Movie Musicals as Social Documents 1929-1943

Musicals from Three Perspectives Technical innovations in sound recording, staging, and filming. Forms of the musical (Chapter 7) Issues of race and diversity

Musical Reality Operate under two sets of laws or registers Narrative reality Shifts between narrative and spectacle bridged in a number of ways Backstage musicals Editing matches to indicate confusion between registers (Chicago)

Early Sound Features, 1927-1930 The Jazz Singer, October 6, 1927 Recording meant a return to static camera setups because cameras had to be shielded from extraneous sound. Musical revues filmed as if from the audience of a stage show. Advertised as “all singing, all dancing, all talking.” Broadway Melody (1929), first Best Picture Academy Award.

Busby Berkeley Musicals Backstage musical incorporates performance into plot. Lavish production numbers Shifts in perspective, including overhead shots Geometric compositions in which people become parts of a greater abstract whole Transforms theater space into a fantasy space

42nd Street In 42nd Street, note The use of extremes and use of (or reversals of) stereotypes to characterize urban life Transformations of space and perspective Unusual camera angles or cuts Use of groups of dancers Use of violence Changes in musical tempo

“Shanghai Lil” number from Footlight Parade Note the use of multiple races and the setting. Combination of order and disorder: Dance Military regimentation Fight scene U. S. involvement in China during the 1930s

The Astaire-Rogers Musicals, 1935-1939 “Screwball musicals” focusing on a couple’s misunderstandings. Verbal wit and sophisticated humor in lyrics as well as comic scenes. Setting of wealth and modernity (including Art Deco furnishings). Dances as an expression of story and relationship (challenge dances, pairs dances). Swingtime, 1936

Racism in Films Racism (and parts of the Production Code) limited the roles for African Americans and prohibited various kinds of racial mixing, including mixed-race orchestras, despite musicals on Broadway authored and performed by African Americans. Musicals were one form in which the contributions of African American performers and composers were acknowledged.

Stormy Weather, 1943 Loosely based on the biography of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, the greatest tap dancer of his era. He pioneered the “staircase dance” style, among others. Actors in this film: Ethel Waters Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Fats Waller Lena Horne Note the ways in which the number by the Nicholas Brothers (with Cab Calloway) extends the traditional “proscenium arch” view of the early musical.