The Desert Song (Max Liebman Presents)

"The Desert Song"
Max Liebman Presents episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 15
Directed byMax Liebman
Written byWilliam Friedberg
Neil Simon
Will Glickman
Based onThe Desert Song
Featured musicSigmund Romberg
Original air dateMay 7, 1955 (1955-05-07)
Running time75 minutes
Guest appearances
  • Nelson Eddy
  • Gale Sherwood
  • Otto Kruger
  • John Conte
  • Earl William
  • Salvatore Baccaloni
  • Viola Essen

The Desert Song is an American live telecast of the 1926 operetta The Desert Song, which was based on a true event - an uprising of the Riff tribes against French colonial rule in Morocco in 1925.

The music for the operetta was composed by Sigmund Romberg. The book and the lyrics were written by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. Writers for the television adaptation were William Friedberg, Will Glickman and Neil Simon. First telecast live in the United States on May 7, 1955, the conductor for the production was Charles Sanford - while the choreographer for all of the dances and musical segments was Rod Alexander. Due to the time constraints for a live telecast, the television version had to be abridged and adapted and is therefore slightly different from the original operetta. It was made two years after the The Desert Song (1953 film) version with Gordon MacRae and Kathryn Grayson.

The television version features the only surviving footage of Nelson Eddy in a complete live musical.[1][2]

Max Liebman Presents was a United States series of spectaculars - presenting full musicals, plays or revues in live telecasts on NBC (from 1954 to 1956). The Desert Song was the fifteenth live broadcast of the series.[2][3]

  1. ^ Leonard, William T. (1981). Theatre : stage to screen to television. Internet Archive. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-1374-8.
  2. ^ a b "THE DVD SHELF: "A Connecticut Yankee," "Desert Song," "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Honeymoon in Vegas" and More".
  3. ^ "More vintage TV musicals from the '50s". Brattleboro Reformer. October 12, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2024.