History of Musical Film 1930s: Part IV

History of Musical Film
1930s Part IV
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996 & 2003)

Biographical Musicals

The Wizard of Oz

Mickey & Judy

(The images below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.)

Biographical Musicals
MGM outdid itself when it brought the story of Broadway's greatest showman to the screen. The Great Ziegfeld (1936) took a few liberties with the facts, but offered an entertaining version of Florenz Ziegfeld's colorful life and career. There are several memorable musical numbers, including an eye-popping version of the Follies theme song, Irving Berlin's "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody." Veteran Follies set designer Jonathan Harkrider built a massive rotating spiral staircase far too large for any Broadway stage, which choreographer Seymour Felix filled with hundreds of lavishly costumed showgirls. A pageant of beauty is revealed as the camera pans past this twisting tower. One of the most distinctive production numbers in Hollywood history, it helped The Great Ziegfeld earn Academy Awards for Best Dance Direction and Best Picture.

This inspired a new sub-genre, the biographical musical film. Many studios contributed to this trend, but few films could match MGM for sheer spectacle. The Great Waltz (1938) tackled the often told life story of Viennese composer Johann Strauss II with lavish production values and innovative cinematography. Bio musicals would remain a Hollywood staple into the late 1960's – there is more on these projects in the pages ahead.

The Wizard of Oz
The final ("There's no place like home") scene of MGM's classic The Wizard of Oz - colorized for a 1939 lobby card.

After Irving Thalberg's death in 1936, Louis B. Mayer's innovative system of production units (each headed by a different producer) kept MGM on top. MGM's profits for 1937 equaled those of all other Hollywood studios combined, and musicals were a crucial element in that triumph. MGM's top musical unit was headed by Arthur Freed, one of the most important individuals in the history of musical film.

After composing hit songs like "Singing in the Rain," "Broadway Rhythm" and "You Are My Lucky Star" for the MGM's early musicals, Freed discovered such top talents as producer/arranger Roger Edens and child singer Judy Garland. The studio made little use of the girl until Freed and Edens arranged for her to sing "Dear Mr. Gable/You Made Me Love You" in Broadway Melody of 1938. Audience response was tremendous, and Freed began searching for a project that would make Garland a full-fledged star. He decided to go with a full color version of Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz (1939). The studio had another producer on hand to counter Freed's inexperience, but Freed was the primary person behind this project.

Louis B. Mayer wanted to borrow Fox's Shirley Temple for the role of Dorothy. After Fox refused, Freed secured the role for Garland and surrounded her with one of the most memorable casts in film history. When the world thinks of Baum's characters, it pictures the MGM cast -- Frank Morgan as the Wizard, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion, Billie Burke as Glinda and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch. And does anyone think of Dorothy Gale without envisioning Judy in her blue gingham dress and sparkling ruby slippers?

After an advance screening, several MGM executives suggested that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" be cut, but after a prolonged battle Freed kept it in. When the song became a hit and made Judy Garland a household name, Freed scored major points with MGM management. Because of its three million dollar budget, The Wizard of Oz made a minimal profit in its first release. It was not until television began annual broadcasts in the 1950s that the film gained recognition as a treasure. The score by composer Harold Arlen and lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, has become part of the world's basic musical vocabulary. It is also one of the few screen scores of the 1930s that is fully integrated into the action of the film, with every song taking part in the story telling process.

Thanks to annual repeat telecasts and a best-selling home video, every year brings a new crop of children into this film's lifetime fan club. And why not? With its warm insistence that "there's no place like home," The Wizard of Oz stands as a pop culture landmark.

It has been suggested that part of the movie's appeal nearly forty years later lies in the fact that in it one sees Judy Garland restored. It is more likely the deeper revelation of seeing one's own innocence restored, the innocence that allows one to return home.
- Aljean Harmetz, The Making of The Wizard of Oz (New York: Limelight Editions, 1977), p. 298.

Mickey and Judy: "Babes In Arms"
Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland spoof the Roosevelts in Babes on Broadway (1940). Some prints shown on TV omit this routine, seen here on a lobby card.

Mickey Rooney was a major star thanks to his Andy Hardy comedy films, and Judy Garland had just completed The Wizard of Oz. Still, MGM had no special expectations when producer Arthur Freed paired the two juveniles for the film version of Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms (1939). It was a shock to everyone except Freed when the low-budget Babes racked up millions in profits. This story of teenagers who save their vaudevillian families from ruin by putting on a show was a perfect choice for two actors who had been real-life vaudevillians, and Mickey and Judy's off screen friendship added genuine warmth to their performances. Singing, dancing and mugging up a storm, they were the freshest, most energetic team the musical film had yet seen. Rooney discussed their partnership in his autobiography –

With other actresses, I had to play everything straight. If I tried to clown around with a novice, fiddle with the timing, or ad-lib, I'd rattle her and ruin the scene. With Judy, it was the exact opposite. We actually tried to throw each other off track, tried to get the other one to mess up a scene. . . I couldn't rattle Judy, She couldn't rattle me. In a dance number, I'd step on her foot. Then she's step on mine. That wasn't in the script. But, often enough, Berkeley would like it, and shout out, "Good! Great! Print it!"
- Mickey Rooney, Life is Too Short (Villard Books, NY, 1991), pp. 143-144.

MGM showcased Rooney and Garland in three more musicals, re-working the "hey kids, let’s put on a show" theme in Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes On Broadway (1940) and Girl Crazy (1943) as well as several Andy Hardy comedies. The series made millions and Garland became a top-rank star. Veteran director Busby Berkeley staged many of the musical sequences for these films. His harsh directorial style drove Garland into nervous collapse, but the studio was too pleased with the on screen results to care.

With the success of the Rooney-Garland series, Arthur Freed's position position at MGM was assured. For the next two decades, he was given a more or less free hand, building a unit that brought the screen musical to new creative heights. Songwriter Irving Berlin described Freed as follows –

His greatest talent was to know talent, to recognize talent and surround himself with it. . . He knew how to handle men; he knew when to say "yes" and when to say "no." But he never bothered people if he had confidence in them. You don't think he'd dictate to Alan Lerner and Frederick Loewe? And he certainly couldn't dictate to me. I would welcome it if I agreed with him, but I could tell by his face whether it was good or bad and what he thought . . . He discovered a lot of people and he would take much more pride in that than in writing "Singin' in the Rain." . . . And he knew style – he didn't do it, but he had an eye for it.
- as quoted in Hugh Fordin's The World of Entertainment: Hollywood's Greatest Musicals (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1975), pp. 525-526.

Rooney went on to mostly non-musical projects while Garland starred in some of MGM’s finest 1940’s musicals. (This will be discussed in the pages to come.) In Words and Music (1948), the duo reunited for "I Wish I Were In Love Again." How appropriate that their screen partnership should end with a number cut from Babes in Arms, the film that made them a musical team. Garland and Rooney embodied boundless, naive optimism. Is the mortgage due? The school in danger? The family business wiped out? Hey, let's put on a show! This is a fantasy view of life that some will never fully abandon.

As the next decade began, it did not take long for the horrifying realities of a world at war to set in. Hollywood musicals reacted by waving the flag, drowning out the bombs and tanks with ballads . . . and the nostalgic "clang, clang, clang" of a trolley.

Next: Film 1940s