The Days of Wine and Roses

 

By David Palmer

Right on schedule, there it was, “The Days of Wine and Roses,” on my TV menu. It was the day before New Year’s Eve, and the 1962 Oscar-nominated best picture of the year had just begun, once again reminding us of the consequences of alcohol abuse as we celebrate the coming new year. Before it became a movie, Days of Wine and Roses, written by J.P. Miller, was a Playhouse Ninety presentation in 1958 starring Cliff Robertson as Joe and Piper Laurie as Kirsten. That’s when I first saw it. I loved it, and I loved the academy award winning Johnny Mercer score played by Henry Mancini.

The fact was, at that time I was in the ad game in New York and was getting close to becoming an alcoholic myself. I could identify. By the time it was made into a movie. I had indeed become a “functioning” alcoholic. When I clicked on the other night, Joe Clay, the Madison Avenue PR guy played by Jack Lemon, was carrying a boatload of ladies to a client’s yacht for an alcohol fueled company party. Among the ladies was teetotaler, Kirsten Arneson (actress Lee Remick) who falls for Joe and becomes, like him, an alcoholic.

My Story

So let me back up a bit and tell you about my descent into alcoholism and my recovery.  In June 1956, I resigned from three successful years of active duty with a Naval detachment associated with NATO headquarters in Izmir, Turkey. The following fall, my wife and I and our two sons (ages two and five), with another on the way, moved into our new split level (fittingly called the “Bumstead” model) in Summit, N.J. I began commuting on the Erie Lackawanna to my new market research job at Young & Rubicam (Y&R), a New York advertising agency on Madison Avenue. In my job, I had a private office, a secretary who took dictation and a client list that included General Foods (Birdseye frozen foods division), the new Tang drink and Lipton soups. I started out with $100 a week paycheck and $100 a month mortgage on the Bumstead.

I stayed with Y&R almost three years, learned a lot about marketing and advertising and acquired a drinking habit characterized by occasional 2 martini lunches and often a drink or two when I got home. I resigned from Y&R in 1959 to join my father in a local newspaper-publishing venture, which eliminated the long New York commute, giving me more time at home out of the rat race. Regrettably, my addiction to alcohol increased, and, after selling the newspaper, I began losing jobs, neglecting my family and developing a variety of health problems. In 1979 I threw in the towel. I joined AA, became a Christian, joined Little Rock’s premiere advertising agency, CJRW, where I worked for 20 years before founding my non-profit company, One Day at a Time (ODAT). Thanks be to God, I have been clean and sober for 36 years.

Dowson’s Poem

The inspiration for J.P. Miller’s wonderful Days of Wine and Roses came from English writer, Ernest Dowson, who wrote a poem published in 1896, which included these lines:

“They are not long the days of wine and roses. Out of a misty dream our path emerges for awhile, then closes within a dream.”

Among his advisors for the screenplay was Bill Wilson, founder with Dr. Bob Smith of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. Though nominated for Best Picture in 1962, “Days of Wine and Roses,” lost to “Lawrence of Arabia.” Others in the running were “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Lolita,” “Music Man” and the “Miracle Worker.” Lee Remick was nominated for best actress but lost to Ann Bancroft in the “Miracle Worker.”

I had always assumed that author Miller’s “Days of Wine and Roses” was the work of a recovering alcoholic, but there is no evidence I could find that he was. He was, in fact, far more interesting than an alcoholic. Miller was a prolific writer who sold his first short story, when he was 17 to Wildwest Weekly. He also boxed professionally as a 17 year old for $10 a fight. His first screenplay was “Polecat Shakedown,” a 30-minute drama for TV’s “Man Against Crime” series. He followed this with “Rabbit Trap” a Goodyear Playhouse feature. Born in 1919, Miller graduated from Rice College in 1941 and soon after enlisted in the Navy. During World War II, he served on the USS Chester, a heavy cruiser, which was torpedoed by a Japanese sub. He was later assigned to the aircraft carrier, USS Cabot where he was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service. Miller was married three times and had four children. He died in 2001 at the age of 82.