| To Dance with the White Dog | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Written by | Terry Kay Susan Cooper |
| Starring | Hume Cronyn Jessica Tandy Christine Baranski |
| Theme music composer | Gerald Gouriet |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Patricia Clifford Richard Welsh Bruce Savin (co-executive producer) |
| Producers | Patricia Clifford Glenn Jordan Terry Kay (co-producer) Brent Shields (co-producer) |
| Production locations | Americus, Georgia Jimmy Carter National Historic Site |
| Cinematography | Neil Roach |
| Editor | Bill Blunden |
| Running time | 100 minutes |
| Production companies | Signboard Hill Productions, Patricia Clifford Productions (in association with) Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | December 5, 1993 |
To Dance with the White Dog is a 1990 novel by Georgia author Terry Kay, based on the experiences of his father.
Sam Peek happily resides in Hart County, Georgia, as a pecan farmer and local celebrity featured in many gardening/horticultural magazines. His wife Cora and he are both in their 80s, and have just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Cora dies of a heart attack. Sam and his family are deeply grieved over this, and his daughters begin to obsess over his safety and his life.
Not long after Cora's death, a mysterious white dog that only Sam can see appears near the house. He thinks it is just a stray, but daughters Kate, Carrie, and his other children do not see it and think he is going crazy. Sam goes on a car trip in his weathered truck to a school reunion, keeping it a secret from the children. After a series of events, the family and other people begin to see the white dog, but never hear her bark. Shortly before Sam's death, the dog disappears, and the dog is thought to have been Cora in another form.
The novel was adapted into a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie starring Hume Cronyn as Sam Peek and Jessica Tandy as Cora. It was directed by Glenn Jordan and was filmed on location in Georgia. The movie premiered December 5, 1993, on CBS, and was nominated for many awards including seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Hume Cronyn won an Emmy award for his performance. Nominations were given to lead actress Jessica Tandy, directing (Glenn Jordan), Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Film Editing,
Susan Mary Cooper is an English author of children's books. She is best known for The Dark Is Rising, a contemporary fantasy series set in England and Wales, which incorporates British mythology such as the Arthurian legends and Welsh folk heroes. For that work, in 2012 she won the lifetime Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association, recognizing her contribution to writing for teens. In the 1970s two of the five novels were named the year's best English-language book with an "authentic Welsh background" by the Welsh Books Council.
Jessie Alice Tandy was a British-American actress. Tandy appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She acted as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948. Her films included Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and The Gin Game. At 80, she became the oldest actress to receive the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy.
Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. was a Canadian-American actor and writer.
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George Cooper Grizzard Jr. was an American stage, television, and film actor. He was the recipient of a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, among other accolades.
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The World According to Garp is a 1982 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams in the title role. Written by Steve Tesich, it is based on the 1978 novel The World According to Garp by John Irving. For their roles, John Lithgow and Glenn Close were respectively nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 55th Academy Awards.
The Seventh Cross is a 1944 American drama film, set in Nazi Germany, starring Spencer Tracy as a prisoner who escaped from a concentration camp. The story chronicles how he interacts with ordinary Germans, and gradually sheds his cynical view of humanity.
Eliot Wigginton is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He is most widely known for developing with his high school students the Foxfire Project, a writing project consisting of interviews and stories about Appalachia. The project was developed into a magazine and series of best-selling Foxfire books. The series comprised essays and articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia focusing on Appalachian culture. In 1987, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year," and in 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
The 41st Annual Tony Awards was held on June 7, 1987, at the Mark Hellinger Theatre and broadcast by CBS television. Angela Lansbury was the host for the third time. This broadcast was awarded the 1987 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series.
The Green Years is a 1946 American drama film directed by Victor Saville and featuring Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Beverly Tyler and Hume Cronyn. It was adapted by Robert Ardrey and Sonya Levien from A. J. Cronin's 1944 novel of the same name. It tells the story of the coming-of-age of an Irish orphan in Scotland.
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The 48th Annual Tony Awards was broadcast by CBS from the Gershwin Theatre on June 12, 1994. The hosts were Sir Anthony Hopkins and Amy Irving.
Terry Winter Kay was an American author, whose novels examined life in the American South. His most well-known book, To Dance with the White Dog, was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Three of Kay's books became movies.
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Camilla is a 1994 comedy drama film directed by Deepa Mehta. It was Jessica Tandy's penultimate film appearance and is dedicated to her memory. Tandy plays the title character, Camilla Cara, a former concert violinist. Bridget Fonda plays the role of Freda Lopez, an unfulfilled musician and composer.
Foxfire is an American drama television film that premiered on CBS on December 13, 1987, as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series. It is directed by Jud Taylor from a teleplay by Susan Cooper, based on the play of the same name by Cooper and Hume Cronyn. The film stars Jessica Tandy, Cronyn, and John Denver, with Tandy and Cronyn both reprising their roles from the 1982 Broadway production.
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The Moon and Sixpence was an American television movie broadcast on NBC on October 30, 1959. The production, starring Laurence Olivier, was adapted by S. Lee Pogostin from the novel by Somerset Maugham. The production won multiple Emmy and Sylvania Awards, including awards for Olivier's acting, Pogostin's adaptation, and Robert Mulligan's direction.
Endre A. Vadnay was a Hungarian-born writer and the brother of Hollywood screenwriter László Vadnay. A Budapest native and University of Agriculture alumnus who later became owner-editor of the newspaper Reggeli Vjsag, Vadnay left Hungary after the Revolution of 1956. He did work for Radio Free Europe and, in 1958, founded the Hungarian Theatre in New York. Also that year, one of his stories formed the basis for his brother's screenplay for "War Against War," a critically acclaimed episode of ABC's anthology series Telephone Time, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as Alfred Nobel and Bertha von Suttner.
