"Hooray for Hollywood" is a song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 first featured in the 1937

1937 in film

The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

 movie Hollywood Hotel

Hollywood Hotel (film)

Hollywood Hotel is a 1937 American film, directed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, and Ted Healy. Ronald Reagan, Benny Goodman and Harry James also appear....

, and which has since become the staple soundtrack element of any Academy Awards

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 ceremony. It is even frequently played during non-American movie ceremonies, e.g. the French César Awards. The popularity of the song is notably due to the lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Johnny Mercer

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

, which reference the American movie industry and satirize the illusory desire of many people to become famous as actors.

Composition

The music was composed by Richard A. Whiting

Richard A. Whiting

Richard Armstrong Whiting was a composer of popular songs including the standards, "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" & "On the Good Ship Lollipop"....

. In the original movie it was sung by Johnnie Davis

Johnnie Davis

Johnnie Davis, also billed as Johnny Davis and Johnnie "Scat" Davis, was an American actor and singer....

 and Frances Langford

Frances Langford

Julia Frances Langford was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.-Birth:...

, accompanied by Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

 and his orchestra.

Lyrics can be difficult to fully understand today, as they refer to people (e.g. Aimee Semple

Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple McPherson , also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles, California evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s. She founded the Foursquare Church...

) or cultural elements (e.g. rotos

Rotogravure

Rotogravure is a type of intaglio printing process; that is, it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier...

) which have since been forgotten. They have evolved over the years. Notably the where any shopgirl can be a top girl, if she pleases the tired businessman vanished quite quickly — absent from the 1958 Doris Day version

Hooray for Hollywood (album)

Hooray for Hollywood was the name of a two-album set recorded by Doris Day, released by Columbia Records. The two-album set was released by Columbia under the catalog number AC2L-5, but each individual LP was also released in both monaural and stereophonic versions as indicated below.-Volume...

 — replaced with and any barmaid can be a star made if she dances with or without a fan — the latter part referring to Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...

 and her fan dance

Fan dance

A fan dance is a dance performed with one or more fans. This form has been adapted in various countries. The Korean fan dance, for example, evolved from Joseon Dynasty court dances and remains a popular form of traditional Korean dance. The Spanish or Portuguese flamenco makes dramatic use of fans...

. Today the song is performed mostly as a melody.

Usage

The melody was used on the Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...

 radio show as the final theme song. The song appears in the opening and final shot of Robert Altman's film The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye (film)

The Long Goodbye is a 1973 neo noir, directed by Robert Altman and based on Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Leigh Brackett, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Big Sleep in 1946...

(1973) starring Elliot Gould as Phillip Marlowe.

The song is also used as the opening to Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...

 Great Movie Ride attraction.

Jay Leno

Jay Leno

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...

 on the Tonight Show

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...

from early 2009 did a take off of Rodney Dangerfield

Rodney Dangerfield

Rodney Dangerfield , was an American comedian, and actor, known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect!," "No respect, no respect at all... that's the story of my life" or "I get no respect, I tell ya" and his monologues on that theme...

 telling bandleader, Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz guitarist and composer who was the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led The Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.- Personal background :Eubanks was born into a musical family...

; "How bad the economy is....." Then, the Tonight Show Band plays a fast melody of "Hooray for Hollywood".

A cha-cha instrumental version of the song was used as bumper music for David Feeney's shortlived "Hollywood Minute" segment on the popular podcast Daves of Thunder.

See also

• "There's No Business Like Show Business"
• "That's Entertainment!
  That's Entertainment! (song)
  "That's Entertainment!" is a popular song with music written by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz. The song was published in 1952 and was written especially for the 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical film The Band Wagon...
  
  "
• "Make 'Em Laugh"

External links

• Film clip at tcm.com
• Lyrics at johnnymercer.com