The Millionaire, a television drama anthology series (CBS, 19 January 1955-28 September 1960), explored the ways unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse. The show became a five-season hit thanks in large part to a twist that also made it a bit of a cult classic in the years that followed its life in the so-called "Golden Era" of U.S. television. The show centered around the stories of unknown people who were gifted, seemingly out of nowhere, with one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him---with one memorable exception. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... CBS (formerly an acronym for Columbia Broadcasting System) is a major television network and radio broadcaster in the United States. ...

The Benefactor

He was John Beresford Tipton, sketched as a semi-retired industrialist and shown obscured by one of his high-backed leather chairs, viewers seeing only his right arm as he reached for a cashier's check for one million dollars, each week, and handed it to his executive secretary, a mild-mannered, good-humoured, but no-nonsense man named Michael Anthony. It was Anthony's job to travel and deliver that check to its intended recipient, staying only long enough to present the gift and then, customarily, leaving the recipient's life forever.

For whatever it was worth, The Millionaire's creator and producer, Don Fedderson, created the philanthropist's name from his personal attorney, his wife's hometown, and his own hometown. But because the show's closing credits showed not the actor who actually protrayed him---or lent him a raspy but sonorous voice, anyway---but the character's name itself. Indeed, the show was presented so soberly in every way that there were probably many fans who believed John Beresford Tipton was a real person.

The Cast

Invariably, The Millionaire (also known as If You Only Had a Million) began with a very brief opening theme fanfare behind the ascending title frame, followed by the camera training directly upon Michael Anthony, played by veteran character actor and radio/television announcer Marvin Miller. (His credits to that point included small roles in numerous films, announcing for radio legend The Bickersons, filling in for Bill Foreman as the voice of the radio mystery hit, The Whistler, and playing Mr. Proteus/Captain Quick for thirteen episodes of the early TV hit, Space Patrol.) The unseen John Beresford Tipton was played by another veteran character actor and voice artist, Paul Frees. The irony: Tipton was protrayed as a sixty- or seventy-something man, and Anthony as a mid-forty-something man, but Marvin Miller was actually seven years older than Paul Frees. An announcer is a voice actor who works in television, radio and film, usually providing narrations, news updates, station identification, or an introduction of a product in television commercials or a guest on a talk show. ... Miller in Deadline at Dawn Marvin Miller July 18, 1913 - February 8, 1985, born Marvin Mueller, was an movie and voice-over actor. ... The Bickersons, an American radio comedy (1946-1951)---born as a character sketch on The Chase and Sanborn Hour, refined as a sketch on the variety show Drene Time---stood the already-typical domestic presentation of radio and its infant offspring, television, so squarely on its head that there were... Next to Suspense, The Whistler was perhaps the most popular old-time radio mystery drama. ... A number of science fiction works have had the title Space Patrol. ... Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 - November 2, 1986) was a voice actor born in Chicago. ...

Miller was the only regular seen in full every episode. The most regular recurring supporting cast were Roy Gordon, as banker Andrew V. McMahon, on whose Gotham Trust Bank the anonymous Tipton cashier's checks were drawn; and, Ed Herlihy, a veteran announcer (Kraft Music Theater, and later The Jack Paar Show), as the announcer for The Millionaire. The First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush and current host Jay Leno. ...

Precisely because so many viewers believed John Beresford Tipton to be an actual person, in each episode's prologue Michael Anthony made a point of mentioning that Mr. Tipton is now deceased, and that the events which are about to unfold (this week's episode) occurred before Mr. Tipton's death. This device was obviously inserted to minimise the likelihood of viewers sending begging letters to Tipton in care of the TV network.

"My name is Michael Anthony . . . "

The Millionaire used the flashback premise as its very fulcrum, telling the story of John Beresford Tipton's beneficiaries as if from the case files of Michael Anthony. Each episode, to repeat, began with the camera training directly upon Miller as Anthony, behind his desk, looking directly at the viewer and speaking one or another variation on this theme:

My name is Michael Anthony. And until his death just a few years ago, I was the executive secretary to the late John Beresford Tipton. John Beresford Tipton, a fabulously wealthy and fascinating man, whose many hobbies included his habit of giving away one million dollars, tax free, each week . . . to a total stranger." Or, " . . .one million dollars . . . tax free . . . to a person who had never met him; indeed, had never even heard of him.

From there, the camera faded to what seemed a brief, edited tour of the grounds on which Tipton's bucolic home stood, presumably as seen from Michael Anthony's car arriving at the home. Anthony continued speaking over this tour along this line: This is Silverstone, John Beresford Tipton's 60,000 acre estate. From here, he spent the later years of his life pursuing many hobbies, often tied to his fascination with human nature and behaviour. Mr. Tipton was a man of so many wide interests that one never knew just what to expect, when called into his presence.

The camera then faded to show Anthony entering Tipton's presence, invariably greeting him with, "You sent for me, sir?" Tipton spoke to Anthony with something between a parable and a homily, usually tied to what prompted Tipton to choose "our---next millionaire," and always with that Murrowesque pause, before handing Anthony the fateful envelope.

What Did He Know, How Did He Know?

The John Beresford Tipton monologues implied, subtly enough, that the old man made it his business to know more about his intended beneficiary than he would ever let the beneficiary know about him, perhaps as a mutual benefit: the beneficiary became an instant millionaire and Tipton had a new subject in his ongoing study of human behaviour, his beneficiaries probably having no idea they had been so thoroughly studied from afar.

Exactly how Tipton chose whom to make an instant millionaire was never necessarily disclosed, although Tipton made it plain enough in the show's first episode what his game was, if you could call it a game. Saying he wanted to set up a new kind of chess game, "with human beings," Tipton told Anthony, "I'm going to choose a number of people for my chessman and give them each a million dollars. No one is ever to know that I am the donor." The series ran for 188 episodes and Tipton made 188 millionaires. However the amount Tipton invested in his hobby was much more than $188 million since, as Anthony told recipients each week, "the taxes have already been paid" (in the 50's and now, a gift of $1 million would be subject to income tax, which Tipton presumably also paid).

But he spoke in the tone not of a manipulator but a sincere philanthropist. And perhaps that sincerity, in spite of the implied manipulativeness, helped make The Millionaire a hit for nearly six full years---and, occasionally, made John Beresford Tipton's weekly beneficience as easy a humour device as any television running gag. Even in the 21st Century the fictitious Tipton is a reference identifiable almost at once. "If I were John Beresford Tipton, Taylor would get a million from me so that he could again have live music," wrote critic Leigh Witchel, in a Dance View Times review of the Paul Taylor Dance Company---in 2005.

And, speaking of gags, Tipton was not above puckish humour---Anthony once arrived to see him fiddling with an electric train, as a way of advising Anthony how he would travel to make "our . . . next millionaire," and even placing the fateful envelope into a gondola car before sending the train to Anthony's side of the table.

Flashback

Following the commercial break that always followed the Tipton monologue, the viewer again saw Anthony in the present, behind his own desk, introducing the beneficiary whose story was about to be told. Within five minutes of the viewer's catching up to the beneficiary in his or her daily life, Michael Anthony would make the inevitable and fateful visit---without exception, the beneficiary signed a legal statement binding him or her never to reveal the source of this million dollar gift except to a spouse, under penalty of forfeit. Once the document was signed, and the thanks were given---accompanied by anything from a warm handshake to a gaping jaw of disbelief---Michael Anthony disappeared from their lives forever.

The beneficiaries were not strictly among the poor, but neither were they necessarily well off in their own right, though Tipton was as likely to have blessed a humble construction worker as a professional such as a doctor or an attorney. Nor were they always likely to find their lives changed strictly for the better because of their million dollar gifts. Written with intelligent sensitivity, given its era, The Millionaire strained never to go over the top, with either the reactions to the gifts nor the final consequences the gifts brought these beneficiaries, even if the money altered their lives only modestly, or even sadly.

But at least once The Millionaire entered into absurdist comedy. That was because it was derived for a hilarious 1958 episode of another CBS hit, The Jack Benny Program, in which the comedian's eternal boy singer, Dennis Day, became a Tipton beneficiary---complete with Marvin Miller as soberly bemused Michael Anthony delivering the unexpected gift. Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was a comedian, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the most prominent early stars of American radio and television. ... Dennis Day (May 21, 1918 - June 22, 1988) Irish American singer who appeared for years on Jack Bennys radio and television shows. ...

The One He Actually Met

So entrenched was the premise of the show that even longtime fans of The Millionaire sometimes forget that once---and only once---a John Beresford Tipton beneficiary actually did meet his heretofore obscure benefactor, and it was one of the show's most memorable episodes: the gift went this time to a man condemned to be executed for a crime he never committed. He ended up using a portion of his million dollar gift to prove his innocence, with direct help from Michael Anthony himself, one of the only times Anthony stayed on even the periphery of a beneficiary's life, instead of saying "Good day" or "Good night" after presenting the check and receiving the signed disclaimer. Tipton himself visited the man as he was about to leave prison, though the old man was shown in his customary position: from behind, only his right hand or arm and a brief glimpse of the top of his head in view.

The only other time Tipton was seen in any episode beyond presenting Anthony with the next check to deliver was one in which Anthony himself was arrested and needed his boss to bail him out to finish the mission.

On still another occasion, as Anthony wryly said after that first commercial break, a beneficiary "got the money, all right . . . but not from me"---Anthony was on his way to deliver the cashier's check when he was run down in a street accident, the check jarred loose from his possession, making its way around a few stunned townspeople before it finally reached its rightful owner, offering as much a short study of those people's reactions to an instant million as of the intended recipient.

End and Aftermath

The Millionaire ceased regular series production in 1960, its final regular episode, "Millionaire Patricia Collins," airing 7 June 1960, and its final reruns in its regular production time slot appearing that September. The show became a familiar presence in syndicated reruns through the 1960s and 1980s, both on its original network, CBS, and on numerous regional independents. At this writing, it is unknown whether any cable television network with classic television among its programming has any plans to air The Millionaire once again.

Creator and producer Don Fedderson continued doing both with situation comedy hits My Three Sons and Family Affair. My Three Sons was a television series sitcom that ran from September 29, 1960 to August 24, 1972. ... Family Affair was a situation comedy television series that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 until March 4, 1971. ...

Marvin Miller and Paul Frees continued their long and distinguished careers as character actors and voice artists after The Millionaire ceased production. Frees especially remained a familiar cartoon voice, including his memorable performance as Crusty, the hermit crab who first recoils from but then befriends and aids Don Knotts' subterranean title character in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964). The two men died within a year of each other, both of heart attacks: Miller in 1985, at age 73; and, Frees in 1986, at age 66. The Incredible Mr. ...

Numerous then- and future-familiar faces appeared as guest performers during the show's production, including Charles Bronson, Joe Besser (once one of the Three Stooges), future My Three Sons co-star Beverly Garland, Carl Betz (The Donna Reed Show, Judd For The Defense), Carolyn Jones (the future co-star of The Addams Family), Ellen Corby (The Waltons), Richard Deacon (Leave It To Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show), Hugh O'Brian (Wyatt Earp), Phyllis Coates (The Adventures of Superman), Edna Skinner (Mister Ed), Denver Pyle (The Dukes of Hazzard), Angie Dickinson (Police Woman), Robert Vaughn The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), Mary Tyler Moore, Agnes Moorehead, and even Wayne Rogers (M*A*S*H) and future television production emperor Aaron Spelling. At least one famous professional athlete appeared on the show: Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Don Drysdale, a familiar television presence in his career, this time appearing as Eddie Cano in "Millionaire Larry Maxwell" during the show's final season. Charles Bronson This is about the actor. ... The Three Stooges were an American comedy act in the 20th century. ... My Three Sons was a television series sitcom that ran from September 29, 1960 to August 24, 1972. ... The Donna Reed Show was a situation comedy which aired on ABC from 1958 to 1966. ... The Addams Family is the creation of American cartoonist Charles Addams. ... Ellen Corby (June 3, 1911 - April 14, 1999) was an American character actress. ... Was also a rock band from the Isle Of Wight, see The Waltons (IOW) The Waltons was an American television series about a family living at Waltons Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of Virginia. ... Leave It to Beaver Cast, (from left) Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, and Jerry Mathers Leave It to Beaver was a situation comedy which ran on CBS from October 4, 1957 to 1958 and then on ABC from 1958 to June 20, 1963. ... The Dick Van Dyke Show was an American television situation comedy which aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 to September 7, 1966. ... The cast of The Adventures of Superman from 1953 to 1957. ... Mister Ed was a popular US television comedy show that aired on CBS from 1961-1966. ... The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985. ... Rare childrens storybook based upon Left to right: David McCallum, Robert Vaughn, and the late Leo G. Carroll. ... Statue of Mary Tyler Moore in downtown Minneapolis Mary Tyler Moore (born on December 29, 1936) is an American actress and comedian, best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30ish single woman who worked as a news producer at WJM-TV... Inspired by the 1970 20th Century-Fox film of the same name, M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) was an American television series about a team of medical professionals and support staff stationed at the 4077th MASH in Korea during the Korean War. ... Aaron Spelling Aaron Spelling (born April 22, 1923 in Dallas, Texas) is an Jewish American film and television producer. ... Various fields of endeavour have established Halls of Fame that honour individuals of noteworthy achievement in their respective fields. ... Donald Scott Drysdale (July 23, 1936 - July 3, 1993) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. ...