John O'Toole (producer) in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956. O’Toole was the CEO of the Washington, D.C. -based production company, Eli Productions, for over 20 years. He wrote and produced documentaries, TV shows, and radio series on topics that included the arts and the aging process, many of which aired on NBC, CBS, and public television and radio. His work earned him a Writers Fellowship by The National Endowment for the Arts. In 1979, he wrote a TV miniseries adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales", which aired on PBS and earned an Outstanding Writer Emmy nod. He also did
The Deerslayer New York State, which is the setting of four of his five "Leatherstocking Tales". This novel introduces Natty Bumppo as "Deerslayer": a young frontiersman in early 18th-century New York, who objects to the practice of taking scalps, on grounds that every living thing should follow "the gifts" of its nature, which would keep European Americans from taking scalps. Two characters who actually seek to take scalps are Deerslayer's foil Henry March (alias "Hurry Harry") and the former pirate 'Floating Tom' Hutter, to whom Deerslayer is introduced "en route" to a rendezvous with the latter's lifelong friend Chingachgook (initially apparent in