Freddy Hollaender and 'The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T'

Synopsis

Today’s date marks the 1953 New York premiere of a musical movie that flopped when it debuted but has since become a cult classic — and for two good reasons.

First, the movie’s script — written by Dr. Seuss — was about a little boy named Bart who didn’t enjoy practicing the piano and who was worried that his widowed mom might marry his dreaded piano teacher. The film, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, is cast as Bart’s dream — or nightmare — with surreal scenarios as only Dr. Seuss could imagine them.

Second, the film boasted a score by Frederick Hollander, a composer of droll Berlin cabaret songs who found a welcome home in Hollywood. For The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, he crafted witty songs and an extravagant instrumental sequence for a whacky Seussian ballet.

Despite all that, The New York Times reviewer was bored: “A ponderously literate affair,” he wrote.

The film did have its fans, however, and one was a little boy who did like to practice the piano — singer and pianist Michael J. Feinstein, who lovingly gathered together all of Hollander’s used and unused music for the movie for a limited edition CD-set released in 2010.

Music Played in Today's Program

Friedrich Hollaender (1896-1976): ‘5000 Fingers of Dr. T’ film score; studio orchestra

On This Day

Births

• 1717 - Baptismal date of Bohemian violinist and composer Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz, in Nemecký Brod (Deutsch-Brod, now Havlíckuv Brod)

• 1842 - Austrian operetta composer Carl Zeller, in St. Peter in der Au

• 1854 - Italian opera composer Alfredo Catalani, in Lucca

Deaths

• 1915 - Russian composer Sergei Taneyev, 58, in Dyud’kovo, near Zvenigorod (Julian date: June 6)

Premieres

• 1899 - Elgar: "Enigma Variations," in London, Queen's Hall, Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter

• 1915 - Saint-Saëns: choral work, Hail California," in San Francisco, composer conducting

• 1926 - Antheil: Ballet Mécanique, in Paris

• 1984 - Bernstein: opera A Quiet Place (revised version), by La Scala Opera, John Mauceri conducting. The first version of this opera premiered at Houston Grand Opera on June 17, 1983, conducted by John DeMain.

Others

• 1869 - final concert of a five-day Great National Peace Jubilee involving an orchestra of 1000 and a chorus of 10,000 organized by bandmaster Patrick Gilmore performing in a specially-constructed hall in Boston’s Back Bay