On Frank Sinatra and Carousel

A story actually about Clark Gable

Something Old

In 2018, I was doing research for a class project about the musical Carousel. While reading the book The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein, I came across my favorite sentence I’ve ever read in a book.

“The Billy Bigelow part was originally to be played by Frank Sinatra, who walked off the set on the first day of shooting and never came back, never apologized, and never explained.”

Never came back? Never apologized? Never explained? What does it MEAN??

While it was not relevant to the assignment at hand, I immediately knew that I had to figure out what happened there.

Sinatra was cast in Carousel with the intention of his star power bringing in a huge audience. Besides his incredible music career, he was an Academy Award winner for From Here to Eternity and had just starred in the movie musical Guys and Dolls, which was a hit at the box office. It seemed like everything was lined up for a smash success.

He did all of the rehearsals and costume fittings, even pre-recording his songs. But when he walked onto set the first day, he saw that there were two sets of cameras, and discovered that the movie would effectively have to be shot twice. Film technology was changing at that time and not all movie theaters had the same screens, so they were filming once in regular Cinemascope and once in CinemaScope 55. Sinatra was furious at the prospect of filming each scene twice, announced that he hadn’t signed up for (or indeed was being paid for) two movies, and walked off set.

At least, that’s the official story. It never really held up, as Sinatra surely would have known about the filming process ahead of time. It’s worth noting that the crew also figured out they could just film in CinemaScope 55 and transfer it to 35mm later, so they only had to get each scene once in the end anyway. Even if they had to do it more than once, why was it suddenly a problem now? Did Sinatra really have no idea that they were doing this fairly common practice until the first day on set?

That’s the story he stuck with for decades, brushing off any further questions. Perhaps he decided he didn’t want to do Carousel after all, and just needed a semi-coherent excuse as to why. I guess Frank Sinatra could make up whatever reason he wanted to break a contract. He certainly hadn’t just decided that musicals weren’t the right direction for his career anymore, since he did High Society and Pal Joey in quick succession after this incident. So what was it about Carousel specifically that he didn’t like?

It turns out that the movie he had an issue with wasn’t Carousel at all—it was Mogambo.

At the time, Sinatra was married to the actress Ava Gardner. Gardner was in Africa filming Mogambo opposite Clark Gable, and she was not happy. Not only was there a war in Kenya, which led to Gable getting an armed guard, there was a rumor that he was going to be assassinated so locations needed to be changed. Three crew members actually died in road accidents, and Gardner contracted dysentery at one point. What’s a woman to do? Well, if you’re Ava Gardner, you call up your husband and tell him that he doesn’t get on a plane to see you immediately, you’re going to sleep with Clark Gable.

Sinatra got on a plane.

This version of events was only revealed in 2014 by Shirley Jones, who starred in Carousel and had an insider view of Sinatra’s sudden change of mind. Apparently he refused to tell her the real reason he left for years, but she eventually got it out of him, and I personally couldn’t be more grateful for that.

Something New

• MCC Theater hosted their annual MisCast Gala, in which Broadway stars perform songs from roles they would never be cast in, on September 18. Of course it was all virtual this year, but they still gathered some incredible performances in support of MCC’s fundraiser for their various theater production and education work. Most performers simply sang as they would have on stage. There’s nothing wrong with that, and they certainly delivered extraordinary performances, but I deeply appreciated the ones who leaned into the advantages filming in their homes could bring them. Special shout out to Rob McClure for extreme commitment to prop and camera work.

Something Borrowed

In honor of MisCast, here is my favorite thing that has ever happened at MisCast, Aaron Tveit and Gavin Creel singing “Take Me or Leave Me.”

Something Blue

Heath Saunders is an exceptional performer, writer, and horse enthusiast. What’s not to like?

Epilogue

Thanks so much for reading! If you enjoyed today’s issue, please share it with some friends who you think might enjoy it as well.