JULIE ANDREWS JUST ONE ASSET OF HISTORIC SHOW
By Judith S. Gillies
Washington Post
Once upon a time, not quite 50 years ago, the royalty of Broadway brought a musical version of ``Cinderella'' to national television.
It was the first -- and only -- project written for television by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and it starred Julie Andrews, then 21, in the fanciful tale of a girl and a glass slipper.
``Cinderella'' aired on March 31, 1957, on CBS, a live performance that captivated more than 100 million viewers. This month, PBS reprises the simple telling of the childhood classic on its ``Great Performances'' series. It airs at 7 p.m. Saturday on KTEH (Ch. 54) and at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 on KQED (Ch. 9).
The program is a digitally restored, black-and-white version of a kinescope -- a filmed version of what was on the TV set as it aired.
``It looks pretty primitive, but that's part of its charm,'' said Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization in New York.
The show's melodies include ``Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful,'' ``In My Own Little Corner'' and ``Impossible.''
``Those songs were written by people who were on a roll,'' Chapin said. ``Rodgers and Hammerstein were between `The King and I' and `The Sound of Music.' It has a quality that is far more lasting than anyone thought it would be,'' he said.
Huge audience
As host of the rebroadcast, Andrews recalled, ``Just before I went on, a very kind soul pointed out to me that more people probably would see me in that single telecast than all the full houses of `My Fair Lady' for 100 years.''
The record-setting 107 million people in the United States who watched the show would have been roughly the equivalent of a Broadway run of eight sold-out performances a week, every week, for 140 years, Chapin said.
Playing the Fairy Godmother was Edie Adams, whose career began on stage and television in the 1950s, continuing with movie roles (including ``It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World''). The live aspect of the 1957 broadcast terrified her.
``I was just so worried about everything that could possibly go wrong,'' she said in a telephone interview, ``and I was so amazed because it worked out beautifully.''
Costume and makeup changes were especially swift and tricky. As Cinderella was transformed from rags to riches, for example, a crew member quickly had to place a crown on her head as the camera panned up from her feet. Special effects were in their infancy, and a single superimposed sparkler marks the magical moment.
The live performance had just one flub: Jon Cypher -- then an unknown who played the prince -- sang a line or two in a reprise of ``Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful'' that was meant for Dorothy Stickney, who played the queen.
``You can see her start to sing, when he sings over her line, and she just smiles,'' Chapin said.
The mistake didn't derail his career, which included many more roles, including several seasons as Chief Fletcher Daniels in ``Hill Street Blues.''
Kaye Ballard, whose varied singing and acting career has included TV's ``The Mothers-In-Law'' series in the late '60s, played stepsister Portia. Alice Ghostley played stepsister Joy, and Ilka Chase was Cinderella's stepmother.
Ballard said that initially she was insulted when she was asked to be one of the ugly stepsisters. ``But then I took a look at Alice Ghostley and thought, `Well, she's not so ugly,' so it's OK.
``I had fun but I suffered with that for years: I'm one of the ugly stepsisters,'' she said with a laugh.
The portrayal of the stepsisters was one of the changes Rodgers made in his interpretation of the fairy tale that dates back to at least the 17th century.
``The stepmother and stepsisters characterizations were written humorously, with no hint at wickedness, but rather overwhelming stupidity,'' wrote the late Harold Messing, who did a study of ``Cinderella'' in 1957 when he was a graduate student at Stanford University.
Presence of greatness
Ballard said that at the first reading of the script at rehearsal, ``Rodgers played the music and Hammerstein recited the words. He couldn't sing but it made it more poignant to hear those lyrics recited to that music. I felt I was in the presence of greatness.''
Howard Lindsay, who played the king, was married to Stickney. Both were considered part of Broadway royalty, Chapin said.
Adams recalled having ``proper tea with Julie Andrews'' at 4 p.m. during rehearsals.
At the time, Adams said, she was playing Daisy Mae in ``Li'l Abner,'' and Andrews was Eliza Doolittle in ``My Fair Lady.'' While rehearsing for ``Cinderella,'' they each also were performing eight shows a week on Broadway.
``We both had to go off for our performances at 8, so proper tea worked out just right and it was wonderful camaraderie,'' Adams said.
``Cinderella'' had an usually long rehearsal schedule, Messing said in his study: ``During this time, the show was in a constant state of flux, and there were continual changes in effects, lighting, audio pick-up, blocking and choreography and the actual script.''
The stage area was incredibly crowded into a small studio, Adams recalled, and the actors had to be extremely careful that they didn't knock anything over.
Because space was so tight, the production used vertical space, such as the staircases in the ballroom scenes. The setup created challenges for the sound and lighting crews.
Before the live production, three full-length run-throughs were filmed and analyzed, said Jane Klain, manager of research services of the Museum of Television & Radio in New York.
These were found two years ago in a vault in CBS archives, she said, so the changes to the show can be tracked. There were some major changes in costumes, for example, and the opening number was repositioned.
CBS and its sponsors, Pepsi-Cola and Shulton, maker of Old Spice, heavily promoted the show. Pepsi printed 5 million ``Cinderella'' comic books and distributed them with six-packs of soda, said Bert Fink, vice president of public relations of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, in an essay on the making of the program.
A week before the live show, Rodgers and Hammerstein appeared on ``The Ed Sullivan Show'' (which was pre-empted for ``Cinderella'') and performed one of the songs. That appearance is one of the special features on the DVD (Image Entertainment, $24.99) scheduled to be released Tuesday
Asked to describe ``Cinderella'' in a word, Adams said: ``Groundbreaking -- because they took this huge opera- and pageant-style thing and affixed it on a tiny set in somebody's living room. They showed that the essence of great art could be put in the living room if handled with care.''
`Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella'
Starring: Julie Andrews, Job Cypher
Airs: 7 p.m. Saturday on KTEH (Ch. 54) and at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 on KQED (Ch. 9)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/10368772.htm
Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004
