An early hallmark of the Sound Era of film are musicals – of course, the most famous early ‘talkie” is The Jazz Singer and the audio recordings were specially the musical numbers. Quickly, Hollywood followed the then-Broadway model of a “review” with an almost random collection of songs and dancing. We’ll begin with a bit of The Jazz Singer then a few early hits like Gold Diggers of 1933 and 42nd Street.
In the second week, we’ll focus on probably the genre’s most famous duo, Astaire and Rogers with a few films such as Swing Time and Shall We Dance. Then it is on to Pittsburgh’s own Gene Kelley with hits like An American Paris, On the Town, and Singing in the Rain.
In the fourth week, we’ll sample one of the most notable of the writers of Broadway and movie musicals, Rogers and Hammerstein, with seminal films including Oklahoma, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. We will finish our last meeting with some of great narrative musicals of the end of this generation, including West Side Story and The Music Man.