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
Tortoise Tales as older children." The tale "Gar-room!" features the trickster spider Anansi. Kirkus Reviews wrote "Disappointingly only the first three tales are about Tortoise" and "You'll recognize most of the ploys but these are for slightly younger readers than are most of Manning-Sanders' collections and they are appropriately snappy and short." It also appeared in library programs and school reading lists. Tortoise Tales Tortoise Tales is a 1974 anthology of 13 animal-centered fairy tales from around the world that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. These tales are written for a younger level of a reader unlike Manning-Sanders' more