"The Green Pastures" was an American

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...

first broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

on October 17, 1957, as part of the television series ''

Hallmark Hall of Fame ''Hallmark Hall of Fame'', originally called ''Hallmark Television Playhouse'', is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City-based greeting card company. The longest-running prime-time series in t ...

''. It was adapted from

Marc Connelly Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. Biogra ...

's 1930

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

–winning play which was in turn adapted from

Roark Bradford Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford (August 21, 1896, Lauderdale County, Tennessee — November 13, 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana) was an American short story writer and novelist. Life He attended University of California, Berkeley, and served as a ...

's ''

Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun ''Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' is a collection of pseudo-African American folk tales written by white author Roark Bradford and published in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1928. It was compared to the tales about Uncle Remus and had ...

'' (1928). It was one of five programs nominated as Best Program of the Year at the

10th Primetime Emmy Awards The 10th Emmy Awards, later referred to as the 10th Primetime Emmy Awards, were held on April 15, 1958, to honor the best in television of the year. The ceremony was held at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood, California. It was hosted by Danny Thoma ...

. The African-American cast was led by

William Warfield William Caesar Warfield (January 22, 1920 – August 25, 2002) was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor, known for his appearances in stage productions, Hollywood films, and television programs. A prominent African American artist ...

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson Edmund Lincoln Anderson (September 18, 1905 – February 28, 1977) was an American comedian and actor. To a generation of early radio and television comedy he was known as "Rochester". Anderson entered show business as a teenager on the vaudevi ...

, and

Earle Hyman Earle Hyman (born George Earle Plummer; October 11, 1926 – November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor. Hyman is known for his role on '' ThunderCats'' as the voice of Panthro and various other characters. He also ap ...

. George Schaefer was the producer and director.

Plot

The program depicts fables of the troubles of the Christian God (who is called The Lord) in caring for his people on Earth. It consists of musical and comic vignettes connected by an elderly Sunday school teacher telling Bible stories to her young students.

Cast

The cast included: *

as The Lord *

as Noah *

as Adam and Hezdrel *

Frederick O'Neal Frederick O'Neal (August 27, 1905 – August 25, 1992) was an American actor, theater producer and television director. He founded the American Negro Theater, the British Negro Theatre, and was the first African-American president of the Actors ...

as Moses *

Terry Carter Terry Carter (born John Everett DeCoste; December 16, 1928) is an American actor and filmmaker, known for his roles as Sgt. Joe Broadhurst on the TV series '' McCloud'' and as Colonel Tigh on the original '' Battlestar Galactica''. Early life ...

as Gabriel * William Dillard as King of Babylon *

Avon Long Avon Long (June 18, 1910 – February 15, 1984) was an American Broadway actor and singer. Biography Long was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Frederick Douglass High School, where he was especially influenced by the Latin teacher and ...

as First Gambler *

Estelle Hemsley Estelle Hemsley (May 5, 1887 – November 5, 1968) was a prominent early African American actress of stage and screen. She appeared in the stage and screen versions of ''Take a Giant Step'', earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Support ...

as Mrs. Deshee * Richard Ward as Pharaoh *

Rosetta LeNoire Rosetta LeNoire (born Rosetta Olive Burton; August 8, 1911 – March 17, 2002) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She was known to contemporary audiences for her work in television. She had regular roles on such series as ' ...

as Noah's wife *

Sheila Guyse Sheila Guyse (born Etta Drucille Guyse; July 14, 1925 – December 28, 2013), was an American singer and actress, performing on stage and screen during the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Sheila Guyse was born on July 14, 1925, in Forest, Mississ ...

as Zeba *

Muriel Rahn Muriel Ellen Rahn (1911–1961) was an American vocalist and actress. She co-founded the Rose McClendon Players with her husband, Dick Campbell and was one of the leading black concert singers of the mid-20th Century. She is perhaps best known f ...

as Zipporah *

Helen Dowdy Helen Dowdy was a Broadway theatre, Broadway actress and singer who played the role of Queenie in the 1946 revival of Jerome Kern, Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, Hammerstein's ''Show Boat'' (a role originally played by Tess Gardella in 1927). She ...

as Stout Angel * John Marriott as Isaac *

Dots Johnson Hylan Johnson (February 3, 1913 – August 22, 1986), professionally known as Dots Johnson, .'s Johnson, and Dotts Johnson, was an American stage and film actor. He was best known for his roles as the American MP in Roberto Rossellini's 1946 film ...

as Corporal The production also included music by the De Paur Chorus.

Production

The 90-minute production was broadcast in color by

on October 17, 1957. George Schaefer was the producer and director with Mildred Freed Alberg as executive producer.

adapted his 1930

-winning play, ''

The Green Pastures ''The Green Pastures'' is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from ''Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun'' (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. It had th ...

'', for television. The program had the misfortune of airing at the same time as ''

Playhouse 90 ''Playhouse 90'' was an American television anthology series, anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology dr ...

s special presentation of

Mike Todd Michael Todd (born Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen; June 22, 1909 – March 22, 1958) was an American theater and film producer, best known for his 1956 production of ''Around the World in 80 Days'', which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actr ...

's ''Around the World in Ninety Minutes'', broadcast live from

Madison Square Gardens Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylvan ...

. ''The Green Pastures'' received a Trendex rating of 12.5, far below the 34.5 rating for the Mike Todd special. The program was re-staged with most of the same cast on March 23, 1959.

Reception

In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Jack Gould called it "one of the most glorious evenings" in television history. He praised William Warfield's portrayal of The Lord as "a magnificent achievement" as well as Eddie Anderson's "hilarious and warm" performance as Noah. In the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', Dwight Newton called it "elegant", "inspired", "a triumph", "important, exciting television", "television at its dramatic best", a "television classic", and "a triumph" for George Schaefer. He wrote that it "literally sang with glory and majesty and good humor and earthy humor". In the New York ''Daily News'', Ben Gross called it "a complete delight" that "abounds in warmth and is filled with the tenderness of innocent laughter", "mingled with the moving pathos of simple faith." Gross wrote that the production left him "tingling all over." Jack O'Brian of the

International News Service The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based news agency (newswire) founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.

called it "an entirely beautiful television play", "thoroughly enchanting in story and performance".

Racial controversy

After the original play debuted in 1930, many African-American writers and intellectuals were highly critical of its stereotypical and primitive depiction of its African-American characters, their manner of speech, and their supposedly bucolic and serene life in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. For the television production, Connelly modified the script to omit much of the stereotypical dialogue, even renaming the main character "The Lord" instead of "De Lawd" or "Liver Lips". The modifications were received with backlash in the white Southern press. The ''

Montgomery Advertiser The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829. History The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. It ...

'', a white newspaper in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

, called the television version "an utter flop", complaining that the characters from the original play had been "divested of their Negro traits and manners of speech", and charging that the producers "had bowed to the inverted prejudice which insists that Negroes shall never be portrayed as Negroes".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Pastures 1957 television plays American drama television films African-American films