How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - Question (1 Viewer)

HBO had this on the other day (Pan and Scan) and noticed that the soundtrack was in mono. I have always thought that this was odd. My laserdisc was also in mono. Wasn't there a roadshow release of this in the 1960's? And if so, there most certainly would have been a stereo soundtrack. The CD of the original soundtrack recording is amazing.

This movie was not a roadshow release. (It might have been the last major musical of the 1960s to not be a roadshow.) However, I do believe, for some reason, in Boston, and only in Boston, it was "reserved seats" at the Astor Theatre. Everywhere else, including at New York's Radio City Music Hall and Los Angeles' Chinese Theater, for Easter, 1967, it was just a regular release.

More to the point, the movie was mono.

Correct. It was not a roadshow in any engagement around here. And it was definitely in mono sound at the theater where I saw it.

I've heard stories about a lost stereo soundtrack to this film along with the deleted "Coffee Break" number which was filmed ans scrapped rior to release. I have to confess a personal attachment to this film as I played Mr. Twimble in my high school production of HTSIBWRT and sang "Company Way"- 26 years ago!

The "Coffee Break" number was filmed. Some say it was cut during the first weeks of release at Radio City Music Hall, others claim it was cut prior to the opening. The DVD savant at DVD Talk has a whole story about it (the cover of the laserdisc was a photo of the coffee break number).

I've heard there were a few stereo prints but they are nowhere to be found, so I wonder if they really ever existed. It is possible there were a few stereo prints - this was a musical afterall. When the musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" opened in New York it was in 4-track stereo but it has never been issued on home video in true stereo, so it also may have only had a few stereo prints (again it was a musical so one wonders why it would be mono)

I saw the movie at a preview (in a theatre owned by Maureen Arthur's father, so they made a big deal out of it), about a month before the movie was released, and there was no "Coffee Break" in it.

As for being a musical and mono: That was unusual, but "Gypsy" was also mono (although they've now put in a "music only" stereo track for home video.)

Loads of musicals were mono only, especially the 50's and 60's rock and roll films.

There were certainly not LOADS of musicals in mono in the sixties.
The only other major one I can think of is Mame and 1776. Lost Horizon opened in stereo but the print was soon rreplaced n a hroter mono version.
Gypsy was certainly in stereo in New York when it opened.
How to succeed opened in stereo WITH the Coffee break number at Radio city music hall and was replaced with a mono print within days and with the coffee break number cut.
As far as I know, this was the only stereo uncut print. The director, david swift told me so when I talked to him in early 1990 about this film.
this print now resides with a collector, and I hope he will eventually come forward with this print.

Too bad so many collectors can't freely allow the studios to use their prints without fear of losing them. Too bad the studios don't cough up the money to buy the prints back (everyone has their price).