Let's Start At The Very Beginning...

In 1955 when Papa Married a Mormon was released, it became a publishing house bestseller.  With that success came a string of opportunities. Book of the month clubs, magazine serial rights, radio shows, television shows, and movie rights were all banking on their take off of the book.

Republic Pictures acquired the movie rights.  Republic Pictures specialized in b-movies, westerns, etc.  However they did produce such classics as The Quiet Man with John Wayne and The Sands of Iwo Jima.  By 1969 no movie had been made.  In early 1969 Charles W. Whitman, drama professor at Brigham Young University, wrote John Fitzgerald regarding the option to produce a single play based on the three adult novels. This is where our story begins.