The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naïve Midwestern townsfolk, promising to train the members of the new band. Harold is no musician, however, and plans to skip town without giving any music lessons. Prim librarian and piano teacher Marian sees through him, but when Harold helps her younger brother overcome his lisp and social awkwardness, Marian begins to fall in love with him. He risks being caught to win her heart.
Funny Girl is a musical with score by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and book by Isobel Lennart, that first opened on Broadway in 1964. The semi-biographical plot is based on the life and career of comedian and Broadway star Fanny Brice, featuring her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nicky Arnstein.
Shirley MacLaine is an American actress and author. With a career spanning over 70 years, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, two BAFTA Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Volpi Cups, and two Silver Bears. She has been honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center Tribute in 1995, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1998, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2012, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014. MacLaine is one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Mrs. Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. It is one of the three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898, alongside The Philanderer and Widowers' Houses. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam, who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving daughter. It is a problem play, offering social commentary to illustrate the idea that the act of prostitution was not caused by moral failure but by economic necessity. Elements of the play were borrowed from Shaw's 1882 novel Cashel Byron's Profession, about a man who becomes a boxer due to limited employment opportunities.
This Gun for Hire is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene.
The Philanderer is a play by George Bernard Shaw.
Pygmalion is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first presented on stage in German. Its English-language premiere took place at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower-girl Eliza Doolittle.
Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward Arnold. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper's wealthy owner. It became a box-office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked No. 49 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers. In 1969, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, the other being Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Blitz! is a musical by Lionel Bart. The musical, described by Steven Suskin as "massive", was set in the East End of London during the Blitz. The story drew on Bart's childhood memories of London's Jewish East End during the Blitz and, like most musicals, centred on a romance between a young couple, in this case a Jewish woman and a Cockney man, although the largest role and main point-of-view character is that of Mrs Blitztein, the young woman's mother. Steven Suskin describes it as "Abie's Irish Rose set against the burning of Atlanta." Bart himself described the play as "…three human stories inside an epic canvas; the major human conflict – the major plot – personifies the spirit of London and how that spirit developed during the period of the piece."
Gold Diggers of 1933 is an American pre-Code musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). The film's numbers were staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It starred Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, and Dick Powell. It featured appearances by Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and Ginger Rogers.
Gold Diggers of 1935 is an American musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley, his first time as a film's overall director. It stars Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, and Frank McHugh, and features Joseph Cawthorn, Grant Mitchell, Dorothy Dare, and Winifred Shaw. The songs were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). The film is best known for its famous "Lullaby of Broadway" production number. That song, sung by Shaw, also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The screenplay was by Manuel Seff and Peter Milne, based on a story by Robert Lord, who also produced the film, and Milne.
The Male Animal is a 1942 American comedy-drama film produced by Warner Bros., starring Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland and Joan Leslie.
Rationing is a 1944 American comedy film about governmental restrictions on the sale of food, fuel, and other consumer items and services in the United States during World War II. Directed by Willis Goldbeck and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the production stars Wallace Beery and features Marjorie Main.
Brigadoon is a 1954 American Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film made in CinemaScope and color by Ansco based on the 1947 Broadway musical of the same name by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli and stars Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, and Cyd Charisse. Brigadoon has been broadcast on American television and is available in VHS, DVD and Blu-ray formats.
Georgia Belden Backus was an American character actress on stage, radio and screen. She was also a writer, director and producer of radio dramas. In 1930 she was named dramatic director of the Columbia Broadcasting System, to guide the development of the new art of the radio play. A member of the repertory company presenting Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre radio programs, she played supporting roles in some 30 films during the 1940s and 1950s. Her first screen credit was Citizen Kane (1941), in which she played the severe assistant in the Thatcher library. Her career was ended by the Hollywood blacklist.
Colleen is a 1936 American romantic musical comedy film directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell. It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. and was the seventh and final picture starring both Keeler and Powell.
The Cocoanuts is a musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by George S. Kaufman, with additional text by Morrie Ryskind.
John Loves Mary is a 1949 comedy film directed by David Butler and written by Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron. The film stars Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal and Jack Carson. The film was released by Warner Bros. on February 19, 1949. It's based on a Broadway play of the same name written by Norman Krasna, which ran from February 4, 1947, to February 7, 1948, at the Booth Theatre and Music Box Theatre in New York City.
Dancing Sweeties (1930) is an American Pre-Code romantic comedy film with music directed by Ray Enright, released by Warner Bros., and starring Grant Withers and Sue Carol. The film is based on the story Three Flights Up by Harry Fried. Carol, then under contract to Fox Film, was loaned out to Warner Bros. for the making of this film.
Broadway Hostess is a 1935 American romantic comedy musical film directed by Frank McDonald and starring Wini Shaw, Genevieve Tobin and Lyle Talbot. The film was nominated at the 1935 Academy Awards for the short lived Best Dance Direction category. For which Bobby Connolly was nominated for, along with the film Go into Your Dance.
