Look for the Silver Lining(1949).

Look for the Silver Lining(1949). Directed by David Butler. Cast: June Haver and Ray Bolger. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1950.

After, Marilyn Miller becomes dizzy during a rehearsal, she decides to rest in her dressing room. Looking at an old vaudeville poster, she thinks back to when she was a Teenager and left school, to join her parents and her sisters, Claire and Ruth, act. Unfortunately, they all come down with the mumps.

She meets, dancer Jack Donahue and he invites Marilyn to fill in for them. Everyone, is surprised how good she is and she quickly becomes part of her families act.

While the family of dancers are playing theaters in London, Jack brings a Broadway producer to see Marilyn perform and it is not long before, she is performing in her first Broadway show.

The show is going well until, investigator from the Gerry Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, suspects that she is underage and wants to see her birth certificate. Frank, comes up with story and Marilyn is able to go on. On opening night, Frank gives Marilyn a small ceramic elephant for luck.

War has broken out and as Frank, is preparing to join the Army, Marilyn asks him to marry her. He thinks it best that they wait until after the war and when he returns, they will elope.

Frank continues the tradition of sending her an elephant on opening night, but when she opens in Sally, the lucky charm arrives late and broken. After her performance, Marilyn learns that Frank has been killed in a car accident on the way to her show.

Soon after Marilyn retires, but quickly becomes bord and she sets her sights on playing the lead in a new play called Sunny. Producer, Henry Doran, first became interested in Marilyn, while she was still a child and is more than happy for her to play the lead.

Back in the present:

Jack visits Marilyn's dressing room and admits that when he dies, he hopes it is onstage on closing night of a big hit. Learning of Marilyn's dizziness, Henry, who is now her husband, wants to call a doctor, but Marilyn, pretends that her dizzy spell is nothing serious.

Later, Marilyn admits to Jack that the doctor advised her to cut out dancing, but she knows that she can not live without the theater. She decides to continue and the play opens on schedule.



A very entertaining musical and a the perfect showcase for Ray Bolger. June Haver, was able to keep up with him and was wonderful in her dance numbers.

Ray Bolger(January 10, 1904 – January 15, 1987). Bolger's film career began when he signed a contract with MGM in 1936. His best-known film performance before, The Wizard of Oz was, The Great Ziegfeld (1936), in which he portrayed himself. He also performed in, Sweethearts, (1938), Rosalie(1937). Following Oz, Bolger moved to RKO. In 1946 he returned to MGM for a featured role in, The Harvey Girls. He continued to star in several films, including Walt Disney's 1961 remake of Babes in Toyland.

Bolger's M-G-M contract stated that he would play any part the studio chose. He was unhappy when he was cast as the Tin Man. The Scarecrow part had already been given to another dancing studio contract player, Buddy Ebsen. In time, the roles were switched. The aluminum make-up used in the Tin Woodman costume coated Ebsen's lungs, leaving him near death. Ebsen's illness paved the way for the Tin Woodman role to be filled by Jack Haley. He was good friends with actress Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West, until her death, and gave a eulogy at her memorial service in 1985. Judy Garland often referred to Bolger as "My Scarecrow". Upon the death of Haley in 1979, Bolger said, "It's going to be very lonely on that Yellow Brick Road now."

Happy Birthday: June Haver!

June Haver (June 10, 1926 – July 4, 2005). After her family moved to Ohio, 7 year old Haver won a contest of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. At age 8, she won a film test by imitating famous actresses: Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and Helen Hayes. At age 10, she moved to Rock Island, where she began performing with Rudy Vallee. She later performed with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra, Dick Jurgens and Freddy Martin.

While she was performing in a play, she was discovered by 20th Century Fox. In 1943, Haver signed a contract with the studio. She was dropped soon after, because the studio felt that she looked too young, but Haver was re-hired, after changing her clothes and hairstyle. She debuted in the film, Home In Indiana (1944). She was to replace Faye in the film, Irish Eyes Are Smiling. Later that year she co-starred with future husband, Fred MacMurray in, Where Do We Go From Here?, which was the only time they ever performed together.

During her career at Fox, Haver was to be the next Betty Grable (she was known as "Pocket Grable"). She even co-starred with Grable in the film, The Dolly Sisters (1945), a film for which she had to put on weight.
Haver debuted in 1948 in a dramatic role in Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!. The same year, she starred in the musical, Look for the Silver Lining (1948).

Following her marriage to Fred MacMurray, Haver retired from acting (her last appearances were as herself on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour in 1958 and Disneyland '59). The couple adopted two daughters and remained together until MacMurray's death in 1991.

Video:

The Daughter of Rosie O' Grady(1950).

The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady(1950).Cast: June Haver, Gordon MacRae, James Barton, S.Z. Sakall, Gene Nelson, Sean McClory and Debbie Reynolds.



After watching the parade honoring soldiers returning from the Spanish-American War, sisters Patricia and Maureen O'Grady, walk by Tony Pastor's vaudeville theater, on their way to bring lunch to their father Dennis, a streetcar conductor. Tony, who at the time is dressed as a bum, the girls decide that he needs the lunch more than their father.

Dennis' friend, Miklos, tells father to talk his daughters about men before it is too late. Unknown to Dennis, his oldest daughter Katie is already married to James Moore and is pregnant. They have not told anyone about their marriage because the wartime housing shortage they have not found an apartment of their own.

Pat soon learns that the man who ate their father's lunch was not a bum but an actor, heads straight to the theater to find him. Tony apologizes, and after learning that Pat's mother was a well-known vaudeville performer, writes a song about the "Daughter of Rosie O'Grady." He then asks the sisters to play the song and is still there when Dennis comes home. Dennis blames the death of his wife Rosie on the hard life of vaudeville and is opposed to anything to do with the theater. Pat thinks it best to tell her father that Tony is a college student. During a dinner party with Tony and some of is friends, Pat tells Tony that she wants to go on the stage. Tony insists that they tell her father the truth about his profession, which backfires and Dennis bans Tony from his house until he gives up the theater. Pat moves out staying with Miklos and his wife. When Dennis learns that one of his daughters is expecting twins, he decides it must be Pat and immediately gets drunk. The bartender calls a policeman, and Jim, who is now working as a policeman, comes to take him home. Will the family reconcile and go back to performing on stage?

What makes this movie fun, is that it is debut of Debbie Reynolds. She had been in June Bride (1948) previously, but without dialogue.

Gene Nelson (March 24, 1920 - September 16, 1996), was inspired to become a dancer by watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies when he was a child. After serving in the Army during World War II, Nelson landed his first Broadway role in, Lend an Ear, for which he received the Theatre World Award. He also appeared on stage in Follies, which won him a Tony Award nomination, and Good News.

Nelson's film acting credits include: This is the Army (1943), I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947), Gentlemen's Agreement (1947), Apartment for Peggy (1948), The Walls of Jericho (1948), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950), Tea for Two (1950), The West Point Story (1950), Lullaby of Broadway (1951), Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951), Starlift (1951), She's Working Her Way Through College (1952), She's Back on Broadway (1953), Three Sailors and a Girl (1953), Crime Wave(1954), So This is Paris (1954), Oklahoma! (1955), The Atomic Man (1956), The Way Out (1956), The Purple Hills (1961), 20,000 Eyes (1961), Thunder Island (1963), Starred as "Buddy" in the 1971 Broadway musical "Follies", A Brand New Life (1972), Family Flight (1972), and S.O.B. (1981). Nelson directed episodes of the original Star Trek, the first season of I Dream of Jeannie, and Gunsmoke. In 1959, he appeared with Keith Larsen and Buddy Ebsen in the NBC adventure series Northwest Passage as a young man trying to prove his innocence in a murder case. Nelson also directed the 1965 Elvis Presley movie Harum Scarum.