A Passage for Trumpet
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“A Passage for Trumpet” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
[edit] Details
- Episode number: 32
- Season: 1
- Production code: 173-3633
- Original air date: May 20, 1960
- Writer: Rod Serling
- Director: Don Medford
[edit] Cast
- Joey Crown: Jack Klugman
- Baron: Frank Wolff
- Gabe: John Anderson
- Nan: Mary Webster
- Nate (Pawnshop Owner): Ned Glass
- Truck Driver: James Flavin
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Opening Narration
"Joey Crown, musician with an odd, intense face, whose life is a quest for impossible things like flowers in concrete or like trying to pluck a note of music out of the air and put it under a glass to treasure... Joey Crown, musician with an odd intense face, who in a moment will try to leave the Earth and discover the middle ground—the place we call the Twilight Zone."
Waiting at the back door of a night club is Joey Crown, an down and out trumpet player. He hopes to see a former boss, Baron, to beg for a chance to work again. When Baron finds out Joey still drinks, he turns him away with some money "For old times." Baron asks Joey why he let himself fall into his present state. "Because I'm sad, because I'm nothing, because I'll live and die in a crummy one-roomer with dirty walls and cracked pipes." Joey replies. He confesses his horn is half his language, "I'm Gabriel with a golden horn. It comes out beauty." But only when he is drunk. Convinced he is washed up, Joey sells his "Baby" (his beloved trumpet) to Nate, a pawn shop owner, for $8.00; but when Nate puts it in the window, it has a $25.00 tag on it. From the other side of the window, Joey tries to object. Nate tells him, "Guys like you don't understand. What kind of responsibilities do you have? Nothin', nothin' at all." Joey repeats the thought, "No responsibilities... No nothin'!" He decides he is tired of hanging around. Seeing a speeding truck barreling down the street, he steps off the curb and is hit.
It seems to be night. Joey finds himself on the sidewalk next to the street. He tries to explain what happened to a policeman, who completely ignores him. He walks down the street, asking a passerby for a light—nothing, no response. He tries to strike up a conversation with a woman at a ticket booth—again, nothing. He realizes that people can't see or hear him, and discovers he has no reflection in a mirror. He is dead; just plain old deceased. "For the first time in the very short career of Joey Crown, he was successful at something!"
At the back of the night club. There in the shadows, he hears the sound of a trumpet playing and moves through the scaffolds to find where the music is coming from. He says, "Don't stop. It's coming out beautiful." The trumpet player thanks Joey, who he knows by name, and tells him he plays a mean trumpet too. "I know, I'm an expert on trumpets." Joey tells the man he tangled with a truck and now he is dead. The man tells Joey he is not dead. But what about the people on the streets, why they couldn't see him. "They are dead. They're ghosts, Joey. They just don't know it, that's all." He goes on to explain: "Right now you're in a kind of limbo, Joey. You're neither here nor there. You're in the middle, between the two: the real and the shadow." The way to go is up to him, "Which do you you prefer? You've got a choice, you know. There's still time." Somewhere he forgot all the good things. "Well, if I've got a choice, I wanna go back!" Joey says. The man advises Joey, "You take what you get and live with it. Sometimes it's sweet frosting, nice gravy. Sometimes it's sour, goes down hard, but you live with it."
The man begins to leave but says, "It's a nice talent you got—to make music, an exceptional talent. Don't waste it." As the man walks off under the scaffold lights, Joey asks his name. "My name? It's Gabe, short for 'Gabriel.'"
Joey returns to the pawn shop window and, seeing the reflection of himself on the sidewalk, finds himself back in the street after the truck has "hit" him, but he is alive and well. The truck driver, not wanting his driving record tarnished, pushes some money into Joey's hand. Joey buys the trumpet back from Nate. That night on the rooftop, while playing to himself, a girl approaches and tells him the music is beautiful. He tells her he'll play anything she wants to hear, for as long as she wants. She tells him she is new in town, her name is Nan; and asks if he could show her the town. He tells her he knows all the sights and excitedly begins pointing them out from the rooftop.
[edit] Closing Narration
"Joey Crown, who makes music, and who discovered something about life; that it can be rich and rewarding and full of beauty, just like the music he played, if a person would only pause to look and to listen. Joey Crown, who got his clue in the Twilight Zone."
[edit] Trivia
- A new title sequence debuted with this episode featuring a giant eye that turns into a setting sun. Syndication prints plaster over this with the Season 2 intro however.
- To accomplish the scene where Joey Crown looks into a mirror and sees that he casts no reflection, two identical sets were built separated by clear glass where the "mirror" was supposed to be and the ticket takers were played by identical twins.
- The sign above the scaffolding where much of this episode takes place says “HOUGHTON” in honor of Buck Houghton who produced the first three seasons of The Twilight Zone.
- In the biblical Book of Revelation, the Archangel Gab[e]riel is designated to sound the horn that will signal the advent of Judgement Day.
- When "Gabe" turns to Joey and identifies himself near the end of the episode, a round lamp just above his head offers an image of an angelic halo.
- The name of the women at the end, Nan, has been used in another The Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-hiker".
[edit] References
- Zicree, Marc Scott: The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)
