"Star!" was a commercial disappointment in its initial run, suffering about 20 minutes of studio-requested and director-approved cuts while still in its roadshow engagements. Hoping to recoup some of its estimated $14 million cost, 20th Century Fox executive Richard Zanuck decided to do some primitive "market research" (testing three titles: "Music for the Lady", "Those Were the Happy Days" and "Star!") before withdrawing the film in the spring of 1969. The studio proceeded to substantially cut and re-market the film under the new title "Those Were the Happy Times". Wise, who did not believe cutting the film would work, declined to be involved in the editing, and asked that the credit "A Robert Wise Film" be removed. Following instructions from Zanuck, William H. Reynolds, the film's original editor, reluctantly but very competently removed scenes and whole sequences, including many of the musical numbers, paring the film's running time from 175 to 120 minutes, (which involved overlapping sound and adding a new shot to bridge some cuts). A very simple new title card was created as well. However, when the short retitled version was released in the fall of 1969, the changes left some holes in the plot, and did little to improve box-office receipts. The fact that the reissue was to be shown only in 35mm coincidentally saved the original camera negative of the film from being altered.