Musicals on Screen

Session 3 – The Golden Age of the Hollywood Musical

The Studio’s

Major Minor
• Loew’s/MGM • Universal
• Paramount • Columbia
• Fox/20th Century Fox • United Artists
• Warner Bros
• RKO
Transformative Technological Advancements
in the Golden Era
• ‘Talkies’ pioneered by Warner Bros, with the first feature length
motion picture with sequences containing synchronized sound being
‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927) using Vitaphone sound-on-disc technology.
• Technicolor, popularised by Warner Bros, with the first ‘all-talking’
and ‘all-colour’ feature length film, ‘On With The Show’ (1929)
heralding the start of colour feature films.
The advent of the Golden Age of Musical
Theatre on Film and the ‘Studio System’
• After the success of Warner Bros ‘The Jazz Singer’ and it’s follow-up ‘The Singing Fool’ heralded the start of a
new era of film-making and the advent of the ‘studio system’ a structural system employed by the
Hollywood movie studios for the majority of what is referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood.
• In the golden age of the movie musical the film studio’s ruled the industry.
• Elaborate sets were constructed on the studio’s own premises, being built in huge soundstages and
warehouses.
• The major film studios controlled the production of their films, with filming occurring on their own premises.
• Creatives such as choreographers and directors signed contracts that ensured their work and creative
output was exclusive to just one studio.
• Performers were sought out for their talent and audience appeal and were also contracted, binding them to
one studio for a set amount of time.
• Studios could ‘loan out’ contracted stars to competing film studios.
• The studio’s often controlled their own distribution and exhibition, allowing them to oversee and govern the
entire process of making and releasing a film, from concept to public consumption.
Timeline
1930’s
Historical Context
The 1930’s was the decade of the Great Depression, a global economic collapse triggered by:
•The collapse of the American farming industry
•Post war debts between mainland Europe, Britain and America
• The failure of credit and the US banking system
•The subsequent stock market crash of 1929
What did the public want?
•After an initial drop in musical film production (more than 100 screen musicals came out of Hollywood in
1930 compared to just 14 in 1931) it was clear the public wanted something different from a film musical.
•After several musical films such as Rodgers and Hart’s ‘Hallelujah, I’m a Bum’, starring Al Jolson the lead from
‘The Jazz Singer’, failed to capture the public, something new was needed to bring in a weary audience.
•The public wanted something new, a spectacular musical revue with little substance was no longer enough.
They needed a sweeping romance, an uplifting tale of an underdog overcoming the odds. Warner Bros. gave
them this……
What happened in Musical Theatre?
1930’s
After the success of the Warner Bro’s Production ‘The Jazz Singer’, Warner Bro’s cemented their
reputation as technical innovators in sound and film with the Busby Berkeley choreographed film
‘42nd Street’ in 1933.
The cameras used for 42nd Street no longer needed built-in sound recording facilities due to the
innovations in synchronized sound and post-capture editing.
Previous sound integrated cameras had been too bulky and unwieldy to allow the kind of shots that
these new cameras afforded.
Berkeley made effective use of this, demonstrating incredible choreography, influenced by his
military background. His style of choreography allowed simple dance routines, characterised by
elaborate formations, akin to military drill routines to be enhanced and made into spectacle by fluid
moving camera shots. Berkeley would even cut through the roof of a soundstage to better
accommodate an overhead shot. Some of the content was more risqué, something that went
against some of the more traditional musical films in previous decades and dared to challenge the
Will Hay’s instigated ‘Production Code’. A new censorship programme backed by the Catholic
Church to eliminate what they deemed unsuitable for public consumption.
1930’s cont.
42nd Street established the now clichéd story of;
•An exec/director/businessman looking/desperate for the next big thing
•The egotistical star unable to fulfil the role/complete the task
•The talented unknown is drafted in and performs to great success
In this time of economic uncertainty, many smaller studios had closed
down and even the larger more powerful studios were on the brink of
bankruptcy. 42nd Street turned a healthy profit for Warner Bros. They
quickly made Busby Berkeley both choreographer and director for a
string of future productions, investing more money into his films,
allowing him to expand and develop his signature style.
1930’s
•Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were arguably the biggest stars of the 1930’s, they worked with the studio
RKO on a string of ‘escapist musical’ films in this decade, demonstrating incredibly sensitive and emotional
partner work and an excellent level of technical ability. These films relied on the dancing of Fred and Ginger to
delight audiences, despite generic ‘cut and paste’ plots and narrative devices, Fred and Ginger’s star quality
and unparalleled dancing gave them tremendous success.
•Bing Crosby began his rise to fame in this decade, starting his journey from pop singer to film star in pictures
such as ‘Mississippi’ (1935), ‘Pennies From Heaven’ (1936) and ‘Sing You Sinners’ (1938).
•MGM, 20th Century Fox and Universal had numerous hits in the 1930’s, with Universal immortalising ‘Show
Boat’ on film in 1936 to great critical and commercial success.
•This decade also saw the production of Disney’s first full length animated feature, ‘Snow White and The Seven
Dwarfs’ (1937). This was an enormous critical and commercial success, marking the start of Disney’s rise to
prominence in the film industry.
•In 1939 MGM studio’s released ‘The Wizard of Oz’ starring a young Judy Garland, whose popularity extended
well into the next decade.
1940’s
Historical Context
•The 1940’s was dominated by the Second World
War.
•Patriotism and positive propaganda from the Allies
was a key part of keeping morale high, something
that is reflected in musical theatre at this time.
•Many technical advancements and inventions were
being pioneered in the 1940’s including the
commercialisation of television, early computing,
atomic weaponry and the microwave oven.
• What happened in Musical
Theatre?
• The 1940’s decade of musical film was largely a continuation of
the processes and careers that began in the 1930’s.
• Stars like Fred Astaire had continued success and Bing Crosby
became an American icon through his films with Paramount.
• All the major and minor studios continued to produce pictures
with a host of stars old and new.
• A focus on patriotism and American pride permeated many of
the films of this era, a direct reflection on the need for the
allies morale to remain high.
• Songwriters such as: Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and
Hammerstein and Cole Porter all enjoyed success in writing
songs and music for screen in this decade.
• Many stars travelled around the world to do special
performances for the troops to help maintain and raise
morale.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the ‘Freed Unit’
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer emerged in the 1940’s as the most
profitable and dominant film studio.
• Arthur Freed, a lyricist and former associate producer on ‘The
Wizard of Oz’ headed MGM’s main musical production unit
throughout the 1940’s.
• Freed assembled a team of dedicated crew and creatives to
work with him across a number of successful pictures at MGM.
• Fresh from her success in ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Judy Garland was
the star of many pictures from the ‘Freed Unit’ such as, ‘Little
Nellie Kelly’ (1940), and ‘For Me and My Gal’ (1942) where she
starred opposite Gene Kelly, whose career took off with
MGM’s ‘Freed Unit’. Tragically Garland became unreliable due
to frequent illnesses and bad health, caused by a combination
of substance abuse and an enormous workload. Garland
blamed MGM for facilitating her addictions.
• Gene Kelly rose to fame with MGM, starring with Frank Sinatra
in ‘Anchors Aweigh’ (1945), dancing with Fred Astaire in
‘Ziegfield Follies’ (1946), and co-directing, choreographing and
starring in the film version of ‘On The Town’.
1950’s
The 1950’s marked the beginning of the end for the golden age movie musical. The rise of home television meant
cinema audience numbers dwindled. With entertainment so readily accessible in their homes, many people chose not
to go their local movie theatre.
In the mid 1940’s, 90 million Americans went to the cinema each week, by the late 1950’s this figure dropped to just
16 million.
The studio system that rose to prominence in the 1930’s fell apart, partly due to falling income and partly due to the
‘United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc et al.’ case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States effectively
meant the big studios were no longer able to operate their own theatres and control exclusivity rights in the way they
had done previously.
Swift changes were brought about in the way the studios operated with the long binding contracts that their
employee’s had previously held being thrown out in favour of hiring people per project. The large-scale musical
concept was often ditched in favour of cheaper projects that generated quick profits. With independent producers
and teams working with a studio for the duration of only one project, the creatives and performers who formed the
established units that had a solid foundation of musical film projects behind them became scattered across the
industry.
However this did not stop the studios producing some of the most critically acclaimed and enduring musical film
triumphs of all time, even as their units were being disbanded……
Influential Musicals of the 1950’s
The Movie Musicals of the 1950’s still carry huge influence today.
•20th Century Fox filmed screen versions of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s hits Oklahoma (1955),
Carousel (1956), The King and I (1956) and South Pacific (1958).
•Paramount produced ‘White Christmas’, starring Bing Crosby, which is still a festive favourite in the
present day.
•Disney continued to produce successful animated features such as Cinderella (1950), Alice in
Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), The Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Sleeping Beauty (1959).
•MGM produced Kiss Me Kate (1953) and High Society (1956), which starred Bing Crosby, Grace
Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
•Some of the best musicals of the 1950’s, such as Gigi, really tried to bring musical theatre into real-
life, a trend we see happening both on stage and on screen in the present day.
The MGM ‘Freed Unit’s’ Final Successes

The MGM ‘Freed Unit’s’ Final Successes

•‘An American in Paris’ (1951) was one of the first modern musicals since 1936 (the last was ‘The Great Ziegfield’ which
was arguably not a musical’) to win the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. It received six academy awards in total,
including best screenplay (to Alan Jay lerner) and an honorary award, ‘To Gene Kelly in appreciation of his versatility as an
actor, singer, director and dancer, and specifically for his brilliant achievements in the art of choreography on film’.
(Awardsdatabase.oscars.org, 2015) The film features a fantasy ballet running at over 15 minutes, an ambitious section
that took a great deal of time and money to film.
•‘Singin’ in The Rain’ (1952) was a movie musical with a classic plot, a comedy romance and an underdog story in one. To
this day Singin’ in The Rain is considered a movie musical masterpiece by both critics and fans alike. The filmed starred
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor. It’s title song and accompanying dance sequence by Gene Kelly is one
of the most recognisable scenes in motion picture history.
•‘Gigi’ (1959) was the ‘Freed Unit’s’ last success before being completely disbanded by MGM. Like ‘An American in Paris’
‘Gigi’ also won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. ‘Gigi’ was a commercial and critical success, based on the
French novel of the same name by French writer, ‘Colette’, ‘Gigi’ was the story of a young Parisian girl who was to be
raised as a courtesan but falls in love and marries a millionaire, changing the course of her future. With original music and
lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe and Direction by Vincente Minnelli who was known for his strong sense of
visual style and fluid sweeping crane mounted camera shots.
1960’s – End of the Golden Age
In the 1960’s the movie musical did not exist as it did before. Musicals
were often shot on location, with the studios no longer hosting
enormous sets on their studio lots. Contract stars and creative teams
were a thing of the past and there were very few original movie
musicals being produced. All the major studios had disbanded their
movie musical focused units, ending the movie musical’s golden era.
Further Research
• Using your practical skills in dance/singing/acting you could reach a
greater understanding of the Golden Age of Musical Theatre
repertoire. Continue your own personal research beyond this session,
using your notes and any suggested resources as a guide.
• Look at the suggested reading list for books containing further
information regarding the golden age of Hollywood and the movie
musical.
• Critically watch musical films from the decades covered in this
lecture, noting down your observations, thoughts and opinions.
Image Credits
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/
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• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/
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• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/3-
strip_Technicolor_camera.jpg
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/
The_Wizard_of_Oz_Haley_Bolger_Garland_Lahr_1939.jpg