Singin' and Dancing Back in Time.: The Golden Age of Musicals: From the 1930s: Alice White

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Golden Age of Musicals: From the 1930s: Alice White

Alice White, attended Roanoke College in Virginia and then took a secretarial course at Hollywood High School. After leaving school she became a secretary and "script girl" for director Josef Von Sternberg. Soon after she worked for Charlie Chaplin, who decided to place her in front of the camera.

She was often compared with Clara Bow, playing mostly flappers and gold diggers, she attracted the attention of the director and producer Mervyn LeRoy who saw potential in her. Her first sound films included Show Girl (1928) and Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), both released by Warner Brothers and both based on novels by J. P. McEvoy. In these two films, White performed as "Dixie Dugan".Al Jolson (and his wife Ruby Keeler), Noah Beery (with his son), Walter Pidgeon, and Loretta Young make a cameo appearance in this film in the final reel, which was photographed in Technicolor. All four of these actors were big stars for Warner Bros. in 1930 but only four of them (Jolson, Keeler, Pidgeon, and Young) maintained their popularity beyond the early talkie period. Soundtracks:

"I've Got My Eye on You"

"Hang Onto a Rainbow"
"There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood"

"Merrily We Roll Along"

In October 1929, McAvoy started the comic strip Dixie Dugan with the character Dixie having a "helmet" hairstyle and appearance similar to actress Louise Brooks. She left films in 1931 to improve her acting abilities. She made her final film appearance in, Flamingo Road (1949).

1 comment:

montyJune 29, 2010 at 3:18 PM
Excellent choice Dawn. I must admit I have never heard of Alice White but now I am intrigued and want to see some of her work. Good post.
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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.

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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

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