Trivia for
Carousel (1956)

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• Frank Sinatra was cast as Billy, but backed out because each scene had to be shot twice (once in 35mm, once in 55mm). Three weeks after he left, they found a way to film the scene once on 55mm, then transfer it onto 35mm.
  
  
• Although this film was publicized as being filmed and shown in CinemaScope 55 (a wider-than-usual, 55 millimeter, 6-track stereo system), it was only shown in standard 35mm Cinemascope. However, a 6-track version of the soundtrack had been made in addition to the standard 4-track version, and it was a 6-track dub which was used in the film's premiere. See also The King and I (1956).
  
  
• For the film's premiere screening, a "double system" was used - that is, the film, projected at a 2.55:1 ratio, was shown in a reduction print, but the 6-track stereo soundtrack, which would not have fit on a reduction print, was played on a separate magnetic strip of film.
  
  

• Two songs from the show, "You're A Queer One, Julie Jordan," as performed by Barbara Ruick and Shirley Jones, and "Blow High, Blow Low," as performed by Cameron Mitchell and a male chorus, were recorded, but do not appear in the final film. They are both included on the film soundtrack album.
  
  
• Judy Garland, who was fresh from A Star Is Born (1954), was considered for the role of Julie Jordan, although that never materialized.
  
  
• At the time that this film was released, it was not successful at the box office, but the film's soundtrack album did become a national best seller.
  
  
• This film was originally meant to be filmed in both standard 35mm Cinemascope and Cinemascope 55 (55mm). Early in production it was discovered that both prints could be made from the one negative, and so it was filmed in 55mm Cinemascope only. Standard 35mm Cinemascope prints were made for release, and like The King and I (1956), this film was never shown theatrically in the 55mm format.
  
  
• Shirley Jones has said that of all of her musicals, "Carousel" is her favorite Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II score.
  
  
• Richard Rodgers always considered "Carousel" his favorite score, even though it didn't generate the number of popular hits that some of the other shows he produced with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II did.
  
  
• In 1956, Twentieth Century-Fox had two Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II films in release--this film and The King and I (1956), as well as the CinemaScope version of Oklahoma! (1955). "Carousel", although a critical success, was a box-office failure (probably because of its very serious, downbeat plot), while "The King and I" was a smash hit both critically and financially. Because of this, Fox put all of its Oscar campaign clout behind "The King and I". The result was that "The King and I" was nominated for, and received, several Oscars, while "Carousel" became one of only two Rodgers and Hammerstein films to be completely shut out of the Academy Awards (the other being the critically drubbed and unsuccessful 1962 remake of "State Fair". Conductor and music supervisor Alfred Newman led the orchestra for both "Carousel" and "The King and I", and won for the latter film. One of "Carousel"'s art directors, Lyle R. Wheeler, and one of its set decorators, Walter M. Scott, also worked on "The King and I", and, like Newman, won Oscars for that film.
  
  
• The original stage production of "Carousel" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York on April 19, 1945 and ran for 890 performances (a little over two years). Of their five great musical classics -- the others were "Oklahoma!", "South Pacific", "The King and I", and "The Sound of Music" -- it was the one that had the shortest run, probably because of its very serious plot. But it is the one most highly regarded by many critics, and several of its songs are classics.
  
  

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