Allan Sloane


Allan E. Sloane was a writer for radio and television.

Early life

He was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey. After completing college, he became a newspaper journalist in 1936, writing for the Cape Cod Colonial, Parade, and the Philadelphia Bulletin.
Prior to service in the U.S.Army during World War II, Sloane began writing radio scripts, including service-action shows like "The Man Behind the Gun","Top Secret" and "Indictment". Sloane also wrote scripts for United Nations Radio and the United Jewish Appeal after the war, focussing on displaced persons in Europe.

Blacklisted

In November 1952, he was blacklisted by CBS, which stopped all his radio script-work. Sloane appeared as a voluntary "friendly witness" for the House Un-American Activities Committee on January 13, 1954. For several decades thereafter, he used the pseudonym Ellison Carrol to avoid blacklist-related publicity.
His early radio work with actor Irving Pichel led to a job as researcher for the 1953 film Martin Luther, for which he shared a nomination for the 1954 Writers' Guild Best American Drama with Lothar Wolff.

Television Writer

He began writing episodes for television series in 1954-55, among them Crossroads, and Navy Log. He is credited with creating the 1966 series Hawk, which featured Burt Reynolds as the title character, as well as guest appearances by Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and Diane Baker.
During the 1960s, he was well-enough considered to be asked to write the TV adaptation of Johnny Belinda, as well as scripts for TV theatre. Much of Sloane's later writing was longer-form shows dealing with the situations of special individuals, including autism, Downs' syndrome, displaced persons, gifted children, and sickle-cell anemia.

Recognition

Using the pseudonym Ellison Carrol, he was nominated for an Emmy for his 1963 Breaking Point screenplay And James Was A Very Small Snail; and again in 1969 for the Hallmark Hall of Fame Teacher, Teacher. In 1972, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama with To All My Friends On Shore.
His papers are held in the Hargrett Library at the University of Georgia. Recordings of a number of his radio shows, and some lectures are maintained in the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Collection, also at the University of Georgia.

Personal Life

Post-war, Sloane lived on Long Island, and commuted to New York. He soon moved his family to New Canaan, Connecticut, where he lived for much of his professional life. He and his wife Elouise had three sons.