The Movie Musical from Vitaphone to 42nd Street, as Reported in a Great Fan Magazine

The Movie Musical from Vitaphone to 42nd Street, as Reported in a Great Fan Magazine
Author: Miles Kreuger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1975
Genre: Music
ISBN:
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Relive the excitement of the beginning of "talking pictures" and the movie musical, see all the hoopla and headlines for the new "100% Talking-Singing-Dancing" movies, read about the screen performances and private lives of the new film stars--it's all here in one beautiful package, everything you could want to know about the movie musical in its crucial, formative years, 1926 to 1933. Just as they appeared in the pages of a great fan magazine durin thsi time are every movie review, cast list, ad, and record review, and every significant feature article, production still, biography, forecast, and gossip story. You will find hundreds of photographs, including scenes from films, photo stories, pictures in ads, and full-page glamor photos of such "new" stars as Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Lillian Roth, Marilyn Miller, and Marlene Dietrich. Dozens of full-page ads bring you the actual publicity efforts that went on for each film. Feature stories tell you about the lives of Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor, Bessie Love, Jimmy Durante, Joe E. Brown, and others, and feature articles report on the new process of sound movies, voice dubbing, the new songwriters in Hollywood, the extra girls, and more. Finally there are reviews and complete cast lists of all the movie musicals: My Man with Fannie Brice, The Desert Song (1929), Show Boat (1929), The Cocoanuts with the Marx Brothers, Hollywood Revue of 1929, King Vidor's Hallelujah, Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade, The Vagabond Lover with Rudy Vallee, Montana Moon with Joan Crawford, Happy Days, Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan, and many others. All are arranged chronologically by month and year, and exhaustive indexes catalog all the films and performers. The editor, Miles Kreuger, head of the Institute of the American Musical and the foremost authority on Hollywood musicals, has provided an introduction outlining the little-known history of sound films from the 1890s through 1928 and has written informative brief texts for each of the following years through 1933 and for a final section on Record Reviews.

The Movie Musical!

The Movie Musical!
Author: Jeanine Basinger
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1101874074
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Irresistible and authoritative, The Movie Musical! is an in-depth look at the singing, dancing, happy-making world of Hollywood musicals, beautifully illustrated in color and black-and-white--an essential text for anyone who's ever laughed, cried, or sung along at the movies. Leading film historian Jeanine Basinger reveals, with her trademark wit and zest, the whole story of the Hollywood musical--in the most telling, most incisive, most detailed, most gorgeously illustrated book of her long and remarkable career. From Fred Astaire, whom she adores, to La La Land, which she deplores, Basinger examines a dazzling array of stars, strategies, talents, and innovations in the history of musical cinema. Whether analyzing a classic Gene Kelly routine, relishing a Nelson-Jeanette operetta, or touting a dynamic hip hop number (in the underrated Idlewild), she is a canny and charismatic guide to the many ways that song and dance have been seen--and heard--on film. With extensive portraits of everyone from Al Jolson, the Jazz Singer; to Doris Day, whose iconic sunniness has overshadowed her dramatic talents; from Deanna Durbin, that lovable teen-star of the '30s and '40s; to Shirley T. and Judy G.; from Bing to Frank to Elvis; from Ann Miller to Ann-Margret; from Disney to Chicago . . . focusing on many beloved, iconic films (Top Hat; Singin' in the Rain; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Sound of Music) as well as unduly obscure gems (Eddie Cantor's Whoopee!; Murder at the Vanities; Sun Valley Serenade; One from the Heart), this book is astute, informative, and pure pleasure to read.

The Hollywood Film Musical

The Hollywood Film Musical
Author: Barry Keith Grant
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1118231813
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This revealing history of the American film musical synthesizes the critical literature on the genre and provides a series of close analytical readings of iconic musical films, focusing on their cultural relationship to other aspects of American popular music. Offers a depth of scholarship that will appeal to students and scholars Leads a crucial analysis of the cultural context of musicals, particularly the influence of popular music on the genre Delves into critical issues behind these films such as race, gender, ideology, and authorship Features close readings of canonical and neglected film musicals from the 1930s to the present including: Top Hat, Singin' in the Rain, Woodstock, Gimme Shelter, West Side Story, and Across the Universe

The First Hollywood Musicals

The First Hollywood Musicals
Author: Edwin M. Bradley
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2004-08-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780786420292
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As Hollywood entered the sound era, it was rightly determined that the same public fascinated by the novelty of the talkie would be dazzled by the spectacle of a song and dance film. In 1929 and 1930, film musicals became the industry's most lucrative genre--until the greedy studios almost killed the genre by glutting the market with too many films that looked and sounded like clones of each other. From the classy movies such as Sunnyside Up and Hallelujah! to failures such as The Lottery Bride and Howdy Broadway, this filmography details 171 early Hollywood musicals. Arranged by subgenre (backstagers, operettas, college films, and stage-derived musical comedies), the entries include studio, release date, cast and credits, running time, a complete song list, any recordings spawned by the film, Academy Award nominations and winners, and availability on video or laserdisc. These data are followed by a plot synopsis, including analysis of the film's place in the genre's history. Includes over 90 photographs.

Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era

Unsung Hollywood Musicals of the Golden Era
Author: Edwin M. Bradley
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786498331
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The most memorable Hollywood musicals of 1930s showcased the talents of stars like Fred Astaire, Jeanette MacDonald, Bing Crosby and Alice Faye. The less memorable ones didn't. This book takes a look at the unsung songfests of the '30s--secondary or forgotten features with short-lived or unlikely stars from major studios and Poverty Row. Through analysis of films such as Lord Byron of Broadway (1930), Shoot the Works (1934), Bottoms Up (1934), Moonlight and Pretzels (1933) and The Music Goes 'Round (1936), the author profiles such performers as Dorothy Dell, Lee Dixon, Peggy Fears, Lawrence Gray, Joe Morrison and the mother-daughter team of Myrt and Marge. Behind-the-scenes figures are discussed, like the infamously profligate producer Lou Brock, whose flops Down to Their Last Yacht (1934) and Top of the Town (1937) cost him his career. Filmographies and production information are included, with background on key participants.

Listen to Movie Musicals!

Listen to Movie Musicals!
Author: James E. Perone
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2020-01-13
Genre: Music
ISBN:
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Listen to Movie Musicals! provides an overview of musical theater on film for fans of the genre, with a focus on 50 must-hear musicals featured in movies. Listen to Movie Musicals! includes an overview of musical theatre and movie musicals in the United States. The 50 movies chosen for critical analysis include many of the best-known film musicals of the past and present; however, the list also includes several important movie musicals that were popular successes that are not necessarily on the "best-of" lists in other books. This volume also includes a greater focus on the actual music of movie musicals than do most other books, making it a stand-out title on the topic for high school and college readers. Like the other books in this series, this volume includes a background chapter followed by a chapter that contains 50 important essays on must-hear movie musicals of approximately 1,500 words each. Chapters on the impact of movie musicals on popular culture and the legacy of movie musicals further explain the impact of both the movies and their songs.

Music and the Silent Film

Music and the Silent Film
Author: Martin Miller Marks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1997-02-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0195361636
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In this book, a leading authority on film music examines scores of the silent film era. The first of three projected volumes investigating music written for films, this thoughtful and pathbreaking study demonstrates the richness of silent film music as it details the way in which scores were often planned from the start as an integral part of the whole cinematic experience. Following an introductory chapter that outlines several key theoretical questions and surveys eight decades of writing on film music, Martin Miller Marks focuses on those scores created between 1895 and 1924. He begins by considering two early examples, one German (written by persons unknown for Skladanowsky's Bioskop exhibitions in 1895 and 1896) and one French (scored by Camille Saint-Saëns for the 1908 film L'Assassinat du Duc de Guise). Subsequent chapters fully discuss Walter Cleveland Simon's music for the American film An Arabian Tragedy (1912) as well as the Joseph Breil accompaniment to D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (1915). As described in this book, Breil's memorable score--though a compilation derived from many sources--was played by an orchestra as Griffith's sweeping images filled the screen, thus contributing significantly to the great film's success while also achieving remarkable power in its own right. Marks then concludes with a look at Erik Satie's witty and innovative music for the French film Entr'acte (1924), which was the first film score of consequence by an avant-garde composer. Giving unprecedented attention to a vibrant, important, and oft-neglected facet of twentieth-century music, Music and the Silent Film will interest scholars of film theory, film history, modern music, and modern aesthetics.

Hollywood on the Hudson

Hollywood on the Hudson
Author: Richard Koszarski
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2008
Genre: Motion picture industry
ISBN: 9780813542935
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Thomas Edison invented his motion picture system in New Jersey in the 1890s, and within a few years most American filmmakers could be found within a mile or two of the Hudson River. They planted themselves here because they needed the artistic and entrepreneurial energy that D. W. Griffith realized New York had in abundance. But as the going rate for land and labor skyrocketed and their business grew more industrialized, most of them moved out. The way most historians explain it, the role of New York in the development of American film ends here. In Hollywood on the Hudson, Richard Koszarski rewrites an important part of the history of American cinema. During the 1920s and 1930s, film industry executives had centralized the mass production of feature pictures in a series of gigantic film factories scattered across Southern California, while maintaining New York as the economic and administrative center. But as Koszarski reveals, many writers, producers, and directors also continued to work here, especially if their independent vision was too big for the Hollywood production line. East Coast filmmakers-Oscar Micheaux, Rudolph Valentino, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Paul Robeson, Gloria Swanson, Max Fleischer, and others-quietly created a studio system without back-lots, long-term contracts or seasonal production slates. They substituted "newsreel photography" for Hollywood glamour, targeted niche audiences instead of middle-American families, ignored accepted dramatic conventions, and pushed the boundaries of motion picture censorship. Rebellious and unconventional, they saw the New York studios as laboratories, not factories-and used them to pioneer the development of new technologies (from talkies to television), new genres, new talent, and ultimately, an entirely new vision of commercial cinema.

Sounds of the Future

Sounds of the Future
Author: Mathew J. Bartkowiak
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-03-10
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0786456507
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Covering titles ranging from Rocketship X-M (1950) to Wall-E (2008), these insightful essays measure the relationship between music and science fiction film from a variety of academic perspectives. Thematic sections survey specific compositions utilized in science fiction movies; Broadway's relationship with the genre; science fiction elements in popular songs; the conveyance of subjectivity and identity through music; and such individual composers as Richard Strauss (2001: A Space Odyssey) and Bernard Herrmann (The Day the Earth Stood Still).

Showstoppers

Showstoppers
Author: Martin Rubin
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1993
Genre: Musical films
ISBN: 0231080549
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The name Busby Berkeley, creator of the dances for films such as 42nd Street, Babes in Arms, and Million Dollar Mermaid, is synonymous with the spectacular musical production number. Films, television commercials, and MTV videos continue to use "Berkeleyesque" techniques long after Berkeley himself and the genre that nourished him have faded from the scene. The first major analysis of Berkeley's career on stage and screen, Showstoppers emphasizes his relationship to a colorful, somewhat disreputable tradition of American popular entertainment: that of P. T. Barnum, minstrel shows, vaudeville, Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, burlesque, and the Ziegfeld Follies. Rubin shows how Berkeley absorbed this declining theatrical tradition during his years as a Broadway dance director and then transferred it to the new genre of the early movie musical. With lively prose and engaging photographs, Showstoppers explores new ways of looking at Busby Berkeley, at the musical genre, and at individual films. Appropriate for both specialists and general readers, Showstoppers is an exuberant study of a figure whose career, Rubin notes, "provides an extraordinarily rich point of convergence for a wide range of cultural and artistic contexts".