Sid Kuller
Encyclopedia
Sid Kuller was an American comedy writer, producer and lyricist/composer, who concentrated on special musical material, gags and sketches for leading comics. He collaborated with Ray Golden and Hal Fimberg on the screenplay of the Marx Brothers
' vehicle The Big Store
, for which he also supplied the lyrics to the musical climax, "The Tenement Symphony". Earlier in their careers, Kuller and Golden wrote comedy songs and special material for the Ritz Brothers
. Although he wrote prodigiously and with facility throughout his life, Kuller admitted, "The creation of comedy is a painful experience".
, Kuller began contributing jokes and songs to vaudeville
performers, such as Bert Lahr
and Jack Benny
, and became a ghost-gag-writer for the legendary Al Boasberg
. While working on an Earl Carroll
Vanities show he started to write comedy bits for the precision-dancing Ritz Brothers
, who brought him and fellow-writer Ray Golden with them to Hollywood in 1937.
On Broadway
Kuller and Golden were part of the team which wrote the book for the progressive 1940 revue Meet the People, which included one of his early hit songs Elmer's Wedding Day (with music by Jay Gorney
). He also wrote the political musical revue, O Say Can You Sing, which was performed in Chicago, and may have been one of the producers of the original Chicago production of the Federal Theater Project's groundbreaking all-black Swing Mikado
., which transferred to Broadway without him.
's. Groucho Marx
quickly recognized in Kuller a fellow wit (and admirer of Gilbert and Sullivan
), and kept him on set to zing up lines for The Big Store
as they went along (e.g., he's credited with, "You mean a woman of your culture and money and beauty and money would marry this impostor?").
Returning after war service with the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit
, Kuller divided his time between writing and producing for Broadway (Alive and Kicking
, debuting Gwen Verdon
1950); television (Colgate Comedy Hour, hosts Martin and Lewis
, Donald O'Connor
1952-3; The Milton Berle Show 1951; The Jackie Gleason Show
1970); and various night-club acts (e.g. The Sportsmen Quartet). In 1952 he executive produced with Ben Hecht
Actor's and Sin
, using archive footage of Louis B. Mayer
and Jack Warner
, which ran into trouble when some theater chains refused to show it on the grounds that it lampooned Hollywood.
recalled that Kuller had become a household name among black performers of the 1940s. While working on the cotton-picking pastiche in The Big Store ("Up n' down the ole plantation, All the cotton was-a rottin away etc."), Kuller conceived with Duke Ellington
the idea for a black, topical revue that would challenge segregation
and try to break down the old Uncle Tom
and Stepin Fetchit
stereotypes still prevalent in the industry at that time. Their stated aim was to correct the race situation through theatrical propaganda.
Jumpin for Joy, starring Dorothy Dandridge
, Ellington and other leading black performers, ran for three months at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles before an integrated audience, with the backing of the Marx Brothers, Orson Welles
and other Hollywood liberals. Kuller co-directed most of the skits he wrote, and together with Paul Francis Webster
contributed biting lyrics to the music of Hal Borne
and Ellington (e.g. "Fare thee well, land of cotton; cotton lisle is out of style"). As Kuller later explained: "Traditionally, black humor had been portrayed by blacks for white audiences from a white point of view. Our material was from the point of view of black people looking at whites." Although the show was an artistic and popular success, it had to be shut down with the outbreak of the Pacific War
.
Kuller was also an early supporter of comedian and jazzman Scatman Crothers
, with whom he worked on television. Kuller cast him in a featured role in his directorial debut, the 1950 swing version of The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan, filmed in the United Kingdom
. For Louis Armstrong
Kuller created a jazz versus opera routine featuring Robert Merrill
. Kuller together with Borne also contributed to the successful revitalization of the Will Mastin Trio
song and dance act in the early 50s, helping launch the breakthrough of Sammy Davis Jr. .
During the 1950s he was involved with some other projects for black performers, most of which did not come to fruition: including another revue entitled Swing Family Robinson, a biopic of Ellington and a revival of Jumpin for Joy in Las Vegas.
production Mr. Wonderful
, one of Kuller's interpolated songs ("Daddy, Uncle and Me") was performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.
He was also the writer and producer of Miltown Revisited, the disastrous last Las Vegas show of Abbott and Costello
, when the partnership finally split up in 1956. Kuller recalled that after Abbott turned up drunk for the second show at the Sahara Hotel, Costello never forgave him: "It was the most terrible night of [Kuller's] life in show business."
Nevertheless, Kuller continued producing night-club acts until his death and was responsible for writing two fondly-remembered parody shows for the Jewish dialect comedians Mickey Katz
and Billy Gray
: The Cohen Mutiny (i.e. Caine
takeoff) and My Fairfax Lady, where an upperclass British woman is taught to speak with a Jewish accent!
In 1963 Kuller was heavily involved in writing (and rewriting) the ambitious, but troubled Vernon Duke
musical Zenda
, based on The Prisoner of Zenda
, for the San Francisco Light Opera Company with Alfred Drake
and Chita Rivera
. But his final stage experience was to be the hit 1981-3 revue Sophisticated Ladies
, starring Gregory Hines
, where famous songs he and others wrote with Ellington (e.g. "Bli-Blips") were introduced to a new generation.
He and his wife Morine were supportors of Oakwood, the cooperative school established in Hollywood by the actor Robert Ryan
, a fellow liberal active in the Civil rights
movement, and his Quaker wife.
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
' vehicle The Big Store
The Big Store
The Big Store is a Marx Brothers comedy film in which Groucho, Chico and Harpo work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps . Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J...
, for which he also supplied the lyrics to the musical climax, "The Tenement Symphony". Earlier in their careers, Kuller and Golden wrote comedy songs and special material for the Ritz Brothers
Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American comedy team who appeared in films, and as live performers from 1925 to the late 1960s.Although there were four brothers, the sons of Austrian-born haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline, only three of them performed together. There was also a sister,...
. Although he wrote prodigiously and with facility throughout his life, Kuller admitted, "The creation of comedy is a painful experience".
Vaudeville and Early Progressive Theater
After attending Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Kuller began contributing jokes and songs to vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
performers, such as Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr
Bert Lahr was an American actor and comedian. Lahr is remembered today for his roles as the Cowardly Lion and Kansas farmworker Zeke in The Wizard of Oz, but was also well-known for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and on Broadway.-Early life:Lahr was born in New York City, of German-Jewish heritage...
and Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, and became a ghost-gag-writer for the legendary Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg was a American comedy writer in vaudeville, radio, and film, as well as being a film director....
. While working on an Earl Carroll
Earl Carroll
Earl Carroll was an American theatrical producer, director, songwriter and composer born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.-Career:...
Vanities show he started to write comedy bits for the precision-dancing Ritz Brothers
Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were an American comedy team who appeared in films, and as live performers from 1925 to the late 1960s.Although there were four brothers, the sons of Austrian-born haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline, only three of them performed together. There was also a sister,...
, who brought him and fellow-writer Ray Golden with them to Hollywood in 1937.
On Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
Kuller and Golden were part of the team which wrote the book for the progressive 1940 revue Meet the People, which included one of his early hit songs Elmer's Wedding Day (with music by Jay Gorney
Jay Gorney
Jay Gorney was an American theater and film song writer. He was born Abraham Jacob Gornetzsky in Białystok, Russia on December 12, 1894. In 1906, he witnessed the Bialystock pogrom which forced his family into hiding for nearly two weeks, after which they fled to the United States...
). He also wrote the political musical revue, O Say Can You Sing, which was performed in Chicago, and may have been one of the producers of the original Chicago production of the Federal Theater Project's groundbreaking all-black Swing Mikado
The Swing Mikado
The Swing Mikado is an operetta in two acts with music arranged by Gentry Warden, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado. It was first staged by an all-black company in Chicago in 1938, transferring to Broadway, and featured a setting transposed from Japan to a tropical island...
., which transferred to Broadway without him.
Hollywood career
Through a string of Ritz Brothers' credits, the team of Kuller and Golden became known as one of Hollywood's best special material writers. At this time Kuller, who specialized in funny, though politically-aware sketches and clever blackouts, kept an open house in the Hollywood Hills where jazz and swing bands regularly jammed, including Duke EllingtonDuke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
's. Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
quickly recognized in Kuller a fellow wit (and admirer of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
), and kept him on set to zing up lines for The Big Store
The Big Store
The Big Store is a Marx Brothers comedy film in which Groucho, Chico and Harpo work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps . Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J...
as they went along (e.g., he's credited with, "You mean a woman of your culture and money and beauty and money would marry this impostor?").
Returning after war service with the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit
First Motion Picture Unit
The First Motion Picture Unit was the first unit of the United States Military to be made up entirely of motion picture personnel. It was also the title of a 1943 documentary about the unit.-Organization:...
, Kuller divided his time between writing and producing for Broadway (Alive and Kicking
Alive and Kicking (musical)
Alive and Kicking is a musical revue with sketches by Ray Golden, I.A.L. Diamond, Henry Morgan, Jerome Chodorov, Joseph Stein, Will Glickman, John Murray, and Michael Stuart; music by Hal Borne, Irma Jurist, Sammy Fain, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Rome, Sonny Burke, Leo Schumer, and Ray Golden; and...
, debuting Gwen Verdon
Gwen Verdon
Gwenyth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. With flaming red hair and an endearing quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s...
1950); television (Colgate Comedy Hour, hosts Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis
Martin and Lewis were an American comedy team, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis as the comedic "foil". The pair first met in 1945; their debut as a duo occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24/25, 1946....
, Donald O'Connor
Donald O'Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...
1952-3; The Milton Berle Show 1951; The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
1970); and various night-club acts (e.g. The Sportsmen Quartet). In 1952 he executive produced with Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
Actor's and Sin
Actor's and Sin
Actor's and Sin is a 1952 American black-and-white comedy drama film directed by Lee Garmes and Ben Hecht for Sid Kuller Productions. The film marks Edward G. Robinson's second film with actress Marsha Hunt...
, using archive footage of Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
and Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
, which ran into trouble when some theater chains refused to show it on the grounds that it lampooned Hollywood.
Black Entertainment Involvement
Redd FoxxRedd Foxx
John Elroy Sanford , better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son.-Early life:...
recalled that Kuller had become a household name among black performers of the 1940s. While working on the cotton-picking pastiche in The Big Store ("Up n' down the ole plantation, All the cotton was-a rottin away etc."), Kuller conceived with Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
the idea for a black, topical revue that would challenge segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and try to break down the old Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom
Uncle Tom is a derogatory term for a person who perceives themselves to be of low status, and is excessively subservient to perceived authority figures; particularly a black person who behaves in a subservient manner to white people....
and Stepin Fetchit
Stepin Fetchit
Stepin Fetchit was the stage name of American comedian and film actor Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry....
stereotypes still prevalent in the industry at that time. Their stated aim was to correct the race situation through theatrical propaganda.
Jumpin for Joy, starring Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Dandridge
Dorothy Jean Dandridge was an American actress and popular singer, and was the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress...
, Ellington and other leading black performers, ran for three months at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles before an integrated audience, with the backing of the Marx Brothers, Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
and other Hollywood liberals. Kuller co-directed most of the skits he wrote, and together with Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
contributed biting lyrics to the music of Hal Borne
Hal Borne
Hal Borne was an American popular song composer, orchestra leader, music arranger and musical director, who studied music at the University of Illinois...
and Ellington (e.g. "Fare thee well, land of cotton; cotton lisle is out of style"). As Kuller later explained: "Traditionally, black humor had been portrayed by blacks for white audiences from a white point of view. Our material was from the point of view of black people looking at whites." Although the show was an artistic and popular success, it had to be shut down with the outbreak of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
.
Kuller was also an early supporter of comedian and jazzman Scatman Crothers
Scatman Crothers
Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...
, with whom he worked on television. Kuller cast him in a featured role in his directorial debut, the 1950 swing version of The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan, filmed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. For Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
Kuller created a jazz versus opera routine featuring Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill
Robert Merrill was an American operatic baritone.-Early life:Merrill was born Moishe Miller, later known as Morris Miller, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, to tailor Abraham Miller, originally Milstein, and his wife Lillian, née Balaban, immigrants from Warsaw, Poland.His mother...
. Kuller together with Borne also contributed to the successful revitalization of the Will Mastin Trio
Will Mastin Trio
The Will Mastin Trio was a trio of dancers and singers formed by Will Mastin, Sammy Davis, Sr. and Sammy Davis, Jr.. They performed from the 1920s through the 1960s....
song and dance act in the early 50s, helping launch the breakthrough of Sammy Davis Jr. .
During the 1950s he was involved with some other projects for black performers, most of which did not come to fruition: including another revue entitled Swing Family Robinson, a biopic of Ellington and a revival of Jumpin for Joy in Las Vegas.
Later career
Kuller joined ASCAP in 1942 and was active in organizing many Variety Club charity shows. In the 1956 Jule StyneJule Styne
Jule Styne was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of Broadway musicals, which included several very well known and frequently revived shows.-Early life:...
production Mr. Wonderful
Mr. Wonderful (musical)
Mr. Wonderful is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, and music and lyrics by Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener, and George David Weiss....
, one of Kuller's interpolated songs ("Daddy, Uncle and Me") was performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
He was also the writer and producer of Miltown Revisited, the disastrous last Las Vegas show of Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
, when the partnership finally split up in 1956. Kuller recalled that after Abbott turned up drunk for the second show at the Sahara Hotel, Costello never forgave him: "It was the most terrible night of [Kuller's] life in show business."
Nevertheless, Kuller continued producing night-club acts until his death and was responsible for writing two fondly-remembered parody shows for the Jewish dialect comedians Mickey Katz
Mickey Katz
Mickey Katz , was an American comedian and musician who specialized in Jewish humor. He was the father of actor Joel Grey and grandfather of actress Jennifer Grey.-Family:...
and Billy Gray
Billy Gray
William Patrick "Billy" Gray was an English professional association footballer and manager who played initially as a winger....
: The Cohen Mutiny (i.e. Caine
The Caine Mutiny (film)
The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American drama film set during World War II, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, and is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny. The film...
takeoff) and My Fairfax Lady, where an upperclass British woman is taught to speak with a Jewish accent!
In 1963 Kuller was heavily involved in writing (and rewriting) the ambitious, but troubled Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke was a Russian-American composer/songwriter, who also wrote under his original name Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love" with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche, "I Can't Get Started" with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, "April in Paris" with lyrics by E. Y...
musical Zenda
Zenda (musical)
Zenda is a musical with a book by Everett Freeman, lyrics by Lenny Adelson, Sid Kuller, and Martin Charnin, and music by Vernon Duke.Based on the 1894 Anthony Hope novel The Prisoner of Zenda, it sets the action in contemporary times and transforms the protagonist into British song-and-dance man...
, based on The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus unable to attend his own coronation. Political forces are such that in order for the king to retain his crown his...
, for the San Francisco Light Opera Company with Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake
Alfred Drake was an American actor and singer.-Biography:Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Brooklyn College...
and Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...
. But his final stage experience was to be the hit 1981-3 revue Sophisticated Ladies
Sophisticated Ladies
Sophisticated Ladies is a musical revue based on the music of Duke Ellington.After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, conceived by Donald McKayle, directed by Michael Smuin, and choreographed by McKayle, Smuin, Henry LeTang, Bruce Heath, and Mercedes Ellington, opened on March 1, 1981 at...
, starring Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...
, where famous songs he and others wrote with Ellington (e.g. "Bli-Blips") were introduced to a new generation.
He and his wife Morine were supportors of Oakwood, the cooperative school established in Hollywood by the actor Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor who often played hardened cops and ruthless villains.-Early life and career:...
, a fellow liberal active in the Civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement, and his Quaker wife.
As writer/lyricist
- 19371937 in filmThe 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....
: Life Begins in College (Ritz Bros. with Tony MartinTony MartinAnthony or Tony Martin may refer to:Education*Tony Martin , professor at Wellesley College known for racial controversies in the early 1990s.*Donald A...
) - 19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
: Damon Runyon's Straight, Place & Show - 19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
: Kentucky MoonshineKentucky MoonshineKentucky Moonshine is a 1938 film directed by David Butler.-Plot:Radio singer Tony Martin's rating are slipping, so he makes travel plans to the Southern United States to find new talent. The Ritz boys get wind of Tony's pending trip. Marjorie Weaver and the Ritz Brothers make a trip to Kentucky...
(Ritz Bros., Tony Martin) - 19381938 in filmThe year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
: The Goldwyn FolliesThe Goldwyn FolliesThe Goldwyn Follies is a 1938 Technicolor film written by Ben Hecht, Sid Kuller, Sam Perrin and Arthur Phillips, with music by George Gershwin, Vernon Duke, and Ray Golden, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Some sources credit Kurt Weill as one of the composers, but this is apparently incorrect...
(Ritz Bros.) - 19391939 in filmThe year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
: The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1939 film)The Three Musketeers is a 1939 musical comedy film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel of the same name. Don Ameche stars as D'Artagnan, with the Ritz Brothers as his cowardly helpers.-Cast:*Don Ameche as D'Artagnan...
(Ritz Bros.) - 19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
: Argentine Nights (Ritz Bros.) - 19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
: Melody RanchMelody RanchMelody Ranch is a 1940 Western film which tells the story of a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town.-Movie:...
(Gene AutryGene AutryOrvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
singing cowboy picture) - 19401940 in filmThe year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....
: Road to SingaporeRoad to SingaporeRoad to Singapore is a 1940 Paramount Pictures film starring Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, and Bob Hope, which marked the debut of the long-running and popular "Road to …" series of pictures spotlighting the trio.-Plot:...
(first road picture of Bob HopeBob HopeBob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
and Bing CrosbyBing CrosbyHarry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
) - 19411941 in filmThe year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...
: The Big StoreThe Big StoreThe Big Store is a Marx Brothers comedy film in which Groucho, Chico and Harpo work to save the Phelps Department Store, owned by Martha Phelps . Groucho plays her detective and bodyguard Wolf J...
(Marx Bros. with Tony Martin) - 19451945 in filmThe year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
: Spreadin' the Jam - 19501950 in filmThe year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...
: The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan - 19511951 in filmThe year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...
: Slaughter TrailSlaughter TrailSlaughter Trail is a 1951 Cinecolor Western produced and directed by Irving Allen, filmed in Corriganville and released by RKO Pictures.-Plot:...
(a Howard HughesHoward HughesHoward Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
production notorious for the beginning of the blacklistHollywood blacklistThe Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...
)
- 1959 "Blues, the Mother of Sin", "Little Mama" and "Piano Man" with Billy EckstineBilly EckstineWilliam Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
for a record "Billy Eckstine & Count Basie Inc."
as director
- 19501950 in filmThe year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...
: The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan (swing version of Gilbert and SullivanGilbert and SullivanGilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, featuring Scatman CrothersScatman CrothersBenjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...
and Sportsmen Quartet)
as producer
- 19521952 in filmThe year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
: Actor's and SinActor's and SinActor's and Sin is a 1952 American black-and-white comedy drama film directed by Lee Garmes and Ben Hecht for Sid Kuller Productions. The film marks Edward G. Robinson's second film with actress Marsha Hunt...
(Sid Kuller Productions) - 19601960 in filmThe year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
: Stop! Look! and Laugh! (an unauthorized Three StoogesThree StoogesThe Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
compilation, ending with a voice-over chimp fairy tale produced by Kuller)
as composer
- 19501950 in filmThe year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...
: The Return of Gilbert and Sullivan - 1956 - Mr. WonderfulMr. Wonderful (musical)Mr. Wonderful is a musical with a book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, and music and lyrics by Jerry Bock, Larry Holofcener, and George David Weiss....
- song "Daddy, Uncle, and Me" - 19601960 in filmThe year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...
: Stop! Look! and Laugh!