Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1936)

Monday, March 1, 2010

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1936)

Pennies from Heaven (1936) Musical/comedy. Based on the novel The Peacock Feather by Katherine Leslie Moore. Columbia hired Jo Swerling to adapt into the script Pennies from Heaven (1936). (Swerling would later write Leave Her to Heaven, 1945, and It's a Wonderful Life, 1946.) Cast: Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Edith Fellows, Louis Armstrong and Donald Meek.

The story begins when, Crosby's character is asked by a condemned prisoner, to take a letter to his little girl when he gets out of jail, and to move her and her grandfather into the old family home. Which they believe to be haunted. Crosby comes up with the idea to turn the house into a restaurant/nightclub called the Haunted House Cafe.

Susan Sprague works for the county welfare department and it is her job to see that Patsy goes to school or she have will go to an orphanage. Larry tries to help Gramps out with Patsy to save her from the orphanage. To make the money needed for a restaurant license, Larry takes a job at the circus, but is injured and ends up in the hospital. When Gramps comes to let him know that the county has taken Patsy. Larry believes Susan went behind his back and placed Patsy in the orphanage. You will have to watch to see what happens to Patsy's future.

FUN FACT:

Louis Armstrong was hired for this movie at Bing Crosby's insistence. Crosby also insisted that Armstrong receive prominent billing, the first time a black actor shared top billing with white actors in a major release film.

Soundtracks:

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"Pennies From Heaven"
(1936)
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Played during the opening credits and often as background music
Sung by Bing Crosby

"Skeleton in the Closet"
(1936)
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Performed by Louis Armstrong with Louis Armstrong and His Band

"So Do I"
(1936)
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Sung by Bing Crosby and
Danced by Edith Fellows
Reprised by Crosby at the orphanage and in the New York City montage

"One Two Button Your Shoe"
(1936)
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Sung by Bing Crosby at the orphanage
Reprised by a marching band

"Let's Call a Heart a Heart"
(1936)
Music by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
Sung by Bing Crosby with Louis Armstrong and His Band
Played also as background music

"Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
(uncredited)
Traditional children's song
Sung by Bing Crosby, Edith Fellows and Donald Meek on the hay wagon

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Bob Fosse

Was a musical theater choreographer and director, screenwriter and film director. He won an eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret. He was identified with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. She was both the dancer/collaborator who he choreographed much of his work and, together with dancer/choreographer Ann Reinking, a guardian of the Fosse legacy after his death. Fosse is considered to be one the most influential coreographers of the 20th Century.

Esther Williams.

JANE POWELL

After rising to fame as a singer in her home state of Oregon, Powell was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer while still in her teens. Once there, the studio utilized her vocal, dancing and acting talents, casting her in such musicals as Royal Wedding, with Fred Astaire, A Date with Judy, with friend Elizabeth Taylor and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, with Howard Keel. In the late 1950s, her film career slowed, only to be replaced with a busy theater and television career.Click picture to enter websight.

Jeanette MacDonald

Singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in grand opera, concerts, radio, and television. MacDonald was one of most influential sopranos of the 20th century. Click picture to view fan website.

Joan Crawford.

Click picture to view website. Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s

Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 – 1960) the songwriting duo, on our musical page. They created many popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age. With Rodgers composing the music and Hammerstein writing the lyrics, five of their shows, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music. They won thirty-four Tony Awards, fifteen Academy Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and two Grammys. Click picture to read movie reviews.

Cab Calloway

Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitar ace Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86 .Click picture to view official website.

Monday, March 1, 2010

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1936)

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