DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THE BAND WAGON IS BASED ON SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED TO ORSON WELLES?
THERE IS A BOOK ABOUT DUKE ELLINGTONS COMPOSER, BILLY STRAYHORN, THAT SAYS HE WAS HIRED BY WELLES AROUND 1951 TO WRITE THE MUSIC FOR A BLACK MUSICAL VERSION OF FAUST. IT PLAYED IN PARIS AND WAS A TOTAL FLOP ACCORDING TO EARTHA KITT WHO WAS IN THE SHOW.
I NEVER HAVE HEARD OF THIS OUTSIDE THE BOOK, WHICH DID NOT MENTION THE BAND WAGON MOVIE BTW.
The character played by Jack Buchanan is based on a combination of Jose Ferrar and Orson Welles as the over-achieving actor/director archetype but the film draws on a stage show of the same name from the 30's starring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele. The Martins are based on Adolph Green and Betty Comden.
In case you weren't aware, it's considered rude to type in all caps as it's interpreted as shouting. It's typically more appropriate to use caps for emphasis.
The character played by Jack Buchanan is based on a combination of Jose Ferrar and Orson Welles
as the over-achieving actor/director archetype but the film draws on a stage show of the same name from the 30's starring Fred Astaire and his sister Adele.
In case you weren't aware, it's considered rude to type in all caps as it's interpreted as shouting.
It's typically more appropriate to use caps for emphasis.
So we are supposed to get used to you shouting? I think not.
shareI'm with the noncaps people....all caps are hard to read and grating to see. I also found the tone of Jupiter's reply to Shanon to be even ruder than the caps. (Bet it is now my turn to be burned.)
I enjoyed the additional info about the plot of Bandwagon. I was not aware of those facts until reading them here. I appreciate the existence of IMDB every day!
"...all caps are hard to read and grating to see"
I have to agree. Personally, I find all caps to be as annoying as hell.
I worked with Welles briefly in the seventies. He had a wonderful sense of humor tipped in irony, and certainly appreciated the satirical and playful nature of Comden and Green.
- Arye Michael Bender -
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You're making me deaf with your all caps shouting.
Fred Astaire starred in the stage show of The Bandwagon. He said that it had very little resemblance to the film.
That the screenwriters changed the script was good luck for everyone. The Bandwagon is one of the best musicals made. It's ironic that some of the top musicals to come out of MGM, Singin' In the Rain, The Bandwagon, Kiss Me Kate, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, were made when the studio head was Dore Schary. He was more partial to serious films. But the studio was having financial problems and competing with television. It needed to make movies that were guaranteed entertainment, colorful, escapist spectacles.
As for the above listed titles, there was no guarantee that Seven Brides for Seven Brothers would be profitable, as far as the studio was concerned.MGM had little confidence in it. But it was the sleeper hit of 1954.
The Bandwagon is great viewing today. The only big problem I have with it is the omission of Cyd Charisse's ballet, Two Faced Woman. Also, some may now think the black shoeshiner dancing with Fred Astaire is a little racially stereotyped. However, that number is one of Astaire's funniest and most inventive.
The trivia section says that Jose Ferrer was the model for Jeffrey Cordova, the producer and director of the stage musical in the film. When The Bandwagon was being made, Ferrer was producing four Broadway shows and starring in a fifth. If he was that big on the stage, his New York reputation must easily have reached Hollywood. Orson Welles had for years been the adult wonder boy of the stage, radio, and screen.
Welles and Ferrer seem likely candidates, but i vaguely remember reading somewhere that it was based on the famously pretentious and self-important British theatrical legend, Sir Tyrone Guthrie. Having seen him in action as a director, I can readily believe him to be the model for Jeffrey Cordova.
But you ARE Blanche ... and I AM.
If he's suppose to be Welles, He's one of the worst Welles I ever seen in film. It's a weak conclusion to say its based on Welles because Welles did a play of Faust that flopped. Welles had many flops in his career, many which have now been acknowledge as masterpieces later on in terms of films. You might as well pull any name out of the hat that made Faust but failed and ask if this movie is based on them. The Character couldn't be less Wellesian so you'd stand a better chance of seeming right.
shareI thought of Ferrer when I heard about Cordova having three shows on at once.
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