RICHARD ADLER'S GIFT OF THE MAGI w SALLY ANN HOWES

$ 88

$ 88 Sold For

Feb 25, 2005 Sold Date

Feb 15, 2005 Start Date

$ 75 Start price

3 Number Of Bids

Canada Country Of Seller

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Description

A musical adaptation (with songs by Richard Adler) of O. Henry's familiar Christmas story. A devoted young married couple each have one prized possession—Jim his watch, Della her long, luxuriant hair. When Christmas comes, with little money on hand, each plans a surprise for the other. Critics felt that the cast was strong, the songs good but the book weak. A rare LP preserves the score, but is very hard to find. This one is rarest of the rare, because it is not only in fine, almost mint condition, but it one of the extremely few STEREO copies pressed. (These were the early days of stereo, AND of UNITED ARTISTS records, the label that issued the cast album.) The coverpicture shows a very young Sally Ann Howes (in character) seated at a table, looking pensive and no doubt making plans to sell her most prized possession (her long flowing hair) to buy her husband a gift. This Television special was Richard Adler's first solo work following the early death of his writing partner, Jerry Ross. (They had conquered Broadway with THE PAJAMA GAME and DAMN YANKEES.) The album was recorded prior to the television showing, and Allen Case is heard in the husband role rather than Gordon MacRae who would play the part on tv. In addition to Howes and Case, also in the cast, and heard on the lp, are: HOWARD ST.JOHN ("Pappy Yokum" in "L'il Abner") and the JERSEY QUARTET, and BIBI OSTERWALD. Orchestrations are by DON WALKER and Musical Direction is by HAL HASTINGS. For the record, narration is by ELI WALLICH. There are extensive liner notes on the lp jacket by Gilbert Millstein, a writer for The New York Times. Wilson Lehr was assigned the task of writing a narrative shaped faithfully to O. Henry's story and told, wherever possible in dramatic terms, in O. Henry's own words. RICHARD ADLER wrote seven new songs for the production.It played on CBS-TV December 9, 1958. The titles are THE NAME'S THE SAME, HE'S A COMPANY MAN, CHRISTMAS IN YOUR HEART, MY SUGAR IS THE SALT OF THE EARTH, A BETTER WORD THAN LOVE, WHAT TO DO? and IT'S MUCH TOO NICE TO CUT. An OVERTURE opens the album. There are 16 tracks, eight of them being narration. In all my many years of collecting this is only the second of two copies I have seen of this super rarity....(the other was mono, and it is now in the hands of the composer...Richard Adler who, until then, had never owned one! This one I was lucky enough to acquire later, because it was stereo. (And it wasn't cheap, even then!) The UNITED ARTISTS record number is UAS-5013/STEREO. Both lp and jacket are in almost mint condition. Nice glossy front cover with lovely picture of Sally Ann (who was then Adler's wife). Payment in U.S. dollars via PayPal, BidPay.com, cash, personal check or money order. Winner pays the mailing cost.

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