Macbeth

Synopsis: US live anthology drama series. A production of Macbeth directed by Stanley Quinn with Uta Hagen and E.G. Marshall as the Macbeths.
Series: Kraft Television Theatre
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Television
Transmission details: 10 May 1950 at 21:00 (Channel: NBC)
Duration: 60 mins

Director

Cast

General: `Produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, this live anthology drama was designed to mesh with Kraft’s overall marketing strategy, which stressed the concept of "gracious living," an appeal to middle class, suburban, family values. Kraft Television Theatre featured quietly paced, intimate dramas; as one Kraft representative put it, the show was be a "respectful guest in America’s living rooms
... Each program had, on average, a pair of two minute breaks, at which time cameras focused on a pair of feminine hands as they demonstrated the preparation of various dishes as announcer Ed Herlihy relayed the recipe to the viewer.'. Michael Mashon - Museum of Broadcast Communications website series entry. This transmission of Macbeth was interrupted twice for cheese commercials,
History: Season 3, episode 34. ‘The NBC broadcast competed for an audience with What’s My Line?, horse races in Yonkers and a wrestling match, all of which were transmitted at the same time by other stations’. [Library of Congress catalogue notes].
Reviews: Philip Hamburger, Television The New Yorker (XXVII, May 27 1950), p. 52. Hamburger noted that the actors seemed to have a profound resentment against Shakespeare and all his works, while Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene sounded as if she had got her hand caught in the washing machine.

SHAKESPEARE