I like Arthur in the movie, and she was cast based on her stage performances in the role, so they knew what they were getting. A too-big name would have unbalanced the movie, not that the people you mention (except perhaps Eden) were really too big by the time the movie was made. But I doubt that Adams would have been interested in the role, and poor Barbara Nichols was probably so tired of those kinds of roles.
Van Doren actually did play the role onstage at least once (as I found in a quick ebay search) at the Beef 'n' Boards Dinner Theatre. She also did other theatre, including a Music Fair tour of Silk Stockings in which she played Janice Dayton, with Earl Wrightson and with Lee Grant as Ninotchka!
Mansfield, of course, did theatre too. I just read some pans of her in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. |
