The Andersonville Trial

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The Andersonville Trial is a 1959 hit

Hollywood Television Theatre
.

Development as Climax! episode

Interest in the subject - the actual 1865 court-martial of

War Department's prosecutor.[1]

Broadway production

Levitt next turned to treatment as a play, called The Andersonville Trial, which opened at

Henry Miller's Theatre on December 29, 1959, and ran for 179 performances.[2] The production was directed by José Ferrer and opened with George C. Scott as Chipman, Herbert Berghof as Wirz, Albert Dekker as Wirz's defense counsel, and Russell Hardie as Union general Lew Wallace, who presided over the court-martial. Ian Keith, who played Dr. John C. Bates, an Andersonville camp surgeon and key witness for the prosecution regarding the fate of Union prisoners, died during the show's run and was replaced by Douglas Herrick.[3]

Scott later recalled that what he found most difficult about playing Chipman onstage was that the defendant Wirz came across as a tragic, sympathetic victim, although his negligence, according to the verdict, had a great deal to do with the deplorable conditions at Andersonville. Meanwhile, he felt the audience was compelled to dislike Chipman, despite being essentially the hero of the story due to his efforts to obtain justice for all the men who suffered and died at the camp.[4]

Television adaptation

The Andersonville Trial
Community Television of Southern California/PBS
Original release
NetworkNET
ReleaseMay 17, 1970 (1970-05-17)

Instead of acting, Scott returned as a director when Levitt created an adaptation of the play for television. The production aired May 17, 1970 on NET, now featuring William Shatner as Chipman, Richard Basehart as Wirz, Jack Cassidy as Wirz's defense counsel, Cameron Mitchell as Wallace, and Buddy Ebsen as Dr. Bates.

In the course of filming Shatner, recently divorced, met for the first time his second wife, Marcy Lafferty. While this may seem surprising considering the all-male cast, Scott had wanted a woman to run lines for the actors and recruited Lafferty, the daughter of a television producer and then a struggling young actress. Shatner took greater interest in practicing than his fellow cast members, and the two would eventually marry in 1973.[5]

The television adaptation did well at the 1971

Peabody Award. Cassidy was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to his director, as Scott won for starring in an adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, The Price
.

PBS cast and characters

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8108-7784-9
    . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
  2. ^ "The Andersonville Trial". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  3. Newspapers.com
    .
  4. ISBN 0812824733
    .
  5. ^ Kempler, Rita (December 6, 1991). "Star Trek VI: Energized". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 21, 2023.. Recalling their meeting 20 years later, Lafferty misremembered which actors played which parts.

Bibliography

  • Brooks, Tim and March, Earle,
    The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

External links

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