A few months back I brought you a couple of scenes from famed film director Abel Gance's biopic about Beethoven in the 1930s. I mentioned that I had seen the restored version of his wildly inventive silent epic Napoleon in its celebrated run at Radio City Music Hall back in 1981. Of course, Beethoven had his own Napoleon complex, dedicating the Eroica to him and then scratching it out when his "hero" declared himself emperor. Below: another scene from the Gance portrait of LvB.
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In the 1950s, the CBS Television Network broadcast a series called "You Are There", reenactments of historical events, hosted by Walter Cronkite. (It aired on Sunday evenings in the pre-NFL days when the whole afternoon and evening on Sundays in the fall and winter was given over to football, followed in the off-season by golf, auto racing and such as; unthinkable now). One episode was called "The Torment of Beehoven" dealing with his realization that his hearing was declining, even as he was getting the concert that included the Fifth Symphony organized. The actor who played Beethoven? Lorne Greene, of "Bonanza" fame! Not available anywhere it seems, not even Youtube. It would be great if you could use your influence to post it here.
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