Louis Calhern and the MGM promo short

As most people know, MGM contract player Louis Calhern was to co-star in The Teahouse of the August Moon, in the role of Col. Purdy. He went to Japan with the rest of the cast but a month later died suddenly of a heart attack. With his scenes uncompleted and needing to get a replacement quickly, MGM made the sensible decision to hire Paul Ford, who had created the part on Broadway and obviously knew it backward, to take over the role in the movie. At this time Ford had very few films to his credit and Teahouse was a major boost to his career.

All well and good, but MGM did a promotional short (plus a newsreel) about the making of the movie, which included shots of the cast arriving in Japan, where they were driven into a crowd of Japanese waving signs reading "Welcome Marlon Brando", "Welcome Glenn Ford", and so on -- Welcome to Eddie Albert, Harry Morgan, even to MGM. And in amongst the signs, plainly visible, is another one reading "Welcome Louis Calhern". By the time these shorts were ready to be played in theaters, Calhern had died and Paul Ford was in, yet no mention or sight of Calhern is made in either. Any pictures of or references to him were simply cut out. There was nothing they could do about his Welcome sign bobbing up and down amid all the rest, except hope people wouldn't notice, but every other step was taken to obliterate any indication that Louis Calhern was to have been in the film, much less that he had died.

This was typical of Hollywood in those days, where things such as the death of a performer were never mentioned in any publicity, or certainly in the film itself (as is often done today, with a deceased individual's name shown "In Memory Of" at the end). But it was a shameful practice. Metro could at least have made a fond mention of the late actor and been up front about what had happened. But the studios were petrified of anything that would indicate any flaw or tragedy in the fairy tale.

I wonder what Calhern would have been like in the role. He did film much of it, but presumably any footage of him has long since been discarded or allowed to disintegrate.