It stars Van Johnson, Claude Rains (in his only singing and dancing role), Lori Nelson, Jim Backus and Kay Starr.

[6] The Pied Piper is first spotted working magic in Hamelin by a disabled boy, Paul, and playing his signature tune "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

As part of the competition, the mayor and his cabinet plan to cast golden chimes for the clocktower in order to impress the king's emissary, who is due to pay a visit to Hamelin.

When he plays "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and leads the rats to their doom in the river, the children quickly fall asleep and only the materialistic adults such as the mayor, but not Truson, can hear the music.

He and Paul prepare to deliver money to help the refugee population of Hamelout, but before they depart Truson leads the town in silent prayer.

The first movement of the Piano Concerto in A Minor serves as the tune for the lovers' duet, Wedding-Day at Troldhaugen plays as a work song for the townsfolk and Grieg's Peer Gynt is used for most of the other musical numbers.

This trend started after the great success of the first two live telecasts (in 1955 and 1956) of Peter Pan, which had gained the largest audience for a televised special to date.

Only a month prior to the telecast of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, NBC presented a live live-action musical adaptation of Pinocchio starring Mickey Rooney.

Johnson's performance remained so fondly remembered that he played a Piper-like criminal called The Minstrel who also spoke in rhyme on the 1966 TV series Batman.