In recent weeks, we have been exploring some of the remarkable programming that was presented on US commercial television in the late 1950s, including an original Cole Porter musical, Aladdin. The sponsor of the Porter production was DuPont, which only a few months earlier had mounted yet another original musical from a famous composer, Burton Lane, and lyricist, Dorothy Fields.
Unlike the score for Aladdin, which is still remembered today, Lane's music for Junior Miss is largely forgotten, as is the program that evoked it. Perhaps even more surprising, the Junior Miss stories themselves are no longer remembered.
Those Sally Benson stories, originally published in the New Yorker, were collected into book form in 1941, and then became a play, film and radio show - and finally this televised musical. Set at Christmas in New York, the superb 1945 film once made occasional appearances on television but hasn't been seen lately (at least by me). Its disappearance is very strange - the film is both delightful and touching, with wonderful performances by Peggy Ann Garner in the title role and Allyn Joslyn as her father.
The TV musical featured Carol Lynley as Judy Graves, our protagonist, and Don Ameche as her father. Unlike other more famous TV musicals, such as Aladdin and Cinderella, there was no soundtrack recording to keep its memory alive - only this EP of performances by Columbia artists Vic Damone, Jo Stafford and Norman Luboff. I would have to assume this was issued in advance of the program, which aired on December 20, 1957. (This site says there is a poor quality bootleg of the performances by the TV cast, but I have never encountered it.)
The performances on the EP are as good as you would expect, and the recording as hollow as you might expect if you are familiar with Columbia's 50s pop output. The songs themselves are quite enjoyable, even if the lyrics of Junior Miss are reminiscent of Gigi and if I'll Buy It brings to mind I'll Buy That Dream. Let's Make It Christmas All Year 'Round also is not the most original concept.
It's fascinating to look through the listings for the DuPont Show of the Month in 1957-58. As I mentioned Junior Miss came just two months before Aladdin. And two months after the latter show, DuPont and CBS mounted a version of The Red Mill with the following cast: Shirley Jones, Harpo Marx, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Donald O'Connor, Elaine Stritch, Evelyn Rudie and Edward Andrews. It was a different time.
REMASTERED VERSION (JULY 2014)
