List of Probable Suspects: Albert K. McCleery (1911

lbert K. McCleery (December 30. 1911 - May 14. 1972)
Height: 5'6" Weight: 118 lbs Eyes: Hazel Hair: Black Marriage: (1) Sanny Sue Bailey (1939/Aug 15. 1951 - May 14. 1972, his death) Sibbling: Alan T. (1921 - )
Above right: Albert ca. 1940

As the son of John Cass McCleery and Mary (Mony) Margaret Kenny, Albert Kenny McCleery was born on December 30. 1911 in Lawrence, Kansas. He spent much of his youth in Fort Worth, Texas (3108 University Drive), and graduated from R. L. Paschal High School there. He helped to found a dramatic club at the school, and as a senior he was named the best actor in one-act play competition in Austin, Texas. He went on to attend Northwestern University and Pasadena Community Playhouse. McCleery had a background in American community theater, contributing to the establishment of experimental theater companies across the United States. He attributed his departure from the School of Speech and Theatre Arts at Northwestern to his intense focus on creating the Georgian Little Theatre in Evanston, Illinois—the first arena theater in the Midwest. Reflecting on this period (1932-33), he remarked, "I didn't have time to listen to the professor spout theory." In October 1933, he assumed leadership of the Cedar Rapids Community Playhouse in Iowa. Albert McCleery was part of the ensemble of Broadway's Romeo and Juliet (Martin Beck Theatre, Dec 20. 1934 - Feb 23. 1935; Martin Beck Theatre, Dec 23. 1935 - Jan 1. 1936) together with Brian Aherne, Katharine Cornell, John Emery, Basil Rathbone, and Orson Welles. He played one of the citizens of Verona. McCleery also wrote a column, "West of Broadway" for Stage Magazine (Washington D.C., 1937-1940). In 1939 he married Sanny Sue Bailey, daughter of William John Bailey and Susan Corticelli Carpenter of the White Settlement Road. That same year, Pittman Publishing Company published Curtains Going Up, by McCleery and Carl Glick. The book explored the community theatre movement, which a review described as "one of the newer social forces in modern American life". After Stage Magazine ceased, he began his own magazine, American Theater, in 1940, with his column as one component. In Washington D.C. he also directed plays for the "Fordham Playshop" at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall. Now living in 'the village" New York (144 East 45th Street) along with all the other actors and directors, Sue worked for a flower shop at 42nd and Broadway. Late in 1940 the couple moved to California where he was a contract writer for Columbia Pictures (1940-41) and in 1941 witnessed the blackout from the Hollywood hillside firsthand. In 1942 the Marlene Dietrich movie The Lady is Willing had a screen play by James Edward Grant and Albert McCleery from a story of Albert McCleery. He left Columbia Studios in September 1942 to become a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army.
In the spring of 1942 Sue drove back to Texas to wait until Albert might be located somewhere long enough to join him. Back to New York in the fall. But in New York the McCleerys found they were unwelcome, even in the Village, where there was no room for men in uniforms. They lived in a hotel. Boredom took her to the office of a publisher to work, and finally in Washington D.C. where she spent the remainder of the war years. Albert remained in Europe to be a part of the postwar school.
Above right: Lieutenant Colonel Albert McCleery
In March 1945 he transferred from the Signal Corps to become a paratrooper. He commanded a photographic crew in the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Germany. He staged GI shows at Biarritz University Theatre in France. It was in the Ninth Army Press Camp that Marlene Dietrich made her plea for any war correspondent who might get to Berlin to look up the last address of her mother to determine whether she was still alive. It was not a correspondent, but Lt. Col. Albert McCleery who found Frau Josefine von Losch alive on July 1. 1945. He left the Army in February 1946 as a lieutenant colonel. While serving he received the Silver Oak Leaves, the Bronze Star, the Silver Star, and three campaign stars.

He was head of the arena theatre at Fordham University where he established the Department of Communication Arts and guided Fordham’s University Theater to national prominence before his television debut as a director of NBC Repertory Theatre. After that, he directed The Philco Television Playhouse, but an error-laden episode of that program led to his reassignment in 1949 to directing a puppet show.
The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) had been the leading global professional office and industrial real estate association. The first woman elected to Active membership in 1950 was Sanny Sue McCleery, an industrial realtor from Fort Worth, Texas. The local newspaper, The Star-Telegram, ran an article stating that she was “The only woman in the world who can tack the initials ‘S.I.R’ to her name.” Right: Candid photograph of Sanny Sue McCleery (1950).
While reportedly Sanny and Albert were married in 1939. There are reports mentioning they were married in Santa Barbara on August 15. 1951 and were honeymooning on the West Coast. They resided in New York. Albert McCleery was an American pioneering television producer during the 1950s. He had a reputation "as an innovative contributor to some of television's most esteemed theatrical productions". He created his innovative Cameo Theatre for television in 1950. McCleery advocating the elimination of elaborate, expensive scenery for television programs, preferring instead to use more close-ups of faces and more rudimentary backgrounds. He said that approach saved money that could be spent more wisely in other ways: "So why spend the money on scenery when you can spend it on good writers instead?". This weekly live production, it continued until 1955. On this half-hour series, McCleery offered dramas seen against pure black backgrounds instead of walls of a set. This enabled cameras in the darkness to pick up shots from any angle**. McCleery was named executive producer for NBC in July 1953. Around 1951-52 more sets were required when Albert McCleery, the theatrical innovator, began producing a series of vignettes for Kate Smith that aired once a week.

Top: Albert McCleery with the NBC Television camera. Above left and right: McCleery on the set directing "The Lottery" for Fireside Theatre. Originally broadcast on June 14. 1950, Violett’s adaptation of “The Lottery” was the fifth episode of Cameo Theatre, and helped McCleery establish his reputation as a television innovator with his Cameo “technique” of no scenery. “The Lottery” episode was awarded the Single Program Award by the National Conference for Community and Justice, for “promotion of mutual tolerance between people of different races and religions,” and thereby caused quite a stir in the middle of the era of blacklisting, especially as it was the subject of articles in both Time and Life magazines. The Lottery (with Margaret Hayes) that was again presented by NBC on Fireside Theatre on August 21. 1951 was also produced and directed by Albert McCleery

McCleery was producer and director of the Hallmark Hall of Fame (originally called Hallmark Television Playhouse) started December 24. 1951. Actress Sarah Churchill, daughter of Winston Churchill, discovered during Christmas 1951 that a new director had been appointed for the Hallmark programs. This new director, Albert McCleery, proved to be a remarkable person - and personality. His Scottish-Irish ancestry and her British-American ancestry were to clash sometimes. There were violent border wars brought on by our very different temperaments; but they never lasted for long. Though at times I felt it was a shotgun wedding, in the end it was to be a marriage of true minds. "I came to respect and love him, for here again I had found a mentor who respected me" Sarah conveyed. So January 1952 saw the first of many collaborations between them both in Hallmark Hall of Fame (at least 8 appearances, as Florence Nightingale, Feb 3. 1952; Harriet Quimby, one of the first American woman flyers, May 23.1952; Nefretiti, Queen of Egypt, June 8. 1952; ...) and later in Matinee Theatre. (at least 14 appearances) (6) April 26. 1953 he directed the first two-hour television production of "Hamlet" ever shown on U.S. television, for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. The production starred Maurice Evans and was Evans' only portrayal of the role on television, after having played it on Broadway in several productions. Mr. McCleery once tackled the epic “Moby Dick” in a small cramped studio for the Hall of Fame show. For the ocean he substituted a few buckets of water, for a whirlpool, a close-up of water running into a sink drain. The whale was simply written out of the script. On the 5th of July 1953 Albert was suddenly called to active duty. His special tour of duty extended over a period of two months. This time was spent in visiting every military installation in the Army that used of planned to use television either as a training aid or for combat or tactical use. After the tour he went back to work at NBC.

Above: Lady Sarah Churchill, actress daughter of former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. She is pictured at London Airport with producer Albert McCleery and Russel Birdwell, her Public Relations Officer.

His work with Cameo Theatre led to his position with NBC's Matinee Theatre. Debuting in September 1955, Matinee Theatre presented weekday, hour-long dramas modeled after the prime-time anthology dramas. The specific concept belonged to Albert McCleery. Matinee Theatre would meet Weaver's goal of displacing the soap opera. "We are trying to upgrade dramatic entertainment in the daytime for women," he wrote. It was an extraordinary commitment for NBC, which budgeted the series at $5 million its first year. Some were aired in color; most were telecast live.100 The demands on McCleery were enormous. On any given day, he had five different programs in rehearsal. A former army officer who insisted on being called "colonel," McCleery ran his complex operation, Time reported "as if he were a field marshal."
Above left: Ann Harding and executive producer Albert McCleery of the NBC Matinee Theater, look over a birthday cake of scripts used in the series, which has now passed its 100th program mark. Miss Harding will be see in the color-drama. (1956) Above right: Margaret Hayes & director Albert McCleery, Matinee Theatre, NBC, 1956.
Above left: Press Photo Sarah Churchill and Albert McCleery on NBC Matinee Theater, "Savrola" (Nov. 15. 1956) Above right: Producer Albert McCleery and John Conte, emcee and star find work on Matinee Theater fun (Dec 1956)

Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse (Cambria, California) recalled: "When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theatre: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV (which had just been developed) to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week's show. That was over 50 years ago, and I'm trying to think; I believe the TV art director is (or was) his own set decorator (selecting furnishings and hand props)—yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery's chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity." McCleery produced 667 Matinee Theater telecasts. The series' last live performance aired on 13 June 1958. To the end, Matinee maintained its identification as a national theater of distinction, boldly defying the middlebrow standards linked to soap opera. McCleery purchased “Course for Collision,” a controversial script written by Canadian playwright Arthur Hailey, as the final play of the series. In the story, set in 1968, the president of the United States thwarts a possible nuclear attack by the Soviet Union when he risks his own life aboard the presidential jet. Two days before its airdate, McCleery was quoted as saying the pressure from the California censors to kill the show was “tremendous”. Even in Matinee’s final moments, McCleery tried to maintain his series’s reputation for daring and uncensored drama. Yet Stockton Helffrich, who overruled the West Coast ban and allowed the play to air, suggested privately the controversy was nothing but a publicity stunt. By then his awards included the Christopher's, numerous citations by educational organizations and publications in the television field, two Sylviana Awards and an Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Above left: Actress Nina Foch and producer Albert McCleery (1958). Above right: Producer Albert McCleery (L) at Pandora's Coffee House on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California (ca. 1958)

McCleery also produced The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen on NBC beginning in 1958. At first four directors were named by producer Albert McCleery to handle the series: Alan Hanson, Livia Granito, Walter Grauman and Alan Cooke. All were alumni of McCleery's NBC Matinee Theater* programs. McCleery's biggest problem was finding an actor to play Queen. McCleery had long talks with Dannay and Lee. "After getting a run-down on the character, I built up a picture in my own mind of an attractive, not overly athletic man of maybe around 30, well-educated without being an intellectual snob - a man who might have gone to Dartmouth or Williams or Hamilton and who might have been on the swimming team. Not a football player. Not a Mike Hammer." From a practical standpoint it was also McCleery's mission to find an actor who was "not in the $100,000-a-year class but who would like to be in it." It wasn't easy and the choice was almost sheer accident. On a Wednesday afternoon in September, McCleery bumped into George Nader. They had worked together, and Nader gave him a cheery greeting. "Found your *Ellery Queen* yet?" he asked. McCleery said no. "I'd be interested myself if it weren't for that five-a-week business," Nader said. "Five-a-week?" McCleery replied. "You're thinking of Matinee Theater. The Queen show will be once a week." - "I'm interested," said George. By the next Wednesday Nader was rehearsing the first hour-long show. McCleery, knowing an actor's tendency to start dragging when he's on a six-day work schedule in the same role, has taken steps. "I've hired five directors on a rotating basis," he grins. "That'll keep George hopping." (from TV Guide, 11-29-1958: "Ellery Queen 30 years later") Other sources stated NBC couldn't spring Richard Long from his Warner Bros, series commitment (to the yet unsold Room for One More) so the new role of "Ellery Queen" went to George Nader. However, from the beginning, the series lacked sustained interest. A heavy-handed production, it often failed to produce the proper suspense and credibility. Nader appeared to be the wrong choice for the starring role. McCleery, an imaginative producer who earlier supplied superior afternoon TV dramatic fare, failed to grasp the feeling for this series. Scripts were "dull". The inevitable happened NBC announced the series would shift from Hollywood to New York (Feb 27. 1959) and Alan Neuman has been named producer. By 1960, McCleery had moved to CBS, where he was producer of The CBS TV Workshop. "There are no starving professional television writers," he said. "All established writers have more work than they chan handle. However, there are talented authors who have not written for television, who don't know the techniques. These are the writers we are trying to develop." Made in 1963 Alexander the Great (ABC, January 26. 1968) was a TV-movie produced by Albert McCleery, who also wrote the pilot script, it featured William Shatner in the title role and Adam West playing Robin to his Alexander. For 26 weeks, he produced CBS Workshop from New York City, another effort to foster new writers, directors, and actors through live drama; he then returned to Hollywood to try out a daytime soap opera of his own, Paradise Bay, which lasted just one season (September 1965 to July 1966). McCleery became director and executive producer of the Pasadena Playhouse in July 1966. He had been on its board of directors for 13 years prior to the appointment. McCleery temporarily saved the Pasadena Playhouse from bankruptcy and founded the MacLaren Playhouse. During 1967-68 ABC/MGM Television brought a series called Off to see the Wizard. This family-oriented TV series, had guest hosts and animated versions of the "Wizard of Oz" characters used as wrap-arounds to introduce various family-oriented films from the MGM film library. McCleery produced 8 episodes. On May 14. 1972 while visiting NY from his home in Taos, New Mexico, McCleery died in the theatre five minutes before the curtain rose on Clifford Odets' "Silent Partner" at the Actors Studio, 432 West 44th Street. McCleery had recently been involved in another innovation in drama. He had returned to New York after a 6,000‐mile‐tour producing and directing “dinner theaters” in the South and Southwest. The dinner theater was a combination restaurant and theater, a concept McCleery was hoping to popularize. Sanny passed away on February 29. 1992 in Taos, New Mexico at 80 years old.

Notes: * A NBC press release stated that Alan Hanson, and not Lamont Johnson as previously announced would be the fourth director for "The Further Adventures of *Ellery Queen," * McCleery perfected a widely imitated camera technique that quickly became known as the “cameo shot.” To save the cost of building sets, the cameo shot captured actors bathed in bright light in close-up or medium close-up, while the background was blurred or lost in deep shadow. Programs or dates in red still need confirmation.

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Other references (1) IMDb (2) Wikipedia (3) Albert McCleery Papers Online Archive California, overview (4) Old Time Radio Downloads (5) What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s by Marsha F. Cassidy, Texas Press, 2005 (6) Keep on dancing: an autobiography by Sarah Churchill, 1981 (7) Playbill.com - 2 (8) IBDB Additional video & audio sources (1) Television Academy Foundation Interview John Conte about Albert McCleery.

This profile is a part of Ellery Queen a website on deduction. The person above produced episodes of an Ellery Queen TV series. Click Uncle Sam if you think you can help out...! Many of the profiles on this site have been compiled after very careful research of various sources. Please quote and cite ethically!
Page first published December 13. 2024 Version 1.0 - Last updated December 13. 2024