I have a number of folks writing to me to try and identify the actors seen along with William Daniels in the opening number from 1776 that I posted last night.
Ben Franklin was obviously not Howard DaSilva, who originated the role. In case any of you don't know the story, DaSilva suffered a minor heart attack a few days before opening and refused to go to a hospital. He had been a blacklisted actor and apparently that underscored his desire to make it to opening night playing one of our nation's Founding Fathers.
He played the last few previews, performed on opening night and then, after the curtain went down, got into an ambulance and finally went to the hospital. His understudy, Rex Everhart, played the role until DaSilva returned and it's Everhart, not DaSilva, playing Franklin on the cast album. (DaSilva did do the movie and he's on the soundtrack album of that.)
Anyway, that's not DaSilva in the clip so it might be Everhart. (Interesting aside: The original production of 1776 ran from 1969 to 1972. I saw it twice during its 1997-1998 revival. The first time, Franklin was played by Pat Hingle. The second time, it was David Huddleston. And the understudy in the role, who I didn't see, was Rex Everhart who probably needed less "old man" makeup by then.)
And I should point out that Benjamin Franklin is not in opening number in the show when you see the entire production. He makes his entrance shortly after. They just stuck him in there for Mr. Sullivan's program.
Based on a little research and a lot of e-mails from readers of this blog, I believe the others in the clip include Roy Poole as Stephen Hopkins, Ronald Holgate as Richard Henry Lee, Ralston Hill as Mr. Thomson, Emory Bass as Judge Wilson and William Duell as McNair. By this point in the run, Ken Howard — who had originated the role of Thomas Jefferson — had left to star in the play Child's Play and Clifford Davis — the original Edward Rutledge — had left to star in the short-lived production of Tennessee Williams' play, Camino Real. Jefferson here is probably played by David Cryer and Rutledge is certainly being played by John Cullum, who went on to play the part in the movie.
And finally: If you enjoyed that short clip from The Ed Sullivan Show last night, you might enjoy this longer one that I didn't know was on YouTube until everybody told me…