The First Traveling Saleslady *** (1956, Ginger Rogers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing) – Classic Movie Review 9386

The estimable star duo of Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing give a boost to producer-director Arthur Lubin’s eager and amiable 1956 Technicolor comedy Western The First Traveling Saleslady. Though minor, slight and mild, it is still quite sweet and cute,

Devery Freeman and Stephen Longstreet are the writers of its 1897-set yarn about a salesgirl, Miss Rose Gillray (Rogers), and her ex-chorus-girl secretary companion Molly Wade (Channing), who go broke selling steel corsets and then try to survive by selling new-fangled barbed wire to Texas cowboys.

[Spoiler alert] Ginger Rogers gets hitched to Charles Masters (Barry Nelson), while Carol Channing’s beau is Lieutenant Jack Rice, played by none other than a very pretty-looking Clint Eastwood, aged 26, a most unexpected romantic pairing. Eastwood gets his first screen kiss as he romances, kisses, and eventually marries Channing, with the pair going off together at the end of the movie.

This lightly directed tale is notable for William Snyder’s bright Technicolor photography and fine comic playing by the likeable, popular cast. The songs by Irving Gertz (music) and Hal Levy (lyrics) include ‘A Corset Can Do a Lot for a Lady’ sung by Carol Channing and the title track sung by The Lancers.

Also in the cast are James Arness, David Brian, Robert F Simon, Frank Wilcox, Dan White [Daniel M White], Harry Cheshire, John Eldridge, Robert Hinkle and Jack Rice.

Rogers quipped that this movie shut down RKO Radio Pictures as it was the last movie they produced. She called it Death of a Saleslady, a ‘terrible picture’.

First Mae West and then Betty Grable were planned to star as Miss Rose Gillray,

It is Eastwood’s second credited film after Francis in the Navy (1955).

Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019).

Channing had previously had only an uncredited bit part in Paid in Full (1950), but her Broadway stardom in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes brought her above-the-title billing in this movie. But it flopped and it was 11 years till Channing’s next screen role, in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), for which she was Oscar nominated. The one-of-a-kind Broadway legend died at 97 in January 2019.

During the Watergate hearings in 1973, it was revealed that Channing was on a master list of Nixon’s political opponents. She later said that her appearance on Nixon’s ‘enemies list’ was the highest honour of her career.

Barry Nelson made 100 movie and TV appearances, but was also renowned as an expert stage performer.

It was filmed at Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9386

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