recorded orchestral performance of the Beatles' song "Yesterday"; The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson; the theme music of the television series Ben Casey; and televised boxing matches. As stated in the closing credits, The filming team of Albert and David Maysles went home to Boston to take another look at the kind of people they grew up with. The idea for the film was researched and developed by David Maysles[,] who found the salesmen. The photography was by Albert Maysles. The film was edited by David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin. Salesman was filmed in January 1967 (perhaps also late December 1966) and bears a copyright date of 1968. Distribution The Maysles brothers faced challenges in showing the completed film. As they tried to arrange distribution, they were told that the content was too depressing and realistic for the public. The brothers self-distributed through their production company, Maysles Films, and they booked theaters for screenings. The first theatrical screening occurred on April 17, 1969, at the 68th Street Playhouse in New York City. Reception At the time of the documentary's initial release, the film critic for New York Times, Vincent Canby, praised both its content and structure in his April 18, 1969 review: Documentary filmmaker James Blue once said of Albert Maysles that "'his cinema is one in which ethics and aesthetics are interdependent, where beauty starts with honesty, where a cut or a change in camera angle can become not only a possible aesthetic error, but also a 'sin' against truth.'" Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune included Salesman on his list of the ten best films of 1970. In late 1970, however, Pauline Kael of The New Yorker expressed her problems with the film in her negative review of the Maysles' subsequent documentary Gimme Shelter. She insists in that same review that Salesman is not truly direct cinema and alleges that the production was "set up" and that its principal characters are effectively acting. Kael even accuses the Maysles of "recruit[ing] Paul Brennan, who was in the roofing and siding business, to play a bible salesman." In response, the Maysles threatened to sue The New Yorker for libel and rebutted Kael's claims in an open letter sent to the magazine. Since The New Yorkers policy at the time prohibited the publication of such correspondence, the letter did not appear in print until 1996, when it was included in the