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George Bassman
George Bassman (February 7, 1914 – June 26, 1997) was an American composer and arranger. Biography Born in New York City to a Ukrainian- and Lithuanian-Jewish émigré couple, Bassman was later raised in Boston and began studying music at the Boston Conservatory while still a boy. He studied orchestration and composition formally, but in his teens he left home against his father's wishes to play piano in an itinerant jazz group, and subsequently worked as an arranger for Fletcher Henderson in New York. Through that gig, he became part of the burgeoning swing/big band scene and was soon writing songs as well. Bassman peaked in that career when he and Ned Washington wrote "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" for the bandleader Tommy Dorsey. Bassman also worked in radio as an arranger for Andre Kostelanetz, and made the move to Hollywood in the mid 1930s. Among his earliest film jobs was orchestrating the Gershwin songs in the Fred Astaire movie '' A Damsel in Distress'' at RKO ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He starred in more than 10 Broadway and West End musicals, made 31 musical films, four television specials, and numerous recordings. As a dancer, he was known for his uncanny sense of rhythm, creativity, and tireless perfectionism. Astaire's most memorable dancing partnership was with Ginger Rogers, whom he co-starred with in 10 Hollywood musicals during the classic age of Hollywood cinema. Astaire and Rogers starred together in ''Top Hat'' (1935), '' Swing Time'' (1936), and ''Shall We Dance'' (1937). Astaire's fame grew in films like ''Holiday Inn'' (1942), '' Easter Parade'' (1948), '' The Band Wagon'' (1953), '' Funny Face'' (1957), and ''Silk Stockings'' (1957). The American Film Institute named Astaire the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the most well-known American composers of the 20th century, and his compositions had a significant influence on popular music. Rodgers is known for his songwriting partnerships, first with lyricist Lorenz Hart and then with Oscar Hammerstein II. With Hart he wrote musicals throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including ''Pal Joey (musical), Pal Joey'', ''A Connecticut Yankee (musical), A Connecticut Yankee'', ''On Your Toes'' and ''Babes in Arms.'' With Hammerstein he wrote musicals through the 1940s and 1950s, such as ''Oklahoma!'', ''Flower Drum Song'', ''Carousel (musical), Carousel'', ''South Pacific (musical), South Pacific'', ''The King and I'', and ''The Sound of Music''. His collaborations with Hammerstein, in particular, are celebrated for brin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
For Me And My Gal (film)
''For Me and My Gal'' is a 1942 American musical film directed by Busby Berkeley and starring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly – in his film debut – and George Murphy, and featuring Martha Eggerth and Ben Blue. The film was written by Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe and Sid Silvers, based on a story by Howard Emmett Rogers inspired by a true story about vaudeville actors Harry Palmer (vaudeville actor), Harry Palmer and Jo Hayden, when Palmer was drafted into World War I. The film was a production of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM. Plot In the heyday of vaudeville, on the verge of American entry into World War I, America's entrance into World War I, two talented performers, Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Harry Palmer (Gene Kelly), set their sights on playing the Palace Theatre (Broadway), Palace Theatre on Broadway theatre, Broadway, the epitome of vaudeville success, and marrying immediately after. Just weeks before their plans are to be realized Harry gets a draft notice. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babes In Arms (film)
''Babes in Arms'' is the 1939 American film version of the 1937 coming-of-age Broadway musical of the same title. Directed by Busby Berkeley, it stars Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and features Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes, and Betty Jaynes. It was Garland and Rooney's second film together as lead characters after their earlier successful pairing in the fourth of the Andy Hardy films. The film concerns a group of youngsters trying to put on a show to prove their vaudevillian parents wrong and make it to Broadway. The original Broadway script was significantly revamped, restructured, and rewritten to accommodate Hollywood's needs. Almost all of the Rodgers and Hart songs from the Broadway musical were discarded. Plot In 1921, vaudeville performer Joe Moran (Winninger) announces the birth of a son, but after the advent of talking pictures in 1928, vaudeville fails. His son Michael "Mickey" Moran (Rooney) writes songs, and Patsy Barton (Garland) sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emerald City
The Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900). Fictional description Located in the center of the Land of Oz, the Emerald City is the end of the famous yellow brick road, which begins in Munchkin Country. In the center of the Emerald City is the Royal Palace of Oz. The Oz books generally describe the city as being built of green glass, emeralds, and other jewels. In the earlier books, it was described as completely green. However, in later works, green was merely the predominant color while buildings were also decorated with gold, and people added other colors to their costumes. In ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) In the first book, ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900), the walls are green, but the city itself is not. However, when they enter, everyone in the Emerald City is made to wear green-tinted spectacles. This is explaine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wizard Of Oz (1939 Film)
''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). An adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', the film was primarily directed by Victor Fleming (who left the production to take over the troubled ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind''), and stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke and Margaret Hamilton (actress), Margaret Hamilton. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but others made uncredited contributions. The music was composed by Harold Arlen and adapted by Herbert Stothart, with the lyrics written by Yip Harburg, Edgar "Yip" Harburg. Characterized by its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters, the film was considered a critical success and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Pictur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabin In The Sky (film)
''Cabin in the Sky'' is a 1943 American musical film based on the 1940 Broadway musical of the same name. The first feature film directed by Vincente Minnelli, ''Cabin in the Sky'' features an all-black cast and stars Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Lena Horne. Waters and Rex Ingram reprise their roles from the Broadway production as Petunia and Lucifer Junior, respectively. The film was Horne's first and only leading role in an MGM musical. Louis Armstrong is also featured in the film as one of Lucifer Junior's minions, and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra have a showcase musical number in the film. In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot Little Joe is a well meaning but weak man whose attempts at redemption are cut short when he is killed over gambling debts by big shot Domino Johnson. On his deathbed, Little Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Be Good (1941 Film)
''Lady Be Good'' is an MGM musical film released in 1941. The film stars dancer Eleanor Powell, along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed. This was the first of several films Powell made with Skelton. Powell received top billing, but Sothern and Young are the main stars. They play, respectively, Dixie Donegan, a would-be lyricist and Eddie Crane, a struggling composer. The film takes its title and theme song (" Oh, Lady be Good!") from the 1924 George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical, '' Lady Be Good'', but otherwise has no connection to the play. According to film historian Robert Osborne in his introduction to a broadcast of the film on Turner Classic Movies in August 2006, MGM devised the film as a vehicle to launch Sothern as a musical star. However, since she and Young were known primarily as light comic stars, the studio brought in Powell for a supporting role, but gave her to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Store
''The Big Store'' is a 1941 American comedy film starring the Marx Brothers (Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx and Chico Marx) that takes place in a large department store. Groucho appears as private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (a character name originating from the Marx-Perrin radio show ''Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel'' in the early 1930s). ''The Big Store'' was the last of the five films that the Marx Bros. made under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Marxes had decided to retire as a team and ''The Big Store'' was advertised as their farewell film. However, they would return to the screen in ''A Night in Casablanca'' (1946) and ''Love Happy'' (1949). The film also features singer Tony Martin (American singer), Tony Martin and Virginia Grey as the love interests and longtime Marx Brothers foil Margaret Dumont in her seventh and final film with the Marxes. The villain is portrayed by Douglass Dumbrille, who had played a similar role in ''A Day at the Races (film), A Day at the Races ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Go West (1940 Film)
''Go West'' is a 1940 American Western (genre), Western comedy film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring the Marx Bros. In their tenth film, (Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Chico Marx) head to the American West and attempt to unite a couple by ensuring that a stolen property deed is retrieved. The film was directed by Edward Buzzell and written by Irving Brecher. The film also features actors John Carroll (actor), John Carroll and Diana Lewis as the love interests and actress and singer June MacCloy. Plot Confidence man S. Quentin Quale is heading west to seek his fortune, but is short ten dollars for a train ticket. In the railroad station, he encounters brothers Joseph and Rusty Panello and attempts to swindle their money, but the two are also con men and manage to swindle Quale's money, instead. The Panellos are friends with an old prospector named Dan Wilson whose near worthless property, Dead Man's Gulch, has no gold. The Panello's loan Wilson their last ten dollars for a grub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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