Tweet Lillian Gish on Philco Playhouse

Didn't know this until recently. Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful started as a TV play starring Lillian Gish, who also originated the role when it transitioned to Broadway. Has anyone ever seen this? Would love to find it (also stars a young Eve Marie Saint).

I've seen stills of the production but am not aware of footage existing.

Footage exists. They ran some on a TV special in the 1980s, mostly a clip of Lillian talking and talking and Eva listening.

[Mike Gebert]

A friend who spent some time at Bowling Green State University, home of the Gish Theater, writes:

I saw on Nitrateville someone asking about the 1950s live TV version of TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL. It plays at the Gish theater at BGSU every few years so I've seen it 2 or 3 times since 1990, paired with something else since it is an hour long including commercials. It pre-dates the play, actually being so popular that it was expanded into the award winning play. Eva Marie Saint doesn't have much to do and is gone after the first 20 minutes. Lines are flubbed but the recoveries are pretty good. Gish is fine, the actress (a supporting character actress you'd recognize) [Eileen Heckart] playing her bitchy daughter-in-law is good.

Didn't know this until recently. Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful started as a TV play starring Lillian Gish, who also originated the role when it transitioned to Broadway. Has anyone ever seen this? Would love to find it (also stars a young Eve Marie Saint).

A print of it exists at The Museum of TV and Radio in New York and can be viewed by visitors there.

I am most interested in the biographical television film Lillian starred in as Grandma Moses during the same period but I am not sure that one exists.

The D.W. Griffith biographical film Lillian produced THE BIRTH OF THE MOVIES also exists; I'm unsure if Lillian appears in that or merely had a hand in the production.