Editing Musical film (section)

===1930–1950: The first classical sound era or First Musical Era===
The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its highest in the [[Western world]]. [[Disney]]'s [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'']], the earliest Disney animated feature film, was a musical which won an honorary Oscar for [[Walt Disney]] at the [[11th Academy Awards]].

====The first musicals====
Musical short films were made by [[Lee de Forest]] in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, thousands of [[Vitaphone]] shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers. The earliest feature-length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while the actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue.<ref name=KenrickJazz>Kenrick, John. [https://www.musicals101.com/1927-30film.htm "History of Musical Film, 1927-30: Hollywood Learns To Sing"]. Musicals101.com, 2004, accessed May 17, 2010</ref> ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'', released in 1927 by [[Warner Brothers]], was the first to include an audio track including non-[[Diegesis|diegetic]] music and diegetic music, but it had only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring [[Al Jolson]] singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", "[[Blue Skies (1926 song)|Blue Skies]]", and "[[My Mammy]]". Historian [[Scott Eyman]] wrote, "As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights, [[Sam Goldwyn]]'s wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over'."<ref>'"Eyman, Scott. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution'' Simon & Schuster, 1997, p. 160</ref> Still, only isolated sequences featured "live" sound; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score.<ref name=KenrickJazz/> In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, ''[[The Singing Fool]]'', which was a blockbuster hit.<ref name=KenrickJazz/> Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] composers to write musicals for the screen.<ref name=KenrickLove>Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/1927-30film2.htm "History of Musical Film, 1927-30: Part II"]. Musicals101.com, 2004, accessed May 17, 2010</ref> The first all-talking feature, ''[[Lights of New York (1928 film)|Lights of New York]]'', included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. ''[[The Broadway Melody]]'' (1929) had a show-biz plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]] for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. ''[[The Love Parade]]'' (Paramount 1929) starred [[Maurice Chevalier]] and newcomer [[Jeanette MacDonald]], written by Broadway veteran [[Guy Bolton]].<ref name=KenrickLove/>

Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta, ''[[The Desert Song]]'' in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in [[Technicolor]]. This was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled ''[[On with the Show (1929 film)|On with the Show]]'' (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature which was entitled ''[[Gold Diggers of Broadway]]'' (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained the highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly, the market became flooded with musicals, revues, and operettas. The following all-color musicals were produced in 1929 and 1930 alone: ''[[The Hollywood Revue of 1929]]'' (1929), ''[[The Show of Shows]]'' (1929), ''[[Sally (1929 film)|Sally]]'' (1929), ''[[The Vagabond King]]'' (1930), ''[[Follow Thru]]'' (1930), ''[[Bright Lights (1930 film)|Bright Lights]]'' (1930), ''[[Golden Dawn (film)|Golden Dawn]]'' (1930), ''[[Hold Everything (1930 film)|Hold Everything]]'' (1930), ''[[The Rogue Song]]'' (1930), ''[[Song of the Flame (film)|Song of the Flame]]'' (1930), ''[[Song of the West]]'' (1930), ''[[Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930 film)|Sweet Kitty Bellairs]]'' (1930), ''[[Under a Texas Moon]]'' (1930), ''[[Bride of the Regiment]]'' (1930), ''[[Whoopee! (film)|Whoopee!]]'' (1930), ''[[King of Jazz]]'' (1930), ''[[Viennese Nights]]'' (1930), and ''[[Kiss Me Again (1931 film)|Kiss Me Again]]'' (1930). In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences.

Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931.<ref name=KenrickRodgers>Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/1930film.htm "History of Musical Film, 1930s: Part I: 'Hip, Hooray and Ballyhoo'"]. Musicals101.com, 2003, accessed May 17, 2010</ref> By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released. For example, ''[[Life of the Party (1930 film)|Life of the Party]]'' (1930) was originally produced as an all-color, all-talking musical comedy. Before it was released, however, the songs were cut out. The same thing happened to ''[[Fifty Million Frenchmen]]'' (1931) and ''[[Manhattan Parade]]'' (1932) both of which had been filmed entirely in [[Technicolor]]. [[Marlene Dietrich]] sang songs successfully in her films, and [[Rodgers and Hart]] wrote a few well-received films, but even their popularity waned by 1932.<ref name=KenrickRodgers/> The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in color productions.

====Busby Berkeley====
The taste in musicals revived again in 1933 when director [[Busby Berkeley]] began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from the [[Parade (military)|drill]] precision he had experienced as a soldier during [[World War I]]. In films such as ''[[42nd Street (film)|42nd Street]]'' and ''[[Gold Diggers of 1933]]'' (1933), Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of theatrical space: his ingenious routines, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit onto a real stage and the intended perspective is viewing from straight above.<ref>Kenrick, John. [http://www.musicals101.com/1930film2.htm "History of Musical Film, 1930s Part II"]. Musicals101.com, 2004, accessed May 17, 2010</ref>

====Musical stars====
Musical stars such as [[Fred Astaire]] and [[Ginger Rogers]] were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films such as ''[[Top Hat]]'' (1935), ''[[Swing Time (film)|Swing Time]]'' (1936), and ''[[Shall We Dance (1937 film)|Shall We Dance]]'' (1937). Many dramatic actors gladly participated in musicals as a way to break away from their typecasting. For instance, the multi-talented [[James Cagney]] had originally risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" roles and [[mob film]]s gave him few chances to display these talents. Cagney's [[Academy Awards|Oscar]]-winning role in ''[[Yankee Doodle Dandy]]'' (1942) allowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments.

Many comedies (and a few dramas) included their own musical numbers. The [[Marx Brothers]]' films included a musical number in nearly every film, allowing the Brothers to highlight their musical talents. Their final film, entitled ''[[Love Happy]]'' (1949), featured [[Vera-Ellen]], considered to be the best dancer among her colleagues and professionals in the half century.

Similarly, the [[Vaudeville|vaudevillian]] comedian [[W. C. Fields]] joined forces with the comic actress [[Martha Raye]] and the young comedian [[Bob Hope]] in [[Paramount Pictures]] musical anthology ''[[The Big Broadcast of 1938]]''. The film also showcased the talents of several internationally recognized musical artists including: [[Kirsten Flagstad]] (Norwegian operatic soprano), [[Wilfred Pelletier]] (Canadian conductor of the [[Metropolitan Opera|Metropolitan Opera Orchestra]]), [[Tito Guizar]] (Mexican tenor), [[Shep Fields]] conducting his Rippling Rhythm Jazz Orchestra and [[John Serry Sr.]] (Italian-American concert accordionist).<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029912/ ''The Big Broadcast of 1938'' on imdb.con]</ref> In addition to the [[Academy Award for Best Original Song]] (1938), the film earned an [[ASCAP]] Film and Television Award (1989) for Bob Hope's signature song "[[Thanks for the Memory]]".<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029912/awards?ref_=tt_awd ''The Big Broadcast of 1938 - Awards'' on IMDb]</ref>

====The Freed Unit====
[[File:Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956).ogv|thumb|thumbtime=6|upright=1.5|''[[Rock, Rock, Rock (film)|Rock, Rock, Rock]]'', a musical movie from 1956]]During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit at [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] headed by [[Arthur Freed]] made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. (However, they also produced technicolor remakes of such musicals as ''[[Show Boat]]'', which had previously been filmed in the 1930s.) In 1939, Freed was hired as associate producer for the film ''[[Babes in Arms (film)|Babes in Arms]]''. Starting in 1944 with ''[[Meet Me in St. Louis]]'', the Freed Unit worked somewhat independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit include ''[[Easter Parade (film)|Easter Parade]]'' (1948), ''[[On the Town (film)|On the Town]]'' (1949), ''[[An American in Paris (film)|An American in Paris]]'' (1951), ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' (1952), ''[[The Band Wagon]]'' (1953) and ''[[Gigi (1958 film)|Gigi]]'' (1958). Non-Freed musicals from the studio included ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' in 1954 and ''[[High Society (1956 film)|High Society]]'' in 1956, and the studio distributed [[Samuel Goldwyn]]'s ''[[Guys and Dolls (film)|Guys and Dolls]]'' in 1955.

This era saw musical stars become household names, including [[Judy Garland]], [[Gene Kelly]], [[Ann Miller]], [[Donald O'Connor]], [[Cyd Charisse]], [[Mickey Rooney]], [[Vera-Ellen]], [[Jane Powell]], [[Howard Keel]], and [[Kathryn Grayson]]. Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement for ''Easter Parade'' and made a permanent comeback.

====Outside MGM====
The other Hollywood studios proved themselves equally adept at tackling the genre at this time, particularly in the 1950s. Four adaptations of [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] shows - ''[[Oklahoma! (film)|Oklahoma!]]'', ''[[The King and I (1956 film)|The King and I]]'', ''[[Carousel (film)|Carousel]]'', and ''[[South Pacific (1958 film)|South Pacific]]'' - were all successes, while [[Paramount Pictures]] released ''[[White Christmas (film)|White Christmas]]'' and ''[[Funny Face]]'', two films which used previously written music by Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, respectively. [[Warner Bros.]] produced ''[[Calamity Jane (film)|Calamity Jane]]'' and ''[[A Star Is Born (1954 film)|A Star Is Born]]''; the former film was a vehicle for [[Doris Day]], while the latter provided a big-screen comeback for Judy Garland, who had been out of the spotlight since 1950. Meanwhile, director [[Otto Preminger]], better known for "message pictures", made ''[[Carmen Jones (film)|Carmen Jones]]'' and ''[[Porgy and Bess (film)|Porgy and Bess]]'', both starring [[Dorothy Dandridge]], who is considered the first African American A-list film star. Celebrated director [[Howard Hawks]] also ventured into the genre with ''[[Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953 film)|Gentlemen Prefer Blondes]]''.{{Original research section|date=October 2010}}
In the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, the musical film became less of a bankable genre that could be relied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for them lessened and fewer musical films were produced as the genre became less mainstream and more specialized.