Rodgers and Hammerstein Nellie Forbush, and opera star Ezio Pinza starred as Emile de Becque, the French plantation owner. Also in the cast were Juanita Hall, Myron McCormick and Betta St. John. The 1958 film version, also directed by Logan, starred Mitzi Gaynor, Rossano Brazzi, John Kerr, Ray Walston, and Juanita Hall. Brazzi, Kerr, and Hall had their singing dubbed by others. Based on Margaret Landon's "Anna and the King of Siam"—the story of Anna Leonowens, governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s—Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The King and I opened on Broadway on March 29, 1951,
Dan Beach Bradley setting. The boarding schools, while unsuccessful, showed the emphasis put on education in Siam during this period. Bradley advised the royal court to pursue education until his death. As an advocate of education, Bradley had high regard for Anna Leonowens, the teacher of Mongkut's children. Bradley admired the perseverance of Leonowens even though she was not treated with respect from the Siamese. Bradley did admit, however, that Leonowens did not have a significant impact on Siam, an opinion at odds with hers which she recorded in her two volumes of memoirs beginning with "The English Governess at the Siamese Court"