A Night to Remember (1956)

[Robert Gibbons]

For those who have a collection of TV Guides or know where you can buy old issues, look for the TV Guide for April 28 - May 4, 1956. It has a color feature entitled "The Ship That Sank in Brooklyn" about the Kraft Television Theatre live performance of "A Night to Remember". The production was the largest ever mounted at that time and was directed by George Roy Hill, later to direct "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". It utilized seven cameras, 31 sets (some built to flood and to tilt) and 107 actors (72 with speaking parts). It was performed first live and then a kinescope was shown a few weeks later by popular demand.

In the scene where Thomas Andrews is staring at the clock in the Smoking Room and the wall gives way to flood the set, the dummy standing in for Andrews lost its head during the final dress rehearsal. The head was quickly taped back on and stayed in place during the live performance.

I purchased a legal copy of the show on VHS tape from a Television Museum in Chicago, Illinois and donated it to the Marine Museum at Fall River. I think there are copies available every so often. Robert H. Gibbons

[Robert Gibbons]

I purchased a copy of the TV Guide for April 28-May 4, 1956. When I opened it today I was surprised to find that the showing of "A Night to Remember" on Wednesday, May 2 was the rerun! The ad for the show in the white pages said the original live broadcast of the show was five weeks before, meaning Wednesday, March 28, 1956. For those who think the show was done live a second time, it was not. The ad in the white pages said it was being rebroadcast that night from a kinescope. I was surprised to find that the TV Guide reprinted the two-page color spread "A Ship Sinks in Brooklyn", this time in the color pages in the back of the magazine! I recall when I viewed one of the earlier issues the color pages were in the front! Robert H. Gibbons

[Robert Gibbons]

I had the two-page color feature on making "A Night to Remember" scanned and would be happy to send the .jpg file as an attachment to an email, for anyone who wants to see it. Just email me at hhardley@hotmail.com and I will attach it to the return mail. Also, I had the white page ad scanned which shows the ship sinking and above it is the description of the show, talking about the original live broadcast five weeks before. Robert H. Gibbons

[Thomas Golembiewski]

I have this review :

Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, May 2, 1956, s. 2, p. 9, c. 2:

Previews OF TODAY'S TV

[Some of today's top programs previewed by TV Keys staff of experts in New York and Hollywood]

KRAFT THEATER, 8 pm, channel 5---"A Night to Remember." If you didn't heed your TV key previewer's advice in March, when this brilliant production was originally seen, you have a second chance to watch the Titanic go down. Emphasis is on a panoramic view of the tragedy, with more than 100 actors in the cast. You'll hear the boat's owners declare it unsinkable, then view the disdain with which passengers greeted the improbable news that it struck an iceberg. The final scenes of heroism and panic are realistically staged, thanks to Director George Roy Hill, and the special-effects crew deserves a nod for recreating, then partly flooding "the Titanic." It's on kinescope recording tonight, which won't take away too much of the kaleidoscopic quality achieved by the original "live" production. With Claude Rains as narrator, this is a top-notch documentary.
____________________________

[Robert Gibbons]

Thomas: Thanks for sharing that review from the Chicago Tribune. The Kraft production of A Night to Remember is a legend in the history of live television. As the review said, this was the second showing of the drama. The first was live. This was a kineoscope (filmed off a television screen with a movie camera) and that's what has been circulating for all these years. Robert H. Gibbons

[Robert Gibbons]

The kinescope recording of "A Night to Remember" (1956) has been posted on YouTube. Follow this link for Part 1 and click on each successive part in the list to the right of the main screen. Robert H. Gibbons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1t7AKLG6Ho

[Robert Gibbons]

There is an in-depth article about the production of this show in an article entitled "A Night to Remember" (NBC, 1956)" by Judine Mayerle, OSB in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1987, copyright International Association for Media and History. I found this on the internet, but you have to be a subscriber to see the whole thing.

The entire script for the production can be found in the book "The Prize Plays of Television and Radio 1956" published by Random House in 1957, pp. 81-118. Robert H. Gibbons