Tab Hunter & Gwen Verdon

Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon were American actors of both screen and stage, starring together in the movie adaptation of 1958’s Damn Yankees.

With the producers of the Broadway performance of Damn Yankees looking for a dancer to play the part of the seductive Lola, Verdon was optioned out from a crowd that included Mitzi Gaynor and Zizi Jeanmarie despite the fact that she’d only sung one song in her previous Broadway performance in Can-Can. The show would run for over 1,000 performances before being optioned by Warner Brothers for a film adaptation.

Hunter was the only cast member in the 1958 movie adaptation of the show to have not been a part of the Broadway production, being the sole reason why Warner Bros. optioned to buy the rights to the production. Despite receiving the cold shoulder from a few of his cast-mates early on, Hunter soon produced enough on-screen chemistry with Verdon to warrant the director to keep the song “Two Lost Souls” as recorded on set.