It's the Charleston era, so we get a glimpse into the culture of a time where the temperance league took away an American freedom. But the country was not going to take this passed out, so the party continued anyway even if it was breaking the law. That was reflected in song and dance, so we had musicals like "No No Nanette", "Good News" and "Fifty Million Frenchmen", basically all of the themes that influenced the movie "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and its Broadway version. We also had Cinderella stories, usually starring Ziegfeld's big star Marilyn Miller. Her three films do not reflective the talent that she showed on stage, something that would haunt several big Broadway stars like Merman, Martin, Channing and Rivera. Here though you do get to see her come to life briefly in a song from the movie version of "Sally", but that sequence was just pure luck.
So what was not covered in this era in part 1 gets their time here, and that means the musicals of Sigmund Romberg, Cole Porter, the Gershwins and Jerome Kern and the dancing of Fred and Adele Astaire as well as the operettas like "The Desert Song", "Rose Marie" and "The Student Prince". But with the advent of sound films, we lost performers like Astaire, the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor and Ginger Rogers. Fortunately, many of the actors who would do film preferred stage, so comics like Jimmy Durante, Bert Lahr, Ed Wynn and Ray Bolger would go back and forth. There's also a large profile on Al Jolson, equal to George M. Cohan in megalomania, but someone who in spite of that always gave 150% to the audience. A discussion of black face and why Jolson utilized it might raise eyebrows today, but there is an element of truth to it and the sympathy that his biographies showed that he had to the perils of African Americans.
Then there is the introduction of the Broadway musical with all black casts, brought from Harlem further downtown because their talents were undeniable, and this began to get white audiences to see what they could do, and set the stage for integration in society decades later. "Shuffle Along" was the first big hit, and a later Broadway musical documented its journey to Broadway while recreating the highlights of the show. Eubie Blake is seen in old TV footage as an elderly man (along with Alberta Hunter), and that shows the influence that his music would have on American culture, groundbreaking considering the assumptions that Caucasian audiences is would reject this type of entertainment. Of course, it took a lot of hard work to integrate audiences, especially for black audiences to be able to sit in the orchestra. For at least 2 hours, Broadway suddenly became colorblind because of the incredible talents. But as indicated here, the overlapping of white and black cultures would be short-lived, to be continued decades later.
But of course, with every silver lining must come a cloud, so after seeing the influence of all these dances which created a truly fascinating rhythm, Broadway underwent some difficult years with the depression. Before we get to that though there is the segment called "Fascinating Rhythm" which covers the influence of the Gershwins. Terrific footage from newsreels and private film show us the frenetic dancing of the time, and it really is finger snapping, obviously greatly influencing musical themes yet to come. That was the jazz age, and have the depression come first, a lot of people may not have been able to find the strength to get through it.
"When us Americans get done messing with the English language, it's going to look like it was run over by a musical comedy." What a great quote to describe new phraseology in the 1920's, giving us a slang that hasn't quite left us completely, and reminding us that new words do come along, some of which are eternal. The increase in radio broadcasting brought Broadway gossip to the world, and we get that through a profile on Walter Winchell. To the music of Richard Rogers and "I'll Take Manhattan", we get a glimpse of the city at this time, and don't be surprised if you wish for a time capsule to take you back there. Rogers and Hart, having a few hits in the 1920's, may not have become Broadway regulars until their return in the mid 30's, but their initial pairing influenced them going to Hollywood to get the movie musical off the ground. "Manhattan" is still a song that can bring on tears of memories today, and that is the power of the Broadway show tune and the Great American songbook in general. An enthusiastic profile of DeSylva, Henderson and Brown shows us that Broadway really wasn't a drag, giving 1927 more Broadway musical hits than any other year, before and sense. This ends with the onslaught of the depression which needs an entire episode by itself, and could easily have been expanded. When people dismiss American entertainment as frivolous, all they have to do is look back at the periods of time and see the correlation of how important culture was to the political and social climate.
So what was not covered in this era in part 1 gets their time here, and that means the musicals of Sigmund Romberg, Cole Porter, the Gershwins and Jerome Kern and the dancing of Fred and Adele Astaire as well as the operettas like "The Desert Song", "Rose Marie" and "The Student Prince". But with the advent of sound films, we lost performers like Astaire, the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor and Ginger Rogers. Fortunately, many of the actors who would do film preferred stage, so comics like Jimmy Durante, Bert Lahr, Ed Wynn and Ray Bolger would go back and forth. There's also a large profile on Al Jolson, equal to George M. Cohan in megalomania, but someone who in spite of that always gave 150% to the audience. A discussion of black face and why Jolson utilized it might raise eyebrows today, but there is an element of truth to it and the sympathy that his biographies showed that he had to the perils of African Americans.
Then there is the introduction of the Broadway musical with all black casts, brought from Harlem further downtown because their talents were undeniable, and this began to get white audiences to see what they could do, and set the stage for integration in society decades later. "Shuffle Along" was the first big hit, and a later Broadway musical documented its journey to Broadway while recreating the highlights of the show. Eubie Blake is seen in old TV footage as an elderly man (along with Alberta Hunter), and that shows the influence that his music would have on American culture, groundbreaking considering the assumptions that Caucasian audiences is would reject this type of entertainment. Of course, it took a lot of hard work to integrate audiences, especially for black audiences to be able to sit in the orchestra. For at least 2 hours, Broadway suddenly became colorblind because of the incredible talents. But as indicated here, the overlapping of white and black cultures would be short-lived, to be continued decades later.
But of course, with every silver lining must come a cloud, so after seeing the influence of all these dances which created a truly fascinating rhythm, Broadway underwent some difficult years with the depression. Before we get to that though there is the segment called "Fascinating Rhythm" which covers the influence of the Gershwins. Terrific footage from newsreels and private film show us the frenetic dancing of the time, and it really is finger snapping, obviously greatly influencing musical themes yet to come. That was the jazz age, and have the depression come first, a lot of people may not have been able to find the strength to get through it.
"When us Americans get done messing with the English language, it's going to look like it was run over by a musical comedy." What a great quote to describe new phraseology in the 1920's, giving us a slang that hasn't quite left us completely, and reminding us that new words do come along, some of which are eternal. The increase in radio broadcasting brought Broadway gossip to the world, and we get that through a profile on Walter Winchell. To the music of Richard Rogers and "I'll Take Manhattan", we get a glimpse of the city at this time, and don't be surprised if you wish for a time capsule to take you back there. Rogers and Hart, having a few hits in the 1920's, may not have become Broadway regulars until their return in the mid 30's, but their initial pairing influenced them going to Hollywood to get the movie musical off the ground. "Manhattan" is still a song that can bring on tears of memories today, and that is the power of the Broadway show tune and the Great American songbook in general. An enthusiastic profile of DeSylva, Henderson and Brown shows us that Broadway really wasn't a drag, giving 1927 more Broadway musical hits than any other year, before and sense. This ends with the onslaught of the depression which needs an entire episode by itself, and could easily have been expanded. When people dismiss American entertainment as frivolous, all they have to do is look back at the periods of time and see the correlation of how important culture was to the political and social climate.