On November 27, 1957, Broadway favorites Mary Martin and John Raitt starred as Annie Oakley and Frank Butler in a live telecast of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun. Nearly 60 years later, the television performance is being released on DVD and Blu-ray by VAI Music.

The Blu-ray version includes several bonus items:

1) Closing Commercial (2:01)
Although no video elements of the commercials for the 1957 Annie Get Your Gun telecast are known to exist, VAI is including the unedited audio of the closing commercial, hosted by Martin, which includes a message wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. VAI has added relevant images to supplement the audio track.

2) Mary Martin in 1985 (3:53)
Excerpt from a live concert of Martin with Louis Magor at the piano. Martin talks about the role of Annie, performs “Anything You Can Do” with Magor (who sings from the keyboard), and also recalls her collaboration with Ethel Merman on the Ford 50th Anniversary Show in 1953. The original video footage has been supplemented with images illustrating Martin’s comments.

3) Photo Gallery (4:26)
VAI gained access to a large number of photos, posters, program covers, etc., including some color shots. The Photo Gallery is presented as a video segment that includes juxtapositions of scenes from the black-and-white telecast with color production shots from the same scenes.

A teaser video, which can be viewed above, features such Berlin standards as “Anything You Can Do,” “They Say That Falling in Love Is Wonderful,” and “There’s No Business like Show Business.”

Annie Get Your Gun has music and lyrics by Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields. Ethel Merman created the role of Annie Oakley in the original 1949 Broadway production. Bernadette Peters starred in the most recent Broadway revival in 1999.

The black-and-white recording also features Reta Shaw (Dolly Tate), William O’Neal (Buffalo Bill Cody), Donald Burr (Charlie Davenport), and Luke Halpin (Little Jake Oakley).

To order the recording, call (800) 477-7146 or click here.