVD in 2003.
The actual screenplay has not been published. However, there are a very few copies of the official screenplay in circulation. Some of those, signed by King, were sold to benefit the Wavedancer Foundation, set up to assist Frank Muller, the most popular reader of King audio books. Muller was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in November 2001.
This chapter was compiled with the assistance of a copy of the screenplay kindly provided by King’s office, for which Mr. King and Ms. Marsha DeFilippo are thanked, and is dated June 1, 2000. There is officially no intention to publish the screenplay as, for instance, was the case with Storm of the Century. This is a shame, as it is a witty and entertaining script and reads better than the mini-series views. Of course, readers may view the DVD of the production to experience the story.
In this America Under Siege tale a professor recruits for an expedition aimed at awakening a house in Seattle she believes is possessed. The original owner of Rose Red, Ellen Rimbauer, had believed that as long as her house was under construction she would not die. She continually made additions to the house following its construction early in the 20th century and, after she disappeared in 1950, the house continued to build itself!
Professor Joyce Reardon of the University of Washington was obsessed with the psychic happenings at Rose Red. In the almost 100 year history to May 2001 many people had died there or simply vanished (a list of known victims appears in the feature panel). The house had grown quiet but Joyce believed that the right people could bring it to life and provide her with hard evidence of psychic phenomena.
Reardon gathered a group of people with different psychic abilities, headed by a 15 year old autistic girl Annie Wheaton, who was also telekinetic. The others were Annie’s sister, Rachel Wheaton, Emery Waterman, the house’s owner Steven Rimbauer, Victor Kandinsky, Nick Hardaway, Pam Ashbury and Cathy Kramer.
They entered Rose Red on 25 May and four of them, along with Kevin Bollinger, Kay Waterman and Carl Miller died the following day, after successfully “awakening” the house. Bollinger, from the campus newspaper, went to Rose Red to take photos of Joyce Reardon’s expedition but the house took him while he was in the solarium. He was later “seen,” having hung himself in the mirror library. Emery Waterman’s mother Kay went to the house in search of her son and was “taken” by Sukeena. Carl Miller was Head of the Psych Department and came to Rose Red after receiving a false message. He was led into the side yard by Sukeena, and was killed there.
In fact the only outsider to come to the house during the expedition and survive was the Belissimo Pizza Man, who never actually entered the building. (As this delivery man bore an uncanny resemblance to master horror writer Stephen King, perhaps some muse warned him against proceeding too far?)
The remaining members of t
he expedition escaped the house alive, although Emery Waterman lost four fingers in a door. Joyce Reardon refused to leave and was also taken. In October 2001 the survivors laid roses at the house as demolition of Rose Red was set to begin the following Monday.
In back-story we learn that John Rimbauer built Rose Red from 1906 until 1909 for his new wife, the former Ellen Gilchrist. Between the end of World War One and 2001 twenty-three people had died or disappeared on the premises. Twenty years older than Ellen, John made his money in oil and they had married on 12 November 1907. He died when Ellen and her servant Sukeena pushed him from the Rose Tower of Rose Red in 1923. In 2001 Cathy Kramer found a dust covered wedding photo showing Ellen and John. She went into a trance and in the dust wrote “NO SUICIDE MURDER ELLEN SUKEENA.”
At a séance in August 1914 Ellen Rimbauer was told she would live as long as Rose Red was under construction, so she kept making additions to it, both conventional and unconventional. However, she disappeared in the house on 15 January 1950 after last being seen in the Perspective Hallway.
The Rimbauers had two children. April was born in April 1911 with a withered arm. She disappeared in the house in 1917. Her brother Adam, born in 1909, had been sent to boarding school the same year. It was presumably because Adam was sent away that he survived the house and it was his grandson Steven who accompanied Reardon into the house in 2001. Steven was then about 25 and Joyce Reardon’s lover. He let her attempt to awaken the forces in Rose Red. When he was eight his mother took him to Rose Red while she looked for valuables, he got lost in the house and “met” Ellen in the attic. Ellen then asked him to help her continue to build Rose Red. Steven survived the 2001 expedition.