Ryder was suffering from laryngitis when this recording was made.
This "Hamlet" was taped at a live performance by the New Yorl Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park on June 16, 1964. It was broadcast nationally the next day. The day it was telecast, Mr. Ryder was already replaced for the remainder of the stage run by Richard Burr, who was Richard Burton's understudy in a concurrently running "Hamlet" on Broadway.