Program Notes

The film Peyton Place (20th Century Fox, 1957), based on the sensational #1 best-selling expose by Grace Metalious, is essentially the story of the coming-of-age not only of various characters, most of them high-school seniors, but also of a small New England town. Lana Turner, Diane Varsi and Russ Tamblyn were the stars of the Jerry Wald-Mark Robson production, while Eleanor Parker, Carol Lynley and Jeff Chandler headed the cast in the 1961 sequel, Return to Peyton Place. The screenplay is by John Michael Hayes, the sumptuous color photography by William Mellor, and Mark Robson’s forthright direction are key elements, in addition to the music, in the transformation from potboiler into blockbuster.

As the granddaddy of nightly soap operas, the thrice-weekly 514 episode ABC television series (1964-1969) featured Dorothy Malone, Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal in the cast. Two made-for-television movies Murder in Peyton Place (1977) and Peyton Place: The Next Generation (1985) have also been produced. All of these Peyton Place properties have used Waxman’s best-known theme popularized as “The Wonderful Season of Love” and/or “For Those Who Are Young”. Rosemary Clooney’s recorded it with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.

“In addition to the thematic material attached to certain characters in the ‘Leitmotiv’ manner,” wrote the composer, “there is another important theme which underlines everyone of the many narrations in the picture. The theme also acts as a curtain-raiser on the Main Title.” As the music is playing, the audience sees, behind the screen credits – snow-covered fields, covered bridges, etc. Here is Waxman at his romantic best.

Jerry Wald was producing An Affair to Remember and Peyton Place simultaneously and the casting for each was equally adroit. He convinced Lana Turner to play a motherly role while casting an unknown, Diane Varsi, as her daughter. The distinguished actors included Hope Lange, Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy, Terry Moore, Betty Field, Mildred Dunnock, Leon Ames and David Nelson, (Ozzie & Harriet) with relative unknowns Lee Phillips, Russ Tamblyn and Barry Coe rounding out a cast which also included Lorne Greene (Bonanza) in one of his first major US film roles.

One of Franz Waxman’s first scores at Warner Bros. was for Jerry Wald’s production of Destination Tokyo (1944) and they became good friends. When Wald left Warners he asked Waxman to score The Blue Veil at RKO. Establishing his own company at 20th Century Fox, Wald purchased the screen rights to Peyton Place and shared his grand vision for the movie version of the novel with his close friend, Waxman, and asked him to score the film. This commitment to Wald would result in Waxman having to bow out of his agreement with Producer Leland Hayward to compose the music for Hemingway’s The Old Man & the Sea when production delays conflicted with Wald’s Peyton Place. Dimitri Tiomkin would replace Waxman and go on to win the Oscar the following year. It is ironic that Waxman’s last and 14th score for Wald would be Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962). Wald died suddenly soon after the film was completed.

During the recording sessions for Peyton Place Jerry Wald wrote:

“Every musician on the lot is highly enthusiastic about Franz Waxman’s score for “Peyton Place”, from Alfred Newman on down to the members of the orchestra who recognize the score as a masterful job and a great achievement in scoring. Mr. Waxman is one of the few musicians I know who does not think that the film is accompanying his music – – he makes his music work for the picture. He adds dimension to the story-telling by his sound effects in music. He also has the dramatic insight which tells him when to stop the music. When people view the “Chase in the Woods,” for instance, they will find that suddenly, at its height, the music stops and all that is heard is the breathing of the people involved in the chase and the natural sounds in the woods at night.”

The duration of the film is a little over 2 hours 30 minutes and Waxman composed 53 minutes and ten seconds of music. The balance of the music in the film was source material. The original soundtrack album released in 1957 contained only 40:48 of music. The 2000 recording by Frederic Talgorn with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Varese Sarabande) has added “Summer Montage,” “Leaving for New York” as well as the never before heard “End Credits” and then sequenced in film order.

Peyton Place ranks among Waxman’s finest scores. He captured the New England mood exquisitely. James Powers wrote in his Hollywood Reporter review at the time of the film’s original release “Franz Waxman’ s music is a lyric poem to the beauties and pitfalls of life in nature and in spirit.” Although Edward B. Powell is credited for orchestrations, Leonid Raab’s contribution should not be ignored as co-orchestrator.