{"id":43572,"date":"2024-04-19T07:21:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T11:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=43572"},"modified":"2024-04-19T07:21:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T11:21:18","slug":"the-bootleg-files-our-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/19\/the-bootleg-files-our-town\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Our Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 862:<\/strong> \u201cOur Town\u201d (1955 television musical production starring Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint).
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\nLAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>It\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: <\/strong>Not likely.<\/p>\n

One of the most prestigious and ambitious series in the history of American television was \u201cProducers\u2019 Showcase,\u201d which ran from 1954 to 1957 and offered live 90-minute plays starring A-list talent. The series aired every fourth Monday of the month and a total of 37 episodes were created.
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An unusual feature of the show was its broadcast in color \u2013 at that point in time, most households only had black-and-white television. However, \u201cProducers\u2019 Showcase\u201d used a compatible color technology that enabled the majority of viewers with black-and-white televisions to enjoy the program without any visual degradation.<\/p>\n

Most of the \u201cProducers\u2019 Showcase\u201d offerings were dramatic, but the series\u2019 first major success was the March 7, 1955, broadcast of \u201cPeter Pan\u201d starring Mary Martin. This production was a restaging of the popular theatrical musical that was staged in San Francisco, Los Angeles and on Broadway<\/p>\n

On September 19. 1955, the series unveiled a musical version of Thornton Wilder\u2019s \u201cOur Town.\u201d Unlike \u201cPeter Pan,\u201d this production was an original offering with a new score written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. And while Mary Martin was theater royalty, \u201cOur Town\u201d went one better by having the reigning box office and recording industry star at its center \u2013 Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n

While Sinatra was a casting coup, his presence proved to be a headache for the show\u2019s director, Delbert Mann. Sinatra\u2019s approach to a production was to briefly familiarize himself with the material and then go forth in a one-take performance. Mann was a stickler for rehearsals and he found himself at loggerheads with his star, who successfully worked to remove the show\u2019s conductor in favor of his preferred arranger Nelson Riddle. According to Dominick Dunne, who served as an assistant director on the show, Mann found it impossible to communicate directly with Sinatra \u2013 Dunne claimed that members of his entourage would block Mann and offer to relay whatever messages he had to Sinatra. When Mann called a dress rehearsal ahead of the live broadcast, Sinatra was a no-show \u2013 and this scared Mann to the point that he arranged for singer Johnny Desmond to be a last-minute replacement in case Sinatra didn\u2019t turn up for the broadcast.<\/p>\n

But Mann\u2019s fears were for naught. Not only did Sinatra turn up for the broadcast, but he gave one of the best performances of his career in \u201cOur Town.\u201d Yes, Sinatra not that type of performer one might associate for the role of an observer of New England life in the early 20th century \u2013 with his contemporary wardrobe (complete with a cocked fedora) and his distinctive New Jersey accent, he is not a denizen of Grover\u2019s Corners, New Hampshire, in 1901.<\/p>\n

But Sinatra\u2019s insouciant personality and his extraordinary vocal prowess changes this version of \u201cOur Town\u201d for the better. The adaptation by David Shaw strips away nearly all the secondary characters and subplots of the Thornton Wilder play to focus on the intertwined lives of George Gibbs and Emily Webb, played by Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint. Newman was an up-and-coming actor who had yet to secure a breakthrough role, while Saint was coming off her Academy Award for \u201cOn the Waterfront\u201d but was not yet at a leading lady level. (Some sources claim Newman was a last-minute replacement for James Dean, but he was shooting \u201cGiant\u201d at the time and would not have been able to be part of this production.)<\/p>\n

Newman and Saint are very good in their roles and in their brief musical segment together for the song \u201cLook to Your Heart.\u201d But Sinatra carries the bulk of the show\u2019s score, notably the nostalgia-heavy title song, the ballad \u201cThe Impatient Years\u201d and the second act opener \u201cLove and Marriage,\u201d which became the show\u2019s best-known song (although, oddly, Sinatra didn\u2019t care for it and never performed it in concert even though it was among his top selling records).<\/p>\n

In retrospect, Sinatra\u2019s then-contemporary presence works in this version because it offers a worldly-wise counterbalance to the na\u00efve and innocent world of George and Emily as they slowly move from liking each other as friends to taking their relationship at a higher level. Sinatra also offers a jolting sense of sincerity in acknowledging Emily\u2019s third act dilemma of moving beyond the mortal coil while still being cognizant of those she left behind.<\/p>\n

Thornton Wilder reportedly hated this adaptation, but that\u2019s easy to understand. Besides truncated his Pulitzer Prize-winning play and adding new songs, this version also eschewed the scenery-free setting of the stage show for distinctive sets and Sinatraesque humor \u2013 particularly the ending of the first act, where the reference to smoking was replaced with a comment on snacks and dieting. But most critics were appreciative of \u201cOur Town\u201d and it was one of the most popular shows in the \u201cProducers\u2019 Showcase\u201d series.<\/p>\n

Alas, back in 1955 there was no technology to preserve the live color broadcast, and the only copy that survives is a not-great black-and-white kinescope. Besides the problematic visual quality of the surviving print, music and performance rights to \u201cOur Town\u201d have kept it out of home entertainment release. A copy of this production is on YouTube via an unauthorized posting \u2013 and while it is not the best-looking upload, it nonetheless provides an invaluable glimpse into one of American television\u2019s finest musical shows.<\/p>\n