Anything Goes - Television Version

Television Version

In 1954, Ethel Merman, at the age of forty-six, reprised her role as Reno in a specially adapted live television version of the musical, co-starring Frank Sinatra as the hero, now renamed Harry Dane, Merman's good friend Bert Lahr (who had co-starred with her on Broadway in DuBarry Was a Lady) as Moonface Martin, and Sheree North. This version was broadcast live on February 28, 1954 as an episode of the Colgate Comedy Hour, and has been preserved on kinescope. It used five of the original songs plus several other Porter numbers, retained the shipboard setting, but had a somewhat different plot. It has been reported that Merman and Sinatra did not get along well; this was the only time they worked together.