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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Hollywood On 52nd Street
My Buddy was composed by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn and was published in 1922. It was used in the Gus Kahn film biography “I’ll See You In My Dreams” in 1951 and became a Variety Hit Parade of a Half Century selection. The song also appeared in the non-musical film Buddy in 1997. I’ll See You in My Dreams is a 1951 musical film starring Doris Day and Danny Thomas, directed by Michael Curtiz.
The Story: Gus Kahn (Thomas) is the prolific tunesmith, whose fortunes take an upswing in 1908 when he meets and falls in love with Grace LeBoy (Day). Kahn’s career ascends to spectacular heights via such hits as Pretty Baby, My Buddy, Toot Toot Tootsie and Makin’ Whoopee only to go into eclipse when he loses his savings in the 1929 stock-market crash.
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Hollywood On 52nd Street
Stairway To Paradise was a tune composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin for the 1951 musical film An American in Paris. Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary and Nina Foch.
The Story: American World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan is now an exuberant expatriate in Paris trying to make a reputation as a painter. His friend and neighbor, Adam Cook s a struggling concert pianist who is a longtime associate of a French singer, Henri Baurel At the ground-floor bar, Henri tells Adam about his cultured girlfriend. A lonely society woman and heiress, Milo Roberts, finds Jerry displaying his art on the street and takes in an interest in him and his art. And the fun begins with dancing and singing.
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