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THE SUMMER

ar from the bright lights and shining stars of Holly-wood and New York, Kansas might not seem like aprime location to achieve motion picture fame. Yet,the heartland has not been denied, and famous nameshave visited our state to shoot such films as The Day

After, Kansas, In Cold Blood, Bad Company, Paper Moon, andmore recently, Twister. Yet of all that have been filmed in Kansas,the picture that perhaps most captured the public’s fascination andimagination was based on a work by native son William Inge. Andas this blockbuster, Picnic, now prepares to celebrate its fiftiethanniversary, it seems an appropriate time to look back at the film’sproduction, which occurred during one memorable Kansas sum-mer in 1955.

Originally written for stage, Picnic opened on Broadway inearly 1953. Although Inge once stated that “Picnic would neverwin any prizes in a best-plot contest, but I hope and feel that theplay is rich in character, mood, and atmosphere,” his play wasawarded a Pulitzer Prize.

Picnic is the story of Hal Carter, a drifter who shakes up thelives in a small Kansas town during its annual late summer picnic.He falls in love with the beautiful Madge Owens, who ends upstaying in her emotionally stifling environment after he departs.Late in 1953 Columbia Pictures picked up the rights to the playfor $350,000, commissioned writer Daniel Taradash (AcademyAward-winning writer for From Here to Eternity) to write thescreenplay (Taradash changed the play’s ending to have Madge runaway to meet Hal in another town), and brought in top Broadwaydirector Joshua Logan to direct it. This crew looked to Inge’sbackground in Kansas as a starting point for filming, and theytraveled to the Sunflower State initially in the early spring of1955 to scout locations. In all, five cities and towns—Salina,Hutchinson, Halstead, Sterling, and Nickerson—in the heart ofthe state were selected to provide the authentic Kansas backdropfor the picture. As exciting as this may have been for local citi-

by Bill Shaf-

OF

f

All photos courtesyHalstead HeritageMuseum & Depot.

Exactly fifty years ago Hollywood’s great-est excursion to Kansas came when Colum-bia Pictures brought its stars, cameras, andtechnicians to the heart of the SunflowerState to film the story of a stranger in a

small Kansas town.

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zens, an even greater thrill came whenColumbia announced the cast of Picnic.

Taking center stage as Hal washeartthrob William Holden. Fresh froma string of successful parts, including thepopular Stalag 17 (for which he won theAcademy Award for Best Actor) andThe Bridges of Toko-Ri, Holden was atop box-office attraction at this time.Kim Novak, rapidly becoming the mostphotographed beauty in Hollywood, wascast opposite Holden as Madge. Rumorsabounded that studio boss Harry Cohn,who personally supervised Novak’s ca-reer, demanded she have the leading role.But according to Josh Logan the rumorswere untrue. “All he asked,” the direc-tor purported, “was that I consider hercarefully.” Logan had wanted JaniceRule, who had played the same part onthe stage, but Rule proved so nervousand unsure of herself during her screentest that she literally sabotaged herchances by making everyone watchingthe test equally nervous. The film’s pro-ducer Fred Kohlmer recommended tak-ing a chance on Novak, and so she wascast, along with Rosalind “Roz” Russell,a known film star in need of a strongcomeback role in a quality picture. Forher role as a lonely and unhappy school-teacher, Russell insisted on using verylittle make-up. “Don’t even ask [camera-man] Jimmy Howe to blot out my wrin-kles. I want to look like a real leatheryKansas dame,” she said.

The part of Hal’s best friend, AlanBenson, originally had been played onstage by Paul Newman. But Newman,now a rising screen star, had alreadysigned with Warner Brothers to do an-other picture. To replace Newman,Logan hired relative newcomer CliffRobertson, whom he had seen in a fewplays. Susan Strasberg, daughter of act-ing-school legend Lee Strasberg, seemedperfect for the kid-sister role. (Shewould celebrate her seventeenth birth-day during the location shooting.)

Excitement mounted as the begin-ning of the shoot approached. A localKansas welcoming committee greetedthe cast and some fifty-five members ofthe production crew, which had planned

a six-week stay in the state. Holden andNovak arrived with the crew in Salinaon May 14, 1955. Kansas cherry piebaking champion Barbara Brown pre-sented Holden with one of her tasty cre-ations as he deboarded the charteredplane. The actor declined to sample thepie, claiming it looked too good to eat,but he agreed to pose for pictures.

n his initial visit to Kansas, Logan hadbecome captivated by thehuge grain elevators scat-tered across the plains,and he quickly replaced

the oil fields setting of the original playwith the towering elevators that stored awealth of Kansas grain. The Union Pa-cific rail yard in Salina was selected forthe opening scene where Hal arrives inKansas after bumming a ride on a freighttrain. The Salina home of Joe Rauh fac-ing the Country Club golf course becamethe movie home for the characters playedby Cliff Robertson and Raymond Bailey(his father and patriarch of a grain em-pire). During the shooting, the fictionaltown was referred to as “Salinson” (aHollywood contraction of Salina andHutchinson), although the name doesnot appear anywhere in the finishedfilm.

On May 16, just two days after theactors’ arrival in the state, Holden and

ROSALIND RUSSELL INSISTED ON

USING VERY LITTLE MAKE-UP.

“DON’T EVEN ASK [CAMERAMAN]

JIMMY HOWE TO BLOT OUT MY

WRINKLES.

I WANT TO LOOK LIKE A REAL

o

Novak were due to perform their most difficult scene: a romanticinterlude near a waterfall. Logan described the scene, the dra-matic center for the picture, as symbolic of “a sexual climax . . .since we were not allowed by the censors to be more explicit.” Thescene involves a lovers’ embrace as a train passes in the night, andit required a great deal of emotion from both Holden and Novak.Logan, however, immediately began to doubt his decision to hireNovak, because as the crew set up for a take, the actress pleadedwith the director to pinch her in order to draw out the tears nec-essary for the scene. Logan tried to talk his way out of the requestbut ended up doing as Novak wished. This scene apparently drewSalina’s largest crowd of onlookers. Both it and part of a car chasesequence were filmed just north of the East Iron Avenue bridgealong the Smoky Hill River that runs through the town.

After ten days of shooting in Salina, on May 20 and 21 thefilm troupe moved its twenty-two trucks of cast, crew, and equip-ment to Hutchinson. Here the Security Grain Elevator atFourth and Halstead became the focal point for exterior and in-terior shots, including a sequence on top of the structure.

The cast and crew moved into one hundred rooms atHutchinson’s downtown Baker Hotel, and it was here thatWilliam Holden executed his best stunt. At a party for cast andcrew at the Baker, Holden decided to tease director Logan abouthis morbid fear of heights. Holden opened the window of his roomon the fourteenth floor, then stepped out and casually clung to thewindowsill with one arm and held his drink with the other, swing-ing perilously above East Second Street. Logan, terrified at theprospect of losing his star, watched in horror as Holden leapt backinto the room amidst the relieved party guests, hardly spilling adrop of his martini. When Logan went downstairs for some muchneeded fresh air, he encountered Kim Novak just returning fromMass. She announced that on her way into the hotel, she had no-ticed someone hanging out of a window several floors up and, fromhis body movements, felt sure it was Holden. “Bill Holden!” ex-

K A N S A S H E R I T A G E : S P R I N G 2 0 0 5 9

CLOCKWISE FROM LOWER LEFT: William Holden and Kim

Novak in a lovers’ embrace; casting day in Halstead draws a

large crowd of hopefuls; the Picnic cast poses for a group photo; a

scene shot in Nickerson shows William Holden’s character de-

boarding the freight train that brings him to the fictional Kansas

town; during a break in filming, Rosalind Russell captivates

claimed Logan, hiding his relief, “That is ridiculous!” Novakagreed, shrugged it off, and went upstairs to bed.

n May 23 the film company moved on to Riverside Park in Hal-stead to shoot the actual picnic sequence at the center of themovie, but rain and hail shut down work during the first two days.

Shooting resumed on May 26, although the weath-er had not completely cleared. As the crew set upthe shot at sunset, a funnel cloud appeared on thehorizon. While Logan remained absorbed in check-

ing the script, his cast began to take cover. Soon he stood alone,shouting for the cast and crew to resume work. A booming civildefense alarm sounded, but Logan continued to wave his arms, sig-naling people to return. A stern Roz Russell called to him froma ditch, “Josh! Get down here! That’s a tornado! It’s coming rightat us!” She was lying face down in the ditch; Logan leaped in justas a barrage of wind and debris blew overhead. Actors and crewarose a few intense minutes later after the storm had passed. Ithad hardly touched the Halstead picnic location, but it devastat-ed Udall, a small town a few miles away. The film crew quicklydeparted with trucks and equipment to help clean up the town,where out of two hundred homes only twenty remained standing.

When shooting at Riverside Park resumed a large crowd ofspectators drifted into several shots. Although unplanned, the lo-cals enhanced the scenes, which looked more impressive than withonly the few hundred hired extras. But as the evening wore on, thelarger crowd began to disappear. Seeing the problem, Logan andhis assistant prevailed upon Miss Russell to step up and keep thecrowd entertained. Like the real trooper she was, Roz rose to theoccasion and regaled the crowd with Hollywood gossip. The peo-ple were mesmerized . . . and they stayed.

Logan faced yet another problem during shooting at River-side. Novak was to appear as the newly crowned queen of theNeewollah celebration (“Neewollah” is “Halloween” spelled

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o

AS THE CREW SET UP THE SHOT AT

SUNSET, A FUNNEL CLOUD APPEARED

ON THE HORIZON. LOGAN’S CAST

BEGAN TO TAKE COVER. SOON

HE STOOD ALONE, SHOUTING

FOR THEM TO RETURN.

K A N S A S H E R I T A G E : S P R I N G 2 0 0 5

backwards, and a similar celebration isstill held annually in William Inge’s home-town of Independence.) The scene fea-tures a large crowd gathered around a smalllake and on a bridge, chanting “Neewol-lah” as Novak floats by on a small bargedecorated as a swan. Inside the swan propsat a crewmember driving the barge pow-ered with a small boat motor. The camerasrolled, the crowd chanted, Novak appearedall in perfect time . . . and then the boatmotor failed. Several special effects menquickly dived into the water and pushedthe boat through the scene, although ap-parently not without some colorful lan-guage once the shooting ended.

Another memorable and romanticscene shot at this location is the dancingsequence on the dock. However, whentime came for Holden and Novak to tripthe light fantastic, neither felt they couldperform well enough. After considerablehaggling over dancing ability and camerapositions, it was decided to shoot the pairclose up to avoid showing their awkwardfeet. Holden reportedly had to down sever-al drinks to survive the scene, and Loganused dancing stand-ins for the long shots.

The troupe moved on to Nickerson onJune 4, using the homes of Mildred Mc-Farland and E. L. Beauchamp for exteri-ors, and a third home, belonging to GuyHouston, for the kitchen interiors. (Hous-ton’s home also had been used in the first

Hollywood feature film shot in Kansas,the 1952 Wait ‘Til the Sun Shines, Nel-lie.) Also in Nickerson, the productioncrew used a train engine and ten railcars toaugment Holden’s arrival and departurescenes. The old high school building ap-pears in one or two shots, but it has sincebeen torn down and replaced.

On June 9 the crew utilized a heli-copter to film the final shot of Picnic.From high above Nickerson, the camerarolled as Novak boards a bus to followHolden to Tulsa, past grain elevators andwheat fields to the railroad and the freighttrain on which Holden rides. This possiblywas the first helicopter shot in a featurefilm.

Before departing the Kansas locationon June 16, the cast and crew threw a“wrap” party on the stage of Hutchinson’sFox Theatre. Enthusiastic fans filled thetheater, and the entire cast appeared onthe stage to share their favorite momentsof their stay in the Sunflower State. Thecast sat at a pair of long tables on the stageand took turns stepping to the microphoneto address the crowd. William Holden,wanting to perpetuate his macho image,vaulted over his table to get to the micro-phone, but as he did the table collapsed,and the audience roared with laughter andapplause. Only Holden’s pride was in-jured.

On Sunday, June 19, the final piece

of Picnic’s location shooting took place atSterling Lake in Sterling. Work beganearly with a love scene between KimNovak and Cliff Robertson under a cot-tonwood tree. And it was here that Hold-en’s diving board scene was filmed. Extrasflooded the area—adults were paid tendollars per day, and children five. Shootingwent extremely well, and the crew startedback to Hollywood that night. The re-maining interior shots for the Picnic pro-duction were filmed in Hollywood and atthe Columbia Ranch.

Unfortunately, Picnic did not have

CLOCKWISE FROM LOWER LEFT: Ac-

tress Verna Felton, as Helen Potts, per-

forms with William Holden on the porch

of E. L. Beauchamp’s Nickerson home;

after being crowned “Neewollah” queen,

Kim Novak glides in the swan boat

across the lake in Halstead’s Riverside

Park; Roz Russell, portraying school-

teacher Rosemary Snyder, poses with

boyfriend Howard Bevins, played by vet-

eran actor Arthur O’Connell; games,

such as the ring toss, were part of the

memorable Picnic fun filmed in River-

side Park; top box-office star William

Holden graces the cover of Time maga-

zine for Picnic’s premier to the general

1 2 K A N S A S H E R I T A G E : S P R I N G 2 0 0 5

BILL SHAFFER is a native of Hutchinson and the son of a theatremanager who worked “behind the scenes” during the filming ofPicnic. Bill currently is a producer/director at KTWU/ Channel 11in Topeka; has written, produced, and directed several programsthat have aired across the state and the country; and is a regularcontributor to the weekly Sunflower Journeys series on KTWU.

its world premiere in Kansas, although such an idea was pitched tostudio executives. The film was completed and put into limited re-lease in November 1955, probably to qualify for Academy Awardcompetition. It received a general release in February 1956 andwent on to become one of the top movies of that year, earning 6.3million dollars in box-office rentals. Picnic also garnered six Acad-emy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director(Josh Logan), Best Supporting Actor (Arthur O’Connell), BestMusical Score, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, and BestFilm Editing. Columbia had wanted to campaign for Roz Russellto receive a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but Roz refused,feeling she should have been placed in the Best Actress category.

Playwright William Inge never cared for the movie’s upbeatending, and he later wrote a second version of the play entitledSummer Brave, but it proved unsuccessful. Picnic remains a pop-ular play and film, being twice remade as a television movie (1986and 2000), but neither was shot in Kansas. New generations con-tinue to see it and to appreciate its distinctive midwestern charm.Meanwhile, memories of the original still remain warm in thehearts and minds of many Kansans who witnessed, fifty years ago,the filming of a Kansas Picnic.

KH

During their six

weeks in the Sun-

flower State, Picnic

stars enjoyed interact-

ing with Kansas fans.

CLOCKWISE FROM

LOWER LEFT: Kim

Novak frequently

found herself sur-

rounded by admirers;

William Holden basks

in the attention of

local ladies; Roz Rus-

sell mugs for the cam-

era during an auto-

PICNIC GARNERED SIX ACADEMY

AWARD NOMINATIONS INCLUDING

BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR,

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, BEST

MUSICAL SCORE, BEST ART DIREC-

TION,