Production History
The film was one of several telecasts in the 1950's of musical fantasies aimed at children and shown as specials. This trend was caused by the enormous success of the first two live telecasts (in 1955 and 1956) of the Mary Martin Peter Pan, which had gained the largest audience for a TV special to date. In late 1955, Hallmark Hall of Fame had presented a live telecast of the 1932 stage adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. This had been followed in 1956 by the first telecast of MGM's 1939 film The Wizard of Oz (starring Judy Garland), and the first, live version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's only musical for television, Cinderella (1957), starring Julie Andrews. Both The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella also drew large audiences on television. And only a month before the telecast of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, NBC had presented live a live-action musical adaptation of Pinocchio, with Mickey Rooney as the puppet who longs to be a real boy. In 1958, a live musical version of Hansel and Gretel, with Barbara Cook and Red Buttons, would also be televised. Both Pinocchio and Hansel and Gretel boasted scores by Alec Wilder. Cole Porter would follow in 1958 with Aladdin, starring Sal Mineo and Basil Rathbone, and that same year, ABC, with the help of Serge Prokofiev and Ogden Nash, would combine the elements of musical comedy, marionette presentations, and classical music in a successful special entitled "Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf".
Read more about this topic: The Pied Piper Of Hamelin (1957 Film)
Famous quotes containing the words production and/or history:
“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)