Tag Archives: Jerome Kern

History of Musicals: Broadway Goes Bust

Broadway’s Roaring Twenties came to a roaring close with the rise of Hollywood’s “talkies” and the fall of the stock market. The subsequent exodus of talent posed a serious challenge for stage musicals. In 1929, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern … Continue reading

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History of Musicals: Hollywood Beckons

Short sound films were a popular novelty in nickelodeons at the turn of the 20th century. One of the most successful systems was Cameraphone, created in 1907 by James A. Whitman. In the fourth floor studios above Daly’s Theatre, not … Continue reading

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History of Musicals: First Golden Age

It’s been noted that the form of modern musical theater came from operetta, but its soul came from the music hall. This union of body and soul took place during the first two decades of the 20th century, beginning with … Continue reading

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Essential Film Musicals: Meet Me in St. Louis

After working as an uncredited associate producer on The Wizard of Oz, Arthur Freed was given charge of his own unit at MGM. His first effort was the film adaptation of Rodgers and Hart’s stage musical Babes in Arms (1939), … Continue reading

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Essential Film Musicals: Top Hat

“When Hollywood revived musical films three years ago, dancing was monopolized by director Busby Berkeley,” Newsweek magazine noted in its 1935 review of Top Hat. “Thanks more to Fred Astaire than any other single influence, the character of musicomedy in … Continue reading

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Essential Musicals: Show Boat

To learn the functional basics about any subject and to accumulate a working vocabulary of that field, you should know something about its history. Even artistic revolutionaries like Picasso studied the Old Masters. You wouldn’t drive forward into moving traffic … Continue reading

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Making Musicals: Music First

If you have experience with music, you may want to begin by writing the melody instead of the lyrics. One good way to compose a song is to build it in small pieces, bit-by-bit from motif to phrase to period. … Continue reading

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