"Alice in Wonderland - the Gillian Barber NBC TV Special

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A TV SPECIAL TRANSMITTED IN 1955 ON NBC STARRING GILLIAN BARBER

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TELEVISION EVENT OF THE MONTH

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND"
ON TV, SUNDAY, OCT 23rd 1955
NEW HALLMARK HALL OF FAME
90 MINUTES IN FULL COLOR

Maurice Evans presents the first of an exciting new monthly series of plays starring some of the brightest talent in show business. Under the guiding hands of Maurice Evans, the production will launch an outstanding new series of television events.

"The first live production of the Lewis Carroll classic marks the American debut of aspiring English actress, Gillian Barber as Alice. The cast includes Bobby Clark, Eva Le Gallienne, Martin Green and Elsa Lanchester."

14 year-old Gillian Barber, pictured left in 1955 in London's Picadilly Circus just before setting sail for America to star in NBC's TV production of "Alice In Wonderland".

    The above text and pictures come from two separate 1955 newspaper articles, one in England, one in America. The latter used the "Tea party" picture (above far left) instead of a photograph for some reason. I'm not aware of any further information on this production.
    Given the presence of Eva Le Gallienne in the cast, this was probably a TV version of her Broadway adaptation. I'm not aware that a copy of the broadcast survives.
    The TV picture to the right comes from an old NBC ad, and is probably the only remaining glimpse we'll ever have of the production. 'Alice' is specially posed, but the TV screen she's looking at shows Gillian Barber seated between the Red and the White Queen.
    To the left is a publicity photograph of Gillian Barber taken from a full page trade advert placed by NBC entitled "A Year To Watch". I'm unable to find anything more about her, except that she's possibly now married and living in Spain. This Gillian Barber shouldn't be confused with another actress with the same name who appeared in some minor American TV soap operas in recent years.

CHARLIE McCARTHY IN ALICE IN WONDERLAND - May 5th 1954

In the early 50's there was a live television series in the USA called the Kraft Television Theater. One of the shows was "Charlie McCarthy in Alice in Wonderland", starring ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (father of Candice Bergen) and Charlie McCarthy (the ventriloquist's doll), Art Carney played the Mad Hatter, and Grant (Incredible Shrinking Man) Williams was the White Knight. Child actress Robin Morgan (pictured left) played Alice. She was best known for playing a character called Dagmar in an early TV family comedy show called "I Remember Mama" between 1950 and 1956. She later became an feminist activist.

Another Edgar Bergen character, Mortimer Snerd, appears with Kathrine Beaumont
in the publicity photograph (above) from a TV Christmas special.

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