And today, we're going to look at the theatrical trailer for the movie of Damn Yankees. When the show debuted on Broadway, it was a modest hit. It didn't do the kind of business that everyone expected, given its reviews. Almost in desperation, the ad campaign was changed. The first posters had depicted the female star, Gwen Verdon, wearing a baseball uniform. They got rid of that and ran with a photo of Gwen in her sexy corset from the "Whatever Lola Wants" number. Business improved markedly and from then on, there was no trace of baseball to be seen in any of the advertising. It was a show about baseball and everyone knew it was about baseball…but it seemed to drive away ticket buyers if that was referenced in the ads.
The same philosophy seems to have been behind this trailer for the movie. There's very little in there about baseball but a lot about the sexiness of Ms. Verdon. There's also very little about Tab Hunter, especially when you consider that the property was acquired for him to star in, Almost everyone else was from the Broadway cast but he was put in the lead because he was a Movie Star…and then they gave Gwen Verdon the main attention in the trailer.
In his autobiography, Hunter said that he had a lot of trouble making the film because the director was George Abbott, who'd also directed the stage version. Mr. Abbott, according to Hunter, wanted him to do everything precisely the way the actor he replaced, Stephen Douglass, had done it on Broadway and scolded him when he couldn't. Another problem was that there was a musician's strike when the movie was being shot. All the musical numbers wound up being done with the actors lip-syncing to tracks from the New York cast album…which meant that Hunter had to mime to the voice of Stephen Douglass. Then the actors recorded the vocals after the film was shot, singing a cappella (no orchestra) because the musicians were still on strike. All the music was then recorded in England…an odd way to do it, and apparently agony for Hunter. But it worked.
Anyway, here's the trailer. It doesn't tell you what the movie's about but at least you know that it has the Broadway cast (well, almost) and that Gwen Verdon is real sexy in it. And you just might guess it has a little something to do with baseball.