The Songs of Hollywood Review

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The Songs of Hollywood ReviewI studied movie musicals in college so had a "been there, read that" attitude going in. But I was impressed by the details included regarding the performers and creators of the original movie musical songs. The focus is mainly on the films from the 20's-60's when the creation of movie musicals with original songs was possible due to lyricists and composers being contracted by studios to create this unique art form with one picture after another. The conversion of movies to sound in the late 20's REALLY got the ball rolling. Then by 1930 the public was tired of movies with people breaking into song, the economy made the public more choosey plus the early equipment prevented creative filmmaking. Soon with the use of boom mikes and mobile cameras and prerecorded tracks, the golden age of movie musicals developed until television in the 50's forced studios to use gimmicks like wide screen Cinemescope, 3D, and stereophonic sound to compete. Studios also were compelled to adapt Broadway shows that were already familiar to audiences in advance as a way to create the movie musical. The authors of this book seem to be more impressed with the integrated musical than the performance musical. But when the integrated musical is adapted from Broadway, it no longer ranks as an original creation and just gets perfunctory mentions. To the authors' credit, the focus of this book is on the songs created for Hollywood but I enjoy well made movie adaptations of Broadway shows so feel they deserve inclusion along with the films with original material.
I do have issues with their descriptions of two particular films. There are two instances in which the description of the song's use is at least misleading and at worse false. "Be a Clown" in The Pirate in 1948 is performed TWICE, both with Gene Kelly and Nicholas Brothers as well as the finale with Gene and Judy Garland. But according to this book, Judy missed so many shooting days the planned duet for her and Gene had to be cut! Well, she DID miss a lotta days and much of the film had to be rewritten and reshot but the movie ends with Judy and Gene singing "Be a Clown." Producer Arthur Freed was no fool! The other example is the description of a song used during the titles of a movie. I am impressed with the author's inclusion of Hollywood songs in different manners ranging from title songs to peformance, but I was confused with the description of "The Way We Were" He says the song was not presented on screen and implies it only appears during the closing credits and is not able to make a connection to the film or relate to the story. But this ignores the important presence of the song early in the film, performed by Barbra Streisand in the background while we see her character Katie's "memories" of college and a young Robert Redford. The song clearly makes the "connection" that he says was missing. So clearly with these two movies the author missed the end of The Pirate and tuned in to The Way We Were after the first ten minutes!
Still in spite of these two egregious errors, this is a fine book with a wonderfully detailed account of Hollywood's original movie musicals. More textbook than coffee table book in tone with an insightful look at how the magic happened.The Songs of Hollywood Overview

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