Stars and Stripes Forever

Stars and Stripes Forever


(aka Marching Along)

Paramount, 1952, Color, 89 minutes, ***

Released December, 1952



Lively, tuneful biography of march master John Philip Sousa, starring Clifton Webb as the former Marine Corps band leader who started his own concert band and wrote some of America's most beloved patriotic songs. Robert Wagner, Debra Paget, Ruth Hussey co-star.



Producer: Lamar Trotti

Director: Henry Koster

Screenplay: Lamar Trotti and Ernest Vajda

(based on the book Marching Along by John Philip Sousa)

Music Director: Alfred Newman

Music: John Philip Sousa

Choreography: Nick Castle and Al White Jr.

Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler, Joseph C. Wright

Set Decoration: Thomas Little, Claude E. Carpenter

Costume Design: Dorothy Jeakins

Sound: Alfred Bruzlin, Roger Heman Sr.

Special Effects: Ray Kellogg

Cinematography: Charles G. Clarke

Film Editing: James B. Clark



Cast: Clifton Webb [John Philip Sousa], Debra Paget [Lily], Robert Wagner [Willie], Ruth Hussey [Jennie], Finlay Currie [Colonel Randolph], Benay Venuta [Mme. Bernsdorff-Mueller], Roy Roberts [Major Houston], Thomas Browne Henry [David Blakely], Lester Matthews [Mr. Pickering], Maudie Prickett [Maid], Erno Verebes [Organ Grinder], Richard Garrick [Secretary of the Navy], Romo Vincent [Music Professor], Roy Gordon [President Benjamin Harrison], Florence Shirley [Navy Nurse], Delos Jewkes [Bass Singer], Norman Leavitt [Purvis], Hellen Van Tuyl [Mrs. Harrison], Walter Woolf King, Roger Moore [President's Aides], Thomas Jackson [Senator], Maude Wallace [Nora], Lenee Martin [Priscilla], Sharon Jan Altman [Helen], Nicholas Koster [Sousa, Jr.], William Vedder [Prof. Estaban], Olan Soule [Glove Salesman], Aileen Carlyle [Mme. Liebling], Paul Maxey [Mr. McCaull], Frank Ferguson [Jack Rice], The Atlanta Stone Mountain Choir [Themselves]



Musical Program: Semper Fidelis; My Love Is a Weeping Willow; I'm Afraid; Springtime in New York; Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal Be Proud; Sweet Music; El Capitan; The Battle Hymn of the Republic; The Bowery; Father's Got 'Em; Stars and Stripes Forever; Washington Post March; Hail to the Chief; Presidential Polonaise; March from "William Tell"; Turkey in the Straw; High School Cadets March; Dixie; Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight