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MY FAIR LADY received an expansion from Sony Masterworks in 1994.
THE KING AND I received an expansion from Angel Records in 2001.
The King and I had received a prior expansion in 1996 with a Gold CD included with the film’s laserdisc release (much like The Sound of Music), which contains much more of Alfred Newman’s underscore than the later Angel CD.
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Oh, I am so right there with you. A release like that of CHITTY would be wonderful, but I think it has about as much of a chance happening as SOUTH PACIFIC or CAMELOT.
Even less so. I can't speak about "Camelot," but the problem with "Chitty" is that the elements no longer exist - or we would have it by now. Same with "West Side Story" and probably "My Fair Lady." It's a frustrating situation.
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Oh, I am so right there with you. A release like that of CHITTY would be wonderful, but I think it has about as much of a chance happening as SOUTH PACIFIC or CAMELOT.
Even less so. I can't speak about "Camelot," but the problem with "Chitty" is that the elements no longer exist - or we would have it by now. Same with "West Side Story" and probably "My Fair Lady." It's a frustrating situation.
It’s the same with My Fair Lady. When the revised restoration came out in 2014, Robert Harris confirmed that the tapes no longer survive.
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I have to say that I'm a bit confused about the status of the Warner library. We know that most of the pre-1952/53 stuff has been junked. Then there are the reports by Steve Hoffman on his forum in which he writes that he's transferred loads and loads of vinegar-affected masters (most likely to DAT). Some of these have since surfaced (like the La La Land 2 CD set of "Giant") whereas others seem to be no longer at WB (missing tracks on La La Land's "The Bad Seed"). Maybe somebody with more inside knowledge can jump in here. If Warner no longer has these tapes, probably somebody has kept back-up copies. In case, they were really transferred to DAT, one hopes that they have been re-transferred in the meantime - since they may be lost if not.
I'm not sure if "My Fair Lady" was in the category described above or if the tapes were not available or were already too damaged to be used by then. If they were not in Warner's vault, it would still be worth it, to research the whereabouts. For all we know, it is very unlikely, that André Previn has kept any tapes and if Columbia had full masters, they would have surfaced by now. Probably the Loewe or Lerner estates may have something.
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I just found Robert Harris' comment on the "My Fair Lady" masters. It seems that 200 boxes of elements have been shipped to CBS in the 1970s and CBS trashed those they did not consider worthy the storage space (about a third of the boxes) - obviously including the music masters. Such a sad story! Still can't believe it. How could anybody think this beautiful underscore is not worth preserving?  Maybe there is still a copy somewhere in private collections.
It would be great, however, to also have a clarification about the other 1950s and 1960s WB masters (as described in my earlier posting).
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Rhino released a 2-CD set of the complete tracks to WIZARD OF OZ, including alternates and outtakes, and a book with lots of text and color photos.
This is a wonderful set produced by Marilee Bradford and Bradley Flanagan. It matches perfectly with the full 450 page score published by Omni.
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