# Fun fact re: restored scene in 1776, the movie musical **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685 "2003-07-07T02:32:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/1 "2003-07-07T02:32:22Z")
Ahh, my favorite July 4th ritual is watching **1776**. Those of you who share the practice might have noticed that in the movie’s theatrical release and in subsequent TV airings, a scene from the Broadway show was missing: the minuet number called “Cool, Cool Considerate Men.” The song was performed by the wealthy, propertied members of Congress who sing “…To the right, Ever to the right…” It portrays them as cold, greedy and conservative fellows. I always figured the scene was never shot in the first place, but such is not the case. The show’s book writer, the late Peter Stone gave an interview which I happened to catch recently. Turns out that **President Richard Nixon** called the movie’s producer, Jack Warner, and asked him to edit out the scene before the movie’s premiere. He complied, and burned the negative. Well, fairly recently, when they were compiling a new VHS or DVD version of 1776 someone went rooting around the studio vaults and turned up an existing positive of the missing scene. That’s why “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” is now back in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/2 "2003-07-07T04:48:55Z")
I liked the fact that they included it in the main body of the show rather than on a “deleted sequence” option. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/3 "2003-07-07T04:51:28Z")
I was surprised to learn what a prima donna Howard “Franklin” DaSilva was, incidentally. That DVD has some of the best commentary of any I’ve ever heard. I saw the Broadway revival a few years ago when William Duell, who played McNair in the movie, had been promoted to playing Stephen Hopkins. Must have been nice being the rum caller rather than the rum bringer, but otherwise the show was majorly inferior to the original cast. Even though he didn’t look like him, William Daniels WAS John Adams, and ditto DaSilva. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/4 "2003-07-07T05:28:54Z")
I attended the Belmont Stakes a few weeks back. It was a big deal because Funny Side was threatening to be a Triple Crown winner, so there were many celebs in attendance. While waiting for an elevator I noticed Ken Howard behind me (aka Thos. Jefferson). Of course my brain instantly gets permanently stuck in a “1776” soundtrack loop. I wanted to hunt him down, grab him by the lapels and sing, “Mister Howard… Leeeave meeee a-looooooone!” ---
**Author:** ![Freyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freyr/32/5763_2.png) [@Freyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freyr)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/5 "2003-07-07T06:51:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\* Even though he didn’t look like him, William Daniels WAS John Adams, and ditto DaSilva. \*\* Hear, hear! Daniels and Adams are forever linked in my mind, despite his many, other roles (even the TV show, _Knight Rider_. Ghods, could you imagine a car with AI and acting like John Adams? "I have come to the conclusion that one, useless man is called a driver. That two…) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/6 "2003-07-07T09:54:05Z")
There was an episode of _St. Elsewhere_ that I just about died laughing at. Dr. Mark Craig, played by William Daniels, aka John Adams, had a temper tantrum and slammed his fist into a wall, breaking his hand. Not a good thing for a surgeon. So he gets an appointment with a colleague, another surgeon, who specialized in doing hand repair. Said doctor is in Philadelphia. Dr. Craig and his wife are walking along and she turns to him and says “Mark why did we have to come to Philadelphia in the summer? It’s too damn hot!” And _he_ starts singing about how \*I’ts hot as hell in Philadel-phia!" ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/7 "2003-07-07T13:09:32Z")
Although I wanted to watch _1776_ on the 4th, I had to settle for a series of American Revolution documentaries on the History Channel. So, I’m working in the kitchen when I hear the voice of John Adams reading letters written by John Adams! Yep–Willaim Daniels as the voice of Adams; I was both pleased and impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Alzarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@Alzarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alzarian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/8 "2003-07-07T14:53:05Z")
I’m almost ashamed to admit I know this, but William Daniels starred in ABC’s “Boy Meets World” for its seven-year run. What’s especially interesting about this, is the name of the high school he was the principal of… John Adams High. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/9 "2003-07-07T17:05:21Z")
Peter Stone can choose to believe that Richard Nixon was behind the removal of that number, but I find it ludicrous. Jack Warner listening to Richard Nixon? Apparently Stone didn’t know Jack Warner, or his politics, very well. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/10 "2003-07-07T17:18:12Z")
Sorry you doubt it, **Walloon** , but that’s what happened. Nixon was shown the film in a private screening before it was released, and objected strenuously to the scene. The producers pulled the scene. By the way, I was IN _1776_ this year at one of our local community theatres. Played ‘Samuel Chase’, of Maryland. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/11 "2003-07-07T17:26:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by stuyguy \* > \*\*Turns out that **President Richard Nixon** called the movie’s producer, Jack Warner, and asked him to edit out the scene before the movie’s premiere. He complied, and burned the negative. > > Well, fairly recently, when they were compiling a new VHS or DVD version of 1776 someone went rooting around the studio vaults and turned up an existing positive of the missing scene. That’s why “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” is now back in the show. \*\* The negative was not destroyed. As [Brian Taves](http://www.loc.gov/film/taves11.html) writes, > [@](#): > > In 1995, a laserdisc restoration was issued, which lasts over a half hour longer, including “Cool, Considerate Men.” In 2002, another restoration of _1776_ was assembled, this time a “Director’s Cut.” Additional expense in the new DVD makes the movie appear as a seamless whole. Original negatives that producer Jack L. Warner claimed to have destroyed were located for the DVD, while the laserdisc had to make do with workprints of that footage. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/12 "2003-07-07T17:52:38Z")
I saw the play version a couple of weeks ago for the first time, although I’ve been a huge fan of the movie for 30 years. What a joy to see such an intelligent, beautifully written (and acted) play. Real issues, real problems, real meaning, done by real people with both their pettiness and their selflessness, their archness and humility, their feelings and their reason. This is the way that history should always be portrayed and almost never is. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/13 "2003-07-07T22:30:24Z")
I’ve known several history teachers/professors who show this to their classes. Even though it’s a musical and not a documentary, the characterizations are dead-on, the issues are real, the myth of a virgin-birth is despoiled, and students are often surprised to learn that slavery was a fierty topic even then, most Americans were not zealously anti-British, John Adams wasn’t just a name in a history book but a flesh/blood man with vices and virtues and enormous humanity, and that Thomas Jefferson was famous for something other than shagging Sally Hemings. It’s also a great movie about people who disagree on almost everything learning to work together. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/14 "2003-07-07T22:34:21Z")
Speaking of ST. ELSEWHERE, I remember that episode. There were also episodes with other doctors named Samuel Chase and Josiah Bartlett. (I’ve wondered if Bartlett is an ancestor of Daniels’ wife, Bonnie Bartlett.) Daniels was also president of Screen Actors Guild sometime between Patty Duke and Melissa Gilbert. I remember reading an article in a scholarly journal (TV Guide) during the last season or so of BOY MEETS WORLD in which he trashed his young co-star, Ben Savage, though it appears with reason: the kid was being a complete tyrant having tantrums on the set and as an old trooper from a long line of actors Daniels couldn’t stand the lack of professionalism. I wonder out of curiosity how the other young actors on the set got along with him. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/15 "2003-07-07T23:14:02Z")
I just found a copy of the DVD, and I’ve watched it three tims. Great stuff. I saw 1776 on Broadway with most f the original cast, and I was in it myself in college in 1975 (playing Charles Thomson, the secretary). I wanted to see “Cool Considerate Men” restored (it’s not even on the movie album, although it’s on the Broadway album.) I also like the way they restoired other portions of the film, including the original opening and closing credits, and the scene where Congress runs out to watch the fire engine. Explains that _weird_ cut when Richard Henry Lee returns to Congress with the resolution from Virginia. According to the IMDB, the DVD version cuts some things that are on the laserdisc, cutting part of “Piddle Twiddle, and Resolve”, they say, although I couldn’t notice anything, and adding some stuff not on the laser disc. The quality of “Cool, Considerate Men” is apparently better on the DVD than on th disc. Lastly, Peter Stone apparently wrote a scene f Franklin and Adams sharing a room at the Inn in New Brunswick (where they went for the “whoring and the drinking”), but it was cut in the pre-B’way tryouts. I’d dearly love o see a copy of the script if it exists – I grew up new New Brunswick, nd Stone apparently researched a lot f this at Rutgers Library. He must have known that the inn they probably stayed at was the Indian Queen Tavern, which still exists (although it has since been moved to “East Jersey Old Town” historic village.) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fun-fact-re-restored-scene-in-1776-the-movie-musical/186685/16 "2003-07-08T01:07:14Z")
I think one of my favorite lines from the movie(I’ve never seen it on stage) is one Franklin speaks to Adams. They are leaving Jefferson’s rooms , after Martha arrived, and Adams expresses satisfaction that now Jefferson will be able to finish the Declaration… When Franklin says they might still have to wait a while, it sinks in to Adams as to _why_ “You don’t mean that they’re going to…in the middle of the _afternoon_” Franklin replies: “Don’t worry John, the history books will clean it up.” 1776 kept a lot of the mythology surrounding the Declaration, such as everybody signing together, and Hancock’s comment. But it still felt true. As has been already said, people felt _real_, they acted like real people, with all the foibles, strengths, and weaknesses that real people have. And Franklins statement about what would happen if the slavery clause wasn’t taken out was spot on. They had to start with independence someplace, and a bitter compromise had to be made.