The $5,300 Tony asks Mario for in 1959 would equate to more than $54,000 in 2022.
The original Broadway production of "A Hole in the Head" by Arnold Schulman opened at the Plymouth Theater on February 28, 1957, ran for 156 performances and closed July 13, 1957. The cast included Paul Douglas, David Burns, Lee Grant, Kay Medford and Joyce Van Patten.
Nearly all of the characters' names were changed from the original play due to the ethnic background of the protagonist (and therefore his family) being shifted from Jewish to Italian to accommodate the casting of Frank Sinatra.
Eleanor Parker replaced Donna Reed, who had cinematic history with both the director and star: Frank Capra had directed Reed in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) while Frank Sinatra and Reed had co-starred in From Here to Eternity (1953) with Oscar-honored performances. Reed exited the project when the estimate of the film's upcoming Miami Beach shoot went from five weeks to ten weeks - longer than The Donna Reed Show (1958) could spare its star.
The production company, Sincap, is named for the first syllables of Sinatra's and Capra's last names, though some wags thought "Two Franks" would have been better.
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