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That's Entertainment!
''That's Entertainment!'' is a 1974 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The success of the retrospective prompted a 1976 sequel, the related 1985 film ''That's Dancing!'', and a third installment in 1994. Compiled by its writer-producer-director, Jack Haley Jr., under the supervision of executive producer Daniel Melnick, the film turned the spotlight on MGM's legacy of musical films from the 1920s through the 1950s, culling dozens of performances from the studio's movies, and featuring archive footage of Judy Garland, Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, Esther Williams, Ann Miller, Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Jeanette MacDonald, Cyd Charisse, June Allyson, Clark Gable, Mario Lanza, William Warfield, and many others. Various segments were hosted by a succession of the studio's legendary stars: Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Haley Jr
John Joseph Haley III (October 25, 1933 – April 21, 2001), known as Jack Haley Jr., was an American director, producer and writer, and a two-time recipient of the Emmy Award. His credits include directing the 1974 compilation film '' That's Entertainment!''. He was the second husband of Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, who had starred with his father in '' The Wizard of Oz''. Early life Haley was born on October 25, 1933, in Los Angeles, California, the son of actor/comedian Jack Haley and his wife Florence. Career As a producer, Haley was responsible for compilations and documentaries about film history, including ''Hollywood and the Stars'' (1963-1964), '' That's Entertainment!'' (1974), ''That's Dancing!'' (1985) and ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic'', narrated by Angela Lansbury. Haley's other credits include producer and executive producer of Academy Awards presentation shows. He directed the 1970 film '' Norwood'' and the 1971 film '' The Love Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compilation Film
A compilation film, or compilation movie is a film composed of scenes and shots taken from two or more prior films and edited together so as to make a new film, whether on the same or a different subject. The most common example would be a documentary film on an historical event composed of footage from various newsreels and other film documentaries on the same subject. New footage and/or a new soundtrack may also be included in a compilation film, but the compiled, older footage makes up the majority of its principal material. Compilation film does not include, however, a simple editing together of several short films, complete in themselves and distinguished as such from each others, which should be considered as film anthologies. Filmmaker and historian Jay Leyda first coined the term "Compilation Film" in his book ''Films Beget Films'' in 1964, but it appears that there have not been active discussions around the topic since. This could be due to the lack of accessible and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', '' Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow'' and '' One Hour With You'') and Nelson Eddy ('' Naughty Marietta'', '' Rose-Marie'', and '' Maytime''). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (''The Love Parade'', '' One Hour with You'', '' Naughty Marietta'' and ''San Francisco''), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of the most influential sopranos of the 20th century, introducing opera to film-going audiences and inspiring a generation of singers. Early years MacDonald was born Jeannette Anna McDonald on June 18, 1903, at her family's Philadelphia home at 5123 Arch Street. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Anna May (née Wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Keel
Harold Clifford Keel (April 13, 1919November 7, 2004), known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer, known for his rich bass-baritone singing voice. He starred in a number of MGM musicals in the 1950s and in the CBS television series ''Dallas'' from 1981 to 1991. Early life Keel was born in Gillespie, Illinois, United States, to Navyman-turned-coalminer Homer Keel, and his wife, Grace Margaret (née Osterkamp). Keel was the younger of the couple's children, after elder son Frederick William Keel. The family was so poor that a teacher would often provide Keel with his lunch. After his father's death in 1930, Keel and his mother moved to California, where he graduated from Fallbrook High School at age 17. He worked various odd jobs until settling at Douglas Aircraft Company as a "traveling representative". He was a long haul truck driver. In the 1950s, the MGM publicity department stated that Keel's birth name was Harold Leek. Career At age 20, Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kathryn Grayson
Kathryn Grayson (born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick; February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010) was an American actress and coloratura soprano. Ronald Berganbr>Obituary '' London Guardian'', February 19, 2010. From the age of twelve, Grayson trained as an opera singer. She was under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by the early 1940s, soon establishing a career principally through her work in musicals. After several supporting roles, she was a lead performer in such films as ''Thousands Cheer'' (1943), ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945) with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, and ''Show Boat'' (1951) and ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953), both with Howard Keel. When film musical production declined, she worked in theatre, appearing in ''Camelot'' (1962–1964). Later in the decade she performed in several operas, including ''La bohème'', ''Madama Butterfly'', '' Orpheus in the Underworld'' and ''La traviata''. Early life Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick was born on February 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem, No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Miller
Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American retired actress and former dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the Classical Hollywood cinema musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early work included roles in Frank Capra's '' You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) and the Marx Bros. film ''Room Service'' (1938). She later starred in the movie musical classics Charles Walters' '' Easter Parade'' (1948), Stanley Donen's '' On the Town'' (1949) and George Sidney's ''Kiss Me Kate'' (1953). Her final film role was in David Lynch's ''Mulholland Drive'' (2001). In 1960, Miller received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2017, ''The Daily Telegraph'' named her one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Early life Johnnie Lucille Collier (other sources give other birthnames, such as Lucille Collier and Lucy Ann Collier) was born in Chireno, Texas, to Clara Emma (née Birdwell) and John Alfred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esther Williams
Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and ''Tarzan'' star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in '' A Guy Named Joe'', Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving. Every year from 1945 to 1949, Wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood. Horne advocated for human rights and took part in the March on Washington in August 1963. Later she returned to her roots as a nightclub performer and continued to work on television while releasing well-received record albums. She announced her retirement in March 1980, but the next year starred in a one-woman show, '' Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music'', which ran for more than 300 performances on Broadway. She then toured the country in the show, earning numerous awards and accolades. Horne continued recording and performing sporadically into the 1990s, retreating from the public eye in 2000. Early life Lena Horne was born in Bedford� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Powell
Eleanor Torrey Powell (November 21, 1912 – February 11, 1982) was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including '' Born to Dance'' (1936), ''Broadway Melody of 1938'' (1937), '' Rosalie'' (1937), and ''Broadway Melody of 1940'' (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s and then began hosting a Christian children's TV show, but she resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as '' Thousands Cheer'' and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era. Early life Powell was born in Sprin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Garland
Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). She attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which she won for her 1961 live recording titled ''Judy at Carnegie Hall''. Garland began performing as a child with her two older sisters, in a vaudeville group " The Gumm Sisters" and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She appeared in more than two dozen films for MGM. Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly and regularly collaborat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Film
Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers". The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if a live audience were watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with the public and are exemplified by the films of Busb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Melnick
Daniel Melnick (April 21, 1932 – October 13, 2009) was an American film producer and movie studio executive who started working in Hollywood as a teenager in television and then became the producer of such films as '' All That Jazz'', '' Altered States'' and '' Straw Dogs''. Melnick's films won more than 20 Academy Awards out of some 80 nominations. Early life and education Melnick was born on April 21, 1932, in New York City, the son of Celia and Benjamin Melnick, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was killed in a car crash when Melnick was a child. His mother remarried. Melnick attended the High School of Performing Arts. After high school, Melnick attended New York University.Martin, Douglas"Daniel Melnick, Hollywood Producer, Dies at 77" ''The New York Times'', October 16, 2009. He served in the United States Army during the 1950s, where he produced entertainment for troops while stationed at New Jersey's Fort Dix and in Oklahoma. Television, film and theater After ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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