10:38 p.m. Police had tried to rig a net below him, but the net could not be extended sufficiently from the hotel to block his fall. During his 14 hours on the ledge, traffic was stopped for blocks around the hotel, which was located on 55th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and thousands watched the drama unfold. Script Writer Joel Sayre wrote about the Warde suicide in The New Yorker, in an article entitled "That Was New York: The Man on the Ledge", which was published on April 16, 1949. The story was purchased by Twentieth Century Fox in April 1949 and the studio assigned Sol C. Siegel to produce. In August 1949, Fox said that the team of James Gow and Arnaud D'asseu, who had written the Broadway hit Tomorrow the World, would write the script. In January 1950, Fox assigned screenwriter John Paxton to write the script. Paxton completely fictionalised the story. He decided not to use flashbacks to explain why the lead character was up on the ledge. Richard Basehart, who eventually starred, said "Paxton decided against this easy explanation of action and treated his central character as a pebble thrown into a pool of water. Without losing sight of the pebble he concentrated on ripples it raised and wrote the dramatic vignettes and one act plays around the people they washed over." Twentieth Century Fox changed the title from The Man on the Ledge to Fourteen Hours at the request of Warde's mother, so the picture would not be as closely identified with her son. The title was changed in April 1950. Studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck considered changing the setting of the movie to another city for the same reason. But it was ultimately filmed in New York. Director Howard Hawks refused to direct this movie because of its subject matter. He was only interested in doing it if it could be turned into a Cary Grant comedy but Fox refused. Henry Hathaway, a director noted for his realistic films The House on 92nd Street (1945), Kiss of Death (1947), and Call Northside 777 (1948), was assigned to the project in April 1950. Cast notes Sayre's story was originally purchased as a vehicle for Richard Widmark, who was to play the man on the ledge, with Robert Wagner to play the role of Danny, but was replaced by Jeffrey Hunter. The role of the