Hollywood On 52nd Street
In 1932 composer Harry Warren scored the music for the 1933 movie musical 42nd Street along with lyricist Al Dubin for Warner Brothers Studio. From the film came the classic jazz standards “Lullaby of Broadway”.
The film was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and ranked #13 on the American Film Institute list of Best Musicals in 2006.
The Story: It is 1932, the depth of The Depression and noted Broadway producers Jones played by Robert McWade and Barry portrayed by Neal Sparks are putting on Pretty Lady, a musical starring Dorothy Brock Bebe Daniels. She is involved with wealthy Abner Dillon played by Guy Kibbee, the show’s “angel” of a financial backer, but while she is busy keeping him both hooked and at arm’s length, she is secretly seeing her old vaudeville partner, out-of-work Pat Denning.
Julian Marsh (is hired to direct, even though his doctor warns that he risks his life if he continues in his high-pressure profession; despite a long string of successes he is broke, a result of the 1929 Stock Market Crash. He must make his last show a hit, in order to have enough money to retire.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Tangerine and I Remember You are two jazz classics that came from the talents of Victor Schertzinger, who composed the music and Johnny Mercer, who wrote the lyrics. The songs was published in 1941 and was introduced in the 1942 movie, The Fleet’s In. The film starred Dorothy Lamour, William Holden, Eddie Bracken, singer Casey Daley and introduced Betty Hutton in her film debut. Jimmy Dorsey and his band are prominently featured in the movie.
The Story: Shy sailor Casey Kirby suddenly becomes known as a sea wolf when his picture is taken with a famous actress. His buddies then make a bet with some other sailors that Casey can defrost an icy nightclub singer known as the Countess.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Over The Rainbow is a jazz classic taken from the 1939 American musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz. It was the most commercially successful adaptation of the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The film stars Judy Garland, Terry the Dog as Toto, Ray bolger, Jack Halsy, Bert Lahr, Frank Morgan, Billie Burke, Margaret Hamilton, Charley Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Pat Walshe as the leader of the flying monkeys and the Singer Midgets as the Munchkins.
The Story: Dorothy is bored and her aunt, uncle and farmhands are too busy to pay attention to her so she runs off. Meeting carny mystic Professor Marvel who tells her fortune and convinces her to return home. Arriving home during a tornado she is knocked unconscious and she imagines the house being blown up into the funnel and ends up landing in Oz atop a wicked witch. Traveling from Munchkin Land to the Emerald City to see the Wizard, Dorothy encounters a scarecrow, a tin man, a cowardly lion, flying monkeys, talking trees and poppy fields. She meets the Wizard, kills the wicked witch and discovers home is all about just believing.
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Hollywood To 52nd Street
Beyond the Sea was originally titled La Mer, and the lyrics were written by sixteen-year old French lad named Charles Trenet. It wasn’t until 1943 while riding on a train that he composed the music for the song. Jacques Lawrence translated the original French lyrics into what has been widely known to the English-speaking world as Beyond The Sea. Though already a hit around the world as La Mer, it became a huge hit for jazz singer Bobby Darin and has been associated with him ever since.
The song became the title of the 2004 Bobby Darin biopic starring Kevin Spacey and has been heard in the 1995’s French Kiss starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, and as the end music for the 2011 film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and in the 2003 movie Finding Nemo.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Love Theme From Spartacus, composed by Alex North for the 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starred and produced by Kirk Douglas. The supporting cast included Laurene Olivier, John Gavin, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Tony Curtis and Peter Ustinov, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, one of the four the film received. The film became the biggest moneymaker in Universal Studios’ history, until it w as surpassed by Airport in 1970.
The Story: It was inspired by the life story of the leader of a slave revolt in antiquity, Spartacus, and the events of the Third Servile War. In the 1st century BC, the Roman Republic has slid into corruption, its menial work done by armies of slaves. One of these, a proud and gifted man named Spartacus, is so uncooperative in his servitude that he is sentenced to fight as a gladiator. Spartacus forms a quiet relationship with a serving woman named Varinia, whom he refuses to rape when she is sent to “entertain” him in his cell. Rebellion ensues, the senate war is lost, and Spartacus is ultimately crucified but Varinia shows him his new born son before he dies.
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