Trivia for
1776 (1972)

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• The 176 minute extended version is available on laserdisc. It contains 35 minutes cut from the original videotape release, including the song, "Cool, Considerate Men".
  
  
• Gwyneth Paltrow, the real life daughter of Blythe Danner (Martha Jefferson) played Patsy Jefferson in the movie: Jefferson in Paris (1995).
  
  
• William Daniels, who plays John Adams, also played John Quincy Adams (John Adams' son) in the mini series _"Adams Chronicles, The" (1976) (mini)_ , Samuel Adams (John Adams' cousin) in the TV movie The Bastard (1978) (TV) and John Adams again in the TV movie _"Rebels, The" (1979) (mini)_ .
  
  

• Many of the actors were also in the Broadway production.
  
  
• The Broadway musical was conceived by a history teacher.
  
  
• President Richard Nixon was given a private screening of the movie before its release by his friend Jack L. Warner, the producer. The song "Cool, Considerate Men" offended Nixon, so Warner removed it at his request. The song was restored on the Deluxe Widescreen Presentation Laserdisc (and was included on the DVD).
  
  
• The final shot required the camera to pull back to show the entire Congressional chamber; however, there was not enough room on the set for the camera truck to pull back far enough. As the studios being used were slated to be demolished after production ended, and this was the final shot being done, a large hole was made in the wall - with the camera truck protruding outdoors after pulling all the way back. As it turned out, however, the studios were never demolished after all and the wall needed to be rebuilt.
  
  
• Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha, died ten years after their marriage, 19 years before Jefferson occupied the White House. The Martha Jefferson listed as First Lady was the couple's daughter.
  
  
• During the filming of "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve", William Daniels sucked on ice cubes, as not to give away the fact that the night was freezing cold, rather than a humid Philadelphia evening
  
  
• Many of the characters' lines were quotes attributed to these historic men. Including Hancock's justification of his own signature and Franklin's, "Those who would forfeit liberty to obtain a little temporary safety..." as well as his saying, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
  
  
• Ron Holgate did all of his own riding - except for the trick mount at the end - in "The Lees of Old Virginia", despite his never having been on a horse before.
  
  
• The song "The Egg" was written very late into the writing process for the Broadway show. So late, in fact, that promotional material had already been printed and it was upon seeing a poster depicting an eaglet coming out of a British eggshell and holding an American flag that Sherman Edwards came up with the song.
  
  
• In the song "Is Anybody There", sung by John Adams, the lyric "Yet, through all the gloom, I see the rays of ravishing light and glory" were from a letter by the real-life Adams to wife Abigail the day after the Declaration was adopted.
  
  
• All of the exchanges between John and Abigail Adams are based on the real letters they wrote to each other while John was away. He called her his "dearest friend" and their letters ended with "Til then".
  
  
• Many of the outdoor shots were filmed at what is now the Warner Ranch just north of the main studio. At the time it was part of the new Columbia/Warner merger. The water fountain seen during the number with Franklin, Adams, and Lee is best known to current television viewers as the fountain seen at the beginning of the TV show "Friends". This fountain still exists directly across the street from the Bewitched, and I Dream of Jeannie Houses. Most of the other colonial sets were destroyed by a devastating fire in the mid-'70s.
  
  
• During filming, Blythe Danner (Martha Jefferson) was 5 months pregnant with Gwenyth Paltrow.
  
  
• John Adams was played by actor William Daniels, who later stared in the television show "St. Elsewhere" (1982) in which he played Dr. Mark Craig...a descendant of John Adams. The series was filled with references to "1776" and quotes from the movie.
  
  
• Although the "Cool Cool Considerate Men" number was cut from the original print as a favor to Richard Nixon by Jack L. Warner, it was not destroyed as Warner had done before in similar circumstances, because he was no longer a studio head. For that reason only, the excised segment was found and could be restored to the DVD. Nixon asked the writer Sherman Edwards to cut it out after seeing the play at the White House, but the author steadfastly refused.
  
  
• On the laserdisc commentary, director Peter H. Hunt says that originally he had not planned to cast Howard Da Silva as Benjamin Franklin in the film version, because of how difficult the actor had been during the Broadway run of the musical. However, he relented and let Da Silva reprise his stage role in the film when the actor promised to cooperate and begged to play Ben Franklin in the movie as a legacy to his grandchildren.
  
  
• 1776 opened at the 46th Street Theater on March 16, 1969 and ran for 1217 performances. William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, Ken Howard, Roy Poole, Virginia Vestoff, David Ford, Ron Holgate, William Duell, Ralston Hill, Jonathan Moore and Charles Rule all reprise their roles in the movie.
  
  
• The final feature film of David Ford, Donald Madden and Ray Middleton.
  
  
• The only filmed credit for Ralston Hill and Charles Rule.
  
  
• The movie debut of Emory Bass, Patrick Hines, Jonathan Moore and Stephen Nathan.
  
  
• The final scene shows the members of congress being called individually to come forward in order to sign the declaration of independence while the camera trucks back, or zooms out. The characters' final positions are an approximation of John Trumbull's famous painting, "The Declaration of Independence". The actual painting shows the congressional chamber from the front behind Hancock's desk while the scene in the movie is from the rear of the chamber, and therefore the characters appear reversed with the five members of congress who were assigned to the committee to write the declaration on the right of the desk as opposed to the left. Far fewer of the actual number of delegates, who were in Congress, are represented in the movie, but the resemblance to the painting is unmistakable including the delegate sitting with one leg crossed over another.
  
  

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