Hollywood Passes, Broadway Says “Yes”

Betty Comden and Adolph Green finally got around to writing the screenplay for a movie that would use a host of Cole Porter’s songs. Called Wonderland and focusing on two hapless screenwriters who are attempting to write a movie that brings together a bevy of unrelated songs, the project became the first that the writers had penned for the studio that went unproduced. It didn’t matter, because they had a new stage musical to work on. They wrote it for their old friend Judy Holliday, and Bells Are Ringing, with music by Jule Styne, became one of their biggest hits. Just after this they and Styne contributed songs for the comedy Say, Darling.